First of all I know at least Mythic should have been profitable. After all they had upwards of 200k subscribers to Dark Age of Camelot at one point. That's alot of dough to be raking in. I would hardly call that a failure.

All it will take to compete with Blizzard is a better PvP environment. Hopefully Mythic can pull it off with WAR, if they don't screw up.

Well I doubt the next WOW killer will cost anywhere near 500 million. Of course there will be many developers that claim to have the next WOW killer, but fail miserably. Eventually over time WOW is going to loose it's flair though Blizzard has done great things it's only a matter of time before something takes the crown away. Lastly it's going to be luck that creates the next big MMO. Getting the right concept, with the right team, with decent funding, and great marketing isn't something most publishers have a clue about so they pump tons of money, and resources (IE talented employees) into crap projects they feel they can make a dime off of.

They have a great game there. There's plenty to go round in the MMO industry. To compete with the giants is going to take time and dedication rather than initial investment. And of course a good idea to start with. These big MMO players have been developing their products continuously for quite some time now. It's a very organic and democratic way to succeed. Kinda like... the highest tree with the most leaves catches the most sunlight.

why build a better wow? its good for what it is already.

personally i can't stand wow since i like non-faction pvp. someone needs to build a mmo for non-wow people instead of yet another wow wannabe.

open pvp anywhere anytime (aka shadowbane) yes, its niche, yes shadowbane failed, but then shadowbane didn't fail from its pvp, it failed from being the buggiest game engine ever. the fact that so many still played for so long despite how bugged the software was is testament to a open pvp need.

Sorry to say it, but WoW isn't going to take that much to "beat". It has one of the lamest and most wattered down pvp systems ever invented. Dieing is pointless, and so is killing someone. Don't get me wrong, I think WoW is a great MMO, but their are a LOT of us hardcore PVPers out there who would like to see a game that is a little less care-bear oriented.

Guild Wars FTW

is fun. but instanced pvp gets realllly borrrrrinnngggg. It they hadn't screwed up swg a couple years ago and kept building content. Then maybe they could have made a run against WoW.

I too am not a WoW fan, but their is no denying WoW has been an awesome game to a great many people. I hope they have continued sucess.