by JaeR

Created on: May 23, 2009

Blizzard hit the jackpot when they discovered they could bring in millions of players by offering one thing Instant gratification through easily obtained rewards with minimal effort. In the early days of MMORPG games, improving your character was tedious and challenging. Several factors where set in place to hinder your progression such as experience loss, equipment loss, difficult or challenging scenarios that proved almost impossible to achieve if you did not have the skill or a good guild to back you up. Most games centered around the elitists and catered to only them.

World of Warcraft did away with all of this and shifted focus to the more casual gamer, allowing a huge percentage of people to achieve what was once only obtainable by the prestige or hardcore gamer. By doing this, Blizzard opened the possibility for everyone to enjoy the game at any level of play style both the casual, the skilled, the unskilled and the hardcore gamer alike.

The one goal in every MMORPG is to improve your character be it by leveling, gearing up, earning rewards through raiding/questing or PvPing, etc. World of Warcraft has made this possible by incorporating several ways and avenues to attain this. As a result, anyone can jump into the game and feel like they've accomplished something. No matter what kind of gamer you are, there is some way that you can easily improve your character.

In Blizzard's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, the developers aimed to open up raiding to the more casual gamer by allowing 10-man raids as well as 25-man raids. This move gave the more casual gamer the option and ability to have a small guild and still be able to raid for gear upgrades in a timely and fashionable manner. Even more so, Blizzard divided the raids into Normal and Hard Modes. This was another effort to cater to all types of play styles while still offering a bit of challenge to the more hardcore gamer.

And this is exactly what makes World of Warcraft so popular among the MMO genre. While most games center around a minority target audience, Blizzard focuses on targeting the majority as well as the minority. Blizzard offers something to everyone. What the hardcore gamer can achieve, the casual gamer can achieve just as well.

Blizzard got it right. When the avenues of improvement and possibilities are open to all types of gamers, everyone will play, pay and continue to enjoy the game. And they will keep coming back for more.

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