The article fails to point out the fact that D&D Online, Vanguard, and Auto Assault all stunk badly. People bought them and played them initially because they were 'unknown properties' - meaning, 120k people bought Vanguard based on its POTENTIAL to be good. When they realized it wasn't, they returned to the game they had already 'beaten' 3 times over, but was still the best show in town: World of Warcraft.

The minute someone builds a game that is better than WoW, then they will take all of WoW's subscribers - its as simple as that.

I miss my auto assault =( and funny enough I now play WoW.. spot on article I belive.

agree with Arcadiandelsol

Pizza.

whats about AoC?

Definatly agree, wow is just the best MMO out there, with masses of new material in each patch.

was it bad? really? or rather... was it just not like "WoW".

If I had to pick a reason why, it's all the gold/money sellers who keep spamming. People get sick of seeing it all the time. I know that I left WoW for 6 months because I got tired of being in a city or out exploring and getting 5 - 10 gold seller spams every hour. They need to find a way to keep this from happening.

I believe AoC, and possibly even Warhammer:AoR might take from WoW's populace.

I am a WoW'er myself— Unfortunately...

Warhammer is pants, its basically Lord of the Rings online having beta tested and quit I know I wont be buying it

Personally, I think WoW players are looking... if not BEGGING for a way out. I've been playing wow for a good 3 years now and I admit i really enjoy the game. However I would easily drop it tomorrow if there was a comparable substitute. AoC was close, but it's crazy expectations for system requirements kept alot of my friends off of it, and thus kept me away.

Honestly, if a game came out that learned from wow and added what wow is missing (imo, more focus on guild (guild metting instance, guild cities, guild run quests (a bounty system would be so ownage)) I think the wow subscriber base could be easily stolen.

I totally agree. So far, I dont see the games focusing enough on that. AoC seems to be doing pretty well with player cities and so on, but I dont see it being "enough" until WAR.

Standardbearers (such an absolutely awesome concept), guildlevels, extensive customization, special abilities and the from what I can tell no need for schedules.
Yes. Not having a raid schedule (from what I can tell) that each player has to follow meticulously to get loot will be awesome for guild motivation and morale. Just get your guildmates and go bash skulls immediately, whether theres two of you or two hundred.

The really big deal is the amount of polish put into WOW, and even though a change is very refreshing i have yet to see games that have that polish to hold a user base for the same amount of time. so they flash in the pan and sometimes survive sometimes they wont. AoC i think is probably the most likley to hold its userbase, but even after my time in the beta the game did not show me enough of a real dynamic to hold me after i progressed through the main plotline. much like the fun of neverwinter nights a great solo game.

"The article fails to point out the fact that D&D Online, Vanguard, and Auto Assault all stunk badly."

This user fails to point out that he stinks badly at posting.

Actually play the games next time before posting. Now stop trolling and go play with your sister.

Age of Conan changed that sry.
I was telling everyone that AoC was a next generation MMO, WoW has made its time.

you're one of the *them* beta testers - i.e. you want a freeview of the game before it comes out so you can brag and *** about it. since warhammer online is going to be about pvp and set in a completely different storyverse i can't see how it can be like lord of the rings online which was indeed poop.

anyway, i agree with arcadiandelsol and deadlyjynx.

however, i don't believe that warhammer online will steal a significant number of fans away from wow. warhammer online will to games workshop fans. this means that the game is likely to get a good portion of their player base from people to whom mmos might not appeal to at the moment and that's a good thing for the gaming industry, so long as they don't get sucked in to wow. ;-)

with regards to the original post, the author is spot on - people go back to wow when they realise that an mmo just isn't as good or polished. i've done it a few times myself and have a lot of hope resting on warhammer online (and stargate worlds and warhammer 40k online which is a long way off). but if it turns out to be crap i will most likely go back to wow, especially when an expansion comes out as i'll have some levelling to go back to.

finally, imho aoc's potential, still to be realised, success can be party attributed to the fact it is an adult oriented game and they are not afraid to leverage that with content. this will appeal to people who get annoyed with playing games with kids which happens a lot in wow. personally that doesn't appeal to me so i won't even be trying it. games like wow and warhammer online will be aimed at a broader family audience and i think that is more appropriate and responsible for an online game in which it is virtually impossible to regulate who actually plays.

was it bad? really? or rather... was it just not like "WoW".

i played lotro when it first came out. for me, some of it it was a little too much like wow whereas parts of it seemed to be incomplete and rushed. i also didn't really get that lord of the rings feeling from playing it that i'd hoped for it.

d&d online was ok - but it lacked a physical openness about it that wow has. pretty much everything was instances, which is kind of cool, but the game was also hard/impossible to solo. i believe they changed it to make it easier for solo players later, but it was too little too late for me and i was already back in wow. finally, the other problem i had with d&d was that it was set in eberron, which is a fine setting (and also used in dragonshard) but i think most d&d players are probably more familiar with forgotten realms.

Just one thing: WoW will rule the MMORPG world now, and it will for a long time. Not strange imo, since it's the best game EVER made and it will be for a while. Yes you can get addicted to it, but that's because you just love PvP, or just really want those epics to show off against ur friends, or you got 2 much trouble IRL, that you go play WoW. I hear people saying "it's a bad game because you get addicted so fast" , that's your gamestyle + means it's a great game.

Now let's get to northrend asap ^^

WoW is the first MMO I"ve ever played, but not the first I wanted to play; that would have been SWG, then DDO. Somewhere in there I started WoW, in the spring after launch, and I've played more or less consistently since then.

People can talk all they want about how other MMOs are better, or more fun, in this way or that way compared to Warcraft, but they missed the point. The reason Blizzard has the most successful MMO of all time is because it is simple. That's it. No other reason is that pivotal. When moms/dads/kids/you/grandparents can all play the game, and understand what's going on, you've created a bona fide hit.

AoC has "Real Combat," EQ has a larger world, SWG and others are sci-fi, WAR has... well, whatever. Fun to play, but not simple enough for everybody to just jump in. Plus, even at launch, the game had low system requirements, and at 4 years old or so, WoW has lower requirements than the computers owned by most of its player base.

I can't, and won't, knock any of the not released yet MMOs because they are not released. And history has shown that every MMO ever released suffers from hiccups for 2-3 months after launch. That's the trouble with the players who complain about the games that *could* impact WoW: they don't stick around long enough to see the first major ironing job done, and *** for the whole time until they quit.

Yes, I"m interested in AoC and WAR, and SG-W, but just as I did with WoW, I'll wait for the maid to finish ironing first, and see what all of you have to say about those games first. In the meantime, I have an alt to level, and a main to get more loot on, and a twink to start and do some PvP on - all in World in Warcraft.

Here's my two cents.

AoC and WAR may steal some 'hardcore gamers.' But it will not really make a dent in WoW's playerbase. Because of people like me. I never played an MMO or really any computer game other than solitaire before I started playing WoW. I have no interest in going out and trying all the new MMOs that come out. I've made friends in WoW and after 2 years I'm too used to the controls and customization that WoW offers. Also the fact that WoW covers pretty much every aspect of gaming so I can switch back and forth from PvE to PvP to RP whenever I want.

Simply a lot of people will not leave WoW for that reason. Because they're comfortable there.

That's just my opinion on the subject.