I Found the WoW Killer.
People always talk about the “WoW Killer.” Nobody has been able to find it, despite looking all over the place (even under the couch). Even though many people are tired of playing World of Warcraft and seek a better or equivalent alternative, they haven’t found it. But I’ve found the WoW Killer. No, it’s not a better game than World of Warcraft. A better MMO than WoW will not kill WoW, even if it’s a lot better than WoW. It takes a greater beast than a better MMO to destroy WoW. Its name? This mysterious killer of the famed WoW? Its name… is… World of Warcraft.
yeah i am leaning more and more towards that conclusion… in a game SO long running, they still have not any semblance of balance.
You can’t out-WoW Wow. So long as games attempt to outplay World of Warcraft’s strengths, they’ll never be able to beat it – because players are already invested in the game as is. Like any relationship, people are prone to simply stay where they are rather than try something new unless you can show those people what they’re missing.
No, to turn players away from World of Warcraft, a studio needs to figure out what out what World of Warcraft is not providing for its players and then play to those weaknesses.
Wouldn’t it technically be WoW Suicide?
I think what he was alluding too is that Wow seems to be it’s own worse enemy lately. so many changes happening that are either poorly thought out, don’t make sense or don’t address the issue they were intended to address. I personally think their design philosophy of “talent tree’s” and hybrid classes, coupled with so many balance decisions based on their “e-sport’ is catching up with them. Balancing DPS classes because they have the option to entirely swap their contributions to the encounter by swapping to a viable tank or healer spec is part of the problem. Balancing a class about what 5% of the user base can do with it in Arena, is part of the problem.
>Balancing a class about what 5% of the user base can do with it in Arena, is part of the problem.
And yet when they make changes that only effect the lower, say, 75% of arena players, the top players bitch like nobodies business. See also: the recent paladin Vindication talent hotfix.
It does feel like the product life cycle is starting to turn on WoW, but I still think they have a good year left before they start seeing some significant decline. The only thing that has been keeping WoW up is weak competition, there still needs to be a respectable North American MMO to give WoW the final blow.
You can make a long list of the things that are wrong with the game, I have a sub but rarely log in anymore. The game just doesn’t feel like an RPG.
Heh, thanks for reminding me, I have to cancel my WoW subscription this month (I hit the fun wall again). I forgot I still had that running.
It does feel like it’s declining. I don’t know that I’d consider “death” a fair description of what it’s going through, and I have no idea what their numbers are actually like, but it definitely feels like a game on the decline.
I just want to down Yogg before the majority of summer slackers take their extended leaves
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I am tired of wow lately myself but I don’t know if that’s what he means. I think he’s talking about how only wow can do itself in. Other games won’t do mcuh damage to wow itself.
Ha ha, yeah… When will WoW die?
I actually don’t think it will die. Even when Blizzard stop making expansions for it, they can still flop the big ‘Free to Play’ card onto the table and bring a few million players back. SW:TOR and Guild Wars 2 will punch a hole in it’s subscriber numbers, but nothing compared to Blizzard’s next MMO. Which makes me think that Blizzard have a combined subscriber fee up their sleeve… Diablo 3, WoW and Blizzard’s next MMO. Good luck to any MMO company in beating that.
[...] others see similar signs in the increasingly vague Blizzard press releases. Ryan Shwayder declares he’s finally found the fabled WoW-killer — WoW [...]
I find it quite interesting to see the mix of reactions here. Some people assume I meant that WoW was in the act of killing itself, while others assume I meant that WoW is the only game that can kill WoW. I stated the latter, and believe the latter. The former… well, it seems like some people believe it.
I agree with you on the wow killer being wow, it has a burn out quality to it these days. But IMO….
Wow will keep on chugging. For now it’s got the ease for solo play, something for everyone..raiding, pvp.. trades.. flying mounts ect. Fun things people want in a game and stuff to keep you busy. I do admit it gets to be a burn out at times, esp with all the nerfs and fotm class crap. Rerolling and leveling up again is quite the bore.. But people keep coming back.
The only thing that will really make a dent IMO would be a better mmo. So far nothing has been impressive when compared to wow. The two latest games that were supposedly to be the wow killers are have shut down/ merged a large amount of their servers due to lack of players sadly. But who knows whats to come. I never see it going free either… Why?
People said the sky was falling in Everquest five years ago. It’s going on 10+ years now and people still play it, they still pay subscriptions and expansions come out every year. There have been dramatic changes to the game and even a cash shop feature. It’s still got a lot of life left in it yet. It has nostalgia tied to it for a lot of players, and it’s got a ton of content for newer players. Although a steeper learning curve than most games out there, it may not be competition for other games these days but it has made it’s mark just as WoW has.
So while people get bored, burnt out… there’s those who do quit for good. But after taking a break, it just always seems the best thing on the market. Nothing else really offers what wow does in the mmo world.
I’m not the wow cheerleader I may come across to be. I do play and like wow, but I do also wish there was more of a selection of games that could hold up to the quality of wow. I try everything new that comes out, fee included but nothing really has caught me like Everquest or WoW did. I would love to see another mmo come out that can compete, but currently Blizzard still has the edge here.
I will agree that WoW is WoW’s worst enemy. I spent the last 18 Months playing WoW comming from the EQ franchise. WoW has an easy learning curve. the game is entirely soloable by any class and the game was enjoyable up until WoTLK. Since WoTLK WoW has been strife with constant changes and class nerfs. The paladin has become overall the best class in the game in both PVE and PVP. I left in June only to hear that even more massive game changes are on the horizon. I returned to EQ2 to find that over the last 18 month the game has seen many positive changes that make the game fun and engaging and even more fun to play than WoW. but back to the WoW killer no single game will kill WoW but Aion, SWTOR, Warhammer 40k and farther down the road now in early devolopment EverQuest Next will each combined cut WoW down to size. There is a WoW killer IP out there but no devoloper has yet stepped upto the plate to tackle the project of its complexity. The IP has it all both sci fi and fantasy and would be the MMO to end all MMO’s. That IP is Rifts and whatever devoloper can bring that IP to market will have the next WoW in its hands if its done right, if done wrong it will be another SWG. Rifts has the most potential of any ip to dominate the market place