TenTonHammer.com - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

An Editorial by Coyote, Ten Ton Hammer’s Resident Humorist

Let’s face facts: in all measures of success World of Warcraft is really a great game. It has everything a successful MMOG needs in order to claw its way to the top and stay there. Action, adventure, little tater tot headed gnome freaks, and most important of all…

…it has the numbers.

Nearly everyone has played WoW at least once.

It doesn’t matter if you like the game or not – hell at this point it doesn’t even matter if you play, because everyone else and their brother does. The support of the masses has made Blizzard a profit of countless millions, so it’s basically futile to resist because eventually you will end up playing. And even if you somehow remain immune to the zombifying mind control rays that enslave most of the gaming player base, chances are you’re just going to end up munched to death by hoards of pasty white geeks screaming “WOOT!”

The players and profits commanded by Blizzard are the bars that all competing MMOG’s set for themselves, and whether they admit it or not they want a piece of that Warcraft magic. Behind locked doors they analyze, strategize, and dissect what it is that makes the game great and try to emulate that greatness without being overly obvious. World of Warcraft is the biggest, meanest, most successful MMOG to date, and because so many loom in their shadow we always seem to forget one tiny little detail:

They weren’t always the undisputed heavy weight champion.

Ultima Online, Asheron’s Call and the original EverQuest have all held the throne that Blizzard now dominates, and each has arguably worn the crown that now rests on Warcraft’s misshapen little cartoon head. We seem to forget that no empire truly lasts forever and that no matter how successful, enjoyable, or down right perfect an MMOG may seem, it will eventually fall given enough time.

There will come a day when WoW is eventually dethroned.

Players are an easy distracted bunch and every game designer out there is lining up to be that next Giant Killer. The problem however is:

No one seems capable of doing it.

New MMOG’s are released and celebrate a premature victory simply because they had a successful launch. They suck up those who would stray away from their norm out of curiosity and grab them with greedy fingers, raising them high as proof of their success. Yet those chickens are always counted too soon and eventually they begin to hemorrhage players like blood from a sucking chest wound. Those players then find themselves dripping back to whatever game that they had originally called home, leaving yet another quasi-successful yet less-than-memorable MMOG to clog up the market.

But, rest assured, it will eventually happen.

There will come a day when World of Warcraft is dethroned and the masses will flock to another game with the same rabid fanaticism and undying devotion that they had once vowed to Blizzard with unwavering heart. Nothing lasts forever, but - in saying that - are we nearing the end? Am I predicting the fall of the World of Warcraft and condemning it to obscurity?

Not in the least.

People love their little inbred noggin'd gnomes. They grow attached to their world and no matter the temptations, most will be reluctant to leave it. Truly great MMOG’s never seem to really die. Even at its peak EverQuest only had a fraction of Warcraft’s numbers yet it is still running strong with expansions, a dedicated following, and continued profitability after ten long years of play time. And as we move further into the digital age the longevity of games will only get longer. If you take this badly scratched equation and apply it to all that is Warcraft the game could very well go on forever.

Even without being the king, WoW will continue to generate revenue into the far future.

Not with the player base that it currently enjoys mind you, but with that dedicated following of players that games like EverQuest seem to inspire. A loyal few who keep the game above the red line of loss so that no matter how badly it shrinks, it is still making money. And given enough time, a virtual world could gradually become something of a real world. Who is to say what a virtual society will evolve into given the time and technology? Who is to say that the game does eventually have to end? That we cannot truly play forever?

Warcraft has long since proved its staying power. Like a monkey hopped up on Viagra, WoW just keeps humping away from atop its throne and hucking all the rocks in the world at its bumpy little melon isn’t going to stop its thrashings until it eventually tires itself out.

Yet its longevity isn’t guaranteed, and how long it stays in any light (least of all the spotlight) is going to depend on how true to itself it can remain. For the moment it tries to change and alter itself to give its fans what they think they want in a new MMOG, it will gain a sucking chest wound of its very own…

…and then the monkey will probably hump it.

Filthy beasts.

-Coyote

---

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.