I wouldn't miss it, I dropped my sub as soon as Orgrimmar general chat started to get all about whine whine whine...You could tell within 2 days that Blizz has allowed faction changes lol

There are alot of MMORPGs to take it's place. They really are not that much different than one another. I don't think they ever have been. If WoW were to fall, there would soon be a new top game to hate. It's not that hard to paint a target on something as frivolous as a video game. The only thing that has really changed is the reasons that the (new) majority of people play them, and therefore the types of players they attract. Ultimately all companies will try to cater to them because that's where the money's at.

It would be business as usual for everyone who doesn't play WoW and isn't involved in Activision / Blizzard.

It's just a product.

The same would happen if Chevy suddenly stopped making cars for some random reason. More market for everyone else and less shitty cars on the streets.

So we're speculating what would happen if Microsoft decided to bring litigation against Blizzard for misuse of the infamous "Vista" raid boss name and sued them for 3 billion USD. Or... if a massive W32.Spiffy.A infection wiped out every WoW server and we came to find out they kept no backups or recovery funds. ^_~

(I mean, Everquest 1 still has subscribers! They're not -that- rare; I work with two! In reality, I think we will see WoW servers live at least as long as we have seen EQ1 servers live. Players will slowly trickle off as they get bored.)

But, to speculate... for fun's sake:

I think a lot of the players would have no interest in playing another MMORPG. They did not play one before WoW, and they're really not to into the genre. I see a large percentage moving back to the Gears of War and HL2s of the world.

Some would find new, similar games - I bet Aion would get large subscription numbers as it plays similarly and its high profile. Others would return to games they played previously, or filter off into other genres they prefer.

Well, the answer depends a lot on how WoW disapeared. If it was a financial failure, for instance, the effect would be catastrophic; Shares would go down on most companies working on MMOs and many projects could get canceled or delayed, while existing succesful MMOs could hope to get some extra subs they would do so on a very scrutinized and volatile environment in which average sub prices would be going up something like a 50% within six months.  A court order forcing Blizzard to shut down operations would have similar effects, although this would be compounded by the steep legal fees companies would spend protecting themselves from the same fate. Prohibition (by congress) in the US would very likely bring about enough uncertainty to very much kill the development of major MMOs in the western world. In all of this cases it's likely a culture of "resistance" through the internet would develop and warcraft servers would remain open to a minority (either pirate or private services overseas) i'm very much afraid a couple of teens could actually comit suicide, feeding a moral panic in the mainstream media and creating a very hostile environment towards electronic games in general. Finally, the amount of nerdraging and qqing over the internet would pretty much have much more lasting effects than Michael Jackson's death in crashing and disabling internet services, specially as hundreds of wannabe hacker scripties would rampage. No, western civilization would not end, but this would get more than a couple of books written. 

If WoW just magically disapeared a cult would be born to await it's return.

Edit; I may not have made my point clear. WoW failing would affect both consumer and investor confidence on the MMo market. It would not only be extremely visible but by itself would mean not only an end to it's own server infrastructure but that of many gaming sites, it may also by itself enormously reduce MMOs general share of the entertainment market, driving investors to anxiety attacks over an industry where the leader could disapear without any advance notice. Everyone would have to take a look at their own business model and very likely revamp it to avoid the same thing happening to them. And to make it clear, I loathe warcraft... this is just what i think would happen.

Originally posted by Tisiphone 

I think a lot of the players would have no interest in playing another MMORPG. They did not play one before WoW, and they're really not to into the genre. I see a large percentage moving back to the Gears of War and HL2s of the world.

Some would find new, similar games - I bet Aion would get large subscription numbers as it plays similarly and its high profile. Others would return to games they played previously, or filter off into other genres they prefer.

There are enough players that come from WoW to other games, to have those games' developers change the game to fit the ex-WoW players' expectations. Therefore I think most would be comfortable in pretty much any newer, subscription-based MMORPG.

Originally posted by tro44_1

This is something I was thinking bout. Iam not a hater or anything, but what if for any strange reason, WoW was shut down (not that it would be or anything)

1) What would happen to the MMORPG genre?

2) What game would you WoW players flock to?

3) What MMORPG game you think will have the highest population? And why

4) Would other types of MMORPGs finally sprout?

 

Personally, I could not care less. I do not love nor hate WOW. It is irrelevant to my interests.

1) THATS difficult to say and highly depends on the reason. Lets say the reason is random, like Blizzard goes bankrupt like Lehmann brothers, it would mean little. I guess most companies would tinker as before. There never was a winning formula that can be repeated like WOW, so it would mean we won't see another giant like it again. Impact on the gerne in the long term: likely neglectable.

2) Most would likely stop playing MMOs. I would suggest LOTRO, Aion or EQ2 as it is, to them.

3) Beats me. As I said, most people would rather stop playing MMOs, so I don't expect any large impact. Every MMO would grow a bit, but the relations would stay the same, I guess.

4) Other types? No, I think game industry is quite conservative.

It's really a bit "if". Hard to imagine it happens.

1.) It would be less popular and a lot of people would stop playing them.

2.) Probably either Aion, Free Realms, War, or maybe possibly even champions/CoH (I prefer CoH but champions is newer. :\ ).

3.) Probably free realms because it appeals to a wider audience and it's free.
 

4.) no new genres. Maybe a more hardcore game would be preferred then. because it would slip back into the niche and hardcore audience.

That's what I think anyway.

 as ive said so many times before, for wow to die the stupid people that play wow would all have to die, and when that happens door to door salesman telemarketers and gold farmers will all be put out of buisiness as well because its the kind of numb brained boobs that play wow that buy things from telemarketers and tv infomercials and door to door salesmans.

If WoW died...

A certain friend of mine would wander out of his house in a daze, sheilding his eyes from the sunlight, and ask me what year it is.

Originally posted by Neanderthal

If WoW died...

A certain friend of mine would wander out of his house in a daze, sheilding his eyes from the sunlight, and ask me what year it is.

lol so true  WAIT.. maybe wow is breeding zombies to take over the world? DAMN!! where is my shotgun!

If Wow dies , Aion transforms to WoW and that keeps going for years :P

I'll go with what Bill said in Ghostbusters:

"Venkman: Riots in the streets, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria! "

Then along with SWG vets we would have WOW vets waiting for someone to give them their game back for years and shoot down anything that was different

if WoW dies? who cares?

majority of the veterans have quit WoW like 2 years ago

there are like tons of promising MMOs out there, im not WoW hater or anything, i used to go hardcore on WoW myself, but seriously, ppl need to start learning the truth that WoW is no longer the "Best" MMOs out there

Originally posted by TweFoju

if WoW dies? who cares?

majority of the veterans have quit WoW like 2 years ago

there are like tons of promising MMOs out there, im not WoW hater or anything, i used to go hardcore on WoW myself, but seriously, ppl need to start learning the truth that WoW is no longer the "Best" MMOs out there

Er..  it never was. It was just a solid, simple, casual focused title. 
 

If wow died, the last line in barrens chat would be:

Did you hear? Chuck Norris just died... While he did yo mama.

Then It Would be dead

Just for some randam event, WoW shuts down forever. What would be the next Top selling MMORPG?

Just stop with these threads. I swear to god there's like 5 everyday.