the bottom line is that MMOs as a segment of the gaming industry aren't expanding like it used to.
the new games all claim to be "next generation" and different (they've been using this language now for YEARS when publicizing new games). At release, none of them have lived up to this. They hold attention for a short period and then they fade with their player-base to the next game. Rinse and repeat again and again for the last decade of MMO gaming.
There are a few exceptions that exist categorically on their own outside of this model (EVE online, for example)...but, for the most part the holy grail of the MMO genre has been to build an authentically different game. Nobody has found it yet. Most new MMOs provide a change in scenery with an upgrade in graphics and very little else.
As money has dried up in the MMO genre so to has gone the era of big AAA titles spending millions of dollars and years of development to bring a product to market. They just aren't successful. The money is better invested in other segments of the gaming industry.
Only a few companies are still chasing the AAA MMO dream (i.e. "the WOW killer").
EQN is looking less and less likely to be anything at all, much less live up to the hype of all the new promises it has made in its nebulous leaks of information. Advanced AI? Dynamic gaming world? etc.
The truth is I will plunk down $65 to play an EQN title when it comes out even if it is horrible. I just love the game setting to much to ignore it. Same with anything Brad releases. But, my expectations are very limited. They are all long shots, but I'd give slightly better odds to Brad to actually make something innovative over anyone else out there right now (including Daybreak/EQN).
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