More Horizontal Progression please

[Magis]

Let me rephrase failure then. It's a failure in the current market.

The forumla works. That the same thing as saying a movie staring batman that only has 300 k of funding will be a success. There are more variables at work then just the type of game.

Except for all the MMOs that failed under WoW's model and either are stagnant or went F2P. Tera, ESO, SWOR... the only one I can think of that hasn't been a failure is EVE Online and funny enough, that is an earlier 2003ish MMO that decided to go against the "formula".

The formula doesn't work, why? Because people who want to play WoW are already playing WoW. People who quit WoW are bored of WoW's system and want something else. FFXIV is actually an interesting anomaly, mostly being backed by brand due to the large population of people who "never played an MMO before" as well as the unique circumstances of it's creation (1.0 the giant failure, 2.0 success). However, the WoW formula had little to do with it's success since if it was the case, the other clones should have also been.

The fact there even is a "formula" shows how stagnant and manufactured MMOs are these days. Gone are the days of creating a virtual world for people to "live"/"adventure" in... now it's a giant content delivery system with a new coat of paint or some gimmick.