I've just finished off my typical working day and got home to look at some recent posts regarding the MMO industry. I've noticed something. Something kind of re-occurring. Guild Wars 2 definitely does not get the recognition it deserves! But why?
Let me just pause there for a moment. We can't really go on without mentioning two other MMO's. WoW and Sw:Tor. Raging fanboys turn back here please :-)
Recently there has been a lot of controversy surrounding Blizzards upcoming expansion for WoW. Mists of Pandaria. What I mainly see is that WoW has sold out. There simply isn't enough room in the market for a 7 year old outdated MMO to get the attention.
With that I also see a lot of mentioning of Tor. Mainly that it is out to 'kill' WoW. Personally, I won't be playing Tor and I haven't played WoW in a long time. Unlike Guild Wars 2, TOR really isn't making much of a change. Some call it WoW in space, some see it as a WoW killer and some just aren't interested.
Despite Star Wars not innovating on much. It still steals all the thunder. I think that's mainly because it's going to be one of the only two upcoming MMO's that could actually live up to the bar set by Blizzard. However, that second upcoming MMO doesn't seem to get noticed much.
Why? Can someone tell me why? In hopes to turn that around I'm going to write a little about why Guild Wars 2 really is not just another MMO.
How many problems have you come across with other MMO's you have played? Lots.
Guild wars 2 has shown over and over how it's developers have eliminated those problems as well as improve upon what was good with the Genre. If the beautiful art doesn't attract you surely the design as a whole does? If that doesn't attract you then you only have to take a look at the gameplay! Dynamic events, no one can steal your kills or rewards! No one can take your fun in the early levels thanks to the level scaling system!
Huge bosses at every turn! Zero grind! You are constantly presented with fun content from the tutorial!
Now, in other situations people could say that they say they are doing all this, but are they actually going through with it? Short answer is, yes!
How can we tell? Well thousands have played the demos (Including myself!) We've seen the living proof! What we've seen of the game is outstandingly polished!
So, I once again ask, why when we see these reports boasting about how WoW is losing subscribers do we only see mentions of Swtor? To me it is clear Guild Wars 2 is doing so much more!
I'd love to know all your opinions on this topic as a whole! Do you think Guild Wars 2 is actually noticed enough and you completely disagree with my opinion? Or do you agree? The comment section is there for a reason, lets use it :D
- Jalokin
I was busy replying here this morning, then the internet failed :/
ReplyDeleteAnyway, yeah SWTOR is getting most of the attention where I am active on forums,the number of people interested in GW2 is far less. I try to keep them up to date with information as it comes available, so have at least got some interest in GW2...
That said, I think there is a number of reasons that I can think of, most of which makes me a bit sad when I have to write about it :P
- 'I didnt like Guild Wars, it was not an MMO'. People still AFTER reading some replies cant understand the fact that GW2 is going to be a persistant world.
- The Star Wars franchise is such a big name, that it automatically gets a following just through its fans (I am not one of them though).
- Its more of the same as WOW which people have become used to as the way MMOs should work, and they are happy with it, although they cant see the positives about all the awesome changes GW2 is bringing.
- Its subscription based, so AUTOMATICALLY it is supposed to be better than GW2 because of support, maintenance, updates blablabla.
- GW2 is sometimes seen as a Korean MMO, with it being FREE TO PLAY after buying the game, all stuff for sale in the cash shop is EVIL.
For me though, I am lucky that I am one of the few that never got blinded by Blizzard with the subscription of WOW, and always seen the game as waste of time / and money. So, LOTRO, I carefully checked when it went F2P what the benefits is of paying, and looked past that. SWTOR looked ok for me, but when the subscription was again the method; I ignored it...if it were on the same model as GW2 I would have maybe looked into it.
I have and will only wait for GW2, since I followed the first stuff revealed last year, it is the only MMO I am interested. Its got everything others dont have, and its on the model that fits me, buy the game, play forever!