From trying out Age Of Conan one thing is really clear to me, the market won't keep standing for games launched in an unfinished state. WoW has its issues and flaws of course, but what it has in abundance is a mostly seamless world that feels unified and a LOT of polish. Even at launch WoW was more polished than any of these new releases are managing, but now several years on WoW has set the bar very high indeed. The market won't stand for bungled launches such as AoC where a game gets released still clearly in a beta state. MMORPG developers need a console mentality, i.e. that a game needs to be finished before release, and not rely on customers to have to pay to beta test and download several GB of updates within the first few weeks and months of launch. The next game that is properly playable at release with all of its promised features working will be the winner. I'm hoping it'll be WAR but not confident tbh.