General Discussion

People will be getting loans soon. It's not going to last forever.

I'm thinking the thing that beats WoW won't even be an MMO.  It will be a hybrid game that combines the best features of WoW without all of the inconveniences of the 'massive' online format.  In other words, it will share more in common with Diablo and Halo than WoW.

I come to this conclusion because WoW itself abandoned or seriously curtailed all of the aspects that distinguished MMOs from their action/adventure counterparts: things like avatar customization, crafting, roleplaying tools, and immersion.  In fact, the only things that really separate WoW from Diablo are the 3D orientation and the inability to create a private instance online.

It seems to me that the audience that wants WoW isn't interested in the shared server aspect; if anything, it gets in the way.

Wait until MMORPG companies take a lesson from the advertising industry and hire psychologists and sociologists as advisors to MMO game design.

WoW was made by amateurs stumbling around in the dark - there are so many more options MMORPGs have yet to explore.

Of the 11 Million Subs that WoW has 6 Million of those are in Korea so its going to be intresting to see how AION affects those sub numbers over in Korea. The US only has about 2.5 Million and when All Points Bulletin comes out I think that 2.5 Million will be hit hard. I dont think any other game has a chance though only time will tell though.

If anybody does not know what All Points Bulletin is its going to take the Grand Theft Auto style game and make an MMO. Its from the makers of Crackdown and its looks very good.

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Originally posted by Talin
I have a better tagline:
Bored poster rehashes stale topic.
Nothing to see here, just a waste of characters....

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I laughed.

Originally posted by Zayne3145

Originally posted by Ravanos

you know what will beat WoW? a game that will probably make the genre even more idiot friendly than WoW. A game that dumbs down the genre even moreso than WoW so you instant gratification gimps can play 5 minutes a day and still get super uber gear.

heres the game that will beat WoW

you log in and you are given a couple of options

option 1) what character would you like to use?
option 2) what level would you like to achieve today? (if you are max level please use the "Endgame" option)

endgame option 1 - Would you like to achieve a new piece of armor? please select set piece (chest, legs, gloves ect) and the quality you would like (green, blue or purple)

Endgame option 2 - would you like to get a new weapon? if so choose your weapon of choice (bow, sword, shield ect) and the quality you would like (green, blue or purple)

once you go through all that you get a "Please Wait" .... and get the message ...

"The options you have chosen will take *X*  hours to complete ... please do not turn off the computer while we automate your leveling/gear gathering process."

so this way all you casual gamers dont even have to play at all ... you can really let the computer do all the work for you.

 

Lol, you jest but this reminds me of an argument I had with a guildmate of mine. He was talking about how he plays on his friends account so that he can experience high-level battlgrounds. I was arguing that it defeats the point of playing the game and that the whole point of levelling is that you learn your class. I ended up getting so frustrated that I asked whether, given the choice, he would opt for a system very similar to that outline in the above post. He said he definitely would.

A little piece of me died inside that day.

Oh my god. That is truly horrific. (im serious)

WoW has not been growing in western countries for some time now, thinking that it will still be on top in ten years is just plain absurd. It takes a long time for mmos to die, EQ, Linage and UO were all at their peak five years after they were launched, and there are still people playing them. It's the same thing with wow.

It may take an even longer time before some other game beats wows subscription record, but rest assured, there is no chance in hell WoW will still be the biggest mmo five years from now.

Funny, everyone was saying that about EQ a few years ago.  Blizzard just looked at what the marketplace had available and made it much better.  Wow is not undefeatable, it has issues like any game in this genre, just that no one to date has improved enough on them to justify players to move.

It is a shame, 2008 was supposed to be the year that the great challengers of Wow, came out.  So far it has been more fizzle than substance.  While War is probably the best of the lot, it's pve is so limited that it will never garner that much support. 

There has been a lot of speculation about the recent announcement of Kotor, but early press releases pretty much indicate that Bioware is bringing another Wow Clone to the marketplace.  It remains to be seen if they can innovate enough to break some of Wow's hold on the marketplace.

Other than that, I would look overseas to the asian market.  They have such massive playerbases that someone will eventually have the funding to make a really good game that will be impressive on this side of the pond too.

To the OP:

Yes WOW is on top but only because of the ease of  some aspects of gameplay and subs, other than that there are other games better than WOW with different gameplay aspects that are far better. Lotro, WAR, and EVE are 3 of them. If Darkfall ever makes to prime time and they way the "Darkfallinatics" describe the aspects of gameplay it should be better than WOW.

I think in about 2 years the subs will start dying off and server mergers will begin. WOW was a good game and did very well, but nothing lasts forever.