Back before I started playing World of Warcraft (because of something that was work-related, incidentally), I used to tease my then-roommate about playing it well into the night, every night. I was a freshman at a certain horrendously expensive school, and my gaming started and stopped with my Xbox; I had no time for time-sink PC games. Not my roommate, no sir. The day the game came out—he had also been part of the beta—he plopped into his small, uncomfortable chair, Sunkist in hand (man alive did he love Sunkist for some reason), and quested well into the night away.
That was five years ago, and, correct me if I’m wrong, but no other game has even come close to de-throning Blizzard’s little engine that… still does.
Look at the game’s subscription numbers. The current estimate is that some 13.1 million people subscribe to the game in one shape or fashion. Lump all these people together in the same geographic area, and it would be the third biggest city in the world, after Mumbai and Shanghai. (Or, to put it in American terms, that’s nearly twice the population of New York City proper.) That, and the game is still growing… Wrath of the Lich King isn’t even available in China yet! When that hits, bam! Hello, even more money.
So we’ve established that WoW is big; that’s not exactly breaking news. Its closest competitors, I think, at least in the West, are Warhammer Online and AION. Apparently AION has had some technical issues that has driven players away, and Warhammer Online sorta came and went. And it’s not that these games aren’t good, but that, well, if all my friends play WoW, why would I abandon them?
That’s why WoW is where it is, and why it’s not going anywhere any time soon: too many people are playing for someone to come along and not it off its perch. That’s not to say that another game won’t come along and find a successful niche of its own—my money’s on Star Wars: The Old Republic, whenever that comes out!—but you’re crazy if you think another game is going to “kill” WoW.
And what will kill WoW? WoW 2, provided Blizzard wants to rock the boat, so to speak.
The gist is, WoW seems to be pretty much unbeatable right now. It launched at just the right time, with just the right lore, with just the right number of updates, with just the right fanbase.
If that’s a good thing or a bad thing, I don’t know.
It’s a wonderful thing. WoW for life! :) Even my parents play WoW. We raid together every week with a family friend, his brother and their friends
That’s just sad.
Why? Is going bowling with your family or watching a particular TV show on a weekly basis sad? At least they have a common interest and are enjoying themselves. What’s wrong with that?
Blizzard has already announced that they will be doing a new MMO, that won’t be WoW. From what they have said it won’t even be related to any existing Blizzard titles – a brand new franchise all together.
I personally don’t want to see WoW II, and look forward to Cataclysm being the second to last, if not last expansion they release. The game engine is outdated, and the content is becoming too homogeneous. Those to things alone are huge indicators that they have something else in the works.
How about a StarCraft Universe MMO??? Considering the wait for SC2, maybe that wouldn’t be such a great idea, LOL!!!
They said it was going to be new lore. So no Warcraft, Starcraft, or Diablo MMO.
I’m looking forward to it simply because they’ve been riding those three franchises so long I want to see if they can still come up with something fresh and exciting :D
I prefere Eve Online. Just my personal opinion.
nerds
Someone on a tech blog calling people nerds? Call the commissioner! We’ve gotta get this on the evening news!
What about Lord of the Rings Online? I don’t think that it will dethrone WoW, but I’m surprised it at least didn’t get a mention. I know that Turbine doesn’t release subscription numbers, so there’s no way to know how big the game is, but I think it would have been mentioned under the niche category.
Whatever is lower than niche, that’s LotRO.
Hey – if WoW sticking around leads to a South Park sequel, I’m good with that.
Its pretty obvious that Wow is not going anywhere. Its just to accessible to for it to be dethroned anytime soon. Its not a great game by any standards, but it has the right ingredients to keep people playing. Its sort of like Hamburger. Its terrible food, but it far, far outsells fillet mignon. Sometimes people just want something simple and dumbed down.
Monica S
Los Angeles Compute Repair
http://www.sebecomputercare.com
I played the WoW since open beta up until a few months ago…it had its day, but that day is over.
The problem with other games is that people dont want to grind out another 80 levels in another WoW clone so they stick to WoW.
Besides WoW’s player base has significantly changed and the game now completely lacks any sort of a challenge. Personally I’d rather beat my head against a wall than play with those dolts that now inhabit WoW.
Tried Aion and it’s even more of a grind than WoW….no thanks I’m waiting for D3 and I’ll pickup Dragon Age until then.
I love WoW, but I’m so bored of it now. Granted, it took years to get to this point. I think there is going to be a huge market for a new game for people like me.
I think it’ll probably be called Diablo III. :)
I was just about to quit and my nephew just started and he wants to go questing together. What kind of unlce would I be if I refused?
Pretty sure Aion is going to outgrow WoW. I’ve heard they already have at least 3 million subscribers. One site said 10 million. I don’t neccessarily believe either of those numbers, but if you play the game, it’s way better than WoW, and bound to outgrow the MMO king atm.
As soon as WoW loses market share, they’ll begin releasing their new titles.
I don’t think so. I already quit AION. I don’t think I’m the only one.
Aion subscriptions are falling off quick, if you look at their server stats page you can see surmise from it that the subscription numbers have plummeted after the free 30 days.
Aion is no WoW killer, it might be able to compete with Vanguard.
World of Warcraft could eventually be dethroned, but not from other MMO developers. I played a bunch of them and none of them offer the diversity and content WoW seems have. Before MMO games were confusing as heck and meant for hardcore players but Blizzard changed that all around and made MMOs easy and rewarding to play.
It’s funny because it’s been out for around 5 years now soon to be 4 expansions while everquest had 12+ with EQ2 being released the fifth year. Blizzard made a smart decision to no make a sequal and rather re invent the old zones to get people back into the game. I have a feeling Blizzards next MMO will eventually dethrone WOW because it’s supposedly going to be more casual than it and won’t try to be a clone like how most MMOs that came out WoW tried did (and failed)
I agree. I started playing wow 4 years ago and was hooked. Not by simplicity, which I think was a stroke of genius by BLIZZ, but by the vast, vast , vast amount of areas you could explore. And mind you this was before outlands, and before the new Northerend. The game is huge, gives you something to do Solo or with a group of 2-3 (questing/PVP), 5-10 (5 man/heroics – 10 man/heroics), 20-25 (Raids/pvp/heroic raids). Bottom line isto compete with wow, you have to offer something equally vast, simple yet complex within its game play sometimes. The fact is, WOW is not outdated, and anyone saying that simply has a slight superiority complex. They have kept up very well with technological changes, experiment with artistic changes, and continue to give consumers/users tons and tons of options. This is why they have been more successful than any other mmo out there. If anyone has any hopes of beating them, they will have to invest countless millions and millions of dollars into creating a similar, but different product with better graphics, so far they have all failed. Age of connan was a disaster, AION was age of connan light, and I have played all the other games mentioned in the responses above and found that they just didn’t keep my interest very long. So keep up the good work BLIZZ. There will always be people who hate it just for spite of its sheer size and success, but anyone who thinks the game is simple, and thus unworthy, is just saying they are a better gamer than other. It maybe be true, but it doesn’t mean the game sucks. 13 million + and counting says you are in the minority.
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WoW needs better character animations. The human run like theres a stick up their butts. The way characters in the game swing swords looks like an amature animator did it. All the fighting animations suck and forget about the hit reactions because they suck even worse than the attack animation.
They need to fix the crappy animations. How hard would it be to audit out the crappy animations sinse they’re rich Blizzard could definitely do this.