Okies statements like this annoy me.
While SOE DROPPED the ball huge on SWG (altho REAL gamers will know most of the blame can go to Ralph Koser of Ultima fame), SOE is not the devil.
Like any MMORPG company out there currently (INCLUDING BLIZZARD) they have many many faults, but unlike Blizzard they are a leading force in the creation of NEW ideas and concepts as well.
Their EQ remains one of the best MMORPG ever created. EQ2 from all "serious" reports sounds to be a awsome game with much thought put into its details. For anyone with even a moderate amount of knowledge regarding the MMORPG genre, its obvious that once again SOE created new ideas and concepts in EQ2 that will be widely used and copied in the next few years as new games get created. WOW's claim to fame is they created a game that copies everyone else, added NO new or creative content, and even managed to fumble the ball there.
WoW, is only 4 months old and already encountering a huge cancellation rate because of the lack of thought put into it.
WOW might be the most popular (in North American markets) at the moment, the god honest truth is people are now getting over their Blizzard love fest and finding a very poorly designed, low on content game.
Make no mistake hear, SOE screwed up SWG but good! As a older more experienced gamer I can see that many of the mistakes happened because SOE hired the much over rated Ralph Koser who rather then design a true MMORPG to do SW justice, just copied and pasted the failing UO template, upgrading graphics.
SWGs failure is as much Ralph Kosers fault as it is the extreamly poor developement team SOE has working on it. But 1 game doesnt solidify a reputation for a company (except it seems for WOW fanboi's who are the dredge of the MMORPG community) when they have many more products on the market. EQ, EQ2, Planetside are all immensly popular titles to those masses that play them and point blank prove SOE has a clue as to what they are doing in the genre. They all (excluding EQ2 as a new release) have proven the test of time and them some.
Right now WoW is popular because its a Blizzard product, it has not passed the test of time tho. And a REAL AND VALID arguement can be made that since its ONLY (continuously repeated) strenght is its a Blizzard product (rather then actual ingame strenghts), It doesnt seem to have the endurance to last the test of time!
PS: As I know (from experience) that people will point out the subscriptions WoW currently has, let me say this. Initial sales are awsome and great, but holding those subscriptions long term is what makes a MMORPG a success. The bleeding has already started for Blizzard in regards to WOW (as was predicted by long time players who saw the many faults WOW had in beta). And even the inital sales dont even come close to EQ1 levels or Asian market levels.
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You're an idiot.