With the release of Wrath of the Lich King, it's difficult to see how anyone will loosen World of Warcraft's stranglehold on the MMO genre. With its spectacular design, dazzling polish and ever-compulsive gameplay, World of Warcraft seems destined to remain the everyman's pick of PvE-focussed MMO for the foreseeable future, and with the implementation of new PvP mechanics, Blizzard is no doubt looking to tempt back players who jumped ship to Warhammer Online and Age of Conan as well.
Time will tell whether it will succeed or not, but if Blizzard's approach to the genre over the last four years has taught anything, it's that it plays for keeps. The competition needs to take note, because the bar just got raised that little bit higher.
