How Long will WoW be around?

[Krylock]

Hell, Escapists. Eventually when i upgrade to a par gaming computer, i do plan on playing WoW again... Yes, again. I played it a little back in 06 and 07. But i quit. I just have a few questions about it for when i jump back in...

How much longer do you think WoW will be around?

Is this a good or bad time to jump into the game?

Is it noob friendly at the moment?

How kickass is Cataclysm?



That is all.

 

[Count Igor]

Forever.

Better than usual in the sense that it's all different.

It's always been newb (Difference here, watch your step) friendly at lower levels.

Kickass.

That is all

 

[Danceofmasks]

For ... as long as people keep paying for it.

And considering it has over 12 million suscribers, my best guess would be .. err .. years.

As for whether it's a good time to jump back in, the short answer is ... the age of Wrath of the Lich King is over.
I.e. you can't just press 1 button in every encounter and expect to win.

I'd say that's a vast improvement.

Although, I'll personally continue to snub WoW due to having a relatively low skill ceiling.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Quite a long time, I imagine.

Probably better than ever, now that they've revamped the starting areas and early game content.

It was noob-friendly when I started playing during Burning Crusade. It's only gotten better, since.

It sounds pretty kickass, but it'll be a while before I can confirm for myself. I'm too busy playing City of Heroes' expansion (Going Rogue) and laughing with delight, at the moment.

 

[Aeshi]

2 more expansions then it's dead (the engine can't take player levels over 100)

 

[Count Igor]

2 more expansions then it's dead (the engine can't take player levels over 100)

How'd you find that out?

 

[knhirt]

2 more expansions then it's dead (the engine can't take player levels over 100)

It can't?
Can I get a source on that?

 

[Dexiro]

It'll be active for atleast another 3-4 years, depends if Blizzard stop adding new content since they seem to be moving to a new MMO. In all fairness they couldn't keep adding new levels to WoW forever.

 

[Dexiro]

2 more expansions then it's dead (the engine can't take player levels over 100)

How'd you find that out?

It can take levels up to 255, that doesn't mean they'll actually go that far. It's getting more and more difficult to add more levels with each expansion because they end up speeding up levelling massively so people actually reach the new content and buy into it, so I doubt they'll go much further. They'll probably have a final leap for level 100, or round it off at 90 if anything.

 

[dartigen]

2 more expansions then it's dead (the engine can't take player levels over 100)

It can't?
Can I get a source on that?

Private server experiments have shown that, IIRC, but that was during Burning Crusade. I'm not sure if Cata has changed it any. The story goes that after level 100 the calculation of the stats is so kooky that it causes crashes.

WoW could theoretically go on forever with new content patches. However, the Cata talent changes have (at least on my server) put off a lot of people, so I think that Blizzard will want to tread cautiously unless they want to piss off the entire fanbase and ruin WoW forever.
With that being said...no more level cap raises, please. I'm at level 40 and the road ahead is incredibly daunting. It's like the levels will never end!

Cataclysm looks AMAZING. WoW actually looks like it was made somewhat recently. The guild system has actually made guild progression a serious part of the game. Archaelogy is probably the most fun profession to have, seeing as it involves actual work (instead of endless farming). Some of the new boss encounters require incredible timing and coordination of the raid (to the point where it takes only one person being a dick for one second to send it all south).

Noob friendliness depends on your server.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

It will stop functioning when people stop blindly giving their soul to Darth Kotick and the Blizzard Empire. Until then those under the doctrine of this evil and soulless individual will continue to drone away in their comfy computer chair and raiding the lands of this world.

((I'm just being overly dramatic with that statement))

 

[Cazza]

I bet in 5 years it will be dead. By then other MMO's would be stolen it's player base.

 

[MartianWarMachine]

Long enough to justify playing it.

Any time except Wrath is/was a good time to jump in.

Yes, it is.

Very. Although it's less like World of Warcraft and more like World of Referencecraft.

 

[Ruslan1011]

Don't forget that the original EverQuest is still around, and is still pumping out expansions, the latest being released just last year, even with EverQuest 2 and World of Warcraft around.

I don't think WoW will ever 'die'. It'll just slowly become less and less relevant. Most people might not even notice it happening.

 

[Eri]

Until it kills itself. If shitquest 1 is still around, My hopes for WoW are through the roof.

 

[Jazoni89]

A very long while yet, Phantasy star online still has private servers that people are still on it daily, and Ultima online still sees a lots of new content still despite coming out 14 years ago.

I'll give it about ten years until World of Warcraft is just a fading memory in MMO players.

 

[Merkavar]

wow has been around for 5-6 years so far and each expansion gets better and the subscriptions keep growing. i would guess it will take just as long to die as it has taken to grow. so say it dies next year it will still be around for 6-7 more years as people slowly leave it for something better or different.

it would be wierd if its still around in 20 years.

I don't think WoW will ever 'die'. It'll just slowly become less and less relevant. Most people might not even notice it happening.

people will just log on one day and find the servers are all down and wonder what happened

 

[Delusibeta]

wow has been around for 5-6 years so far and each expansion gets better and the subscriptions keep growing. i would guess it will take just as long to die as it has taken to grow. so say it dies next year it will still be around for 6-7 more years as people slowly leave it for something better or different.

it would be wierd if its still around in 20 years.

I don't think WoW will ever 'die'. It'll just slowly become less and less relevant. Most people might not even notice it happening.

people will just log on one day and find the servers are all down and wonder what happened

Judging the Blizzard is hoping for another two expansions, I'd give them another four years before declaring it in terminal decline.