Will there ever be a MMORPG that defeats WoW?

[Tomana]

It is very unlikely, as a) the entry barrier is high and b) at the same time editors are afraid to innovate and clone WoW which obviously fails.

[Remilia]

Me personally.
I
do not
give a fuck.

I personally find WoW boring as hell.

I don't mind if a new developer released a game despite having a lower population, I find fun. Why go after the big when you can carve a niche for yourself and make a name that way. Most developers these days are doing just that.
A game doesn't need sky high numbers to be profitable, and when it's sustainable and gain it's name for what it's doing, it'll grow naturally without having to appeal to a greater mass. Eve is just a great example of this.

[Mikael123]

I think Blizzard plans to launch a new MMORPG at some point and let WoW fade out. In that distant future I think we'll see a game beating WoW on popularity.

[Angrybathtub]

I think WoW will never be defeated. People will always look back at WoW with nostalgia and call it the greatest MMO ever.

[Faroth]

Wow Is going to destroy wow.

They will build bigger WoWs with bigger numbers and they will DESTROY THEMSELVES!!!

[A Challenger!]

When did I imply or state any of those games were unsuccessful in any respect other than being WoW killers?

Well for one, Age of Conan and Warhammer Online are kaputz, so if your intent was to just state how foolish the term "WoW killer" truly is, you made the grievous error of sticking successful MMOs, financial or otherwise, next to dead MMOs.

For two, I'll buy you an ice cream?

[Deleted]

Well that depends, if you're talking in terms of fun I already think it was defeated, however if you're talking in terms of active players I don't think it ever will due to a number of reasons:
1-People's time investement in the game, many people have been playing WoW for years and won't start a new mmo no matter what.
2-Friends.
3-WoW's low system requirements.
4-fanboys that won't give new games a chance and just go ''Lol another ''wow killer? lololol goodluck'' and then after like 3 months ''LOL xmmo doesn't even have a quarter of the subs wow has! failure!!!'' (I know, there are fanboys in all games)
5-people that aren't fanboys but listen to the funboys' baseless arguments, don't bother doing research and just go ''oh I heard that game is bad so I won't even try''

[Varyk]

No, far too much momentum. It got in at the right time and caught the wave of hype when mmo's were still in a relatively infant stage. Now games rush because they think they have some revolutionary idea and forget that the game has to have basic functions and features to last after whatever gimmick it has gets old. Wow will only "die" of it's own accord, and I don't mean that in a bad way.

[mercutiouk]

There's little that's going to just flat out take wow down. From near term releases Elder Scrolls is one of the one that definitely can take a slice of wow playerbase away. It IS going to be like that though. Nothing is going to come alone that causes everyone to decide to jump ship. WoW with 1m players would still be worth it for Blizzards time, I think a lot would likely keep accounts etc open (but maybe not active) and "check in" from time to time as there's a hell of a lot of long term friendships made over an 8 year game with such a strong social element.

Looking forward to TESO, it's the first that has a chance to take me away fairly permanently, while not a massive milestick I've not had my head turned much by anything else, wow I heard about and followed from about the start of it's betas and fully predicted it would be phenomenal.

Previously I spent a decent amount of time in Ultima Online, that, like the more recent ES games gave you the chance to make a completely open ended character (700 points with 30ish skills from 0-100, spend the 700 as you please) and having such a high degree of personalisation for how the character PLAYED (rather than just how it looked) was a HUGE part of the game. Having a completely open ended (ok I heard it's not COMPLETELY open ended) "you are an adventurer - go play" with the ability to define your own style of combat.... if it's done right it will do VERY well.

---------- Post added 2013-04-07 at 08:44 PM ----------

Need an MMO by a big name developer with game changing end game content. Most MMOs these days are 1 month wonders.

Elder Scrolls. It's one of the few with the caliber and following (at least out of the "up-coming mmo" type stuff) to have a shot at it. Nail the character development (open ended while keeping balance) and the combat system. Make sure there's plenty of group content and just drop it all into skyrim on a bigger map. I don't know many who wouldn't go for that.

[Paladin885]

There are plenty of MMO's that are as good, or better than, vanilla wow right now. But WoW has had 8yrs+ to polish and the "so-called-wow-killers" still have the training wheels on.


But let's be serious... WoW is like the honda civic or toyota prius of the MMO world. It's the most relevant, the most known, the most played, and the most talked about. The only what it will die is if blizzard shuts down the servers.

[Valeron]

. Every game was hailed as a WoW killer

You'll find that almost every person who said such and such game will kill wow are wow players themselves. Mostly in mocking that other game.

[Sj]

Well for one, Age of Conan and Warhammer Online are kaputz, so if your intent was to just state how foolish the term "WoW killer" truly is, you made the grievous error of sticking successful MMOs, financial or otherwise, next to dead MMOs.

For two, I'll buy you an ice cream?

FYI, AoC is still very popular and profitable. F2P != kaputz.

[A Challenger!]

There is no error on my part. And there is only one question you need to answer:

Is that list or isn't that list made entirely of games many people said were going to kill WoW, which completely failed to do so?

The answer is of course that it is. Every game was hailed as a WoW killer and none of them killed WoW.

You should stop putting words into people's mouths (or posts as they case may be) and forming an argument based off of them.

The term WoW killer is a total fallacy to begin with, and no one said half those games were going to kill WoW, Rift aside, which had the pretty ballsy tactic of going head on with WoW via their commercials. Just because the fanatical community decided to preach unrealistic views, doesn't mean those games were ever thought of as 'WoW Killers".

So, let us use your logic for a moment, because I clearly am not putting words in your mouth: Because the WoW community is so full of vitriol, whether for WoW or against it, we should automatically assume WoW will be a decayed corpse, brimming with pestilence and riddled with maggots by the end of the year, yeah? I mean, after all, that is what people say, right?

You can forget that ice cream by the way.

Sometimes I feel like ppl making new MMOs listen too much to forum posts where people claim the game was best in Classic. So they create games like they were classic WoW. In fact making a game that is actiually outdated for 7 years....

Nothing makes me lol harder than when people claim that WoW was best in classic. The game was broken for a year, with some of the most glaring of issues being class ones. It is really a miracle WoW attracted the fan base it did during it's inception, as all WoW really was back then was a glorified Everquest clone in the Warcraft mythos, with the added bonus of a more modernized, streamlined questing system.

That said, game developers do seem to be wising up. We are at least long past the sordid days of MMOs such as, but not limited to: Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Age of Conan, and Warhammer Online.

[A Challenger!]

You're pretty dumb.

Here we have yet another thread in which some random person is claiming upcoming games are going to kill WoW. You know, the person I was originally addressing.
To counter that claim, I made a list of previous games that many random, clueless people had claimed were going to kill WoW.
You just assumed I was making fun of those games as commercial failures despite having never mentioned the success of the games in any capacity other than that of a WoW killer.
I reiterate my point, hopefully clearer for the reading comprehension challenged.
You now accuse me of holding the logic that irrational claims made by random people must be viewed as credible, despite that being the exact opposite of everything I've been posting.

You are trying too hard to create an argument for you to win.

You're killing me man. First you open up your superiority rant with "You're pretty dumb.", then you finish with "I'm trying too hard." yet you didn't address a single thing I said.

Keep on defaulting and back peddling though.

[A Challenger!]

1. It's not a superiority rant. It's a list of the posts in our exchange. That I open it by calling you dumb doesn't change the overall content of the post.
2. I'm not backpedaling. I have made clarifications because you have poor reading comprehension and like to double the length of my posts with assumptions you're making, but I have not retracted anything I've said or made any attempt to back up. Ergo, I cannot be backpedaling.
3. I'm not going to address your points because they have little to nothing to do with anything I've said. You keep arguing against things I neither said nor implied.
4. The only thing you've said that has anything to do with what I've said is your claim that none of those games were called WoW killers. They most certainly all were, regardless of what people said it. If those people were fanatics as you called them or otherwise not credible, that's fine because I don't think the person I was originally addressing is credible either, making them a perfect argument against his claim that whatever games he's in beta for will end WoW.
5. I'm sure I'll still be killing you because like I said, you're just creating an argument for you to win so there's likely nothing I can say that will convince you you're wrong.

None of the things you've said have added or changed any "content" in your posts. I gave you why your logic is full of fallacies, and why the term 'WoW killer' cannot be applied to games that are only called such by their fanatical communities or opponents, you just chose to brush all that off in favor of calling me dumb. Hell, in your own post just now you said it yourself:

They most certainly were all WoW killers regardless of what people said it.

You just defeated yourself with your own argument and don't even realize it, this is precisely why you're wrong.

You can't just say one thing, then deny another. If you are going to call games like Guild Wars 2, TERA, and SWTOR WoW killers, then you also acknowledge the people who claim WoW will be dead within the week are right too, which we both know is just not true on both claims. Just quit while you're ahead, for your sake.

Tell you what, if you stop now maybe, JUST maybe I'll take you for that ice cream after all. You can even get toppings.

[A Challenger!]

I actually typoed in a really unfortunate spot. The word missing is "certainly all called WoW killers." From your latest post, I at least get why we're having this discussion at all. I thought it was obvious that I didn't take claims of "WoW killers" seriously in my first response to that person, apparently not. That is my fault.

I do not and have never taken seriously the claims of anyone that any of those games would kill WoW. I have laughed at them at every turn. That was the entire point of posting what I first posted. Every time a new MMO is debuted that has any chance at being a success in any regard, there is a group of people who call it a WoW killer and insist WoW is doomed. WoW is never doomed because WoW is WoW and Blizzard is very good at making money. So any time someone else comes along and suggests that WoW is doomed because of some future release, I laugh at them as well and add another game to the list of "WoW killers".

I'll take what I can get, I don't savor petty arguments over such nuanced details. The term 'WoW killer' is just rather annoying in general though, as it implies an MMO is a beast to be slain. While yeah, WoW no doubt held a monopoly over the MMO genre in the beginning, we are definitely seeing much less of a dry spell now. Can't say I'm not wary about future MMOs still.

Tell you what, we can both laugh at the people calling 'WoW killer' as well as the doomsayers over ice cream. You earned it buddy!

[Gracos]

If WoW ever did "shut down" there would be a mass exodus of players looking for another MMORPG, so yes, in that sense, it's very possible for WoW's best competitor at that point to rack up a massive amount of new players. Other than that scenario, I don't see players jumping ship from WoW. We all have too much invested in it. So the answer to your question is a yes, but only when WoW/Blizzard decides to let it.

[Eggoman]

Inb4 "Titan will beat it"

Jokes aside, MMO genre was defined by WoW, nothing can beat it unless Blizzard themselves decide it will be taken down.

Heh... So much wrong with that. That is like saying McDonald's defined what a fast food should be like.

[Yunru]

A new generation of mmos will kill it.

See sword art online.

[Lochton]

Inb4 "Titan will beat it"

Jokes aside, MMO genre was defined by WoW, nothing can beat it unless Blizzard themselves decide it will be taken down.

Now this would be an awesome fight against all "WoW killer threads" ^^

This game will kill World of Warcraft and take all it's players! Then Blizzard appears and publishes Titan, transferring players to it instead ^^ Though, I will not have high nor low hopes for it. I'm excited, but wish to see more first ^^

For now, I will tell you a secret about a curse on the internet.

- As soon as someone creates a "This game will be the WoW killer" thread, then they have formed the doom of that game. I've noticed this, seen good start ups and activity on many MMO's. Then I log on MMO-champion and notice that someone made a "wow killer" thread 10 minutes earlier. This thread then seeps corruption into said game and suddenly people flee, or find things that WoW did better and so on ^^