It's been seven years since World of Warcraft (WoW) launched in late 2004 to a stunned and budding industry. During WoW's incredibly successful rule, it's surprising a challenger has yet to put up a formidable fight. With the release of Cataclysm, WoW's latest expansion, World of Warcraft now boasts a stunning 12 million players worldwide and- if left unchecked- has no sign of slowing down. With Activision-Blizzard raking in money, it's surprising that it took this long for one of the AAA publishers to commit to the long, expensive quest to siphon some of WoW's profits. We've seen countless MMOs over the past several years buckle under WoW, taking the embarrassing route of going free-to-play. From Warhammer Online (WAR) to Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO), each promising MMO is eventually over-shadowed by WoW's established community, polished game play, and immersive world. Why then, are some people flocking to the notion that BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic (ToR) has a real shot of successfully co-existing with WoW in the subscription-based market?
Before venturing further, an important distinction has to be made between ToR as a "WoW killer" and ToR as a successful subscription-based MMO. Being a "WoW killer" implies stealing the majority of WoW's players, and therefore, turning Azeroth into a deserted, tumbleweed-ridden world. But the fall of World of Warcraft seems very unlikely in the near future. The Old Republic as a "WoW killer" is just not realistic; WoW is too well established. I propose that WoW has gotten so massive, that it isn't just a game anymore; it resembles a social hub. Guilds, communities, groups, main cities and Blizzard's battle.net help build WoW's social space into a strong interconnecting web of social networks. Interacting with people is not only a defining aspect of an MMO, but its social elements drive an MMO's longevity. Since WoW was the first to successfully introduce an accessible MMO to the masses, it has been able to grow in content, players, and social connections making it very hard for another MMO to compete with it. ToR may not kill WoW, but it may stand a chance of being successful alongside it, a feat which no other MMO has been able to achieve.
What makes Star Wars: The Old Republic different from the other failed MMOs?
ToR is different from other MMOs because of its similarities to WoW and its distinct differences. The most obvious similarity is from a game play perspective. Like countless of other MMOs before it, BioWare has used WoW's forumla as a point of reference during development. Greg Zeschuk, Co-Founder of BioWare, even admitted that straying from this formula is "pretty dumb". This may not seem surprising considering how standard WoW's formula has become, but it at least shows us that EA, BioWare's publisher, wants SWOTR to remain as accessible and as familiar as possible.
SWTOR, like WoW, is based off of an incredibly popular franchise. It's possible that a contributing factor to WoW's success was basing the game in the already popular Warcraft universe. Basing Blizzard's MMO on the Warcraft franchise might've helped boost initial sales and helped spread the word at a faster rate. The industry today, however, consists of many MMOs that are not based on existing properties or are based on franchises not big enough to appeal to a mass audience. To combat this, EA set their MMO in one of the most popular (and one of the most profitable) franchises of all time: Star Wars. Star Wars in an instantly recognizable name from almost any medium and is popular from a broad range of age groups. Just having the name on the box is enough to draw attention and sell copies.
The third similarity ToR shares with WoW is its large financial support in development and marketing. EA has already poured millions of dollars into ToR's development and will most likely continue their spending spree to market the game. Few MMOs in the recent past have had this much support and funding from a publisher. As an aside, there's an interesting parallel between ToR and another of EA's core titles, Battlefield 3. With Battlefield 3, EA expects to take down the other mega franchise of Activision-Blizzard, Call of duty. Considering EA's recent announcement of Battlefield 3's 100 million dollar marketing budget, it's not hard to imagine ToR having an equally absurd budget to take down World of Warcraft. Since the industry continues to grow, marketing is increasingly becoming an integral part of a game's success. Assuming that ToR will have a large marketing budget (as well what's listed above), BioWare should perform better than the average MMO and could perhaps give WoW a run for its money.
ToR's similarities to WoW however, are not the only driving forces for its success. The Old Republic's distinct difference could have the potential to appeal to a new crowd of gamers. Many traditional MMORPGs on the market today are all fantasy based. Aion, Rift, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft, and the upcoming Guild Wars 2 are all set in a fantasy setting. The Old Republic's science-fantasy combined with Star Wars' familiar staples may be enough to differentiate itself from the elves and dwarfs we've been accustom to over the years. It's very much the same how Halo can co-exist with Call of Duty. Both are FPS's, both are successful, but both are set in completely different universes. Blizzard's fantasy-based MMO and BioWare's Science-fantasy MMO are similar from a game play perspective, but both offer different, distinct worlds.
Why then, did LOTRO and WAR fail?
Warhammer Online and Lord of the Rings Online are both big names (especially the latter) but both MMOs failed to sustain themselves on the subscription model. Both games are similar to WoW from a game play standpoint, had reasonable financial backers, and are popular franchises. So what went wrong? Perhaps their failure can be attributed to WoW's constricting grasp on the fantasy-based MMO. It's possible that having two or more subscription-based fantasy MMOs will over-saturate this part of the market. Why choose one fantasy world when you can choose the bigger, polished, and more popular one?
Star Wars: The Old Republic may not be a "WoW killer", but it has the potential to succeed along side World of Warcraft. ToR's safe game play, Star Wars name, its large financial backer, and its science fiction world could be a winning formula for BioWare and EA. We'll have to see what happens when Star Wars: The Old Republic ships later this year.
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