Article Detail - World of Warcraft News

World of Warcraft Remains Undefeated...But For How Long?

Posted Sep 20, 2006 at 12:25AM by Kristine C. Listed in: News Tags: Lord of the Rings, Vivendi, Ryan Garside

"Warriors of the night, assemble!"

Thus goes that ever-familiar battle cry from the original single-player version of Warcraft. Whoever thought that this game would have reached literally massive proportions and blossom into the phenomenon that it is now?

At the moment, World of Warcraft reigns supreme in the MMORPG world with its familiar environment that was based on a well-loved RTS game, great graphics, a system that's easy to grasp, and gameplay that millions the world over have found enjoyable. Everywhere, gamers fork over money to buy the game and then willingly pay their monthly dues in order to keep their WoW fix going high. Truly, the game's developer Vivendi has found the magic formula that has saved them from going under.

But with all the new MMORPG titles that have recently been popping up, one can't help but wonder just exactly how long WoW will be able to maintain its grasp on the industry?

Over at Bit-Tech.net, Ryan Garside tries to answer that question by dissecting the phenomenon that is Warcraft. He also points out potential threats to its supremacy as new games are being developed and the MMO experience is being stepped up at every turn. Potential competitors that were named included Age of Conan, Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, and Tabula Rasa.

Could Garside be correct in his analysis? Will WoW endure or will it be usurped? Got your own predictions? Let us know via the comments!

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by phuckbaba (Unregistered) - 2006-09-01

» WoW

WoW will remain dominant for at least another 5 years. They found the right formular to create a MMOG that will remain fun to most people. WoW kicked off successfully because it was based on a solid franchise(Warcraft) with a great storyline and many MMOG players switched to WoW.

Words of mouth was the major force for its widespread success. Therefore, for a MMOG to defeat WoW, they need to build a strong fans base which takes time and also to be fun(not tedious) by keeping annoyances to the minimum. Even though MMOG is a community game, MMOG players want to have fun playing alone at times.

by Vanguard (Unregistered) - 2006-09-01

» lol

Can't believe the article didn't mention vanguard. My friend is in the beta of vanguard and its the best mmo since eq1. Maybe age of conan will be able to compete with wow but none of the others in that article will do very well against wow. I've cancelled my wow account at least 10x and come back every time because there wasn't another game even close. But after seeing vanguard, wow looks like a baby game. Vanguard has the best grouping system i've ever seen. Oh well, Wow is only number one because it has 5 million chinese farmers. Ban the farmers and it'd only be a decently successful mmo.

by ryan (Unregistered) - 2006-09-01

» ???

wrold of war craft will be arond more than 5 years.. that is if they can keep producing more expanshin paks... now if they could just fix the server lagg problems..aka kizar, shodowsong server

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by jojohn (Unregistered) - 2006-09-02

» meh

I bet my subscription is still counted toward the total of players eventhough I am not even subscribed, nor there's WoW in my HDD

by Unregistered (Unregistered) - 2006-09-02

» based on ryan's spelling

i assume ryan is like 10 based on his spelling and therefore should not have any input.

by God (Unregistered) - 2006-09-02

Hi I'm god. God says that WoW will NOT be around for another five years, and here's why. At the rate the computer and gaming industry goes, WoW may last another 2-3 years max due to the fact that they are in the process of bigger and better things, new graphic cards are going to come out to run said games and WoW will be a thing of the past.

by HardKase (Unregistered) - 2006-09-03

» hah

It will be around for plenty more years :)

It wont be the biggest thing for all of them, but It has a long future (until they Release WoW2)

Graphics and whatnot can be updated in expansion packs. Just look at EQ1. still going strong.

My intrest is firmly in Warhammer Online. Rich Background, Strong Global Franchise. From the Makers of Dark Age of Camelot (RvR Combat - you think you've PvP'd?). Definatly something to watch out for.

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