Originally posted by Sornin

Worldwide I do not think there are even ever 20,000 players on concurrently, though I admit I do not monitor the Camelot Herald closely enough to say that with complete confidence.

Between Aion, Age of Conan, and most of all Warhammer Online, as well as other upcoming MMORPGs, how many of these will be left?

It is tough to say, but I think we can agree the numbers will only go down, particularly when WAR lands since it provides a similar RvR fix. It is being marketed and developed very much as the successor to DAoC, though obviously there are many differences.

Also, I do not think drawing comparisons to EverQuest 1 and EverQuest II is a good idea, for many reasons, but primarily because EverQuest is an institution, a legend, etc., and those are damn near impossible to kill. Also, SOE pumps out a lot of content for it and, though it might not be excellent, it fuels the game.

There is some critical number that will cause DAoC to shut down, of that you can be sure. I cannot say what it is, but clearly EA Mythic will shut it down when it either is no longer profitable or produces so little profit that its existence is not worth the effort.

Personally, and this is purely speculation, I think by the end of 2008, DAoC will have fewer than 8,000 concurrent players at peak times, and by the end of 2009 will have fewer than 5,000, leading it to be closed or put on life support, which is almost as good as closed, since it will not longer be updated.

Already I doubt there will be many more substantial additions to the game. When WAR drops, I would not be surprised if it was relegated to minor things and bug fixes, and a game cannot survive on those forever.

Anyway, DAoC may not be dead, but it has been dying for years already. WAR could prove to be the final blow needed to send it into MMORPG history.

Or... once numbers get to the critical level, they could consider adding a cash-shop, making it free to play, and doing some online advertising about it. Of course, I'm in no way in favor of cash-shops (in fact, I can't stand the thought of them) but if it gives the game a chance to live on, I could deal with it.

I just think it would be a real shame to see such a great game thrown in the proverbial garbage can, and considering how well this option has worked for other games (namely RF online, which had to open up two extra servers once they went free to play) I think that it's atleast a viable, last resort option for DAoC.

I would have suggested Anarchy onine's in-game advertising model as a possibility, but I think we can all agree that seeing a mountain dew advertisment on the side of a castle wall might hinder the immersion factor...just a bit :P.

Originally posted by Sornin

Anyway, DAoC may not be dead, but it has been dying for years already. WAR could prove to be the final blow needed to send it into MMORPG history.

A great game, but like many things, it will fade into obscuity soon. 

To be honest , I really don't think war is gonna be a great game people are expectating it to be , Personally i have played daoc since it went beta  and many of my  friends that have played daoc over the years are in the war  beta and agree that war will not be a big success unless it can bring in the same rvr atmosphere that made  daoc great .

Here's another thing , the more and more i have heard about war the more i see it becoming a  raiding game , Majority of the daoc playerbase plays daoc forn one reason , it has 3 realms and the best pvp system hands down which is why it has stuck around for so many years ,  And to be honest  How mythic is shapeing warhammer  it will basically be another wow mmo

To be honest again unless mythic can bring that same rvr atmosphere that they did with daoc to warhammer  which is very tough to do and bear in mind warhammer is only going to be two realms not three where daoc really shined for it's pvp , All that will happen is yes warhammer will get alot of hype but look what happened to vanguard , that game got alot of hype and then boom that game is still  licking it's wounds because of all the screwups in that game .

In all likelyhood i still think mythic should make a new camelot mmo

Originally posted by merwood

To be honest , I really don't think war is gonna be a great game people are expectating it to be , Personally i have played daoc since it went beta  and many of my  friends that have played daoc over the years are in the war  beta and agree that war will not be a big success unless it can bring in the same rvr atmosphere that made  daoc great .

Here's another thing , the more and more i have heard about war the more i see it becoming a  raiding game , Majority of the daoc playerbase plays daoc forn one reason , it has 3 realms and the best pvp system hands down which is why it has stuck around for so many years ,  And to be honest  How mythic is shapeing warhammer  it will basically be another wow mmo

To be honest again unless mythic can bring that same rvr atmosphere that they did with daoc to warhammer  which is very tough to do and bear in mind warhammer is only going to be two realms not three where daoc really shined for it's pvp , All that will happen is yes warhammer will get alot of hype but look what happened to vanguard , that game got alot of hype and then boom that game is still  licking it's wounds because of all the screwups in that game .

In all likelyhood i still think mythic should make a new camelot mmo

QFT