Yes, I have played WoW and will be relating to it as well as Skyrim and Oblivion because I HAVE played them and they are relatable.
I start back at Star Wars; The Old Republic BETA. I was in it, I was really impressed with it. I wanted to try every character class and play all the missions.
It had fully voiced cinematics for all conversations (skippable easily) and every attack you did took time and effort to pull off. when you pressed '5' you blew the f**k out of whatever was infront of you. and when you turned a corner you saw something you wouldnt imagine. something bigger and way more powerful.
in this... there just inst that spark. and I really dont think there'll be any solution to fix it before it comes out. I described the experience to a couple co-workers of mine who were eager about it too and all I started was with "meh"
Its Brown and a dirty colour of green. all over. with some snow on it.
Now, (being 23 and growing up on my first MMO being WoW (already doomed myself in this thread)) I've played so many but ultimately always gone back to WoW at some point. the reason being is that its just vibrant and emersive. over the years it has refined its layout and some of its components but it just remains strong. it introduces enough to not force a reboot but work with what its got to stay relative. Games over the years have tried new ways of gameplay and have WAY better graphics and more than 2 lines of voiced dialog but WoW is simple, it doesnt take much to run (not this day and age now) and is easy to operate. click click ker-splat.
I feel many MMOs coming out, Path of Exile, SW:ToR, Guild Wars 2, and so on, have just tried but havent captured that magic. SW:ToR have tried so hard at it and it is probably the only MMO I feel bad didnt work out and went F2P, its colourful, exposive and simple. just like WoW is. but ultimately the giant stood.
You can start reading here if you think TL;DR
now... Morrowind. Oblivion. Skyrim. All great games, games of the year, DLC, replayability, hundreds of hours of game play FOR A SINGLE PLAYER GAME. but I never feel they had any proper direction. they are everything a sandbox game should me. and because of those Elder Scrolls Online is doomed. not solely because of WoW though I am useing both WoW and previous Elder Scoll games as a marker to judge.
Lets point out what ESO is trying to do.
FPS-MMO (you CAN play third person but I just feel the camera angle is just too low like in previous ES games)
Easy combat
Easy revival
Can wear any item pending on level
Can weild any weapon pending on level
Full voiced quests and characters
Lore-friendly
and lets think why these think arent working.
FPS-MMO + Easy Combat:
FPS makes the player look directly ahead, their whole experience dictated by where they point the crosshair and does not allow for that sense of total control, constantly looking ahead but there is just no instrument to focus on, no minimap or no clear image of where enemies are. this leads directly into easy combat. like in previous ES games you sneak around, shoot, stab or charge in swinging and everything is over 5 seconds. this is lessened to 1 second when you introduce 5 million players (or, up to 10 more people on the same quest chain as me in my experience) theres no thrill. theres barely a thrill in single player Skyrim. theres a satisfaction of doing massive damage but no thrill.
Easy Revival.
I was never at a point where I couldn't use a soul gem to just get up AT FULL HEALTH and continue.
Wear and Weild everything.
I begin to feel that any restriction in a game, like (WoW) Mages not wearing plate armour or Hunters wearing Mail, are there to ENHANCE game play. to create a diversity between players and a NEED for other players. as far as I could get into the game in the BETA weekend there was absolutely no need for other players to be there. thus making me think ES shuld just stick to single player games.
Full Voiced + Lore.
No problem here. everything is great :> would be equally great as a single player game.