Blizzard won't be making WoW expansions forever, also annual content

Considering the life span of past Blizzard games and the high price they still command at retail, I imagine this game will have a very long lifecycle. I can imagine them reducing the monthly subscription fee before they turn off the servers. Even if 7 years from now they keep only 5% of their player base, that is still around 600,000 players. That is still a pretty damn huge revenue base.

lol maybe even free subcription but in-game ads in the future :P

The risk of losing their sheeple to another MMO is serious the moment they start talking about shutting down.

On the other hand it might be wise to take heed to the lessons learned in Ultima Online where by the end of the game new players could not become involved because the requirements to be able to play within the game became so outrageous that only long time players stood a chance.

I play WoW, been playing for about a month and a half now.

Before WoW, I was playing GuildWars for 3 years, the only reason I stopped playing that game after so long was because Anet announced Eye of the North to be the "last" expansion for the game (and then went ahead and announced Guild Wars 2 at the same time). In waiting for GW2 I ended up with a WoW box in my hand, and now I don't care for GW anymore, WoW has my attention now <3.

If you stop giving people a reason to play they'll eventually stop playing. Expansions make people come back (I have a friend who got into WoW on 3 separate occasions, launch, BC launch, and now WoTL launch).

I cant see the atraction of playing one game for so so long, i liked guild wars but glad it had an ending.
It obviously appeals to loads of people, but the people i know who play this have no life outside the game..kinda sad really...

I think they did an awesome job on WotLK as far as design goes, and I will continue to play as long as the content doesn't suck balls. However, once SC2 and Diablo 3 comes out... /uninstallWoW

Well to be honest, WoW would have to end sooner or later. Levels 1 - 80 would take a lot of time, and imagine if they go all the way to 100?

Thats 100 levels... Its gonna take AGES to get to there for a new player.

@Zax

They've discussed a graphics upgrade around the release (or after) the next expansion.

My friend played the european beta, he thought it was so good that as a birthday present he bought me the game. So I've played since the european servers opened. Not continuously, but it's been a long time. It opened my eyes to online gaming as I'd only briefly dabbled with UO before then. I keep looking for other games that can grab my attention like wow does, but so far I keep coming back. Addicted? Possibly, but that's due to there not being anything out there that grabs me like wow does. Now that's my personal taste, there probably are better games out there, it's just that I haven't been drawn to them. I'll gladly keep playing wow until something better comes along. As for the game not lasting forever? That's cool. Video games aren't immortal, just their characters.