The numbers don't lie... MMO gamers want World of Warcraft template games...

Which is about 250k more than most MMOs that try to deviate from WoW....

Oh like EvE which has 450k subs right? Right? Yeah right...

Lets look at the pure numbers and sales... it is clear that MMO gamers want World of Warcraft template (which by the way copied Dark age of Camelot, which copied EverQuest) games. The best selling MMOs today all use the World of Warcraft template....

Whether it be SWTOR, Rift, Aion, Lineage, EverQuest II, they all follow the world of warcraft model. Now, lets look at the mmos that did not follow the WoW model. They all flopped at the retail market and nobody bought them. The matrix online, shadowbane, world war ii online, TERA, Tabula Rasa, All Points Bulletin, Star Wars Galaxies, and most recently, The Secret World. The MMO graveyard is filled with MMOs that deviate from the norm.

So when gamers cry "we want something other than WoW". you know they are lying. They talk a big game but when it comes time to buy said product, they never do. They all want WoW.

. And for all the people that say SWTOR is the fastest flopping MMO. Think final fantasy14 version 1 holds that title.

there is room for non wow games, but sadly, the studios, and the community, tends to be so conditioned to WoW it takes a Quantum leap. DCUO had the best combat system in MMos, period, but as someone else said, the people used to ruling their PVP whined. You have a Blizzard cult out there that wants to make sure everything is compared to Blizzard, because they are only comfortable with Blizzard. That is why the fanboys take pover forums and start telling the loudest, to shut down debate and free thought. In other words, Blizzard is the Tea Party of gaming.

Also, the fact is, WoW whores itself to the Gold farmers, which for better or worse are a part of Asian gamer culture. Whoever said North Americans cannot grind like Asians have not met some of the people I know, who frankly might as well get their mail in cyberspace rather than in RL. However, the idea of buying a lot of your gear is something Asian MMos embrace more, which is why City of Heroes, that other game by NCsoft, the one that is still around after several years, did better once the Koreans took over and taught them how to make a decent market.

The problem is that BW did not communicate well, nor did they fix things fast enough. They could have easily done what WoW did, rip off the best features from games and call it theirs, but their vision got in the way. There is always a point where the developer needs to realize that the players control the vision, and if a studio was to prepare for that, they could make it.

The real sign of how the MMO industry is will be when Blizzard releases what they call Titan, which so far is rumored to be an MMO based in the Starcraft world. Blizzard knows that they need another MMO for people to grow into when they get tired of WoW, especially since machines are getting faster. Some tablets have better stats than old gamer machines. If Titan flops, we know that Blizzard is terminally ill, because investors do not care about how many subscribers you have today, they want you to explain to them why they should not do a Mitt Romney, load you with debt, chop you into parts, and sell you off. Wall Street is an MMO that pretends to be about good business, but it is really a glorified PVP where cheating is rewarded. Whoever makes the next good MMO will need to keep wall Street at bay, which is why I will look more towards smaller studious than big ones.

i said it a few posts up i think a will degined skyrim/oblivion type mmo would not just kill wow but dance on its grave questing was always fun in the elder scrolls (apart from when they bug'ed) its a huge open ended world there would be no split community due to 2 different factions you just chose a race and go play

and the PvP dont get me started on the PvP no more gear means win its all out hack slash skill with magic and bows to boot

Open world MMOs are almost never successful.... let alone come close to challenging WoW.

did you like skyrim?

would you of liked to have it at least 2player so your mate could tag along

have you played dead island?

now have you played it with four other people that game is bad ***

this is a untapped gold mine that no one has touched