Lord of the Rings Online and Everquest 2 are F2P too, as of the last few months. Micro-transactions and several upgrades can be purchased through money. Not worth it to play the butchered version imo, just pay the subscription if you want a good MMO. Course it means you'll most likely be able to keep only one active.
WoW is not going to survive for much longer, that's for sure. Not because of other MMO's, but because it is imploding on itself, and Blizzard doesn't seem to care. Titan will most likely replace WoW despite what people think.
That should be more or less why things are as they are.
E.g., because the other MMO's on the market are either lousy (AoC) or niche (EVE).
When they run out of content to add, it's going to die, not argueing there.
But there's still lots of things left to uncover. The Legion is still on the way. Metzen himself mentioned he's a sucker for a good redemption story when he was asked about Illidan reappearing (yay) and we still have no clue where Sargeras is (he will probably be the last one out). There's some issues with Nozdormu (the Aspect of Time) that indicate he may be corrupted and that he is infact behind the Infinite Dragonflight.
The list could go on forever and honestly, many of the things we got this expansion, we didn't really expect. I mean alright, we knew there was something going on with the Elemental Plane, we knew about Deathwing and we did expect an Old God but that's about it.
I'm pretty sure WoW will live for quite some time and it will even co-exist with Titan, since it's supposed to be a MMO-fps and i'm not sure if the WoW fanbase will end up liking it.
Upgrading an engine might break compatibility with other parts of an engine, forcing them to update them too, etc. I have never seen a game switch engine, only add things to it.
Didn't Dark Ages of Camelot change engine? Not 100% sure but i think it did. About WoW you're right about the changes so far, though. It's mainly additions to the engine, not changes to the core.
I'll quote a guy that has one of the most popular shows about WoW:
It's not like there aren't games that beat WoW at certain things. DC Universe beats it in combat system, Age of Conan in graphics, Warhammer Online in PvP, D&D Online in dungeon design etc etc. But there's no game right now that beats it in everything and that's why it's still number one. Even with all those free to play MMOs (LOTRO, Everquest 2) it still doesn't lose subscribers.
That should be more or less why things are as they are.
When they run out of content to add, it's going to die, not argueing there.
But there's still lots of things left to uncover. The Legion is still on the way. Metzen himself mentioned he's a sucker for a good redemption story when he was asked about Illidan reappearing (yay) and we still have no clue where Sargeras is (he will probably be the last one out). There's some issues with Nozdormu (the Aspect of Time) that indicate he may be corrupted and that he is infact behind the Infinite Dragonflight.
The list could go on forever and honestly, many of the things we got this expansion, we didn't really expect. I mean alright, we knew there was something going on with the Elemental Plane, we knew about Deathwing and we did expect an Old God but that's about it.
I'm pretty sure WoW will live for quite some time and it will even co-exist with Titan, since it's supposed to be a MMO-fps and i'm not sure if the WoW fanbase will end up liking it.
Didn't Dark Ages of Camelot change engine? Not 100% sure but i think it did. About WoW you're right about the changes so far, though. It's mainly additions to the engine, not changes to the core.
That should be more or less why things are as they are.