Well, for me its not the recent "hype" as you call it. I think you are confusing advertising and hype /shrug. Anyway, I'm getting it because I have been following it for years, the BWEs have been a blast!
Yeah, apparently the OP isn't aware that when it's other games, we call it "hype," but when the exact same type of accolades and pre-launch excitement are heaped on GW2, it's the real deal.
I'm getting the game because of what they've showed us and what I've experienced - not what they've told us about the game.
Big differene, IMO, that makes all the difference.
Also it's a AAA major MMO with no sub fee - I've already purchased it, and I know I can play it for a very long time without spending another dime if I wish to - which is great/amazing.
I won't play at launch though, I'm enjoying tsw too much. Probably pick gw2 up 2 months after launch when all the wow kiddies have left to play with their new panda and the community is decent like gw1
I may by GW2 a few month after laucnh. Why? Because i like the game. The same reason i buy other video games. Don't care about hype or sucess, since i don't plan to play for more than a couple of months, but they'll be fun
I'm getting the game because of what they've showed us and what I've experienced - not what they've told us about the game.
Big differene, IMO, that makes all the difference.
Also it's a AAA major MMO with no sub fee - I've already purchased it, and I know I can play it for a very long time without spending another dime if I wish to - which is great/amazing.
Well, for me its not the recent "hype" as you call it. I think you are confusing advertising and hype /shrug. Anyway, I'm getting it because I have been following it for years, the BWEs have been a blast!
Yeah, apparently the OP isn't aware that when it's other games, we call it "hype," but when the exact same type of accolades and pre-launch excitement are heaped on GW2, it's the real deal.
/sarcasm off
/sacasm on
It's the real deal when when you play GW2 , the hype is gone ...the GW2 effect takes hold . Now pieces of crap like SWTOR can trick you to end game or Tera can intrest you for 10 levels but pre-launch exitement soon fades when you are standing knee deep in a pile of shit
Originally posted by ShakyMo I won't play at launch though, I'm enjoying tsw too much. Probably pick gw2 up 2 months after launch when all the wow kiddies have left to play with their new panda and the community is decent like gw1
I maybe missing the point on this one but it seems to me the launch date of TSW coinsides better with the wow kiddies schedule more then the release of GW2 which seems a better release time for a mature audience.It appears by your reasoning you shouldn't be playing TSW now and enjoying it so much unless the wow kiddies (pre-panda) community is actually the place for you to call home .
wel im getting guild wars 2 because i stopped playing world of warcraft 2 years ago, and only played a bit of guild wars 1 since that time. and before i played wow aswel. I like the first game so i bought the second one aswel, and not to forget there is no subscription, wich rocks.
5 years of waiting is quite sometime. I'll admit that at first I wasn't to get this game. I heard about it back in 2009 and just just gonna pass. But 3 years later, the reason why I'm going to buy it.
Mainly because I know that it'll last for a long time. I can leave if I need to and when I come back there will be a stable population to play with. Though it's not the case with previous MMOs.
Originally posted by Sebber
2005: Guild Wars
Are you sure you know what hype is?
Yes, Guild Wars was hyped up in 2005. The sales prove it. Between 2005 and 2006 the game sold over a million copies. Between 2005 and 2012 the series has sold over 7 million copies.
Guild Wars 2 is up there with WoW on the F2P. Not Pay to play, but free to play. It is the WoW of Free to Play.
These are the numbers per NCSoft financial statements:
Guild Wars lauched April 2005. By June 2005, they had 645K accoiunts. By March 31st, 2006 they had 1.47 million accounts. The added Factions in April, 2006 and by September, 2006 the game had 2.447 million accounts. In October of 2006 they added Nightfall and by the end of 2006 they had 3.122 million accounts. Eye of North came out August, 2007. In December, 2007 they hit 4.878 million accounts. In December, 2008, they hit 5.803 million accounts.
December, 2008 was the last quarter they gave account metrics in their financial statements. Since then it's been by press release only: In March 2009 they hit 6 million. In September 2010 6.5 million. And by March, 2011 they'd hit 7 million.*
And these are 'accounts.' An account, for NCSoft purposes means one or more campaigns purchased to a unique rights-holding individual.
From sometime in 2008 it should be noted that all campaigns were sold as one bundle (Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall). Prior to that they were sold individually. So it's very likely that sales of discs far exceeded 7 million for just the campaigns. Eye of the North has, and remains as far as I know, a separate XPAC and has never been bundled.
So, what does that have to do with hype and the issues that surround it? Simple, GW was a phenomenally successful MMO. It has a huge player base - current and former - that have been waiting for this game for years. And the closer it gets, the more of us come out of mothballs. Especially for those of us (not including me, I did) who haven't found a decent MMO to play in years. Or are currently burnt-out on the few decent MMOs that meet their needs (this is me).
So the hype is a NATURAL hype by players who loved the original game. As opposed to one ginned up by marketing departments and lying developers who spoke out of both sides of their mouths because lying is what they do... (:cough: EA/BioWare :cough:)
* 1 million sales in two years for a 'developmentally dead' game. That's 9500+ sales a week over that time period. Better than WoW (non-Cataclysm XPAC), SWTOR and a host of other MMOs after their initial rush. (Hint: Initial Rush is a QUALIFIER. I'm talking the legs of the sales, not the bubble of early sales...) Which says that GW1 had some serious legs because it is a rare MMO to put up those kinds of numbers years after the developers stopped full-time development. Heck, let's be honest, it'd be serious legs even for a supported MMO.
Ive finally got a beta key for the 20th BWE,time to see if the game will even hit close to the mark.
A large amount of people have already played it and decided that it does live up to the hype.
Some people were excited and ended up not liking it, others weren't excited and got excited.
Some people, like yourself, aren't going to let themselves be convinced one way or another.
Big deal, not everyone likes the same thing.
When so many people have played it already and love it, why bother claiming it won't live up to the hype when it already has? Just say you're not interested and be done with it, or give the beta key to someone whose mind is open to being changed.
If I wasnt interested then why would I bother obtaining a beta key?
The amount of hype the game has,it wont live up to it,its plain and simple..especially when there are people out their already saying they didnt like it.If youre using hype to measure this game then there shouldnt be a single person that dislikes it.
I dont let myself get baited by the hype anymore,it burned too many times
You know there are people that acquire beta keys so they can: a) rush to end and move on to the next free game and b) just for trolling.
There are lots of other reasons and I'm not suggesting you necessarily fall into either category. But both of those populations exist and cannot be denied.
In fact, there's a troll on the GFAQs board (Xeeh) who goes from game-to-game getting beta keys so he can troll the newest 'in' game. He's currently trolling GW2 and PSO2. O____okami, also at GFAQs, is the same way. It's what they do. That's their game. Beta keys, credibility, trolling. One is sophisticated (O_____okami) the other childish (Xeeh). (Note, I like O____okami. I love a good troll. One who has wit and knows how to set up a proper troll. Xeeh is just a crap-against-the-wall clown (though when he's not trolling, he is good with technical aspects of building good gaming computers).)
Ive finally got a beta key for the 20th BWE,time to see if the game will even hit close to the mark.
A large amount of people have already played it and decided that it does live up to the hype.
Some people were excited and ended up not liking it, others weren't excited and got excited.
Some people, like yourself, aren't going to let themselves be convinced one way or another.
Big deal, not everyone likes the same thing.
When so many people have played it already and love it, why bother claiming it won't live up to the hype when it already has? Just say you're not interested and be done with it, or give the beta key to someone whose mind is open to being changed.
You do realize that of all the MMO's the OP has listed, that they were all pretty well received by critics?
Simply being a good game - even great, is not enough to live up the hype. If guild wars 2 is to be the next 'big thing' it will have to attract one hell of an audience, and then do what no MMO since WOW... SUSTAIN IT.
Legendary Bioware, with publishing giant EA, with the almighty STAR WARS license couldn't do it.
GW2, while it sounds like it will be a great game, will not live up to this ridiculous level of hype. I would heed the words of another poster, people, if you want to enjoy the game more, start managing your expecations. So many are setting yourselves up for dissapointment and then the cynicism that follows it.
Two things:
First, critics who are entirely dependent on advertising revenue and have been punished for bad reviews by publishers. Critics have even been fired (GameSpot - Kane & Lynch). It's not just gaming either. It happens across virtually all consumer goods. Companies with huge marketing budgets tend to get better reviews than equal products from smaller companies. As Consumer Reports points out, if you're taking money and your job (as a courtier) depends on the King's largess, it's hard to be independent...
So, as a gamer, I do not read critic reviews. I read the long, well-thought-out player reviews when available. And, years of experience have taught me which, by-and-large, are the hater-reviews, the fanboi reviews and the reviews worth reading.
Second, a PCGamer reviewer, years ago, said something I found odd. But makes sense in light of their (and many other critic) ratings. Lots (most?) of critics don't review games in light of just the 'fun' and 'play quality' but they rather put a huge weighting on to things like assets, graphics, controls, bugs, etc. So your game can be crap, like DA2, but well polished and get a 94. Even though as a role-playing game, the fun-factor was pretty close to abysmal.
I for one AM getting this game because of the insane hype around it. Why are you getting Guild Wars 2?
The only reason you are getting the game is because of the insane hype around it? That is the most idiotic reason I have ever heard. It is no wonder people rage and complain about games when they just buy whatever has the "highest rating" or "most hype". It is sad at how much of the gaming community has turned into mindless robots.
I am getting GW2 because I have enjoyed the videos I have seen, as well as the first game. And from the previous beta events, I enjoy playing the game as well.
I play games because I like them, not because a bunch of nameless faces on the internet are going rabbid about some game. Sure, it might spike my interest, but I won't buy a game solely because it has lots of advertising/hype around it. That is just silliness.
Could you link some of this hype cause I am only seeing things about GW2 on sites dedicated to MMOs. I know I saw one small artical on gamespy about the other two races being in the next beta, but I wouldnt call that hype. I might be missing it, but unless someone is already hyped about MMORPGs in genral, it is pretty quiet.
I for one AM getting this game because of the insane hype around it. Why are you getting Guild Wars 2?
The only reason you are getting the game is because of the insane hype around it? That is the most idiotic reason I have ever heard. It is no wonder people rage and complain about games when they just buy whatever has the "highest rating" or "most hype". It is sad at how much of the gaming community has turned into mindless robots.
I am getting GW2 because I have enjoyed the videos I have seen, as well as the first game. And from the previous beta events, I enjoy playing the game as well.
I play games because I like them, not because a bunch of nameless faces on the internet are going rabbid about some game. Sure, it might spike my interest, but I won't buy a game solely because it has lots of advertising/hype around it. That is just silliness.
Here's the thing about MMOs, the one thing that makes them fun is that you have people to play with. I've seen too many dead MMOs in my days, dead servers, and no one playing. That's not fun at all, no matter how fun the game is. I'm sick of playing by myself.
Guild Wars 2. If the gameplay is really bad, a lot of members and an active and stable community can easily make up for it. It'll keep me going and playing for the years to come.
SW:TOR was a bad game. I don't like the gameplay, but because there's still over a million subscribers and a semi-active community all around. It's something I'll keep playing.
GW2 with all this hype should have a good and stable community.
Originally posted by Skarecrow7
Could you link some of this hype cause I am only seeing things about GW2 on sites dedicated to MMOs. I know I saw one small artical on gamespy about the other two races being in the next beta, but I wouldnt call that hype. I might be missing it, but unless someone is already hyped about MMORPGs in genral, it is pretty quiet.
So how do I measure hype? Well for starters MMORPG.com is a good way to start. The fact that this game has had the highest hype meter for MMOs. There's also the fact that the GUILD section is booming. And not only on this website but on other fansites like guildwars2guru.com. And when a guild section is booming it means that there's a lot of activity within the community. Something I've seen with major MMO releases.
So to follow up there's a ton of fansites for this game guildwars2guru, guildwars2journal, guildwars2pc.
Now in the real world, like IGN and GameSpot. No, the game still isn't as hyped as SW:TOR which was the biggest hype I've seen in years.
I think one's hype level for a game is a very personal thing. Some people are going to be more excited for each title than others. It stands to reason that, yes, there were definitely people who were excited about each of the games listed in the OP.
The questions you must ask yourself are
How hyped were YOU for each of those games?
To what extent did those games live up to or fail to live up to your personal hype?
and finally, how hyped are YOU for GW2?
Personally, I've followed and beta tested many of those games--namely Vanguard, AoC, Aion, FFXIV and Rift--while drifting in and out of WoW. I've purchased and played Aion and Rift to small extents. Many of them had features that appealed to me, but none of them presented a total package that fully commanded my attention. After 10 years of MMO gaming, GW2 is the first game that has truly captivated me pre-release and through the beta phase. For single player and online games alike, I am generally very cognisent of my gaming tastes and, as a result, find that I can fairly accurately gauge whether or not a game will live up to my personal hype.
For me, GW2 is unquestionably going to be my next long-term virtual home.
I'm getting GW2 because it fixed all of the things I'd grown to hate in WoW/Rift.
As for the "hype"... I think of hype as a negative word, like false excitement, or misplaced excitement. Take WarHammer Online for example. I think it was Paul Barnett (The british guy who was always the one talking about the game), he was definitely hyping up the game. He made it sound so epic and fun, and then before release they announced they actually only had 2 of the 6 main cities done, and the Public Quests were just static circles on the ground and didn't scale to how many players were actually participating... he made claims and promises that turned out to be false, nothing but "hype".
GW2 is not "hyped" up because thousands upon thousands of players have actually gotten in and tried it, and the positive word of mouth continues. It is actually living up to the promises the developers have made, in a way none of the other games the OP listed have before.
SWToR did have a nice story with options and all, but the rest of the MMO felt lifeless and dead to me, and was just more gear-treadmill at the end game.
Rift did introduce a more limited kind of dynamic event, but they mostly ended up being static circles on the ground with X waves of mobs. They were all too similar and if you ignored them they went away. Plus with the standard quest-hub style leveling, I found the Rifts were more often than not simply "in my way" and ended up being just a kind of somewhat amusing sideshow.
I for one AM getting this game because of the insane hype around it. Why are you getting Guild Wars 2?
I think I might get the game but it has nothing to do with the hype around it.
It has more to do with it being a game in the MMORPG segment that is going to be release while I aint playing a MMORPG.
I keep slightly uptodate with what's going on with GW2, check these forums on the subject, hardly watch or attempt to play the game's beta.
But then again I am more of a sandbox player when it comes to MMORPG's, they need to be virtual worlds, if the worlds are all about combat then for me personaly I am better of with single/multiplayer games, again take note that I mean this pure towards myself and my wants and needs from a MMORPG experiance.
But I can enjoy themepark-like MMO's, but only for a short period of time, after SWG of about 3 years, NGE in 2007 for 7 months, played WoW of and on till Burning Crusade and never ever returned. Vangaurd about 4 months, AoC about 4 months total few at release a few at when it became F2P, Fallen Earth about 8 months pretty heavy and about 3 months going in off/on mode. Most other MMORPG after SWG apart from the ones I said above none could hold me either after the free month or some even not even a few weeks or day's.
I am thinking about buying The Secret World, cause it does sound different and getting GW2 later because as I said in another topic I just am curious about what Anet can do when making their online action rpg game into a full MMORPG and to me the only way to cure my curioucity is by not knowing to much about the game, so that my opinion about the game is pure based on my own experiance cause no one, no company, no gamedeveloper, no forum poster can really get me hyped unless we know eachother personaly and excatly know our likes and dislikes.
Now that's not a bad thing. But I see it everywhere on the internet that this game has been gaining some insane hype for a long time. We saw it with Age of Conan with its 800,000 preorders. We saw it with Warhammer with it's 1.2 million units shipped. Aion also had a million sales in North America. These games get overhyped and everyone's gotta play them.
2003: SWG and FFXI
2004: WoW
2005: Guild Wars
2006: ........
2007: Vanguard: Saga of Heros and Lord of The Rings Online
2008: Age of Conan and Warhammer Online
2009: Aion: Tower of Eternity
2010: Final Fantasy XIV
2011: Rift and SW:TOR
2012: Guild Wars 2
Again, not a bad thing. All I'm saying is that Guild Wars 2 is next on the table. Now that TSW has been released, the next BIG HUGE MMO is going to be Guild Wars 2. In 2011 we saw th release of SW:TOR and everyone was hyped about that game.
This game, millions of preorders and dozens of websites and chatter going on on the internet about this game.
I for one AM getting this game because of the insane hype around it. Why are you getting Guild Wars 2?
Vanguard overhyped ?? WHAT ?? Do you even know how many copies did Vanguard sell?? Vanguard sold 120,000 copies over the first month, how is that compared to milions of copies of WAR/AoC/Aion,...?
Vanguard received tons of hype when it was first announced that Brad McQuaid formed a new company and was creating a new MMO. Countless former/current EQ players were labeling it as the true successor to EQ1and said it was going to be the next big thing. Then the fiasco with Microsoft happened, SOE bought up the game, and we got to play the Beta, saw it was buggy, unfinished, and had horrible performance, and most people had long since stopped caring by time the game was released.
It had a ton of hype, but the hype died off long before the game was released.
I'm not getting GW2 because it will be just a clone of any crap MMO which has been released already. And now it is just overhyped.
Cya in Tyria 2 month after launch.
Cya back in eve online after month when everyone noticed its just a crap game like every new mmo now days.
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Comments
Does it have the best pvp ever, no eve is still the best pvp mmo, daoc and planetside back in the day were better also
Is it the best pve mmo, no tsw has snuck in and stole that crown.
Is it the best all rounder, possibly so, I only enjoy tsw better for pve and eve better for pvp of current games with decent levels of players.
Yeah, apparently the OP isn't aware that when it's other games, we call it "hype," but when the exact same type of accolades and pre-launch excitement are heaped on GW2, it's the real deal.
/sarcasm off
I'm getting the game because of what they've showed us and what I've experienced - not what they've told us about the game.
Big differene, IMO, that makes all the difference.
Also it's a AAA major MMO with no sub fee - I've already purchased it, and I know I can play it for a very long time without spending another dime if I wish to - which is great/amazing.
I may by GW2 a few month after laucnh. Why? Because i like the game. The same reason i buy other video games. Don't care about hype or sucess, since i don't plan to play for more than a couple of months, but they'll be fun
^ this!
/sacasm on
It's the real deal when when you play GW2 , the hype is gone ...the GW2 effect takes hold . Now pieces of crap like SWTOR can trick you to end game or Tera can intrest you for 10 levels but pre-launch exitement soon fades when you are standing knee deep in a pile of shit
Hype stops to be hype when backup up by facts.
Respect, walk
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
- PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
I maybe missing the point on this one but it seems to me the launch date of TSW coinsides better with the wow kiddies schedule more then the release of GW2 which seems a better release time for a mature audience.It appears by your reasoning you shouldn't be playing TSW now and enjoying it so much unless the wow kiddies (pre-panda) community is actually the place for you to call home .
wel im getting guild wars 2 because i stopped playing world of warcraft 2 years ago, and only played a bit of guild wars 1 since that time. and before i played wow aswel. I like the first game so i bought the second one aswel, and not to forget there is no subscription, wich rocks.
These are the numbers per NCSoft financial statements:
Guild Wars lauched April 2005. By June 2005, they had 645K accoiunts. By March 31st, 2006 they had 1.47 million accounts. The added Factions in April, 2006 and by September, 2006 the game had 2.447 million accounts. In October of 2006 they added Nightfall and by the end of 2006 they had 3.122 million accounts. Eye of North came out August, 2007. In December, 2007 they hit 4.878 million accounts. In December, 2008, they hit 5.803 million accounts.
December, 2008 was the last quarter they gave account metrics in their financial statements. Since then it's been by press release only: In March 2009 they hit 6 million. In September 2010 6.5 million. And by March, 2011 they'd hit 7 million.*
And these are 'accounts.' An account, for NCSoft purposes means one or more campaigns purchased to a unique rights-holding individual.
From sometime in 2008 it should be noted that all campaigns were sold as one bundle (Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall). Prior to that they were sold individually. So it's very likely that sales of discs far exceeded 7 million for just the campaigns. Eye of the North has, and remains as far as I know, a separate XPAC and has never been bundled.
So, what does that have to do with hype and the issues that surround it? Simple, GW was a phenomenally successful MMO. It has a huge player base - current and former - that have been waiting for this game for years. And the closer it gets, the more of us come out of mothballs. Especially for those of us (not including me, I did) who haven't found a decent MMO to play in years. Or are currently burnt-out on the few decent MMOs that meet their needs (this is me).
So the hype is a NATURAL hype by players who loved the original game. As opposed to one ginned up by marketing departments and lying developers who spoke out of both sides of their mouths because lying is what they do... (:cough: EA/BioWare :cough:)
* 1 million sales in two years for a 'developmentally dead' game. That's 9500+ sales a week over that time period. Better than WoW (non-Cataclysm XPAC), SWTOR and a host of other MMOs after their initial rush. (Hint: Initial Rush is a QUALIFIER. I'm talking the legs of the sales, not the bubble of early sales...) Which says that GW1 had some serious legs because it is a rare MMO to put up those kinds of numbers years after the developers stopped full-time development. Heck, let's be honest, it'd be serious legs even for a supported MMO.
I bought GW2 after playing BWE#1 with the PAX East beta key a friend sent my way, and to be perfectly honest the hype is surely well deserved.
You know there are people that acquire beta keys so they can: a) rush to end and move on to the next free game and b) just for trolling.
There are lots of other reasons and I'm not suggesting you necessarily fall into either category. But both of those populations exist and cannot be denied.
In fact, there's a troll on the GFAQs board (Xeeh) who goes from game-to-game getting beta keys so he can troll the newest 'in' game. He's currently trolling GW2 and PSO2. O____okami, also at GFAQs, is the same way. It's what they do. That's their game. Beta keys, credibility, trolling. One is sophisticated (O_____okami) the other childish (Xeeh). (Note, I like O____okami. I love a good troll. One who has wit and knows how to set up a proper troll. Xeeh is just a crap-against-the-wall clown (though when he's not trolling, he is good with technical aspects of building good gaming computers).)
Two things:
First, critics who are entirely dependent on advertising revenue and have been punished for bad reviews by publishers. Critics have even been fired (GameSpot - Kane & Lynch). It's not just gaming either. It happens across virtually all consumer goods. Companies with huge marketing budgets tend to get better reviews than equal products from smaller companies. As Consumer Reports points out, if you're taking money and your job (as a courtier) depends on the King's largess, it's hard to be independent...
So, as a gamer, I do not read critic reviews. I read the long, well-thought-out player reviews when available. And, years of experience have taught me which, by-and-large, are the hater-reviews, the fanboi reviews and the reviews worth reading.
Second, a PCGamer reviewer, years ago, said something I found odd. But makes sense in light of their (and many other critic) ratings. Lots (most?) of critics don't review games in light of just the 'fun' and 'play quality' but they rather put a huge weighting on to things like assets, graphics, controls, bugs, etc. So your game can be crap, like DA2, but well polished and get a 94. Even though as a role-playing game, the fun-factor was pretty close to abysmal.
The only reason you are getting the game is because of the insane hype around it? That is the most idiotic reason I have ever heard. It is no wonder people rage and complain about games when they just buy whatever has the "highest rating" or "most hype". It is sad at how much of the gaming community has turned into mindless robots.
I am getting GW2 because I have enjoyed the videos I have seen, as well as the first game. And from the previous beta events, I enjoy playing the game as well.
I play games because I like them, not because a bunch of nameless faces on the internet are going rabbid about some game. Sure, it might spike my interest, but I won't buy a game solely because it has lots of advertising/hype around it. That is just silliness.
Could you link some of this hype cause I am only seeing things about GW2 on sites dedicated to MMOs. I know I saw one small artical on gamespy about the other two races being in the next beta, but I wouldnt call that hype. I might be missing it, but unless someone is already hyped about MMORPGs in genral, it is pretty quiet.
Here's the thing about MMOs, the one thing that makes them fun is that you have people to play with. I've seen too many dead MMOs in my days, dead servers, and no one playing. That's not fun at all, no matter how fun the game is. I'm sick of playing by myself.
Guild Wars 2. If the gameplay is really bad, a lot of members and an active and stable community can easily make up for it. It'll keep me going and playing for the years to come.
SW:TOR was a bad game. I don't like the gameplay, but because there's still over a million subscribers and a semi-active community all around. It's something I'll keep playing.
GW2 with all this hype should have a good and stable community.
So how do I measure hype? Well for starters MMORPG.com is a good way to start. The fact that this game has had the highest hype meter for MMOs. There's also the fact that the GUILD section is booming. And not only on this website but on other fansites like guildwars2guru.com. And when a guild section is booming it means that there's a lot of activity within the community. Something I've seen with major MMO releases.
So to follow up there's a ton of fansites for this game guildwars2guru, guildwars2journal, guildwars2pc.
Now in the real world, like IGN and GameSpot. No, the game still isn't as hyped as SW:TOR which was the biggest hype I've seen in years.
I think one's hype level for a game is a very personal thing. Some people are going to be more excited for each title than others. It stands to reason that, yes, there were definitely people who were excited about each of the games listed in the OP.
The questions you must ask yourself are
I'm getting GW2 because it fixed all of the things I'd grown to hate in WoW/Rift.
As for the "hype"... I think of hype as a negative word, like false excitement, or misplaced excitement. Take WarHammer Online for example. I think it was Paul Barnett (The british guy who was always the one talking about the game), he was definitely hyping up the game. He made it sound so epic and fun, and then before release they announced they actually only had 2 of the 6 main cities done, and the Public Quests were just static circles on the ground and didn't scale to how many players were actually participating... he made claims and promises that turned out to be false, nothing but "hype".
GW2 is not "hyped" up because thousands upon thousands of players have actually gotten in and tried it, and the positive word of mouth continues. It is actually living up to the promises the developers have made, in a way none of the other games the OP listed have before.
SWToR did have a nice story with options and all, but the rest of the MMO felt lifeless and dead to me, and was just more gear-treadmill at the end game.
Rift did introduce a more limited kind of dynamic event, but they mostly ended up being static circles on the ground with X waves of mobs. They were all too similar and if you ignored them they went away. Plus with the standard quest-hub style leveling, I found the Rifts were more often than not simply "in my way" and ended up being just a kind of somewhat amusing sideshow.
I think I might get the game but it has nothing to do with the hype around it.
It has more to do with it being a game in the MMORPG segment that is going to be release while I aint playing a MMORPG.
I keep slightly uptodate with what's going on with GW2, check these forums on the subject, hardly watch or attempt to play the game's beta.
But then again I am more of a sandbox player when it comes to MMORPG's, they need to be virtual worlds, if the worlds are all about combat then for me personaly I am better of with single/multiplayer games, again take note that I mean this pure towards myself and my wants and needs from a MMORPG experiance.
But I can enjoy themepark-like MMO's, but only for a short period of time, after SWG of about 3 years, NGE in 2007 for 7 months, played WoW of and on till Burning Crusade and never ever returned. Vangaurd about 4 months, AoC about 4 months total few at release a few at when it became F2P, Fallen Earth about 8 months pretty heavy and about 3 months going in off/on mode. Most other MMORPG after SWG apart from the ones I said above none could hold me either after the free month or some even not even a few weeks or day's.
I am thinking about buying The Secret World, cause it does sound different and getting GW2 later because as I said in another topic I just am curious about what Anet can do when making their online action rpg game into a full MMORPG and to me the only way to cure my curioucity is by not knowing to much about the game, so that my opinion about the game is pure based on my own experiance cause no one, no company, no gamedeveloper, no forum poster can really get me hyped unless we know eachother personaly and excatly know our likes and dislikes.
Vanguard received tons of hype when it was first announced that Brad McQuaid formed a new company and was creating a new MMO. Countless former/current EQ players were labeling it as the true successor to EQ1and said it was going to be the next big thing. Then the fiasco with Microsoft happened, SOE bought up the game, and we got to play the Beta, saw it was buggy, unfinished, and had horrible performance, and most people had long since stopped caring by time the game was released.
It had a ton of hype, but the hype died off long before the game was released.
What does hype have to do with the quality of the game?
Hype seems to be another word which has no real definition, so everyone is free to think it's bad or good or whatever.
Originally it came from the word "hyperbole".
I haven't really seen much hyperbole around GW2. It pretty much does what people are claiming.
Cya back in eve online after month when everyone noticed its just a crap game like every new mmo now days.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.? -Albert Einstein
"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent" - Qui-gon Jinn. After many years of reading Internet forums, there's no doubt that neither does the ability to write.
So if you notice that I'm no longer answering your nonsense, stop trying... because you just joined my block list.
Chuck D musta been a prophet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK8sxngSWaU
Oh no this has been going on for thousands of years.