Personally, I stand as an advocate for increasing the f2p game quality. I see no reason why there should be a monthly fee on enjoying yourself with your own friends, on your own computer, at your own home… Paying for that just does not seem right to me. There are so many good f2p games that with a little tweeking, would be hella fun. To often, though, they try to attract a playerbase with only an original concept, and end up slacking on content. Guild Wars being a perfect example.

I love the character classes, and "expansion" system in GW, and the world storyline is an old plot with a new twist. It has everything in the right place… Until you start playing, and you hit level cap in a week, then hit skill cap the next, and by the end of the month you have beaten all three game modules and Eye of the North.

I started playing GW, and within the month, had surpassed my veteran GW friends who have been playing since the game started.

Serious lack of content, but could have been such a great game.

If there ever is to be a "WoW Killer" it would be in the game's profit system. Just as Beej says, games will adopt a new model, and stay afloat. And to bring a giant down, you take out his legs. If there ever is a "WoW Killer" it will be a game that includes a f2p system, and not just demo style gameplay. Full game content access, no payment needed.

But in the f2p market, there is another branch that is gaining just as much strength as the "WoW Killers" in the general MMO market. And that is the "WoW Clones." Runes of Magic for example. The game is amazing, once again content an issue. The great thing is (so far) they are constantly evolving the game, creating better quality content. But they don't do it by trying to out do WoW, instead, they take what WoW has done, and build on it.

It is like a parasite, feeding off of WoW's ideas (as well as other MMOs) and giving them in a f2p format. Not only that, but they also take a lot of WoW's aspects, and improve them. Ever want your own player house in WoW? Then move right in to Runes of Magic estates.

The funny thing is the games that try to be original "WoW Killers" will continue to butt heads with the giant, but in the end, it could be the "WoW Clones" that actually bring down the beast by sucking it's blood until it's to weak to stand.

Well said and on par with what I gripe about a lot. The problem is now that WoW is king developers shove crap at us everyday and as long as it is like "WOW" they think we will gobble it up and sadly they are sometimes right

That's why I am incredibly interested in F2P games these days. I hope that I find one of them that does one new thing exceedingly well that makes me want to stick around and actually give them money instead of the current "buy the client and we give you 30 days" model.

That said, I don't see the MMO industry hitting critical mass for quite a while, stagnation or not, which is why the "killer" games idea is ludicrous.

Of course, I don't want to abolish the existing DIKU games, I just want a dev house to completely kill the DIKU mentality for *their game*, and find success with it. The genre really needs new blood, and even SWTOR's "storytelling" focus isn't enough.

I think that the genre is stuck in a morass of DIKU drudgery, and that part of the call for a WoW killer is a reaction to that broken record gameplay in the genre. Then again, some players really do want more of the same, which is where the loathers and self-loathers come from.

There's definitely room for a variety of games, and the notion that the audience is a zero-sum mess that requires internecine squabbling is silly. There will definitely be some poaching and fractured loyalties (a concern given the monopolistic nature of an MMO), but the industry at large has plenty of room for different games.

Of course, that will mean that some will have to temper their expectations, and build with a sustainable business model, rather than shoot for the moon. Puzzle Pirates and EVE are good examples of modest design that has later expanded. If anything, such non-WoW MMO design is healthier for the future of the genre.

I don't think WoW will ever die. It's obviously got enough momentum to last for years and years and if subscription numbers degrade, Blizzard will just reduce the number of servers and staff who work on it.

I honestly think there's enough room in the market for any MMO to survive – depending on it's expectations. However, I do think the only MMO we'll see that comes near to WoWs number of subscribers will be the next MMO from Blizzard.