A lot of talk has been swirling around the idea that Star Wars: The Old Republic is somehow the much ballyhooed "WoW Killer". Is it or is it not? That is the question. In today's WoW Factor, we take a look at that notion and offer a few thoughts on the subject. Check it out and then add your own thoughts in the comments.

With the recent and highly acclaimed launch of SW:TOR the World of Warcraft finally looks to have gained a worthy adversary after seven years on the market. While the fabled title of “WoW-killer” should probably never be tossed around in any seriousness SW:TOR’s rampant and undeniable success seems to raise the very legitimate question of whether or not the Sith’s return to a galaxy far, far away threatens more than just the existence of the Jedi. Now obviously it is much, much too early in the game’s timeline to predict an outcome but everyone who even remotely follows the ranting and ravings of the MMO world has probably kindled a thought or two along the lines of “by the gods…the Star Wars MMO is really here!”

Read more of Joe Sanicky's The WoW Factor: Slain by the Sith?

"Will Titan or WoW abolish raiding because SW:TOR doesn’t have it?"

Are you playing the same SW: TOR that I am ? Or was my raid last night in TOR a figment of my imagination ? Or possibly the additional raid content annouced for the 1st content patch a mirage ?

You lost me at this sentence. Please learn about the game you are playing before you write about it.

i played wow for years... it was a good game in its day. its just tired now. i had to delete all my toons and just make a clean break from the habit.

i am enjoying star wars.. its not a wow clone any more than wow was an everquest clone. its an mmo. no more.... no less. we as gamers need to just get back to basics and stop being so jaded. just enjoy the games for what they are... entertainment. its not a lifestyle. 

i have learned to not blow through levels and just sit back and enjoy being my character. there is a ton to do in swtor... most of it is undiscovered if you are just chasing levels. the same was true for wow and city of heroes and all the others. you have to slow down and really play... not just powerlevel

swtor is my game of choice. for how long? well... like i said with wow... i am going to enjoy it for as long as its enjoyable. 

Actually, that's my fault.  I talked with Joe about Operations the other day, and explained them to be raids.  But I forgot to remove this sentence.  Fixing now!

Is Lucas going to deal the killing blow to WoW

Nope, Blizzard's current staff is handling that one.  It'll take some more time beating on the dead horse's corpse (possibly years, maybe just Pandas) before the end comes, but without a complete change in senior magagement--the end was already on the way years ago.

I cant find in me the power to deny the force within the Star wars IP, i love it, you love it, everyone with a kind link to the world of dream and imagination (one may call it "creative intelect") loves Star Wars.

But we are not talking about the movies here, or the books, or even the lore itself, we are talking about a game that falls into a segmented niche of the gaming market, wich is what the mmorpg genre is.

I stood too many times in those lines, where people gathered up to contemplate the next "WoW killer", too many times i heaard the song being sung, and while i did played all of those potential candidates and found greatness in them, the test of time remained encumbered by its true and only nemesis, WoW.

While i find SWTOR launch to be a remakable one, i find some disturbance in the force telling me that it will not survive that test. So, and briefly, SWTOR will shake the bee hive a little bit, as WAR did, as AOC did, as LotRO did, as AION did, as RIFT did, but, and as nature follows its path, the little bees will return to their hive and their busy little and confortable life....

....and who can blame them? I most certainly dont.

Originally posted by Icewhite

Is Lucas going to deal the killing blow to WoW

Nope, Blizzard's current staff is handling that one.  

This ^

I don't think anyone is as committed to a single game as they used to be when the horizon wasn't as plentiful with options as it is now.  Most everyone is going to try out GW2 when it hits the streets whether they are diehard fans of any particular game or not.  I think people ONLY go back to WoW because they believe their friends to still be there waiting for them.  That and the fact that they sit on the top tier of everything by default... no need to work for anything, just maintain the status quo.  In a new MMO, you have to rebuild all that from scratch... some people just don't have the desire to work that hard at it again for the umpteenth time.  In that I mean, they've leveled countless toons in WoW, so the notion of doing same elsewhere is really more like sticking needles in one's eyes than an actual fun proposition.  Of course, the said would be true if the coin were flipped and it was SWTOR that has been around for 7 years and WoW only 2 weeks.  I don't think WoW is any where near as great as the pedestal it's been put on, I think it's nostalgia that colors the glasses one sees through.

The only thing Lucas Arts has ever managed to do is kill their own games.  I don't expect that will change with SWTOR.

Can you guys wait a few months before making such crazy statement ?  I mean the game is not even a month old, peoples are still on their first free month.  Let's see how the population goes once they need to pay 15$ per month to keep playing a game that is so shallow.

i for one hope that WoW will NEVEr die.. it keeps the wowheads in one place and out of my game.

i have 10years worth of stories with my old (mmo friends) that is NOT contained to ONE game.. and a plethora of memories we recollect together.. not the same rehash over and over in the same package. But they all weave together and form one long awesome story of friendship, that alone is worth more than "loyalty" to one game.

Then again we are more like locusts that go from game to game and devour the content and then move on to the next one instead of limiting myself to one single experience.

but each to his one, but i still fail to find any point of this article...

   Heh , really now? TOR the WoW killer?    Remind me again how many copies have SWtor sold up to now?  And remind me again on how many copies Skyrim sold in the same period of time?   *Looks over at WoW Population*   Yep , WoW is far from dead , especially with D3 / TL2 coming out soon , that will just fuel up their numbers. 

   It's funny because if STO had as much work put into as SWtor , we wouldn't be having this discussion on how SWtor is good , but how SWtor is on life support due to a awful release. Because let's face it , Star Wars and Star Trek fans were and always will be at war.  So if SWtor is any MMO killer , it's most likely killing STO.  To even point out that it will kill WoW is lame and silly.

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Originally posted by Aguitha
Can you guys wait a few months before making such crazy statement ?  I mean the game is not even a month old, peoples are still on their first free month.  Let's see how the population goes once they need to pay 15$ per month to keep playing a game that is so shallow.

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I agree and a very WEAK attemp by MMORPG.COM STAFF to another attemp to hype SWTOR its a bit SAD realy.

Not by a longshot SWTORis comming close at moment to WoW so what are you brabbeling about MMORPG STAFF?

So far big winner of 2011 even here on mmorpg.com(making topics yourself about a sologame) is SKYRIM way ahead of SWTOR of sold copys.

More then 9 million copys sold of SKYRIM so far and not even digital numbers included so prolly even over 10million.

WOW is killing itself.  If not for the moronic changes to the game TOR would have been zero threat to it.  However GC seems determined to come up with the worst ideas iin history and kill his own business.  That said I think in 3 months we will see who really comes out on top.  Judging this by launch numbers of a game everyone knew would have huge box numbers is a bit silly.  Sub counts will be what matters.

Originally posted by parrotpholk

Sub counts will be what matters.

That's statement just gave me chills.

Yes, the ad numerum (based on sub numbers) drives the gamer herd back and forth.

But surely at least some people are doing more than playing follow the leader?

Originally posted by Icewhite

Originally posted by parrotpholk

Sub counts will be what matters.

That's statement just gave me chills.

Yes, the ad numerum (based on sub numbers) drives the gamer herd back and forth.

But surely at least some people are doing more than playing follow the leader?

Thats what WOW was judged by all these years and TOR will be no different in how it is judged.  Herd mentality though persists everywhere.  If your friends play then the likely hood of you at least trying it out are greater.  

Hey folks,

If you read the article closely, you'll realize that Joe's actually stating that WoW won't be killed by SWTOR, despite how well BioWare's game may or may not do.

Thanks!

I'm going to be perfectly honest. It's time for WoW to fall by the wayside. Until it does, the industry will never reach beyond WoW. Yes SWTOR is a chance, but only a chance. It doesn't do enough different to really move us into the next generation of MMO's. 

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE SWTOR. I'm playing the heck out of it and I can't get enough. But there are some things seriously lacking in the game, just like in every other game released in the last five years. Things like an alterable map (one that you can write on and mark  ) have been requested for years by the gamers, and things like proper housing haven't existed since SWG and EQ2. That's only a couple of small things, but I said them to make a point.

Will SWTOR have them? That remains to be seen. I have faith in Bioware. They are my favorite game company, and they have EARNED the right to have me give them a chance to make this into the single best MMO ever released, even if it takes them years to do it. 

But to get back to my point, this industry will never offer more than it is, or become more than it is, until they stop basing games around 1995 technology and the WoW paradigm. It's time to move to the next generation. And nothing that is being offered, including SWTOR, is it. 

Both are good games. One is older.

The best thing Blizzard could have done at the last Blizzcon was announce Titan. They didn't do this and they are going to have to deal with the consequences of not having done so.

There is no chance that TOR is going to kill off WoW in the next 24 months... WoW is too strong of a brand at this point.

I do think that GW:2's launch will be a problem for Blizzard if it hasn't done something innovative and dynamic by then though.

SWTOR has as much chance of killing WoW as Lady Gaga has of winning Best Dressed.  Sure, they're both pretty enough in their own way, but it isn't like either one of them will ever care enough about winning to really put forth the effort it takes.

SWTOR has to worry about it's IP.  THey can't make it mainstream enough to kill WoW without sacrificing the established storyline.  And they can't invent new lore willy-nilly like Blizzard does because the stroy is well established, and we've already seen how badly it gets rejected by fans when someone, even the original author, creates new lore that doesn't jive with established lore.  Sure there are enough small points that can be expounded on for SWTOR to add things, but they already lost me with the Sith being playable ("Always two there are: one master and one apprentice"...  So what do we do with the other 3 million Sith Warriors over here that will kill the story between Chapters 3 and 4?)  Fortunately for BioWare, there are enough fanboys out there with self-insertion fantasies about Star Wars that they can get away with this hugely lore breaking oops, but it's still just the first step down a slippery slope in my book.

Blizzard isn't going to die to any newcomer to the arena, either.  GW2 has more chance of killing WoW than SWTOR does.  MoP looks like an awesome concept for an expansion, and the extra content aimed at the more casual player will certainly attract people interested in such things.  Their only stumblinb block there is the subscription fee itself.  Casual content is supposed to be free, and the players who would be interested in the content as new players to WoW aren't going to view the monthly fee with eager anticipation.  Still, I don't think its something Blizzard can't overcome.