Well its a good list but I do take issue with a couple of things:

1. GW2 is rated silly high. GW2 will not be half the game that SWTOR and FFIX online will be.

2. Before I even say this take note I am a WoW player, but I do think the writer is seriously underestimating SWTOR and FFIX. I can tell you as a WoW player of over 4 years that the second either of these titles come out I will throw WoW and its teenage community in the garbage!

This is all just imo I could be wrong.

Originally posted by skeaser

Originally posted by Mazin

Originally posted by Serulith

Aion should not be at 10. I would at least put it in the top 5. Sure while people say it doesnt do anything new for the Genre i dont think any of the other 9 MMOs on that list will be any different, FFXIV may be an exception. Aion doesnt do anything new but it does everything right, which is more then i can say for any MMO released in the past 4 or so years.

I do agree that WoW will be number 1 still. People will keep resubbing to WoW as long as expansions keep coming, regardless how stupid those expansions are. Also dont forget about the WoW movie. Movies based on popular IPs always reboot the franchise.

We all now popular IPs alone are not enough to make a MMO succeed so ToR will be interesting to see. So far its giving a lot of reasons to buy it, but i dont see many reasons to stay subbed to the game for more then a couple of months with what we know so far. However it still is too early to tell what will happen to ToR in the long run.

However by 2012 there will be so many MMOs out that been the number 1 MMO wont mean shit to people. There will be sooo many MMOs that cater to different playstyles and have different themes, people will be playing the game that suites them more rather then the game that is most popular.

 

Will that include a polished sandbox game (EVE does not count, I don't like being a ship)?

 

We can only hope Mortal succeeds in recreating the feel of UO.

I am in the Aion beta its over hyped. I am not saying its bad, but its far from a 10 at the point it is now, and its supposed to be released very soon. One word Darkfall lets remember to play the games before we call them 10's.

As much as people tote blizzards unannounce MMO, I don't think it will be AS supreme as WoW was/is/whatever.  A HUGE part of the game, was the fact that SOOOOOOOO many people knew the warcraft series.  How many people still play Warcraft 3/DoTa/mods of it?  Sure, you could tell me other games that YOU might play that are old, but not on a scale of Warcraft 3/Starcraft.

It's a new IP.  That might turn some people off.  We won't know till blizzcon.  I expect A ton of Starcraft/Diablo 3 info, info on the new WOW xpac, and a trailer for the new MMO.

As for the top game, I could see Guild wars or Star Wars at the top.  If people stop listening to what someone who has not even read on the site about either game, who says it will have no pvp/end game/all instances, when it has been otherwise stated, they could take off.

But I am sure too many people prefer not to learn and try things out for themselves, and have someone else tell them their opinion.

 For sure Lotro will be in top 5 in 2012.

In that time the game will be in it's pick, considering that the most interesting expansions are coming + all the dedicated players who are waiting for it.

And don't think that the new technology of creating games is always good thing and all the players will go and buy the new games only becouse they are created by different (new technology) way.

Cant believe theres no mention of Mortal Online...  Ill eat my hat if its not trouncing at the very least, StartTrek Online.....

Some good games listed, some not. Aion, I think is going to disappear after a year or 2 off the top 10 lists due to lack of depth. LOTRO will be around and stronger then, probably very close to the Mordor expansion(who can say really)and Turbine is pretty good at growing this game right now.

Heroes of Telera is going to be THE sleeper hit, the more I look at it, the concept, the graphics, the ideas, I keep getting more and more intrigued. FFXIV will definitely rock, as will STO and STOR. I wonder if Wheel of Time will be out by 2012? Hope so. Eve and WoW shouldn't be on that list due to age. You don't see FFXI or EQ or DAOC or any other 7 year old game in the top 10 of 2009 so why would 7 year old games be in the list in 2012? Especially with Blizzard putting WoW to bed soon(not completely just slower development cycles, if that is even possible with slomo blizzard) just to work on their next mmo.

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Originally posted by Wolfhammer
Cant believe theres no mention of Mortal Online...  Ill eat my hat if its not trouncing at the very least, StartTrek Online.....

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Prepare to eat your hat. Star Trek Online has numbers with fans alone that will beat out Mortal Online. On top of that, MO is getting alot of bad rep right now, and I sure as hell don't want to play it, and I play EVERY mmo at least once.

Seems like a solid list, but I would've omitted a few games in favour of a couple of others that look to do better in the future.

I doubt APB will take off. I think it'll fail like Tabula Rasa and Planetside did: get a few subs early on and slowly bleed to dead over too high expectations and too low real subscriber figures. There are plenty of Action-MMOs coming that look to do a lot better.

World of Darkness in the top 10 in 2012 seems unlikely. It probably won't be released by then, and even if it is, it'll be so new that it won't actually be a top 10 contender. And that is if the game (and setting) is appealing enough to be a top 10 contender, which is also debatable. (it might well be another EVE, which means it won't be a top 10 contender until 3-4 years after launch)

No I'd rather replace these with (imo) more solid contenders:

Jumpgate Evolution has quite a few people interested and does not look to disappoint. I seriously doubt it'd rank anywhere below APB, Champions or Aion in a top 10 MMO list of 2012. Especially considering the fact that the most common reason people do not play EVE is not the harshness of the universe or the hardcore learning curve, but the hands-off controls. Hell, a lot of fellow EVE players I've talked to would prefer a hands-on space-sim MMO. Jumpgate Evo looks to fix that. (Note: it won't replace EVE, but it'll take its fair share of subs)

Blade and Soul is the second game I'd add. It'll likely (more-so than World of Darkness anyway) be released before 2012 and judging by the gameplay footage released thus far, this action-packed fighting MMO looks like it would rank quite highly in a top 10 MMOs of 2012 list. There certainly isn't any MMO like it right now.

Originally posted by Zorvan

Originally posted by Guintu

Originally posted by Dana

Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

Star Trek won't be big because it's design veers too far from the appeal of the TV shows.

SWTOR won't be big because it's going to be a massively single-player game. It will be big at first, but then people will see how limited its group gameplay is. Concentratrion on story will divide players, not unite them.

 

You do your name justice ;) hehe

Seriously though, I am curious what games you think Jon missed on there. Clearly, there will be a top 10 games. Should be fun to hear all the opinions.

 

One game he missed was Stargate Worlds. 

I do hope by 2012 there is a game that beats WoW, it got boring a long time ago.

 

Trust me, he didn't miss it. It ain't happening.

And how do you know this?  The Scifi channel is in on it so it has a good chance of happening.  I think this is the game scifi channel has been talking about thats going to happen with the show.

 I know I will probably get a lot of hate from this... I truely am sorry but this is just an opinion of mine.

I don't think SWTOR is going to be near the top of the list in 2012 for the simple fact that it is a sci-fi based MMO. A lot of people like it on the boards but that is a minority as hardly anyone actually goes on forums unless they are pretty serious about MMOs and still a good number of people are more into fantasy based rpgs.

I think FFXIV will do better than SWTOR, the FFXI community will be playing it that is pretty much a definite and FFXI still has a strong 500k subs and it has been out awhile. I just see FFXIV being higher up on the list, due to its name, its fans who are already playing FFXI, and that it is a fantasy based MMO.

Originally posted by Bureyku

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by Mazin

Blizzard has said it's a new IP and not one of their older IP's, which rules Starcraft out.

 

Link please. All I have seen Blizzard saying is that it wont be based on the Warcraft IP.

 

They said it won't be based on an existing ip.  I don't see why someone else needs to dig up the link for you.  Oh yeah Obama is president...  Well i'm a republican.  Find it yourself.

Well when you state something then it is usually good if you can back that up with facts. Otherwise anyone could say anything.

Beside he did post a link so wtf is your problem? Damn republican jerks..

Pretty solid list.  Props for being ballsy enough to put WoW at #1 w/ all the rabid haters... we all know that's going to be the case, but God do with loath them for it.

I'm not really feeling APB though.  Maybe if they realized that most MMO gamers are above 18 and stopped trying to go after the Teen rating on it.  A crime game that isn't dark, dirty, and sleezy (ie prostitution, drug dealing, profanity, adult situations etc) just fails pretty hard in my book.  Marketing a crime based MMO for the Xbox kiddies is a damned distaster waiting to happen on so many fronts.  I wish Rockstar would make an MMO.

I'd probably throw Global Agenda in that spot as it stands now.  Maybe Jump Gate Evolution if they pick up its complexity and content and give it some staying power.

Was this cystal ball or navel gazzing? :)

Either way, WoW will only fade oonce its graphics become totally outdated, that will come at about the four to five year point. Blizzard will be thinking of a WoW 2 realease for arround then, so don't hold your breath it may last another ten years.

Originally posted by Rajen

 I know I will probably get a lot of hate from this... I truely am sorry but this is just an opinion of mine.

 

I don't think SWTOR is going to be near the top of the list in 2012 for the simple fact that it is a sci-fi based MMO. A lot of people like it on the boards but that is a minority as hardly anyone actually goes on forums unless they are pretty serious about MMOs and still a good number of people are more into fantasy based rpgs.

 

I think FFXIV will do better than SWTOR, the FFXI community will be playing it that is pretty much a definite and FFXI still has a strong 500k subs and it has been out awhile. I just see FFXIV being higher up on the list, due to its name, its fans who are already playing FFXI, and that it is a fantasy based MMO.

It's Star Wars dude.  If any franchise has a built in fan base, its Star Wars.  And if any company has a built in fan base (besides Blizzard), its Bioware.

Everyone will give it a try for those two reasons alone.

We can only hope Mortal succeeds in recreating the feel of UO.

I have a very strong feeling Mortal is going to be bad.  I don't know why, and I don't want it to be.  But I'm pretty sure its going to be.

 If the various Blizzard developers comments are to be trusted, the next expansion will also introduce a graphics revamp. Unfortunately for me, that would mean that it will arrive two years too late.

I think not adding Lord of the Rings - Online (LOTRO) to that list is an insult.

The game had been doing very well and has a huge loyal subscriber base. The game will also develop all the way into and past Moria so the future looks bright.

I play on the Gilrain Europe server and there is always activity and new content is eaten up by the player base.

Look towards 2012 and beyond and you will see LOTRO clearly there!

Originally posted by Seamz

Even though we have not heard anything about them. The new Blizzard MMO and the Zenimax MMO will be number 1 and 2 on that list, almost undoubtedly. They'll be the King and Queen of the MMO market in a few years.

No, AoC, DarkFall and WAR will be number 1, 2 and 3. Oh wait, flashback to four years ago when all of you ignorant ass fanboys were guessing that a game which you were anticipating would be the next best thing. The guy that wrote whis article looked at the games objectively, something that is pretty rare in the emotion-fueled forums wars. And to the loser tellingthe author he is close-minded because he didn't include a game you think should be on the list, how hypocritical. So the only way he wouldn't be close-minded would be if he agreed with you on all 10 games? lol

Personally I have to say that list is way off...

Everyone in their rite mind knows that Zelda will be at the top of the list! DOUH!

Originally posted by Zengrok

Originally posted by gnomexxx

So much for a dynamic gaming genre.  Especially if WoW is still on top 3 years from now.

I was kind of hoping technology and other advancements (like game design) would knock that game on its ass.  I cannot see myself being a fan of the MMO genre if it hasn't changed enough in 3 years to give us something more fun than WoW. 

That's not the point though.   WoW may still be a player, or even top slot in 3 years, but that doesn't mean the industry hasn't changed and evolved. 

Think of it this way.  People will always start with WoW, and evolve into something else.  This means those other, "better" games will always be a smaller segment.  So the only game that topples WoW, will be another starter game (and probably from Blizzard) that most of us will choose not to play anyway.

People "evolve" into something else? I mean ,seriously ...how much did you think before you wrote this post.    I've been playing mmos since 2003 and the only mmo nowadays wich seems worthwhile is deffo wow.All the others are just ......... 

And now regarding the topic  ,I think blizzards new mmo/wow       Guild wars 2   and SW:TOR will be top3 in  2013.      :)