BBC News profiled three big names in the MMO scene as they quest in search of World of Warcraft's playerbase. It has been years since WoW launched and no one even remotely rivals its 8 million players. BBC looks at the Age of Conan, Lord of the Rings Online and Star Wars Galaxies to get a sample of an older game, a just launched title and a game on the horizon.

Gaute Godoger, game director at Funcom, said succeeding was important for the health of the online gaming world.

"The industry so needs competition to World of Warcraft," he said. "We need other strong games that can make people understand that there's more to it than WoW."

Funcom is developing an MMO based on the iconic hero Conan who was originally the creation of US author Robert E Howard.

Read more on the BBC.