Guild Wars Still In The Thick of Battle

1up.com has an interview with community relations manager Gaile Gray. They discuss changes since the launch, and how the company has acted to keep the player-base happy in a title with no fee to keep them grounded. From the article: "August's event showed us that increasing the rewards for PVP play was both necessary and wise. The feedback we received before the event provided us with a lot of guidance on what players wanted most. We reacted with a substantial boost to faction points and with special rewards for PVP accomplishments...and the players loved it. We're going to keep watching the gameplay progression and reward systems to ensure that both PVP players and cooperative players are adequately rewarded."

Comments

Re:Well

[Goyuix]

When runes of superior vigor are selling for 70,000+ gold... I think that farming is certainly a component, and to the point where a casual gamer such as myself will never likely be able to afford one. It certainly is having an impact in the world - inflation - unlimited gold being sent out, but my wages stay the same.... sounds like the US economy right now...

Good so far. We'll see.

[Somatic]

I was fascinated when I first heard how well Guild Wars was doing. They seemed to have broken the MMOG pricing model wide open; this is not the first article that marked their success.

It still hasn't been tested by their expansion model, though. For the game to survive long term, they need to sell those expansions, and they need to keep doing it for years.

I'm skeptical whether that will work or not, but we'll see. I'm rooting for them, and not because I play the game (I don't), and not because I think this model is any better than the subscription model (I'm on the fence about that). I'm rooting them because I love MMOGs, live them, and anything that shakes up the MMOG paradigm is a good thing. The market has begun to stagnate as it moves closer and closer to Hollywood budgets.

This pricing model has the potential to allow more newcomers in the field, if it works. Not everyone is a MMOG nut like me, tossing out dollars for subscriptions without even thinking about it. I think a large part of the market is still scared of subscriptions. If this pricing model reaches those people, the whole industry benefits.

If the allmighty dollar is going to dominate this market just like it does everything else, anything that attracts more allmighty dollars is a good thing-- there's a higher chance some of it will reach a good developer.

We'll see.

Re:To Summarise..

[Aranth Brainfire]

I like the way you base your comment on speculation, a lack of facts, and a wish to be flamebait.

In fact, considering that you apparantly don't even know that they haven't released ANY paid expansions yet, I think I'm going to have to assume that you haven't actually PvPed in the game at all, and therefore are pulling that out of your ass as well.

Re:To Summarise..

[QuantumG]

It's the stated plan to make the game profitable. No speculation required.

Re:To Summarise..

[BigZaphod]

You haven't played it, have you? It isn't just PvP, the non-PvP is quite good, and there aren't any paid expansions as of yet.

It could be worse

[Prien715]

At the same time, superior vigor I believe ups your HP like 8 vs a major rune of vigor.

What I like about GW is that the "best" weapons/armor/etc while expensive, are not horribly overpowering vs the regular stuff.

Re:To Summarise..

[inkless1]

Nothing like Slashdot to bring out the idiot trolls.

I've played month to month MMOs. Unless you are hardcore into the genre, they suck in terms of monetary value.. Period. It's a horrible payment schme. Every day you aren't playing the game - you're still paying for it. Oh, and if you dare play with friends and don't play enough to keep up with them ... well, you can't play with them much longer. So you have to keep playing or else you're just wasting money AND time spent already in the game. I play GW because it's fun, not to level grind or keep up with the Joneses. I've already put in 40 hours PvE. So...I've already used the money I've spent on a normal game ... and I'm maybe half way through the current plot. That's not counting the content ANet's already added in ... for free.

Yeah, the expansion will cost about as much as the original. I'm sorry, how is that any worse than Sony charging nearly full price for an expansion to PlanetSide ... a game which was nothing more than a paid beta when released? Well, because ANet's already showed that they have the chops to make an expansion every bit as worthwhile as the original, and not a patch you have to pay for.

And who will buy it? Well, people still interested in the game. Since you don't obviously don't play GW, I'll just assume you didn't know how silly a statement it is that you'll need the expansion to keep playing. I've picked up games with veterans, joined games with newbies, and I haven't even touched the additional content to date. What ANet is doing is assuming that they'll be doing a good enough job that the people who have played the original will want more. The expansions won't be required for play ... that's also part of that um, "stated goals" you supposedly read.

Guild Wars is a different beast than other MMO's out there. Comparing it to other, subscription based, games with expansions is just ignorant.

Head back to your cave. I'll be in Ascalon if you need me.

Re:Well

[Number13]

'Cept you never have to actually buy a superior vigor rune, or any other sort of rune, to compete in PvP. If you are trying to use PvE characters in PvP, you are probably doing something wrong. You can unlock the rune for 2000 faction, that is to say, about and hour's worth of victories in the arena at the current faction reward rate.

The grinding only exists for PvE characters and play....and really, the PvE players would be complaining if there was no pointless goal to grind for.

Oooo...

[WWWWolf]

Can you imagine it? People are still playing a game that was released a whole six months ago? Unprecedented! Completely unheard of! Truly, a landmark in history of Internet gaming!

I don't have objections to Guild Wars or such, just happy that they're building a strong community. Yet, I find it a bit odd that in general, nowadays, some people might consider it weird to play a game that was released more than 2 months ago. Are we really heading to "throwaway entertainment" culture in video games too, or what?

Do call me back when Guild War reaches five-year limit though, like Neverwinter Nights will in next summer, still at the moment as lively as ever =)

GW -- reasons for long-term success

[Morgaine]

I'm skeptical whether that will work or not, but we'll see. I'm rooting for them, and not because I play the game (I don't)

Try it briefly, and you'll see why they are extremely likely to succeed. There are five key reasons why I think it's almost guaranteed, by design:

• They are creating an ever-growing CAPTIVE audience, unlike any other MMOG-type game. The audience is captive because of the lack of monthly subscription costs. After all, once you've purchased the extremely cheap game pack (just 18 UK pounds from play.com), why would you delete it? You're captive for good (in principle), even if you don't play it, as you'll still have GW announcements on your mental radar. In marketting terms, that's a goldmine.

• They have utterly eradicated all the horrors that plague more conventional MMOGs, like kill stealing, camping, camp stealing, xp grinding, LFG waiting, getting mobs trained on you, and many others. This makes people who have experienced those problems before appreciate GW for eternity.

• They are unique in providing a game which supports the solo gamer totally brilliantly (the henchmen concept is terrific), and the casual gamer as well (no LFG timesink because of henchies, and a trillion short but rewarding quests to do). Yet somehow, ie. through the sheer brilliance of the design, they've managed to make it equally excellent for team players, and for the non-casual hardcore. It's hard not to be impressed.

• The design of the game is such that there is a MINISCULE loading on servers. (It's almost tempting to call it a P2P game mediated through a central transport proxy.) As a result, their server requirements must be massively less than for any conventional MMOG, which means that their no-subscription business model isn't sucked dry by huge platform hardware, admin, and support costs. This approach is wonderfully scalable both from a technical and a business perspective. (I work in platform scaling, so I know a scalable design when I see it.)

• And finally, the hardcore element. It's probably fair to say that Guild Wars is one of the hardest online games in existence if you want it to be, but very easy if you don't. In other words, if you decide to fully assimilate and understand the hundreds of skills of your primary and secondary profession and how they interact with and how they counter those of your opponents then the game is extremely challanging.
  
  It's mind-bogglingly complex to be fully aware of the professions of those you are fighting and what skills they are using, to counter them appropriately, while at the same time managing your energy reserve, and looking out for your team. This is nothing like a straight turns-based MMOG like EQ, where once you engage combat, the outcome is largely decided as long as you don't do something dumb. GW is fast and furious --- no tank taunt to trivialize the gaming in PvE, and effective foe AI so that the healer always gets it first, just like human players do.
  
  If you've absorbed the above, you'll realize that PvP in Guild Wars is either fantastically brilliant (if you like PvP) or appallingly dreadful (if you're a PvE-only fan), because GW's PvP is trully player-skill-based: ie. the best man/woman wins, regardless of equipment. This is why the Koreans own GW's PvP space --- they work hard to understand the game, and it's their human skill/experience as players that makes them use the in-game skills so devastatingly. (America comes a beleagered and very battered second, and the chewed up and splattered remains of Europe a very distant third.)

In summary, Guild Wars can't fail, not by rights anyway. It will fail only if not enough people hear about it, or if its totally excellent developers leave the company. (No, I don't work there, I'm just an appreciative player, completed it on main.) :-))

MMORPG?

[Phantasmo]

I've been playing Guild Wars since May and I love every aspect of it.

However, I'm disappointed that we've gone from calling it a CORPG to an MMORPG. People buy this game expecting "WoW for Free!" when they should be thinking "Diablo Done Right."

If you're looking for a fun, skill-based, multiplayer RPG then Guild Wars is the best you'll find. If you're looking for something that you can play every single day/night, find an active guild that plays a lot of PvP.

Oh yeah, and get your free trial. Don't worry about entering a serial number.