SWTOR will be an alternative to WoW, not its Replacement.

[Loaf Lord]

Theme park game that will quickly lose its appeal. Within 3 months at least half it's subs will be resubbing for wow. Wish it wasn't so but it is.

Can I borrow your crystal ball please? And the machine you obviously created that can actually transform an opinion into a fact?

[Argroth]

Theme park game that will quickly lose its appeal. Within 3 months at least half it's subs will be resubbing for wow. Wish it wasn't so but it is.

Funny joke. Can I have next weeks lotto numbers too?

[traen]

SWTOR will be an alternative to WoW, not its Replacement.

Captain Obvious, is that you?

Are there any sane persons who think different?

[Hollow Vamp]

while i agree that it will not kill wow. wow is doing a PERFECT job killing itself, ive grown increasingly dissatisfied with them over these many years, and the announcement of mists of panderia pretty much sealed the deal. not buying the xpac, full switching to tor. :/

[Ganimah]

I will say that within 2 years, that SWTOR will easily have more users playing it than WoW will. 7 years is a long time and SWTOR has a much larger initial fanbase than WoW ever did. We're talking around 2 million+ people at launch. That's almost 10x as much as WoW had (259K, IIRC).

SWTOR doesn't need to be a WoW killer....it will simply replace it over time. There will always be a fanbase for WoW, much like there is for any game. But it's time for something new and different.

[Deleted]

I will say that within 2 years, that SWTOR will easily have more users playing it than WoW will. 7 years is a long time and SWTOR has a much larger initial fanbase than WoW ever did. We're talking around 2 million+ people at launch. That's almost 10x as much as WoW had (259K, IIRC).

SWTOR doesn't need to be a WoW killer....it will simply replace it over time. There will always be a fanbase for WoW, much like there is for any game. But it's time for something new and different.

you should work in stock trading, seeing as you obviously can see into the future.

[Teroseth]

I will say that within 2 years, that SWTOR will easily have more users playing it than WoW will. 7 years is a long time and SWTOR has a much larger initial fanbase than WoW ever did. We're talking around 2 million+ people at launch. That's almost 10x as much as WoW had (259K, IIRC).

SWTOR doesn't need to be a WoW killer....it will simply replace it over time. There will always be a fanbase for WoW, much like there is for any game. But it's time for something new and different.

By that logic, Rift should be kicking WoW's ass right now as it launched with about a million or so subs.

[Tigercat]

By that logic, Rift should be kicking WoW's ass right now as it launched with about a million or so subs.

Source?

Also, wow has been taking significant losses lately, just sayin

[Argroth]

you should work in stock trading, seeing as you obviously can see into the future.

By that logic, Rift should be kicking WoW's ass right now as it launched with about a million or so subs.

At least he actually used some logic and numbers to base his opinion on unlike the other WoW worshipers which just yell "It's gonna die in 2 months!" just because they can't bare to see another mmo succeed.

[Smitzelplix]

Theme park game that will quickly lose its appeal. Within 3 months at least half it's subs will be resubbing for wow. Wish it wasn't so but it is.

What happens if more than half of the people playing SWTOR haven't played WoW for quite some time or never played it to begin with? This is something that could easily be a reality. Blizzard has said something along the lines that there have been more people who have tried WoW and have quit than who are currently playing. The 10 million players that WoW has now are not all the same people who have ever tried the game, the game is like a revolving door new players come in, old players leave to never to return, some old players come back. WoW might be the biggest MMO player wise but the MMO market as a whole is probably 10x larger than WoW, that's why there are so many MMOs in this market right now, it is why the majority of the "WoW killers" have not had a total shutdown and is also why MMOs that came before WoW like EQ are still operational. This market is much more massive then one may think and there's plenty of established market and potential market to go around for many games to find financial success.

[Loaf Lord]

By that logic, Rift should be kicking WoW's ass right now as it launched with about a million or so subs.

They never released any info on their subs, they stated 1 million accounts, not subs.

[Khanjin]

It's partly how Rift worked out, Rift has a great playerbase and they push out quality content like crazy. I think SWTOR will have a great life next to WoW.

[Glorious Leader]

What happens if more than half of the people playing SWTOR haven't played WoW for quite some time or never played it to begin with? This is something that could easily be a reality. Blizzard has said something along the lines that there have been more people who have tried WoW and have quit than who are currently playing. The 10 million players that WoW has now are not all the same people who have ever tried the game, the game is like a revolving door new players come in, old players leave to never to return, some old players come back. WoW might be the biggest MMO player wise but the MMO market as a whole is probably 10x larger than WoW, that's why there are so many MMOs in this market right now, it is why the majority of the "WoW killers" have not had a total shutdown and is also why MMOs that came before WoW like EQ are still operational. This market is much more massive then one may think and there's plenty of established market and potential market to go around for many games to find financial success.

From a price point mmos are very attractive. After the initial purchase, 15$ a month is a fairly cheap and recession proof alternative to going out to the bar or hitting up the movies. Wow actually has a bit of a hinderance in this. It has so many expansions that the cost becomes rather steep. If the average shopper goes to a store and sees both products of similar quality but one has a much less initial entry cost he is probably more likely to take the one with the least entry cost. Many other circumstances fall into this mind you and they don't all exist in a vacuum but giving its brand recognition, the development team behind it and the marketing campaign thats sure to drop here soon I would not be surprised if star wars does indeed expand the mmo market considerably.

---------- Post added 2011-11-20 at 08:27 AM ----------

It's partly how Rift worked out, Rift has a great playerbase and they push out quality content like crazy. I think SWTOR will have a great life next to WoW.

Thank you thats exactly it. The developers of rift aren't pulling out crazy sub numbers but they still push out quality products and serve their fans well.

[Deleted]

Theme park game that will quickly lose its appeal. Within 3 months at least half it's subs will be resubbing for wow. Wish it wasn't so but it is.

Since you can tell the future please let me know what the next EuroMillions numbers are...

[Deleted]

While SWTOR is not the game for me (played the beta), I really wish for it to do very, very well. Competition in this genre is very important to prevent developers becoming complacent. I think Blizzard for one, got a bit of a fright with a few quality MMOs released or being released soon and that can only be a good thing.

Of course, I am going to keep my eye on SWTOR and after a few content patches I may give it another go.

[Zerioc]

While SWTOR is not the game for me (played the beta), I really wish for it to do very, very well. Competition in this genre is very important to prevent developers becoming complacent. I think Blizzard for one, got a bit of a fright with a few quality MMOs released or being released soon and that can only be a good thing.

Of course, I am going to keep my eye on SWTOR and after a few content patches I may give it another go.

This is why I hope SW succeeds, and WoW continues going "strong-ish" It'll ( hopefully ) make both games better. Competition breeds innovation/improvement. However, with who the competetors is I have worries. Blizz is the Apple of gaming. They'll make sure you stick with them, and "borrow" from others. Normally I don't mind this, but they're going about it the wrong way and the D3 thing shows me this. If you cancel your sub at any time you lose access to D3. They're trying to keep you with cheap tactics. But I digress. I don't want to bash Blizz. They're like an old lover. Always have a place in my heart. I gave a lot of time to them. I've just been burned and cheated.

[Killraven]

I believe that the majority of WoW players are going to stick with WoW. They've become accustomed to its style, and aren't looking for something different. Despite this, I have no doubt that both MMOs can co-exist in this market just fine. If the games can do it, we can do it as well.

I will continue to stick with WoW, for now. But with reduced play time and one less active subscriber account. The last year or so I've had three WoW subscriber accounts active. All paid using the 6 month recurring option. I was actually contemplating turning off one account before I paid any attention to SWTOR. WoW has become such a huge time sink. I mean, you actually have to "work" to collect the quantities of materials required to craft anything significant. And crafting itself takes relatively large chunks of time just to create the items once you have all the materials. Plus, the game seems to have fallen into a rut. Raise the level, change some items names and apply generally the same combinations has become a standard formula for the past two releases (at least). I would not be surprised if the developers have created an update tool that allows them to plug in some numbers and randomly generate all the items, materials, crafting designs, etc. programmatically.

If Blizzard (and I think more so the parent company) does not come out of this rinse and repeat mode, I'll likely be down to one active subscription soon. I'll keep that one open for at least the full year I committed to for their annual pass deal. But after that I'll re-evaluate where things stand and I might pull out altogether.

Between SWTOR and WoW today I am likely to split my time about 60/40 respectively. I've been in the beta for SWTOR for about 2 months or more now, and I like the potential I see in it. Besides, it is entertaining regardless of lacking maturity in the UI. Maturity which WoW has evolved over 6-7 years. And in 3-5 years SWTOR will be looking very polished and robust (if they keep going in their current direction).

The OP seems to be of the opinion that the potential player base of SWTOR and WoW don't have significant overlap. I suspect the opposite, but have no means to prove my assertion. If I'm right and WoW does little or nothing to innovate with WoW in material ways, a large segment of customers who will play both will simply consolidate on the game that provides the better entertainment value.

[Teroseth]

At least he actually used some logic and numbers to base his opinion on unlike the other WoW worshipers which just yell "It's gonna die in 2 months!" just because they can't bare to see another mmo succeed.

He didn't use logic, he used one set of of arbitrary numbers to prove why something will reach another larger set of arbitrary numbers. It's like saying I had one apple yesterday, therefore I will have one orange tomorrow. It just doesn't follow. I agree with you on the second point though, too many WoW fanboys want any and all other mmos to fail, lest WoW is hurt in some way...completely ignoring that WoW needs the competition to improve.

[Eggoman]

I'm not sure why the number of subscribers is such a big deal. I'd rather have a like minded community that has about 2~5million subscribers. The smaller and more like minded the community, the better the Devs can cater to their needs. I hope that SWTOR fills out a niche category in MMOs rather than suck up the other communities.

[Teriz]

Interesting perspective Killraven. Upon further reflection, I began to realize that a lot of animosity for SWTOR comes from a very hardcore fanbase. I mean, how many casual MMORPGers care about the UI? Most don't even mess with it. I'm very curious to see how SWTOR does with the casual crowd.