BBC reports on upcoming WoW competition
by Paul Sherrard 
May 7th 2007 at 1:02PM
Slashdot is linking this morning to an article that BBC has posted today which gathers views from several game developers as they talk about what comes next when you have a behemoth such as the World of Warcraft dominating the MMO-verse. While somewhat light on new perspectives, it's just further showing that developers really do have to account for WoW when considering their existing and future software offerings.
Though the article talks with people behind Star Wars Galaxies, Lord of the Rings Online, and the upcoming Age of Conan, I find that Slashdot commenter JanusFury sums it up best with, "Instead of complaining about the lack of a strong competitor to WoW, how about making one?"
What's on your MMO horizon as a WoW-killer? Does anything coming up, or existing on the market now, have a powerful enough hook to pull you away from the World of Warcraft? Obviously, if you look at the included image, you know what I'm waiting for.
[via Slashdot]
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
lolwtfstfu May 7th 2007 3:35PM
WoW itself isn't that great of an MMO. The reasons for its mass population of players is because of Blizzard's history. There are many blizzard fans that are fans of regular people as well. Soon they will get their friends to play etc etc. That is really how WoW is so big, I am pretty sure if Vanguard had a history before it where people liked it's company's games and such it would have more players, attracting more players.
A strong mmo is one that will have many players playing it, no one wants to play an MMO without the mass (without ppl). Just look at Halo and such, not that its a great game but its a popular game, people dont wanna play online games alone or with a small population. Its actually good to follow the 'in' for online gaming
But for a dominating MMO aside from history, it would have to have the things WoW doesnt have including Guild housing. But WoW in another aspect is even more diverse than traditional MMOs. The one thing that makes it respectable is the PVP (to some degree)
Belfpally May 7th 2007 1:15PM
Mmmm...I'll probably play WoSC when it comes out. Why yes, I AM a Blizz suck-up, thank you.
Coherent May 7th 2007 1:16PM
The most obvious reply about a WoW-killer is the rumored Starcraft MMO to be announced. However it would probably take at least 2-3 years for something like that to be released, at which time WoW will be ready for replacing anyway.
Other possibilities could be Tabula Rasa, or possibly the Fallout MMO. But it's all in the execution! It's impossible to separate the wheat from the chaff without actually grabbing a handful of game and shaking it.
Nobody can call which game is "the WoW killer" until they actually play it.
Bob May 7th 2007 1:23PM
Warhammer Online, if its half as good as the hype, the PvP servers will be ghost towns.
Quoi May 7th 2007 2:52PM
Every single line of code in World of Starcraft will be: "win".
Seriously, I can't see a way for Blizzard to not make it awesome.
ben1778 May 7th 2007 1:23PM
I think there are a decent number of people who are currently playing WoW and just waiting for something better to come along, like a dead-end relationship. You want to move on, but there's nothing great out there waiting for you - and what do you do in the meantime? So, some people just keep going back to the WoW until there's a newer, prettier, sexier MMO on the block to bring all the nerds to the yard.
Hopefully when I end up switching, WoW won't keep calling at 4am, drunk, and wondering what I am thinking about.
Rich May 7th 2007 1:38PM
I can say what games would be WoW competition for me, that's easy, everyone could.
As far as what will replace WoW as the juggernaut of the MMO world, I don't think there is anything remotely on the horizon. D&D was supposed to knock WoW off, didn't happen. Conan and Warhammer are more of a targeted audience and don't have the general appeal that WoW has.
Whatever the next big MMO is, it needs to be stupidly simple, easy, not abuse players, run on a wide variety of machine configurations and have a broad appeal that welcomes new players to the game even after its established.
chaz May 7th 2007 1:41PM
My complaint with Wow has always been lack of individualism. However, this is probably what makes Wow work... the balance.
If you had more diverse classes, items, races, etc, you would have to figure out how to balance them. In the absence of balace, people will just flock to whatever makes them most powerful, and then you have the same problem.
Whatever comes next they'll have to follow the Wow model somewhat, or they'll lose.
Druid dude May 7th 2007 1:46PM
WoW has become such a masive juggernaut, no other game can kill it. The only thing that can kill WoW at this point is WoW itself, or a replacement made by Blizzard. And despite the endless complaining on the WoW fourms (thats all they are for anymore right?), WoW is not killing WoW, nor will it any time in the foreseeable future.
Lori May 7th 2007 1:54PM
I probably would not try Conan because of the following statement in the article:
"Combat will also be different and success will depend on a player's skill on the keyboard."
I'm not that good with keyboard skills.
I recently ran two LOTRO characters up to lvl 10 on the beta and uninstalled it. The game just didn't grab my attention.
And just 2 days back I opened an EVE free trial and played thru the tutorial but I doubt I'll subscribe to the game.
Why am I trying other games? IDK. I still have plenty to do in WoW but if something better came along, I might leave. It would , like 4 says, need to be newer, prettier and sexier and probably not fantasy. Sifi would do nicely. And if there is group content, it would need a way to quickly and easily find ppl to group with.
Martineau May 7th 2007 2:02PM
To be honest I went back to SWG, and I'm enjoying the mature community. Now I don’t think that SWG is a WOW killer, but I do think that WOW fails when it comes to its community. They need to implement some type of enhancements which will take the game away from just a gear grind and make it more of an actual online community.
Meshekal May 7th 2007 2:11PM
I'm looking forward to Guild Wars 2 - Will it live up to what the developers hope? Time will tell.
Strongmark on Arthas May 7th 2007 2:12PM
WoW is the only RPG based MMO that has ever caught my attention and kept it (Tried EQ, hated it. I remember by the time I tried it, everyone had their own cliques/groups, tough to break into that when you only know a few people playing and they are doing their own endgame stuff). I want to try Star Trek online, but highly doubt it will be any good, as all Star Trek games basically suck. I had fun with Planetside (MMOFPS) but that got boring fast because they lacked innovation and anything better to do after 2 months of the same crap, different pile (I could spend another month to get CR5, to get global chat. OMG, GLOBAL CHAT.... just not worth it) Blizzard has done an EXCELLENT job with this game, obviously the numbers speak for themselves. I think if I were to try another MMORPG, it will be a Blizzard one. So for the more casual player such as myself, a person that hasnt played many MMOs, Blizzard will most likely get my money before Sony or Perpetual Entertainment do.
Varja May 7th 2007 2:25PM
In the short term, LOTRO and WarHammer Online will take a good few people away from WoW.
However, I think that the only games that has a chance to 'kill' WoW is the StarCraft MMO. It's always seemed to me that StarCraft has a much bigger following then the older Warcraft games, and I think this will be reflected in the membership figures for World of StarCraft.
However, I suspect that WarCraft will continue for years to come, a-la Everquest 1, which is still going pretty strongly.
div May 7th 2007 3:24PM
Hellgate London
Pingmeister May 7th 2007 3:06PM
I will be trying Conan when it is released (or in Beta...I'm signed up). As a huge fan of the Conan world (Robert E. Howard was an amazing writer) I am looking forward to exploring it as I am sure the Tolkein fans are enjoying exploring LOTR.
Theserene May 7th 2007 3:12PM
LOTR was supposed to knock WoW off the top spot, but feedback thus far hasn't been that good.
In order to 'knock' WoW off the game would have to have the same or better:
1. Easy accessibility
2. Humour
3. Variation
4. Not afraid to take the mickey out of itself
5. Cater to both casual and hardcore gamers
6. Background/storylines/plot
So far, most of the other MMOs have some of these characteristics but not all of them. And lets face it, when have Blizzard made anything that sucked?
Mik May 7th 2007 5:04PM
To "kill" wow, it has to be able to be played on a mac.
barb dybwad May 7th 2007 5:13PM
two words: tabula rasa.
Vaelin May 7th 2007 6:44PM
I don't know about WoW as a whole, but if Warhammer Online delivers what they've been promoting then it will drain most of WoW's remaining PvPers and gut what Paladins remain who wish they could actually hit something in endgame and not get yelled at.