Yea you are right there, it influenced me greatly , as i now realize after the debacle of games like GW2 and ToR , just how completely and utterly developers are butbackwards, as a 15 year old game like UO , has Better Class Options, Better Exploration , Better Crafting , Better Housing, Better Guild Tools, , Better Faction Warfare, Better Gear ,Better Grouping , Better PVE .....
Certainly has been influential for 2012 .. lets hope we see a lot less of this money grab develpoment in 2013 , and we start to move the genre forward not back..
And i hope you realize that ToR followed the same exact cycle as you described in realtion to this site... lol
Wonders why this one doesnt play UO but complains about other games...oh i know.
I find it so amusing. You see, when i say Fallout 1/2 and BG 1/2 are superior to todays RPGs it means that i STILL rather play those games than recent ones (just played Fallout 1/2 over Christmas time).
OTOH when you guys talk of these "superior" games but none of you want to play them....it makes me laugh.
C'mon, put your money and time where your mouth is and show us all how those games are superiror to todays crap.
Originally posted by HeroEvermore Influental how...it didnt bring 1 thing new to the video game genre. Not a single thing.
O'rly?
How many GW2 clones are out there?
One, you could argue two, and even those are hardly clones from the ground up. The game may have influenced a few design changes, but it certainly isn't prompting developers to do everything ANet has done.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
Yea you are right there, it influenced me greatly , as i now realize after the debacle of games like GW2 and ToR , just how completely and utterly developers are butbackwards, as a 15 year old game like UO , has Better Class Options, Better Exploration , Better Crafting , Better Housing, Better Guild Tools, , Better Faction Warfare, Better Gear ,Better Grouping , Better PVE .....
Certainly has been influential for 2012 .. lets hope we see a lot less of this money grab develpoment in 2013 , and we start to move the genre forward not back..
And i hope you realize that ToR followed the same exact cycle as you described in realtion to this site... lol
Well it's nice to hear from the guy that feels we need to move the genre forward and not back by making the game more like a game from 15 years ago.
^ I agree. Games got dumbed down, 15 years ago was WAY better!
maybe its also because back then games werent trying to dictate to the players how they should play, it wasnt that they were sandbox games as such, but they were so open ended that the difference is in small detail only. Now games are too focused on seperate aspects of gameplay, too much storyline, too much dictatorial play style, limited character classes with so much focus on a type of play style that any attempt to be 'original' punishes the player in terms of viability, GW2 is a classic example of 'play my way or the highway' but i wouldnt say its the only one to do this.
GW2 is painted as a huge success, with influence on future games, but i don't see that as being the case, i do think that GW2 will have some influence, but only because of the things it hasnt done, much the same as SW;TOR has shown the world that Themeparks are reaching endpoint, GW2 is a good representation of what happens when social features are ignored, and why player interdependance is a big thing, besides, who really enjoys sitting in queues to play a game, World v World PvP with world rankings is what GW2 was supposed to be all about, but if you want to play, join the queue, because the game isnt designed for everyone to be involved in it. Then it forces people into play styles regardless of character class or ability, you all have to dodge, and run around, the only thing thats different is the hotbar skills. Its not entirely a bad idea, but its implementation is questionable. Thats why i think GW2 is a stepping stone, in game development, hopefully other developers will use that.
Originally posted by HeroEvermore Influental how...it didnt bring 1 thing new to the video game genre. Not a single thing.
O'rly?
How many GW2 clones are out there?
So you couldn't name 1 thing that was new to the table. That's what i thought
To your answer, there are 0 GW2 clones out there. Absolutely 0. GW2 cloned thier entire game. Not 1 new thing that an MMORPG hasnt done previously. That is a fact. I have played probably 95% of every mmo ever made. I can't name 1 feature that is brand new to gaming. Not 1. Therefore i find this thread LULZ
Hero Evermore Guild Master of Dragonspine since 1982. Playing Path of Exile and deeply in love with it.
Originally posted by boxsnd Not so fast GW2 fan! If in the near future we see other MMOs adopting things like no trinity, the downed mechanic in PvE and PvP, hearts and dynamic events, overflow servers etc then we might say it's influential. Until then, patience.
I can't wait to see what features of GW2 Blizzard puts into WoW. Then all the WoW fanbois will be saying look at the new features that Blizzard developed.
on a serious note, I agree with you boxsnd, it's way too early to say that GW2 is the most influential.
Blizzard has taken alot of features from other games, but made them worse.
I think its fair to say GW2 was the most influential of 2012.
I just started playing a couple months ago with my girlfriend. I would not have played it except I knew it was a good game for us to play together... Easy to play, has a story line; which she likes. We recently hit max level with our first characters. It was pretty enjoyable. I especially like that the combat requires thought and strategy, and I look forward to expansions where my character will have more skills available so I can come up with some other good combinations to play with.
I was especially surprised that I really enjoyed the story quests. There were a lot of 'whoa' moments.
Speaking of 'whoa' moments, the dynamic events were also very cool. Some of them were more like traditional MMORPG quests, but superior due to the removal of the quest log and having to speak to NPCs. Some of them were much much more than anything I have seen in a MMORPG before, very epic and exciting and made me feel like there was something bigger to the game and the community.
The ability to res anyone anywhere is a great idea. I can't believe more MMORPGs do not have this... At first I was skeptical but now I realize that it contributes greatly to my perception that the gw2 community is good.
I was able to meet several nice players and we joined a guild. I played with the guild rewards a little bit and they were interesting. I am looking forward to arenanet adding more guild options (guildhall, etc) in the future.
The downed state is also really neat. It adds a whole new level of strategy for players to utilize and communicate about. When is it and when is it not appropriate to help someone who is down? Also it makes it more important to watch the fight, as opposed to many MMORPGs were you inevitably find yourself watching your skill bar only.
Speaking of watching the fight, the dodge mechanic, the red AoE circles, and the distinct animations that come with impending attacks makes it important to watch whats going on in fights and react dynamically to what you see. It makes combat more immersive significantly over what is normal in an RPG, and only gets a little stale, not annoying.
I am a sandbox and virtual world lover at heart, a SWG fanboy, and someone who is looking forward to games like archeage more than any other. I also love planetside, so funny that I have played more GW2 than PS2 since they've released. I did play some GW1 and I recognize arenanet is a solid company, despite my distain for 'themeparks'.
As far as themeparks go, arenanet knows how to make some very exciting immersive ones. I agree with OP that it is an 'evolutionary' game. I hope its influence encourages others to step in this positive direction.
Also in response to some of the posts poking fun at the term 'influential'... Do you really expect other games to copy GW2 already? GW2 was only released a few months ago. I doubt any big games made in 2012 already have been copied. I interpret influential in reference to a year that just recently ended as meaning setting the bar, being recognized as a quality game, and the possibility of more in the future.
I haven't seen anyone hardcore copying GW2 features (just give Blizzard time, you know it'll happen), but I have to say that it's easily the most influential MMORPG of the year. I mean, what exactly is the competition in this sense? Tera? TSW?
Originally posted by wormywyrm Also in response to some of the posts poking fun at the term 'influential'... Do you really expect other games to copy GW2 already? GW2 was only released a few months ago. I doubt any big games made in 2012 already have been copied. I interpret influential in reference to a year that just recently ended as meaning setting the bar, being recognized as a quality game, and the possibility of more in the future.
Yeah I was wondering how long people think a game takes to be made. It's like people think these games are made over the weekend....some may seem like it but... It's years too soon to expect to see a gw2 clone.
And I can't really see why people think their doing away with the trinity system was such a massive improvment. My experiance was they did away with people having a "job" and added the mass zerg rez the guy next to you system. As long as you could rez people faster than the boss was taking them down you'd win!
And I can't really see why people think their doing away with the trinity system was such a massive improvment. My experiance was they did away with people having a "job" and added the mass zerg rez the guy next to you system. As long as you could rez people faster than the boss was taking them down you'd win!
Not really what I'd call inovative.
Actually, that's a good point. But the problem is not the removal of the trinity at all... it's that the encounter will stay up until it's beaten or until everyone stops attacking (thus resetting the boss). What I'd propose is that they add timers like they do to some of the DE's, ie: where the Skritt or Dredge are attempting to achieve a goal... those are pretty much the only events I've seen fail with any kind of regularity.
The trinity has nothing to do with that. The rules for the encounters need to be changed, not the rules for the combat system.
And I can't really see why people think their doing away with the trinity system was such a massive improvment. My experiance was they did away with people having a "job" and added the mass zerg rez the guy next to you system. As long as you could rez people faster than the boss was taking them down you'd win!
Not really what I'd call inovative.
Actually, that's a good point. But the problem is not the removal of the trinity at all... it's that the encounter will stay up until it's beaten or until everyone stops attacking (thus resetting the boss). What I'd propose is that they add timers like they do to some of the DE's, ie: where the Skritt or Dredge are attempting to achieve a goal... those are pretty much the only events I've seen fail with any kind of regularity.
The trinity has nothing to do with that. The rules for the encounters need to be changed, not the rules for the combat system.
Actually they will not allow players to use waypoints in dungeons while party members are in combat.
You can still stop to rez but a defeated player can no longer teleport to the waypoint and run to combat while 1 or 2 keep the fight from resitting
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Yea you are right there, it influenced me greatly , as i now realize after the debacle of games like GW2 and ToR , just how completely and utterly developers are butbackwards, as a 15 year old game like UO , has Better Class Options, Better Exploration , Better Crafting , Better Housing, Better Guild Tools, , Better Faction Warfare, Better Gear ,Better Grouping , Better PVE .....
Certainly has been influential for 2012 .. lets hope we see a lot less of this money grab develpoment in 2013 , and we start to move the genre forward not back..
And i hope you realize that ToR followed the same exact cycle as you described in realtion to this site... lol
Wonders why this one doesnt play UO but complains about other games...oh i know.
I find it so amusing. You see, when i say Fallout 1/2 and BG 1/2 are superior to todays RPGs it means that i STILL rather play those games than recent ones (just played Fallout 1/2 over Christmas time).
OTOH when you guys talk of these "superior" games but none of you want to play them....it makes me laugh.
C'mon, put your money and time where your mouth is and show us all how those games are superiror to todays crap.
Wonders why this one Assumes to much .....de de deee
Thats funy was playing last nite and this morning and ohh for 13 years ...
Wonders if any of the fanbois will be playing GW2 in 15 years ... we all know that answer ....dont we..
Originally posted by boxsnd Not so fast GW2 fan! If in the near future we see other MMOs adopting things like no trinity, the downed mechanic in PvE and PvP, hearts and dynamic events, overflow servers etc then we might say it's influential. Until then, patience.
I can't see any other game, from last year, that other companies will be influenced by. I am happy that there is no trinity as I am bored to death with that simplified game mechanic. It was used a crutch for too long.
How on earth is all-dps more complex than the trinity?
If you actually think it's "all-dps" then you may never understand.
Originally posted by HeroEvermore Influental how...it didnt bring 1 thing new to the video game genre. Not a single thing.
O'rly?
How many GW2 clones are out there?
So you couldn't name 1 thing that was new to the table. That's what i thought
To your answer, there are 0 GW2 clones out there. Absolutely 0. GW2 cloned thier entire game. Not 1 new thing that an MMORPG hasnt done previously. That is a fact. I have played probably 95% of every mmo ever made. I can't name 1 feature that is brand new to gaming. Not 1. Therefore i find this thread LULZ
Why should I do that, just do a post history on me so you can read it for yourself I dont have the time to constantly tell people like you who don't even listen anyway.
Most influential of 2012, yeah no doubt. Wasn't really a whole lot of competition for it though either that year...
Influential enough that it'll influence future game development, we'll see. I really hope not though. I'd rather games in the future take completely different paths than GW2 did. Noth that GW2 is a bad game or anything like that, just that I don't want to see the market flooded again with a ton of extremely similar games without a whole lot of diversity again. Would rather take a step back and have just a handful of very diverse games again with solid, but maybe not amazingly massive, populations. g
GW2 is a solid game, and I'm enjoying it a ton right now. But let's let GW2 be itself and hope that games in the future create their own identity.
Played: EQ1 (10 Years), Guild Wars, Rift, TERA Tried: EQ2, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Runes of Magic and countless others... Currently Playing: GW2
There should be no doubt that GW2 was the most influential mmorpg of 2012. Many people were talking about how the game is evolutionary, and a welcome breath of fresh air to the genre. It's won multiple awards like IGN's Best PC Game, IGN's Best PC MMO game, IGN's Best PC Graphics, Massively's Best MMO of 2012, MMORPG.com Most Innovative, Gamespots PC game of the year, Time' s #1 game of the year, and more recently PCGamer's MMO of the Year! There is no denying that GW2 has grabbed a lot of attention, and the loyal fanbase is growing each and every day!
GW2 is the most talked about game on this site still, even after almost 5 months since release. It's the most talked about game this week, and the most talked about game this month. GW2 has more than 3 times as many hits as the next closest game over the last 6 months, and more than 3 times as many hits as the next closest game over the last year.
[mod edit] Nonetheless, I want to thank them too. They really prove how influential the game is. People don't write and talk about meaningless things of little importance. People write and talk about things that affect them or concern them. Each and every thread, each and every reply is another hit on the popularity scale for GW2.
Each post is a testiment to the influence that GW2 has within the genre, even if it is a hate post. This game IS the game worth talking about, and when developers are looking for what games to follow into the future, the most talked about game is a good choice. I look forward to a brilliant future for mmorpg's, with GW2 lighting the way.
EDIT: And if you feel like arguing with me, and telling me I'm wrong, or if you feel like telling me how much you like the game. Keep on speaking. Keep on saying how you feel and lets keep GW2 leading the way through 2013!!!
I hate to echo a redundant point here in the case of your enlightened view of GW2, but popularity alone does not equate to influence in the industry. Influencing what gamers play is one thing, influencing a new generation of developers to mimic what you have created is not so easily accomplished.
Maple Story
Runescape
Lineage
Three games that are more popular than WoW but had little influence within the industry. At the time no developers wanted to mimic what they saw in those games. Take EQ for instance. It was very popular for its time. And it's popularity in turn influenced developers to expand on those ideas. WoW devs were directly quoted as to having been influenced from what they seen and experienced playing EQ. Thus when WoW was created it meet that population threshold set by the mmo before it and exceeded it tenfold. This in turn created a breeding ground of new devs experiencing WoW and being influenced into creating or expanding on that basis.
But the direction of influence is not a straight line. Influence goes in many directions and I'm afraid GW2 is only one of many new mmos that have been influenced by WoW, but only in a different direction. Now GW2 could end up being to a new mmo what EQ was to WoW. That means that in a few years we could have devs that have played and experienced GW2 and carry on that experience to make the next industry influencing mmo. But for now. GW2 has to meet the population threshold set by the mmo before it first before it can become a breeding ground for new developments.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
jumping puzzles are coming to WoW as per leaked PTR achievements.
I'm confused as to why GW2 seems to somehow get credit for 'inventing' jumping puzzles. Seems to me they've been in games in general for eons, platformers are practically built on the concept.
As for MMOs, what were most (as far as I recall, all) datacrons other than jumping puzzles?
For that matter, how is it that GW2 "invented" B2P or the lack of a trinity? Neither were remotely new to gaming in general or MMOs in particular. And DE's, is anyone really claiming they're significantly different from WAR's or Rift's versions anymore?
I dunno, it just seems bizarre to see the whole "WoW is going to copy GW2!!11!!!" crap when in point of fact there's not really anything original in GW2. You could claim it was the first to bring all those aspects together in one game, maybe make a go of it there, but the individual elements all have long histories, most of which predate GW1, let alone GW2.
Around here when someone says Game X is a WoW clone there's an uproar about how WoW didn't invent anything (oh really?) and what you really means is an EQ clone. But when TSW goes B2P GW2 gets credited as the reason? Because, what, no one had ever heard of B2P before? Totally new concept in gaming, was it?
Nah, not buying it.
If we start seeing GW2 clones -- which, given the time frames involved in making a game, won't happen for years, if it ever does -- then claims of influence might hold weight. Until then... Well frankly I expect GW2 to have the same overall influence on the genere as GW1 did -- none that was noticable.
Most influential of 2012, yeah no doubt. Wasn't really a whole lot of competition for it though either that year...
2010 and 2011 Aswell.
Hell I would go as far back as 2007.
Yeah no arguement there. It's sad really. I've been looking for another game to replace that EQ experience I had, but have not found anything since I quit in 2005. GW2 has been the only game to continually pull me in to keep playing. We'll see how long that lasts but so far so good.
Think having an interest in it already having played GW1, being excited that it wasn't all instanced up like the last and having modified expectations due to no sub, has helped me enjoy it a lot more than I was expecting. Knew it was going to be a game I could take a few breaks from here and there and not really fall behind in progression or anything. It's been a good change of pace game that I'm really enjoying. Still looking for that world to live in, but GW2 will be my game for quite a while yet I think.
Played: EQ1 (10 Years), Guild Wars, Rift, TERA Tried: EQ2, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Runes of Magic and countless others... Currently Playing: GW2
You don't have to offer anything new, unique, or revolutionary to be most influential. Just saying. The 100lb gorilla has been massively influential in the past (and not all in a good way).
I guess it probablly was. There is a lot of stuff that is pretty neat. I should say I rather like it too though only play occasionally, but that's not the point.
Comments
Wonders why this one doesnt play UO but complains about other games...oh i know.
I find it so amusing. You see, when i say Fallout 1/2 and BG 1/2 are superior to todays RPGs it means that i STILL rather play those games than recent ones (just played Fallout 1/2 over Christmas time).
OTOH when you guys talk of these "superior" games but none of you want to play them....it makes me laugh.
C'mon, put your money and time where your mouth is and show us all how those games are superiror to todays crap.
Hero Evermore
Guild Master of Dragonspine since 1982.
Playing Path of Exile and deeply in love with it.
O'rly?
How many GW2 clones are out there?
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
One, you could argue two, and even those are hardly clones from the ground up. The game may have influenced a few design changes, but it certainly isn't prompting developers to do everything ANet has done.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
maybe its also because back then games werent trying to dictate to the players how they should play, it wasnt that they were sandbox games as such, but they were so open ended that the difference is in small detail only. Now games are too focused on seperate aspects of gameplay, too much storyline, too much dictatorial play style, limited character classes with so much focus on a type of play style that any attempt to be 'original' punishes the player in terms of viability, GW2 is a classic example of 'play my way or the highway' but i wouldnt say its the only one to do this.
GW2 is painted as a huge success, with influence on future games, but i don't see that as being the case, i do think that GW2 will have some influence, but only because of the things it hasnt done, much the same as SW;TOR has shown the world that Themeparks are reaching endpoint, GW2 is a good representation of what happens when social features are ignored, and why player interdependance is a big thing, besides, who really enjoys sitting in queues to play a game, World v World PvP with world rankings is what GW2 was supposed to be all about, but if you want to play, join the queue, because the game isnt designed for everyone to be involved in it. Then it forces people into play styles regardless of character class or ability, you all have to dodge, and run around, the only thing thats different is the hotbar skills. Its not entirely a bad idea, but its implementation is questionable. Thats why i think GW2 is a stepping stone, in game development, hopefully other developers will use that.
So you couldn't name 1 thing that was new to the table. That's what i thought
To your answer, there are 0 GW2 clones out there. Absolutely 0. GW2 cloned thier entire game. Not 1 new thing that an MMORPG hasnt done previously. That is a fact. I have played probably 95% of every mmo ever made. I can't name 1 feature that is brand new to gaming. Not 1. Therefore i find this thread LULZ
Hero Evermore
Guild Master of Dragonspine since 1982.
Playing Path of Exile and deeply in love with it.
Blizzard has taken alot of features from other games, but made them worse.
I think its fair to say GW2 was the most influential of 2012.
I just started playing a couple months ago with my girlfriend. I would not have played it except I knew it was a good game for us to play together... Easy to play, has a story line; which she likes. We recently hit max level with our first characters. It was pretty enjoyable. I especially like that the combat requires thought and strategy, and I look forward to expansions where my character will have more skills available so I can come up with some other good combinations to play with.
I was especially surprised that I really enjoyed the story quests. There were a lot of 'whoa' moments.
Speaking of 'whoa' moments, the dynamic events were also very cool. Some of them were more like traditional MMORPG quests, but superior due to the removal of the quest log and having to speak to NPCs. Some of them were much much more than anything I have seen in a MMORPG before, very epic and exciting and made me feel like there was something bigger to the game and the community.
The ability to res anyone anywhere is a great idea. I can't believe more MMORPGs do not have this... At first I was skeptical but now I realize that it contributes greatly to my perception that the gw2 community is good.
I was able to meet several nice players and we joined a guild. I played with the guild rewards a little bit and they were interesting. I am looking forward to arenanet adding more guild options (guildhall, etc) in the future.
The downed state is also really neat. It adds a whole new level of strategy for players to utilize and communicate about. When is it and when is it not appropriate to help someone who is down? Also it makes it more important to watch the fight, as opposed to many MMORPGs were you inevitably find yourself watching your skill bar only.
Speaking of watching the fight, the dodge mechanic, the red AoE circles, and the distinct animations that come with impending attacks makes it important to watch whats going on in fights and react dynamically to what you see. It makes combat more immersive significantly over what is normal in an RPG, and only gets a little stale, not annoying.
I am a sandbox and virtual world lover at heart, a SWG fanboy, and someone who is looking forward to games like archeage more than any other. I also love planetside, so funny that I have played more GW2 than PS2 since they've released. I did play some GW1 and I recognize arenanet is a solid company, despite my distain for 'themeparks'.
As far as themeparks go, arenanet knows how to make some very exciting immersive ones. I agree with OP that it is an 'evolutionary' game. I hope its influence encourages others to step in this positive direction.
Play as your fav retro characters: cnd-online.net. My site: www.lysle.net. Blog: creatingaworld.blogspot.com.
Play as your fav retro characters: cnd-online.net. My site: www.lysle.net. Blog: creatingaworld.blogspot.com.
Yeah I was wondering how long people think a game takes to be made. It's like people think these games are made over the weekend....some may seem like it but... It's years too soon to expect to see a gw2 clone.
And I can't really see why people think their doing away with the trinity system was such a massive improvment. My experiance was they did away with people having a "job" and added the mass zerg rez the guy next to you system. As long as you could rez people faster than the boss was taking them down you'd win!
Not really what I'd call inovative.
Actually, that's a good point. But the problem is not the removal of the trinity at all... it's that the encounter will stay up until it's beaten or until everyone stops attacking (thus resetting the boss). What I'd propose is that they add timers like they do to some of the DE's, ie: where the Skritt or Dredge are attempting to achieve a goal... those are pretty much the only events I've seen fail with any kind of regularity.
The trinity has nothing to do with that. The rules for the encounters need to be changed, not the rules for the combat system.
Actually they will not allow players to use waypoints in dungeons while party members are in combat.
You can still stop to rez but a defeated player can no longer teleport to the waypoint and run to combat while 1 or 2 keep the fight from resitting
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Wonders why this one Assumes to much .....de de deee
Thats funy was playing last nite and this morning and ohh for 13 years ...
Wonders if any of the fanbois will be playing GW2 in 15 years ... we all know that answer ....dont we..
If you actually think it's "all-dps" then you may never understand.
Oderint, dum metuant.
Why should I do that, just do a post history on me so you can read it for yourself I dont have the time to constantly tell people like you who don't even listen anyway.
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
It is the most influential.......it shredded the hype blinders of nearly every MMORPG fan in existance. and I thank it for that
Hmmmm what's the best way to destroy my GW2 disc.....
Most influential of 2012, yeah no doubt. Wasn't really a whole lot of competition for it though either that year...
Influential enough that it'll influence future game development, we'll see. I really hope not though. I'd rather games in the future take completely different paths than GW2 did. Noth that GW2 is a bad game or anything like that, just that I don't want to see the market flooded again with a ton of extremely similar games without a whole lot of diversity again. Would rather take a step back and have just a handful of very diverse games again with solid, but maybe not amazingly massive, populations. g
GW2 is a solid game, and I'm enjoying it a ton right now. But let's let GW2 be itself and hope that games in the future create their own identity.
Played: EQ1 (10 Years), Guild Wars, Rift, TERA
Tried: EQ2, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Runes of Magic and countless others...
Currently Playing: GW2
Nytlok Sylas
80 Sylvari Ranger
I hate to echo a redundant point here in the case of your enlightened view of GW2, but popularity alone does not equate to influence in the industry. Influencing what gamers play is one thing, influencing a new generation of developers to mimic what you have created is not so easily accomplished.
Three games that are more popular than WoW but had little influence within the industry. At the time no developers wanted to mimic what they saw in those games. Take EQ for instance. It was very popular for its time. And it's popularity in turn influenced developers to expand on those ideas. WoW devs were directly quoted as to having been influenced from what they seen and experienced playing EQ. Thus when WoW was created it meet that population threshold set by the mmo before it and exceeded it tenfold. This in turn created a breeding ground of new devs experiencing WoW and being influenced into creating or expanding on that basis.
But the direction of influence is not a straight line. Influence goes in many directions and I'm afraid GW2 is only one of many new mmos that have been influenced by WoW, but only in a different direction. Now GW2 could end up being to a new mmo what EQ was to WoW. That means that in a few years we could have devs that have played and experienced GW2 and carry on that experience to make the next industry influencing mmo. But for now. GW2 has to meet the population threshold set by the mmo before it first before it can become a breeding ground for new developments.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
2010 and 2011 Aswell.
Hell I would go as far back as 2007.
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
We shall see - we have Age of Wushu, Neverwinter, and ESO coming out. The whiners and haters are at the gate.
[mod edit]
I'm confused as to why GW2 seems to somehow get credit for 'inventing' jumping puzzles. Seems to me they've been in games in general for eons, platformers are practically built on the concept.
As for MMOs, what were most (as far as I recall, all) datacrons other than jumping puzzles?
For that matter, how is it that GW2 "invented" B2P or the lack of a trinity? Neither were remotely new to gaming in general or MMOs in particular. And DE's, is anyone really claiming they're significantly different from WAR's or Rift's versions anymore?
I dunno, it just seems bizarre to see the whole "WoW is going to copy GW2!!11!!!" crap when in point of fact there's not really anything original in GW2. You could claim it was the first to bring all those aspects together in one game, maybe make a go of it there, but the individual elements all have long histories, most of which predate GW1, let alone GW2.
Around here when someone says Game X is a WoW clone there's an uproar about how WoW didn't invent anything (oh really?) and what you really means is an EQ clone. But when TSW goes B2P GW2 gets credited as the reason? Because, what, no one had ever heard of B2P before? Totally new concept in gaming, was it?
Nah, not buying it.
If we start seeing GW2 clones -- which, given the time frames involved in making a game, won't happen for years, if it ever does -- then claims of influence might hold weight. Until then... Well frankly I expect GW2 to have the same overall influence on the genere as GW1 did -- none that was noticable.
Yeah no arguement there. It's sad really. I've been looking for another game to replace that EQ experience I had, but have not found anything since I quit in 2005. GW2 has been the only game to continually pull me in to keep playing. We'll see how long that lasts but so far so good.
Think having an interest in it already having played GW1, being excited that it wasn't all instanced up like the last and having modified expectations due to no sub, has helped me enjoy it a lot more than I was expecting. Knew it was going to be a game I could take a few breaks from here and there and not really fall behind in progression or anything. It's been a good change of pace game that I'm really enjoying. Still looking for that world to live in, but GW2 will be my game for quite a while yet I think.
Played: EQ1 (10 Years), Guild Wars, Rift, TERA
Tried: EQ2, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Runes of Magic and countless others...
Currently Playing: GW2
Nytlok Sylas
80 Sylvari Ranger
You don't have to offer anything new, unique, or revolutionary to be most influential. Just saying. The 100lb gorilla has been massively influential in the past (and not all in a good way).
I guess it probablly was. There is a lot of stuff that is pretty neat. I should say I rather like it too though only play occasionally, but that's not the point.