ToR technically is released 2011 So can you still count that?
The referenced blade and Soul is going to be a typical meh MMO. I mean if your promo trailer reuses the same scene with a mob growling in two different locales its a pretty safe bet there will be a Massively Multiplying the same Opponents syndrome. It will be just like the other asian MMOs and that pretty much equals boring and unoriginal.
Terra will end up failing. It has no established brand in an oversaturated market and its only hook is being more physics based. Might have done good in say 2007, but next year? no. Plus it still will suffer from asian MMO syndrome. It pretty much looks and plays (at least from what the gameplay footage shows) no differently than any other asian MMO.
The secret world is an enigma... In part because actual gameplay footage is somewhat limited. What ive seen of it, looks rather uninspired gameplay wise. It also has what appears to be an archaic art direction that makes the game look like it was built in 2007. Also, Anarchy online, Cabal, Age of Conan were not particularly enjoyable. Dreamfall and the longest journey were pretty niche oriented and beyond that the company has had a long and storied history of making games most people have never heard of or even played. but I truly doubt that TSW will have a chance. Weak development team, Archaic graphical aesthetics, unoriginal game play mechanics. Regardless of how promising the cinematics are, or the story direction might be I dont think it has enough to do much more than to limp along for a few years and quietly fade into obscurity. There is a lot of history going against TSW and somehow I just dont see it breaking with that tradition and becoming some MMO juggernaut.
Guild wars 2 has potential, however Guild wars 1 had potential before it was released too. Hard to project exactly how it will play out. Id say its going to be one of the best, if not the best MMO released in 2012. However that still technically isnt saying much.
Id say Guild Wars 2 or The secret world will be the best 2 MMOs released in 2012, but really thats still at best a second place trophy considering that at least one of them will fall by the wayside and crushed underfoot of the 2011 released The Old Republic. GW2 will survive on the strength of its F2P-ish nature, but I get the feeling TSW is doomed to limp along like a wounded MMO until it quietly heads to the vast MMO graveyard.
I would also point to the MMO that will come out after Kingdoms of Amalur comes out will likely be a contender as KoA is there to try to establish the world/IP for the MMO, which is certainly a solid way to go about doing it. However that wont likely see the light of day till 2013 or later. So, 2011 or potentially 2013... 2012 doesnt look all that great from an MMO perspective, but that is ok because 2012 doesnt look that great from a game perspective either and many people will still be working off their 2011 backlogs.
