Age of Conan

Please, before you claim me to be any sort of flamer / fanboi / gypsy, read my entire post. I know the title is sort of suggesting one or the other but I'm really expecting great things...

...let's just assume AoC becomes a success, as in eventually 1 mil subs. As of now, yeah, we really don't know how things will roll for FC, but let's assume just for what I'm suggesting. Then let's assume WAR becomes a success, as in eventually 1 mil subs as well... at this point, we can both assume these two games will be on top of the charts if you exclude WoW. Feel free to include Aion or TCoS but I honestly can't see them reaching any sort of legendary status, despite how the games actually are.

AoC, WAR, and WoW will be on the top of the lists. AoC and WAR will be on the relatively same level of popularity, causing... you guessed it! COMPETITION! Yes, much, much competition! The flaming that you've seen happening lately on these forums...? It's probably going to settle, then by the release of WAR, grow over on their forums and come back to these forums as well. By the time both are on their feet the ramblings from both sides will never cease. You know what is good about competition? Constant increases in standards! The games will be forced to get better and stronger, meaning good things for us consumers. If this happens, along with other games being introduced and added into the competition as well, I don't see WoW lasting past 2009. If you don't notice games come and go quickly.

With this, we can assume WAR and AoC will be the top sellers with the top subs shared between the two. Each will offer something different and exciting to the fantasy genre and will be forced to grow, unlike WoW, which was and has been basically stationary in new content (if you want to consider these expansions as anything really new).

Gaming for both WAR and AoC players, if all goes well for both companies, will be a smash-hit. I'm a fan of both AoC and WAR and have been following them both, and if they continue to be doing the things they are doing, I can tell this will be one of the greatest eras of gaming since EQII and SWG's pre-cu.

There's my two cents on my thoughts of how everything with this WAR / AoC nonsense will work... no, I can't tell if the stock markets will rise or fall, these are just simple presumptions from a simple consumer. Also should add that a game doesn't really need 1 mil to be a success, just used that as an example... as I honestly can see both games eventually reaching that point with the MMORPG's growing population.

I think competiton is good, and as you said, forces growth in the competing games to attempt to win more market share.

A WoW-opoly is not good for the genre.

I doubt you will see flame wars from many AoC players as they are opening there own forums available only to paid AoC subscribers after launch.

I think its a bit premature to say AOC will get 1 million subs. A lot of people are comparing AOC to  Vanguard at this point. And Vanguard only has 100k subs. Even LOTRO , which had a smooth launch, only has 200k subs

Yes, a general rule of thumb is that competition is always good. But WAR and AoC cater to different people more than they cater to the same type of people. I see AoC fans dancing around happily because of all the new things Funcom is trying, and I see WAR fans cracking their knuckles in anticipation for PQs and massive world RvR. But, for some reason, people blatantly label WAR as the "WoW clone" and thus damn it as something unclean. Which makes no sense to me but that's how it is.

I'm not sure exactly how much these little flame wars (or, as you said, those BIG flame wars in the future) will affect how both companies upgrade their games. Personally, this site isn't a big majority. If the companies really listen to customers and look at all the sites, and see any common suggestions, then maybe they'll implement them. But honestly, look at all the WoW haters out there. Do you think they're making Blizz sweat? No. Not one drop.

Originally posted by Douhk

AoC, WAR, and WoW will be on the top of the lists.

Age of Conan, Warhammer and Wraith of the Lich King are all on top of pre-order lists and they seem to have the largest numbers of followers already, we can assume you have a major point in being right there. :)

 

I don't see WoW lasting past 2009. If you don't notice games come and go quickly.

yes but Wow came along time ago already. Dont be surprised.

Gaming for both WAR and AoC players, if all goes well for both companies, will be a smash-hit. I'm a fan of both AoC and WAR and have been following them both,

Hey youre not alone. :)

. as I honestly can see both games eventually reaching that point with the MMORPG's growing population.

In anyway, the MMO market with all the new games coming looks promising. Diversity is the word.
We should be happy there are so many great games coming which we can choose from.

 

 

I would love if this happened.  We really need it right now, and I even hope that TCoS and Aion get successful as well!  I would like to play all of them at some point, and be able to never have this massively long lull where there aren't really enough good options.

Originally posted by ProfRed

I would love if this happened.  We really need it right now, and I even hope that TCoS and Aion get successful as well!  I would like to play all of them at some point, and be able to never have this massively long lull where there aren't really enough good options.

Although TCoS doesn't interest me all that much, Aion is something I'd at least like to try out, since I saw you can fly and have some relative freedom...which is something that never hurts eh?

Originally posted by ghoul31

I think its a bit premature to say AOC will get 1 million subs. A lot of people are comparing AOC to  Vanguard at this point. And Vanguard only has 100k subs. Even LOTRO , which had a smooth launch, only has 200k subs

 

I can 110% guarantee that WAR will be compared to Vanguard before it's launch, and I like WAR. Through my own experience of the beta I can honestly say otherwise of these doom and glooms, yet that is my own personal opinion. It has been the pattern for the past year or so, it depends on if you buy into the hype, either of the game's reaching legendary success or the game becoming a vanguard, which are both unlikely flops. If you have been to the vanguard forums before launch you can pretty much tell the difference... there was absolutely no hope whatsoever. Everyone who was previously a fan before simply gave a trus and said that they would wait (for the majority) a couple of months after release to fix the issues of the game. No game has really flopped as badly as Vanguard did since AO... but if you want to look at it negatively you can say that AO is the same company making this game and that less suspicion of a failure means a bigger one (such as PotBS or TR). But it's all a matter of opinion.

The only reason I can see these two becoming great successes rather than previous games this year / coming this year is because they lack this sort of inner competition that is going on between the two. What started off as both working together to bring down WoW now appears to be both working against one another (in the end helping eachother grow) since they are starting to realize one way or another WoW is going down. It's great from a marketting stand-point to have rivalries and great from a stand-point of the things I suggested earlier.

Ascension08: I'm not talking about this forum in general when I speak of the flame wars. I'm apart of a couple other forums (including both of the actual WAR and AoC forums) and it is happening a good deal. We cannot assume we are the only customers, I realize this, but I'm also realizing that we are not the only place that is having this take place.