2014 is going to be a harsh year for World of Warcraft

[jdfrost]

In my option 2014 is the death of MMO's, ESO and wildstar are last 2 MMO's to attack WoW if they can not damage WoW, it is GameOver for the MMO scene and WoW has won and made history, even though it has already!

With WoD coming out for WoW, I think it will bring back alot of players. I find it kind of is a WoW reset, stat reduced, a pure balanced pvp tournament(lol), no flying, Making hardcore raiding more hardcore!

I played Wildstar somewhere, with a decent computer and it lagged along, felt like i was alone. Unless i play it again and those are fixed i will not be buying it! I kind of don"t want to reduce my graphics from WoW lol.

I have not tried ESO, but from friends that have said it was fun but the beta was to short to get a good feel for it! I would like to try it.

but those are my options, To each their Own.

[Deleted]

Wildstar is too silly to be immersive, the lore is cheap, the mechanics are the same things that were spewed out of the mouths of TRION, ArenaNet, LucasArts etc. That game has nothing other than exclusivity thanks to the subscription. I won't be paying for it.

TES:O is an unknown quantity - and so close to its release date I doubt this will be anything more than another SwTOR disaster.

MMOs have little chance of improvement until we know more about Titan or EQN. The rest is all filler no thriller, I fear.

As much as I dislike Blizzard's decisions in regards to the continuation of WoW post 3.2, I admit, we were wrong for all those years. There is no third party that can touch WoW over the next year or so.

[Deleted]

@OP : you forget Everquest Next.

At the end of 2014 World of Warcraft is not the 1st sub MMO and is likely going F2p. The eso/wildstar/eqn combo ll hit so hard. Star citizen ll finish wow in 2015. No more expac. Game over.

All right, we get it, you hate wow with a passion and you'll probably be wetting your pants from excitement when wow one day shuts down. But please explain to me why do you still bother posting? Nothing you ever say is constructive and the only thing you say is how you have something against wow but don't provide any reason. Is your life really that miserable that you have nothing better to do than post random anti-wow posts?

[Auxora]

On the OP item #1 I agree that no new content until Summer is a real concern. SoO will be very stale long before then, and it looks like they might be making the same mistake as the dead time before MoP. On items #2 and #3, I played ESO beta and was very (very) unimpressed for all the talk it has had. It actually was really mediocre even considering it was beta. Wildstar isn't going to pull people away either anymore than Aion did.

That said, the sub numbers for wow are a very clear line down since 2009-2010. Despite our love for the game as fans it does have a finite life. The expansions give a small temporary bump with a drop before they come out, but overall it's been a very clear decline. In fact the curve is so clear now if you look at the graph it's easy to project out numbers for the next few years. Eventually the decline will flatten out though when it gets down to the hard cores that won't quit until the day the last server is turned off. How many of those there are is anyone's guess, 500k, 1M, 2M, more? But folks sometimes on here stick their heads in the sand and pretend the decline isn't happening. It is, but after playing it I can tell you that ESO won't speed it up or pull many players away.

[Kazlofski]

Think WoW will be just fine, hopefully released in June right after the book in May then it will be a nice bonus so we aren't stuck with MoP for ages.

All I hear from ESO is 2 sides:
1 - People who haven't been to beta and say it's awesome and gonna destroy WoW.
2 - Most of those who are in the beta keep saying there is nothing to be excited about, nowhere near a "WoW killer" especially with the sub that ruins it's chances even more.

Wildstar well as been said - Looks cheap and too silly to be serious to be honest, maybe something decent but again nothing amazing.

[Novx]

@OP : you forget Everquest Next.

At the end of 2014 World of Warcraft is not the 1st sub MMO and is likely going F2p. The eso/wildstar/eqn combo ll hit so hard. Star citizen ll finish wow in 2015. No more expac. Game over.

I don't know if I want to reply...not sure if troll....

WoW going F2P? WoW has 15x the subscribers currently of any other MMO on the market. Even if ESO (lol... just lol) and Wildstar each take 33% of WoW playersbase (leaving each game with 33%) it would still stay P2P. That's like being a Toyota dealership, dominating your market for years, a Dodge dealership goes in next door so suddenly you start giving your cars away for free. Wildstar has a chance to be something great and the reason it does it because it isn't trying to copy WoW unlike half the other games that come out (Rift....Rift....Rift....). ESO is just an abortion in it's current incarnation and is going to need the old Final Fantasy redo. Speaking of which, how is FF14 doing? Haven't heard a word about it since the highly anticipated reboot where a bunch of people I know quit WOW and then came back 2 weeks later.

[Gangplank]

Age of the game doesn't really matter much. The game itself still looks passable, even for 2013. And so long as the content is quality, the game will still be worth playing for people who want to play. The only way "age" will affect WoW is if they run out of future content because 'everything' has been covered.

The biggest factor, imo, isn't the age of WoW, but the age of its playerbase. At peak subscriptions, most players were in their early-to-mid 20s. It's now nearly 4 years later, and those players are now out of college, possibly with families, and have lives that can no longer accommodate the playtime demand of WoW. I was one of those players. I started the game during the original release at the age of 23. I was 25 when TBC released. I was 27 when Wrath released. Now I'm 31, have family and other real-life responsibilities. I haven't played WoW since Cata launched. I've considered coming back to the game because I loved it, but I have to be realistic about what I'd really get out of the game with my current life. I couldn't raid due to limited time, I couldn't get back into serious PvP because I've been gone too long... what's left for a potential player such as myself? Not a whole lot.

Something else that weighs heavily on WoW -- the moba genre has really taken off. League is the biggest game in the world right now, and is showing no signs of slowing down. Games like this also take a much smaller time commitment to enjoy. A person can play a game of LoL or Dota 2 in 30-40 minutes and get their fill of playing without all the prerequisites of hours of leveling, grinding, raiding etc to get to the "meat of mmo's". Games with shorter time commitments will be the wave of the future for gaming.

Indie games have also become much more popular. Millions of players are enjoying games like Minecraft, Terraria, Fez, etc with upcoming games such as Starbound to keep players enjoying these simple but entertaining games that don't require players to sit for hours at a time to enjoy the game. I have played many indie games, and what I enjoy most is that I can play them for short periods of time, save the game, then come back later and pick up where I left off. All the while I'm working toward a goal of beating the game (well, with exception to Minecraft, but that game is open to do w/e you want).

Mostly though, I feel like PC gaming has just shifted to wanting shorter gaming sessions. MMO's are a dying breed in general, however WoW's still-high sub numbers is just a testament to how good that game really is. If anything kills WoW, it will be that players will eventually get tired of the MMO timesink, and find games that are less demanding for similar enjoyment. Any MMOs being made right now are simply setting themselves up to fail, unfortunately. The only people interested in playing MMOs are already playing an MMO, and it's highly unlikely that they are willing to leave their progress to start a new MMO.

[Aphrel]

is it only me who thing that both wildstar and the elder scrolls mmo looks kinda bad? I mean, compared to other supposed wowkillers, these 2 look like really weak canidates to me.
The catroony graphics of wildstar.. the what looks to be a horrible gameplaymehcanics of ESO? swtor or gw2 looked alot better but they didnt got close to wows numbers, i very much doubt these will either.

[Haywire5714]

I've watched a few streams and videos of Wildstar and so far I'm pretty unimpressed; but I'd like to see more before I make a final judgement. The best thing I've seen from Wildstar is a dungeon from this video; it's pretty and seems to be well thought out.

[DrMcNinja]

I'm going to be the guy who destroys all hopes and dreams of those who haven't had a glimpse of the ESO beta (like others have done before me): It is disappointing

[Zaelsino]

I'd like to think people are more cautious about jumping on whatever new MMO comes out on a whim these days, at least without a fairly good idea of its quality.

[wych]

I'd like to think people are more cautious about jumping on whatever new MMO comes out on a whim these days, at least without a fairly good idea of its quality.

As somebody who bought AoC, DC Universe and WAR I have to agree.

Rather wait 12 months to see how an MMO is received these days rather than buying into the hype that is virally marketed around by the companies.

[Deleted]

BF4 and games like that is what's leading the games industry now and I won't come back to playing MMOs again altough I miss them until the developers get a serious grasp about graphics, gameplay and some mature art work. To expect to make a MMO today were people still can play it with hardware from 2008 is seriously hampering the MMO genre.

Millions are playing BF4 right now so obviously the player base is ready to comitt to some serious hard ware upgrades if a game is good enough.

Sorry to bring ti to you, but "Army" games are for kids. Hello Kitty is more mature than "realistic army" based games.

[Deleted]

Only time will kill WoW, no new mmo´s out there...

[Tailswipe]

They will lose subs till WoD then they will get a bunch of subs,then they will start losing subs again. Same as its been for years. Not much to discuss really.

Except that each expansion they get less coming back.

[Deleted]

I thought Everquest Next was the new cool thing to wait on.

Waiting seems to be totally cool now. ''I'm waiting for bla game'' makes me cringe.

Can't people enjoy current games instead of constantly getting hyped and waiting?

[iceberg265]

WoW will probably lose a couple million subs in 2014, but it will still be fine. Some of it's fan base is so rabid that they can do whatever they want and still keep subs. I mean just look at the plot for WoD.

When ESO was announced I had a feeling that it would not do that well, and I still have not seen anything to prove or disprove that feeling. Doesn't interest me.

I am in the Wildstar beta and, while it definitely has its issues, (most of which they should be able to fix for launch) it is very fun. The combat is fast paced and addicting, it has really good comedic elements, and the story is decent enough.

Obligatory response to all the 'hurpadupr SWTOR dead' fools in this thread: Please remember that when you are comparing sub numbers, WoW releases world wide numbers and SWTOR only released western subs, so the gap is not quite as far as your egos want us to think. Also as some anecdotal evidence, my old WoW guild just died and had to merge with another guild, whereas my SWTOR guild is growing and we moved up to 16man raids from 8man.

WoW is the Justin Bieber of MMOs. That's cool for you if you like Justin Bieber, but the rest of us just don't get it.

[Kingpiinx]

I used to LOVE, Warcraft. It was all about exploration and immersion in the environment. You walked out of the starting area and just walked...and either found things to kill, or things to run away from. I remember looking across the water from Elwynn forest with my City of Heroes Supergroup friends at skull level dogs and spent around an hour just swimming across trying to dodge them to get as far that way as we could. It was about making games for us within the actual game. Unfortunately, they then made dungeon finder....flying mounts everywhere, heirlooms, instant leveling and killed the exploration and immersion side of the game. Now I see people in the game (that I stopped playing last year) who won't even start a new character without full heirlooms. No thrill of discovery or battling a large world boss that invaded Duskwood (cant remember the fat dudes name) or anything that even resembles what Warcraft was. It's still a "good" game outside of the fanboys but its not a great game anymore. It could have been down to the fact that in its prime, it was all new and gave us something no other game did, but even GW2 managed to bring back exploration and instant "jump in and fight" bosses that randomly roam around so it can still be new for us older players.
I think Blizzard need to go back to when they were hungry for the title and re-invest into the "psychology of Warcraft" to revitalize what made the first one so great back in the day. Exploration (not flying over everything with a rush to get to the top level), immersion and the feeling of being powerful based on your current level and not the highest level and gear in the game. Also, diversify the talent trees so all builds are viable on all classes and are fun. Restrict us once more so we appreciate Warcraft. We were spoilt by too many changes to suit the novices. Make us find the dungeons in order to use them, make us travel for an hour just to get stealthily ositioned near the opposing factions outpost and not be summoned by a warlock. These little changes make a game within a game and thats what a lot of us loved and would probably pay to play once again.

For now though, there are too many great free to play games (GW2 being the most polished and fun) although if warcraft halved its sub price or made it free, i would play again without these changes. I loved the game and miss it but right now, the memory of what was great about Warcraft is all a lot of us have left.

[Mawnix]

More over-reacting. Yay.

[igniter]

I came here to say this. Maybe not quite so harshly; but after having checked out the beta I'm completely disinterested in the final product.

Isn't talking about in game experiences breaking the NDA?

Wildstar is too silly to be immersive, the lore is cheap, the mechanics are the same things that were spewed out of the mouths of TRION, ArenaNet, LucasArts etc. That game has nothing other than exclusivity thanks to the subscription. I won't be paying for it.

Keep burying your head in the sand.