[steveklabnik]

WoW also offers a lot of free months to players. Sign up a friend, both of you get free months.

I almost said "and WoW isn't the best damn product," but that depends on your definition of 'best.' It almost mirrors the Mac/Windows thing. Connoisseurs tend to scoff their noses, yet they just keep on selling...

WoW is a mediocre product executed _perfectly_.

[jdc]

http://www.metacritic.com/search/game/world+of+warcraft/resu...

Define mediocre.

[steveklabnik]

Maybe 'not innovative' would make more sense. WoW is a great game, and I have a ... long and very personal history with it. But it's a Blizzard game; their MO is to make the most average game possible, but make it incredibly polished. Many of my fondest memories are of Blizzard games, but (as of late) they're rarely innovative.

WoW is the gold standard of fantasy MMOs. It just doesn't do anything new or interesting; it only does a small set of things, but does them very, very well.

[chc]

So, basically, Blizzard is the 37signals of game companies?

[steveklabnik]

I would agree with that assertion.