Is GW 2 all that special?

Yamota

Before and after the launch of GW 2 I heard a lot about this game being the next big thing, WoW killer and all that, and altough the latter may be true (more because of the age of WoW rather than GW 2) I really don't see anything special about it.

I made a blog article about it, below is the content.

I am a frequent poster on MMORPG.COM and recently there was an article asking if Guild Wars 2 being the saviour of MMORPGs. Now the article was not really claiming that but it was more of an article to start to get people to think. However a lot of people posted and said either it was or it was not and I have been playing the game since the headstart and for me I really can't see it being that special.

I mean the game is a good solid ThemePark but if you look at it's features it is really not all that unique.

1. Dynamic Events - These are basically like NPC quests happening around the world and where anyone can join at any time and they are sometimes also chained in the sense that the outcome of one event can lead to another. Altough interesting and more fun than your standard MMORPG quests, they are quite similar to the Rift events you have inRift and Public Quests in Warhammer Online. So they aren't all that special and my main beef with them is that, atlough the claim to be dynamic, world changing and all that, they rarely are. At most some NPC town will be taken over for a brief moment until they are eventually killed, which usually happens quite fast as they are not designed to be all that tough.
2. MMO without subscription cost. That is true but the game has a cash shop so in essence it is just like any F2P game with the added cost of having to buy the use of the client.
3. Story line quests. They are alright but quite juvenile, in my opinion, and nowhere near the same level of Star Wars the Old Republic.
4. Combat - Again altough fast paced and exciting, nothing revolutionary. It is TAB target based with activable powers/spells and with the added twist of being able to quickly swap weapons for different powers.
5. WvWvW PvP. This sounds like it would be revolutionary but it really isn't. It is just a zone where PvP occurs but instead of it being from people of other factions on the same server, it is between people of different servers. Really don't see why that is all that better and I would much prefer the faction based one because that makes much more sense.

So what is exactly so special about Guild Wars 2? It is a solid, ThemePark MMO but there is very little revolutionary about it.

vee41

There are billion posts like this already. What people consider eveolutionary or revolutionary varies. Everyone has their own definitions. Reading through list of features game has, doesn't have or other game have done before doesn't really matter. All that matters is that when you login and play the game, does it feel special to you.

Anything can be made sound spectacular(read my thoughts about GW2 in my blog) or unspectacular (read your thoughs from your blog)

Vegetto

Agreed, it's an improvement on all aspects before it, with some tweaks and new iterations of things, but in the theme park arena that is already oversaturated with not much head room for revolutionary ideas.

Best theme park the world has or ever will see in an MMO? Could well be, i wouldn't know, but it still wouldn't keep me playing past a couple of months if that is what it is, as at the end of the day, it all just becomes a pissing contest at end game. You aren't working towards anything, developing anything, creating anything, establishing a community, town, project, shop, idea. You are just grinding for gear and prestige. For me, i do enough of that in real-life, an alternative world is all i consider now (i.e. sandbox)

dariuszp

Originally posted by Yamota

Before and after the launch of GW 2 I heard a lot about this game being the next big thing, WoW killer and all that, and altough the latter may be true (more because of the age of WoW rather than GW 2) I really don't see anything special about it.

I made a blog article about it, below is the content.

I am a frequent poster on MMORPG.COM and recently there was an article asking if Guild Wars 2 being the saviour of MMORPGs. Now the article was not really claiming that but it was more of an article to start to make people thinking. However a lot of people posted and said either it was or it was not and I have been playing the game since the headstart and for me I really can't see it being that special.

I mean the game is a good solid ThemePark but if you look at it's features it is really not all that unique.

1. Dynamic Events - These are basically like NPC quests happening around the world and where anyone can join at any time and they are sometimes also chained in the sense that the outcome of one event can lead to another. Altough interesting and more fun than your standard MMORPG quests, they are quite similar to the Rift events you have inRift and Public Quests in Warhammer Online. So they aren't all that special and my main beef with them is that, atlough the claim to be dynamic, world changing and all that, they rarely are. At most some NPC town will be taken over for a brief moment until they are eventually killed, which usually happens quite fast as they are not designed to be all that tough.
2. MMO without subscription cost. That is true but the game has a cash shop so in essence it is just like any F2P game with the added cost of having to buy the use of the client.
3. Story line quests. They are alright but quite juvenile, in my opinion, and nowhere near the same level of Star Wars the Old Republic.
4. Combat - Again altough fast paced and exciting, nothing revolutionary. It is TAB target based with activable powers/spells and with the added twist of being able to quickly swap weapons for different powers.
5. WvWvW PvP. This sounds like it would be revolutionary but it really isn't. It is just a zone where PvP occurs but instead of it being from people of other factions on the same server, it is between people of different servers. Really don't see why that is all that better and I would much prefer the faction based one because that makes much more sense.

So what is exactly so special about Guild Wars 2? It is a solid, ThemePark MMO but there is very little revolutionary about it.

Well because of hype lot of people don't understand this. Experienced players know that overall - Guild Wars 2 is nothing special. What is special about this game is that they delivered what they promised. Nothing more, nothing less. And quality of the game after launch is high. It's not half baked like The Old Republic six months ago etc.

Like you said, once they annouced WvsWvsW (3 faction warfare) everyone said - DAOC. When they said dynamic events - game like Rift and few others come in mind. B2P is also nothing special. Combat is a little different because it's a mix. Combat overall is ALMOST dynamic like in TERA. When you swing axe you hit EVERYTHING on it's path but still you have tab targeting for range weapons and you use tab to get detailed information on enemy. And you character always face enemy you target.

Anyway - it's nothing special but also it's very special. Because it's solid, great MMO that bring best what genre (themepark MMO) have to offered in one single game. And they didn't jus throw ideas into one place. They make it work together.

People that are experienced with MMO knows this. Everyone else just go with the hype. 

 

EDIT//

BTW - to all people that really expect miracles from GW2. If they would create innovative, never seen game with features so great that no one ever don't that before them - they would probably start entire new genre. GW2 would not be mmorpg but something entirely new. Expect good games - not miracles. They never happen. 

Amjoco

Oh come on, I know I haven't had my coffee yet, and this is my first look on the forums in the morning, but c'mon. Moderators can't we put all these into one huge topic? 

I know the OP has his opinion but this is getting just silly.

Thank you.

Eir_S

And these posts are definitely special and unique. 

oubers

since pong no game have ever been realy revolutionary.....pong started the hype when you could controle the pixels on your screen.......the rest are all pong-clones........../END SARCASM.

 

maji

I agree that it's a good, but not truly unique game. It's solid and fun, but not extraordinary. And, come on... it's the same as with 90% of all MMORPGs. The developers create a game, exaggerate about it's features, people believe everything blindly and get hyped up, and then a huge hype arises about that game, having people expect more than the game could ever deliver.

Scalpless

What you mean is "GW2 didn't reinvent the whole genre and turn the MMO world upside down". Then again, the only MMOs that did that were older titles like EQ and UO. Going by your definition, even WoW was is "nothing special".

Nikkita

It is quite possible to enjoy the game without using buzzords like 'special', 'savior'..'the most innovative', 'revolutionary' etc.

Problem is that OP you are listening to the most fanatical crowd around here. And every MMO has its share of these people. In my opinion majority of players went into GW2 keeping their expectations at check. That is why it is getting a very positive response.

I can bet you that even fans of GW2 are getting sick of these fanatics, they make real fans look bad. with their exxageration and obvious sales pitch and emotional out bursts.

Yamota

I was not aware that there was so many posts regarding this. But if there is, does not that tell you something in itself?

Vesavius

Yes, it is that special.

 

Yamota

Originally posted by Scalpless
What you mean is "GW2 didn't reinvent the whole genre and turn the MMO world upside down". Then again, the only MMOs that did that were older titles like EQ and UO. Going by your definition, even WoW was is "nothing special".

No, I dont agree with that. WoW was special in the sense that it made MMORPGs, which were traditionally quite hardcore with huge time investment, into something casual and "easy" so that anyone can pick it up and that single handedly changed the genre.. Now if that was a good thing or not is debatable but it was what made WoW special.

GW 2, on the other hand, haven't done anything special. It is a solid MMORPG with nice features, gfx and cross server PvP so I dont see it changing the genre.

Vegetto

I think its the Sandbox vs. Theme Park thing again.

GW2 is probably the best you are going to get in terms of a MMORPG. I can't see much more that can be improved now.

The only area for major improvement is in the sandbox classification, with the only big budget game in this area being developed being ArchAge, which isn't even scheduled for release in the West.

So, regardless of opinions, for the next 18 months at least, this is as good as it gets.

If you go into it with that mindset, i think most people would enjoy a game like Guild Wars 2, like i may do when i get it tomorrow. But i know in my mind it's not a MMO 'home', so i don't expect as much.

vee41

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by Scalpless
What you mean is "GW2 didn't reinvent the whole genre and turn the MMO world upside down". Then again, the only MMOs that did that were older titles like EQ and UO. Going by your definition, even WoW was is "nothing special".

No, I dont agree with that. WoW was special in the sense that it made MMORPGs, which were traditionally quite hardcore with huge time investment, into something casual and "easy" so that anyone can pick it up. Now if that was a good thing or not is debatable but it was what made WoW special.

If you spin it that way, then GW2 is equally revolutionary.

Scalpless

Originally posted by Yamota
I was not aware that there was so many posts regarding this. But if there is, does not that tell you something in itself?

That people are, for some reason, eager to prove GW2 didn't invent all those features, even though no one claims it did? Look, you can make up the most innovative MMORPG on the planet, but as long as you don't do it right, no one will care. GW2 takes many features that other games did wrong and does them right. That's why it's special.

Eir_S

Originally posted by Yamota
I was not aware that there was so many posts regarding this. But if there is, does not that tell you something in itself?

Yeah, that some people like to complain instead of having fun.

Yamota

Originally posted by vee41

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by Scalpless
What you mean is "GW2 didn't reinvent the whole genre and turn the MMO world upside down". Then again, the only MMOs that did that were older titles like EQ and UO. Going by your definition, even WoW was is "nothing special".

No, I dont agree with that. WoW was special in the sense that it made MMORPGs, which were traditionally quite hardcore with huge time investment, into something casual and "easy" so that anyone can pick it up. Now if that was a good thing or not is debatable but it was what made WoW special.

If you spin it that way, then GW2 is equally revolutionary.

What you describe in that blog can occur, more or less exactly the same, in Rift. Casual, easy to progress, dynamic NPC spawns etc. Sorry but that has been done before and shown to be nothing special, it wears of quite quickly.

Nikkita

Originally posted by Scalpless

Originally posted by Yamota
I was not aware that there was so many posts regarding this. But if there is, does not that tell you something in itself?

That people are, for some reason, eager to prove GW2 didn't invent all those features, even though no one claims it did? Look, you can make up the most innovative MMORPG on the planet, but as long as you don't do it right, no one will care. GW2 takes many features that other games did wrong and does them right. That's why it's special.

There is no wrong or right here. This is a very subjective thing. For example a lot of players enjoy gear progression based MMOS. It is not for me anymore, but i am not saying that it is wrong way to play the game.

A lot of people enjoy questing  but i don't say that GW2 did it right and other players are playing it wrong. That is a very obnoxious way to look at things and i completely disagree with it.

Yamota

Originally posted by Eir_S

Originally posted by Yamota
I was not aware that there was so many posts regarding this. But if there is, does not that tell you something in itself?

Yeah, that some people like to complain instead of having fun.

Originally posted by Scalpless

Originally posted by Yamota
I was not aware that there was so many posts regarding this. But if there is, does not that tell you something in itself?

That people are, for some reason, eager to prove GW2 didn't invent all those features, even though no one claims it did? Look, you can make up the most innovative MMORPG on the planet, but as long as you don't do it right, no one will care. GW2 takes many features that other games did wrong and does them right. That's why it's special.

We did not start this discussion, there is an overflow of posts, articles, previews and what not which claims GW 2 is the second coming of the MMORPG God.

Deto123

Originally posted by Scalpless

Originally posted by Yamota
I was not aware that there was so many posts regarding this. But if there is, does not that tell you something in itself?

That people are, for some reason, eager to prove GW2 didn't invent all those features, even though no one claims it did? Look, you can make up the most innovative MMORPG on the planet, but as long as you don't do it right, no one will care. GW2 takes many features that other games did wrong and does them right. That's why it's special.

Explain to me why my guild of 25+ all except 1 are back playing our old "doesn t do it right" game. Why because we don t care for GW2. It s simple GW2 isn t that special of a game to alot of people. The honeymoon stage is still here obviously, and you re going to see alot more post like this in the near future.

 

Requiem1066

The only time the MMORPG genre will be saved IMO is when it finally moves away from Theme parks and embraces true sandbox gaming 

dreamer05

Originally posted by Yamota

Before and after the launch of GW 2 I heard a lot about this game being the next big thing, WoW killer and all that, and altough the latter may be true (more because of the age of WoW rather than GW 2) I really don't see anything special about it.

I made a blog article about it, below is the content.

I am a frequent poster on MMORPG.COM and recently there was an article asking if Guild Wars 2 being the saviour of MMORPGs. Now the article was not really claiming that but it was more of an article to start to get people to think. However a lot of people posted and said either it was or it was not and I have been playing the game since the headstart and for me I really can't see it being that special.

I mean the game is a good solid ThemePark but if you look at it's features it is really not all that unique.

1. Dynamic Events - These are basically like NPC quests happening around the world and where anyone can join at any time and they are sometimes also chained in the sense that the outcome of one event can lead to another. Altough interesting and more fun than your standard MMORPG quests, they are quite similar to the Rift events you have inRift and Public Quests in Warhammer Online. So they aren't all that special and my main beef with them is that, atlough the claim to be dynamic, world changing and all that, they rarely are. At most some NPC town will be taken over for a brief moment until they are eventually killed, which usually happens quite fast as they are not designed to be all that tough.
2. MMO without subscription cost. That is true but the game has a cash shop so in essence it is just like any F2P game with the added cost of having to buy the use of the client.
3. Story line quests. They are alright but quite juvenile, in my opinion, and nowhere near the same level of Star Wars the Old Republic.
4. Combat - Again altough fast paced and exciting, nothing revolutionary. It is TAB target based with activable powers/spells and with the added twist of being able to quickly swap weapons for different powers.
5. WvWvW PvP. This sounds like it would be revolutionary but it really isn't. It is just a zone where PvP occurs but instead of it being from people of other factions on the same server, it is between people of different servers. Really don't see why that is all that better and I would much prefer the faction based one because that makes much more sense.

So what is exactly so special about Guild Wars 2? It is a solid, ThemePark MMO but there is very little revolutionary about it.

Is it all that special? No. Is it all that new? No.  But as far as mmos go these days, and compared to the leading market game then yes.  It is much more special, new, and innovative than wow.   Wow doesn't understand what the word customization is.  Truth be told any mmo ever created stole ideas from EQ, UO, and DAoC.  Dynamic events were taken from Rift and Archage.  WvWvW was taken from DAoC.  Many different aspects of the game are pretty good and I think a lot of people enjoy it.  Did WoW do anything groundbreaking?  Yes. They made MMOS much much easier and simple.  Is that a good thing? No.  But a lot of mmos that follow have learned that casual gamers are the ones who will spend the money so WoW has framed that success.  But make no mistake, there is nothing unique or special about WoW aside from that.  GW2 is still at least standing apart in the modern field of so called AAA mmos.

vee41

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by vee41

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by Scalpless
What you mean is "GW2 didn't reinvent the whole genre and turn the MMO world upside down". Then again, the only MMOs that did that were older titles like EQ and UO. Going by your definition, even WoW was is "nothing special".

No, I dont agree with that. WoW was special in the sense that it made MMORPGs, which were traditionally quite hardcore with huge time investment, into something casual and "easy" so that anyone can pick it up. Now if that was a good thing or not is debatable but it was what made WoW special.

If you spin it that way, then GW2 is equally revolutionary.

What you describe in that blog can occur, more or less exactly the same, in Rift. Casual, easy to progress, dynamic NPC spawns etc. Sorry but that has been done before and shown to be nothing special, it wears of quite quickly.

The big difference here would be execution (and many mechanical differences). Rift to me was 0 fun. It felt like reskinned WOW. GW2 is just fun. Like I said before you cannot put games as simple feature lists, they have to be observed as whole.

Dfix

Originally posted by Yamota
I was not aware that there was so many posts regarding this. But if there is, does not that tell you something in itself?

Seeing your post count I'm calling bullshit on not knowing what is being said about the game. The great thing is, it does not matter if it is revelutionary or not, It's just a great game. 

 

I've seen a lot of your posts lately and have yet to see anything posative about GW2 come from you. We get it, you don't like the hype behind the game. You sound like a broken record, post after post of the same crap, over and over again. You're kind of looking like an attention whore from where I'm standing.

Eir_S

Originally posted by Requiem1066
The only time the MMORPG genre will be saved IMO is when it finally moves away from Theme parks and embraces true sandbox gaming 

Good luck with that.  The only way they're going to accomplish such a thing is going the direction of Second Life ... with combat.  Second Life sucks.