Do you think that WoW might be here to stay?

[Scouzer]

All games come and go... but WoW has so much steam now that I'm wondering if it'll ever go away. Hear me out.

This game was in development at LEAST as far back as 2001 when it was announced. It's been a huge success so Blizzard has invested nearly 7 more years of development since release. The game has had about 10 YEARS of high budget high talent development. Most games get no more than 3... usually 1 or 2.

The game, like it or hate it, is as polished as MMO's come. The feature set is huge and deep and I doubt any new upcoming MMO's are going to be able to come close at release.

My vision is WoW won't die; it'll eventually move on to tablets and cell phones when its too old to play and enjoy on PCs. I could see in 5 or 10 years phones and tablets could play WoW without too much difficulty and it'll continue life on those platforms. The PC version will probably get more expansion packs refreshing the graphics and continue living on and on and on...

I don't know. I don't see how any game developer could hope to compete against the monstrosity called WoW. Unless the game has a huge jumping the shark expansion pack (like ToA for DAOC...) it's probably going to be with us for years (or decades...) to come.

 

[Modular]

It will die for the very reason that it's seems so successful: it's size.

WoW came in and filled a niche that wasn't done well or wasn't ever really even there. As a result it was hugely successful and continues to be so. But when some company comes along and innovates a new game type, they won't be able to redirect their architecture to keep up. It's at that point that the game will die.

The only problem is that there aren't many (any?) companies trying to reinvent the wheel these days. They're just trying to stay alive by copy/pasting what WoW has done. That secures WoW's position for the time being, but when innovation finally does occur, it will be the beginning of it's decline.

 

[brandonb]

It will die.

I'm suprised it has lasted as long as it has to be honest. It's craptastic. Some day people will figure it out.

 

[Malladine]

Consider that Everquest is still around...same for Ultima Online. Now consider how much more popular WoW is than either of those ever were.

 

[ScorcherDarkly]

This "debate" will greatly depend on your definition of "die". Does WoW die when the servers cease to run and is no longer playable? I agree that will take MANY more years. See Everquest. 11 years on and the servers are still running, and it never had anywhere near the amount of people WOW does. Does WoW die when it drops to some fraction (half, quarter, tenth) of it's maximum player base? That will take less time, but I could see it happening within the next 2-3. Some highly innovative MMO secretly in development right now could spring onto the scene and redefine the genre within that time frame. It could even be Blizzard's mystery MMO, or an eventual WoW sequel. At this point there's nothing on the horizon (SW:TOR may be a longshot, but I doubt it). But something will eventually come along.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Eventually it will decline, just like everything ... it's just a matter of when.

Hopefully cataclysm IS the last expansion, and they start to work on something innovative ... crossing my fingers for some new IP at Blizzcon 2011.

 

[Beev]

Consider that Everquest is still around...same for Ultima Online. Now consider how much more popular WoW is than either of those ever were.

This is what I was going to post.

All of the "WoW is dying!" criers are absolute morons. Everquest, at its peak, had a little over 500,000 subscribers, and it is still around and is getting expansions. WoW has 10 million. It isn't going anywhere for probably 20 years, if I had to guess. Unless Blizzard kills it themselves with a sequel, but why in god's name would they do that?

 

[slag]

Eventually it will get too bloated, buggy and it will be "rewritten" or "reloaded" They will release the game with a new engine, new graphics, etc, and it will be but a shell of its former self. People will then complain (like they did with new coke), that its really not the same game anymore, and slowly they will migrate towards other games, other things, and WoW will implode on itself. I give it another 4 years. It won't fully die, but it wont have the subscriber base that it has now.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

I don't think it is going away. Eventually there might be a Wow2 or something but I don't think it is going anywhere.

 

[Zenoth]

I sincerely don't think that it will "die" unless Blizzard themselves want that to happen, other than that I see no possible way that even in ten years from now WoW will be gone, not at all, it will persist and endure over the next decade as much as it did since the past decade or so, if it's a question of updating graphics, textures, animations and so on then there's nothing easier for them, what would be difficult would be to change the "architecture" of the game due to fierce competition, and there's no such thing as real competition against WoW, even The Old Republic won't get out of its shadow.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Its 12 million now, not 10. With each expansion upping the graphics a little bit and revamping the game, I dont see it dying anytime soon. Blizz already has a plan of their upcoming expansions after cataclysm, emerald dream etc.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Its 12 million now, not 10. With each expansion upping the graphics a little bit and revamping the game, I dont see it dying anytime soon. Blizz already has a plan of their upcoming expansions after cataclysm, emerald dream etc.

link for emerald dream expansion? I must have missed that tidbit.

 

[Chiropteran]

Not going to die for a long time IMO. The players are so addicted that even if blizzard does something horrible all they will do is complain about it, not actually quit, and before long blizzard will fix the mistake and everything will be happy and fun again.

The only thing that could kill it is some amazing new refreshing game which is superior in numerous ways, but honestly even then I think WoW will still be around 10-20 more years, just with a diminished userbase.

 

[Wyndru]

I don't think it will move to other devices, but I don't think it is going to end anytime soon either.

With cataclysm, I'm starting to believe that their strategy is to just keep revamping areas. That way the game is always new to people. Old subscribers now have new content and areas to level through with this release, considering the whole map is being redone. This way they don't need to make it "bigger" they can just make it different and keep everyone happy.

 

[TheVrolok]

I don't think it will move to other devices, but I don't think it is going to end anytime soon either.

With cataclysm, I'm starting to believe that their strategy is to just keep revamping areas. That way the game is always new to people. Old subscribers now have new content and areas to level through with this release, considering the whole map is being redone. This way they don't need to make it "bigger" they can just make it different and keep everyone happy.

I agree with this. I played WoW starting from day 1 of retail for maybe a year with a hardcore progression guild, then quit for a few months, and started up again for maybe 6 months with a RL friend then quit again and haven't looked back since. However, I actually have some desire to play Cataclysm, just for the fun of re-exploring all the newly redone areas. I probably had more fun leveling up alts than PvE progression and just as much as good PvP with RL friends.

 

[Arsinek]

I dont think WoW is going anywhere anytime soon. I played it for 3yrs. To me the game is old and theres really no point in me going back since they seem to not be adding anything new, its just the same formula over and over. The whole game revolves around running instances. New expansion just means new instances.

That being said it seems plenty of people like that formula. As long as people are into that style of game I dont see why it would die. If it continues to make money theres no reason for its owners to end it.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

link for emerald dream expansion? I must have missed that tidbit.

Its Blizzard so nothing is official, but when asked of the end of WoW, their answer has always been that there is much more story to tell. The Emerald Dream is one of the biggest things that is already prevalent in current WoW and WoW since vanilla with many quests linked to it. They've have been saying that there are big plans for ED since 2003. When asked if it was going to be apart of BC, they said it was big enough to be its own expansion

There's more unfinished story lines such with the Burning Legion, Queen Aszhara (unless they make her a boss fight with a patch with Cata), ED, the Panderan world, etc etc.

With cata opening up many of those blocked out zones from Arezoth, there are still a few that are still blocked leaving room for more expansions.

They've also said before that players will eventually hit 100. I personally believe that they made this expansion only 5 levels compared to the previous 10 to make room for more expansions.

 

[Scotteq]

Activision will milk World of Warcraft for all it's worth, for as long as they can. To the extent that Activision are making bank off of the game - and WoW makes billion$/year - the game will continue.


Regarding 'WoW Reloaded' - The old world is/has been rewritten already with the coming 'Cataclysm' expansion.

 

[waggy]

not for a while anyway. Everquest is still up and comeing out with updates. i suspect WOW will be the same.

 

[dank69]

Activision will milk World of Warcraft for all it's worth, for as long as they can. To the extent that Activision are making bank off of the game - and WoW makes billion$/year - the game will continue.


Regarding 'WoW Reloaded' - The old world is/has been rewritten already with the coming 'Cataclysm' expansion.

Yeah, for all intents and purposes, Cataclysm IS WoW 2.

 

[skace]

WoW is doing what Everquest attempted to do with Cataclysm: Revamp the game to shed some of it's aging skin, give it a facelift and hopefully re-addict people. If they pull this off, they will do what SOE failed at.

For those that played EQ, they will remember that SOE tried something similar. However, they revamped zones too late and nobody liked the revamps. It was something that could have gone really well but was done extremely poorly, I have faith Blizzard has learned from those mistakes (like most of the mistakes SOE made) and is going to do this right.

And yes, I'm sure they will eventually make a WoW 2 and I'm sure some people will state that it is "too different" and choose to stay in WoW 1 as a result. I expect that their WoW 2 is many, many years off though.

 

[superccs]

I think the will it die or not is determined not by the current player pol but the new player pool. If the game play gets to evolved and detracts from the game play experience of new players, there will be an end.

I think WoW in the expansions created a game where only the very highest level player get to enjoy the game. Character development has become a business and not a multiplayered adventure.

 

[slag]

did they optimize it in this rewrite or make it take more horsepower? I'm at work and cannot check out game related sites, so I cant check right meow unfortunately.

 

[Malladine]

Did you just say "I cant check right meow"?

 

[Genx87]

Ultima Online is still around 12 years after launch. WoW shouldnt have a problem being around in a decade imo. It may not have 12 million subs. But it wont go away either.