World of Warcraft has been the de facto champion of the Internet MMOG world since its launch many years ago. It’s ruined supreme with numbers that shatter all other MMORPGs with the same pay scheme (free to play games in Asian countries often boast numbers that are insanely high even if the accounts aren’t active.) The last numbers indicated that there were over 10,000,000 (that’s 10 million) players worldwide.

Lineage, at its highest (if MMOGChart is to be believed) was near 3 million active subscriptions. Everquest barely touched the 500,000 mark in the high points of its run and Final Fantasy XI, the insanely popular Japanese MMOG touched 500,000 as well with a combination of both Japanese and North American players interacting on the same servers.

So, if we add the high points of Everquest, FFXI, Lineage, Lineage II, and Runescape we gain a number in the area of 7.5 million active worldwide subscriptions. World of Warcraft is still zooming about with its massive 10 million subscriptions with a steady growth. Many estimate that right now World of Warcraft has more than 50% of the current market share of subscription based MMOGs.

We’ve established it’s big and if you play it then you know it. Major cities are packed and lively as ever, groups are available for almost anything high level (although lower level areas are not nearly as instant due to the nature of solo play being rewarded over group play, more on that later.) Many people play at any given time of the day and it’s brimming with activity. However, since it first came to the spotlight there have been many asking when it’d have to give its king’s crown up to another game and just why does it have the popularity that it does?

The first question is one that comes up with any other major game launch. Guild Wars, Vanguard, and recently Age of Conan would see harbingers declaring WoW’s defeat. Days before the launch the general chat will be filled with naysayers calling for the end of WoW. Their guilds are packing up, the streets will be empty, and there will be no one to help in the invasion of Northrend.

The day the game launches the general chats across the globe from the Barrens to every major city is full of people offering their gold to the nearest person, people recounting how they’re deleting their armor to join the new game, and how once more as their final hurrah ingame they will pronounce x game is better and that no one will be playing WoW within days.

The days come and the streets are packed. The general chat now full of everyone talking about how the new game sucked and how they wish they hadn’t gave their stuff away. How they’re going to have farm it all back again or how they’re disappointed that they wasted the money on the other game. A lesson learned for them until the next game comes out.

See. The thing here is that long ago before WoW arrived on the shelves of every Gamestop in America there was always a theory that said that there was a small pool of players who played MMOGs. These players would switch around between the games and that the genre as a whole expanded very slowly. WoW showed up and broke every MMOG record in regards to subscriptions imaginable and expanded the pool of players of MMOGs by leaps and bounds.

The new players that it brought in weren’t players from Everquest or Dark Age of Camelot. They were players of console games, Blizzard RTSs, and from all walks of video gaming life. They found the world and its colors appealing, the gameplay fun, and the time required to be as much or as little as they wanted.

The answer to one of the questions, why is WoW so darn popular, is because it had the backing of a major game label. It had ageless graphics that are between serious and cartoony, making them much more resilient to technology upgrades and easier on people with older computers. The gameplay revolves around “how much time do you want to spend?” instead of “you’ll need to be on x amount of hours to accomplish something”. Grouping was no longer a requirement but a determent outside of group only quests, making gameplay fall to what you wanted to do and not what the game wanted you to do. Group up if you want or do it alone. The choice is yours.

The game to kill WoW will be a game that is WoW, but better. The difficulty comes in offering something to WoW’s playerbase that’ll lure the people away and keep them. Something with the massive amount of polish that WoW has, the gameplay it has, and everything else but done better. People who play WoW want one thing: WoW. They don’t want something hardcore like Vanguard and word is still out on their taste for Age of Conan (but people are already flooding back like they always do).

The game to kill WoW will be user friendly, with low graphics (able to run on a wide spectrum of computers) while still being pretty, and will have no time commitment to get the majority of content (leveling, basic gear, etc.). Any game to get all of this right may be a contender.

No game will instantly defeat WoW. Something this big will have to die out on its own. Games may eat away at it slowly, but nothing will be able to take a big bite out of it. Too many players have too much time invested into it. Too many people are content with what they have. The only thing to ever take WoW’s crown will be itself. It’ll have to sap its playerbase’s will to play itself.

I’m still sitting back and waiting with each launch of a new game to see if the general chat is right about the next game defeating WoW and dawning a new era of MMOG superiority. I’m still waiting for a game to come and do that. It’s been almost four years since WoW first hit the shelves and it’s been four years of the next game defeating WoW. I’ve yet to see it though.

Of course, these are just my opinions. You’re free to have your own and even argue in our forums if you wish. I could be wrong and the next game could dethrone WoW while being about explosions and hotrod cars. Then again, let’s hope for WoW’s sake that I am right!

Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Ten Ton Hammer network or staff.

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