Will eso give world of warcraft a run for its money?

Kingspian

Swtor was fun for me when i was lvling. After i got to lvl 50. I expected to have fun raiding. Turns out i joined a guild, they were helping me to get some gears. My jaw just dropped as we were passing by all the mobs heading to the last boss. I was like i cant believe this. After i told my bro i made it to lvl 50, he then told me swtor had no end game content, that broke my heart. Doing the same raids and pvp with no end game content? I'll get bored in a sec and leave. Thats why i left, i'm hoping to see eso beat swtor with more end game content. New raids and dungeons is more fun. Pvp? I was like wow!!! The way they made is is amazing, just like planetside 2 except tons of different castles. Siege? Totally cool!! The way the set it up is like medieval 2. I rwally gonna enjoy pvp too!!

ESO you got my attention!

Hiply

These are dramatically different games with an appeal to vastly different audiences; my answer to the question is "no", as I consider this to be an MMO for ES players that has the potential to pull other players to it and not a lowest common denominator mass appeal game like WoW.

Frankly that's perfect for me.

icebladess

I can see wow going to Ftp cause of the shop being added to the game interface. and the pay 60 dollars to hit 90 is too much now

Blu3d0gd3m0cr8ts

ESO won the internet just in case you didn't notice !

Alurria

The more I play the more I'm drawn into ESO. I don't think I will ever return to WoW. After playing for 10 years I can say I'm done with it.

AlaricRune

wrlifeboil wrote: »

ESO had the smoothest early access and regular access launch for an mmo in the last 7 or 8 years I've been playing mmos. No, the launch wasn't perfect. There is more latency today than on Sunday and Monday. There was that ~10 hour shutdown on Wednesday. But overall, both ESO's soft and hard launches went well given it is a brand new game and not an expansion to an existing mmo. Anyone who is complaining about ESO's launch problems hasn't been playing mmos for very long.

I don't care if it's "normal" for MMO's to not properly work after launch. I bought a game after the launch and it's not working, in my eyes that's a really big failure.

Just because other games experienced the same issues will not say we should just accept it.

That being said, this game has the potential to be somemthing great. In the future we will see how it will work out.

pysgod1978b14_ESO

I've always loved the stories involved in Elder Scrolls. And while vanilla WoW did have some good ones that were oddly enough well written it hid them in with all the rest of the quests which were garbage. It got worse after BC was made, which I quit playing it not long after since it started to go towards the faceroll style of gameplay.

JD2013

ESO and WoW are poles apart, MMO wise. They will cater to different customers. I stopped playing WoW a few months ago as I got sick of the grinding, the spam button combat, rather uninteresting story and writing etcetera.

I do legitimately think that ESO will do very well though. I'm level 6 and having a blast.

ksaggies04ub17_ESO2

I agree ESO and WOW are very different games, but on the PC side, I think there's a lot of overlap in the players. Although I haven't subscribed to WOW in about 6 months or a year - not sure, I think it's a really good, polished game. I know in a lot of online communities, it's cool to hate WOW, but almost everyone played it and liked it at some point.

If ESO can keep players long-term, I think it will have a marked impact on WOW's subscription numbers.

I actually see ESO making a bigger dent to LOTRO than WOW though. That's more my personal hunch than a meticulously thought out analysis on my part though.

loco

Eso probably hasn't broken 400k players yet, judging by forum accounts and patch note views and extrapolating from there.

wrlifeboil

loco wrote: »

Eso probably hasn't broken 400k players yet, judging by forum accounts and patch note views and extrapolating from there.

I would bet against you on that. Easily over a million. Probably over 2 million between North America and Europre.

scarsreminder80

pysgod1978b14_ESO wrote: »

I've always loved the stories involved in Elder Scrolls. And while vanilla WoW did have some good ones that were oddly enough well written it hid them in with all the rest of the quests which were garbage. It got worse after BC was made, which I quit playing it not long after since it started to go towards the faceroll style of gameplay.

It's a known fact that either just after, or, just before BC released, Blizzard fired its entire story script and program writers division. It impacted a huge number of players when content written by the new team hit the shelves in the latter half of BC and beyond. Most people that are against wow, started in that time frame. That is also why Vanilla WoW is held in the highest regard by everyone who ever played it.

Lets hope Zenimax/Bethesda doesn't do the same mistake.

loco

wrlifeboil wrote: »

loco wrote: »

Eso probably hasn't broken 400k players yet, judging by forum accounts and patch note views and extrapolating from there.

I would bet against you on that. Easily over a million. Probably over 2 million between North America and Europre.

.

If that were the case Zeni would have included it in the silly info thing they did. I'm just basing it off the data i can find. If you look at here on the forum, the PvP campaigns, forum accounts, patch not views... Highest I could see it going right now is 700kish world wide. No more than 400k on the NA server.

What are you basing your numbers off of?

Audigy

I agree ESO and WOW are very different games, but on the PC side, I think there's a lot of overlap in the players. Although I haven't subscribed to WOW in about 6 months or a year - not sure, I think it's a really good, polished game. I know in a lot of online communities, it's cool to hate WOW, but almost everyone played it and liked it at some point.

The problem with wow is simple, it caters to a very specific type of player and forgets all the other.

If you dislike complex mechanics, don't see crafting as an important part, don't care about stories or "choices" then wow is definitely suited to you.

However, if you want an RPG experience than wow doesn't work anymore.

Theoretically can you start at level 1 with equipment and still have the exact same equipment at 90. All your chars will have access to everything other chars have achieved, mounts, items, titles, pets.
A skill system is totally gone, you have how many choices to make? 5 or 6 and your char doesn't not get better by using a weapon or spell, but by just hitting a button at your char menu.

Just think about it, you hit a button at 90 and now you are instantly a person who can heal and use every healing spell perfectly fine in theory. That's just crazy and bad RPG.

Another thing is, that you do a dungeon or raid and after that you do the exact same dungeon or raid again, but in a higher difficulty setting. How many settings does wow have right now?

4 and with the addon they will have 5... 5 times the same raid, that's just ridiculous and a huge grind.

I hated that system when it came with WOTLK, where was the point to have 4 different settings for a raid?

Wow is good at what it is supposed to be good, a tool for people who like to grind the same stuff all the time for many months. But its not an RPG or an MMO anymore, its just not.

pysgod1978b14_ESO

scarsreminder80 wrote: »

pysgod1978b14_ESO wrote: »

I've always loved the stories involved in Elder Scrolls. And while vanilla WoW did have some good ones that were oddly enough well written it hid them in with all the rest of the quests which were garbage. It got worse after BC was made, which I quit playing it not long after since it started to go towards the faceroll style of gameplay.

It's a known fact that either just after, or, just before BC released, Blizzard fired its entire story script and program writers division. It impacted a huge number of players when content written by the new team hit the shelves in the latter half of BC and beyond. Most people that are against wow, started in that time frame. That is also why Vanilla WoW is held in the highest regard by everyone who ever played it.

Lets hope Zenimax/Bethesda doesn't do the same mistake.

They should have stuck with the writers they had. Whoever they decided on to lead the writing department is or was a tool. From what I can see the game has gotten much, much worse over the years as things went by. Blizzard committed the unthinkable sin of hubris and thought that no matter what their game would never end. I think in another two to five years Blizzard may be completely done. It's sad when the developers can't even keep track of their own lore and had to get schooled by one their fans.

Invincible

WoW will never fail because of raiding. Any idiot can log in roll their face on their keyboard and be guaranteed loot. ESO is not the one who will put the proverbial arrow in WOWs knee.

Elvikun

Not sure I care whether this game will cause problems for the relics of the dark MMO past. I would say no, not directly anway, WoW is slowly fading and will continue to do so on it's own, ESO or no ESO.

Kinsaven

No, probably not. Even though they are both MMO's, they are still very different and people play them for different reasons. WoW will probably only (slowly) die out when people get tired of it and stop playing.

wrlifeboil

I seriously doubt that ESO will steal away many subscribers from WoW. "Many" is defined as more than 500,000 subscribers or ~7% of current WoW subscribers. More than half of WoW's 7 million subscribers are in China and S. Korea. ESO doesn't have any presence in Asia.

Vodkaphile

Define "giving WoW a run for its money".

Will ESO top it in subs? Absolutely not. WoW is a game that can be played (and succeeded at) by 8 year olds and 68 year olds alike. It is a casual game that has name power and a 10 year relationship with a lot of its playerbase. It runs on a toaster, and they constantly offer incentives to bring back people that haven't played in awhile - the latest being free 90's to anyone who pre-orders WoD.

However, will ESO carve a giant niche in the market? I think so. There isn't currently an MMO like ESO. Nothing plays quite like it. I'm sure you can find subtle similarities here and there, but on the whole, it's fairly unique. WoW is not, and they're bleeding subs to F2P games that are simply innovating in the genre better. WoW lost 1.3 million subs last year.

Then you have to consider what Blizzard considers "active subscriptions". This used to and might still include any IP connection at an internet cafe overseas and trial accounts. It's a hard number to understand when it's not black and white.

At the end of the day, the real question should be "who cares"? I played WoW for 9 years and it had some amazing content. So have other MMO's like Rift. ESO certainly has some ridiculously high potential, so all we should care about (if we care about the game) is that it keeps a healthy enough subscriber base and community to make a long run in the market. I think it will, partly because of what I mentioned above, and also because little bugs and quirks that would drive me insane in most games I find myself overlooking in ESO because it is simply such a fantastic game.

Killum

ESO already have a great start with over 5million people that registered to test during Beta. I think this goes to show that this is a popular franchise.

I don't know how many people actively play WoW now. I tried WoW once some years ago. Maybe I didn't give it a fair try but I immediately hated the graphics and the immaturity of the players (Being asked to cyber was the first /tell I got). Needless to say I spent a very short time in that game.

I have been playing EQ2 almost daily since launch but have not played it since ESO's headstart started. For me ESO is fresh and interesting. I like the UI, skill sets and variation and flexibility in character creation/classes. At the same time it seems familiar in many respects as I have also played Morrowind/Oblivion and Skyrim.

I don't think it really matters if ESO is a WoW (or any other game killer). What matters is that those who play ESO enjoy the game.

Gohlar

No mmo this single player oriented will make much of a dent in the genre, let alone give WoW a run for it's money.

I do play other games and this isn't even a blip on the radar for most people.

scarsreminder80

wrlifeboil wrote: »

I seriously doubt that ESO will steal away many subscribers from WoW. "Many" is defined as more than 500,000 subscribers or ~7% of current WoW subscribers. More than half of WoW's 7 million subscribers are in China and S. Korea. ESO doesn't have any presence in Asia.

Actually China banned WoW from the country just before the release of Mists of Pandaria. That is why their subscriptions dropped from 12 million to just over 7 million at the release date of Pandaria. So yes... WoW did have about 5 million subs in China, but not any more. In fact, China has banned WoW on multiple occasions: the most recent stating it was too western culture-heavy and didn't reflect the Chinese cultures at all. (Oddly enough, we get an Asian culture-heavy expansion released soon after)

The 7 million that are, or were, left came from the UK, Australia, Brazil/South America, and North America.

But I imagine that amount is going down steadily over the next few months. I am also sure there will be a surge again for the new expansion.

Knootewoot

No, and frankly i don't care if it does or doesn't. I just hope ESO will have a healhy player base to keep it up and running. I like the game and reminds me a bit of WARHAMMER which i liked also.

kijima

I see ESO 'stealing' a huge amount WoW players, but I think that will be something that will happen over time, not immediately.

scarsreminder80

Honestly,
After reading all of the forums lately, I'm NOT SURE I EVEN WANT WOW PLAYERS IN THIS GAME.

As a member of the wow community for 9 years I can say they are mostly children in their teens and twenties. They tend to gravitate towards familiar things (like the way the game should look like wow or be easy to get loot like wow) and generally expect to be handed things because they pay money each month.

After dealing with the face-roll tactics of raiding, the whining and instant rage quitting of children ( and yes I mean actual children this time) and the "I want it my way" attitude of most wow players.....

well...

I hope they stay in WoW and go down with the ship...

griffn

As it is now? No there are a lot of feature they need to fix, and I'm not even talking about bugs here, there are some feature for things like group dungeons that REALLY REALLY needs to be fixed.

Less cryptic controls would also be nice.

OZGODUSA

Different target markets I think. WoW is a different kind of beast to most MMOs, mainly because it has been around for 10 years (or 9 but I'm saying 10 for rounding). That's a lot of experience, of trial and error, of engaging with the community, and of refining the game. WoW is certainly far from perfect, but I see WoW as setting the benchmark in the following areas:

1. End game - you could argue that end game is basically all that WoW is all about now. Your experience really only starts at max level, everything else is just trying to get to max level as quickly as possible. At max level you have the never-ending gear grind to get the bigger and better shinies which you will discard at the end of each xpac to get the next versions. Blizzard even lets people buy their max level toons now, because they want to get players into end game content like raids and high-end PvP. Pretty much everything in WoW can be quantified and measured now all for the purpose of end game. Whether people enjoy end game or not is another story - those that don't probably don't play WoW at that level.

2. Quality of life - this is stuff like server transfers, character transfers, name changes, barbershops, transmog, tools like LFR and LFG (more on those later). This is all those small things that don't individually add up to anything much by themselves, and don't really have anything to do with the game content itself, but they make it easier to play the game. It's allowed WoW to tap into that huge market of casual players since they are now at the milk phase of the cash cow. Add to that 10 years worth of addons that the community have created. This is what I find, when reading forums of new MMOs coming out, that people coming from WoW tend to complain about the most - the quality of life stuff. Blizzard has had a huge head start on all this because it's all been patched in over 10 years.

3. Social interface - I say social interface because of all the MMOs I've played Blizzard has got the whole "chatting with each other" thing down to a fine science. The chat interface is very intuitive and it's easy to talk to other people in the world. That said, you could argue that tools like LFR and LFD have actually made people LESS social, because now you don't even really need to be in a guild and socialise with other people to do group content, you just queue up for it, run the content with people you don't have to talk to and likely won't ever see again and then log off.

On those three points I don't think any game can give WoW a run for its money, because they've had such a head start. But where other MMOs such as ESO (and SWTOR if they had gotten the balance right) can carve a niche for themselves, as posters above have said, is in appealing to players who aren't as focused on end game content, those who want to enjoy the levelling experience, those who enjoy being in the world, meeting other people. It's no surprise that ESO and SWTOR are much more focused on the levelling storyline and the lore, because that's what I think will keep a lot of people in the game. Not everyone wants to raid, or have to constantly research their character on the internet to see if they are maximising it or not. People fall in love with a world if it is alluring enough, and Tamriel is very alluring. WoW's levelling experience has never been that great, it's always been a means to an end, something to zerg through rather than enjoy, even more so now that for $60 you don't even have to endure it.

So that's definitely something for ESO to focus on. But I think that it's important for Zenimax to make sure that even if the end game may not rival the sophistication of WoW's endgame content it still needs to provide something new, different, fun and fresh for people to do - together, since this is an MMO not a SP game - when they get to max level. And don't underestimate the value of all those quality of life things I mentioned earlier - because those are things that will allow them to appeal to a broader base than just lore diehards. A subscription based model means you need to keep having people interested and keep them paying their $15.

My 2pence...

frank.lindseyub17_ESO

Coming from 2 years of WOW, the reason I left was that I had hit the "glass ceiling". Without an active raiding guild guild or 24 friends you can't make the leap from "arranged marriages" to normal/heroic.b Something I posted (somewhere) earlier is the elitism that forms, for instance to get into a raid that has a higher gear level , they want you to have gear level higher than what the raid drops. you should not need 4-8 addons to play competitively. You should not have addons spoiling the surprise of what the boss is going to do next, you should have to use your wits and skill with the class you are playing to stay alive and keep you teammates healthy. It's a game, it should have some spontaneity, intrigue, SURPRISE!, not reduced to a set of macros and pushing the button that is glowing red...

Greydog

If WoW ever dies it will be from self inflicted wounds. I left because they kept taking away all the fun side things to do that an altaholic needs.

With ZOS's reluctance to throw a bone to non-TES players they've bound their own hands ..it's hard to kill anything that way.