What makes an MMO Successful?

[Xatsh]

What does a MMO have to have to be successful

1) A strong community
2) Longevity (A mmo that you can beat in a few month will not last)
3) Challenge
4) Goals
5) Original Concepts (People will not leave an existing mmo if a clone comes)
6) Not be WoW (Ever mmo that has tried has failed, even rift is starting to bleed numbers and they almost perfectly copied it)


People say listen to the casuals only, well every mmo that was designed for casuals has failed in the west so far except WoW.... So I say listen to both. Rift is still on the trial period in my opinion.

[MeowyWowie]

What does a MMO have to have to be successful

1) A strong community
2) Longevity (A mmo that you can beat in a few month will not last)
3) Challenge
4) Goals
5) Original Concepts (People will not leave an existing mmo if a clone comes)
6) Not be WoW (Ever mmo that has tried has failed, even rift is starting to bleed numbers and they almost perfectly copied it)


People say listen to the casuals only, well every mmo that was designed for casuals has failed in the west so far except WoW.... So I say listen to both. Rift is still on the trial period in my opinion.

This.

And yea, even RIFT is bleeding subs. They're already adding shard transfers and will likely start mergers very soon as well. WoW did something that will never happen again, developers have to learn to accept that.

[Quanta]

WoW did something that will never happen again, developers have to learn to accept that.

I have to disagree. It's silly to assume that the kind of success WoW enjoys is something that will never be replicated. It'd be more accurate to say that few companies have ever been in the kind of position that Blizzard has been, past or present. I think one of the core issues is that Blizzard has a number of talented individuals who have been there leading development since forever, and they've had basically unlimited freedom ever since the release of the first two Warcraft games. The only company I can think of that's in the same position today is Valve, and I don't think they have any plans to develop MMOs anytime soon.

I'm sure we'll see it happen again though; it's just a question of when another company will form comprised of experienced devs with proven track records who basically answer to no one.