I know this doesn't really relate to ESO, but I got the starter edition for WoW and am currently a level 14 wargol rogue and I just don't get why people like this game. What is so fun about it? You just go around doing quests for people and go from place to place. It doesn't reward you for exploration and you can't just go around doing whatever you want. I was assuming once I got out of the starter zone that I would be able to go around skinning animals and stuff but I can't. So what is the fun in this game? I just don't see it.

A lot of money is spent marketing the game.

The endgame 4-6 years ago was one of a kind for mmo's. The journey to it was never anything special.

Familiarity. When it came out there was little competition. It didn't try to be revolutionary, it just streamlined current games and made things fluid. Then it instituted gear grinds so that people had a constantly changing treadmill.

People now have relationships and many years invested in their characters, so they don't leave.

Well rogue is the least played class in that game for a reason, try a warrior, but since the revamp leveling is so boring no talent unlocks to lvl 15,30.70?,90 I played WoW for 6 years it was very enjoyable.

simple, it was fun to play. is there any other reason one would like a game? if you wanted to truly experience the game you would of needed to be there at launch. its a shell of its former self. the reason people continue to play is you become invested in the characters you create in mmo games

The leveling experience wasn't necessarily much to write home about, but the raiding experience kept me playing for over 4 years. Of course, it also helped that I was in the same guild for that entire 4+ years. Raiding with people you've played with for so long certainly enhances the experience. In fact, I stopped playing WoW just about a year ago now and literally the only reason I stopped was because my raid group finally fell apart. Without that consistent raid group of friends, I simply lost all interest in WoW.

This. I played it for years and thoroughly enjoyed my time there, but it's just not what it once was. I still kind of miss some of my characters, but I just don't see myself going back with the way it's been going the last few years.

Ok but what exactly is raiding (I'm a noob) and what is there to do in endgame if people still play it 4 years later?

awhile back it was the best designed MMO on the market it was ground breaking. until blizzard started to design more tword cookie cutter builds and not haveing to think to play the game. Still the most popular MMO. I played for over 2 years myself till the cookie cutter BS got to much.

Also WoW made MMO's what they are today. first there was EverQuest. good game base. WoW impoved on most everthing that EverQuest was doing. I hope ESO does the same thing WoW did and create a influx in change in how MMO's are done. Will it I dont know we will have to wait and see.

You know how in Skyrim, you go into a Dwemer Ruin and find all kinds of loot and have some of the hardest enemies in the game there (realitivly speaking of course)? Now imagine that on a higher degree of Difficulty and with 14 other players with you, where everyone is playing their role to the letter. The loot is better in a Raid, and once you've went thorugh to the endgame, you look for things to do. Raids are what keep people spending the money on Sub fees. Anyone can wnader the world alone, but raids are more of the social experience that isn't PvP

So it's basically a dungeon? And what happens when the player runs out of raids to do? Or are there just a bunch of them?

There's a bunch of them in varing degrees of Difficulty. I guess once you run out of things to do or get tired of a character, you start fresh.

Because everyone isn't exactly like everyone else.

I know this is going to be hard to believe, but each zone in WoW has a storyline that the devs expect the player to participate in. Bethesda's style of game development isn't exactly the most popular thing out there.

WoW's levelling system assumes the level 1 Warlock isn't going to waltz right into Icecrown and chill alongside the Lich King's most powerful mooks.

Yeah, good luck finishing all the raids. Here's the way they work: 40 people get together at scheduled times during the week, go into a dungeon, get as far as they can, wipe out, get up, repeat for about five hours or until they can figure out how to beat the encounter that killed them. Then repeat this whole process for the next few weeks until the dungeon is completed. Then repeat for a few more weeks so that everyone in the raid has the strategy mastered and they can pretty much do the whole thing in their sleep. Then repeat the raid again for a few more months so that everyone can get geared up, because bosses only drop one super-ultra-rare-powerful item at random, leaving it to then be decided who among 40 people should get it. Then the guild finally moves on to a harder dungeon, because if they don't have the gear from the previous one, they won't stand a chance for the ext one. And so the cycle repeats.

The question isn't "Why do people like WoW?" What you really need to ask is: "Why do people honestly go through this [censored]?"

I played WoW when it first came out till they did the Lich King expansion. The only really impressive thing was how large the world was and the fact that you could go and do anything, go fishing, make stuff, etc. But all in all it was because there wasn't much in the way to compare it to. Everquest looked too childish for me to be interested, previous to that I played Ultima Online on private servers, however the graphics and everything were considerably less impressive. And one could only Diablo for so long before that also got boring. Now there are a lot more choices, or so I'm told. I don't really like MMO's personally, so I usually stay away form them. I'm still debating on TESO, if it was Fallout Online then it would be a preorder, but just another Fantasy MMO, idk, I'll have to consider. WoW turned lame years ago when 8 year olds started playing. Stop playing WoW it turns your brain into pudding.