Topic
What GW2 will mean for WoW and other MMOs
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Edited by Ryph on 2/22/12 1:20 AM (PST)
Sensational Title to be honest, but please hear me out. The main thing that causes me to put up this title is simple: Guild Wars 2. Now this post will inevitably lead to replies of calling me a fanboy or something near to that nature, and that's fine. I'm a reasonable guy and try my best to look at things objectively. But the more and more I hear, read, and see about GW2, the harder it is to keep my excitement down for the game.
I've played MMOs ever since the days of Ultima Online wandering around and stumbling upon player houses and dying to traps. It was my first experience with MMOs and it was awesome. But I couldn't at the time afford a computer that could run it well, much less ask my mom for a subscription fee for it. So the experience was flirtatious at best. Then later when Everquest became available for the PS2, I immediately jumped on it and became engrossed. It was my opportunity to dive into a genre I've had a passion for but never the means. And then came FFXI for PS2... All of these were like summer crushes: Intense infatuation but in the end never lasted or stood the test of time. Grinding and repetitiveness were some key things, and just the long time it took to get max level and then more grind more for this gear, etc etc etc. Then WoW came along. I was in the Navy at the time, and my coworkers kept urging me to try out WoW(vanilla). I resisted and resisted, but finally I decided to give it a go. I had nothing but work in my life and lots of time. So I bought a laptop for gaming and tried WoW out. And it was amazing... it changed forever how I viewed MMOs. It was my first solid experience with an MMO on a PC/laptop and it minimized the grinding and focused on the instant gratification part, perfectly engineered to the western audience. Now I give this brief history of my gaming experience in hopes of adding some credit to my claim. I was completely in love with WoW and only when they released TOC in WotLK did my love start to dwindle. My romance with WoW had lost the spark. We just didn't have fun together any more and every time it felt like a chore more and more. By the time Cataclysm came out, I had unsubbed and quit playing for 4 months. We had taken a break, but all of a sudden, my former lover came back with a "whole new attitude and look" -(Cata). I reinstalled the game and subbed up again. There was this brief period of happiness of having that familiarity with something you've known intimately for a very long time. But underneath all this new makeup and hairdo I realized that it was still the same thing, and that I was tired of it. All throughout Cata I've quit for a month or two here, and came back when a content patch finally saw the light of day. But the breaking point in my relationship came when Dragon Soul was released. In my 7 years with WoW, I have never seen something so pathetic as that raid. You sum up an entire expansion with an epic raid, one that signifies your talent as game developers and one that your players deserve. Naxxramas, Black Temple, and Icecrown are shining examples. It might be embarrassing to admit that all of this has genuinely made me very sad. I have come to terms that I will never be in love with WoW again... Enter Guild Wars 2. Saying one game is better than the other always leads to trolling and fanboyism one way or another, and I have no doubt that this will see its fair share of them as well. As stated earlier, I have been playing MMOs off and on. What brought me back into the genre was my friends telling me how amazing WoW was, and they, like me, tried other MMOs and didn't like them. WoW came in and fixed things I didn't like about the genre and introduced new ones. It was genius. Now I've simply gotten tired of the same formula, and this is why Guild Wars 2 has held my attention for quite some time now. I first wrote off GW2 because I tried GW1 when it first came out, and I hated the game with a passion. But I stumbled upon ANet's manifesto video and I was intrigued. The more and more I read about the game, the more curious i became. Then when they announced the Thief class, I fell headfirst into the Kool Aid bowl and I have been drinking it ever since. So many amazing ideas are being implemented in GW2, and its so refreshing to see them being introduced into a genre so polluted with stagnation and lack of originality. Two major games are Rift and SWTOR next to WoW, and honestly they're all very similar to each other. Rift introduced Rift Invasions and SWTOR's big thing is the story. For those with a keen eye, you can see that these are basically WoW in essence. Same kind of combat, questing structure but with a few twists thrown in. Rift is mediocre and thus only has a meager share of the market. In the February issue of Game Informer, Trion did not release information on the subscribers count but instead stated "In general, the game is rocking." And arguably the only reason SWTOR is huge is because of the name only, nothing else. If SWTOR didn't have the Star Wars element and trademark classes/lore/abilities/etc, then it wouldn't have had near the amount of success it currently has now. Star Wars is a bit of religion to some people. They feel it is sacred and should forever be held in reverence. I, however, am not one of those people. If the same old routine of a MMO that is blessed by the divinity of Star Wars is your thing, more power to you. If thats what makes you happy, who cares. I'm not here to try to dissuade you from the game. But what Guild Wars 2 is doing is revolutionary on many fronts. The hype for this game only gets bigger and bigger, and after this past weekend's press beta, it has gotten even bigger. It's very hard for me to think that GW2 will not be huge. It's that storm you see coming over the horizon. Ominous and swelling with fury, threatening to leave destruction in its wake. If you haven't read anything about it or know very little, there are a ton of great sites full of information. Especially now with the closed press beta having just ended. A lot of the skepticism i see in forums comes from people commenting on something about the game that isn't true. It comes from a general lack of understanding with the game. But this is the internet and people feel very inclined to offer feedback on something they don't understand or know. If you want a handy dandy link to help educate yourself on GW2, you can find that here: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1083356-Can-Anet-pull-this-off -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In summation, or TL;DR for some of you folks, I've been in love with WoW for 7 years but we have went our separate ways. We have had a great time, and it's still a good game, no doubt about it. I moved on from the relationship wanting something more for myself and I think I may have found it. I'm now in a budding romance with GW2. But before these games and even after, I will forever be in love with MMORPGs as a whole. I grew up on RPGs as a kid and they have been a big part of my life. I truly see GW2 has making this genre better, and I'm 100% for that. We, the players, will be the ultimate beneficiaries. Heres a link to an excellent video as to why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns-IIn-DG-c&noredirect=1 If GW2 does prove to be an astronomical success, then it will send a clear message to developers/publishers around the world. The B2P model will end up saving gamers money. For all the content that's been pushed out for Cata, and especially Dragon Soul, I feel I've not been getting my subscription's worth. Gamers are very passionate, and sometimes we tend to be overzealous in the defense of our beloved games. But I urge you to try to be objective when it comes to this post, and try to look at GW2 in a different light. Thank you. Didn't read. Thank you for the edits and I'm sorry I assaulted everyone with text. |
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Wow..someone is sipping the cool aid.
FWIW - I plan to buy GW2 and play it till my characters hit max levels and get fully geared. But you are buying into the hype too much. Alot of things sound better on paper then the work out in reality. #1. Dynamic Events probably aren't going to work. That is to say that aren't going to provide compelling content. If they are tuned to be tough - that means that noobs beating on some event mob will cause you to fail the event. This would be frustrating. So they will be tuned to be very easy. This will mean that essentially they will get zerged down. So instead of being some amazing revolutionary change - it probably going to work out that people will just zerg anything they can kill spamming the "1" key. You might be playing 'together' but because of the lack of teamwork and social bonding you get from tough instanced content - you are going to feel like you are playing alone. #2. The lack of any endgame probably isn't going to work either (not that it matters for Arenanet). WoW like EQ before it and most other MMO's use an explotative 'skinner box' model for their endgame. Once you hit level cap you aren't done. Why? Because you need better gear for the tougher challenges. So you 'gear up' by running easier content past the point where it would be boring but 'rewarded' mentally with the feeling of accomplishments you get for getting better gear. GW2 doesn't really have this. Your power level is capped - and all you will get out of the harder dungeons will be cosmentic improvements. Suffice to say without the skinner box model people aren't going to keep playing the game. That's fine for arenanet since they won't make any more money of you anyway - until the next expansion or paid content release #3. You wont' save as much money as you think. arenanet will release buy to play content more often. So instead of 60 + 18 x 15 (each expansion is set to come out every 1.5 years with WoW. It's 60 + 30 x 3 as Arenanet seems likely to release new content every six months..Don't think you just buy the game once and it keeps you entertained forever. That being said I like the enviroments and sense of awe. I think it will be as fun as Skyrim was for me. |
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Edited by Vale on 2/22/12 12:37 AM (PST)
It's not that there's no endgame, it's that guildwars is not making raids the endgame.
But you'd better like PvP. |
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Didn't read.
Even your TL:DR is 4 paragraphs long. Get an editor, bro. |
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Didn't read.He's basically hoping that WoW will put folks back in the world instead of funnelling them into raids and dungeons. |
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Well they have said that there will be no dedicated healer class so I will most certainly not be playing GW2.
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Edited by Vale on 2/22/12 12:50 AM (PST)
There is one that works rather like a disc priest/ret+prot pally, the Guardian. You rely more on bubbles and barriers than on straight-up heals. Edit: But guardians will have a few of those. You just have to do more than heal. |
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Edited by Gencil on 2/22/12 12:50 AM (PST)
Here's another idea. Play both WoW and GW2. One's free to play and ones not. Everyone wins.
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TLDR: I love wow, but GW2 F2P (and other things) maybe the next MMORPG mainstream.
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Last I checked everyone can support, heal, or "revive" which is more like a CoD last stand type of deal which I dislike...
I don't care much for player housing or anything of the sort. It just looks very unappealing to me in general. |
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Not every MMO has to appeal to everyone. :3
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Didn't read. - Dragon Soul sucked and didn't feel he got his money's worth this xpac - sub-less model is attractive - sick of same crap in WoW - GW2 looks to be innovative, fresh and fun - GW2 will keep WoW on it's toes and that's a good thing |
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I hope not. There going to have to come up with extra revenue some how and expansions every 6 months wont cut it. Their only recourse is a "store" that you can sell stuff that people want and not just "Mounts" because even that wont pay the bills between the expansions. |
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GW2 definitely looks superior in basically every regard other than raid content (Although raiding in Cata hasn't made me happy anyway).
But I'll never stop playing WoW until it dies. |
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No more douches raging at me for playing a belf!
Maybe I will suspend my sub, since we're so unwelcome. |
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No more douches raging at me for playing a belf! You'll get hated on for playing one of the overly popular races in GW2. |
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Edited by Vale on 2/22/12 1:17 AM (PST)
That would be human, and the vitriol won't be as bad. WoW is the absolute worst about this. (No other MMO that I've played hates one race for looking decent. Not even amazing, decent.)No more douches raging at me for playing a belf! |
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I'll try to address your points as best as possible for you Hume.
#1) Dynamic Events. Your reasoning for its probable failure doesn't make much sense to me. DE's scale depending on how many people are there in it. If it has a bunch of people and they're just trying to zerg it down and its not working because of their failure to adapt to the situation, and thus making it impossible for you to complete it... Just leave. Or you could always try, you know, being social and organize a group for it. Leveling will never be contingent upon these certain DEs. And feel free to read the overwhelmingly positive responses DEs have been getting from the press beta coverage. And they only experienced a tiny portion of what there is to offer. #2) Lack of Endgame. This mindset is firmly rooted in WoW and other conventional MMOs' players. Some of my best memories come from not being max level, and my most fond memory of all was when myself and my best friend on his rogue went into Gurubashi Arena to ninja a chest from a group of 60's fighting amongst themselves. We played like true thieves and ninja'd the chest. General chat was lit up by me LMAO and the 60's raging hard. We were only 48. The misconception is that you need to be "max level" to truly enjoy the game, and then every new raid tier/pvp season you have to hop on the gear treadmill just so you can fully enjoy the next step. I've been doing this for 7 years, and it's not fun anymore, not at all. But... playing the same thing over and over will have players leaving right? To discredit that, please look at how many people still play CoD games or shooters for that matter. The gameplay keeps players playing because its F U N... I have 10 85s, one of each class. I really hate trying to gear them all up whenever there is a new tier released. "Well, I did have fun in pvp but now my gear is so outdated that I get stomped on a regular basis". You're supposed to be play games because they're fun not because of the end game. #3) The money issue cannot not be fully judged as of yet, but let me run some numbers for you. Lets put our sub fee for WoW at the standard $15 a month. We take that 15 and multiply the number of months in the year, 12. We get $180 $15 x 12= $180 This past year for Cata we have seen only three major content patches: 4.1 Za/Zg(BEST PATCH YET /sarcasm), 4.2 Firelands, and the stellar 4.3 Dragon Soul. Sorry, I love sarcasm. You take that $180 you spent on sub fees and divide it by the number of patches you got, 3. You get $180/3= $60 As a consumer, I did not feel I got my money's worth with those patches, the worst being 4.1 Za/Zg rehash patch. Now if I buy GW2 for $60 and then 4 months later they give me the option of paying for something THAT ISN"T REQUIRED TO PLAY GW2 but adds to the experience, I will more than likely pay for that product if I enjoyed it. With the sub fee, my money for WoW supposedly went into development for 4.1 automatically. There wasn't much of an option. If you had the option to be refunded in full your $60 for each of the patches and not be able to access items/feature/raids/content/etc in whichever patch you got refunded, would you take it? I would emphatically run back and throw 4.1 in their face and demand my money back. Blizzard and like minded corporations will try to squeeze as much money out of their customers as they can, as long as we let them. That's what large scale businesses do: They make money. My post, and the links specifically, were meant to get people thinking about it and the impact GW2 could have on the industry. If GW2 is very successful, it will force developers to consider adopting the B2P model. |
