The Bus

I ask this to you, the players. I don't play MMO games and I don't see myself picking this one up ever, although I can understand the fascination with it. And MMOs, unlike any other game, require a sustained fan base still playing.

Ultima Online is reaching its 10th year and it still has over 100,000 subscribers (about 60% down from its peak).

If WoW drops by 60% in year ten, that's still millions and millions of subscribers. Is WoW going to be the Gunsmoke of video games and still exist twenty years from now... or forever?

(see http://www.mmogchart.com/ for interesting data)

Maxflier

A minimum of 10 years, probably much longer than that though.
I voted 10-15.

Groucho

I voted 15-20 years. And that's not even taking into consideration sequels.

Supermallet

As long as enough people keep playing to make it worth Blizzard's while to maintain their servers. Nothing lasts forever, and MMOs are especially true in that regard.

Groucho

I would say just the opposite. Very very few MMO's have outright shut down. Once you get a server up and running, and enough people willing to pay for it, it's money in the bank.

Supermallet

I can think of a few that have shut down. As I said, even if you have one person paying over the amount it takes to run a server, it's profitable. It just comes down to when people stop paying. I don't see how MMOs, which require a paying user base to maintain, can be considered a sound long-term gaming solution.

PixyJunket

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Silt

I think WoW will be around for many years to come. The game has been out, what about 20 months now, and they still are frequently adding new servers...whereas you have EQ2 which I believe has already had to consolidate some servers. WoW does many, many things right...but the main thing it does right...is it's just flat out fun!

The one thing I think Blizzard needs to work on is getting new expansions out a little faster. As it's very easy to level in this game, you can quickly eat up/get tired of content unless you enjoy playing alts (which I don't).

I wouldn't be surprised to see WoW another 10 years at least.

Tracer Bullet

Considering that a comparably popular MMO, Everquest, is in its eighth year of operation, I don't think 10-15 years of operation for WoW is a stretch. 15-20 might be, but it really depends. If they get a devoted base of players that don't leave like EQ, it could conceivably go that long. Hell, even a game like FFXI which is hardly on anyone's radar these days, is in its fifth year.

Blitz6Speed

Ive never even played WoW, but it seems simple that the game will be around for a long time. With millions of people paying the service fee every month, theres no reason it would close down anytime soon. They're making 10's of millions every MONTH on a game they had to design one time. Then addons that also bring in $$$, and literally, how hard is it to maintain a server? Once everythings in place, all you have to take care of is your bandwidth and employees. It would be silly to think they'd close it down unless they were making 100,000 or less a month, and even then, whats wrong with that?

P.S. - i hate MMORPG's, but i know why they're popular, just not my thing.

Supermallet

Just to be clear here: I am not proclaiming doom and gloom for WoW. I'm just saying that in time, all MMOs will fall off.

fumanstan

That's actually far from the truth...

boredsilly

I think it will past 10 years easily, after that I'm not sure. There is always something else around the corner. I mean EQ was the juggernaut and WoW just blasted right past that. Nothing saying that can't happen again. And lord knows studio after studio after studio is going to try.

Joe Molotov

There are still people playing The Realm, for crying out loud! WoW will last at least 10 years, probably longer for the hardcore fans.

lordwow

At least 10 if UO is any indication.

Green Smurf

I said 10, but with technology vastly improving every year, there will be something else to take people's money. I mean look at City of Heroe's I'm sure that took a chunk of WoW's fan base.

CaptainMarvel

City of Heroes came out first, and it was the opposite; CoH's servers became a lot emptier once WoW was released.

lordwow

Yep, I played CoH until WoW came out, and I was blown away by WoW and underwhelemed by CoH (even though it was the best online MMORPG at the time).

Joe Molotov

Check the link that Bus posted:



Only the two Lineage games even come close to WoW, and that's only because they're hugely popular in Korea.

Draven

As people leave WoW, new people join. I only started up a few months ago, after avoiding it for a long time.

So if they keep coming out with new content, they'll get a lot of new and old fans, and there's no reason it couldn't continue for 10-15 years easily.

madara

Unless the expansions packs competely change the dynamic I dont see it lasting anywhere near as long as older mmorpgs, it just lacks that depth. And staying for the community.....Well this game is not catered to me so I really cant say but I see it like most things that get ultra popular(pokemon, hamtaro, he-man) and then just as big of a fizzle out reaction.

Green Smurf

Wow, I didn't realize CoH had that little piece of the pie.

j123vt_99

Was Guild Wars left out or does that fall into other?

SeekOnce

I voted 5-10 years. At least. No doubt it's a great game. But it does get old once you hit endgame. So as long as Blizz continues to release new content patches, I don't see it having any shortage of players.

CaptainMarvel

Dunno... maybe it was excluded because it doesn't have a traditional "subscription"? Boxes sold would automatically = subscriptions.