Not A "WoW Killer"

I was thinking about this recently. Any time another somewhat-innovative MMORPG comes out, it automatically gets put up into this virtual cage match with the current heavyweight champion that's held the belt for a decade now. tSW, LotRO, DDO, SWtoR, and now ESO - Elder Scrolls Online. Will it be the next "WoW Killer"? We use this term as if to say that in this cage match, only one game comes out on top as the new champion while the other limps back from the bowels of game design where it came from, bleeding and shaming all of the developers that put hours of work into the game. Realistically though. Honestly, no game is ever going to be a WoW Killer.

World of Warcraft has made its claim on the territory of gaming in the MMO world. When WoW came out, no one had to explicity say - "Is this going to be the Ultima Online Killer?" Or "Is this going to be the Everquest Killer?" It actually just wasn't a big deal. These games were niche games and the following has embedded into the population of gamers that already knew where their loyalties were. That being said WoW has experienced, at it's peak, the highest level of unique subscribers out of any MMORPG ever created - and this number has beaten out the next competitor in line by at least double. And what we're hearing now is that some people are saying that "WoW is falling." WoW is not falling. WoW now just caters to a completely different crowd than it did during it's first initial launch.

And so we come to the crux of this post's title. Realistically, most everyone who is actually interested in having whatever next game come out be a WoW Killer is already not playing WoW. Most gamers that have recognized the flaws in the WoW design and development over time have already jumped ship. Everyone knows it, and it isn't exactly the smallest and most quiet elephant in the room as proved by the falling subscription numbers for the game. So what are these gamers looking for? Not a WoW Killer. What they're actually looking for is the next WoW. Sure, perhaps some people actually have some deep-rooted hatred for what WoW has become and actually want to see it burn and crash. But for most of us, we're good with just letting that body rot slowly and moving on to the next best thing. We want a game that feels new and exciting and challenging, while immersing us into the game the same way WoW originally did when it first came out and all these gamers started playing it.

So to those of us who are still saying on a whim that ESO is going to be a WoW Killer -- and this even included me this morning -- let's take a step back and realize that WoW's not going anywhere. And that we should be ok with this, because at it's core it isn't trying to take over the gaming world. WoW isn't evil. It just isn't for us anymore. And for those of you who still play and love WoW, I'm ok with that too. No hard feelings, it's just not where a lot of us are spending our time anymore; Azeroth be damned. And honestly, as a gamer, I'm not even sure if I care to have whatever game I play be a heavy-hitting champion. I'm happy so long as whatever game I choose to spend my time on is a good game. A game that I enjoy and get entertainment out of. For those that are interested in what game(s) these are, I'm currently getting more and more stoked seeing content coming out of ESO from reviewers and youtube videos. And I'm currently still playing The Secret World. Feel free to shout out in the comments.