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Originally Posted by Abalieno  The idea that WoW opened up the market for other companies is a myth that devs are using as a way to find foundings from all those people out there with lots of money but no brain. And it works. |
Rather than a bunch of scheming developers looking to take advantage of investor naiveté, often it's a case of venture capitalists looking for ways to compound their money seeking out hot trends like WoW's splash in the MMO market.
But anyway, I question the notion that WoW has a unique market that won't shift to any other MMO. Whenever there is a huge success in a given movie genre (fantasy, superhero, horror, etc.) there are a dozen similar movies released afterward. Those that are good films become hits while the poorly made ones tank. But to say that no fantasy movie could be a huge hit after the Lord of the Rings trilogy's success would be absurd; it all depends on the quality of the movie.
With games, I believe a game that is fun, polished, well-marketed, and easily available for purchase and play can absolutely attract WoW players as well as a huge segment of the population that never tried MMOs before. It comes down to the quality of the game and the ability for the average person to see it, want it, buy it, install it, and enjoy it.
That's a rather simplistic way to put it, but there is no shortage of companies that managed to screw up one or more of those steps horribly.
