General Discussion

Originally posted by Vosen

LOTRO

Ditto - and don't forget about guild wars, that was after WoW.  

What I never get, from a player's perspective, is why everyone wants to unseat WoW?  What's the point of having a massive game with lots of annoying, obnoxious, immature kids playing?  Anyone who unseats WoW is going to suffer from the same lowest-common-denominator problems that WoW does, full of kids who couldn't spell if their lives depended on it and have no clue what actual roleplaying is.

I don't want WoW unseated, I want all the idiots sent there so that the rest of us can play in peace.

Cant disagree with any of the posts but just to be more specific about my meaning about 'successful'...a game that has launched and has become a main player in the market place.  I don't care if it has 9 million subscribers, more interested in a game that is growing and the player base is really enjoying.  The only ones I can think of are:

EVE

GW

WOW

Maybe 1-2 more...

it seems I am constantly getting excited about big releases and how they are going to change this gaming genre.  (Just look at the 'games in development' bottom left, a bunch of great titles or so it seems).  Then with each release its just another...mmaaahh...its ok... has 1-2 great features that will keep me amused for 2 months.
 

I don't even care if AoC doesn't do it for me.  However I do care that its successful because the MMO industry needs another long term contender so it shows potential investors that it can still work.  With the multi million dollar investments being thrown around on products like PotBS etc.  It could really damage the potential for 'big' titles being developed in the future.  If I had 50 million dollars and someone asked me about using  all of it on a new MMO title I would probably say no and I am a gaming enthusiast!

Diversity in the game is the key for me.  Lately all the 'big' titles being released have 1 outstanding feature, normally combat, and they neglected all the RPG elements such as crafting, housing, exploring and community therefore capturing an audience for a short period before withering up and dying.

Originally posted by Gammit100

Definitely LOTRO.  Hopefully Conan will launch well, but from what I've read, it'll be rough if you don't have a high-end machine.

When will developers learn to scale better? :(

WOW does it well...

Originally posted by Cephus404

What I never get, from a player's perspective, is why everyone wants to unseat WoW?

Thats why I would be glad if WoW would be "unseated". Not necessarily in numbers of players or profits or whatever. Just that nobody would talk about this crap !

I just dont want to hear what the "Sun" writes about every theme just because the "Sun" is the newspaper with the most readers. Its not the newspaper with the most readers because its a source of quality.

Originally posted by Adamantine

Originally posted by Gammit100

Definitely LOTRO.  Hopefully Conan will launch well, but from what I've read, it'll be rough if you don't have a high-end machine.

When will developers learn to scale better? :(

WOW does it well...

Are you serious ? WoW can be played on 6 years old computers ... scaling ?!? It has horribly low requirements !

 

So you like high requirements?

Lord of the RIngs and before that Dark Age of Camelot.

What's the definition of a successful launch? Without that definition we can't answer the question.

My definition is a launch that has stable servers, bug free, and is fun to play and subscription numbers rise. I consider a launch from the day the servers open to its first year.

No game has been bug free or had no server crashes but there a re a few that have signifigantly less than others. DaOC, GW, D&D online, LoTRO online all had smooth launches. LoTRO has to be a record for smooth launches in my experience so I give a big round of applause to Turbine for that. The game is a good game it just is lacking that special something to make it #1, I can't quite put my finger on it.

Most MMO's before WoW had shakey launches, Blizzard raised the standard by introducing a polished game. I think most peopel reconize that and it is what has made every Blizard game I can think of successful.

Now why can't a game toplle WoW is a whole other subject for another thread.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

 

Originally posted by jarish

Yeah I wouldn't believe much of what mmogchart puts up there. Those are guesses. And if you want to look at thier charts and NPD findings I think you will find if LOTRO is above FFXI then it is over 500k and not at 150k like the chart says.

 

MMOGCHART is very clear in their bimonthly stats: and :

0.9 % is about 230.000 subscribers (total being 25.000.000 +).

1.3 % was the highest LOTRO figure obtained in these charts. meaning about 330.000.

If you don't believe the numbers of mmogchart: look at the number of English EU servers of LOTRO: Exactly 5 ! (4 german servers and a french one). The same as launch BTW.

Last time I wanted to check on Wow, I believe it was in the order of 250 servers for Europe alone.

Now I am not saying LOTRO can compete with Wow in numbers but the game is now sold in our country at 7 Euro in one of the biggest chains and after a month still masses can be found in the waste baskets.

So LOTRO was certainly not a BIG succces.

If you don't feel comfortable with these stats: your source doesn't even include Lineage 1 or 2. And EVE on line does indeed have about 400 K subs.

 

I'm pretty sure the NPD stated they are starting to track electronic game purchases this year so that is probably added into their data.