World of Warcraft has been the undisputed king of MMOs for many years but for the first time in its history, WoW is facing competition the likes of which it has never seen. In today's WoW Factor we take a look at that and how Mists of Pandaria might make a big difference in helping WoW keep its top spot. Read on!

World of Warcraft is finally getting a very serious group of contenders in 2012. Eight years after its mighty reign, the game is about to face its toughest challenge yet from Guild Wars 2. If the hype is anything to be believed, Guild Wars 2 really does present the largest threat to WoW in the MMO space. In many ways it challenges Blizzard’s MMO model with some old and new ideas combined, these parts that have not really been major game mechanics in Warcraft. The one thing Blizzard does extremely well though is adapt new ideas into their games. They take what is best and make it smooth and polished and just downright better.

Read more of Garrett Fuller's The WoW Factor: Pandaria Rising.

Is Diablo3 going to change consumer expectations?  I mean, ignoring PvP and raiding for a moment, D3 takes the concept of spending your life on a gear grind with lots of sounds and animations and perfects it.  Going back to WoW, don't players notice the sheer amount of time you spend holding the W key, waiting for something to happen, how monster fights are uniform aggro-and-grind?  In short, one main thing that makes WoW addictive is now in competition with a more addictive version of the same gameplay.  How will this competition alter WoW?  (or am I just wildly overestimating the impact in my imagination?)

I've never really enjoyed WoW being more an SWG player. With what I've seen of SW:TOR (cry) and TSW (I was in beta weekend) and Guild Wars 2, my expectation for Mists of Pandaria are simple:

World of Warcraft with it's Mists of Pandaria expansion will be the supreme MMO game for at least the next decade if not longer.

Simply put all the competition out there is so unoriginal and lacking, it's looking more and more like WoW is here for a long, long time. SW:TOR is depressing, Guild Wars 2 has fun features (much like Rift has some fun features) but I just can't see it beating World of Warcraft. Again I don't even play WoW but everything else out there is taking years and years to develop and just sucks. The only original game I've seen in the last couple of years is Minecraft, and that's not even an MMO.

Congrats to Blizzard and World of Warcraft, your 'competition' is so lackluster you are going to stay the dominant game for years and years to come. Kudos!

Meh...I played the original WOW and went back after each expansion, but atleast right now I don't even feel a twinge of desire to return. The panda thing does not call to me.

I'm not big on pandas at all but the new class sounds interesting. I wouldn't even consider buying the xpac if it wasn't for the new class.

Originally posted by Montaronx
Hope it fails so hard so that the developers get a hint on how to support their player base for their next game

they've supported millions for almost 8 years.  i think they already have the hint.

Every single time a major MMO release is near, articles like this one pops up everywhere. And again, it's "the largest threat to WoW ", as usual.

And every time these "largest threats" falls flat on their asses.

Hype means little in the long run, one of the newest examples of that, is SW:ToR. It was probably at least as hyped as GW2, and we all know how that turned out.

If I was the CEO of Blizzard, I wouldn't lose sleep over this, not a single second.

Same here, I am not looking forward to the next expansion like I did when BC was slated to come out. It still is a great game to go to, now and then. 

When I jumped back into WoW, Cata was already a year old when I decided to play it and I assume I will do the same with this expansion as well, unless there is something remarkable I must see.

Originally posted by Netspook

Every single time a major MMO release is near, articles like this one pops up everywhere. And again, it's "the largest threat to WoW ", as usual.

And every time these "largest threats" falls flat on their asses.

Hype means little in the long run, one of the newest examples of that, is SW:ToR. It was probably at least as hyped as GW2, and we all know how that turned out.

If I was the CEO of Blizzard, I wouldn't lose sleep over this, not a single second.

if MoP sells half as much as Cata it will still out sell gw2.

Originally posted by aktalat

I've never really enjoyed WoW being more an SWG player. With what I've seen of SW:TOR (cry) and TSW (I was in beta weekend) and Guild Wars 2, my expectation for Mists of Pandaria are simple:

World of Warcraft with it's Mists of Pandaria expansion will be the supreme MMO game for at least the next decade if not longer.

Simply put all the competition out there is so unoriginal and lacking, it's looking more and more like WoW is here for a long, long time. SW:TOR is depressing, Guild Wars 2 has fun features (much like Rift has some fun features) but I just can't see it beating World of Warcraft. Again I don't even play WoW but everything else out there is taking years and years to develop and just sucks. The only original game I've seen in the last couple of years is Minecraft, and that's not even an MMO.

Congrats to Blizzard and World of Warcraft, your 'competition' is so lackluster you are going to stay the dominant game for years and years to come. Kudos!

 I certainly don't think either will take out WoW, but frankly TSW and GW2 both appear to be pretty different compared to the norm to me. I believe both of those games will do quite nicely in their own right. Well...assuming Funcom isn't pulling another AOC and TSW ends up being  an absolute mess further into the game. I wouldn't say either of those games is even remotely lackluster. Hard to gauge how well they will do though since we haven't seen the whole game yet of either. TSW will probably be niche with a steady retention if they are good with updates and don't fuck up the launch. GW2 is going to be a juggernaut. Whether people like it or not.

Personally, I am very excited for the next WoW expansion. What I have seen in the beta has me itching to play it live.

Having said that, there are also a lot of games coming out soon that I am just as excited to play, namely The Secret World and the Game of Thrones title.

I am not one of the MANY people on this site that blame gamings ills on Blizzard. I enjoy their titles and continue to play them but not to the exclusion of other games that pique my interest. I am willing to give any game a chance as long as I find it interesting and not just because it is not a Blizzard title.

Kill ten rats is boring.  But, wait, what if you could push 1-2-3-5-2 while looking like an asian bear? Now that's gameplay innovation, right?  If anything, I'd like the blizzard devs to wake up and advance the gameplay of their product beyond "go here click this" and fighting mobs.  Unfortunately, WoW appears to be staffed by the B-team and all the talent has either quit to work elsewhere or been shuffled to Titan.

Originally posted by Netspook

Every single time a major MMO release is near, articles like this one pops up everywhere. And again, it's "the largest threat to WoW ", as usual.

And every time these "largest threats" falls flat on their asses.

Hype means little in the long run, one of the newest examples of that, is SW:ToR. It was probably at least as hyped as GW2, and we all know how that turned out.

Yeah the article mentions that WoW is "finally getting a very serious group of contenders in 2012." Now, I've been watching this site for several years and every year they say that X, Y or Z game is being released and will finally finish off WoW. Every time these games have been over-hyped and their initial success falls away after the 1st month or so. I could list these "contenders" but we all know what games they were.

WoW's Mists expansion will be very successful. Even now the initial hatred for the pandas (I know cause I didn't like the idea of them when I first read about Mists) has mostly fizzled out. Same for the pokemon pet battle system. I'm sure Blizzard will at the very least deliver a solid expansion for WoW that will indeed increase the games populations again, aleast for afew months.

Sure like to know what game is challenging Wow, certainly don't see any current game doing it.  Guildwars II might, but beyond that game I do not see anything in the near future that will come close.  Yes, MMO players have more options, but when you get down to it, there is just nothing close to the content.  

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Sure like to know what game is challenging Wow, certainly don't see any current game doing it.  Guildwars II might, but beyond that game I do not see anything in the near future that will come close.  Yes, MMO players have more options, but when you get down to it, there is just nothing close to the content.  

I agree. When it comes to sheer amount of content, features and robust solid gameplay experience. Then both WoW and EQ2 blow all the competition out of the water. Sadly.

Yes i know what can take down wow from throne--New mmo from Blizzard

WoW isn't hurting the game industry. It's not. Honest.

What's hurting the game industry is companies being unable or unwilling to try something new. Nobody wants the next WoW as a gamer, if we wanted WoW we would play WoW. That's something the companies just don't seem to get at all and it's really unfortunate.

I'm looking forwards to non-fantasy mmo's personally. I /was/ looking forwards to TSW but they integrated their cash shop into a subscription based mmo to much to be entertaining for me. Companies need to stop looking at past IP's and start hiring talented writers and designers who are looking to make something fresh and new.

Yeah yeah I know the whole thing with no new ideas ever but there's got to be /plenty/ that are less used than high fantasy.

Originally posted by Heatsink98

Kill ten rats is boring.  But, wait, what if you could push 1-2-3-5-2 while looking like an asian bear? Now that's gameplay innovation, right?  If anything, I'd like the blizzard devs to wake up and advance the gameplay of their product beyond "go here click this" and fighting mobs.

Exactly!

Same old, boring game... now with pandas.