Points: 5
Cover Story: It Came From Outer Space!

Gibby Gutierrez


Total Points:
Bio Droid
Last Visit:
San Francisco, CA

What I'm Playing

Vanquish Dead Rising 2 StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
Disney Epic Mickey Dead Nation Super Street Fighter 4 Halo Reach
Infinity Blade

My Friends

KHZeldaMarioFanatic WinterSoldierX

WOW Killah!

Haters gonna hate...

Feb 16, 2010 10:55PM PST

I was reading an article on GameZone.com about the ubiquitous World of Warcraft.  World of Warcraft is certainly the daunting juggernaut of the MMO world, but new subscribers have finally ebbed since December of 2008 and have generally plateaued.


While 11.5 millions users world-wide is nothing to scoff at, how long will WoW be able to hold those numbers?  Subscribers might taper off, but with 60+% of the MMO market, it'll be quite sometime before any IP gets close to those numbers.

I am not a WoW player.  Tried it, but it wasn't my cup of tea.  While I didn't quite fall in love with WoW, I can't help admire all that it has done and it positively oozes style and slick gameplay.

My worry with such a successful product is the band of trivial "me too's" and imitators that try to ride the coat tails of WoW's success.  Originality is hard to come by some times, and, to some extent, WoW doesn't do anything entirely to refreshing, but it did take the best elements of MMO's and package them in a slick, easy-to-access, but deep game.  Their art is solid and downright gorgeous, their mechanics are spot-on, and their UI is fresh and easy to manage given the complexity of the game.

So with all these things rolling in favor of WoW dominance, is there anything that can come close to it?  Well, the short answer is probably 'no.'  WoW is a culmination of a great product, a well-known, critically acclaimed franchise and a market opportunity and it has since sweltered to unfathomable numbers.  And, truly, the only thing that could probably eclipse a Blizzard title is another Blizzard title.

The rest of the players are just going to have to wait their turn for 60% of the market.  I'm all for it.  Games are Art, and if one title helps that cause, even if it's not my favorite, I'll support it however I can.  Maybe The Old Republic or Final Fantasy XIV might have a chance (lord knows their fans are rabbid), but it's going to take a while to catch up the the Warcraft Marathoner.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to play some Final Fantasy XI.  Yes, people still play it.  All 3 of us.

Moogle Ready

  • E-mail it
  • 0

Comments (0)

Title Of Comment

Maximum characters for title is 120


Around the Network

IGN Entertainment Games