   How should WoW end? How should any MMO end?
  There was a really thought provoking article on WOW.com recently:Breakfast Topic: How should WoW end?Quote:A satisfactory end and a party would be a lot of fun, but I would like to see a darker conclusion to all of our efforts. What if we become so powerful, that we are like titans ourselves? The ensuing battle is one glorious free-for-all resulting in a cataclysmic event ending all life in Azeroth as we know it. Boom! Game over.The article makes an interesting comparison to possible WoW endings, and the way Tabula Rasa Ended.The End of Tabula Rasa - Server Shutdown EventAnyway... something to think about.How should WoW end? How should MMOs end in general?   
  WoW is a cash CoW! Why, when it's dominating the MMORPG market, would Blizzard want to give players a reason to quit playing (and thus, stop paying)?Just think...about a decade ago, arcade games were designed to eat quarters. The longer a game station could keep you in front of it and keep you paying, it was making great money. Look at some of those old arcade games and see how the design incorporated feeding quarters into the machine...Is WoW, or any other online RPG much different? Instead of quarters, they are trying to maximize the monthly subscriptions and come up with clever ways to get new players (fresh meat) into the game. Putting a "Congrats! You win!" at the end of a game with hundreds (if not thousands) of hours invested, and probably hundreds of dollars, would give players a reason to stop playing and paying subscription payments (and some hardcore addicts would probably be secretly thankful to finally be released from their bonds).   ;  Everyone playing it gets a life? [grin] Sorry, couldn't resist. The real question is if you enjoy it, why should it end?   ;  I can't speak for Cambios, but I'm pretty sure he was talking about the "end" as in when the game gets shut down (however far in the future that may be). The article seemed to be talking about having some sort of ultimate event right before the servers get shut down permanently.   ;  In the (probably very hypothetical) event that WoW goes offline, why not do something like TF2's "Sudden Death" mode? That is, reset the servers so that everyone is level 1 of some class (and only that class), take away all NPCs, and have all the players fight to the (perma-) death? Last character standing wins a prize, and then the servers shut down and everyone goes home.   ;  Heh I think Planetside may be doing some kind of quick end game like this. I was playing earlier and last week they raised the level cap from 25 to 40 and said there would be a prize for whoever gets to 40. It's a ton of experience and gaming to get that high with the projected level curves.   ;  Sorry, this is somewhat offtask, but the thread made me spark an idea that I'm sure everyone has imagined as well. What if Blizzard hosted a temporary server on WoW for use once a year. The server is a permanent death server. It could be a huge battle royale between any user who pays the fee, which funds the server, to fight to the death for a cash prize added to their PayPal account or whatever they use to pay. Imagine that. The server gets up and going once a year to host the battle, and the last one standing wins. No extra rules, just regular World of Warcraft conduct. It could be live-streamed on the website where we could all watch it. Also, maybe the server could hold the feature that when Five players are left, a portal appears beside them that takes them to an arena, in which case we wouldn't all have to wait for them to find each other in the huge world. Just an idea. Feedback?   ;  Wow beta ended very well, If Wow came to a conclusion I would re-subscribe just to witness the end.   ;  I thought it was pretty easy for a profitable MMO to remain profitable.. for a long time.Is that not true? (As far as I know, TR was NEVER profitable)   ;Quote:Original post by nilknI can't speak for Cambios, but I'm pretty sure he was talking about the "end" as in when the game gets shut down (however far in the future that may be). The article seemed to be talking about having some sort of ultimate event right before the servers get shut down permanently.Exactly.No matter how successful the game is now, there WILL come a time when the subscriptions dwindle and people have moved on.When that time comes, what is the best way to end the game?Should it follow a Tablua Rasa style ending, or something else entirely?   