Looking forward to AoC? (For the gamers)
Here a good link if you dont know what im talking about
And in that time, Starcraft 2 will be out, Blizzards new MMO will be out, and then Blizzard will further continue to corner the market. World of Warcraft is more popular now than it was when it first came out (gasp, I started playing it the day it came out, does that make me hardcore too?) with many people breaking in to the MMO market simply to play that game, as this pretty graph indicates. I will leave you with your idea that people will shift away from Blizzard, but I believe that time will prove me right wrt to their stranglehold on the market. It takes a lot for people to reliquish the time they have put in to a character. But I`ll let Tycho Brahe speak for my side of the story, because Jerry Holkins is far better informed than I will ever be.
Im not saying AoC will destroy WoWs playerbase...but there is no company or game that can stay on top by doing the same thing over and over. Its just how games go, players want more and more and thats what drives games to evolve.
This is stuff i have been hearing over and over for as long as i have been playing MMO's. WoW will eventually fade to be a quaint nostalgic memory as the newer stuff gets put out....just like EQ and UO did :)
Now the question is, will AoC be the newer game the MMO gamer has been waiting for? Or will it be a flop like AC2? ...hmm... its really hard to tell at this point (there are some problem areas that could really destroy the game... but just not sure how serious they are quite yet).
Oh yes, WoW will fade into memory just like UO and DAoC (except in the minds and hearts of the true fanatics), but I don`t think it is ready to fade yet. I think that WoW has the market now - especially now the kids are off for summer - and I honestly believe that `next gen` MMO that Blizzard comes out with will be the next big thing. I think they know what they are doing and know how to market these things; it is very difficult to see beyond that for the average gamer.
I equate it to the UFC - there are the hardcore of us out there who follow MMA where ever it is, but your average fan is happy with the UFC product and aren`t interested in looking outside of their safe zone*. I see Blizzard as the MMO safe zone, and I don`t see how anyone will rival them at this point in the game.
*I could just have easily used PC vs Mac for this analogy.
And then there is the console MMO thing that is starting to make noise... the entire console movement might really start pushing into MMO's (which would be a really bad thing! at least for quality!). Ick, even AoC is talking about a console release... but who knows if they will actually pull it off or if its just rumors.
I'm currently playing The World Ends With You, the RPG for DS from Square Enix. It's really, really good. I agree with you about the console gaming for MMO's though, unless they go the UT3 route and let you plug in a keyboard. As for online play though, I really don't know much about it, as I haven't ever been part of online games via a console; I am just not comfortable enough with a controller instead of a keyboard.
SWG was alright for about 5 minutes, then they nerfed bounty hunters and I was done. Went back to DAoC. It took WoW to shift me permanently away from DAoC; even Lineage II was only a passing fancy. I don't really get why I am talking this here tbh, I gave up MMO's a year ago. I've given enough years to online gaming, they don't need more of my life.
Lorik, I really couldn't help but think of you when the latest zero punctuation came out.
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