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What games popularized certain mechanics? (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago by ApollosArrow@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

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I was trying to think of which games created certain mechanics that became popular and copied by future games in the industry.

The most famous one that comes to my mind is Assassin’s Creed, with the tower climbing for map information.

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[-] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

funny how no one even mentioned World of Warcraft for MMOs because it's too obvious.

[-] Grangle1@lemm.ee 13 points 4 months ago

There were popular MMOs before WoW, such as Runescape and Everquest. WoW just took a popular genre and rocketed it into the stratusphere.

[-] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

The question was, "what games popularized certain mechanics." The question was not, "what games created or introduced certain mechanics."

Yes, there were other MMOs before WoW, but WoW took MMOs to a completely new level of popularity. I didn't play ANY MMOs before WoW and wasn't really interested to, but it was so popular that I jumped on to see what the deal was. Since then I have played ESO, LOTRO, AOC, and one other whose name I forget.

Other MMOs were popular among gaming nerds before WoW, but WoW made MMOs popular to normal people.

[-] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

I tried UO, AC, EQ1+2 and can say that WoW's beloved IP, look and feel, and relative lack of clunkiness in the controls and animations were big differentiators for me.

[-] djsoren19@yiffit.net 4 points 4 months ago

because it's flat out wrong. WoW aped most of its systems from Everquest, which most of WoW's development team was actively playing. They made some improvements on the genre, but the bones existed as early as 1997 with Ultima Online.

[-] sushibowl@feddit.nl 5 points 4 months ago

WoW was like the iPhone of MMOs. Didn't invent anything, just put it all together in a coherent, accessible, user friendly package.

[-] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

the question was "popularized" not "invented".

[-] djsoren19@yiffit.net 3 points 4 months ago

I promise you, Everquest was plenty popular at the time, and it didn't invent those things either.

[-] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

sure, we can quibble on the threshold of "popular" here. but you can't question that WOW caused an absolute explosion in MMOs after it. not like anything before.