The End is NighSeptember 8th, 2007 by Monique
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When you think of a MMORPG, you immediately think of knights. You think of goblins. You think of dark, dank dungeons. You think of a beautiful woman in need of some rescuing. Of course, there’s always been a few exceptions to the standard fantasy rule–some have even been pretty awesome. There’s been MMORPGs set in space like Anarchy Online and Eve Online. There’s even been complete pieces of shit masquerading as reality MMORPGs like Second Life or The Sims Online. But the most successful MMORPG of our time revolves around the conflict between Orcs and Humans. It’s medieval fantasy. It’s World of Warcraft.
Of course, everything’s eventual and nothing lasts forever. Everything must come to an end. You can see the future, if you look hard enough at the past. Someday World of Warcraft will lose the majority of its subscribers like Everquest did. Someday Azeroth will be over. And even if Illidan himself argues you are not prepared, he’s wrong. You can prepare yourself for the end of WoW.
You can also just look at the upcoming online games and decide for yourself if any of them have the force to displace WoW or if they’re going to be duds. There are a lot of games coming up for either Q4 of 2007 or Q1 of 2008. Some of them even look a little interesting. Here’s four titles I think stand out above the crowd:
looks good in theory. Fuck, even their marketing looks good; to promote the game’s upcoming release, they held a party this week in an anti-gravity chamber. How cool is that? Richard Garriott, the creator of the game, writes this about TR:“In creating Tabula Rasa, I was determined to break away from our roots in medieval fantasy and develop a solid science fiction universe.”
This statement is exciting, any gamer could tell you that. If TR actually breaks the mold like it promises, online gamers could find themselves in for a shock; they could find themselves discovering a new side of an old genre. However, let’s also remember that while it promises to be different, promises were meant to be broken. TR’s NDA was lifted a few days ago and the initial feedback is pretty negative. So far this sci-fi MMORPG doesn’t seem to be any different or any more innovative than anything else on the market. It’s supposedly on the boring–”mind numbingly tedious,” I believe one beta tester said–side as well. As for my personal stance, let’s just say I like my PvP with a little more PvP and a side of even more PvP; Tabula Rasa, for its part, has no PvP. And after suffering through Final Fantasy XI many years ago, I can tell you that no PvP system is generally a bad choice in game design. Tabula Rasa: October 2007
It also promotes full-blown world PvP and boasts no loading times or lag plus the ability to aim spells and peripherals. In fact, according to the developers, anything is possible in the world, including the founding of your very own town. It promotes itself as a redefinition of the standard “fantasy MMORPG.” The question really is, can it do anything it promises? If it does even half, it will be phenomenal, but I’m not holding my breath. Still, watch this video and tell me you weren’t a little bit excited. Maybe it’s the music. Darkfall: TBA
Simply put, the only promise WAR makes is that it will be full of blood-thirst and PvP. I personally think this is a good promise to make, but maybe that’s just me. EA Mythic is a good company–they developed DAoC afterall–and Warhammer is a well-known, well-established series. This, in and of itself, makes it a good recipe for success; just look at WoW and how it was built up by the previous Warcraft games and lore. A good base of lore is always a good foundation for a MMORPG. My only concern is that they may take the lore a bit too far. The idea that a warrior priest must wear their hair shaved, no matter of gender, so they can communicate with God is an integral piece of Warhammer lore. And they’re putting it in the game, along with hundreds of other “interesting” rules that have sparked debate on numerous WAR forums. How many people really want to play a manly female? How many people are into lore of their MMORPGs to that extent? Still, I digress, and admit that I will be there for the bloodshed on opening day. It sold me over a year ago when a developer being interviewed impersonated an Orc. On live television. In front of millions. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning: Q1 2008
we have Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. Like WAR, Conan has a solid company behind it; it’s being developed by Funcom, who produced the popular Anarchy Online. Conan has an interesting take on what it wants to do, and unlike the other games, offers what it calls, “a single-player experience as well as a MMO one at the same time.” This could appease someone who hates grouping and instances, offering them the option of soloing instead of insisting on mandatory grouping. What Conan doesn’t do for me, however, is intrigue me whatsoever. It looks visually stunning, perhaps the most out of all the games I brought up, but it also looks so generic fantasy I don’t know what to do or say about it; it’s another story about another knight with another sword. It’s getting a little old. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures: March 2008So will any of these games displace WoW as a dominating figurehead? Doubtful, though WAR may have a fighting chance. Instead of an overnight dethroning of WoW, I believe it’ll be a gradual shift. I think that Warhammer Online will eat up a lot of its subscribers and the others may be sleepy successes. It’s possible these games can began the attrition of Blizzard’s MMORPG. In fact, more than possible, it’s almost guaranteed they will.
Honestly,
though, what I think will finally sink the behemoth that World of Warcraft has become once and for all will be Starcraft 2. And this is something I’m sure Blizzard won’t mind in the scheme of things. This is something they probably strategically planned. After all, if SC2 is the hit that it probably will be, the stage is set for a Universe of Starcraft, no? And as a SC fan, I can’t even pretend to be outraged. I want to be a level 60 Terran Medic. I want to kill Kerrigan with a raid group. I mean, I already have the SC2 poster from Blizzcon on my wall.
September 8th, 2007 at 7:44 am
I doubt Starcraft II will take away from WoW that much. I’m pretty sure the strong majority of WoW players never touched a previous Warcraft game, let alone Starcraft… and it’s doubtful that there are that many people who would not only play Starcraft but play it so seriously that they’d quit WoW. I mean, I’ll pick it up (or pirate it :P) and play through the single player, but probably no more…. it probably won’t make much more of an impact than Oblivion did.
A “Universe of Starcraft” game would be a different story, but I don’t think that’ll be on the agenda for quite a while. 2.5 years isn’t that old as MMOs go.
September 8th, 2007 at 8:04 am
I have to agree with you - it will all be a gradual shift, and WoW won’t die overnight. But - if you look at their homepage you will see something new. It’s called Scroll of Resurrection. You find a friend of yours that hasn’t played WoW in 6 months, you get them to resubscribe through this program, you get free WoW time. It’s a bribe. Bring back players, get a reward. So when I first saw this I thought maybe they were losing their player base. But THEN I thought well maybe they are fortifying their player base because there are other really good looking games coming out (like Warhammer).
OH and don’t discredit Lord of the Rings Online! This game actually IS doing well, you just don’t hear about it too often. I played the beta and didn’t like it, but there are so many people who do and apparently they are making their player base happy (at least at the moment).
Good list, although I was sad you didn’t say anything about Pirates of the Burning Sea. I wonder if I should give up hope for this game or what.
September 8th, 2007 at 8:12 am
Second Life can actually do some pretty neat things, but the key is to not really look at it as a typical game. Then you can mess around with some useful abilities. More on that at a later date if you’d like~
I’ve been looking forward to Darkfall for its concepts and claims, and despite that I don’t have time for anything as indepth and endless as an MMO nowadays, I will still be unable to resist evaluating the game. It’s trying to be so innovative and I’d love to see its successes and failures.
September 8th, 2007 at 11:01 am
Peter–I think you’re making a really dangerous assumption. SC isn’t one of the world’s premiere games for nothing. It won’t just be pirated and played through once, as you intend to do. Most people will be buying it not for single player, but for multi-player which can’t be pirated.
I would say about half of WoW’s playerbase played the WC games prior, especially DoTA and WC:3. I think about half of them will be buying SC2. If the game sucks, all bets are off, but if it’s as good as Brood Wars, then I’ll bet you ten bucks it’s a nail in a coffin two years from now. You write 2.5 years isn’t too old for WoW, and I agree…but I also think SC2 will sink it, which is a few years from now 
Dana–I totally forgot about that game. Um. Um. …It looked cool, a few years ago? Insofar as LotR, I heard good things about it, but its lack of PvP definitely made it a game most WoW people ended up trying then returning to WoW for.
Elle–Yeah, DF would be AMAZING if it were even half of what it says. But god, too much on its plate.
September 8th, 2007 at 11:25 am
You should take a look at Fury. It’s a mmorpg/fps that’s currently in beta. It runs on the unreal 3 engine and gameplay is ridiculously fast. The entire game is PvP based, there’s no AI controlled mobs. The company is also giving out one million dollars in prizes for a beta competition. This is something they intend to keep doing in the future as well (not to mention there’s no required sub fee to play the game when it comes out).
http://www.unleashthefury.com/
September 8th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
I’ve never been a big MMO player. I did get into games like Diablo 2 and Guild Wars, but those aren’t even close to the games you’ve mentioned. Though I am interested in trying out Tabula Rasa and Guild Wars 2, when they release.
As for Starcraft 2. I’m sure this is going to be a solid game. I’ve watched quite a few gameplay videos for it, and I’m very impressed. Like you said, if it’s anything like Brood Wars, it’s going to be massive. There’s a huge number of people who are just itching to play this game. Though I’m not sure if I ever want to see it develop into an MMORPG. It could be great, but I doubt I could ever get into it.
September 8th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Mot–I wonder how many people will play just for the prize money, and not the game whatsoever haha. If I had free time, I know I would.
Phil–Guild Wars is pretty close to Warhammer. Well. Let me rephrase that: it has PvP and a similar level cap. The games are arguably different, and I really disliked GW aside from the fact that it was free and had cool arena systems. GW is an interesting case study, and GW2 looks like it could be fun to mess around in. I’m downloading the TR open beta at the moment, I’ll probably mention it somewhere later…
I hope SC2 is as good as it looks. The gameplay videos have been fabulous, they have Kerrigan coming back so the story should be rich. It has a lot of potential, and Blizzard rarely disappoints!
September 9th, 2007 at 2:06 am
I think I’m actually going to give SC2 a try. Me, who has always sucked horribly in RTS and never got the hang of it. By the time my base is zerged by the Scourge, I’m still moving my camera around helplessly trying to find my units to actually attack something. I still haven’t figured out the shortcuts.
(I just hope I can stick with the single player campaign in SC2 for the rest of my life. *shudders*)
Anyway, I have a lot of faith in WoW still and hope it wouldn’t die at least in the next two years. I play it for the PvE and while it has had its up and downs, they somehow always manage to surprise with something awesome, aka Naxx and BT. Then again, enjoying WoW massively depends on how you get along with your guildmates and no amount of awesomely designed dungeons can help if you’re playing with a bunch of dickheads. Been there, done that.
I’m kind of intrigued by Darkfall. It could be awesome, but like you said, they promise a lot. It could all end up in a watered down version that doesn’t have even half of the things they promised and I know I wouldn’t be playing it for the pretty graphics… It looks absolutely hideous to me. That’s just how I am. -_-
WAR isn’t really on my interest list since the universe is completely foreign to me, but I will most likely follow my WoW guild/friends to whatever game they decide to start after WoW is done for. However, this video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toGjY_VO_xE ) about the witch hunter kicks all kinds of ass and I think I could try the game just because of that.
I mean, they got A HAT!
September 13th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
I highly doubt that any of the games you mentioned will make a dent in WoW’s subscriber figures. Ok, so Starcraft 2 might draw some players away for a month or two, but most of the Blizzard - and particularly Starcraft - fans I know never played WoW in the first place, or have long since quit playing WoW.
After playing Tabula Rasa, it seems like a decent game, but like Lord of the Rings Online: it offers nothing special. It’ll probably amass a decent subscriber base, but nothing WoW-threatening. Warhammer Online on the other hand, looks like it’s just WoW with some more non-persistent, repetitive, constantly resetting, uninteresting (-insert negative connotation here-) PvP thrown in. That… and THQ is working on an MMO for the infinitely more popular, and interesting, Warhammer 40.000 universe (think Starcraft MMO, but cooler == Warhammer 40.000 Online).
As for games I think might grow big, but not necesarily at the expense of WoW, in the near future:
- Eve Online: it’s the only older mmorpg that is still steadily growing today and the pace seems to be picking up, rather than slowing down. With a massive graphical overhaul and Linux/Mac versions set to launch later this year, and a full new DirectX 10 powered engine being developed for 2008, this game could well pick up some real steam in the coming months…
- Aion: the developers of Lineage 1 & 2, the second and third most popular MMORPGs ever, before World of Warcraft (Ragnarok Online being #1) teaming up with western MMO developers to create one of the most (if not the most) innovative upcoming fantasy MMORPGs. Sounds great and if it goes as planned this could become a serious threat to WoW. Of course, if it’s too grind heavy then no one here will care about it, and it’ll ‘only’ pick up a few million subscribers in South Korea.
- Ragnarok Online 2: the sequel to the most popular MMORPG before WoW. Pretty much guaranteed to pick up a sizable following (sizable as in millions) due to it’s name alone.
Of course there are also the MMOs which are still a ways away, such as: BioWare’s MMO, Stargate Worlds, Warhammer 40.000 Online, the Firefly MMO, Guild Wars 2, Star Trek Online, World of Darkness MMO, etc. Some of them are bound to score big and all of them seem interesting, for now…
As for Darkfall Online’s promises… they remind me a lot of EVE Online. One giant sandbox environment, the ability to construct your own stations, fully player driven economy, no loading times, one massive universe, freedom to choose whichever profession you can imagine, no leveling or class restrictions (complete player freedom) & the largest, completely persistent and player-driven, PvP battles ever seen in a MMO.
Then again, there’s also a fantasy counterpart to Darkfall. And it’s the oldest well known MMORPG: Ultima Online. UO also featured player housing, immense freedom in career selection & world PvP. Almost everything was possible in the game world, which kind of makes Darkfall Online look a little less innovative, don’t you think?
Personally, I’m going to stick with EVE Online for now. I still have no idea as to which (if any) MMORPG I might be playing one or two years from now, but I’m fairly certain that it’s not going to be Darkfall, Tabula Rasa, Warhammer Online or Age of Conan. Their developers might scream innovation, but I have yet to see it…
October 15th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
“As for my personal stance, let’s just say I like my PvP with a little more PvP and a side of even more PvP; Tabula Rasa, for its part, has no PvP. And after suffering through Final Fantasy XI many years ago, I can tell you that no PvP system is generally a bad choice in game design.”
Hmm, maybe I missed something, but:
a) Tabula Rasa does have PvP, well at least this site (one click away from the site linked to in article) says it does: http://www.rgtr.com/about_the_game/features/what_is_tabula_rasa.html
“Key Features: …. Player-vs-Player – Challenge other players in voluntary PvP mode. ”
b) So does FFXI! Maybe you quit before it came in or something, but it definatly does. I quite enjoy its system and a friend of mine plays FFXI only for its PvP. There are public scheduled matches and private matches you can set up on your own now.
Just thought I’d clear up those two things. Cheers.
October 15th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Ewok–when I played FFXI, it had no PvP. As I was quitting, they introduced a form of combat that wasn’t exactly PvP. It was something like, you gather ten things before the other team does or you lose, and that wasn’t really PvP.
Also voluntary PvP isn’t PvP to me. I like how WoW set it up; there were PvE (voluntary) servers and PvP ones. But if a game is solely voluntary, then it isn’t PvP to me.