MMORPGs, PC, Star Wars, World of WarCraft
For How Long Can World of Warcraft Dominate?
We’ve heard it all before, MMORPG “X” will be the “WoW killer.” Warhammer, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars (Galaxies) are just some of the big names that have failed to live up to this billing, which reminds us just how dominate Blizzard’s World of Warcraft has become.
However, as the game approaches its 5 year anniversary, we’re also reminded that nothing lasts forever.
So, exactly how long can Blizzard keep subscribers interested in the game?
To avoid falling into the trap of “predicting” WoW’s downfall, let me first say that the only company or game that will be able to bring about the demise of WoW will be Blizzard and the games they generate themselves.
But, due to their handling of the game, Blizzard must be prepared to lose a substantial chunk of their hardcore player base.
Since its original version, WoW has become a drastically different game. The original version, known as “Vanilla” by many, required large amounts of dedication by the player. Players, if they wished to excel at the game, had to literally devote a full work week amount of time into the game.
To those that could meet these demands, they were rewarded by a great sense of achievement.
It is hard to describe the feelings players get when they finally defeat a boss that they and 39 others have spent days and weeks on. Joy, relief, and elation all seem to work, but none of them completely embodies the exact sensation.
In fact, there is nothing exactly like it in the gaming world.
However, after two expansions (The Burning Crusade and Wrath of The Lich King), it has become clear that Blizzard’s focus has been flipped upside down to coddle the casuals, which in effect, has eliminated this sense of achievement from the game.
Players can now dedicate a fraction amount of the time that was required in Vanilla and still achieve the same or similar results in Wrath of The Lich King.
Sensing that the game has lost all of its challenge, hardcore players have become alienated and some even feel betrayed by Blizzard’s “nerfs” to the game’s overall difficulty. Many, in my personal experience, are ready to call it quits.
This problem is not helped by the fact that Blizzard seems deaf to the cries and complaints coming from this hardcore perspective.
The upcoming 3.2 patch further intends to eliminate the lines between casuals and hardcore by allowing anyone to virtually get whatever piece of equipment they please.
Whatever incentive raiders may have had, will be easily destroyed by this unfortunate change.
As a result, an exodus of WoW players to other games like Aion and Star Wars: The Old Republic is now a very real possibility.
These new titles in the MMORPG genre offer some potentially challenging and exciting alternatives.
Aion: The Tower of Eternity, with its high system requirements, is a beautiful looking title, and due to these circumstances it likely will appeal to the specific category of dedicated gamers, and it may offer the challenge that is now lacking in WoW.
In addition, the game, which has Koren origins, intends to implement a mixture of aerial and ground combat that has been unseen in the MMORPG genre.
In the broader scope though, the new Star Wars title has all the ingredients necessary to become as big of a hit as WoW. If you are haunted by the memories of Galaxies, forget them now.
The game, although it won’t be released for a while, already has a significant following. Just by looking at the development team, it is immediately understandable why.
It is being developed by BioWare and LucasArts. BioWare, of course, is responsible for Mass Effect, but most importantly it was responsible for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which demonstrates the company’s ability to successfully adapt the franchise into a gaming format.
Furthermore, the lore and history behind the Star Wars franchise is as rich as any in the world. The always interesting clash between the Jedi and Sith has become a staple in mainstream culture. And if it can results in millions at the box office, why not a game?
Of course this is under the assumption that the game will turn out well, but with BioWare involved it seems unlikely the game will be a disaster.
These titles won’t be out any time soon, so Blizzard has a chance to turn things around. Whatever they decide to do, they must remember they ultimately control the fate of their game and its relevancy in the time to come.
Tags: Aion, Bioware, Blizzard, The Old Republic
I played WOW for 3 years, after the patchs I have lost all interest in the game, Wow was dead when burning crusade released. It then had some hope when Linch king released. Then they start releasing pacths. I stopped playing due to everything being nerfed into uselss items. People invest countless hours, days, months, into getting specific items, Only to have them nerfed into useless stuff. Not to mention that they made those items so easy to obtain that anyone with 10minutes to spare can achieve the goal.
The two games you say could end up being potential “wow killers” are both solid examples. Aion has already been released in those far off mystical lands to the east and will be arriving in the US in the next couple months. SW:TOR on the other hand has no release date whatsoever and could end up releasing after many other highly talked about MMOs have already launched, such as FFXIV, Fallen Earth, Global Agenda, Champions Online, or maybe even DC Universe Online to name a few.
The end of WOW won’t be coming soon. As it stands the easier they have made the game the more people have subscribed. Unless a game comes along that makes things just as easy and a lot more fun, you wont be seeing WOW sub numbers decline or another game grab any of its market share.
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WOW has committed to thier own demise. I do not speak to confidently about the raiding population, but the pvp population is simply fed up. Recently, not only did I disable my account, but I also DELETED my characters that I spent years leveling and gearing up. Paladins, the hatred for the Horde ppopulation, and the destruction of twinking made the game utterly horrible..and if you do not believe me read every forum in every battlegroup; horde was made to be a complete joke. Also check out arenajunkies.com and count the number of horde elite arena teams.
Anyway, I do hope Lucas Arts and Bioware put an end to the grasp that Blizzard has on the MMO community. Stuck is the word I will use to describe the majority of players, and in particular PVP players.
I don’t think Aion can bring WoW down. You said so yourself, the high system requirements for the game caters for a specific niche in the gaming industry. I don’t think that that number would be enough to topple WoW. Star Wars: the Old Republic, on the other hand, is more promising. However, 11 million jumping ship overnight seems very unlikely. So it might still take a while before any particular game breaks a hole in WoW’s armor.
I’m getting kinda tired of people saying Aion has high system reqs. Yes it uses the Crytek engine, but do not take that to mean it has high reqs. It uses only a fraction of the shaders that are put to work in Crysis.
I have been playing the 2nd and 3rd Aion betas. And from what I have seen the game runs smoother than WoW all while looking 5x better than WoW. The game is beautiful and never have I seen a MMORPG with so little pop-in, such a long viewing distance, and no visual lag at all.
WotLK in areas runs jerky and at low rates on my system. But Aion runs like a champ.
I really wish people would stop making assumptions about the system requirements of Aion based on what they think about Crytek’s game engine.
If anything taking an engine that was designed to push insane amounts of polygons and shaders efficently and then scaling back what you toss into it…. is like putting a 1000hp motor into a honda. It smokes. I’m very impressed with how Crytek’s engine has adapted into a MMORPG.
I played wow since the Friends and Family Alpha in 2004. It’s truly an amazing peice of work and always has been. It’s a testament to the game that I stayed interested for as long as I did.
I had my breaks from WoW and came back. But never canceled my accounts until about 4 months ago. I still have no desire to go back. I’m sure it’s an amazing game for many people who continue to sign up. Yet any game has an attention span to it. You’ll eventually just wear it out I suppose.
After 5 years people are going to start looking for something new, no matter how good WoW is. It’s inevitable.
i just started to play wow and i know i will never waer it down
it will continue to eveolve and get better to us wow lovers liking
personally, as someone with a full time job, a fiancé and a social life in the real world, i quite like the fact that i do not have to commit 37.5 hours a week to the game, yet still be able to make enough progress to hold my own in the guild and PUGs. I also see the results that more “hard-core” gamers achieve (and am somewhat envious of them), and while I have no doubt that some things have been nerfed to appeal to players like myself, there are still significant challenges for those players that wish to pursue them (be it raiding or like someone in my guild, collecting 100 mounts).
I think that Blizzard has smartly realized that they might be able to make more money by appealing to more casual gamers (a wider income base) than catering to a smaller minority of hardcore players - a lesson learned from (or perhaps taught to) Nintendo and the Wii. I cannot speak for PVP, but at least for PVE there is a very good compromise/balance between allowing more casual players to still get decent gear and the more hardcore players getting awesome gear.
And even if WOW somehow shuts down due to its own alleged missteps, I don’t see that as a bad thing - 11 million people providing revenue streams to different video game companies, or heaven forbid, doing something a bit more socially valuable such as getting exercise or doing volunteer work! I shudder a bit at what such a group of people (including myself) could do if we focused the same energy into WOW into something more community oriented.
All that being said, am i going to shut off my WOW account anytime soon? No.
I agree that an 11 million player base won’t simply transfer over to these other MMO’s. But I do see a good chunk of the raiding population (and perhaps the PvP population as Dave mentioned) looking towards these MMO’s for alternatives.
I’m one of the hardcore type of players, and your right wow is too easy. But see that’s the reason WoW will not fall for quite some time. I don’t like the way the game has gone but they made a good business choice, because the average person can’t spend 40+ hours a week on a game. It will die when they fall too far behind graphically or when they come out with a WoW 2 or something. I was playing EverQuest when they came out with EverQuest 2 and I remember that like 60% of my server left over night. The majority of players that didn’t like EQ2 didn’t go back to EQ they went to WoW and other games. EQ still has players (I’m one of them), but its a shell of its former self with just the “hardcore 40+ hour people” left. WoW on the other hand appeals to the masses and if they continue to make smart business decisions it will be on top at least another 5 years, and it will be viable for many years after that. I do think that the new games like Knights of the Old Republic will take some of the population, but WoW is too big to be brought down that way. I don’t think it will be significantly effected by KOTOR or Aion.
[...] wow the customer. It worked!" Kris Boesch, CEO of Fort Collins-based Exodus … For How Long Can World of Warcraft Dominate?As a result, an exodus of WoW players to other games like Aion and Star Wars: The Old Republic is [...]