If done right, I'm willing to bet that it will put a dent in the number of WoW subscribers.

But I'm not going to say it's going to decrease a massive amount of people from WoW, considering after working for such a long time to get a level 70 character, who wants to just up and leave?

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Depends entirely on if it's done right, but also if it avoids all the pratfalls of Star Wars Galaxies. While I think it would be cool to choose the Darkside, I wonder if they'd allow you to have battles (like in WoW) between good and evil characters?

Seems like they would, but you never know. If they could get space travel mixed with RPG gameplay right I could see myself playing this.

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Sadly, it appears(at least from my perspective) that IP means very little in MMO's. Galaxies was popular from the start thanks to it's pedigree but it sounds like it got run into the ground. The Matrix? Uh, let's not go there. The Sims? An abysmal failure considering how wildly popular it was *supposed* to be.

Like many have said before, IP will get people in the door but it has almost nothing to do with making them stay. Two of the most popular MMO's of all time had, to my knowledge, no previous IP to begin with: Evequest, Dark Age of Camelot. Yeah, yeah both are based either loosely or very much on classic high fantasy elements present in fiction or pen and paper RPG's, but we're not talking about IP that was served up on a silver platter. They created what made them popular and most of that was gameplay.

Marvel, DC, Disney, Warner Bros., Lucas Arts, and the list goes on. Where are the wildly successful MMO's from those IP warehouses? IP gives you backstory and some fans. Gameplay is what catapults you to the top.

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WoW is a mystery for me. The game is so bad in comparison to other IPs out there right now I could only stomach a total of 10 hours of it before I walked away and happily embraced EQ2.

With that said...

I do not know what this WoW killer IP quest is all about. It will not be a specific IP that will “kill” WoW, it will be game play, as Arabica said. Further still WoW will not “die” for a very VERY long time. it’s growth has continued somewhat but it is not substantial like it was in the first couple of years. It will level out some and then drop a couple million players and stat put for a decade or so. Even then WoW will only “die” when Blizzard decides to shut it down.

This WoW killer myth is really kind of annoying. What people should be looking for or looking to develop is a master crafted MMORPG that aims to not “kill” WoW but to do as well as WoW. Keep in mind the success of WoW is a result of mass cultural adhesion. Its success can be compared to the relative success of the Star Wars sequels. There is a formula in there some place; similar in idea to the formula that makes a blockbuster movie (which is rarely about story quality and more about mass appeal). If that formula can be revealed, that method pinpointed, we will see a success rate in MMORPGs like that of movies...

It might be helpful to approach the success off MMORPGs to come and the industry of MMORPGs conceptually as Independent films, Sundance films and Hollywood films. Identifying a MMORPG complex like that of the Hollywood complex and your golden.

The next “big” MMORPG will not be a Star Wars MMORPG, it will be something different, but not something new.

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I don't think IP is that relevant to the long term success of an MMO.

WOW is the best example of an IP that wasn't very well known that has since become a huge success.

SWG is the best example of the opposite.

If Bioware make a fabulous MMO then it should succeed, if not then it probably won't. KOTOR or otherwise. Period.

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So Bioware's working on a Dragon Age MMO? I will be really disappointed if Bioware is not doing the Star Wars MMORPG. And KOTORs universe is so much more interesting than any more material in the New Hope era of timeline.

I hope surfer girl is just smoking too much Maui Wowi.

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The only way anyone will knock WoW out is if they understand WoW. Brad McQuaid didn't understand WoW. The previous poster "Angel" doesn't understand WoW. Other want-to-be WoW successors have not and do not understand WoW either.

I have played most major MMOs since EQ1. I have followed the development of other MMOs drooling over promises only to be disappointed each time as these MMOs released and others (even recently) have been cancelled.

I now find myself happily playing WoW after all these years, finally understanding WoW. I don't want to try and explain everything I am talking about with WoW (it would take more time than I have or than you would probably care to read), however the bottom line comes down to solid core game mechanics and over-all quality. If you don't have these at the very least, your finished as an MMO. I will also add, that even though most of the active MMO community (which don't equal the vast majority of MMO players) hate PvP, the bottom line is, if your MMO doesn't embrace PvP as an end game alternative your MMO is finished (at least in terms of competing with WoW, not in terms of holding a niche market and making a profit).

WoW has a snowball effect going for them now that will prove to be very difficult to thwart. And to that I say, "Oh, well" I am finally having fun in an MMO and not wishing another MMO were finished. (I am also in the beta for Warhammer, so I know what I am talking about).

Cheers.

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First off, a mojority of the people in WoW play it because it gives them a sense of stability. You can bash on it, call it a nasty game, and not worth your time and money, but the fact is the game is solid, and not going anywhere for a long time. Unlike consoles or non-online games, we need to be on a server held in management by a company. When the server goes down, bye-bye game. On the console however, you can play the game as long as the console and disc stay in tact.

I don't think that there will ever be a single game that kills WoW. It will be a series of games that slowly take it down. Whether it goes down, or just continues to grow and grow, depends on whether the developers can bring us a solid game. In other words, David won't take down Goliath alone, a dozen Davids will.

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It's not going to another IP that takes WoW down, it'll be technology. It'll be something new that WoW can't do that can be leveraged by the other IPs. Eventually WoW will get old...

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