With the resent release and huge success of Age of Conan and a slew of high profile MMORPGs on the way, could it be that WOW has finally hit its peak. The last numbers we received from Blizzard were back in Jan 2008 stating that WOW has passed the 10 million mark. If you take a look at the chart provided by mmogchart.com, you’ll see the subscription numbers since WOW went live and you can plainly see that the numbers are approaching a plateau.

I can’t tell you how many WOW players I heard from saying they were switching to AoC and I can imagine the same when Warhammer Online comes out later this year. However players leaving one game for another is nothing new and WOW has managed to keep increasing its numbers regardless of what games come out. The question is can it keep doing it.

I don’t believe it can. I think that it will peak sometime this summer and start declining in the fall or winter.  World of Warcraft has had a great run, not to say it won’t still be #1 for a long long time, but I believe Blizzard knows WOW is approaching its peak and they are looking towards the future with an unnamed MMO in the works. Starcraft, Diablo or maybe a Lost Vikings MMO (yes Blizzard made Lost Vikings), but whatever the MMO is, I’m sure it will keep Blizzard at the top of the MMO gaming world for years to come.

After hearing how everyone has been loving AoC, reading some reviews and receiving my latest issue of PCGamer with AoC slapped on the cover I decided I had waited long enough. I got into my car and decided to head to the nearest Gamestop, which didn’t have it. No biggie, there’s another one close by. Again they were sold out. I then tried Bestbuy who I thought would definitely have it, I mean there huge, but alas they did not, also sold out. At this point I decided to call it a day and headed home defeated.

Today however I feel like giving it another shot. So I am currently on my way to another Bestbuy which is about 40 mins away, but the travel time is a small price to pay for MMO gaming goodness. I checked online and it says they have some in-stock, but with those online checkers you never know. I already picked up a 3 month game card when I was out yesterday, so I just need the game and I’ll be ready to go. Seriously you’d think this was a Mario or Halo game I was trying to get. Wish me luck.

UPDATE: I just got back and am happy to say I finally found a store that had some in-stock and all it took was  2 days, 3 Gamespots, 2 Bestbuys and 1 EBGames to finally get a copy.  I actually got lucky cause the EBGames that had it literally just got a shipment, the games weren’t even on the shelves yet but in the delivery box.

Anyway, I’m installing the game right now then I’ll probably have to download some massive update, so only a few more hrs.

Lately, there has been a lot to talk about in the MMO-verse, with Age of Conan just getting released and a World of Warcraft expansion pack on track for a holiday unveiling there seems to be nothing that can stop the momentum gained by the industry. However, despite all the success being thrown around by the top five MMOs (World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Age of Conan, EVE Online, Final Fantasy XI) there seems to be very little that is truly pushing the genre towards the “next step.”

In every walk of the technological life there are upgrades to the original. Even something as simple as the web was fully upgraded into what has become to lovingly termed: web 2.0. So the same should hold true for MMO, right? You’d think so, but very little has actually changed since the dawning of the 3D MMORPG in the heyday of Everquest. There has been smaller changes like the advent of a quest based storyline and an enhanced mini-map and traveling system, but nothing I’d really call revolutionary, or next generation. Let’s face it, nobody out there is really attempting to do anything to set a new standard in the industry.

Now I know that there is at least one EVE Online fan reading this right now in disgust. Let me say this right now, EVE Online is definitely a different experience and CCP has done a marvelous job and creating a successful MMO that strays from the typical archtype that most MMOs follow today. However, that said, they are not setting a standard in the industry. EVE Online and CCP will not be changing the way the industry makes its games and there probably won’t be any long lasting affects from their technology. The original Xbox was the first to really incorporate seamless online and now it has become the standard. MySpace truly pushed the bounds of “web 2.0″ with it’s social networking applications and it has now become the standard. Apple created the first truly desirable MP3 player and it has now become the standard. All of these are examples of an industry that was expanded on by companies that wished to create a fresh experience on an old application and as such truly changed the landscape of how everybody else played in that field. So despite EVE Online’s unique gameplay they certainly haven’t changed the way developers make games.

So, where does that leave the industry? With the huge success of World of Warcraft, which handily dashes the success of the other top four MMOs combined, game developers desperately need to find new ways to make their games different and if that means employing a new combat system (Age of Conan) or seriously enhancing the PvP and RvR settings (Warhammer Online) then thats what these companies will do. Unfortunately, many of these “enhancements” are gimmicky at best and won’t be offering any true MMO 2.0 anytime soon. However, and this is just my prediction, I think it’s safe to say that after all the so called “WoW-killers” have debuted to date, the only MMO that will truly begin to pick away at the house that Blizzard built will be an MMO 2.0 game. Personally, I’m keeping my eye on Copernicus.

P.S. I am in no way calling Age of Conan’s combat system or WAR’s RvR system bad or flawed, but, rather, non-revolutionary. Yes I have tested out both; Age of Conan beta, Warhammer Online at E for All 2007.

For those of you guys fighting your way through Hyboria, I thought you would be interested to know that Ten Ton Hammer has added a feats calculator on their site.   I’m sure most of us have used such calculators in the past to help us decide what skills to train and in what order and considering how new AoC is, I’m sure you guys will get some good use out of it.

I got say that I’m trying to hold out for some reviews before I get AoC, but it’s getting hard.   I mean I’m not playing any MMOs right now and I bunch of friends have gotten it and keep talking about it, so I think after this holiday weekend, I’m going to give in and pick up the game on Tuesday.  PvP all the way.  See ya guys there.

We here at MMOCrunch are no strangers to speculation, as can be noted by our past experiences with the ponderings over the existence of Diablo 3. Personally, I have no doubt in my mind that Blizzard is working on it even as I write. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that it’s been officially announced. Blizzard, being the masters of polish and secrecy that they are, has been keeping a tight lid on all of it’s secret projects, but is that about to end for Diablo 3?

Blizzplanet.com seems to think so and for good reason to. While rooting around their latest issue of PC Gamer Magazine and doing a little research they have actually found some pretty reliable information that PC Gamer Magazine might get the “go ahead” from Blizzard to unleash all the details in their August issue. Of course, it all started with this key comment from one of PC Gamer Magazine’s writers:

“NEXT MONTH
Have you ever had a secret that you’re just dying to blurt out, but you can’t for another month, and the stress of holding it in makes you want to do the pee-pee dance? That’s what the PC Gamer staff is doing right now, because the August issue will be chock-full of exclusives, including a top-secret cover story so huge we had to go to [CENSORED] to get it. Just 30 days more …”

Pretty tantalizing huh? It’s obvious that PC Gamer at least has something that we will want to know about, MMO or otherwise. However, there is some added evidence on top of that that lends credence to Blizzplanet.com’s logic such as:

• A few weeks ago Blizzard invited a number of gaming press magazines to their headquarters in Irvine, CA. Was PC Gamer Magazine one of them? Maybe…
• PC Gamer Magazine knew about Starcraft 2 before it was announced.
• Blizzard’s Worldwide Invitational  is in late June.
  

Amongst other things that you can read up on by following the link at the bottom.

So could this possibly be it? Are we really only a month or two from getting an official announcement for Diablo 3. I am certainly hoping so. Stay tuned, as we get more information in the coming months!

Check out the original article HERE.

There is one MMO that no matter how many times I unsub, I always end up returning to it a few months/years later. It’s not World of Warcraft, or Everquest; I have absolutely no desire to ever return to either of those games. The game I am talking about is Planetside. Time and again I have returned to the game to find new vehicles and features awaiting me and even now, as I just resubbed, I have found even more fun to be had. So when is the sequel coming out?

Unfortunately, probably never. As much as I hate to admit it, Planetside was never really a success story for Sony. Despite holding adequate subscription numbers for a decent amount of time the game just failed to generate any real profits, as can be seen in the poor early mismanagement of the game (updates we very few and far between, bad expac), but this doesn’t mean that Planetside doesn’t deserve a sequel. Despite having some gameplay quirks and questionable goal orientation it was actually a lot of fun and a sequel would be able to fix/build on to those gameplay elements.

Today, the FPS genre is more popular than it has ever been before. Last year Halo 3 sold more than 9 million copies world wide, and Call of Duty 4 sold over 7 million. With this re-invigorated market I don’t see it completely unjustifiable that a PS2 would be considered. After all, everybody likes being part of a huge battle, and certainly Planetside achieved that. Now if only there was an updated website that continually added new fix and gameplay suggestions for the game to help focus the commuity in an effort to improve the game so said developers would know where to start with their new Planetside…

Your welcome.

The MMO genre of gaming is not a particularly young one. In fact, I’d say it’s only a few years younger than the modern RTS and FPS genres (I remember playing my very first graphical MMO in 1997). So, suffice it to say, I was a bit surprised when I found out that not one MMORPG has made it onto GameRanking.com’s top 100 list. I’ve checked the list and I’ve checked it twice (ho ho!) and I’m telling you there are no MMOs to be found which raises the question: why haven’t any MMOs made it there yet?

Believe it or not, despite the genre being over a decade old now there really aren’t that many MMOs in the market. In fact, of the actual “pay2play” model of MMO there are typically only a handful of games released each year, as opposed to the thousands of Wii, 360, PS3, PC games that are released each year. This probably has had some sort of impact as to why there are no MMOs on the list. Let’s face it, when there are so many games coming out every year the MMO is bound to slowly get pushed down the list until a new one makes it back up there. In fact, GTAIV actually pushed World of Warcraft right off the list (who now sits at #101). However, that said, this logic does seem to conflict with the “quality over quantity” saying. Despite putting out fewer games than most other genres, there are still many quality issues that exist within the games upon launch… which brings us to our next issue.

One of the most obvious reasons as to why most MMOs never make it to the top of review scores is primarily due to quality. MMOs are HUGE worlds with many aspects of gameplay all running simultaneously with thousands of gamers. The sheer scope of programmability within these games would probably dwarf about ten single player games of near any other genre. Because of this there are a number of quality issues that must be tested and, unfortunately, the best test usually occurs after the game has gone live. As many MMOGamers know many of the biggest fixes and features aren’t readily patched until a couple months after the games release, which cites the mantra of many gamers today: “An MMO on launch day will be completely different 6 months later.” Perhaps if reviewers would put up two reviews of an MMO there would be a better “leveling off” of the scores…

Anyways, take from this what you will. World of Warcraft still sits at a very respectable #101 right above Zelda: A Link to the Past (one of my favorite games) with the next “MMO” being WoW: Burning Crusade at #142. After that there is nothing until beyond the 200 mark. It’s very clear that GTAIV effectively pushed WoW out of the running, but even before then WoW was only at #99 which is just barely scraping it by. No telling what MMO will make it there next. While Age of Conan looks like it will receive fair scores, I seriously doubt it’ll reach the top 100. Anybody want to take bets on Warhammer Online?

Check out the full top 200 list HERE.

If you were wondering if AoC was going to be a hit, wonder no more. Funcom has announce that it has shipped 700,000 units world wide for its May 20th launch date, which includes 110,000 units of the special edition box. To put that in perspective, World of Warcraft, which didn’t do a global launch, launched with 250,000 units in North America then a few months later in Europe with 280,000. Even if you add that up, that still puts AoC 170,000 units over WOW. This makes Age of Conan the highest pre-order number for any global launch of an original PC game, ever.

Although Funcom has stated their servers are up to the challenge to handle all these players, there will no doubt be some hickups on launch day considering the huge numbers. Since I’m waiting on some reviews, hopefully by the time I get it everything will be running smoothly.

For those of you that pre-order the game and are already playing, please let us know what you think of it so far.

In an interview with EuroGamer, World of Warcraft producer J. Allen Brack stated that eventually there will “probably” be an graphical update for WOW.

“Will we need a graphical update from the ground up at some point? Yep, probably. And I’m positive we’ll talk about it next expansion”

With the successful graphical revamp Eve Online pulled off back in Dec with their Trinity Expansion, it’s no surprise to see more and more MMOs taking this path. Other games such as Ultima Online and EverQuest have also done graphical upgrades to their games, but with mediocre results.

Personally I’d much rather the MMO I’m playing do a graphical update then release a sequel that basically makes everyone start from scratch.

Lets face it, many of us who are MMO gamers would probably consider ourselves hardcore gamers. And what do hardcore gamers like? Tech toys. So it’s probably reasonable to say that a higher percentage of MMO gamers might have dual monitors compared to casual gamers. With that said, why aren’t there more MMOs that support dual monitors?

Now I know some MMOs, including World of Warcraft, already make it possible to setup the game on dual monitors, but requires tweaking your settings, playing in a window or you have to download a mod, which I hate. What I’m looking for is build in support, you go to the games setting, click Dual monitor and your done.

As any MMORPG gamer can tell you, your screen can get cluttered fast considering all the short cut bars, stats, quest logs, chat, party members, etc. So why not support dual monitors for those of us that have it? Just think how much better, cleaner your playing screen would be without all that junk. But I guess we’ll have to wait until developers decide to start supporting it.

For those of you interested in dual monitors for WOW, go to ctmod.net to download their mod, you’ll need it.