Will there ever be a MMORPG that defeats WoW?

[notorious98]

What I find funny is the argument that while there are better games out there, a lot of people just stick to WoW because they're attached to it. It sounds like an argument from someone who for some reason refuses to acknowledge that not everyone has this rejection towards WoW just because they have.

Actually "a lot of people" is not an absolute like "everyone". That being said, it's true that a lot of people stick with WoW because they're attached to it. But not everyone does. See what I did there?

[Fencers]

Will there ever be a MMORPG that defeats WoW? and if so, what company will make it?

Probably not. The market has changed a lot since WoW first came out. WOW itself was as seachange of sorts. Or perhaps better said, a watershed in MMORPGs.

Change is now more incremental and less... erm, big.

WoW's ongoing success is because of many different factors, but its initial success is because the game was much better than its competitors.

Not really. WOW was pretty much the poorest of choices at the time in terms of gameplay. It's still among the least sophisticated and respectable MMOs on the market.

It's success is based on 2 factors: popularity [incld. recognition] and ease of access. And this continues to be so.

[Pull My Finger]

Not really. WOW was pretty much the poorest of choices at the time in terms of gameplay. It's still among the least sophisticated and respectable MMOs on the market.

No. It's still the MMO with the most fluid, seamless and responsive gameplay and the widest array of content.

Actually "a lot of people" is not an absolute like "everyone". That being said, it's true that a lot of people stick with WoW because they're attached to it. But not everyone does. See what I did there?

Not really, apart from pointing out the obvious, that already said in the quoted post.

[hulkgor]

Of course there will be, but not in the near future.

Personally, i think there are a couple of 'niche' games that are vastly better then WoW in some aspects. Eve-Online for example is the best sandbox MMO out there, by miles. Unfortunetly it has a very steep learning curve, is very unforgiving and hard to get into nowadays... but i consider it a 'better' game. And although being very successful (very stable growth over the years, hence, a success), it won't ever reach the massive popularity and success of WoW. WoW is the typical 'chase the carrot' game, and does it very well, appealing to a very wide array of players, and was 'jumpstarted' by a very well established fanbase from previous titles.

Anyway, we will eventually see a new game (next-gen they say) being the more popular choice, it might take a couple of years (decade :P).

I rather have several healthy games then one 'massive' one to be honest.

[Fencers]

No. It's still the MMO with the most fluid, seamless and responsive gameplay and the widest array of content.

Um, no it isn't. That is objectively false.

Gameplay is an absolute.

[Remilia]

No. It's still the MMO with the most fluid, seamless and responsive gameplay and the widest array of content.

Responsiveness is basically the same as any other game.
The difference is that WoW has a graphical response everytime you click something, and then an action response when the server gets the action.
Everyone thinks the graphical (animation) response is the same as the action response, which is the actual action.

If you want to know, just lag yourself (download something or whatever immensely big consuming your bandwidth and increasing your latency), then go online, push a spell. Your animation starts, but note how long it actually takes for the spell to finish and actually cast.

[Pull My Finger]

Um, no it isn't. That is objectively false.

Gameplay is an absolute.

Aah, objectively false, yes? LOL. That's what I call a plausible argumentation.

[Deleted]

Will there EVER be a mmorpg that beats wow?
Yeah, you bet there will. As soon as VR is made a reality, the first VR-MMORPG that comes out will prob have double the subscribers that wow had when was at its top.

Soon tho? Maybe if Nintendo started working on a Pokémon MMORPG.

[Melanieshaman]

Yes, Wildstar.... lol i'm kidding, but that's really he only mmo on the horizon that has me really excited.

[notorious98]

Not really, apart from pointing out the obvious, that already said in the quoted post.

No it didn't. You made the assumption that the argument "a lot of people" can be refuted by "not everyone" when "a lot of people" is not the same as "everyone". I used both the argument you're attempting to refute AND the argument you're using to refute it simultaneously without contradicting myself. Because I can use the argument that a lot of people are attached to WoW and not everyone has "this rejection" towards WoW. Based on your argumentation, that would be impossible.

---------- Post added 2013-04-08 at 02:41 PM ----------

No. It's still the MMO with the most fluid, seamless and responsive gameplay

Mind doing me a favor and proving that to be true?

[RoninaThorstone]

Mind doing me a favor and proving that to be true?

I read it everywhere on world of warcraft forums therefore it must be true, bra!


But yeah. It's entirely subjective.
Also, lolvanishbug for 6 years.

[Fencers]

Aah, objectively false, yes? LOL. That's what I call a plausible argumentation.

There is no need to argue. Gameplay is purely objective.

Other games have responsiveness and variety of gameplay in an MMO the equal of World of Warcraft. Quite a few have currently and had back in 2005ish more sophisticated gameplay as well.

There is no room for opinion when it comes to gameplay. It's an absolute fact- When I press this button X happens. That is how video games operate. Currently and in the foreseeable future they can not happen any other way literally.

It is literally impossible for video games to function without an exact ruleset that governs the input and interactions within the game itself.

One can not have an opinion what pressing the Jump does. Pressing the Jump button is absolute.

Now it is possible to have a granular conversation on the finer points of design within say, Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft circa their respective releases. Or Anarchy Online, Asheron's Call and so forth. Though might be out of the scope of this thread premise which asks if new games will be as popular as WoW.

But it is a fact [for example] that the ruleset by which WoW's warrior could effectively use heroic strike was a less involved mechanical process than how a warrior's strike-through operated in Everquest. The former being a strictly binary operation- "do you have rage; y/n?"

Or the complexity & purposing of crafting in SWG vis-a-vis the crafting system of WoW. Or singular classes of WoW and those of the subjob system of contemporaries such as FF11 or AO.

There are other things such as questing clarity, visual acumen in combat, truncated goals and so forth. Some of which WoW was quite inventive in using those tropes.

Quite simply; the greatest trump card of World of Warcraft was Blizzard's design savvy in streamlining many obtuse or arcane concepts of the genre. That they smartly rode their MMO on the strong back of the Warcraft brand was a bonus.

One can "get" WoW at a basic level by level 5. Did you know that the design of WOW is so tight that Blizzard reveal almost all the core concepts by level 10?

WoW is popular because it is popular and easy to understand.

That is the watershed World of Warcraft brought to the genre. To proposition that the game was then or now among the more sophisticated in gameplay is objectively false. It would not operate as it does otherwise.

[Pull My Finger]

No it didn't. You made the assumption that the argument "a lot of people" can be refuted by "not everyone" when "a lot of people" is not the same as "everyone". I used both the argument you're attempting to refute AND the argument you're using to refute it simultaneously without contradicting myself. Because I can use the argument that a lot of people are attached to WoW and not everyone has "this rejection" towards WoW. Based on your argumentation, that would be impossible.

Or simply put, you're trying to talk your way out of obvious nonsense by stuttering yourself in even greater nonsense. It's amusing to read, though.

Mind doing me a favor and proving that to be true?

Now that's interesting. What kind of "proof" do you expect? A judicial decree maybe? Can you "prove" the opposite?

[Deleted]

Possibly, its code named Titan and should be out in the next 2-5 years. Either that or WoW will kill itself with age (albeit very slowly).

[Korgoth]

Yes, but it wont be what WoW was or is.

[Zeerus]

There won't be any MMO to beat WoW, in it's lifetime. There might be something down the line that might be as popular, but I don't think anything now could kill WoW.
The only death WoW will receive is when the game has run its course and Blizzard shuts down the servers.

[Pachycrocuta]

So long as people try out a new game, and then make up all kinds of excuses and go back to what's "safe" and "familiar" with World of Warcraft, I don't think one will any time soon. I also highly doubt any game will ever beat WoW when it comes to subscriber number, unless Blizzard decides to finally release the subscriber numbers for NA/EU seperately from those not in NA/EU, as most others only really release in NA/EU and not in China.

However, for many people, other games have defeated WoW. Those games drew them in and severed the attachment they had for their characters and the time sunk into the game. I am not saying everyone plays WoW because of that attachment, as I know there are many people who still absolutely love the game. But a large number do continue to play WoW because of said attachment, and those are usually the ones that try the next new MMO game and then go back to the "familiar". And by large number, I don't mean majority. I can't say majority because I do not definitively know if that is true or not.

People are inherintly opposed to change, and stay with the "familiar" and "routine". And for a number of people, the familiar and routine is World of Warcraft. And people are less likely to give something a chance if it doesn't surpass the familiar and routine. People don't want to give a new game the chance to squish any bugs when they can just go back to their familiar game, which has already gotten rid of many bugs. And I do believe the comment about if WoW was released now with the exact same launch it had back in 2004, it would suffer the same fate as all the other games released in the last 5 years.

[Pull My Finger]

There is no room for opinion when it comes to gameplay. It's an absolute fact- When I press this button X happens. That is how video games operate. Currently and in the foreseeable future they can not happen any other way literally.

It is literally impossible for video games to function without an exact ruleset that governs the input and interactions within the game itself.

One can not have an opinion what pressing the Jump does. Pressing the Jump button is absolute.

I'm not entirely sure what you're actually trying to say or where your head is at, but I don't really see an actual point, in relation to the subject at hand. Maybe you're defining the term "gameplay" in a peculiar way, I don't know. The point, or, the alleged argument was that WoW plays good.

When people talk about gameplay, what is usually meant is how the game feels and how well the man/machine, or man/software interface, for that matter, works. This shouldn't be about idiosyncrasies and hairsplitting. We know what is meant when the term gameplay is used.

It's also completely unimportant if WoW - or any other game, for that matter - is "sophisticated" or whatever. The only thing that matters is how it plays, how it resonates with the player on a hands-on, visceral level and how much fun and fulfillment he or she experiences while playing. I'm not into shop talk. I'm talking about playing and experiencing games.

WoW is a game that plays exceptionally good, and yes, of course it's accessible and "easy to get" - is that supposed to be bad now? It was, and is, potentially a blast to play. Now like it or not, liking or not liking a game is a subjective thing - but WoW is one of the games that undeniably bring a lot to the table to potentially convince players. And it obviously did. That's what good games do.

Also: making a game intuitively accessible and easy to pick up and still comprehensive and motivating is an art in itself and by no means easily achieved. That's one of the pinnacles of good design. And it's definitely more worth than "sophisticated" and fancy stuff that doesn't pan out and fails to deliver on a pratical level, but impresses theorists, feature counters and people who apparently enjoy looking at games and analyzing them instead of playing them. Happens a lot in modern games, by the way.

Jay Wilson - in spite of all the moronic hate he receives - has said a very smart thing. Perfect innovation is always secondary to perfect execution.

[RH92]

Hello, As title says, Will there ever be a MMORPG that defeats WoW? and if so, what company will make it?

Let the battle BEGIN!

I can hardly think of anything besides time that can "defeat" WoW. In my opinion WoW has became shadow of former self, it no longer has the vibe... I may have grown up, but I still do think this way. They are like band that was famous in 80s and now they are going to sell millions of new album just because it is new. Personally I think the overall Pandaria is just a magic trick to feed the audience before using the the last big ones. WoW wouldn't be so successful if there was no Warcraft games, it was this that made many players to play it in the first place. Anything successful will make something successful, the hard thing is to keep it strong. At the start it had good vibe, although when looking back it was quite terrible in today's view... But it was easier then, the genre was still quite young. In short, I think Warcraft games and the former lore made a lot of players to try it, those who weren't intersted in lore were brought to the game by those who were. Me being example. And in the end it was hyped by many players to bring more people to the game.

I no longer play it, switched to GW2. Which I love. WoW has lost vibe for me and it was too much time consuming while I can play GW2 the way I like. As I said I think they just try to feed audience before they have to start thinking about going somewhere with game. And as we have seen, the story since the Frozen Throne is on decline. It is hard position when you make huge story enveloping the game to move it where you want, but I sincerely think it this what made it successful.

To sum it up, WoW came from right foundations at the best time and managed to keep it. Nothing can "defeat" it, although I think there are better MMO games for certain people.

[Deleted]

Tera "killed" WoW for me, after I played Tera I never looked back at WoW. Action based combat is the future for MMO gaming. After Tera I played GW2 which I really enjoyed and still play for a couple of hours a week. Recently I'm back to Tera (f2p made the game much better) and waiting for Neverwinter Online. I don't have that much time as when I played WoW actively so F2P or B2P mmo's combined with Action based combat instead of tab-target is the only way forward for me.