More than it's name, but it was a huge contributing factor.
1. millions of existing and active Blizzard fans before the launch of WoW.
2. multi-million dollar marketing campaign, and pitched as "popular" once they had those Blizzard fans in.
3. It wasn't a half-assed put together game. After all, they copied other games.
The Blizzard fan community was crying for years for an mmo, and when it came they embraced it no matter what, and since many of them hated our mmo's.
Not speaking of all that played WoW early on of course. I mean like I played Diablo 1 and 2 some, though pretty much stopped when UO was launched. Then played both UO and EQ1. Then oh my gosh, EQ, UO, EQ2, SWG, E&B, EVE, AO, PotBS, PS1, WWIIO, CoH, I had no time for WoW lol. Played like 4 months, hated it. That was like around the time of WotLK or whatever. I played Nost to get a better feel for early WoW, which was ok... but yeah, Live is the only mmo that literally LITerally put me to sleep at the keyboard. And I'm really not a dozer at all. I don;t literally go to sleep easy and am a serious light sleeper.
But anyway, the casual nature of later wow was just awful. And all the instant gratification bells and whistles. I don't consider myself a "hard-core" type, but certainly "core", while far from casual. I can't even play modern mmo's, they are just casual trash. Played Lotro early on, from closed beta (I rarely beta), but turned to casual crap later. I adored GW2, was awesome ...the first six months until they changed it to total casual crap. Stuck with it for a while but pffff, I watched it turn into nothing from a really good game, much like SWG.
Awards: UO for it's community. Especially on Pac which was the most populated server and we built a huge RP community of PvP'ers, over 1000 people strong, including game staff. Absolute wild-west days. SWG for it's overall contribution to gaming excellence, before they turned on us with CU. Then EQ with it's PvE brutality and overall charm. EVE probably for depth (daaaang the depth), though it's turning way too casual in recent years sadly. Then maybe PS1 for it's gripping pvp action. I will forever miss my Eagle BFR (mech).
WoW? Awarded for it's adverts hehehe
Just don't hang yourself in the closet after playing
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]