WoW and the expansions of WoW has been among the top 10 best selling PC games months after months and still is, at least here in Sweden.

But...

When was the last time any new realms were opened in US or in Europe?

By all logic there should be new realms every few months if every player that bought the game actually sticked around.

Fact is that WoW is bleeding players and it certainly looks like the only reason why there isn´t  more low pop realms then there are, is because Blizzard manage to attract so many new players when the old ones gets bored and quit.

And people will get bored when they run out of content and it is then they start to look around for other games. The danger is that Cata added much less content than Burning crusade and Wotlk in the endgame. Fewer dungeons, fewer raids. Sure the lvl 1-60 is rather updated, but you will get through those lvls  faster than ever before and reach the same old Outland.

Ergo players will grow bored faster with Cata than they did with TBC or Wotlk and that isn´t going to end well for WoWs future regardless of the competion from other mmorpgs.

And bored WoW players is the reason why Rift has the potential of being bigger than Aion despite it is competing directly with WoW and is fairly open with that (you are not in Azeroth anymore).

If you are not thinking that players are getting tired of WoW:

http://www.warcraftrealms.com/weeklyfactionactivity.php

( The dip during Nov-December was because the census addon wasn´t updated and didn´t register players for a month.

The ongoing crash this year is because people are simply are not playing or even leaving, can´t blame the census on that one.)

So what is Blizzard/ Activision doing about this?

They are going to open realms for Brazilian players.

Hmm...

Maybe that will push the total player base up to 12 million once more, maybe not.

It will not help the US or Europeans realms to get more players.

Edit: Blizzard should have spent more time on the endgame and updating at least Outland if they wanted players to stick around. And why after all these years is Alterac Valley still a rush game? Been plenty of player feedback on that one.

You will get plenty of exp by doing Rift events unlike games like WoW you are not punished by joining a raid to get exp, and lucky that because with many rifts up you will want to be in a raid most of the time.

Rift invasions are hardly passive either, some form NPC raids and if you look at the map you can see in what direction they are heading.

( I am not 100% sure about the connection between many rifts open and the invasions that threatens the quest hubs, but they do occurs about at the same time.)

And if they are heading towards a quest hub (so far the quests hubs has been pretty small) you want to stop it because the raids has potential to wipe it out = no NPCs to give you a quests for a while.

Linear = predictable.

The rifts makes the game rather unpredictable I would say, despite it is so similar to WoW in other ways.

And rifts are created by players actually, from tears, so this means quest hubs will not be wiped out 24/7 in low pop areas as one would think, but there will be non-stop raid action in areas with many players.

Originally posted by MMO.Maverick

@Trowar: it just launched, what did you expect?

Rift also outscores WoW, LotrO and GW2 in the number of hits besides SWTOR, just fyi.

I am not talking about the latest week.

I am talking about the latest 6 MONTHS.

It is interesting to see that Rift scores a lot more hits in mmorpg.com than the much hyped Star Wars old republic, unless you go back a year when no one had heard about Rift.

Trion as not as big as Bioware or Lucas Art.

The world of Rift is not as well known as the Star Wars universe.

But when you make a game this good it doesn´t have to be.

Well to much irritation xfire doesn´t support Rift retail yet.

Using xfire I can´t even see Rift installed on my computer, although it is possible to hack xfire to get it registred and around a hundred xfire users have done that.

So even if Rift does show up in xfire it currrently has just a hundred users, however there are 44 xfire communities connected to Rift last time I checked.

What is my point with this?

Well, xfire did register Rift Beta, and when it did that it was the 8th most played game, and the 2nd most played mmorpg, bigger than Aion.

And yet here in Sweden we have hardly heard a thing about this game. I didn´t hear a thing about it until I look in WoW general forum, of all places. The biggest game magazine in Sweden -- pcgamer, has just recently mentioned Rift .

( I swear they must be payed by activision).

If a game can be this big just from player feedback it surely does have potential to be really big.

" Earthrise only offers one playable race, boring Humans, and spits in the face of those other science-fiction formats with their exotic and varied body-forms- get your cloak and hat other bipedal, extraterrestrial races: you are not welcome here."

"The skill menu is available from the UI and calls forth a frightening amount of choices, and using earned battle points and crafting points, this is where the majority of development comes from."

That part of the review... I am just lost of words. Many genre specific mmorpgs do offer "just boring humans" but does that hurt the rating of for example EvE-online? EvE is indeed a Scifi game set far into the future while Earthrise is more of a post apocalyptic game even if it is more Scifi than Fallen Earth.

Mmorpgs with "just boring humans" tend to compensate this with putting more choises in the skill trees instead, and again that didn´t hurt the rating of EvE-online that has many skills and that game hasn´t been downgraded because of that.

I have no plans of buying Earthrise but this review seems very unfair, it surely seems like the wrong reviewer has been picked for this a reviewer that had expected something like a Star Wars mmorpg. Big surprice! It isn´t!

If I remember it correct so was Fallen Earth given low scores at first by mmorpg.com, but that was taken back.

The reviewers here doesn´t like post-apocaplyptic games in general?

Rift is what happens if someone takes WoW back to vanilla and then do the opposite what Blizzard has been doing since the Burning crusade.

Ergo LOTS of outdoor raid content, when WoW now has no outdoor Bosses anylonger. The World is actually filled with players outside the big main hubs instead like in WoW where they are sitting in Stormwind and Orgrimmar and sometimes leave on their flying mounts to collect stuff. The rifts in Rift createas non-stop battles and I can´t wait to see when the pvp outdoor aspect kicks while the outdoor PvP in WoW is completly dead beacuse of flying mounts and fast spawning lvl 85 guards in every hub no matter how small.

A dedicated PvP soul meaning the the class  balancing of PvE vs PvP will be much less of as hassle. When in WoW there is a ongoing class homogenization, I think all classes have stuns now and hybrids in WoW are doing as much damage as the dedicated dps-classes. And you can make pretty unique builds Rift when in WoW have to spend 31 points in one tree before being able to spend it in another.

In short Rift sure is a WoW clone of  what WoW would have been like if Blizzard had actually listened their customers. Other WoW clones has tried to be like WoW but Rift has aimed and succeded of being like WoW but only much better.

What made me drop WoW in Wotlk was the ongoing homogeniztion of the classes due to Blizzard trying to balance PvE and PvP because of arenas. I couldn´t care less about arenas still PvE suffered because of that.

But ultimately it is getting old.

Catalysm could have helped that with new 1-60 content, but because of  lvling was speeded up so much you will be done with that content soon enough and the rest of Cata is like a half expansion if compared to burning crusade and Wotlk.

And some problems has been around since WoW beta, like there is no reason to roll the lesser faction on a realm, meaning that sooner (in pvp realms) or later ( pve realms) one faction will be totally dominating and the lesser one will have more and problem of getting people to their guilds.

And uneven factions was the very reason why Blizzard decided to buff guards, add battlegrounds, arenas so the lesser faction wasn´t overrunned in their towns and quest hubs 24/7.  

Blizzard tried to cure the symptoms instead of focusing on the actual problem.  

It isn´t the first time either, they are still not listening that there is no longer a reason to play a pure class like rogue because hybrids now can do as much damage, now rogues are among the least played classes when they once were among the most popular and that downspiraling trend has been since burning crusade. One can´t help to wonder if there is an ongoing bias since there seems to be only one person in charge of class balancing (Ghostcrawler).

Last thing; the community... oh dear God, the community!

>_<

WHAT THE...?

So for the sake of balance, are we going to see reviews of other RTS games from other companies, or are you doing this because Starcraft II is a  Blizzard game?

After this... how the f*ck are we going to expect "fair and balanced" reviews of mmorpgs in this site when you are doing such exception for Blizzard?

The World.

Ultimately it is the player behind the character that matters, not the character. It is difficult to be "unique" in EvE online for example, many will fly the same ship as you and have roughly the same skills, despite the many options in that area, but your actions as a player truly matters.

In some games like Champions online you can make unique looking characters and have tons of options when creating the character. But if it is quest based and the quests resembles each other you will eventually get tired of the game no matter how unique the character is. 
 

You used Command and Conquer 3 as an example. I raise with "Black Shark".  PC games can be much more advanced, "intelligent" so to speak, than a console game. "Black shark" is the most extreme example of this.

You can check out the manual for it: http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/index.php

It is a 27,6 mb pdf file. The manual is 534 pages long. Try to port that one to a console without dumbing it down.

Well it isn´t WoW he is looking for since he mentions factions and I think he means more than two.

WoW only has 2 factions. And on many realms not even that since one faction is totally dominating.  The worst thing about Blizzard is that they have given very little reason for anyone to play the minor faction in the realms and ultimately the gap between the faction grows beyond any repair and no free transfer will help.

WoWs maps are not seamless either considering most of the game takes places in instances and there is loading times between the continents.

EvE comes pretty close of what you are asking for if you consider the different Alliances there for factions. And the "map" while not seamless, is truly massive.

As for fantasy mmorpg you are looking for Darkfall but be prepared for a very harsh pvp.

Edit: /agree on Fallen Earth. It is based on EvE online in many ways such as crafting system, massive map,  one realm for all players. And it has clans + multiple factions.

Nah, much better to scoop up bored WoW players a few months after the Catalysm got released,  otherwise they risk to get WoW players that are just waiting for the expansion. No need to rush. I have no doubt Catalysm will sell well but the buyers most of all be the ones that are active WoW players already.

Most important of all is that they make sure to finish and not rush Final Fantasy XIV and give it enough content instead of relying on grinding to make players stay. WoW has such massive turnover rate these days compared to WoW classic when new realms nearly opened every months because players didn´t quit, so there will hardly be any lack of players for FFXIV. And new players will find WoW increasingly expensive compared to just any other mmorpg, since none of the expansions are free and all are needed (not to mention the installation time).

So the devs of FFXIV shall focus to make a good game and not let Activision dictate any deadline.

Originally posted by Ravanos

its because the stupid fans from WoW quit WoW but want the game they are looking at to be JUST LIKE WoW.

 

and you still wonder why WoW players are some of the most hated in all the genre.

This.

There is a reason why I quit playing WoW and I now play mmorpgs that are anything like WoW. And I the last thing that I want to happen is that those games will WoW-like as well because of some brats that played WoW, got bored ( can´t blame them for that ) and wants other mmorpgs to be just as easy.

Just because they could reach max lvl without dying once in WoW at first try, you can´t expect do that in other mmorpgs as well, believe it or not there are people out there that likes challenges. I do look at WoW patch notes from time to time, because they rarely fails to give me a good laugh and remind me to stay the hell away from that game.

*Looks at forum names of some of the posters.*

Well besides playing WoW, they don´t seem have anything else to do than troll other games.

=p

Even if I don´t I play Aion, or any fantasy game mmorpg anymore after being bored to death with WoW ( and I can´t stand the current WoW community or mr Ghostcrawler either )  I welcome any new succesfull mmorpg.  If there isn´t any serious competion it will be bad for everyone.

Microsoft didn´t had any serious competion and in the end they made the awful OS Windows Vista. WoW is turning into the mmorpgs equalent of Vista by giving it no meaning of lvling for example a troll shaman to max lvl on a certain realm with faction, race transfers in force. Add to this cross realm battlegrounds and soon cross realm lfg and you will hardly have a chanse to know players outside the guild the way you could in vanilla WoW. I would hate if other mmorpg devs thinks those things will be good ideas just because WoW is big.

Originally posted by Dactyl

Originally posted by Kyntor  

I would also highly recommend the Antec Earthwatts power sources.  I have had great luck with them.  Newegg has the 650 for $85 with no rebate.  The 650 should be more than enough for what you have.

 

 

I'm running the antec 650 earthwatt as well and it runs very cool, which is a welcome change over my last psu which made my case an oven.  About a month of use now and its been rock solid.

I agree that something like 650 Watt is needed, maybe even more.

You have to look at how many cores the CPU has, in this case it is 4. And that graphic card need power like no tomorrow, just look at the combo deal, a 850 Watt psu!

Another reason why 400 Watt doesn´t cut it anymore is because the amount of fans that is needed cool todays gaming computer.

The most powerful gaming computers out there are equipped with 1000 Watt psu. A tip how powerful psu is needed is to look around at other computers with that CPU and graphic card to get a grip what psu is most commonly used. Usually those computers some room of error so you can upgrade components or overclock without needing a new psu.

However if every single one is using a 750+ Watt psu, then I would say using 500 Watt psu is very optimistic.

Originally posted by decoy26517

depends on the game. some games are fine with no classes while some are fine having 100+.

  This, and it depends of what type of mmorpg it is.

Is it close to 100% PvE then more is better. Think paper D&D 3.5 with all expansions and all prestige classes (and races!).

If it is game were PvP is most important it could as well be class less.

If both PvP and PvE is important then I would say "as many classes the devs can balance". If they manage to balance 100+ ( one can dream ) then I would gladly buy the game. And if the devs manage to make all those 100+ unique and distinct. Even more so.

I wouldn´t be happy with a game where you run into your "doubleganger" all too often.

Bored to death with that game, and there isn´t anyone left of those that I know that started to play 2005-2006, they have all left, so not much community to return to. Not that the realm is empty or the old guilds died,  most of the old guilds are still there, but with new people, in more than one way >_<.

WoW must have been a popular Christmas gift the latest 2 years for parents to give their kids.

What would bring me back, besides changing the entire community?

If you asked me at the beginning of this year I would have said "Kick Ghostcrawler, replace him with 1dev for each class and make the factions balanced population wise in the realms, how I don´t care, but we can´t have realms that are dead for one faction."

It happens that I still read the patch notes and so far the have never failed to remind me why I quitted that game. Just note how they are changing the lore for giving things that was never asked for "orc is the least played lock race, surely orc MAGE will be more popular, because players like orc in cloths right?". And the opposite -"Why can´t we have troll or dranei warlocks?" "Lore forbids that". And the new races in Catalyst: one that look like a human most of the time and the other a npc race that is everywhere already and annoying as hell to listen to.

And the idea that making Variann and Garrosh leaders to motivate players play world pvp more? Yeah, right. Anything but trying to balance the realms, you know the thing that killed world pvp in first place.

But if you ask me now what it takes to bring me back I will simply say "More than can ever happen".

The reason is that I tried Warhammer and Conan and I got bored after a few months and that was because they were simply too similar to WoW. It will have to change so much that it will be a completly different game for me to get intrested again .

Other; as in Fallen Earth, maybe EvE online.

I am not "Oh, I gotta have that!" of any of the upcoming mmorgps, but I will keep my eyes open for "All points bulletin" and "the Secret World" to see how they turns out. 

Originally posted by Galaxo

Originally posted by pepsibottle

WoW is doing it right.

Eve is the biggest piece of boring trash I have ever played.

 

WOW OWNS !

EvE is not for all gamers, you need more brain to play it and that sucks! 

LOL! XD

WoW was a simplified Everquest version with much faster lvling, much easier to get into in a way that attracts players that never had played a mmorgp before. Problem is that that its "userfriendliness" makes it shallow. It still attracts a lot players, you still see it in game stores, but it no longer makes players continue to play for years like it did in the beginning, now it is a matters of months before they quit.

Last time I checked into my old realm using a trial key the realm was almost fulI, I still could see some of the old guilds left, but I didn´t recognise any oldtimers at all in my old guild or any other guilds.

And like the Op I took not long before I was reminded why I quitted the game and this time there was no friends, rivals or "enemies" left in the game. And it isn´t just WoW I got bored any game that tries to be like WoW but just better, like Lotr isn´t my cup of tea anymore.

But big complex games "sandbox" games is keeping my intrests. EvE online being the prime example, its population isn´t growing because it attracts much players any given month, it grows because players are not leaving and playing for many years once they got past the treeshold and understand the game.

Icarus looked at EvE when they made Fallen Earth and so far they have done a lots of things right and I really enjoy it. I certainly hope that they are not going to do a "NGE" ie dumbing it down, that would be the only thing that could kill the game for me. And the potential of the game is unmatched, the map now only covers a small part of US, there is an entire world that it can expand to in the future. ;-)