What would it take to tople WoW from its throne?

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Handbag1992

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An expansion pack that destroys a significant part of the world, meaning that the intricate details that players have spent years of their life learning become obsolete.

Wait...
 

viranimus

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The answer is so mind numbingly simple. Time. As new games come out with new gameplay conventions, graphics, streamlined coding, efficency, people will look at what was once popular as an antiquated relic of the bygone age of yore, in this case 2006.

Look its a simple premise that should be insanely familiar to anyone who has any sort of MMO experience.

When you go up against the top tier raid boss. Do you 1 shot it? Of course not. It takes dozens to literally hundreds of people..
chucking away at the beast until its brought down.

So too the mmo leader will be subdued and consumed by the hoard that brought it down. Actually the kill shot has essentially already happened. That would either be the Over performance of newer MMos such as Rift or The Old Republic, the underwhelming performance of Cataclysm, or the combination of the two like a One two shot to the head. Granted just like everquest, MMOs take quite a while to go all the way down. So Wow could literally go another decade or more from now and still be kicking with enough subscribers and micro transactions to justify keeping the servers on Just like the one time juggernaut EQ is even today still twitching despite being dead for 7 years or more.
 

Lazier Than Thou

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spartandude said:
people finding nerds sexy would stop wow

sex> than wow

or maybe if ToR was free to play but then again its EA and they would destroy the universe before giving something to the people who pay their wages
The cool down on sex is enough to allow World of Warcraft and carnal activities to coexist. There are, after all, many married people that play WoW with their spouse.

I don't really think WoW can be killed, to be honest. It can die of attrition, same as anything else(law of entropy and all that), but nothing is going to dethrone it. It's just too big, too defined, too polished, too familiar. Very few people are willing to give up their friends, their characters, and their knowledge for a risky enterprise. It's not worth it.

Really, "the next best thing" is the only thing that can do it. Like what WoW did to EQ. We just need the next one to come out. I don't know what that looks like, but even then WoW will still go strong. I'm sure it'll be up and running for years and years and years.
 

Excedrin

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Quite simply a game of better quality that simultaneously captures the elements of WoW that appealed to people in the first place: ease of use and accessibility. Also, as someone earlier mentioned, WoW does a pretty good job of hiding its flaws while many other MMO flaws pop right out early in the game. TOR suffers from this in spades unfortunately, from the unsatisfying UI to the combat delay and misfiring of abilities.
 

Auron225

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Membership at the moment is about £9 a month, isnt it? Increase that to £90 per month and Im sure subscriptions will be lost =P
 

RJ 17

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versoth said:
RJ 17 said:
Just read someone's thread about The Old Republic and someone responding to him made a pretty good point in drawing out the lifecycle of an MMO. It comes out, there's a big rush for it, everyone's happy. A few months later the free trials from the initial rush start to end and players aren't interested enough to continue and pay for it, so they go back to WoW. It plugs along for a little while longer before finally saying "screw it" and going free to play.

This applies to all MMO's that are not WoW.
Nope. All the ones you can think of at the moment, sure, but not 'all MMOs that are not WOW'

Eve Online: Released in 2003, has had a slow but steady growth continuing up to present day. Small user base by WOW standards, still has more subscribers than Iceland has residents. Also has prettier graphics than any MMO in existence, has a deeper and more player-driven economy than almost any game that contains a multiplayer component, and a skill system that I've yet to see copied anywhere else.

Shattered Galaxy: Released in 2001, a MMO Real Time Strategy game. Players joined one of three factions, built their squads of units, then deployed them to fight alongside allies' squads. Mostly dead now unfortunately, but still technically up and running. Interesting RTS gameplay mixed with MMO environment and teamwork.

Starport: Galactic Empires: Released in 2004 by a one-man team, features a 2D MMO environment where you directly compete against other players to get the most 'experience' in a two week game. After two weeks, the game resets and you go again. Simple, free, still quite fun. Space combat, colonization, alien artifacts, etc.



Three off the top of my head that subvert your 'all MMOs' claim. Sorry buddy; think before you speak and make a thread about it.
Sooooo ok. You know 3 other MMO's. How...how exactly does that refute the description of a MMO's life cycle? Are you trying to say "People are still playing these games!" Because I never said they weren't. All you've done is name 3 other MMO's and describe them...I fail to see what that has to do with anything in my OP other than "These MMO's exist." Sorry buddy; think before you speak and make a response about it.
 

direkiller

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Aprilgold said:
Give it a few years and it'll topple over on itself. Its dying out due to people who have been supporting it have played it for so long that they probably just want something new. And with all these new MMO's coming out, their separating to join in and help these younger kin.

direkiller said:
Bobic said:
In a way, hasn't WOW already been knocked off the throne?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114283-League-of-Legends-Muscles-Past-World-of-Warcraft
lol isint a MMO
and there have always been games that have sold more then wow so i dont see how you can compare the two
Not in the traditional sense, but it very much a MMO, which just means Massive Multiplayer Online Game or something to that affect.
so COD,battfield,SC2 are MMO? all have online multiplayer with more or the same numeber as a moba per match

one of the standard thing that all MMO have incomon is a persistent world. Without this requirement any game with online multiplayer is a MMO.
 

Aprilgold

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direkiller said:
Aprilgold said:
Give it a few years and it'll topple over on itself. Its dying out due to people who have been supporting it have played it for so long that they probably just want something new. And with all these new MMO's coming out, their separating to join in and help these younger kin.

direkiller said:
Bobic said:
In a way, hasn't WOW already been knocked off the throne?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114283-League-of-Legends-Muscles-Past-World-of-Warcraft
lol isint a MMO
and there have always been games that have sold more then wow so i dont see how you can compare the two
Not in the traditional sense, but it very much a MMO, which just means Massive Multiplayer Online Game or something to that affect.
so COD,battfield,SC2 are MMO? all have online multiplayer with more or the same numeber as a moba per match

one of the standard thing that all MMO have incomon is a persistent world. Without this requirement any game with online multiplayer is a MMO.
The fucking definition of a MMO is Massively Multiplayer Online game. So yes, they would all count.

Minecraft is technically a FPS since its First Person and there are bows for Shooting. Civilization is technically a RTS. World of Warcraft is technically a RPG.

The problem is that the term MMO is so freaking simple and broad that anything can pass as it. I'd like to point towards Battlefield Heros and Battlefield F2P which both do not take place in a persistent world, however in certain lobbies where matches take place.

You can attach whatever terminology to a word you like so I could attach Penis to Banana and still be correct to myself, but the definition of Banana is not Penis. So saying that Persistence World is the only thing that makes a game a MMO is incorrect since the definition has nothing to do with Persistence.

You could argue that if that was a staple of the genre of MMO then GTA is a MMO, LA Noire is a MMO and the Assassin's Creed series is a MMO.

Bottom line: You can classify any game as a MMO since its a fancy word for saying Multiplayer. Also, check out this site where there are TONS of MMO's that aren't persistent sell themselves as MMO's. All categorized so you can see it for yourself, enjoy.
http://mmohut.com/
 

Sewer Rat

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Personally, I'd say if another MMO doesn't come along, then it will just die out with time. I'd give WoW a life of maybe a year or two tops. I'm not saying it will die overnight, but I think it will have lost enough subscribers to have lost it's place as the juggernaut of MMO's by then.
 

Tayh

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I think the only thing that can topple WoW is WoW itself.
More specifically, its playerbase.
Once the playerbase wakes up and realizes that there are many better alternatives to WoW on the market, then something might happen.

I doubt that'll ever happen, though.
WoW is the McDonalds of the MMO world.
 

Deathmageddon

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I'm ashamed to know this, but I'm pretty sure you CAN interact with other players in *shudder* Farmville...

Forgot to press "quote," too lazy to fix...
 

Jaeke

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I really hope that i dont get ninja'd but i sent the answer to this question to the podcast, not sure if they got it but *crack knuckles*, here it goes...

The only thing that can kill WoW at this point is... WoW....
The way Blizzard has been handling it these past few years has driven out more and more core players like me who have been around since pre-BC. WoW is its own worst enemy, im sure that the majority of DAY 1 players have left now due to the Mists of Pandarishit has been announced. That being said, WoW won't ever TRULY die, im sure for many years it will still have a million or so, if not more, subs, at least until WoW2 (if it ever does) comes out. So, basicly WoW has long since peaked and has nowhere to go but down and its only a matter of time before its once golden decade-long held throne is given up to someone else (GW2 Baby!)
 

Jaeke

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Tayh said:
I think the only thing that can topple WoW is WoW itself.
More specifically, its playerbase.
Once the playerbase wakes up and realizes that there are many better alternatives to WoW on the market, then something might happen.

I doubt that'll ever happen, though.
WoW is the McDonalds of the MMO world.
DAMMIT YOU BEAT ME BASTARD :p i knew that would happen
 

Vegosiux

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May 18, 2011
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Natural causes.

I mean, seriously. Not even Blizzard predicted WoW would last this long on such a scale and the recent updates just make it seem as if they have no clue where they want to take it anymore. I mean, retiring the Aspects? Pandaria? Pokemon arena? No overarching PvE plot for MoP, instead going for the HvA conflict that's been chewed up and spit out so many times I wish Deathwing had won this one?

Sod that nonsense, I'm glad I got out. And I'm not the only one.

So yeah. Natural causes.
 

direkiller

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Aprilgold said:
direkiller said:
Aprilgold said:
Give it a few years and it'll topple over on itself. Its dying out due to people who have been supporting it have played it for so long that they probably just want something new. And with all these new MMO's coming out, their separating to join in and help these younger kin.

direkiller said:
Bobic said:
In a way, hasn't WOW already been knocked off the throne?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114283-League-of-Legends-Muscles-Past-World-of-Warcraft
lol isint a MMO
and there have always been games that have sold more then wow so i dont see how you can compare the two
Not in the traditional sense, but it very much a MMO, which just means Massive Multiplayer Online Game or something to that affect.
so COD,battfield,SC2 are MMO? all have online multiplayer with more or the same numeber as a moba per match

one of the standard thing that all MMO have incomon is a persistent world. Without this requirement any game with online multiplayer is a MMO.
The fucking definition of a MMO is Massively Multiplayer Online game. So yes, they would all count.

Minecraft is technically a FPS since its First Person and there are bows for Shooting. Civilization is technically a RTS. World of Warcraft is technically a RPG.

The problem is that the term MMO is so freaking simple and broad that anything can pass as it. I'd like to point towards Battlefield Heros and Battlefield F2P which both do not take place in a persistent world, however in certain lobbies where matches take place.

You can attach whatever terminology to a word you like so I could attach Penis to Banana and still be correct to myself, but the definition of Banana is not Penis. So saying that Persistence World is the only thing that makes a game a MMO is incorrect since the definition has nothing to do with Persistence.

You could argue that if that was a staple of the genre of MMO then GTA is a MMO, LA Noire is a MMO and the Assassin's Creed series is a MMO.

Bottom line: You can classify any game as a MMO since its a fancy word for saying Multiplayer. Also, check out this site where there are TONS of MMO's that aren't persistent sell themselves as MMO's. All categorized so you can see it for yourself, enjoy.
http://mmohut.com/
so expand the defention to the point where it is meaningless? sorry no
not classfying it as a mmo dose not make it a bad game.
The catagorys are there simply to give someone a basic points of what the game is about.

basics a MMO must have
A persistent world where player interact(this covers multiplayer
the amount of players effect the experiences to the point where it is included in the classfication


so here is a question if lol only had 10 people playing it would it still be a MMO?(no)

The marches themselves would not change(it would get rather bland yes but it would not effect the indidual's game). So the player base has no effect on individual match. The games popularity dose not make it a MMO.

yes WOW a RPG(mostly because you seem to forgot the last 3 letters we dropped off MMO out of convenience)
Civ is not a RTS because it dose not have real time it is a Turn based tactics(TBT) game.
(using Civ as an example)
for a game to be a RTS
you command units in real time and there is some sort of strategy involved. Civilization lacks the real time aspect.
not meeting that criteria dose not make it a diffident RTS it just makes it something outer then a RTS. Now with RTS there is a subset call RTT(Real time tactics) which has come to mean real time commanding of a set number of troops and lacking the ability to build more(Real time total war sections). Moba's are a sub sub set of this.

gaming classification is alot like biology classification. Its for human convince and yes there is alot of dispute over a few tiny things but what your trying to do is akin classify a bat as a bird strictly based on the fact it fly's and saying all birds fly(there is a bit more to it then that and if you did that the classification is basically pointless).
 

ChildishLegacy

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Apr 16, 2010
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1, maybe 2 more of it's own expansions and it's just about shot itself in the foot.
Cataclysm was a horrendous piece of trash which is inexcusable after WotLK became a mess for the same reasons Cataclysm is, but I guess everybody and their dog can play it now, it just made it way less enjoyable for people that y'know, liked the game.

Also Diablo 3 might speed WoWs death up. I swear to god if Blizzard fuck that up too I give up.
 

franconbean

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Apr 30, 2011
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The answer is quite simple really, failing all other attempts, there is one infallible king-slayer that always "topples" the top dog.

I am of course talking about Time.
Assuming another MMO doesn't come along and tear down WoW in the interim (SWToR being the contender here), tastes will eventually change or Activision-Blizzard will eventually get too greedy and WoW will fall. It's inevitable.

So yeah, WoW's greatest threats are pretty much Time and itself

Also: Someone in this thread said that "Civ is an RTS". It is not an RTS, it has a "next turn" button, ergo it is not in real time. Your argument is flawed.
 

Valdus

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I would make an MMO that isn't shallow, has repetitive grinding with over-sexualised female models and an overused idea of fantasy (I.E elves, dwarves, squishy mages, tanky warriors, sneaky rogues).

In other words, I would do something that every other "attempt to topple the WOW throne" hasn't done, something original.
 

White_Lama

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Feb 23, 2011
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I've said it before and I'll say it again.

The only thing able to destroy WoW is Blizzard themselves.