What's Xfire?

Sub numbers went down, but revenue went WAYYYYY up from the same time last year. Which means they made more money off of less people.

At the end of the day, for a business, revenue is all that matters.

Originally posted by Geowash

Unless you are a new player you will not find WoW Starter Edition anything but one.

???

Why in the world would anyone be interested in the starter edition unless they were a new player? It's simply an extended free trial.

Originally posted by tazarconan

What success of Ddo and Lotro he's talking about? they went F2P cause they failed.

DDO was more successful after going F2P than it ever was beforehand. In fact, Turbine was overwhelmed by the success of DDO after it went F2P. So much so that they followed suit with LoTRO, which was far from a "failure". Turbine's switch to F2P was so succeessful for them, that it's encouraging most other AAA MMOs to go F2P, or at least offer an F2P option.

That being said, I hate the F2P business model, and won't touch any F2P games.

Sounds like a great concept, but Cryptic is making this game. So there you go.

LOL, so go play some crap free to play MMO if you can't afford it. WoW is worth every penny, and Blizzard knows this.

Other sub-based MMOs have FTP options or free previous expansions because they are hurting for players, and their game is a stale fart compared to WoW.

Originally posted by Zolgar

I know. =/ It's a lot to drop on a game at once IMHO.

You don't have to drop it all at once. All you need to start playing is original WoW. The expansions won't be needed until you hit 60, 70, and 80 respectively. Or if you want to roll a Draenei or Blood Elf (need BC),  a Worgen or Goblin (need Cata), or use the archeology profession (need Cata). Other than those, pretty much everything else will be available from levels 1-60.

WoW's art direction is simply unmatched. It's absolutely amazing. That being said, the animations, shadows and lighting are excellent as well. On ultra settings, the game looks damn good.

The only negative thing I can say about WoW's graphics are that they have mostly low resolution textures and low poly counts on the models. But, IMO, the art direction more than makes up for it, and it's the most beautiful and enchanting fantasy MMO around.

 I see nothing wrong with having... crafting facilities in a player home

They ruin one of the main reasons to visit cities in MMOs. When crafting stations were added to housing in games like DAoC and EQ2, the main cities became ghost towns.

WoW doesn't need housing. There's plenty of other things to do in the game. If you really want housing, there are plenty of other games that offer it. While I did enjoy the housing in the MMOs I've played that have it, I really don't miss it in WoW. I'd rather they work on other things.

While I agree that the term "WoW clone" is way overused and mostly undeserved, if there was ever a game deserving of the title "WoW clone" Rift is it. IMO, Rift is the first 'true' WoW clone. There are so many aspects of Rift that are exactly like WoW it's not funny. And I'm not talking about superficial things like they both have quests and character advancement. I'm talking very specific, obvious, blatant, intentional similarites with WoW. Their advertising even says "We're not in Azeroth anymore". Anyone who doesn't think Rift is a clone of WoW either hasn't played Rift, or hasn't played WoW, or is blind.

Originally posted by erictlewis

There has always been an fps problem with rift. 

Gamebryo engine FTL.

Originally posted by SaintViktor
 Only the diehard Wow fans remain...

Millions and millions of them.

Newsflash: Rift is already done.

Originally posted by Warjin

If you love Star trek you will like this game, If not then you where never a trekkie.

LOL? I love Star Trek, and I also love good MMOs, which this game is not. Star trek Online sucks ass. Bigtime.

"After 1 year, STO worth picking up?"

No.

Originally posted by Xzen

From what I can tell they are making ALL the same mistakes.

Considering the fact that Trion consists of some of the WAR team, does this surprise anyone?

Originally posted by psyclum

Originally posted by doom27nyc

Because the internet communication systems don’t let the government Wiretap the line and hear you…

you may want to learn about how internet works before posting garbage like this:D   with enough cracking ability, anyone CAN "wiretap" anyone else on the internet even w/o government resources:D  if you think government CANT wiretap skype or any voip with a court order, you are in serious need of a lesson on how TCP/IP and routers work

THIS. If the government wants to listen in on your Teamspeak conversation, they are already well capable of doing it. VoIP isn't going anywhere. Please take the tinfoil hat off.

Raptr? What ever happened to Xfire? So, are people going to start quoting Raptr statisics now instead of Xfire when they try to argue about a games popularity?

Originally posted by mastersomrat

 WoW now has 5-6mil subs (was 11-12)

Really? From what source did you hear that from? Not that it matters, but from my understanding, WoW now has more subscribers than it ever did. It is far, far from "done".

Originally posted by rokrow

Is Rift like WoW?  No.

Bullshit. Rift is so much like WoW, it's not even funny. It's blatantly obvious. If you think otherwise, you are either blind, or you have never played WoW. Everything about it screams WoW. Their advertisements even say "We're not in Azeroth anymore".

I hate the term "WoW clone", as it is overused, and moslty undeserved. However, if there was ever a game that deseves that title, it's Rift. In fact, I would say Rift is the first "true" WoW clone.

As an above poster said, denying the similarities does not make them untrue.