Slip... That has to be one of the more silly posts I've seen in quite some time. I've seen no evidence to back that up and I've been here for years now. As for Bioware and EA being upset, as I said at this point I seriously doubt it. But EA does have a rather bad track record when it comes to MMO's, and they have very little patience. Lets hope for Biowares sake that this works out.
ive said this a few times in a few diffret forums, they care very little about who likes the game and who doesnt, they know from experience with starwars that it will make them an aweful lot of cash, they dont care if it flops or is a rubbish game. they are not bothered.
the game is being used as a cash funel. it will undoubtedly appeal to a vast amount of players that have very little clue as to what to expect from game devwelopers/. this is their target market and they are exploiting the players wo dont know any better.
its been in development for 5 years and its boasting to be bigger and have more content than all biowre games put together. but it is still biowares first ever mmorpg. and to tip the balance its also kotor online. and for that matter the game will be a dissapointment to all true starwars fans because kotor simply isnt starwars. its an after product of a very successful franchise from the 70's. they made their money now they are just cashign in where they can.
its sound business. its fan base is very possibly the biggest fan base on the planet. its had 30+ years to develop that fan base. some wil loe the game not having played swg which is based of the orrignal 3 films that earned the fans the franchise has today. its not about kotor or phantom menace or revenge of the sith. its episodes 4 through 6 thats starwars.
swg was a direct take off from the orrignal 3 films set between episodes 5 and 6, im not sure how the whole luke on yavin fits in but its fair to say that swg is the kind of starwar experience the fans are looking for not this rail space shooter carttoon wow looking out cast that bioware is deveolping,
bioware is great at creating rpg's. but this is a themeed rpg with an established name and franchise with a massive fan base and its their first attempts at an mmorpg and they will more than likely get it all wrong.
ive said this a few times in a few diffret forums, they care very little about who likes the game and who doesnt, they know from experience with starwars that it will make them an aweful lot of cash, they dont care if it flops or is a rubbish game. they are not bothered.
the game is being used as a cash funel. it will undoubtedly appeal to a vast amount of players that have very little clue as to what to expect from game devwelopers/. this is their target market and they are exploiting the players wo dont know any better.
its been in development for 5 years and its boasting to be bigger and have more content than all biowre games put together. but it is still biowares first ever mmorpg. and to tip the balance its also kotor online. and for that matter the game will be a dissapointment to all true starwars fans because kotor simply isnt starwars. its an after product of a very successful franchise from the 70's. they made their money now they are just cashign in where they can.
its sound business. its fan base is very possibly the biggest fan base on the planet. its had 30+ years to develop that fan base. some wil loe the game not having played swg which is based of the orrignal 3 films that earned the fans the franchise has today. its not about kotor or phantom menace or revenge of the sith. its episodes 4 through 6 thats starwars.
swg was a direct take off from the orrignal 3 films set between episodes 5 and 6, im not sure how the whole luke on yavin fits in but its fair to say that swg is the kind of starwar experience the fans are looking for not this rail space shooter carttoon wow looking out cast that bioware is deveolping,
bioware is great at creating rpg's. but this is a themeed rpg with an established name and franchise with a massive fan base and its their first attempts at an mmorpg and they will more than likely get it all wrong.
Oh I don't know.
Blizzard never made an mmo before and they have done very well for themselves. Of course they learned a thing along the way but that is to be expected.
Bioware has the experience of Mythic to draw upon and they are a good company of talented people. I'm not too worried. Also I really like what I've seen of SWToR so consider this "one fan" who doesn't agree with you.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Many say that the game cannot fail because it's Bioware and they are the best. I'm an old pen and paper D&D player and should be quite fond of RPG but to be honest Bioware games made me yawn. They were just lame and repetitive in my opinion. Story telling? Our DM did it ten times better really. So if they want to cater a profitable MMO they should be nervous. Star Wars and Bioware fans are going to buy the game anyway but is it enough to cover the cost and make profit? I'm not sure about it. Just check GW2 and Rift forums, you cannot see so many negative opinions there because they concentrate on game play instead of VO and strory telling. If I want a good story I read a book. I play MMOs to have a good time with my fellow players.
Everyone's entitled to have an opinion so who am I to deny you the idea that you simply couldn't play this game and have a good time with your fellow players like you can do with most mmorpg's.
What I find a bit odd here though is how you will point to the rosey outlook of a forum as some kind of proof of what is going to happen to a game at launch. I had a little laugh to read "just check the GW2 and Rift forums" as if we didn't see the same thing with FFXIV,AOC,AION, and up until they decided to cut out some classes WAR as well.
If one does not see this game in a positive light simply based on what they have seen from Bioware is one thing but to try and deny the fact that this game gets negative press for reasons other than that is just being blind to the truth.
I'm not the type of gamer often heard whining away about how bland and stale the genre has become but if I were if nothing else I would be thankful to Bioware for trying to innovate and invigorate the genre whether I thought storyline was the way to do it or not.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
ive said this a few times in a few diffret forums, they care very little about who likes the game and who doesnt, they know from experience with starwars that it will make them an aweful lot of cash, they dont care if it flops or is a rubbish game. they are not bothered.
the game is being used as a cash funel. it will undoubtedly appeal to a vast amount of players that have very little clue as to what to expect from game devwelopers/. this is their target market and they are exploiting the players wo dont know any better.
its been in development for 5 years and its boasting to be bigger and have more content than all biowre games put together. but it is still biowares first ever mmorpg. and to tip the balance its also kotor online. and for that matter the game will be a dissapointment to all true starwars fans because kotor simply isnt starwars. its an after product of a very successful franchise from the 70's. they made their money now they are just cashign in where they can.
its sound business. its fan base is very possibly the biggest fan base on the planet. its had 30+ years to develop that fan base. some wil loe the game not having played swg which is based of the orrignal 3 films that earned the fans the franchise has today. its not about kotor or phantom menace or revenge of the sith. its episodes 4 through 6 thats starwars.
swg was a direct take off from the orrignal 3 films set between episodes 5 and 6, im not sure how the whole luke on yavin fits in but its fair to say that swg is the kind of starwar experience the fans are looking for not this rail space shooter carttoon wow looking out cast that bioware is deveolping,
bioware is great at creating rpg's. but this is a themeed rpg with an established name and franchise with a massive fan base and its their first attempts at an mmorpg and they will more than likely get it all wrong.
Wow your love of what was SWG has allowed you to take some pretty obvious liberties with your posting. For one SWG took some liberties where the original films are concerned with more than just "luke on yavin" as well. Next thing is you may consider yourself a fan of Star Wars but that in no way qualifies you to tell others what Star Wars fans want because I am fairly certain I am a fan of Star Wars and mmorpgs and I don't want anything to do with what SWG was, and for that matter neither did the vast majority of Star Wars fans as evidenced by the fact that SWG never broke 500k subs while WOW with it's lesser known ip has drawn in millions.
While we are on the subject of WOW that was also Blizzards first mmorpg which is interesting because your last sentence seems to imply that somehow a company is going to do worse because it is the first mmorpg they made. I think Cryptic,Funcom, and SOE would all wish that somehow it was this simple my experience is that bad companies make bad games.
My last wish is that you guys simply accept that we all have different tastes and stop resorting to rationalizations like other people are somehow stupid,ignorant or less sophisticated than you simply because they like something you don't contrary to what you have convinced yourself we are not sheep or somehow less evolved simply because we are impressed by what we see.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
ive said this a few times in a few diffret forums, they care very little about who likes the game and who doesnt, they know from experience with starwars that it will make them an aweful lot of cash, they dont care if it flops or is a rubbish game. they are not bothered.
the game is being used as a cash funel. it will undoubtedly appeal to a vast amount of players that have very little clue as to what to expect from game devwelopers/. this is their target market and they are exploiting the players wo dont know any better.
its been in development for 5 years and its boasting to be bigger and have more content than all biowre games put together. but it is still biowares first ever mmorpg. and to tip the balance its also kotor online. and for that matter the game will be a dissapointment to all true starwars fans because kotor simply isnt starwars. its an after product of a very successful franchise from the 70's. they made their money now they are just cashign in where they can.
its sound business. its fan base is very possibly the biggest fan base on the planet. its had 30+ years to develop that fan base. some wil loe the game not having played swg which is based of the orrignal 3 films that earned the fans the franchise has today. its not about kotor or phantom menace or revenge of the sith. its episodes 4 through 6 thats starwars.
swg was a direct take off from the orrignal 3 films set between episodes 5 and 6, im not sure how the whole luke on yavin fits in but its fair to say that swg is the kind of starwar experience the fans are looking for not this rail space shooter carttoon wow looking out cast that bioware is deveolping,
bioware is great at creating rpg's. but this is a themeed rpg with an established name and franchise with a massive fan base and its their first attempts at an mmorpg and they will more than likely get it all wrong.
KOTOR isn't star wars? You played the game? Its a different setting so you can't compare it to the movies but the star wars feeling is certainly there. It's not an after product, The old republic era happens to be a lot of peoples favourite era. I certainly find it far more interesting than the movie era.
Bioware are not the type of company that look for cash only. Just because they are using the Star Wars IP doesn't mean they don't give a crap if people like it or not. Proof they do care is they heard people complain about the Jedi Wizard, so they open up to the community with a few suggestions to let them decide. If they didn't care they would of just left it as Wizard.
As for the person that said GW2 and Rift are concentrating on gameplay, they are doing the same thing with story no doubt. They are most likely releasing information a different way to Bioware. Bioware release information about the story, how story affects different elements and so on. Later they may start releasing information on what makes their gameplay so special, they may not but they might. If they do, think of the hype it would generate right before launch. Its smart play to be honest. I could be wrong, no doubt i am but i also wouldn't put it past them to do things this way. If they did it the other way around, everyone would be fully hyped up just like they are with GW then as soon as the information we have currently heard is released only couple of months from launch, people might start thinking twice.
Surprisingly Verant (now known as SOE) made their first MMO EQ. Funcom their first MMO Anarchy online, Mythic their first MMO DAOC, Blizzards first was World of Warcraft.
It seems really odd that the first MMO a company makes is the one that does really well for that company and the sequels tend to be subpar.
Granted this isn't true in every case but relatively well known developers have had this trend, heck even cryptic's first game (the developer everyone loves to hate, and for some with good reason) city of heroes/villians was very good at it's launch, If this trend holds true then i'm actually more reassured that Biowares first MMO will be good.
Now to wrap up, i'm not sure experience in an MMO equates a good game. It gives a better shot but i just listed several companies who had no experience in making an MMO and they did pretty well for themselves. No reason to see why Bioware can't do the same. Not like it's anything new or dangerous
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
Many say that the game cannot fail because it's Bioware and they are the best. I'm an old pen and paper D&D player and should be quite fond of RPG but to be honest Bioware games made me yawn. They were just lame and repetitive in my opinion. Story telling? Our DM did it ten times better really. So if they want to cater a profitable MMO they should be nervous. Star Wars and Bioware fans are going to buy the game anyway but is it enough to cover the cost and make profit? I'm not sure about it. Just check GW2 and Rift forums, you cannot see so many negative opinions there because they concentrate on game play instead of VO and strory telling. If I want a good story I read a book. I play MMOs to have a good time with my fellow players.
Everyone's entitled to have an opinion so who am I to deny you the idea that you simply couldn't play this game and have a good time with your fellow players like you can do with most mmorpg's.
What I find a bit odd here though is how you will point to the rosey outlook of a forum as some kind of proof of what is going to happen to a game at launch. I had a little laugh to read "just check the GW2 and Rift forums" as if we didn't see the same thing with FFXIV,AOC,AION, and up until they decided to cut out some classes WAR as well.
Maybe YOU should check them, i amongst many others called ff14 out hard, sure there are fanbois. But the same could be said here. I called AOC out, I called AION out. And i i hopeful for war but called out its issues all the same. There is some accuracy to smoke on forums and issues with games pre-release.
[some beta, etc testers post their opinions w/o stating they are in a beta, i tend to ignore the "im in closed beta", claims; other peopel read what the dev.s are sayign watch the videos, play at demos, and these show you much of the game and its systems. Its not a perfect looked but you can detract information from them].
If one does not see this game in a positive light simply based on what they have seen from Bioware is one thing but to try and deny the fact that this game gets negative press for reasons other than that is just being blind to the truth.
Can you expand on this?
I'm not the type of gamer often heard whining away about how bland and stale the genre has become but if I were if nothing else I would be thankful to Bioware for trying to innovate and invigorate the genre whether I thought storyline was the way to do it or not.
They all do this, no dev team is like i don't want a good game. So we should be thankful to every dev team? Also, lets be honest TOR is not singularly alone in this (may place more emphesis on it), however, this is pretty much all bioware has attempted to invigorate. I mean from this same argument look at their space combat thats anti-invigoration, look at current infor on most of the aspects of the game.
In otherwords, usign your agrument bioware invigorated voice overs and single player story line and i would agrue left the rest to rot.
"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
I don't think EA is worried about the negativity, because SWTOR is not aimed to core MMO players but to Bioware customers who already play their games but not necessarily ever played a MMO.
The negativity is just inside the MMO community which is not their main target.
Personally I think SWTOR will be a huge success as a game but it will disappoint as a MMORPG (in terms of long term subscriptions)
Financially it will do very well, but it ain't the WoW killer, for that we need to wait for Arenanet and GW2
Same here, more info is always good. Maybe we sill get some more closer to launch. Seems like a good business move me. But what do i know i'm not a business major. I can't wait for this game to come out. wonder how many sick days i have at work :P
Anyhow, yeah a lot of the negativity is coming from lack of information and general dislike of the style of the game. The first one BW can fix anytime they want.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
Maybe YOU should check them, i amongst many others called ff14 out hard, sure there are fanbois. But the same could be said here. I called AOC out, I called AION out. And i i hopeful for war but called out its issues all the same. There is some accuracy to smoke on forums and issues with games pre-release.
[some beta, etc testers post their opinions w/o stating they are in a beta, i tend to ignore the "im in closed beta", claims; other peopel read what the dev.s are sayign watch the videos, play at demos, and these show you much of the game and its systems. Its not a perfect looked but you can detract information from them].
Isn't Aion successful? I thought they have millions of subscribers worldwide? Check google trends, type in Aion then comma then "World of Warcraft". That tells me that they aren't hurting for subscribers.
There's a huge a dip in WoWs popularity in searches right when Aion launches. WoW still hasn't recovered, and probably will never recover, from Aion's hit. On the other hand WoWs popularity didn't even flinch when Warhammer was released. WoW actually went up in google searches when Warhammer was released. lmao
And WoW's rate of decline actually increased after Aion's launch. Cataclysm will help, but Aion and WoW are so close right now in popularity according to google searches that if Aion launches an expansion pack after Cataclysm they could easily become the number one major MMO in web popularity. That has to say something about how many subscribers they have paying a subscribtion. Way beyond Lotro, which is even free-to-play.
I don't think EA is worried about the negativity, because SWTOR is not aimed to core MMO players but to Bioware customers who already play their games but not necessarily ever played a MMO.
The negativity is just inside the MMO community which is not their main target.
Personally I think SWTOR will be a huge success as a game but it will disappoint as a MMORPG (in terms of long term subscriptions)
Financially it will do very well, but it ain't the WoW killer, for that we need to wait for Arenanet and GW2
I don't think EA is worried about the negativity, because SWTOR is not aimed to core MMO players but to Bioware customers who already play their games but not necessarily ever played a MMO.
The negativity is just inside the MMO community which is not their main target.
Personally I think SWTOR will be a huge success as a game but it will disappoint as a MMORPG (in terms of long term subscriptions)
Financially it will do very well, but it ain't the WoW killer, for that we need to wait for Arenanet and GW2
Not going to happen. At this point the only threat to WoW is Blizzard itself. I've no doubt that GW2 will be successful, if they keep to their core game knowledge, but "WoW killer"?... Even with all of the money and talent thats going into TOR its not going to be a "WoW killer" either, because its just not likely at this point than *any* game is going to be a "WoW killer".
Not going to happen. At this point the only threat to WoW is Blizzard itself. I've no doubt that GW2 will be successful, if they keep to their core game knowledge, but "WoW killer"?... Even with all of the money and talent thats going into TOR its not going to be a "WoW killer" either, because its just not likely at this point than *any* game is going to be a "WoW killer".
I doubt that even Blizzard's next MMO will be that successful. It will be successful, but not big as WoW was. I do not think any MMO will for a long time reach such growth numbers. That is not to say that some MMO in next few years might be able to reach to 10m plus users.
"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in."
I don't think they are upset, what I do believe though is that they are sitting back in their chairs like supervillains and yelling that famous supervillain line: "MUhahahahah, they think they know what I have in store...wait till they get a load of this muhahahahaha".... After which they talk about marketing.
Maybe YOU should check them, i amongst many others called ff14 out hard, sure there are fanbois. But the same could be said here. I called AOC out, I called AION out. And i i hopeful for war but called out its issues all the same. There is some accuracy to smoke on forums and issues with games pre-release.
[some beta, etc testers post their opinions w/o stating they are in a beta, i tend to ignore the "im in closed beta", claims; other peopel read what the dev.s are sayign watch the videos, play at demos, and these show you much of the game and its systems. Its not a perfect looked but you can detract information from them].
Isn't Aion successful? I thought they have millions of subscribers worldwide? Check google trends, type in Aion then comma then "World of Warcraft". That tells me that they aren't hurting for subscribers.
There's a huge a dip in WoWs popularity in searches right when Aion launches. WoW still hasn't recovered, and probably will never recover, from Aion's hit. On the other hand WoWs popularity didn't even flinch when Warhammer was released. WoW actually went up in google searches when Warhammer was released. lmao
And WoW's rate of decline actually increased after Aion's launch. Cataclysm will help, but Aion and WoW are so close right now in popularity according to google searches that if Aion launches an expansion pack after Cataclysm they could easily become the number one major MMO in web popularity. That has to say something about how many subscribers they have paying a subscribtion. Way beyond Lotro, which is even free-to-play.
Crazy talk aion , in the us/western arena has lost a termendous amount of subs. Without addressign numbers and success/failure , i can say a mmo that loses the great bulk of subs from an area is a failure in that people didn't liike it. Is it doing well in asia some where , very well could be , but the us servers are not doing well and most people admit the game was very weak in many key aspects. IOt did have a lot of hype thos and an alright basic gameplay.
Oh and wow has more subs now then before aion released so.... i feel your point about aion hurting wow is inccorect.
Basiclly, if you have a good game it should grow in subs not shrink (Wow and eve seem to be rather solid, and thats about it atm). Now many other games are retianing a much smaller number of subs and thats fine. But games that take massive dives in sub numbers to me are failures becuase they could not retian what they already had, FOR A REASON (IE not attractive game to most). Now if you argumed the game is niche thast would be one thign but aion is not niche anything.
"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
Maybe YOU should check them, i amongst many others called ff14 out hard, sure there are fanbois. But the same could be said here. I called AOC out, I called AION out. And i i hopeful for war but called out its issues all the same. There is some accuracy to smoke on forums and issues with games pre-release.
[some beta, etc testers post their opinions w/o stating they are in a beta, i tend to ignore the "im in closed beta", claims; other peopel read what the dev.s are sayign watch the videos, play at demos, and these show you much of the game and its systems. Its not a perfect looked but you can detract information from them].
Isn't Aion successful? I thought they have millions of subscribers worldwide? Check google trends, type in Aion then comma then "World of Warcraft". That tells me that they aren't hurting for subscribers.
There's a huge a dip in WoWs popularity in searches right when Aion launches. WoW still hasn't recovered, and probably will never recover, from Aion's hit. On the other hand WoWs popularity didn't even flinch when Warhammer was released. WoW actually went up in google searches when Warhammer was released. lmao
And WoW's rate of decline actually increased after Aion's launch. Cataclysm will help, but Aion and WoW are so close right now in popularity according to google searches that if Aion launches an expansion pack after Cataclysm they could easily become the number one major MMO in web popularity. That has to say something about how many subscribers they have paying a subscribtion. Way beyond Lotro, which is even free-to-play.
Crazy talk aion , in the us/western arena has lost a termendous amount of subs. Without addressign numbers and success/failure , i can say a mmo that loses the great bulk of subs from an area is a failure in that people didn't liike it. Is it doing well in asia some where , very well could be , but the us servers are not doing well and most people admit the game was very weak in many key aspects. IOt did have a lot of hype thos and an alright basic gameplay.
Oh and wow has more subs now then before aion released so.... i feel your point about aion hurting wow is inccorect.
Basiclly, if you have a good game it should grow in subs not shrink (Wow and eve seem to be rather solid, and thats about it atm). Now many other games are retianing a much smaller number of subs and thats fine. But games that take massive dives in sub numbers to me are failures becuase they could not retian what they already had, FOR A REASON (IE not attractive game to most). Now if you argumed the game is niche thast would be one thign but aion is not niche anything.
Any publicity is good publicity. Star Wars brand is a cock roach, the largest fictional brand spanning movies, tv series, books, comics, video games, table top roleplaying, music, fan fiction, and... probably a few other things. Star Wars Galaxies is an exception. They failed because of changes to the game that were unpopular. Personally I stayed away from SWG, nothing about the visuals, music/sound, pvp, or story excited me. And I love Star Wars...
But about Aion, they might have lost some subscribers but if you look at people currently searching for information about each MMO then Aion is almost neck and neck with World of Warcraft. I think WoW peaked in 2008 with their 11.5 million subscribers. It's possible they are still very slowly growing to reach the 12 million that was mentioned in the news this year but I have doubts.
Google is a reliable benchmark. If the trend shows less and less people searching for information about a game or help with parts of a game then it says something about how many subscribers they have. It's not like any #1 MMO is going to die. UO and EQ, both were #1 during their time and both are still popular and running. Eve Online even, though its only #1 in the sci fi MMO genre. For comparison, Warhammer Online is only a little ahead of Ultima Online in google popularity and there is a rumor they actually have less subscribers than UO.
But I think it's obvious WoW has peaked for long term and hardcore MMO players. Will it continue to draw players who enjoy games like Runescape and Farmville? Sure. But its days as the heavy weight #1 real MMO are probably over very soon. Looking at Google Trends, Aion is the first MMO to actually cause a dip in WoWs popularity when it was released.
But again if Aion releases an expansion next month or goes free-to-play they would very easily pass WoW in google searches. That's how close WoW and Aion are in popularity from google searches. No other MMO has been able to do that.
Maybe YOU should check them, i amongst many others called ff14 out hard, sure there are fanbois. But the same could be said here. I called AOC out, I called AION out. And i i hopeful for war but called out its issues all the same. There is some accuracy to smoke on forums and issues with games pre-release.
[some beta, etc testers post their opinions w/o stating they are in a beta, i tend to ignore the "im in closed beta", claims; other peopel read what the dev.s are sayign watch the videos, play at demos, and these show you much of the game and its systems. Its not a perfect looked but you can detract information from them].
Isn't Aion successful? I thought they have millions of subscribers worldwide? Check google trends, type in Aion then comma then "World of Warcraft". That tells me that they aren't hurting for subscribers.
There's a huge a dip in WoWs popularity in searches right when Aion launches. WoW still hasn't recovered, and probably will never recover, from Aion's hit. On the other hand WoWs popularity didn't even flinch when Warhammer was released. WoW actually went up in google searches when Warhammer was released. lmao
And WoW's rate of decline actually increased after Aion's launch. Cataclysm will help, but Aion and WoW are so close right now in popularity according to google searches that if Aion launches an expansion pack after Cataclysm they could easily become the number one major MMO in web popularity. That has to say something about how many subscribers they have paying a subscribtion. Way beyond Lotro, which is even free-to-play.
Crazy talk aion , in the us/western arena has lost a termendous amount of subs. Without addressign numbers and success/failure , i can say a mmo that loses the great bulk of subs from an area is a failure in that people didn't liike it. Is it doing well in asia some where , very well could be , but the us servers are not doing well and most people admit the game was very weak in many key aspects. IOt did have a lot of hype thos and an alright basic gameplay.
Oh and wow has more subs now then before aion released so.... i feel your point about aion hurting wow is inccorect.
Basiclly, if you have a good game it should grow in subs not shrink (Wow and eve seem to be rather solid, and thats about it atm). Now many other games are retianing a much smaller number of subs and thats fine. But games that take massive dives in sub numbers to me are failures becuase they could not retian what they already had, FOR A REASON (IE not attractive game to most). Now if you argumed the game is niche thast would be one thign but aion is not niche anything.
Any publicity is good publicity. Star Wars brand is a cock roach, the largest fictional brand spanning movies, tv series, books, comics, video games, table top roleplaying, music, fan fiction, and... probably a few other things. Star Wars Galaxies is an exception. They failed because of changes to the game that were unpopular. Personally I stayed away from SWG, nothing about the visuals, music/sound, pvp, or story excited me. And I love Star Wars...
But about Aion, they might have lost some subscribers but if you look at people currently searching for information about each MMO then Aion is almost neck and neck with World of Warcraft. I think WoW peaked in 2008 with their 11.5 million subscribers. It's possible they are still very slowly growing to reach the 12 million that was mentioned in the news this year but I have doubts.
Google is a reliable benchmark. If the trend shows less and less people searching for information about a game or help with parts of a game then it says something about how many subscribers they have. It's not like any #1 MMO is going to die. UO and EQ, both were #1 during their time and both are still popular and running. Eve Online even, though its only #1 in the sci fi MMO genre. For comparison, Warhammer Online is only a little ahead of Ultima Online in google popularity and there is a rumor they actually have less subscribers than UO.
But I think it's obvious WoW has peaked for long term and hardcore MMO players. Will it continue to draw players who enjoy games like Runescape and Farmville? Sure. But its days as the heavy weight #1 real MMO are probably over very soon. Looking at Google Trends, Aion is the first MMO to actually cause a dip in WoWs popularity when it was released.
But again if Aion releases an expansion next month or goes free-to-play they would very easily pass WoW in google searches. That's how close WoW and Aion are in popularity from google searches. No other MMO has been able to do that.
Up to a point I'd agree. But due to the nature of human psychology, beyond a certain point one reaches the saturation level. Thats one of the principles of propaganda(of which marketing is a sub field ^^). Bioware has a long establish fan base, who have long been accustomed to their detailed worlds. It will be interesting to see how that translates into an MMO.
As for Aion, World of Warcraft and google trends I've looked at the graphs myself. Did you notice the all too typical massive spike at Aions launch, and then the falling off a cliff decline in searches? This is the all regions.
Notice the difference with WoW's launch? Also take note of the differences between the various regions. Aion remains a matter of relatively strong interest in some Asian areas(except for South Korea), while in most of the west its fallen off, compared to WoW.
It should also be mentioned that searches and active subscriptions may not correlate well.
Any publicity is good publicity. Star Wars brand is a cock roach, the largest fictional brand spanning movies, tv series, books, comics, video games, table top roleplaying, music, fan fiction, and... probably a few other things. Star Wars Galaxies is an exception. They failed because of changes to the game that were unpopular. Personally I stayed away from SWG, nothing about the visuals, music/sound, pvp, or story excited me. And I love Star Wars...
But about Aion, they might have lost some subscribers but if you look at people currently searching for information about each MMO then Aion is almost neck and neck with World of Warcraft. I think WoW peaked in 2008 with their 11.5 million subscribers. It's possible they are still very slowly growing to reach the 12 million that was mentioned in the news this year but I have doubts.
Google is a reliable benchmark. If the trend shows less and less people searching for information about a game or help with parts of a game then it says something about how many subscribers they have. It's not like any #1 MMO is going to die. UO and EQ, both were #1 during their time and both are still popular and running. Eve Online even, though its only #1 in the sci fi MMO genre. For comparison, Warhammer Online is only a little ahead of Ultima Online in google popularity and there is a rumor they actually have less subscribers than UO.
But I think it's obvious WoW has peaked for long term and hardcore MMO players. Will it continue to draw players who enjoy games like Runescape and Farmville? Sure. But its days as the heavy weight #1 real MMO are probably over very soon. Looking at Google Trends, Aion is the first MMO to actually cause a dip in WoWs popularity when it was released.
But again if Aion releases an expansion next month or goes free-to-play they would very easily pass WoW in google searches. That's how close WoW and Aion are in popularity from google searches. No other MMO has been able to do that.
Up to a point I'd agree. But due to the nature of human psychology, beyond a certain point one reaches the saturation level. Thats one of the principles of propaganda(of which marketing is a sub field ^^). Bioware has a long establish fan base, who have long been accustomed to their detailed worlds. It will be interesting to see how that translates into an MMO.
As for Aion, World of Warcraft and google trends I've looked at the graphs myself. Did you notice the all too typical massive spike at Aions launch, and then the falling off a cliff decline in searches? This is the all regions.
Notice the difference with WoW's launch? Also take note of the differences between the various regions. Aion remains a matter of relatively strong interest in some Asian areas(except for South Korea), while in most of the west its fallen off, compared to WoW.
It should also be mentioned that searches and active subscriptions may not correlate well.
Just like to say ty Waithone , that was a very good reply.
There is one more variable at work here.
If i want to know soimethign for wow i no longer even search wow. ITs not nessesary. I want mods wow interface, or curse gaming. I want info i go to battle net or more commonly i search or type in mmochampion.com. I want other info about my class easy, i type in class name (shaman) spec (elemental) and then what i am wondering about. You need not even type in wow , google already knows you want wow. I not sure if this effects google trends (I don't know their code / system) But if simply tracting key words and not site content then it has a very large impact.
Regaurdless, we know aions sub numbers are not close to their searches in comparison to aion so its safe to conclude that searchs are not viable for determining sub number movements.
Also the fact that wows sub have increased seems quite crazy , the mmo has reached saturation and proved that it is indeed a good mmo (We know in the first 3 months wow had under 1 mill subs). It grew fast. But any type of prolonged groth means the game is good and shows people want to play it past the hype. Aion can in no way say this and for the US/western market its sub numbers are super bad compared to first 2-3 months.
But back to the topic, depending when TOR is released it will have a hype machine .... will it have a game to hold is high numbers?
Remember when most mmos could hold players but not attract them , i do.
"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
I hate to say it but the people who post on this forum are a small minority compared to gamers in general interested in this game. Bioware has a plan and the majority of you are just impatient. The game will come out next year when it does and it will be a fun game and give WoW some competition. The game won't be for everyone. No game is. I just don't see this game tanking with the setting and the companies behind it.
I doubt they give a monkeys to be honest, the majority of "forum posters" hate wow, yet that has 12 million subs. Hate to break it to anyone but the finite number of people who register and post on sites like this is not even a drop in the oceon of potential customers this game will reach. It will do well like it or not.
As for the reveals so far they have been steadily improving but the one "mistake" in my opinion was starting them far far too early, this couple with the slow drip feed of information has lead to a lot of people filling in the gaps them self, and oppertunities for people like EALouse to post the drivel they did, which the anti mainstream crowd (Oxymoron anyone?) lapped up like milk.
TLDR
EA dont care, game will be fine and sell by the truckload
I would be in panic mode. The Star Wars movies are over and the nostalgia is just about faded. Marketing has pushed all the items they can into stores and on tv. Parents and children alike are just about sick of everything jedi.
Cliffnotes: This game better be damn good and come with a trial. The "Star Wars" name no longer means "buy then try."
When has the "Star Wars" name EVER meant "buy then try" when it comes to video games? You either have very little experience in gaming, or your tastes are not very particular.
BioWare, however, has been, and whill continue to be, a reason to "buy then try". BioWare has yet to fail to deliver.
Given that Baldur's Gate 2 is in my top 3 games of all time, and that I loved each of the IE games developed by Bioware, I beg to differ. For me, its been a slow decline from KOTOR to JE to ME. Dragon Age was a nice exception but still didn't overawe me like BG2 did. Ever since 2002 they have been going more and more into "cinematic mode" which I was never that excited about.
Up to a point I'd agree. But due to the nature of human psychology, beyond a certain point one reaches the saturation level. Thats one of the principles of propaganda(of which marketing is a sub field ^^). Bioware has a long establish fan base, who have long been accustomed to their detailed worlds. It will be interesting to see how that translates into an MMO.
As for Aion, World of Warcraft and google trends I've looked at the graphs myself. Did you notice the all too typical massive spike at Aions launch, and then the falling off a cliff decline in searches? This is the all regions.
Notice the difference with WoW's launch? Also take note of the differences between the various regions. Aion remains a matter of relatively strong interest in some Asian areas(except for South Korea), while in most of the west its fallen off, compared to WoW.
It should also be mentioned that searches and active subscriptions may not correlate well.
Just like to say ty Waithone , that was a very good reply.
There is one more variable at work here.
If i want to know soimethign for wow i no longer even search wow. ITs not nessesary. I want mods wow interface, or curse gaming. I want info i go to battle net or more commonly i search or type in mmochampion.com. I want other info about my class easy, i type in class name (shaman) spec (elemental) and then what i am wondering about. You need not even type in wow , google already knows you want wow. I not sure if this effects google trends (I don't know their code / system) But if simply tracting key words and not site content then it has a very large impact.
Regaurdless, we know aions sub numbers are not close to their searches in comparison to aion so its safe to conclude that searchs are not viable for determining sub number movements.
Also the fact that wows sub have increased seems quite crazy , the mmo has reached saturation and proved that it is indeed a good mmo (We know in the first 3 months wow had under 1 mill subs). It grew fast. But any type of prolonged groth means the game is good and shows people want to play it past the hype. Aion can in no way say this and for the US/western market its sub numbers are super bad compared to first 2-3 months.
But back to the topic, depending when TOR is released it will have a hype machine .... will it have a game to hold is high numbers?
Remember when most mmos could hold players but not attract them , i do.
Yes I noticed the spike and drop off of Aion popularity and also thought about before the popular other sources of searching for WoW information besides google. I still find it hard not to be convinced from looking at the google trend comparison that Aion did effect WoWs popularity, there's a very visible dip there. No other MMO has had a real visible impact on WoW until Aion.
That's what surprises me the most. And while Aion did not topple WoW from the #1 seat (lol) it has reached stable enough level of subscribers one year after release that is close to WoW in popularity and even more popular in some countries. That is a huge accomplishment. You can sort of see that with even more major MMOs coming next year that WoW is getting closer and closer to losing the #1 MMO spot.
Comments
Slip... That has to be one of the more silly posts I've seen in quite some time. I've seen no evidence to back that up and I've been here for years now. As for Bioware and EA being upset, as I said at this point I seriously doubt it. But EA does have a rather bad track record when it comes to MMO's, and they have very little patience. Lets hope for Biowares sake that this works out.
ive said this a few times in a few diffret forums, they care very little about who likes the game and who doesnt, they know from experience with starwars that it will make them an aweful lot of cash, they dont care if it flops or is a rubbish game. they are not bothered.
the game is being used as a cash funel. it will undoubtedly appeal to a vast amount of players that have very little clue as to what to expect from game devwelopers/. this is their target market and they are exploiting the players wo dont know any better.
its been in development for 5 years and its boasting to be bigger and have more content than all biowre games put together. but it is still biowares first ever mmorpg. and to tip the balance its also kotor online. and for that matter the game will be a dissapointment to all true starwars fans because kotor simply isnt starwars. its an after product of a very successful franchise from the 70's. they made their money now they are just cashign in where they can.
its sound business. its fan base is very possibly the biggest fan base on the planet. its had 30+ years to develop that fan base. some wil loe the game not having played swg which is based of the orrignal 3 films that earned the fans the franchise has today. its not about kotor or phantom menace or revenge of the sith. its episodes 4 through 6 thats starwars.
swg was a direct take off from the orrignal 3 films set between episodes 5 and 6, im not sure how the whole luke on yavin fits in but its fair to say that swg is the kind of starwar experience the fans are looking for not this rail space shooter carttoon wow looking out cast that bioware is deveolping,
bioware is great at creating rpg's. but this is a themeed rpg with an established name and franchise with a massive fan base and its their first attempts at an mmorpg and they will more than likely get it all wrong.
Oh I don't know.
Blizzard never made an mmo before and they have done very well for themselves. Of course they learned a thing along the way but that is to be expected.
Bioware has the experience of Mythic to draw upon and they are a good company of talented people. I'm not too worried. Also I really like what I've seen of SWToR so consider this "one fan" who doesn't agree with you.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Everyone's entitled to have an opinion so who am I to deny you the idea that you simply couldn't play this game and have a good time with your fellow players like you can do with most mmorpg's.
What I find a bit odd here though is how you will point to the rosey outlook of a forum as some kind of proof of what is going to happen to a game at launch. I had a little laugh to read "just check the GW2 and Rift forums" as if we didn't see the same thing with FFXIV,AOC,AION, and up until they decided to cut out some classes WAR as well.
If one does not see this game in a positive light simply based on what they have seen from Bioware is one thing but to try and deny the fact that this game gets negative press for reasons other than that is just being blind to the truth.
I'm not the type of gamer often heard whining away about how bland and stale the genre has become but if I were if nothing else I would be thankful to Bioware for trying to innovate and invigorate the genre whether I thought storyline was the way to do it or not.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Wow your love of what was SWG has allowed you to take some pretty obvious liberties with your posting. For one SWG took some liberties where the original films are concerned with more than just "luke on yavin" as well. Next thing is you may consider yourself a fan of Star Wars but that in no way qualifies you to tell others what Star Wars fans want because I am fairly certain I am a fan of Star Wars and mmorpgs and I don't want anything to do with what SWG was, and for that matter neither did the vast majority of Star Wars fans as evidenced by the fact that SWG never broke 500k subs while WOW with it's lesser known ip has drawn in millions.
While we are on the subject of WOW that was also Blizzards first mmorpg which is interesting because your last sentence seems to imply that somehow a company is going to do worse because it is the first mmorpg they made. I think Cryptic,Funcom, and SOE would all wish that somehow it was this simple my experience is that bad companies make bad games.
My last wish is that you guys simply accept that we all have different tastes and stop resorting to rationalizations like other people are somehow stupid,ignorant or less sophisticated than you simply because they like something you don't contrary to what you have convinced yourself we are not sheep or somehow less evolved simply because we are impressed by what we see.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
KOTOR isn't star wars? You played the game? Its a different setting so you can't compare it to the movies but the star wars feeling is certainly there. It's not an after product, The old republic era happens to be a lot of peoples favourite era. I certainly find it far more interesting than the movie era.
Bioware are not the type of company that look for cash only. Just because they are using the Star Wars IP doesn't mean they don't give a crap if people like it or not. Proof they do care is they heard people complain about the Jedi Wizard, so they open up to the community with a few suggestions to let them decide. If they didn't care they would of just left it as Wizard.
As for the person that said GW2 and Rift are concentrating on gameplay, they are doing the same thing with story no doubt. They are most likely releasing information a different way to Bioware. Bioware release information about the story, how story affects different elements and so on. Later they may start releasing information on what makes their gameplay so special, they may not but they might. If they do, think of the hype it would generate right before launch. Its smart play to be honest. I could be wrong, no doubt i am but i also wouldn't put it past them to do things this way. If they did it the other way around, everyone would be fully hyped up just like they are with GW then as soon as the information we have currently heard is released only couple of months from launch, people might start thinking twice.
Surprisingly Verant (now known as SOE) made their first MMO EQ. Funcom their first MMO Anarchy online, Mythic their first MMO DAOC, Blizzards first was World of Warcraft.
It seems really odd that the first MMO a company makes is the one that does really well for that company and the sequels tend to be subpar.
Granted this isn't true in every case but relatively well known developers have had this trend, heck even cryptic's first game (the developer everyone loves to hate, and for some with good reason) city of heroes/villians was very good at it's launch, If this trend holds true then i'm actually more reassured that Biowares first MMO will be good.
Now to wrap up, i'm not sure experience in an MMO equates a good game. It gives a better shot but i just listed several companies who had no experience in making an MMO and they did pretty well for themselves. No reason to see why Bioware can't do the same. Not like it's anything new or dangerous
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
"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
I don't think EA is worried about the negativity, because SWTOR is not aimed to core MMO players but to Bioware customers who already play their games but not necessarily ever played a MMO.
The negativity is just inside the MMO community which is not their main target.
Personally I think SWTOR will be a huge success as a game but it will disappoint as a MMORPG (in terms of long term subscriptions)
Financially it will do very well, but it ain't the WoW killer, for that we need to wait for Arenanet and GW2
Same here, more info is always good. Maybe we sill get some more closer to launch. Seems like a good business move me. But what do i know i'm not a business major. I can't wait for this game to come out. wonder how many sick days i have at work :P
Anyhow, yeah a lot of the negativity is coming from lack of information and general dislike of the style of the game. The first one BW can fix anytime they want.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
Isn't Aion successful? I thought they have millions of subscribers worldwide? Check google trends, type in Aion then comma then "World of Warcraft". That tells me that they aren't hurting for subscribers.
There's a huge a dip in WoWs popularity in searches right when Aion launches. WoW still hasn't recovered, and probably will never recover, from Aion's hit. On the other hand WoWs popularity didn't even flinch when Warhammer was released. WoW actually went up in google searches when Warhammer was released. lmao
And WoW's rate of decline actually increased after Aion's launch. Cataclysm will help, but Aion and WoW are so close right now in popularity according to google searches that if Aion launches an expansion pack after Cataclysm they could easily become the number one major MMO in web popularity. That has to say something about how many subscribers they have paying a subscribtion. Way beyond Lotro, which is even free-to-play.
You lost all credibility with your last sentence.
Not going to happen. At this point the only threat to WoW is Blizzard itself. I've no doubt that GW2 will be successful, if they keep to their core game knowledge, but "WoW killer"?... Even with all of the money and talent thats going into TOR its not going to be a "WoW killer" either, because its just not likely at this point than *any* game is going to be a "WoW killer".
I doubt that even Blizzard's next MMO will be that successful. It will be successful, but not big as WoW was. I do not think any MMO will for a long time reach such growth numbers. That is not to say that some MMO in next few years might be able to reach to 10m plus users.
"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in."
I don't think they are upset, what I do believe though is that they are sitting back in their chairs like supervillains and yelling that famous supervillain line: "MUhahahahah, they think they know what I have in store...wait till they get a load of this muhahahahaha".... After which they talk about marketing.
This is not a game.
Crazy talk aion , in the us/western arena has lost a termendous amount of subs. Without addressign numbers and success/failure , i can say a mmo that loses the great bulk of subs from an area is a failure in that people didn't liike it. Is it doing well in asia some where , very well could be , but the us servers are not doing well and most people admit the game was very weak in many key aspects. IOt did have a lot of hype thos and an alright basic gameplay.
Oh and wow has more subs now then before aion released so.... i feel your point about aion hurting wow is inccorect.
Basiclly, if you have a good game it should grow in subs not shrink (Wow and eve seem to be rather solid, and thats about it atm). Now many other games are retianing a much smaller number of subs and thats fine. But games that take massive dives in sub numbers to me are failures becuase they could not retian what they already had, FOR A REASON (IE not attractive game to most). Now if you argumed the game is niche thast would be one thign but aion is not niche anything.
"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
Any publicity is good publicity. Star Wars brand is a cock roach, the largest fictional brand spanning movies, tv series, books, comics, video games, table top roleplaying, music, fan fiction, and... probably a few other things. Star Wars Galaxies is an exception. They failed because of changes to the game that were unpopular. Personally I stayed away from SWG, nothing about the visuals, music/sound, pvp, or story excited me. And I love Star Wars...
But about Aion, they might have lost some subscribers but if you look at people currently searching for information about each MMO then Aion is almost neck and neck with World of Warcraft. I think WoW peaked in 2008 with their 11.5 million subscribers. It's possible they are still very slowly growing to reach the 12 million that was mentioned in the news this year but I have doubts.
Google is a reliable benchmark. If the trend shows less and less people searching for information about a game or help with parts of a game then it says something about how many subscribers they have. It's not like any #1 MMO is going to die. UO and EQ, both were #1 during their time and both are still popular and running. Eve Online even, though its only #1 in the sci fi MMO genre. For comparison, Warhammer Online is only a little ahead of Ultima Online in google popularity and there is a rumor they actually have less subscribers than UO.
But I think it's obvious WoW has peaked for long term and hardcore MMO players. Will it continue to draw players who enjoy games like Runescape and Farmville? Sure. But its days as the heavy weight #1 real MMO are probably over very soon. Looking at Google Trends, Aion is the first MMO to actually cause a dip in WoWs popularity when it was released.
But again if Aion releases an expansion next month or goes free-to-play they would very easily pass WoW in google searches. That's how close WoW and Aion are in popularity from google searches. No other MMO has been able to do that.
Up to a point I'd agree. But due to the nature of human psychology, beyond a certain point one reaches the saturation level. Thats one of the principles of propaganda(of which marketing is a sub field ^^). Bioware has a long establish fan base, who have long been accustomed to their detailed worlds. It will be interesting to see how that translates into an MMO.
As for Aion, World of Warcraft and google trends I've looked at the graphs myself. Did you notice the all too typical massive spike at Aions launch, and then the falling off a cliff decline in searches? This is the all regions.
http://www.google.com/trends?q=Aion%2C+world+of+warcraft&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
Notice the difference with WoW's launch? Also take note of the differences between the various regions. Aion remains a matter of relatively strong interest in some Asian areas(except for South Korea), while in most of the west its fallen off, compared to WoW.
It should also be mentioned that searches and active subscriptions may not correlate well.
Just like to say ty Waithone , that was a very good reply.
There is one more variable at work here.
If i want to know soimethign for wow i no longer even search wow. ITs not nessesary. I want mods wow interface, or curse gaming. I want info i go to battle net or more commonly i search or type in mmochampion.com. I want other info about my class easy, i type in class name (shaman) spec (elemental) and then what i am wondering about. You need not even type in wow , google already knows you want wow. I not sure if this effects google trends (I don't know their code / system) But if simply tracting key words and not site content then it has a very large impact.
Regaurdless, we know aions sub numbers are not close to their searches in comparison to aion so its safe to conclude that searchs are not viable for determining sub number movements.
Also the fact that wows sub have increased seems quite crazy , the mmo has reached saturation and proved that it is indeed a good mmo (We know in the first 3 months wow had under 1 mill subs). It grew fast. But any type of prolonged groth means the game is good and shows people want to play it past the hype. Aion can in no way say this and for the US/western market its sub numbers are super bad compared to first 2-3 months.
But back to the topic, depending when TOR is released it will have a hype machine .... will it have a game to hold is high numbers?
Remember when most mmos could hold players but not attract them , i do.
"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
I hate to say it but the people who post on this forum are a small minority compared to gamers in general interested in this game. Bioware has a plan and the majority of you are just impatient. The game will come out next year when it does and it will be a fun game and give WoW some competition. The game won't be for everyone. No game is. I just don't see this game tanking with the setting and the companies behind it.
I doubt they give a monkeys to be honest, the majority of "forum posters" hate wow, yet that has 12 million subs. Hate to break it to anyone but the finite number of people who register and post on sites like this is not even a drop in the oceon of potential customers this game will reach. It will do well like it or not.
As for the reveals so far they have been steadily improving but the one "mistake" in my opinion was starting them far far too early, this couple with the slow drip feed of information has lead to a lot of people filling in the gaps them self, and oppertunities for people like EALouse to post the drivel they did, which the anti mainstream crowd (Oxymoron anyone?) lapped up like milk.
TLDR
EA dont care, game will be fine and sell by the truckload
Given that Baldur's Gate 2 is in my top 3 games of all time, and that I loved each of the IE games developed by Bioware, I beg to differ. For me, its been a slow decline from KOTOR to JE to ME. Dragon Age was a nice exception but still didn't overawe me like BG2 did. Ever since 2002 they have been going more and more into "cinematic mode" which I was never that excited about.
Yes I noticed the spike and drop off of Aion popularity and also thought about before the popular other sources of searching for WoW information besides google. I still find it hard not to be convinced from looking at the google trend comparison that Aion did effect WoWs popularity, there's a very visible dip there. No other MMO has had a real visible impact on WoW until Aion.
That's what surprises me the most. And while Aion did not topple WoW from the #1 seat (lol) it has reached stable enough level of subscribers one year after release that is close to WoW in popularity and even more popular in some countries. That is a huge accomplishment. You can sort of see that with even more major MMOs coming next year that WoW is getting closer and closer to losing the #1 MMO spot.