[...] My fear is that World of Warcraft is being treated differently because it’s brand is to valuable at this stage in its life-cycle. [...]

[...] MMO usage graphs [...]

[...] t­ime­, R­a­ph Ko­st­e­r­ ha­s a­n­ ex­cellen­t ex­p­la­n­a­ti­on­. And­ that i­s ju­st the natu­ral­ c­y­c­l­e [...]

[...] to feel concerned, remember that WoW is a relatively mature franchise and is probably heading into the long tail. Why is SL sinking in comparison? May I be so bold as to suggest the Lindens might put down their [...]

[...] create additional curves: All the curves then stack, which tends to mask the underlying pattern. Raph Koster provides an illustrated explanation. Although subscribers to WoW continue to grow globally, usage [...]

[...] that fundamentally takes longer to make, yet has no history to suggest it will build a market that lasts more than a decade. My conclusion is that it won’t happen – at least not [...]

[...] by Juliah5. im gonna dissagree and go with the guess that history repeats itself. Food for thought (http://www.raphkoster.com/2007/06/15/how-open-big-virtual-worlds-grow/) Posted at 2:45PM on Aug 20th 2007 by Brian6. It’s arguable what he means by “decline.” Games like [...]

[...] cycle? Actually, there was an interesting post about this at Koster’s blog a month or so ago, here. I think that’s basically right. If so, then LOTRO will probably beat the typical path somewhat [...]

[...] really true, from other sourcers its told they have lost quite alot of sub numbers. WoW’s concurrent numbers have fallen. Those are not directly related to subscriptions – people are still paying, although [...]

[...] is how Open Big MMOs all go,” veteran MMO developer Raph Koster observes on his blog. “A big rush, peaking a little bit after the launch. Then a plateau for a while, then a tailing [...]