Here’s a thought I had this morning. No one really argued that WoW Tourists existed. Now that they’ve been “touring” for a handful of years, are they still tourists? Have they made the leap from WoW player to MMO player or are they still the stereotype we thrust upon them when WoW was at its peak?
For my part, I think the fact this question even needs to be asked highlights how flawed the original thought was. As WoW continues decline, it becomes more and more apparent that these “tourists” were really just fledgling PC gamers now comfortable with the platform. Playing new stuff is scary when you feel unprepared. After all, some of them must have made the jump to support the masses of titles out there right now. Maybe all those pit stops over the years were really just the baby steps of a new generation.
Just a thought.
1 comment
Syncaine
November 16, 2011 at 1:45 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Rift, current-day LotRO, SW:TOR, and to a lesser degree, EQ2 today. Not really seeing the MMO players, but rather WoW players being catered to, to various degrees of success.
Meanwhile MMO players are still playing MMOs in similar numbers despite millions of ex-WoW players being out there.
What the downfall of WoW will do is lessen the flood of tourists that hit new MMOs, and decrease the amount of funding that is tossed down the WoW-like design hole. Both are good things for MMO players.