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Guild Wars 2: A New Breed of MMORPG?
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Most of us here have been around the MMORPG block a few times starting with Ultima Online and continuing through Star Wars: The Old Republic. We have seen it all...or have we? In a new column, we take a look at Guild Wars 2 and what just may be a groundbreaking new MMO. Check it out!
I guess for me, Guild Wars 2 has captured the essence of a system in MMOs gone by that I loved dearly. That is the PvP design where three factions are in the game and fight over objectives in a persistent zone. This concept began with Dark Age of Camelot and remains one of the best PvP systems to date in my eyes. So with major MMOs facing class systems and balance and two faction concepts, Guild Wars 2 has done something ingenious, they have made the World vs. World system which hearkens back to DAOC.
Read more of Garrett Fuller's Guild Wars 2: A New Breed of MMORPG?
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Comments
its not going to be a bad game, defintely worth the box price. But all this revolutionize talk is just the hype meters reaching critical mass.
It will not just revolutionize MMO gaempaly mechanics but MMO payment method aswell , i predict switch to B2P/F2P structure from almost all other MMOrpgs except WoW and EvE.
3 faction open world PvP which doesn't divide server/guild/friend alliances
PvE themepark with many sandbox properties I miss from old UO days (only true sandbox)
action oriented combat
You know?
The more I look at GW2, the more I think it is really the evolution of Ultima Online.
Ultima Online, at its prime before the "2nd generation" games 2003-2004 was I think at its best post Renaissance pre Age of Shadows.
Similarities?
Minimal grind.
No PvE end game.
PvP from day one in a seperate world, faction vs. faction vs. faction with territorial control.
focus on skill > gear
PvE world focused on exploration, cooperation, without limited by strict group size or role/class restrictions.
I mean, the 2nd generation sandboxes like EvE really followed the pre Renaissance UO model - which was very niche.
Other sandboxes like FFXI and SWG followed more of the EQ1 model with tons of grinding.
No game has really followed the UO post Renaissance model.
And I'd argue, until now with GW2. That's why I'm excited about GW2.
Looks to bring back a LOT of great memories from post-Trammel split UO, which (IMO) was the greatest MMORPG of all time.
One thing it is missing? Housing.
I mean, yeah we have our personal instances but... there was just something so fun and cool about UO housing, putting all your stuff on display, having a shared space for your friends/guildies...
I didn't like the urban sprawl that kind of ruined many of the "wild" places in Brittania, but housing is really the only big thing for me that I feel GW2 is missing.
Let the game release first, please! So it will be easier for me to ignore these kind of articles because Im busy playing the game
It is always possible to describe your own categories of MMO's and then decide that a new one is a new type. The reason for this is that any set of rules to describe your MMO category is arbitrary. These forums are full of this kind of theorycrafting. And those discussions never go anywhere because different people can never seem to agree on the same definitions.
So if Archeage is a Sandpark, can we call GW2 a Themebox?
All this hype will kill the game, so many people will be dissapointed, just like with SW:TOR. Although GW2 has been hyped much more IMO.
It already happened to me, I heard so much about it without looking into it much thanks to the hype, graphics are the best, combat is so amazing, world is massive, everything about this game is better than every other game.
NDA is lifted and I watch some videos, particularly the ones on this site, lets just say I was more than dissapointed.
GW2 will b teh Messiah of MMOs. Repent nao!
Its more like they took good features from both good and bad mmos and made a better pack. No revolution or next gen going on tho
amen to that bro.
Funny, I must have missed the CGI videos they spent millions on hyping it.
But back to reality, nice write up. Innovation by bringing back old and making it new. Sad really, it's like the whole industry got stuck in a time warp back in 2003-5 and remained there. Lot of new ideas were just coming out and they all got buried. Now we had to wait till 2012 for someone to dig them all back up. Go figure.
Watching the videos. the one thing that I heard that said it all was, "damn, this is so simple, why haven't other games already had this".
Does that mean we have to cancel all our current subscriptions and preorder GW2?
I've been saying all along that HYBRIDs(sandparks) are the kick in the pants this genre needs to thrive and survive. So glad to FINALLY get games that are doing it.
...you no longer have to play WoW clones!...
I really hope you are right Garret, i have been missing exploration in games a long time now...
I think WoW will switch once the 1 year term is up for those getting the mount and the D3 game from blizz is over. They will have a gigantic drop in subs suddenly in WoW.
I think GW2 is more of a Themebox than a Sandpark.
I dont really consider it a new breed of mmo-rpg. I think it is doing some things right and I think most will find it a very fun experience, including myself. I would like to see a better crafting system, I am a bit concerned about that. Also I am hoping for a good economcs system as well, who knows if that one will happen.
On the comments about skill > gear. While I agree that it is nice to see skill being more important then gear. I tend to have some issues with that, for me I think both are important. You can have all the skill in the world but if you are in a T-55 at 2k range at night and I am in a M1 Abrams and I even have the most basic of how to operate said M1 Abrams, you are indeed toast.
Or to put it more into a medieval fantasy setting. If I am in fully fitted articulated Habsburg plate armor, wielding a well made heater and master crafted broad sword with basic training in such gear. You on the other hand are wearing a bronze age cuirass and typical gear that Perseus might have used along with say his skill, you are still fighting at a serious disadvantage, no mattter how skillful you are.
So while I do think skill should always play a role in the game play, how good your gear is should be a factor. Otherwise the game loses something for me. There is a balance basically, where you do go ahead and give up some of the advantages of better gear for game play, but you shouldnt discard it.
You aren't talking about gear progression, you are talking about gear types. Heavy armor is tougher than light armor in GW2. But in real life, does standard plated function better than the same plated armor from a treasure chest or from some legendary soldier? King arthurs armor is nearly identical to the ones worn by the people of that age. Hitlers tank was just as powerful as another tank of its kind.
Great aritcle. Glad to see that people are starting to get what this game is going to do to the MMORPG genre.
We don't know what percentage of MMO fans will adapt to and embrace the new design paradigm and what percent will cling to the pre-GW2 status quo of WoW-like MMORPG game design, but even if it were to split the community down the middle, it wouldn't make the game any less revolutionary. (It would probably just give developers an excuse to keep making WoW-clones).
In any event, the game design and the quality of game that get's paired with the Buy to Play business model will definitely shake up the genre.
I'm hoping that in addition to the inevitable attempts to clone GW2, GW2 will also inspire some talented and creative development teams to do their own innovative redesigns of the MMORPG formula and that publishers will fund more innovative projects, rather than just attempting to clone WoW, or any other game.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
I'm one of those players, been playing MMO's since UO, played every single AAA there is.
I'm also no fanboi, but Anet has an awsome reputation, and building from GW1, we kinda know what were getting, and its all good.
Its also the first game to listen to the players, they took the best from many games, like DAOC and WoW and others, to make something the players actually wanted.
The fact that Anet listens to the players gives me much hope!
This is such a difficult question to answer without playing the game. We will see how it turns out once game is released.
Indeed. Not only that, brother, the features that you've panned in other MMOs are now sancrosanct:
Made for Consoles is okay now
Loading screens are fine too
Story is now okay to have
Launcing without PvP servers is fine
Tokens for loot instead of actual loot = win
I could go on.
Welcome to MMORPG.com. ENjoy your stay;)
Could dissect this and say why these features are good for GW2 and the way GW2 is using them makes sense etc... but I doubt it'd make a difference.
Enjoy playing what you like playing.
OP: I sure hope its a new breed, anything but the status quo and I'm on board - because of WoW's success the genre has grown very stale and repetitive.
IMO that can be said for just any MMO that the way they used it is good for them and makes sense.