Rafe Zetter
Banned
Guild wars series(GW & GW2)
WoW(yes, millions still play it)
EVE(core fanbase is still there after 14 years)
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- Starwars Galaxies was still being played right up to shutdown
- ALL of the Elder scrolls games still have a good following of players - with content and mods still being worked on, even for Morrowwind
- Eve's core playerbase has never been so healthy and with the recent switch to allow Alpha F2P access has gained a significant boost
While you may state that Wow's numbers are in decline from it's peak, while not untrue, I challenge you to tell me of ANY GAME DEVELOPER ON EARTH WHO WOULDN'T CONSIDER A 7 MILLION REGULAR SUBSCRIBER PLAYERBASE AS A SUPREME SUCCESS - EVEN NOW.
To counterpoint VONBLADES comment - here is a list of games that were meant to be open multiplayer (because ED doesn't have an offline component) that got it badly wrong and either A) had a rewrite from the ground up or B) tried to go F2P but fixed very little and became a "zombie game" still twitching but lifeless or C) folded and died with barely anyone noticing:
Age of Conan (zombie) (played)
SwTor (A+B)
Warhammer Online (C) (played)
Elder scrolls online (A) (Played)
Aion (B)
Fallen Earth (B) kinda ironic considering it's theme (played)
The Secret World (C) - haha most people didn't even know of it's existence AT ALL, super ironic (played)
Neocron (v1 tried A - v2 did C) (tried to play, massive server issues)
Shadowrun Online (c)
Deus Ex Online (C) (had probably the shortest lifespan of any MMO ever created)
And that's just off the top of my head of MMO's I tried at launch or read about then wondered a short time later.... "wasn't there going to be a game about...." only to read it had already folded or had to do a major redesign.
If FDev wasn't trading heavily on the past glories of the Elite franchise, it's graphics and that it's the only current first person space sim with an MMO component - I honestly think it would be struggling now to hold onto players.. wait what?
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