This article in the Seattle Times, in the Business & Technology section, talks about the interest that WoW provoked in the gaming industry. The huge amount of money World of Warcraft is making for Blizzard's parent company Vivendi is obviously something that other companies would like a slice of.
Interestingly the article compares different business models for MMORPG, the monthly fee model of games like WoW, the expansion set model of Guild Wars, and the micropayment business model that some Korean games have. I'm still waiting for a micropayment MMORPG on the western market. Having paid a lot of money for Magic the Gathering, I do think that this business model can work here as well, if you pack it well. The average gamer is getting richer, because on the one side kids are nowadays much richer than I was at their age, and on the other side the average age of gamers is rising. If you consider what adults spend on other "childish" hobbies like model railroads, $200 per year to Vivendi for playing World of Warcraft is a far too low amount. There must be a possibility of gaming companies getting more money out of their often fanatic audience.
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