The Daily Grind: Is WAR the WoW killer?

by Samuel Axon Aug 20th 2008 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Warhammer Online, Opinion, The Daily Grind

The Warhammer Online NDA has been lifted, and a veritable tidal wave of WAR-related information has struck the internet. The open beta test is imminent, but countless pre-order customers are already in the closed beta. The game's launch is only a month away! So this is a great time to ask for your predictions: is Warhammer Online the long-awaited World of Warcraft killer?

Some folks hoped it would be Age of Conan, but while that game is doing all right, it hasn't lived up for the hype for everyone. Are all your hopes placed in WAR now, or will it take BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Online or Cryptic's Star Trek Online to move the genre into the next era? Hell, maybe WoW will never be dethroned by one game.

Make your predictions here, but we have a disclaimer: we won't be held responsible for any shame and embarrassment when you're proven way off base in the future!

Tags: age-of-conan, beta, bioware, blizzard, cryptic-studios, ea-mythic, kotoro, launch, mythic, mythic-entertainment, nda, prediction, prophecy, star-trek-online, swtor, tdg, the-daily-grind, war, warhammer, warhammer-online, world-of-warcraft, wow-killer

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)

Maxguy2099 said on 8:06AM 8-20-2008

Wow 4 evur =P

Ardy said on 8:18AM 8-20-2008

The only WoW killer will be WoW itself. To destroy that fanbase, those numbers and that legacy, Blizzard will have to make a monumentally epic foul-up three or four times to kill its own game and consign it to a bad memory.

...So when is Wrath out?

Omniscience said on 9:10AM 8-20-2008

WoW has already alienated a good portion of it's old school playerbase when they launched Burning Crusade. It used to be this balance of old school MMO's and the new feel it was forging in an old genre. Then they made it a PvP minigame for the other 9 million who subscribed and left the purists like me and the other 999,999 people still wondering why we pay our $15 to play a game that looks the same but is completely different and pandering to the casual player.

So in short, I agree, WoW WILL kill itself. It doesn't need another game, just the same ideals of getting more and more numbers through dumbing down gameplay and more crappy pvp minigames.

Barth said on 10:51AM 8-20-2008

It doesn't matter who they've alienated. They still have 10 million subscribers. For a little perspective on the MMO market, consider that currently the next most popular game in terms of paying subscribers after WoW is Runescape. Yes, Runescape. They have around 1.2 million at $6 per month, which is low enough not to matter to many people. No other "full featured" MMO that's not a joke of a game is even close to WoW. AoC has more than Runescape currently, but we'll have to see what that number is after a couple years before we judge it. They've already lost a good many of their early subs.

The point is many people will pay $6 a month for a fun silly game, but the market for a $15/mo MMO is not large enough to support a WoW killer. Until WoW burns out, or Blizz makes a sequel it will be #1 by a long shot.

WAR, at least based on beta so far, will not come close.

Jeni said on 8:19AM 8-20-2008

VG was suppose to be a wow killer...and failed. AOC was suppose to be the WoW killer...and failed. WAR won't be replacing WoW anytime soon. Not with the new WoW expansion dropping two months (give or take) after WAR.

Origosis said on 8:35AM 8-20-2008

I personally wish VG had been a WoW killer I love it! But they always intended Vanguard to be a Niche MMO... maybe not as small as it is now, but they always expected it to have a smaller Hardcore Crowd.

Angel said on 10:13AM 8-20-2008

Who said either VG of AoC were supposed to be WoW killers? Certainly not the developers of those games and I do not recall anyone with clout saying such a thing about them... and no one is saying that WAR is going to be, this is only a question in this article, not a statement.

Braz said on 8:20AM 8-20-2008

I do not think that WAR--or any other game--will be the "WoW killer." I predict that WAR will be a million-plus seller and very successful, but it will not replace WoW as king of the MMO hill. The MMO market is becoming too crowded for any new game to achieve WoW's numbers.

I do predict that WoW will become more of a starter game for many young/new players, who will then move on to newer MMOs.

Origosis said on 8:33AM 8-20-2008

There is no WoW Killer. Just like there was no Halo killer, or Mario Killer... People can love 2 or 3 games at once. Granted these are MMO's which changes things, but WoW, AoC, and other mmo's are so Hand holding now that it is possible to play 2, maybe 3 MMO's and get decent progression depending on what your goals are. If a great MMO does come out it will simply live along side of WoW. It will surpass it for a moment and then the 2 will go head to head each month very much like Halo, Gears of war, and GTA IV do.

Just Cause a new great game comes out does not mean the previous ruler suddenly sucks and everyone will leave.

Rocktober said on 8:50AM 8-20-2008

I agree, especially with the last sentence. Why exactly should everyone be pining for a WoW killer? I understand that some people don't like the game period, and some just don't like it simply because it's the most popular one out there, or even because they feel it stifles other games.

The fact that a game is as popular as WoW, and has brought in as many non-gamers/casual-gamers as it has, is a GOOD thing. As great as I'm hoping WAR will be, I'm not so sure it will be able to duplicate that aspect, and so no, it won't be the "WoW Killer."

Eventually people will migrate to other games that are becoming popular and I'm sure (and hope) that another game will be able to bridge the gap between "hardcore" and "casual" gamers as well as WoW has. But when this happens, will it be because that game "killed" WoW? Not likely. It will just be the natural progression of moving on to other games, and look how long Ultima Online and Everquest have lasted.

Kyle Horner said on 9:46AM 8-20-2008

"Just like there was no Halo killer"

Call of Duty 4?

I pretty much agree with you. Something will eventually replace WoW. There was a time when nobody thought Lineage's subscriptions could be beat, either. Then WoW came along.

Epyon said on 8:34AM 8-20-2008

3 or 4 things, lets see here.

1.) Arena
2.) Resilience
3.) Lack of Class balance
4.) E-Sport

JP said on 8:37AM 8-20-2008

No, WAR won't topple WoW. It's still more of the same. Fantasy players want to "get away from WoW" but as soon as they leave, they're up in arms when the game isn't as "comfortable" as WoW. It's going to take innovation and creativity to become king of the MMO world. Especially now. Corporations saw how much money Blizz was raking in, and said "we want a piece". Now, the market is being saturated, and there are only some many subs to go around.

WoW will always have the largest playerbase ever. Since, when it was released, there were far fewer fantasy games, and even fewer niche games. That's no longer the case. Gamers have a larger pool to draw from. Remember when one maaaaaaaybe two MMOs were going out in a year? yea. Those days are gone.

WoW is the AOL of MMOs. It will always be king, even if people have thougands of options, and there aren't nearly as many subscribers as their were at their hight.

Origosis said on 8:42AM 8-20-2008

I like that. WoW will be the AOL..

In my mind it says "Even if there are better options, people will still flock to WoW."

Not to insult WoW, but that's the view i have of AOL... Not WoW.... but it sounds like that may be the case.

Samuel Axon said on 8:50AM 8-20-2008

The company that runs Massively is owned by AOL, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to ban you both.

Just kidding! ;)

Zugzug said on 8:41AM 8-20-2008

I think a lot of people will try WAR out, prolly a lot of AoC/WoW players as well. But I think that after capping 40, doing RvR for a couple of weeks and realize there is no further content (exploration, pve, dungeons etc) people will be bored and go back to WoW. I quit WoW a year ago, and have been very hyped for WAR... But after reading up on it and realising end game will basically be "Team WarFortress 2" over and over again, capturing the same tired old keeps... Why do I want to pay a monthly fee for that when TF2 doesnt have any, and offers a lot of more game modes, maps etc. and everyone has the same abilities. If I dont make my character in the "right way" I will be like a gimped red heavy always loosing to them correctly specced/high renown equipped blue heavies.

I heard DAoC was an unbalanced game by Mythic... Why will they manage to balance this game, when there are totally different classes between Destr and Order? Most of them are mirrored, but some are not.

I think many people trying out WAR will go back to WoW because you can't beat it content wise: exploration, zone varation, bigger world, more humor, less pansy races.

I will give WAR a chance but I'll probably be disappointed and might pick up WoW again out of sheer frustration, and the new improvements in WoTLK sound really sweet.

WOW is a very polished game, and WAR cant kill it, cant even get it to 90% lol. It just doesnt target the same audience, and WoW is at least 80% PVE'rs and carebears and their friends. Targetting the PVP scene is cool but it's not the big population of gamers, I think WAR is here to stay but it can't kill WoW.

Zeroxin said on 11:32AM 8-20-2008

You know you could always play the game, hit the level cap and quit till they add new content....at least that's what I've been doing for all the MMOs i play.

Johnson said on 8:43AM 8-20-2008

I hate all these blogs about "WoW killer etc etc..." Nothing will "kill" it...WoW will die on its own...Just look at EQ, its still going! WaR is gonna be a good game, but will not come close in subscriptions.

Adriatic said on 9:10AM 8-20-2008

No, WAR won't be the WoW killer, nor will any one game for the long into the foreseeable future. And any gamer or game maker that hopes it will be, is gonna be curled up in the fetal position and crying in the shower.

WoW had the good fortune or good sense of arriving at time when the market was much less crowded, and it did so many things right that it was the inevitable place for many players and grew into the force of nature it is now. Replicating that success now is near impossible.

Can a mmo be made that replicates WoW success? Maybe, but it hasnt been made yet.
What will likely happen is that the combined effect of all the new mmo's like WAR is that they will siphon off some players...but WoW has 11 million of em, they can spare a few.