If you look at the days of PnP RPGs as an example where DnD was king, no one ever unseated DnD (even to this day) except for new editions of DnD (with the notable exception that v3.5 still is more popular than 4,0, but still it is DnD trumping DnD. However, GW carved a big niche with a wargame approach to fantasy (please do not compare the success of the tabletop with the MMO version.) No other RPG ever came close to capturing DnDs success because they were the same as most competing MMOs today - different setting, different ways of character generation and advancement, and different game mechanics but the same thing at it's core. The only notable exception was Vampire: The Masquerade because it totally changed the rules.
Frankly, as someone who grew up with PnP and now plays CGs, I get bored reading how enamored so many devs seem to be with some technology or different game mechanic that will make their game so popular. As a player, I sure I can say something to them that most of us share: "No one cares." If you want to unseat WoW, then use a formula for success that is over 30 years old.
Considering this, there are two likely ways WoW could lose it's kingship:
1.) Blizzard's new MMO will replace their current MMO.
2.) A new format MMO will be introduced that doesn't proscribe to the current MMO format.
Just like DnD did, Blizzard is probably responsible for introducing the greatest number of new players to the MMO genre thanks to recognition, word of mouth, and plain ol' advertising. Which means for another company to capture the player base they really need to either have Blizzard mis-step in a major way - which they have never done with anything - or have to change the formula enough to capture the next wave of MMO gaming. The only company that seems to be approaching this second formula is Bioware with SWTOR, but it is still to early to tell.
IMO, Bizzard will never lose their massive base (whether with WoW or thier new MMO). However, if SWTOR lives up to Bioware's reputation, I believe they can have a very strong second or even number one, but won't necessarily take it out of WoW numbers.
The best case scenario for us gamers is that no game will rival or replace WoW. Instead, a diversity of titles will hold varying amount of subscription power, bringing more diverse gameplay in the process.
Having another powerhouse game replace this one will ultimately be bad for the gender (as it is already, plenty of games are developed, but not much diversity is offered so far).
I'm not worried that much about diversity. In time it will come as a natural progression. It just takes long because MMOs take years to develop. Do people remember the early days of introducing games in CD media? Suddenly everybody had so much more space than the 3 1/2" discs, so they were cramming (not necessarily good or relevant) movies in those games. It took a while for the companies to actually utilise the extra space with actual gameplay, but it happened.
I'm more worried about another trend that seems to surface. It seems that the P2P /w out RMT or F2P with RMT is not enough for certain companies (Champions Online and others being the most recent offenders), but they want to merge P2P /w RMT for maximum profit. This particular phenomenon is a deal breaker for me and will definitely not play any game with such a subscription model. I don't mind what Blizzard is doing with the server transfers, or the name changes etc., because I want game companies to put barriers in things such as these, whether it's time barriers or cash ones. However, anything beyond that is not acceptable.
I also have a bad feeling about the new implementation of battle.net. I somehow predict that they will too include micro-transactions. No concrete news yet though, just a bad feeling stemming from various Blizzard employees interviews.
The only thing that dethrones a Blizzard game is a newer Blizzard game. I'm not a fanboy but I am right.
That might be true, but there is also the possibility that a game made by ex Blizzard employes can do it.
Blizzard had many talented people working for them over the year (not Roper however).
First we have Arenanet, it is headed buy a guy named Jeff Strain. He has made the games Diablo and Warcraft 3 for Blizzard and was the lead designer of Wow the first years in development. Their first game, Guildwars, was made with a very low budget but still have sold more than 5 millions, only beaten by Wow in this class. It was very instanced however, due to budget reasons. Their next game, Guildwars 2 have no problem with money and will be set in an open world. This guy have made 2 games that Blizzard fans love and laid out the basics for Wow even though he wanted Wow to be harder and without monthly fees. The other 2 top programmers of Warcraft 3 and early wow did quit together with Strain and started the company.
Then We have Copernicus, which uses several od Blizzard programmers together with a story by R. Salvatore (the guy with Drizzt) and art by Todd Mcfarlane (made the comic SPAWN). Very little is known about the game however.
GW2s creator do make posts in some forums so I know way more about it. Anyways, few of the people behing Blizzards successes still works for Blizzard. Morhaime is still leading the company and the got Kaplan but besides those most employes are rather unexperinced. So it is not impossible that Blizzard actually gets hard competition, even if the other companies dont have the brand.
I actually believes that the next Blizzard game will get hard competition from GW2, for one thing GW2 wont have either a monthly fee or a cashshop. That together with one of the most experienced programer team in the world who already made 2 succesful games together (even if Warcraft 3 was sold under Blizzard) makes them a formidable opponent to Blizz.
Aion isn't great and I don't think it will effect the WoW numbers at all as shiney graphics does not mean its P2P quality.
I voted SW:TOR as I think its the only game with a chance to actually have a shot at actually being successfull, it's made by Bioware, is based on a well known francise, story to keep players interested and graphics that look nice but are also easy to run,
Aion isn't great and I don't think it will effect the WoW numbers at all as shiney graphics does not mean its P2P quality.
You obviously have not played it. Aion has a lot of hype behind it because it has real substance. It's not even trying to compete with WoW as it is PvP focused. But it does possess some WoW features, mainly the fact that it is very polished. It is definitely P2P quality and is quite impressive.
Lot of WoW players have interest in it and are likely to try it. All depends if they are tired of the WotLK content. I don't see Aion as a game that is aiming to take over WoW's playerbase, if anything, it is appealling to PvP MMO players, particularly Warhammer's playerbase.
I have to agree with you there. This is message to all the WOW fanbois out there. QUIT SPITSHINING WOW'S BALLS!!!.Yeah I played WOW for a 2 year stint. The was post Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich KIng and the third XP sucked. While I did find it fun to play, the longer I played the less I found it to be worthy of 15 bucks. The fatal flaws I found that were most notable.
1 Nerfing of skills for PVP interfered with PVE.
2 Lack of limitation on how much gold there was in the world wich leads to over inflation at the Auction House.
3 Horrible community at low levels. If you not 80 then no Instances for you. Players say "Then your not on the right server then." If I have to change servers to play with onther people then to hell with wow.
4 25 bucks to change servers??? Nuff said. For that much I should be able to copy my toons to another server.
5 Lack of NPCs parties or soloable instances. Refer to 3.
6.Stupid Ass mounts and there riding skills. Defend the mounts all you want to. They have no real valus in game. Other than to say Look at my new ride. It cost countless month of gold but it was worth it. Its just another ploy by blizzard to keep you playing. Im sorry but the only class with most significant mount is the Druid.
6 Dual talents. 1000 easy to come by yes. But only if you're in Northrend. If your still in Outand GTFO. Besides you still have money to build up to more important things.
7 Resources or the lack there of for crafting. Tons of copper. But nigh a sight of tin around. Materials are point blank uneven across the board. Plus spread to randomly. If you spend 3 hours to make a 20 stack of a mat. Then that should tell you something.
8 The games too Gear based. Which in any case no game should ever be. Gear should give specific stats in certain areas. Not in the mental or physical. Spellpower yes. Intelligence no. Attack power yes. Strength hell no.
You can make WOW out to be the mmo to rule all MMOs. But in the end WOW will fall. Not to any other MMO. But due to it's own pillar. Like every base they eventually weaken. And WOWs base is it's own players. Youll eventually figure out what I mean.
I've been watching and playing MMOs for a long time. More than 10 years even, all the way back to before the first MMOs coalesced out of the darkness that was MUDs.
I don't think any one thing will bring WoW down in one fell swoop, and thankfully this isn't another one of those "wow-killer" threads. That just won't happen.
As I believe others have said in the thread, it'll be various different games that all end up taking a piece out of WoW, and while it will still linger on, one day it won't be the top dog anymore. Aion will take the people who enjoy asian-style gameplay. SWoTOR will take the Star Wars people. Star Trek Online will take a chunk. Stargate: Worlds will even take a chunk. I think the majority of the sci-fi loving community will be gone from WoW before long. Blizzard's new MMO will take the people that finally realize they've pretty much played out WoW.
What will impact WoW the most out of all of those, though? I'd place my bets on either SWoTOR, or Blizzard's new MMO. Aion will take the most market from WoW's asian players. SWoTOR will be the big impact on the western market. When Blizzard's new MMO comes out, it'll probably take a majority of the remaining WoW players, or at least a signifigant number of them.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
I have to agree with you there. This is message to all the WOW fanbois out there. QUIT SPITSHINING WOW'S BALLS!!!.Yeah I played WOW for a 2 year stint. The was post Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich KIng and the third XP sucked. While I did find it fun to play, the longer I played the less I found it to be worthy of 15 bucks. The fatal flaws I found that were most notable. 1 Nerfing of skills for PVP interfered with PVE. 2 Lack of limitation on how much gold there was in the world wich leads to over inflation at the Auction House. 3 Horrible community at low levels. If you not 80 then no Instances for you. Players say "Then your not on the right server then." If I have to change servers to play with onther people then to hell with wow. 4 25 bucks to change servers??? Nuff said. For that much I should be able to copy my toons to another server. 5 Lack of NPCs parties or soloable instances. Refer to 3. 6.Stupid Ass mounts and there riding skills. Defend the mounts all you want to. They have no real valus in game. Other than to say Look at my new ride. It cost countless month of gold but it was worth it. Its just another ploy by blizzard to keep you playing. Im sorry but the only class with most significant mount is the Druid. 6 Dual talents. 1000 easy to come by yes. But only if you're in Northrend. If your still in Outand GTFO. Besides you still have money to build up to more important things. 7 Resources or the lack there of for crafting. Tons of copper. But nigh a sight of tin around. Materials are point blank uneven across the board. Plus spread to randomly. If you spend 3 hours to make a 20 stack of a mat. Then that should tell you something. 8 The games too Gear based. Which in any case no game should ever be. Gear should give specific stats in certain areas. Not in the mental or physical. Spellpower yes. Intelligence no. Attack power yes. Strength hell no. You can make WOW out to be the mmo to rule all MMOs. But in the end WOW will fall. Not to any other MMO. But due to it's own pillar. Like every base they eventually weaken. And WOWs base is it's own players. Youll eventually figure out what I mean.
I have to agree with you there. This is message to all the WOW fanbois out there. QUIT SPITSHINING WOW'S BALLS!!!.Yeah I played WOW for a 2 year stint. The was post Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich KIng and the third XP sucked. While I did find it fun to play, the longer I played the less I found it to be worthy of 15 bucks. The fatal flaws I found that were most notable. 1 Nerfing of skills for PVP interfered with PVE. This happens in these types of games. The changes are not always what they appear, but it does happen and it sucks. I think blizzard does a fine job of balancing pve/pvp. Much better than any other game I've played. I'm sure pve nerfs affect pvp also. 2 Lack of limitation on how much gold there was in the world wich leads to over inflation at the Auction House. Yes gold is easy to get, but prices are down from release as far as I can tell. The important part is that it is easy to get gold if you need it. 3 Horrible community at low levels. If you not 80 then no Instances for you. Players say "Then your not on the right server then." If I have to change servers to play with onther people then to hell with wow.
Common problem for any game this old. You can't force people to run instances on their alts. 4 25 bucks to change servers??? Nuff said. For that much I should be able to copy my toons to another server. The price is there so that people cannot flip servers everytime they want to be a jackass ninja looter without some penalty. The price for the transfers has several functions as well as that. It is something that can be abused and sadly the price is there as a deterent. However server transfering is a luxury, not a right. 5 Lack of NPCs parties or soloable instances. Refer to 3. NPC parties? Solo instances? Sorry, MMO doesn't stand for massive NPC solo online game. Not to say there isn't merit if done right, but by no means manditory. 6.Stupid Ass mounts and there riding skills. Defend the mounts all you want to. They have no real valus in game. Other than to say Look at my new ride. It cost countless month of gold but it was worth it. Its just another ploy by blizzard to keep you playing. Im sorry but the only class with most significant mount is the Druid. I only have 2 mounts and 1 of them was a random rare quest reward. Like you, I could care less about all the mounts. However that doesn't mean other people don't. Believe it or not some people love those things. They work very hard and feel very rewarded when they get them. As for it being a ploy.... all content is added to subscription based games to entice you to play longer. Really it is and it isn't some secret ploy. That is how these games work. 6 Dual talents. 1000 easy to come by yes. But only if you're in Northrend. If your still in Outand GTFO. Besides you still have money to build up to more important things. 1,000 gold is very easy to get just by questing in outland. I had over 1,000 gold leveling my alt even under the new increased experience curve and I still had at least half of the zones left for increased gold rewards. 7 Resources or the lack there of for crafting. Tons of copper. But nigh a sight of tin around. Materials are point blank uneven across the board. Plus spread to randomly. If you spend 3 hours to make a 20 stack of a mat. Then that should tell you something. ?? You find gathering low level mats hard? If you say so. 8 The games too Gear based. Which in any case no game should ever be. Gear should give specific stats in certain areas. Not in the mental or physical. Spellpower yes. Intelligence no. Attack power yes. Strength hell no. Again, something that is common in every mmo. You can make WOW out to be the mmo to rule all MMOs. But in the end WOW will fall. Not to any other MMO. But due to it's own pillar. Like every base they eventually weaken. And WOWs base is it's own players. Youll eventually figure out what I mean. All games will eventually fail. When better games come out wow will take a subscriber hit. Until then I don't see much changing.
I have to agree with you there. This is message to all the WOW fanbois out there. QUIT SPITSHINING WOW'S BALLS!!!.Yeah I played WOW for a 2 year stint. The was post Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich KIng and the third XP sucked. While I did find it fun to play, the longer I played the less I found it to be worthy of 15 bucks. The fatal flaws I found that were most notable. 1 Nerfing of skills for PVP interfered with PVE. 2 Lack of limitation on how much gold there was in the world wich leads to over inflation at the Auction House. 3 Horrible community at low levels. If you not 80 then no Instances for you. Players say "Then your not on the right server then." If I have to change servers to play with onther people then to hell with wow. 4 25 bucks to change servers??? Nuff said. For that much I should be able to copy my toons to another server. 5 Lack of NPCs parties or soloable instances. Refer to 3. 6.Stupid Ass mounts and there riding skills. Defend the mounts all you want to. They have no real valus in game. Other than to say Look at my new ride. It cost countless month of gold but it was worth it. Its just another ploy by blizzard to keep you playing. Im sorry but the only class with most significant mount is the Druid. 6 Dual talents. 1000 easy to come by yes. But only if you're in Northrend. If your still in Outand GTFO. Besides you still have money to build up to more important things. 7 Resources or the lack there of for crafting. Tons of copper. But nigh a sight of tin around. Materials are point blank uneven across the board. Plus spread to randomly. If you spend 3 hours to make a 20 stack of a mat. Then that should tell you something. 8 The games too Gear based. Which in any case no game should ever be. Gear should give specific stats in certain areas. Not in the mental or physical. Spellpower yes. Intelligence no. Attack power yes. Strength hell no. You can make WOW out to be the mmo to rule all MMOs. But in the end WOW will fall. Not to any other MMO. But due to it's own pillar. Like every base they eventually weaken. And WOWs base is it's own players. Youll eventually figure out what I mean.
"It is my opinion, that my opinions are always right"
I don't care, but here is my prognosis based on the hyped up launches of Lotro, Aoc and War in OUR western world.
Initial sales around 500K. A little less because of the lack of interest after the huge Lore launches of the former year.
Subs past the initial 2 month launch period around 30%. The famous hoppers syndrome.
After 6 months it could represent a 200K sub based game IF the selling continues, but I doubt that.
Wow was best selling PC game for 2004,2005,2006,2007,2008 to even reach its 5M NA/EU subs status.
Aion will not even be in the top 3 of 2009 of PC games. (SC2, Sims3, CoD X, WotLK will certainly beat it).
The main reason is that it doesn't have anything over Wow which would make it mainstream (people with wings on their backs don't have any connection to western fantasy based lore) and the only selling point would be so called world PvP, which is a buzz word that doesn't make a difference in the "level 1 to X with items" based games.
As the former launched fantasy mmorpg's, it will - after a few months - even reinforce the position of Wow on our markets.
People do follow the leader of the pack, that was a constant these last 4 years and every copycat product confirmed it for 4 years long.
-----> A new river bend, a tree and some extra hairs on an eyebrow are not enough to change the winning marketing of Blizzard.
I am quite happy we will see the evolution here in the west and don't have to rely on former "millions" hype which can't be controlled in the east. I point not only to the current "server" numbers of Aion, but also on the simply laughable statement of Lineage 2 with its .... millions of players. In the west they have around 60K subs at the moment...
Wings on people? My number one question: are they functional (ie they can make us fly)? If so, people like me will give it a try, just to push the genre beyond WoW as far as content (There is no winged race in WoW). As long as PvP isn't forced and I like the way levels progress (ie a lack of grinding), I'd stay. If they feel emboldened and play more fantasy races in the game, it would encourage me to keep on. That's one of my major steps to keep the MMO community alive.
"Of all the things wrong with today's RPGs, 2D characters on a 3D background is the worst."
If you look at the days of PnP RPGs as an example where DnD was king, no one ever unseated DnD (even to this day) except for new editions of DnD (with the notable exception that v3.5 still is more popular than 4,0, but still it is DnD trumping DnD. However, GW carved a big niche with a wargame approach to fantasy (please do not compare the success of the tabletop with the MMO version.) No other RPG ever came close to capturing DnDs success because they were the same as most competing MMOs today - different setting, different ways of character generation and advancement, and different game mechanics but the same thing at it's core. The only notable exception was Vampire: The Masquerade because it totally changed the rules.
D&D ruled? Frankly I'm seeing D&D dying irl and online (DDO anyone?), and have been since 3e. RPGA was so sick of 3e they made their own ruleset for RPGA gaming. V:tM did very little to the community other than help in developing LARP (The die system and skill system is a slight alterring of GURPS/BESM/etc)
And btw, do not compare Palladium to D&D, that -is- like comparing apples to oranges. Palladium has a more diverse and technical system compared to D&D, both 2e and 3e. The combat requires more than passing knowledge of the attacking system, and allows the player to attack, dodge, roll, and parry (D&D only allows attack). The skill system takes up 2-5 pages of each skill book, with the master gm book taking up 10-20 pages (D&D has 10 pages at best). Also, unlike D&D, almost -every- race is playable and stats are available for rolling each race (even the upmost evil ones), giving 1000+ races to the player. How many races does D&D have? (last I checked, 20 or so?)
"Of all the things wrong with today's RPGs, 2D characters on a 3D background is the worst."
What's funny is you can start the exact same poll every year at this time and just change the choices and we'll look back at it the following year and laugh at the responses. I'm surprised Champions Online and STO wasn't listed as well.
What everyone fails to realize is most of WoW's playerbase have absolutely no notion of any other game outside of WoW. Even today, I'm sure the 35 year old housewife or 40 year old father of 3 who plays WoW has never heard of Star Wars: The Old Republic or Final Fantasy. How can you impact WoW's market when that market isn't looking to play another game? It's like asking what's going to impact the Wii's market most? You think the 55 year old grandmother who bought WiiFit cares about the PS4?
"You are obviously confusing a mature rating with actual maturity." -Asherman
Maybe MMO is not your genre, go play Modern Warfare...or something you can be all twitchy...and rank up all night. This is seriously getting tired. -Ranyr
I dont know if if I would even put Champions and Stratrek online in the same catagory as WoW. Yeah they are all mmo. But the similarities end there. Scifi and Fantasy,two different genras. WoW fantasy, STO and Champs Scifi. Although Champs could be considered part Fantasy. But the thing that futher separates the apart is, the universe and gameplay. I played WoW maybe 2 to 4 years. I liked the first addition but Burning Crusades and Wrath of the Lich King both sucked. Neither Xp has any conclusion to the main story and the quest arent interlinked. But the interlinks between any quest on any mmo are missing. But like the other person said, time is the only factor thats going to topple WoW. That and Blizzards stupidity.
Comments
Aion will hurt WoW a fair bit.
If you look at the days of PnP RPGs as an example where DnD was king, no one ever unseated DnD (even to this day) except for new editions of DnD (with the notable exception that v3.5 still is more popular than 4,0, but still it is DnD trumping DnD. However, GW carved a big niche with a wargame approach to fantasy (please do not compare the success of the tabletop with the MMO version.) No other RPG ever came close to capturing DnDs success because they were the same as most competing MMOs today - different setting, different ways of character generation and advancement, and different game mechanics but the same thing at it's core. The only notable exception was Vampire: The Masquerade because it totally changed the rules.
Frankly, as someone who grew up with PnP and now plays CGs, I get bored reading how enamored so many devs seem to be with some technology or different game mechanic that will make their game so popular. As a player, I sure I can say something to them that most of us share: "No one cares." If you want to unseat WoW, then use a formula for success that is over 30 years old.
Considering this, there are two likely ways WoW could lose it's kingship:
1.) Blizzard's new MMO will replace their current MMO.
2.) A new format MMO will be introduced that doesn't proscribe to the current MMO format.
Just like DnD did, Blizzard is probably responsible for introducing the greatest number of new players to the MMO genre thanks to recognition, word of mouth, and plain ol' advertising. Which means for another company to capture the player base they really need to either have Blizzard mis-step in a major way - which they have never done with anything - or have to change the formula enough to capture the next wave of MMO gaming. The only company that seems to be approaching this second formula is Bioware with SWTOR, but it is still to early to tell.
IMO, Bizzard will never lose their massive base (whether with WoW or thier new MMO). However, if SWTOR lives up to Bioware's reputation, I believe they can have a very strong second or even number one, but won't necessarily take it out of WoW numbers.
The future looks brighter for MMOs.
The best case scenario for us gamers is that no game will rival or replace WoW. Instead, a diversity of titles will hold varying amount of subscription power, bringing more diverse gameplay in the process.
Having another powerhouse game replace this one will ultimately be bad for the gender (as it is already, plenty of games are developed, but not much diversity is offered so far).
The only thing that dethrones a Blizzard game is a newer Blizzard game.
I'm not a fanboy but I am right.
I'm not worried that much about diversity. In time it will come as a natural progression. It just takes long because MMOs take years to develop. Do people remember the early days of introducing games in CD media? Suddenly everybody had so much more space than the 3 1/2" discs, so they were cramming (not necessarily good or relevant) movies in those games. It took a while for the companies to actually utilise the extra space with actual gameplay, but it happened.
I'm more worried about another trend that seems to surface. It seems that the P2P /w out RMT or F2P with RMT is not enough for certain companies (Champions Online and others being the most recent offenders), but they want to merge P2P /w RMT for maximum profit. This particular phenomenon is a deal breaker for me and will definitely not play any game with such a subscription model. I don't mind what Blizzard is doing with the server transfers, or the name changes etc., because I want game companies to put barriers in things such as these, whether it's time barriers or cash ones. However, anything beyond that is not acceptable.
I also have a bad feeling about the new implementation of battle.net. I somehow predict that they will too include micro-transactions. No concrete news yet though, just a bad feeling stemming from various Blizzard employees interviews.
That might be true, but there is also the possibility that a game made by ex Blizzard employes can do it.
Blizzard had many talented people working for them over the year (not Roper however).
First we have Arenanet, it is headed buy a guy named Jeff Strain. He has made the games Diablo and Warcraft 3 for Blizzard and was the lead designer of Wow the first years in development. Their first game, Guildwars, was made with a very low budget but still have sold more than 5 millions, only beaten by Wow in this class. It was very instanced however, due to budget reasons. Their next game, Guildwars 2 have no problem with money and will be set in an open world. This guy have made 2 games that Blizzard fans love and laid out the basics for Wow even though he wanted Wow to be harder and without monthly fees. The other 2 top programmers of Warcraft 3 and early wow did quit together with Strain and started the company.
Then We have Copernicus, which uses several od Blizzard programmers together with a story by R. Salvatore (the guy with Drizzt) and art by Todd Mcfarlane (made the comic SPAWN). Very little is known about the game however.
GW2s creator do make posts in some forums so I know way more about it. Anyways, few of the people behing Blizzards successes still works for Blizzard. Morhaime is still leading the company and the got Kaplan but besides those most employes are rather unexperinced. So it is not impossible that Blizzard actually gets hard competition, even if the other companies dont have the brand.
I actually believes that the next Blizzard game will get hard competition from GW2, for one thing GW2 wont have either a monthly fee or a cashshop. That together with one of the most experienced programer team in the world who already made 2 succesful games together (even if Warcraft 3 was sold under Blizzard) makes them a formidable opponent to Blizz.
Aion isn't great and I don't think it will effect the WoW numbers at all as shiney graphics does not mean its P2P quality.
I voted SW:TOR as I think its the only game with a chance to actually have a shot at actually being successfull, it's made by Bioware, is based on a well known francise, story to keep players interested and graphics that look nice but are also easy to run,
You obviously have not played it. Aion has a lot of hype behind it because it has real substance. It's not even trying to compete with WoW as it is PvP focused. But it does possess some WoW features, mainly the fact that it is very polished. It is definitely P2P quality and is quite impressive.
Lot of WoW players have interest in it and are likely to try it. All depends if they are tired of the WotLK content. I don't see Aion as a game that is aiming to take over WoW's playerbase, if anything, it is appealling to PvP MMO players, particularly Warhammer's playerbase.
Playing: EvE, Warhammer free unlimited trial, Allods Online
Played: Anarchy Online, WoW, Warhammer, AoC, Ryzom. Aion
Strongly Recommend: Ryzom, EvE, Allods Online
I have to agree with you there. This is message to all the WOW fanbois out there. QUIT SPITSHINING WOW'S BALLS!!!.Yeah I played WOW for a 2 year stint. The was post Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich KIng and the third XP sucked. While I did find it fun to play, the longer I played the less I found it to be worthy of 15 bucks. The fatal flaws I found that were most notable.
1 Nerfing of skills for PVP interfered with PVE.
2 Lack of limitation on how much gold there was in the world wich leads to over inflation at the Auction House.
3 Horrible community at low levels. If you not 80 then no Instances for you. Players say "Then your not on the right server then." If I have to change servers to play with onther people then to hell with wow.
4 25 bucks to change servers??? Nuff said. For that much I should be able to copy my toons to another server.
5 Lack of NPCs parties or soloable instances. Refer to 3.
6.Stupid Ass mounts and there riding skills. Defend the mounts all you want to. They have no real valus in game. Other than to say Look at my new ride. It cost countless month of gold but it was worth it. Its just another ploy by blizzard to keep you playing. Im sorry but the only class with most significant mount is the Druid.
6 Dual talents. 1000 easy to come by yes. But only if you're in Northrend. If your still in Outand GTFO. Besides you still have money to build up to more important things.
7 Resources or the lack there of for crafting. Tons of copper. But nigh a sight of tin around. Materials are point blank uneven across the board. Plus spread to randomly. If you spend 3 hours to make a 20 stack of a mat. Then that should tell you something.
8 The games too Gear based. Which in any case no game should ever be. Gear should give specific stats in certain areas. Not in the mental or physical. Spellpower yes. Intelligence no. Attack power yes. Strength hell no.
You can make WOW out to be the mmo to rule all MMOs. But in the end WOW will fall. Not to any other MMO. But due to it's own pillar. Like every base they eventually weaken. And WOWs base is it's own players. Youll eventually figure out what I mean.
I've been watching and playing MMOs for a long time. More than 10 years even, all the way back to before the first MMOs coalesced out of the darkness that was MUDs.
I don't think any one thing will bring WoW down in one fell swoop, and thankfully this isn't another one of those "wow-killer" threads. That just won't happen.
As I believe others have said in the thread, it'll be various different games that all end up taking a piece out of WoW, and while it will still linger on, one day it won't be the top dog anymore. Aion will take the people who enjoy asian-style gameplay. SWoTOR will take the Star Wars people. Star Trek Online will take a chunk. Stargate: Worlds will even take a chunk. I think the majority of the sci-fi loving community will be gone from WoW before long. Blizzard's new MMO will take the people that finally realize they've pretty much played out WoW.
What will impact WoW the most out of all of those, though? I'd place my bets on either SWoTOR, or Blizzard's new MMO. Aion will take the most market from WoW's asian players. SWoTOR will be the big impact on the western market. When Blizzard's new MMO comes out, it'll probably take a majority of the remaining WoW players, or at least a signifigant number of them.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
Someone's well done!
"It is my opinion, that my opinions are always right"
I don't care, but here is my prognosis based on the hyped up launches of Lotro, Aoc and War in OUR western world.
Initial sales around 500K. A little less because of the lack of interest after the huge Lore launches of the former year.
Subs past the initial 2 month launch period around 30%. The famous hoppers syndrome.
After 6 months it could represent a 200K sub based game IF the selling continues, but I doubt that.
Wow was best selling PC game for 2004,2005,2006,2007,2008 to even reach its 5M NA/EU subs status.
Aion will not even be in the top 3 of 2009 of PC games. (SC2, Sims3, CoD X, WotLK will certainly beat it).
The main reason is that it doesn't have anything over Wow which would make it mainstream (people with wings on their backs don't have any connection to western fantasy based lore) and the only selling point would be so called world PvP, which is a buzz word that doesn't make a difference in the "level 1 to X with items" based games.
As the former launched fantasy mmorpg's, it will - after a few months - even reinforce the position of Wow on our markets.
People do follow the leader of the pack, that was a constant these last 4 years and every copycat product confirmed it for 4 years long.
-----> A new river bend, a tree and some extra hairs on an eyebrow are not enough to change the winning marketing of Blizzard.
I am quite happy we will see the evolution here in the west and don't have to rely on former "millions" hype which can't be controlled in the east. I point not only to the current "server" numbers of Aion, but also on the simply laughable statement of Lineage 2 with its .... millions of players. In the west they have around 60K subs at the moment...
Wings on people? My number one question: are they functional (ie they can make us fly)? If so, people like me will give it a try, just to push the genre beyond WoW as far as content (There is no winged race in WoW). As long as PvP isn't forced and I like the way levels progress (ie a lack of grinding), I'd stay. If they feel emboldened and play more fantasy races in the game, it would encourage me to keep on. That's one of my major steps to keep the MMO community alive.
"Of all the things wrong with today's RPGs, 2D characters on a 3D background is the worst."
D&D ruled? Frankly I'm seeing D&D dying irl and online (DDO anyone?), and have been since 3e. RPGA was so sick of 3e they made their own ruleset for RPGA gaming. V:tM did very little to the community other than help in developing LARP (The die system and skill system is a slight alterring of GURPS/BESM/etc)
And btw, do not compare Palladium to D&D, that -is- like comparing apples to oranges. Palladium has a more diverse and technical system compared to D&D, both 2e and 3e. The combat requires more than passing knowledge of the attacking system, and allows the player to attack, dodge, roll, and parry (D&D only allows attack). The skill system takes up 2-5 pages of each skill book, with the master gm book taking up 10-20 pages (D&D has 10 pages at best). Also, unlike D&D, almost -every- race is playable and stats are available for rolling each race (even the upmost evil ones), giving 1000+ races to the player. How many races does D&D have? (last I checked, 20 or so?)
"Of all the things wrong with today's RPGs, 2D characters on a 3D background is the worst."
A troll calling someone else a troll. Whatever.
What will impact WoW subs MOST?
Time. The fact that there will be another game there to fill the role is irrelevant, in my opinion.
D'oh, necro.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
What's funny is you can start the exact same poll every year at this time and just change the choices and we'll look back at it the following year and laugh at the responses. I'm surprised Champions Online and STO wasn't listed as well.
What everyone fails to realize is most of WoW's playerbase have absolutely no notion of any other game outside of WoW. Even today, I'm sure the 35 year old housewife or 40 year old father of 3 who plays WoW has never heard of Star Wars: The Old Republic or Final Fantasy. How can you impact WoW's market when that market isn't looking to play another game? It's like asking what's going to impact the Wii's market most? You think the 55 year old grandmother who bought WiiFit cares about the PS4?
Necrofried.. lol
The OP should adjust the poll to add a RealID voting option...
Firebrand Art
"You are obviously confusing a mature rating with actual maturity." -Asherman
Maybe MMO is not your genre, go play Modern Warfare...or something you can be all twitchy...and rank up all night. This is seriously getting tired. -Ranyr
I dont know if if I would even put Champions and Stratrek online in the same catagory as WoW. Yeah they are all mmo. But the similarities end there. Scifi and Fantasy,two different genras. WoW fantasy, STO and Champs Scifi. Although Champs could be considered part Fantasy. But the thing that futher separates the apart is, the universe and gameplay. I played WoW maybe 2 to 4 years. I liked the first addition but Burning Crusades and Wrath of the Lich King both sucked. Neither Xp has any conclusion to the main story and the quest arent interlinked. But the interlinks between any quest on any mmo are missing. But like the other person said, time is the only factor thats going to topple WoW. That and Blizzards stupidity.