First off, I was a beta player for WoW and played the game for a long time after release. Considering that I started playing MMOs when Everquest first came out, it should not be a surprise that I've at least sampled many of the MMOs since.
WoW was essentially the 'Everquest killer', and since then everything has been looked at to that standard. At first I thought it would be a feature that would push a game to those heights. Vanguard, at its original concept and scope, may have been that game. Rift probably should have been that game. ESO may also be that game. But, that is from a feature standpoint, and I am beginning to feel that there are not many more 'features' that can make a game stand out enough on its own to make it the 'WoW killer'. Most MMOs these days seem to do one-up WoW in one aspect (many of those were how they handled instances) but aren't revolutionary in their own right.
So I got to thinking about what made WoW stick out from most other MMOs since, and realize that interface modding was that reason. WoW had that deep modding community that worked together rather nicely. Most MMOs since have shunned giving players that much control over the information they are able to access, or did so at least long enough to push people away. Vanguard, at least in my experience, had come the closest to having that same community of modders, along with developers who actually listened and responded to us.
I do believe ESO can be that game.
Now, I'm not saying it is the mythical 'WoW killer'. I honestly do not believe WoW has to be topped for a MMO to be extremely successful anymore. But for it to not become the next Vanguard/Conan/Warhammer/etc will require those of us here to have the same sort of spirit that those who worked tirelessly modding WoW had.
Sorry for rambling.
