Every studio has been chasing Blizzard for years in the quest to create the next WoW-killer. In typical video game industry mindset, they reflected that they needed a game just like World of Warcraft, with a subtle twist, be it full VO (Bioware – SWTOR), high-end graphics (Funcom – Age of Conan) or a powerful franchise (Lord of the Rings). You name them. Sometimes the twist was so subtle it was hardly a difference, like Aion’s pitch that you would be able to fly from the get-go.
All of them failed, of course. And they did because the WoW players have been craving for something different for years, not the same goat with a new dye of fur.
Back in 2005, ArenaNet sent a signal that they knew better. Is it a coincidence they used to work for Blizzard? I don’t think so. The release of Guild Wars showed that things could be done differently. GW was the first triple-A MMO that didn’t have a subscription fee. That was a powerful message with many connotations we are just starting to understand in 2012, with the release of the second installment in the series. Many have argued that GW couldn’t compete with WoW because it was not a real MMORPG, and they are right. Guild Wars has been called a CORPG – Cooperative Online Role-Playing Game, and it’s a fair distinction. Guild War’s PvE mode lacked the persistence and social aspect that characterize WoW. But it was a hint that there were other roads to be explored. No studio really understood the message and none of them followed suit. They insisted in copying the Blizzard model, which had been showing signs of wear for years.
Now ArenaNet has made their next move – and it’s a checkmate. By following the same principles that guided the first Guild Wars, they have added the only two elements they needed to compete with WoW on the same base.
Guild Wars 2 is persistent, its PvE is social – and boy, it is fun.
When I was in EA we were deeply concerned about how boring SWTOR’s gameplay was. And that was back in 2010. They finally realized the truth and decided to delay the game for another year to try to fix it. The final build was more fun by several orders of magnitude than the previous, but it was still not enough. It felt like another WoW. They failed to innovate in any sensible way. They bet everything on the franchise, the VO and Bioware’s signature narrative (which if you have played Mass Effect 3, you’ll know it’s not what it used to be anymore). Lucasarts realized the game was going to fail and forced a new deal in 2011 that would remove them from the production credits. George Lucas may be a bad moviemaker, but who can doubt he is a terrific businessman.
Guild Wars 2 is called to rock the MMO world. It doesn’t look like WoW. It doesn’t play like it. It doesn’t feel the same at all. There are many excellent reviews out there explaining the differences, some at WhatCulture. Check them out.
My point is that ArenaNet got it. While Studios were chasing Blizzard, players were waiting for something different that justified shifting games.
And then it came Guild Wars 2 and set the bar for everyone else from today on. It’s a triple-A, it doesn’t require a subscription and the gameplay is fresh, new and extremely fun.
In another article I will explain why the qualities of GW2 emanate from the very fact that you don’t have to pay every month to play.
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13 Comments
Nice article, but I’d like to hear of what you think of the recent gear progression changes announced by ANet in GW2 and the game’s continuing distinction from the WoW MMO model.
Thank you, Kuldebar. I think some people are so used to WoW-type MMO’s that they started GW2 with the same obsessive-compulsive approach: let’s get through the game as quickly as possible. They didn’t seem to realize they were not paying a monthly fee that needed to be justified with a set amount of playing hours. It’s these players that are complaining that the end-game is repetitive, and ANet is trying to give them something to do before the next expansion. It’s a futile attempt, because these players will eat through anything you throw at them in a matter of days, and no studio could ever provide as much content as they require. I would ignore these players, but they have such an impact in a game’s economy (and ecology) that ANet is wise to address them. This being said, as long as the new Ascended gear doesn’t affect casual players, and as long as obtaining them doesn’t require you to do boring tasks (as being forced to get faction standing with someone to acquire something), I would be ok with it.
Good article. Guild Wars 2 is really an incredible game.
LOTRO is not a game that has ever chased WoW. It has never tried to be a wow killer. The only comparison that can be made is that they are both MMO games. And, unlike GW2, LOTRO is a game that is completely free to play. Almost everything (about 90%) can be gotten without ever spending anything but time. LOTRO doesn’t compare to WoW or GW2. My problem with GW2 endgame is it is all PvP and that doesn’t appeal to me.
LOTRO was launched in April 2007 as a subscription-based MMO, and turned into a F2P model in September 2010 because it didn’t achieve the expected base of subscribers. Under the new infrastructure it multiplied its revenue by five, and it has been used as a model in the industry for those that advocate for micro transactions instead of monthly fees. Its gameplay was, and still is, based on those same systems found in WoW, like NPC-given quests tracked in a log (mostly requiring the retrieval of multiple items), just to name one. GW2′s endgame is based on PvP because this game mode is what we call a procedurally-generated system, which gives developers time to create more content while players are still engaged. It is a very reasonable compromise when you want to respect player’s time (they play while they enjoy it) and you don’t have unlimited human or economic resources.
If GW2′s population falls below SWTOR’s is it still a triumph? The way it’s population is trending that could happen by year’s end. Then they’ll be left with no sub revenue and nothing but a pithy cash shop to fund server costs and future development.
I’ve been playing MMO’s since UO and for my money there are only 4 MMO’s that have brought significant creative growth the genre: UO, EQ, WoW and SWTOR. Whether SWTOR was a financial success or not, I had never played a MMO with a fully voiced and animated storyline or a tradeskill system like SWTOR’s crew skills until it launched.
What are you talking about? Guild Wars 2 is much more healthy than SWTOR. As of writing this post, SWTOR has eight NA servers: 4 “Very Heavy”, three “Heavy” and one “Medium”. This is just after launching F2P.
Comparatively, GW2 has eight full NA servers, and 14 “High” servers. Compound that with the fact that GW2 has received generally positive reception, and SWTOR has been met with hate and animosity. On top of that, Arenanet is currently looking to HIRE more people. What did Bioware Austin do? Fire several key employees.
SWTOR died because it was yet another WoW clone in a sea of WoW clones. There was no “creative growth” here. “Fully voiced and animated storylines” were done by Guild Wars 1 way back in 2005. “Crew Skills” are the EXACT same as WoW’s crafting system, except an NPC does it for you. SWTOR fell short of both gamers’ and EA’s expectations because it was bland.
I think triumphed is a very strong word I wouldn’t say that Guild Wars 2 was really that good to be honest. I did get one character up to level 80 and yes did so in a short amount of time but not because I wanted to rush through the game but because I wanted to do content with friends online which is the point of an MMO and what you do in a MMO, most of the good times content you do with friends is the end game.
Well once I hit 80 I found out there is very little to do, dungeons didn’t really feel fun since you can’t play your character the way you did while leveling aside from a few changes unlike in all other similar games. The rewards for the dungeon aren’t outstanding but they would be decent and something to work at but the problem is there is absolutely nothing for you to do with that armor pve wise except show it off in town. You find out essentially all of the so called pve content is really just gearing you up for world vs. world pvp because that’s the only place this gear is really going to help you much besides farming.
To top that off Arenanet seems to love to kill any and almost every single way for you to make gold in some so called effort to protect the economy of the game meanwhile they take forever to fix anything that makes the game unplayable such and npc’s not allowing you to complete quests because they got stuck in a loop.
If pvp is your thing sure buy this game but the only real pve good experience I took from the game was the great visuals, exploring the world and doing the jump puzzles throughout the game. Everything else was kinda meh.
Also word of caution about pvp it’s also unbalanced you will see an overwhelming number of warriors and thieves in pvp but they will claim that they are not in fact OP you just need to L2P most likely.
Far from a triumph for new player so the starting worlds they cannot do most of the events since they are pretty much solo. Arenanet kills anyway to make cash because they want to sell gems then you trade them for gold. And any constructive complaint that you make on GW2 forums gets moderated and nuked then you ge told you cannot post there anymore. They are like any other gaming company fighting to scam a player for a buck.I have seen so many complaints get deleated it is not even funny. I do not reccommend this game now they need o fix it so the entry level playes have a fighting chance at competing events that are needed for daily and monthly bonuses. In addition to this it took arenanet one month over a twenty dollar gem purchase that was only resolved after getting paypal it investigate it. I still play GW2 but I would never reccommend it ever to anyne in it’s current game state.I am wondering when they will start chrging a monthly when the game sales become stagnate. I have played GW2 thru the beta till now so I thi nk I do know a litle of what the game is going thru.
Amazing how different tastes are. I have played GW2 with two charackters, did a lot of pvp and pve and than I kicked it of my computer again.
The pve is without any doubt the lamest gameplay I have ever encountered in an mmo. Particularly the childish ‘events’ were nothing but annoying.
And the gameplay in dungeons…Age of Conan is pure gold compared to gw2. Heck, even swtor is way better (though too easy).
I can’t for the life of me understand why this cheesy, dull gw2 is lauded like that.
But than again, people have different tastes :)
It hasn’t triumphed at all, it is just another WoW clone (or watered done EQ clone if you prefer).
Before they launched it they were selling it on no treadmill, hrizontal gear progression, they have alredy doen a total u-turn and switched to the WoW gear treadmill with ascended gear.
Before they launched they were selling it as an e-sport, sPvP has collapsed faster in population terms than many “PvE MMORPGs”, they luanched without the features required for fun / competitve gameplay for all types of player from casual to “pro” teams that play everyday.
Getting rid of the trinity was fine in theory, in practice, they did it badly making every class pretty much DPS plus variable levels of support/CC/utility, which results in very simplistic and zergy feeling PvE that requires less teamwork, hence most “hardcore” Pvers have gone back togames that do PvE better.
The world is pretty, the events a little different, but nothing groudnbreaking, other games have had similar stuff.
And as for the no-sub, I’d rather have a sub if it meant a larger dev team, the slew of bugs they still have for class skills / traits, the number of DEs that were broken, the missing features for sPvP, etc is pathetic.
I played on the EU region, it is noticeable how the game has been losing signifcant amounts of players (which I assume was the reason for them scrambling to add WoW gear progression to the game, which hasn’t stemmed the flow).
As I log in now 9:10PM, supposedly primetime on the EU, only two servers are at full (even just three weeks ago there were 5-8 full servers), the number of hot join servers in use is about 40% down on what it was even 6 weeks ago, people are complaining over how long it takes to get a paid tournie, most of the zones are borderline empty (even Orr) and there is no queue for the three borderlands (only EB) on a T1 “full” server, where a while ago there were queues at 1 AM and the chat in Lion’s Arch is now a walking advert for the game style they were supposedly goign to reolutionize.
This folks is why the MMORPG sector is a stagant pile of ****.
I translated this page in google translate
Okay article but after almost 8 months i don’t think you would have written the same thing now. The detail in all events with the NPC’s is very nice. PvE just casual playing till 80 is by far the best that i have seen in any MMO.
However.. at 80 (and if you wish.. you can be here in like 2 days) there is really not much too do. Dungeons in general are not fun. It feels like solo play but then you have 4 guys with you.. A’net really needs to work on the Cross combo system and make real teamplay much more fun.
So what most people do at 80 PvE-wise is just check a site that has dragontimers on it (google that) and just zerg these events. If you know people on other servers then make a team and zerg them on multiple servers with multiple characters.. extreemly lame imo.. and i bet if te author had seen this.. that this article was a bit different.
Pvp..especially wvw can be very fun.. but the pfs and the culling atm completely destroy this fun. end of march there will be an update and A’net will fix it then (that is what they say)
Overal.. i was looking forward to this game from the moment they announced it in 2007.. did all beta testing.. Already i had 2 breaks of several months.. and don’t think thats a good thing for an MMO that is that yong.