Lich King luring AoC and WAR players back to WoW

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Nov. 6 11:12 AM by Mandifesto

As you may or may not know, I play a lot of World of Warcraft. Initially, it was my first true MMO experience, and I was hooked from the moment my little warlock set foot in Elwynn Forest. Later on WoW became my only entertainment, since Fiance and I were too poor to afford even cable TV. Over the years I have seen players come and go, most of those who left appeared to have thought they had "beat the game" and moved onto something else. Last night I talked to one such person, who had was back after an 11 month absence. The reason? Wrath of the Lich King.

It appears this prodigal mage isn't alone. Kotaku today is reporting some surprising numbers when it comes to those who cancelled WoW accounts only to reactivate them. They say that 68% of the people who quit WoW to play Age of Conan and 43% of those that quit to play Warhammer Online have returned to the fold. While surprising it's not exactly unprecedented. When WoW was poised to release its first expansion, The Burning Crusade, thousands left the game before TBC came out stating that they had done everything there was to do. You might be able to make some cursory judgments of each of the MMOs based on these numbers. You could say that AoC wasn't as attractive as it might have been on paper, or that WAR is steadily carving itself a small nitch in the MMO market. But all this in an indicator of exactly how big Wrath will be, and I for one have a ticket for a front row seat.