Originally Posted by
alturic
That's because what people think of when they think "PC gamers", are a dying breed. I don't think anyone thinks 40, 50, 60 year olds (large segment of WoW players) as "PC gamers". The new generation of gamers are predominantly console/mobile gamers, for a multitude of reasons.
PC MMO's, when they have investors, have grand plans and usually through development some of those plans get put on hold until after launch (because you know... we need to see if the game will make money first now) and/or cash grabs are introduced shortly after launch because the initial sales weren't as projected.
There's no real innovative games coming out because it's a huge gamble, WoW was and still is an anomaly in the MMO world. If you want to really see the state of the MMO landscape, just view the massively long list of failed games at mmorpg.com.
Note: Failed does not mean abandoned. Ultima Online, the grandad, is still going and receiving updates, ~17 years later, and still has a subscription fee. When you know that little tidbit, it's always amusing when people say WoW will die anytime soon.
- - - Updated - - -
Exactly how I went into GW2. I knew it wasn't trying to be a WoW-clone, but still. When a juggernaut like WoW was a/the primary MMO in the world and people (myself included) expect certain things from MMOs (holy trinity, combat speed, etc) you'll get my initial money but I probably won't last more than a month.
I still wish Rift had more players, and a better interface as it was the only MMO (again, since WoW) that I enjoyed thoroughly. It was almost... dare I say, like vanilla WoW. However, this will sound hilarious, one of the things I couldn't get over was gearing up for current tier. You needed resists/stats and unless your guild did old content, you'd never get that gear. :P
- - - Updated - - -
So basically, until an expansion comes out, once you hit a certain gear level, if you don't REALLY enjoy the game, there's no treadmill to keep you pushing for new content/gear? Seems counterproductive in a primarily cash-shop focused revenue model.