I bet number of subs will lower dramaticly when WAR,AoC and Aion are released.
You do realize, even if each game took 2 million each of WoW's subscribers...which they won't...WoW would still have twice as many subs as all of them.
If you have quoted a little more of me, you would see that I do realize that I said those games will not "kill" WoW, but will take a share of WoWs playerbase.
LOL...yeah, but then you said WoW would die in 3-5 years...come on man, let's just face it. EQ never dreamed of WoW like numbers, and is still alive and running...why would WoW lose 10 million subs and die in 3-5 years??? Matrix Online has survived 3 years with like 10k people playing for god's sake!!!
Well things like WoW 2 or World of Starcraft would insta kill WoW imo, but if you look at it now, people are complaining couse of WoWs bad graphics. It is bad now, and in 5 years graphics will be sooo old that everyone will have PCs that can max out Crysis, so low end users will choose another mmo with better graphics.
Well things like WoW 2 or World of Starcraft would insta kill WoW imo, but if you look at it now, people are complaining couse of WoWs bad graphics. It is bad now, and in 5 years graphics will be sooo old that everyone will have PCs that can max out Crysis, so low end users will choose another mmo with better graphics.
No, a small minority is complaining about WoW's graphics. The reality is, a huge reason WoW has so very many more subs than every other company on the market is they have such low system requirements...enabling everyone to play. Regardless, you don't need to kill a game and release a new one to upgrade the graphics engine...hell, WoW just did that with it's last expansion.
Yes but what I am saying is that in 5 years Nvidias 9xxx series, and ATIs 4xxx series, aswell as Quad core and Phenoms will be the "low end" PCs, so everyone will be able to afford themselves a nicer looking mmo.
But this is all "what if". No one relly knows what will happen.
Yes but what I am saying is that in 5 years Nvidias 9xxx series, and ATIs 4xxx series, aswell as Quad core and Phenoms will be the "low end" PCs, so everyone will be able to afford themselves a nicer looking mmo. But this is all "what if". No one relly knows what will happen.
<---I love this dude.
LOL...for some reason my favorite is "Slappy Fish"...
The premise "all MMORPGs will die because they can't reach World of Warcraft levels of popularity" is fundamentally flawed under the understanding that a MMORPG does not need WoW-levels of popularity to be successful. Who cares if WoW has 7 million players when your game has hundreds of thousands? Most prominant MMORPGs reach somewhere between 300k (City of Heroes) and 700k (Everquest/Final Fantasy XI) levels and do just fine. With a small enough budget, you can stay afloat on very few players indeed.
So, OP, consider yourself p0wnt for not thinking this though enough.
That said, I do think that MMORPGs have lost solid classification. Truth of the matter is, many of the "MMORPGs" listed here are not true MMORPGs: Dungeons and Dragons Online, Fury, Guild Wars, Phantasy Star Universe - all too instanced to really be the single virtual world model that EverQuest was. Once you get that heavily instanced, you start to approach the level of old fashioned Blizzard.net Diablo lobbies. It seems being an online RPG with a transparent lobby is enough to be classified as a MMORPG.
If MMORPGs are in any danger of dying, it's only that many players are beginning to understand just how pointless the grind is. More and more, games need to present some genuine gameplay quality, and simply giving people an experience bar to fill isn't enough. In other words, being a MMORPG is no longer adequate excuse to not be a very good game, the new shiny of the virtual world doesn't impress anyone but the n00bs.
If MMORPGs are in any danger of dying, it's only that many players are beginning to understand just how pointless the grind is. .
Two sided sword though brutha, because MMO'ers seem to start saying "I don't want grind" but then instead say "I want something new, unique and entertaining"...for 40 hours a week...at like 7 cents an hour. I don't think any MMO, at least with current technology, can begin to keep up with that without grind.
Personally, I think the combating of a grind can occur with a game design focus that tried to make a MMORPG enjoyable for the reasons as other kind of games. Boredom can be staved off a bit, but when you get right down to it, "the grind" only really happens when you're bored and at that point the game has failed.
So, to anyone that says "the grind is needed", it's like saying, "horrible, unenjoyable gameplay is needed." I need to know what your definition of "grind" is, because under my definition it certainly isn't a good thing no matter how you look at it.
Personally, I think the combating of a grind can occur with a game design focus that tried to make a MMORPG enjoyable for the reasons as other kind of games. Boredom can be staved off a bit, but when you get right down to it, "the grind" only really happens when you're bored and at that point the game has failed.
I agree, to an extent. I think grind really depends on risk v. reward in a whole different way. Grinding out hours to craft something special, as long as it's really special and fun to finally make? Probably an acceptable reward for the risk of your "wasted time". I think that's what grind being acceptable vs. horrible boils down to, if the grind's reward makes the time involved "worth it". The minute you feel like your simply doing something so the devs can "occupy your playtime"...the grind has failed.
p.s. I also think this can be really personal...I think, for example, some people would have no problem grinding out an MMO every day for a month to hit top level so that they could PVP at maximum benefit and feel it's worth it. On the other hand, I have seen players who get pissed if they have to run the same quest two times LOL!
If MMORPGs are in any danger of dying, it's only that many players are beginning to understand just how pointless the grind is. .
Two sided sword though brutha, because MMO'ers seem to start saying "I don't want grind" but then instead say "I want something new, unique and entertaining"...for 40 hours a week...at like 7 cents an hour. I don't think any MMO, at least with current technology, can begin to keep up with that without grind.
You really can't. Contrary to what some newcomers to the genre think, MMOG's are not like single player games. They do require downtimes and grinds to some extent. Those can be made to not be a hassle in some ways. Mana regeneration skills and spells can aid in shortening downtime or you can do what us old timers do. Find some good friends and enjoy a chat.
As for the grind. Its only a grind if you make it one. Developers have to implement things to take more time otherwise they might as well make a single player game. If the content is demolished in the first week people might not resubscribe.
Now one might argue why don't they add more content. On that you have to realise that only so much content can be developed in a given time. After that it has to be done post launch.
My advice if you want to have a better understanding of the content development cycle. Try and develop a game yourself. Write the story, code the mechanics, make the engine. Even if you can't afford the programs for it, do it on paper. I think you might have a better grasping of the concept of development and the many complications involved by doing so. It is in no way an easy task.
MMOG's I think are in their infancy and will continue to evolve and grow until the day we see a home based virtual interaction style of gaming. Until then, this is what we have to work with and I don't expect they will be going anywhere.
. Write the story, code the mechanics, make the engine. Even if you can't afford the programs for it, do it on paper. I think you might have a better grasping of the concept of development and the many complications involved by doing so. It is in no way an easy task.
LOL...hell Martuk, I'd say make it even simpler. Use a PnP setting and create a dice based campaign that could occupy 4 of your friends for 160 hours this month. No? How about 100 hours. No? How about 60 hours.
I'd be astonished if anyone could succeed at that challenge, and then keep it up every month for years to come...and that's without dealing with a single line of code!!!
Originally posted by Vincenz Originally posted by vajuras okay found the link: MMOGDATA Click on "market share". A big piece of that pie is shared by Second Life and others
OK, you're absolutely not pulling me into the whole "mmogdata" and "mmogchart" discussion, I've made my opinions on those sites extremely clear
That said, as of March 2007, Second Life had less than 60,000 paid subscribers. Free really doesn't count.
p.s. Even if they had 60,000,000 paid subs, I'm not sure I'd count Second Life until they actually put the "G" in MMORPG
People buy things all the time in SL it doesnt really use a subscription based model. Same with Guild Wars
If you really want to discuss mmorpgs then revenues should be evaluated. Not everyone uses a subscription based model. Talking about SL and "subscribers" is really not applicable in the least....
People buy things all the time in SL it doesnt really use a subscription based model. Same with Guild Wars
If you really want to discuss mmorpgs then revenues should be evaluated. Not everyone uses a subscription based model. Talking about SL and "subscribers" is really not applicable in the least....
Dude, seriously...People buy things all the time in Second Life...like they buy things on e-bay or Amazon. It's a virtual mall, not a game, and zero share of that sale goes to the developer other than the monthly fees and purchase price of the virtual real estate in the mall.
If Amazon starts having a virtual world to do your shopping, I'm not going to start touting their "subscriber numbers" as little Amazon shopping avatars start walking around.
This is just horribly thought out opinion based on baseless assumptions.
1.) If you combined all MMO players who don't play WoW from all over the world you'd quickly realize WoW is not that big of a game world wide. While it does have a healthy presence in Asia it's not the biggest MMO period. So combining MMO's and their subs from all over the world would quickly surpass WoW's 10 million subs.
2.) Microsoft was never ever a big contender in the MMO genre. Sure they were looking to get their feet wet but their success with the XBOX360 has pushed them in another direction.
The rest of the post by the OP is just his/her opinion pulled out of nowhere. If anything MMO's are going to be the cash cows for large game developers/distributers in the future that keep them afloat and producing none-MMO titles on the side. Blizzard has shown that a well down and fun MMO by a minor division of a multi-nation conglomerate can all by themselves keep their profit margins in the black by a few BILLION. Vivendi (which was facing finical issues prior to WoW)would of been up a creek without a paddle were it not for Blizzard and WoW.
Games I've played/tried out:WAR, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, AoC, EQ1, EQ2, WoW, Vangaurd, FFXI, D&DO, Lineage 2, Saga Of Ryzom, EvE Online, DAoC, Guild Wars,Star Wars Galaxies, Hell Gate London, Auto Assault, Grando Espada ( AKA SoTNW ), Archlord, CoV/H, Star Trek Online, APB, Champions Online, FFXIV, Rift Online, GW2.
...and this website will be shut down. Here is why. If you total up all of the people playing MMO's worldwide, you still will not get the kind of numbers WoW has. Being that there is such a heavy concentration in one game, the game itself has come to define our beloved "genre", and all MMO games since have tried replicating WoW's success in one way or the other. This is why there is so much angst online whenever you bring up WoW. WoW came along and became a defining game title like the 'Sims'. Imagine if Sims became a genre itself, this is close to what we have here with MMO's and WoW. WoW IS the MMORPG genre. We see MS backing out of MMO's completely, and other titles not seeing the light of day. Ever notice how the "Games in Development" list to keeps getting shorter and shorter? This is not a prognostication I am making to start a flame war, or to be negative. I love MMO's, but we are in a period of time called the "honeymoon of the MMO-ere". These games simply cost too much to maintain and develop. If companies cannot expect the type of ROI WoW has created, no one is going to develop AAA titles anymore, and the MMORPG "genre" will consist of rogue developer houses like CCP who no longer make games that belong to a genre, but rather make games for a very insignifcantly sized niche market. Genres like RTS, FPS, RPG and adventure games offer distictly different styles of gameplay. MMO's, while typically turn-based, do not differentiate their mechanics much differently than an adventure game, RPG or a ladder based FPS type game. One could argue that the RPG genre will consume MMO's, and that years down the road, people will eventually find the idea of paying a subscription for a game to be completely ridiculous. My $0.02.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....
So basically you were smoking a doobie and you came up with this right?
...and this website will be shut down. Here is why. If you total up all of the people playing MMO's worldwide, you still will not get the kind of numbers WoW has. Being that there is such a heavy concentration in one game, the game itself has come to define our beloved "genre", and all MMO games since have tried replicating WoW's success in one way or the other. This is why there is so much angst online whenever you bring up WoW. WoW came along and became a defining game title like the 'Sims'. Imagine if Sims became a genre itself, this is close to what we have here with MMO's and WoW. WoW IS the MMORPG genre. We see MS backing out of MMO's completely, and other titles not seeing the light of day. Ever notice how the "Games in Development" list to keeps getting shorter and shorter? This is not a prognostication I am making to start a flame war, or to be negative. I love MMO's, but we are in a period of time called the "honeymoon of the MMO-ere". These games simply cost too much to maintain and develop. If companies cannot expect the type of ROI WoW has created, no one is going to develop AAA titles anymore, and the MMORPG "genre" will consist of rogue developer houses like CCP who no longer make games that belong to a genre, but rather make games for a very insignifcantly sized niche market. Genres like RTS, FPS, RPG and adventure games offer distictly different styles of gameplay. MMO's, while typically turn-based, do not differentiate their mechanics much differently than an adventure game, RPG or a ladder based FPS type game. One could argue that the RPG genre will consume MMO's, and that years down the road, people will eventually find the idea of paying a subscription for a game to be completely ridiculous. My $0.02.
I disagree.
First off, WoW is not the genre defining title. It IS the biggest western developed mmorpg as far as subs go yes, but it is dwarfed by the amount of mmorpg gamers in asian countries. 10 million playing wow dosent even touch the Asian sub market that was back in 2003, let alone now.
WoW brought a ton of western mmorpg gamers together. However you need to take ALL of the subs from UO, EQ, AC, and DAoC and combine them from that era and then compare that to WoW's American population. People do seem to forget that WoW attracted alot of new people, but also a ton of veterans of the genre. If your going to make a theory of such proportions, then you need to think of the Region your basing it off of in a accurate equation. WoW does not have 10million american players, by a long shot.
What is hurting new production of new games is the hardware requirements. WoW was smart to make requirements very low for their game. Do you know how much it ran us older gamers to get a true 3D graphics card back for EQ1? VooDoo 3DFX was expensive as hell back then. Nowadays, you can play wow very easily on low settings, where EQ2 and Vanguard that is just not possible without it looking like ass. I love EQ2 and Vanguard, and I have the pc to run them when they were released and still at high/maxed settings. Yet I understand and hold no ills towards those who cant afford or want to spend the cash on a beefy pc.
Like Crysis for example. It is the most intensive FPS as far as hardware requirements go in the gaming industry right now. It did not sell nearly as many boxes as CoD4, which was more forgiving on the specs. Does that mean Crysis was the worse game of the two? No, and while that is a matter of perspective, it does show one thing.
Being ABLE to play and not feel like its a bad emulation program is more important than just about anything else for the MAINSTREAM gamers. When another mmorpg comes out and gives about as wide of a requirement range as WoW did, respective to the current times, then we might see another mmorpg become a great success story.
The genre is fine. The developers are learning, even if most are just too stubborn to do it within a respectable frame of time. I see no issues for the future for those that adapt hardware requirements, yet not their gameplay arena. People want to play, see some eye candy, and not feel forced into spending money on top of a sub. Thats the current issue.
In case anyone tries to say I, like some others, should spend money on the fun they choose, being more expensive hardware for mmorpg..
I run a E8400 running at 3.6Ghz 24 hour Orthos stable, Gigabyte x38-DS4, 8800GT 512 OC, 2 gigs running 1:1 with FSB, and a CM690 Case with 8 120mm fans, 2 modded in.
I may run a nice machine, but I my perspective on this genre is still down to earth.
I think the developers are just scratching their heads trying to find a way to compete with or undermine WoW (which is already a very mediocre game imo). It's like someone else said, there will be fewer MMO's to be released but they will be big ones - like WAR. And good ones will be few and far in between.
After seeing many epic failures, I think developers are being more cautious now then they have ever been. Which means most future MMOs will cater to casual people just like WoW.
I think the developers are just scratching their heads trying to find a way to compete with or undermine WoW (which is already a very mediocre game imo). It's like someone else said, there will be fewer MMO's to be release but they will be big ones - like WAR. And good ones will be few and far in between.
I agree,there are only 2 or 3 truly original games launched per year,rest are just overhyped mediocre clones with different skins.
WoW is the mmorpg genre? Geez what planet do you come from...
Long before WoW, thousand of players played different games, these games was for many, still the best, cause it was their first! I myself have played wow since beta, yet I dont see it as the best game at all! Actually I find wow rather repedititve and boring! Im simply waiting for the next big thing to come out! When LOTRO came, I jumped away from wow right away, and joined that game, however I didnt like it cause it looked alot like wow, so actually Im the opposite, trying to get away from the wow element!
Again not a flameing war here but vince you really need to read the fine print under subscription totals for WoW it says includes trial accounts. and Lineage 2 dose have 14 million or atleast it did untill some of the other new asian MMO's came out but again this is the last comment i post because there is no need for flaming wars or drama just facts and with WoW loyalist around every corner one such as myself will never be at peace from the flames i get for dissing it.
"Blizzard's numbers included paying subscribers, people within their first month of free game time, and internet cafe users who have accessed the game in the past 30 days, but excludes those using promotional trials and of course, those who have managed to kick the habit entirely...for now."
WoW is the mmorpg genre? Geez what planet do you come from... Long before WoW, thousand of players played different games, these games was for many, still the best, cause it was their first! I myself have played wow since beta, yet I dont see it as the best game at all! Actually I find wow rather repedititve and boring! Im simply waiting for the next big thing to come out! When LOTRO came, I jumped away from wow right away, and joined that game, however I didnt like it cause it looked alot like wow, so actually Im the opposite, trying to get away from the wow element!
Well, that is YOUR opinion.
WOW gets a 93% on metacritics.com.
I found it fun and engaging. Repetition is not necessary bad when it is fun.
Hmm well i played sims before it was overly popular. And by ur standards sims online should have been popular ... but it was not.
Id say it may not be a genre because all games will be mmos.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one ..." - Thomas Paine
WoW is made by 1 lone company. it is competing against god knows how many other companies. those other companies are trying their best to make a better game. odds are stacked heavily in favour of those other companies at the present time.
the genre is not dead and it wont die and something will come along to smash WoW, we just dont know when it will come along 1 year, 5 years, 20 years. who knows.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds -Solid non level based game -Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
Comments
You do realize, even if each game took 2 million each of WoW's subscribers...which they won't...WoW would still have twice as many subs as all of them.
If you have quoted a little more of me, you would see that I do realize that
I said those games will not "kill" WoW, but will take a share of WoWs playerbase.
LOL...yeah, but then you said WoW would die in 3-5 years...come on man, let's just face it. EQ never dreamed of WoW like numbers, and is still alive and running...why would WoW lose 10 million subs and die in 3-5 years??? Matrix Online has survived 3 years with like 10k people playing for god's sake!!!
Well things like WoW 2 or World of Starcraft would insta kill WoW imo, but if you look at it now, people are complaining couse of WoWs bad graphics. It is bad now, and in 5 years graphics will be sooo old that everyone will have PCs that can max out Crysis, so low end users will choose another mmo with better graphics.
Well things like WoW 2 or World of Starcraft would insta kill WoW imo, but if you look at it now, people are complaining couse of WoWs bad graphics. It is bad now, and in 5 years graphics will be sooo old that everyone will have PCs that can max out Crysis, so low end users will choose another mmo with better graphics.
No, a small minority is complaining about WoW's graphics. The reality is, a huge reason WoW has so very many more subs than every other company on the market is they have such low system requirements...enabling everyone to play. Regardless, you don't need to kill a game and release a new one to upgrade the graphics engine...hell, WoW just did that with it's last expansion.
Yes but what I am saying is that in 5 years Nvidias 9xxx series, and ATIs 4xxx series, aswell as Quad core and Phenoms will be the "low end" PCs, so everyone will be able to afford themselves a nicer looking mmo.
But this is all "what if". No one relly knows what will happen.
LOL...for some reason my favorite is "Slappy Fish"...
The premise "all MMORPGs will die because they can't reach World of Warcraft levels of popularity" is fundamentally flawed under the understanding that a MMORPG does not need WoW-levels of popularity to be successful. Who cares if WoW has 7 million players when your game has hundreds of thousands? Most prominant MMORPGs reach somewhere between 300k (City of Heroes) and 700k (Everquest/Final Fantasy XI) levels and do just fine. With a small enough budget, you can stay afloat on very few players indeed.
So, OP, consider yourself p0wnt for not thinking this though enough.
That said, I do think that MMORPGs have lost solid classification. Truth of the matter is, many of the "MMORPGs" listed here are not true MMORPGs: Dungeons and Dragons Online, Fury, Guild Wars, Phantasy Star Universe - all too instanced to really be the single virtual world model that EverQuest was. Once you get that heavily instanced, you start to approach the level of old fashioned Blizzard.net Diablo lobbies. It seems being an online RPG with a transparent lobby is enough to be classified as a MMORPG.
If MMORPGs are in any danger of dying, it's only that many players are beginning to understand just how pointless the grind is. More and more, games need to present some genuine gameplay quality, and simply giving people an experience bar to fill isn't enough. In other words, being a MMORPG is no longer adequate excuse to not be a very good game, the new shiny of the virtual world doesn't impress anyone but the n00bs.
Two sided sword though brutha, because MMO'ers seem to start saying "I don't want grind" but then instead say "I want something new, unique and entertaining"...for 40 hours a week...at like 7 cents an hour. I don't think any MMO, at least with current technology, can begin to keep up with that without grind.
Personally, I think the combating of a grind can occur with a game design focus that tried to make a MMORPG enjoyable for the reasons as other kind of games. Boredom can be staved off a bit, but when you get right down to it, "the grind" only really happens when you're bored and at that point the game has failed.
So, to anyone that says "the grind is needed", it's like saying, "horrible, unenjoyable gameplay is needed." I need to know what your definition of "grind" is, because under my definition it certainly isn't a good thing no matter how you look at it.
I agree, to an extent. I think grind really depends on risk v. reward in a whole different way. Grinding out hours to craft something special, as long as it's really special and fun to finally make? Probably an acceptable reward for the risk of your "wasted time". I think that's what grind being acceptable vs. horrible boils down to, if the grind's reward makes the time involved "worth it". The minute you feel like your simply doing something so the devs can "occupy your playtime"...the grind has failed.
p.s. I also think this can be really personal...I think, for example, some people would have no problem grinding out an MMO every day for a month to hit top level so that they could PVP at maximum benefit and feel it's worth it. On the other hand, I have seen players who get pissed if they have to run the same quest two times LOL!
Two sided sword though brutha, because MMO'ers seem to start saying "I don't want grind" but then instead say "I want something new, unique and entertaining"...for 40 hours a week...at like 7 cents an hour. I don't think any MMO, at least with current technology, can begin to keep up with that without grind.
You really can't. Contrary to what some newcomers to the genre think, MMOG's are not like single player games. They do require downtimes and grinds to some extent. Those can be made to not be a hassle in some ways. Mana regeneration skills and spells can aid in shortening downtime or you can do what us old timers do. Find some good friends and enjoy a chat.
As for the grind. Its only a grind if you make it one. Developers have to implement things to take more time otherwise they might as well make a single player game. If the content is demolished in the first week people might not resubscribe.
Now one might argue why don't they add more content. On that you have to realise that only so much content can be developed in a given time. After that it has to be done post launch.
My advice if you want to have a better understanding of the content development cycle. Try and develop a game yourself. Write the story, code the mechanics, make the engine. Even if you can't afford the programs for it, do it on paper. I think you might have a better grasping of the concept of development and the many complications involved by doing so. It is in no way an easy task.
MMOG's I think are in their infancy and will continue to evolve and grow until the day we see a home based virtual interaction style of gaming. Until then, this is what we have to work with and I don't expect they will be going anywhere.
Assistant Community Manager
Age of Conan Ten Ton Hammer
LOL...hell Martuk, I'd say make it even simpler. Use a PnP setting and create a dice based campaign that could occupy 4 of your friends for 160 hours this month. No? How about 100 hours. No? How about 60 hours.
I'd be astonished if anyone could succeed at that challenge, and then keep it up every month for years to come...and that's without dealing with a single line of code!!!
OK, you're absolutely not pulling me into the whole "mmogdata" and "mmogchart" discussion, I've made my opinions on those sites extremely clear
That said, as of March 2007, Second Life had less than 60,000 paid subscribers. Free really doesn't count.
p.s. Even if they had 60,000,000 paid subs, I'm not sure I'd count Second Life until they actually put the "G" in MMORPG
People buy things all the time in SL it doesnt really use a subscription based model. Same with Guild Wars
If you really want to discuss mmorpgs then revenues should be evaluated. Not everyone uses a subscription based model. Talking about SL and "subscribers" is really not applicable in the least....
People buy things all the time in SL it doesnt really use a subscription based model. Same with Guild Wars
If you really want to discuss mmorpgs then revenues should be evaluated. Not everyone uses a subscription based model. Talking about SL and "subscribers" is really not applicable in the least....
Dude, seriously...People buy things all the time in Second Life...like they buy things on e-bay or Amazon. It's a virtual mall, not a game, and zero share of that sale goes to the developer other than the monthly fees and purchase price of the virtual real estate in the mall.
If Amazon starts having a virtual world to do your shopping, I'm not going to start touting their "subscriber numbers" as little Amazon shopping avatars start walking around.
I'd like a refund.
This is just horribly thought out opinion based on baseless assumptions.
1.) If you combined all MMO players who don't play WoW from all over the world you'd quickly realize WoW is not that big of a game world wide. While it does have a healthy presence in Asia it's not the biggest MMO period. So combining MMO's and their subs from all over the world would quickly surpass WoW's 10 million subs.
2.) Microsoft was never ever a big contender in the MMO genre. Sure they were looking to get their feet wet but their success with the XBOX360 has pushed them in another direction.
The rest of the post by the OP is just his/her opinion pulled out of nowhere. If anything MMO's are going to be the cash cows for large game developers/distributers in the future that keep them afloat and producing none-MMO titles on the side. Blizzard has shown that a well down and fun MMO by a minor division of a multi-nation conglomerate can all by themselves keep their profit margins in the black by a few BILLION. Vivendi (which was facing finical issues prior to WoW)would of been up a creek without a paddle were it not for Blizzard and WoW.
Games I've played/tried out:WAR, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, AoC, EQ1, EQ2, WoW, Vangaurd, FFXI, D&DO, Lineage 2, Saga Of Ryzom, EvE Online, DAoC, Guild Wars,Star Wars Galaxies, Hell Gate London, Auto Assault, Grando Espada ( AKA SoTNW ), Archlord, CoV/H, Star Trek Online, APB, Champions Online, FFXIV, Rift Online, GW2.
Game(s) I Am Currently Playing:
GW2 (+LoL and BF3)
no...
http://www.straightdope.com/
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....
So basically you were smoking a doobie and you came up with this right?
I disagree.
First off, WoW is not the genre defining title. It IS the biggest western developed mmorpg as far as subs go yes, but it is dwarfed by the amount of mmorpg gamers in asian countries. 10 million playing wow dosent even touch the Asian sub market that was back in 2003, let alone now.
WoW brought a ton of western mmorpg gamers together. However you need to take ALL of the subs from UO, EQ, AC, and DAoC and combine them from that era and then compare that to WoW's American population. People do seem to forget that WoW attracted alot of new people, but also a ton of veterans of the genre. If your going to make a theory of such proportions, then you need to think of the Region your basing it off of in a accurate equation. WoW does not have 10million american players, by a long shot.
What is hurting new production of new games is the hardware requirements. WoW was smart to make requirements very low for their game. Do you know how much it ran us older gamers to get a true 3D graphics card back for EQ1? VooDoo 3DFX was expensive as hell back then. Nowadays, you can play wow very easily on low settings, where EQ2 and Vanguard that is just not possible without it looking like ass. I love EQ2 and Vanguard, and I have the pc to run them when they were released and still at high/maxed settings. Yet I understand and hold no ills towards those who cant afford or want to spend the cash on a beefy pc.
Like Crysis for example. It is the most intensive FPS as far as hardware requirements go in the gaming industry right now. It did not sell nearly as many boxes as CoD4, which was more forgiving on the specs. Does that mean Crysis was the worse game of the two? No, and while that is a matter of perspective, it does show one thing.
Being ABLE to play and not feel like its a bad emulation program is more important than just about anything else for the MAINSTREAM gamers. When another mmorpg comes out and gives about as wide of a requirement range as WoW did, respective to the current times, then we might see another mmorpg become a great success story.
The genre is fine. The developers are learning, even if most are just too stubborn to do it within a respectable frame of time. I see no issues for the future for those that adapt hardware requirements, yet not their gameplay arena. People want to play, see some eye candy, and not feel forced into spending money on top of a sub. Thats the current issue.
In case anyone tries to say I, like some others, should spend money on the fun they choose, being more expensive hardware for mmorpg..
I run a E8400 running at 3.6Ghz 24 hour Orthos stable, Gigabyte x38-DS4, 8800GT 512 OC, 2 gigs running 1:1 with FSB, and a CM690 Case with 8 120mm fans, 2 modded in.
I may run a nice machine, but I my perspective on this genre is still down to earth.
I think the developers are just scratching their heads trying to find a way to compete with or undermine WoW (which is already a very mediocre game imo). It's like someone else said, there will be fewer MMO's to be released but they will be big ones - like WAR. And good ones will be few and far in between.
After seeing many epic failures, I think developers are being more cautious now then they have ever been. Which means most future MMOs will cater to casual people just like WoW.
I agree,there are only 2 or 3 truly original games launched per year,rest are just overhyped mediocre clones with different skins.
WoW is the mmorpg genre? Geez what planet do you come from...
Long before WoW, thousand of players played different games, these games was for many, still the best, cause it was their first! I myself have played wow since beta, yet I dont see it as the best game at all! Actually I find wow rather repedititve and boring! Im simply waiting for the next big thing to come out! When LOTRO came, I jumped away from wow right away, and joined that game, however I didnt like it cause it looked alot like wow, so actually Im the opposite, trying to get away from the wow element!
Here is a link:
http://kotaku.com/347552/world-of-warcraft-reaches-10-million-mark
And I quote
"Blizzard's numbers included paying subscribers, people within their first month of free game time, and internet cafe users who have accessed the game in the past 30 days, but excludes those using promotional trials and of course, those who have managed to kick the habit entirely...for now."
Well, that is YOUR opinion.
WOW gets a 93% on metacritics.com.
I found it fun and engaging. Repetition is not necessary bad when it is fun.
Hmm well i played sims before it was overly popular. And by ur standards sims online should have been popular ... but it was not.
Id say it may not be a genre because all games will be mmos.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one ..." - Thomas Paine
WoW is made by 1 lone company. it is competing against god knows how many other companies. those other companies are trying their best to make a better game. odds are stacked heavily in favour of those other companies at the present time.
the genre is not dead and it wont die and something will come along to smash WoW, we just dont know when it will come along 1 year, 5 years, 20 years. who knows.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
That's pretty much been the case with EVERY genre for on EVERY console for since pretty much gaming began..
MMOs are NO different. Who honestly expects every MMO to be highly polished, highly playable, and last for years?