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Guild Wars 2 Devs Aiming For the Top
As various MMOs have been released over the past several years, their developers have been wary about the inevitable measuring against World of Warcraft, often saying that "second-best" is more than good enough for them. Not so for ArenaNet as they work on Guild Wars 2; they're aiming right for the top. And according to a detailed preview now up at Eurogamer, their effort is paying off :
"Two huge and risky decisions have been made in its design: junking the 'holy trinity' of character class roles (protective 'tank', damage-dealer and healer) and doing away with the quest-style architecture for game content. Yet, in moment-to-moment play, Guild Wars 2 looks and feels instantly and reassuringly like a fantasy MMORPG – just a noticeably fresh one. It's a question of flow. Combat is still hotkey-based, but faster and smoother and more streamlined, involving more movement and positioning. The levelling curve is now an almost flat line, replacing the epic ascent with a steady journey where content, not advancement, is king."
WoW is going seriously downhill, the developers are making horrible decisions, I cancelled my account and havent gone anywhere near looking back. to be honest when guild wars 2 comes out I along with many others, specifically PvPers will be moving to it.
A lot of people have lost faith in blizzards ability to balance recently, sorry to say but soon there will be a new MMO king, and I do not think it will be made by Blizzard.
This of course does not count Blizzard's new MMO that is coming out, That might have a chance to topple the replacement for WoW. Of course any replacement probably will be short lived or niche being that blizzard has the marketing capability to move people to it's next big MMO, however after watching how they have squandered away WoW I personally will probably not be moving to it.
Blizzards main strength are its casual players who play because friends do. at this point however people still look up to the Elitist people, most of which 2400+ arena players or progressive PvE guilds, all of which are really searching for something new, myself included.
-Noc
That's an incredibly difficult goal for a game with tens of thousands of players on a server, all trying to change the world. Unless they stick with their "instanced world", but that isn't really an MMO, it's a single-player or small-group game with "3d avatar chat rooms" called "towns". What I like about WoW is that you can bump into people doing stuff while you are out there doing stuff. I've made friends by seeing someone having a tough time in a fight and going and helping them out. That never happens in GW. Having that flexibility and a dynamic world seems impossible to me, but I hope I'm proved wrong some day.
It is doable, ...want more ideas?
epic missions - battles involving hundreds of players,
massive events (enemy assault on a town, siege progressing day by day),
timed progress of situation as players complete their tasks,
stalemate situations that need heavy power to throw them off balance
important positions relatively easy to take over but difficult to hold, so they continuously change ownership
significant guilds shaping the politics, economy, influencing the world,
VERY difficult missions which would be attempted and failed over and over until someone succeeds and the result is permanent,
construction of massive structures progressing by tiny phases, so your contribution is permanent ("I built THIS door of the castle"),
active environmental engineering (channels, lakes, dams) controlled from well defendable positions you can take over then hold or protect with traps,
portable structures that can be built anywhere by consolidated effort of a moderately sized group ("let's build a fortified checkpoint HERE.")
Instantiated personal space (a room in a hotel or a house) so that every player has a fully customizable personal area without cutting into the massive bulk,
expensive, prestigeous public locations for rent/sale and personalized use.
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...want more ideas?
Since every single one of those has been suggested dozens, if not hundreds of times on the boards, and I imagine every single one of them has had a reply from a developer saying they are doing it or explaining why they aren't doing it (with good, legitimate reasons every time I've seen it), yes, you are going to have to do better. A few examples.
epic missions - battles involving hundreds of players,
They've had a 40 vs 40 battleground for half a decade. Then they introduced a pvp area that could take unlimited players. The servers strained near the point of crashing constantly and it was unplayable for anyone without a decent computer, so they had to change it. Now it maxes out at...80 vs 80, as I recall. They've said they like the idea, but until they find a way to do it without those issues, they won't try it again.
important positions relatively easy to take over but difficult to hold, so they continuously change ownership
Just implemented that in Tol Barad.
VERY difficult missions which would be attempted and failed over and over until someone succeeds and the result is permanent,
So lots of development time, play testing, and balancing for something 0.0001% of players will get to see? No thanks. I pay just as much for this game as everyone else. I should have the opportunity to see and experience all of it without having to sacrifice my job and life to make sure I'm part of the "elite" guilds that can get that first kill. And if you're talking about individuals...good luck balancing that such that it isn't more difficult for some classes than others (see the Death Knight videos of them soloing content from near the end of the last expansion, whereas some classes probably still have a hard time soloing stuff from two expansions ago).
Instantiated personal space (a room in a hotel or a house) so that every player has a fully customizable personal area without cutting into the massive bulk,
Been mentioned hundreds of times, and each time, people point out the devs would rather work on content that encourages the social aspect of this MULTIPLAYER game, rather than separating everyone into their own little worlds.
expensive, prestigeous public locations for rent/sale and personalized use.
Woohoo, more stuff that 0.0001% of the player base can use.
significant guilds shaping the politics, economy, influencing the world,
Been done in Eve Online. Some like it, some don't. Blizz also tries to avoid implementing mechanics that encourages everyone to join up in a few large guilds. Sure, large guilds do have advantages, but right now, they aren't overwhelming.
construction of massive structures progressing by tiny phases, so your contribution is permanent ("I built THIS door of the castle"),
Again, this is a MULTIPLAYER game. Blizz tries to avoid things that encourage people to say "screw everyone else" and just play on their own. That said, they have done it, to an extent. See the Opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, though, despite it being a questline that individuals follow, required multiple raids that needed large groups working together.
GW and GW2 are not very level-dependent, and use a skill system where you don't have access to all your skills. You have to pick and choose which skills you have available to you at any given time. That and the interactions between skills creates a complexity and depth of play which provides plenty of replay value for the same scenarios. In other MMORPGs, each class uses pretty much use the same 3-5 skill combos for everything because they're the best. In GW, there are literally millions of different combinations of skills to explore, with dozens and sometimes hundreds of effective combos. The "best" combo will vary almost with every fight. So no, they don't have to sink billions into development to give you something new to try. When the player gains new skills or they add new skills, suddenly the old content becomes new content. It has a very high degree of replayability.
Most MMOs turn into grindfests because that's the best way for the company running them to maximize revenue. People are paying $15/mo to level, so its in the company's best interest to slow down your leveling as much as they can. That way you stick around playing longer, which means they collect more months of fees from you. Sinking 12+ hours a day into the game is also a consequence of that. You want to level faster, but the game deliberately slows down your leveling, so you spend more time playing it every day.
GW and GW2 don't have a monthly fee. You pay for the game, you pay for expansions, and you pay for certain upgrades. That's it. So they have no incentive to make the game a grindfest. In fact the opposite is true - they want to do everything they can to get you through the content quickly so you'll buy the next expansion, but they also want to make every minute you play as fun as possible so you'll feel it's worth spending the money on the next expansion.
Couple this with levels not being very important, and there's no incentive to play 12+ hours a day (unless you find it fun enough to play 12+ hours a day). You just play for as long as you're having fun. I've played GW 12 hours a day, I've played it 1 hour a day, and I've stopped playing it for months at a time. It's very friendly to casual gamers, and the amount of fun per hour is much higher. IMHO it's a much better model than the level/grind fest that other MMOs have become.
Here you go.
Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
I think you may have just sold me on trying this game. I've stayed away from many other MMOs because real-world time is a huge barrier for me (and also because I can't stomach monthly fees, though part of that comes back to feeling like I need to play to get my money's worth). But this sounds like something I can enjoy casually, or in depth, as time is available and the mood strikes.
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