IF Burning Crusade has not been released in china, and is about to soon, followed by WotLK, I would expect subs to jump again.

It's weird how people seem to think that blizzard losing maybe 1 million subs would affect the game in any sort of way.

I'll try the game no matter what, but I can't image Bioware/EA dumb enough to include potions, armor, weapons and the like in their shop.

I would also wonder about the "add on areas" that DDO does.  If they have a monthly fee thing, 14.99, and you get all content, that's cool.  But if you pay 6.99 and must pay for any content, that seems like it would hurt more then anything.

Originally posted by Affinityjb

I'm going to disagree with a lot of people and say I'm not impressed at all by these screens. The graphics look dated and the game is no where near release. I will concede that it's way to early to judge, but I seriously hope they polish the game's looks or else it won't live up to the hype.

Welcome to mmorpg.  Why do you think this?  I think the graphics look great for what they are doing.

It's not AoC graphics. It's not LotrO graphics. Both are great in what they are presenting.  I think how TOR is presenting their graphics, it's great.

The armor looks different and polished.

Originally posted by Airwren

Awesome, sounds like the game will be ready for launch at the end of the year! 

Long haul? I'd say at least two.

It's funny how bad sales and subscription numbers can change the direction a game goes huh?

Alright.

I have never ever played a FF game outside the mmo beta.  I watched a friend playing one of them a long time ago, trying to go up some stairs, only to stop every other step and fight mobs for 30 minutes, to take another step, and fight again.

Didn't look fun.

Oh god this is blizzards new mmo, one that works on facebook and iphones and such. The end of the world cometh.

Blizzard was taking a gamble, they had never made an mmo before.  Some of those companies have not and had not at the time.

I doubt it, if it's anywhere similar to the last one...

Originally posted by Wharg0ul

WoW is an MMORPG on easy mode. It did away with everything that made an MMO challenging, and wrapped it all up in a pretty box.

People don't go back to WOW because it's that good...they do it because it's that easy. They can't comprehend concepts such as housing, complex crafting, and having to spend more than 30 minutes engaged in the same activity.

It's instant gratification, MMORPG style.

Really...where is the sense of accomplishment?? The sense of wonder as you travel the world, simply exploring? WoW leads you by the nose from one zone to another, from one quest to another, everything is thought out for you.

And here's the real kicker....before WoW, (and in other "niche" games since) there wre things to do in an MMORPG OTHER than combat!!!

People go back to WoW because other games are overwealming to them. They don't know what to do, and how to handle not being led from point A to point B....and Hell forbid that they should have to WALK there instead of teleporting.

As someone above me said....I was here before WoW. I remember how the industry used to be, and how fucking GREAT the games were. Every game was unique....and had it's own take on the "virtual world" concept that MMORPGs used to represent. We'd be better off without the huge multi-million dollar corporate cash-grabs that are churned out every year in an attempt to get a piece of the WoW pie.

MUCH better off.

In fact, even PNP RPGs have tried to clone WoW...look at the newest editions of AD&D. Makes me wanna vomit.

Every game looks amazing with rose colored goggles....

Pretty much, without wow, MMOs would still be tiny unheard of games, that only "basement dwellers" played.  I am not calling anyone who plays/played those games that name, I am referring to that's what anyone who knew what an MMO was thought of those that played them.  SWG was the first real mmo that seemed to pull in many people who had never played MMOs, but that game was still nothing to what WoW did.

I've said this a number of times on this forum, it's a pity that people become so blind with rage, jealous, or hatred of a certain game (or in the case of many real life things, religion, politics, etc) that they ignore any rational discussion, thought, or logic relating to the issue.

Eventually, without wow, a game would have been created exactly like wow.  It's fine if you would like to play your sandbox game, with a small population, doing your extremely "complex" things.  Since, your sandbox game is STILL limited by what the devs say can happen, and what they put into the game.  But that won't change the fact that what wow did helped the industry as a whole MUCH MORE than it hurt it.  People really need to accept that.  No reason to cry over spilt milk...

Good luck, I know AoC got a pretty good miracle patch, hopefully it works out!

Hai gais, it's beta lol

If WoW is so easy, by all means, anyone here, go ahead and link me your #1 arena team in your battlegroup, or show my your armory to your character having killed the LK on heroic.

Exactly.  This game has challenges.  This game can be hard.  You choose to ignore that and twist the game to fit how you want it to be.

It is made to be easy to get into, and for the most part, easy to play because that's what opened the game up to 11 million more people.  Instead of a game with 500,000 hardcore EQ people who loved camping a spawn for 72 hours, you have people facebooking WoW and such.

9.2 IS pretty high, but meh, I don't think their is any game close.

Threads like this still amaze me, even though I guess they shouldn't.  It's just human nature to act like this now.

People can be so blind with hate, greed, jealously, or some other emotion to actually think, and not just spew forth things that have no actual reason or meaning.

Blizzard had no real reason to donate half the proceeds to anything.  They could have made the pets 10 bucks, and kept the 10 bucks all for themselves.  They could have made them each 5 bucks, and sold more, and still donated nothing.

And yeah, blizzard is losing subs left and right, and will shut down by the end of this year according to most people who rage post on this forum, yet still have 11.5 million subs, and BC is about to release in china, IE subs will go up.

Good for blizzard, and it's great to see a company like that do something so good. 

Bioware still seems to be more of a separate piece of EA, and not something EA created, so, that should be a big bonus from that point of view.

Money spent may not mean a fun game for me.

It could be very polished, but if it's Lineage 2 or Aion where you grind for ages and ages for a level, I would not enjoy it at all.

So your preference for SPRPGs is a more sandbox type of game like oblivion or fallout.

You seem to mention you would prefer a sandboxish game like Eve or Darkfall.

Great! It's awesome to have a type of game you enjoy, and play more often than others!

I enjoy both types of games.  I loved SWG, I enjoy LotrO, wow, among others.  I loved ME/ME2, DAO, Oblivion, among others.

Great for me too! I enjoy different things.

Since Bioware has given a LITTLE info about SWTOR, most of us believe it's not going to be a sandbox game. Thus you might not enjoy it.  But to call it a failure before launch, like so many others, just because you don't enjoy that type of game as much as others, is silly!

People always see the past with rose colored goggles.  Not just MMOs, but everything.

Originally posted by Ramones274

Originally posted by Cecropia

Originally posted by Valgar1

Does it matter?

if they lost 80% of there current subs they still have more subs then any other game out. Unless somthing better comes along which so far hasent they will only lose minimal people anyway.  WoW isnt going anywhere for a long time hate it or not.

 

Oh yes it matters to many of us. 

Sure it will be around for a long time, but now we actually know that WOW hasn't grown since 2008. One could wager that WOW will finally begin it's inevitable decline in the next couple of years. As WOW loses it monstrous grip on the industry, we will then have a much healthier environment for new MMOs. WOW has certainly had it's time. This is fantastic news.

 

Quoted for truth. It's time to get a new perspective on MMO's, down with the king.

It was said by blizzard.  "No King rules forever, my son"!

But don't worry, they will rule for many years to come, especially since they have another MMO in the works....