Why is world of warcraft so successful?
notauser: I played it for quite a while, which is really unusual for me (I generally get bored of a game after about 20 minutes.) There were a few factors for getting it:- My friends were going to play it. So I added my pre-order to the list.- It was really easy to get into, with some fun intro quests.- The point and click skill level was really low.The reasons I carried on playing were (somewhat) different:- I made lots of friends and acquired power and influence (establishing a raiding guild.)- Regular rewards. Damn you Pavlov and your accursed bell.- Customisable interface. It was my game in their environment.And the reasons I left:- I felt I had gained as much out of the leadership experience as I was going to get.- My other projects were being neglected and I wanted to catch up.- Frequency of reward dropped (as I mostly had them all).All in all it was a pretty worthwhile. Certainly managing a raiding guild, running an engineering team, and herding cats have many things in common. (Scarcity of loot/loot/fish for example.) And after a year break from personal projects I bounced back into it with a vengeance and extra energy - I got a book published, passed the first of my finance exams, and got back into programming all at the same time.