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ESO Vs GW2: Longevity?
FuryV
Member UncommonPosts: 515
I was just wondering which out of GW2 and ESO do you guys feel will be around the longest? Both games seem to be bringing out new content on a regular basis, and both have a decent population right now, so it's hard to predict (for me anyway).
By 'longevity' I basically mean which will be the first to close down or get to the point where the population causes it to not even be worth playing anymore (i.e. Wildstar).
Maybe you guys have some official population numbers or something which could add some light to this, I don't know.
What do you think?
By 'longevity' I basically mean which will be the first to close down or get to the point where the population causes it to not even be worth playing anymore (i.e. Wildstar).
Maybe you guys have some official population numbers or something which could add some light to this, I don't know.
What do you think?
Comments
TESO has the best cash shop of any MMO I have seen.
The Subscription gives you the same amount of RMT currency for the shop that you pay for sub.
No item from the cash shop is required as everything can be gotten in game (Ie. Bag space and Bank space)
GW2 is a very well done game
Cash shop has some items that are a must, however you can convert in game currency to gems (RMT)
GW2 events are fun, and they do bring out the Living World content updates.
I honestly feel that TESO is the better option of the two, combination of races, content, and capabilities really makes me feel the TESO has the better longevity in this.
My wife and I are going to be playing TESO... the new expansion truely helps with this decision.
My issue with GW2 is the lack of endgame gear progression. I thought that once the masteries came out, that would be a good enough progression feature for endgame but it seems quite subpar at the moment tbh.
Probably like a lot of us, I want to play an MMO that isn't going to be shut down in a year or two... I've been reading things on Reddit such as ANET believe that the GW franchise is no longer financially viable so they're not even considering making Guild Wars 3. I don't know how true this is, but it's slightly worrying and pushing me away from GW2.
That said, even GW1 is still out and available to play, so maybe there IS hope for the GW franchise.
I love both GW2 and ESO, but really don't have enough time to commit seriously to more than one MMO right now, so I'm just trying to figure out which is the safest bet to go with so that I can comfortably play the game knowing that it's not all gonna get deleted/wiped a year or two down the line. I guess both ANET and Bethesda/Zenimax are AAA developers, but which of these do you feel has the longest staying power for the future?
Today, you might feel that ESO is the better game. You may not feel that way 2 months from now.
TLDR. Just play what you like.
The GW franchise has been out since 2005, and the ES franchise has been out since 1994 (ES: Arena), so I guess both have a decent amount of longevity, although I can't really speak for ESO as it's an MMO, and not singleplayer like the other ES games.
ANet is extremely slow in their content development cycles. The living stories have mostly been a few hours worth of content for each chapter, and while they are enjoyable, they are just way too short to keep you going. For a game that advertised as wanting to kill the grind, they have added nothing but grinding to all aspects of the game as well.
Ironically, I'd say GW2 is plagued by the same issues that WoW is. Large content droughts that kill off good portions of the playerbase. At some point, people just stop returning. I can't say if ESO has content droughts at all, since every time I look there seems to be some type of a DLC or now an expansion coming out for it.
I don't agree that the game is too casual, since mmos are typically mostly made up of casual players. The development focus on large meta events has hindered the game, imo. ANet effectively killed dungeons by focusing on fractals and raids, which not everyone likes. So much of the "things to do" in the hots maps are just the meta events, and if you don't get in the good map, you're screwed. Not to mention that you have some maps that are effectively dead almost all of the time. I can't remember the last time anyone has fully completed Verdant Brink's night time cycle.
ANet also needs to make a major overhaul to WvW. A good portion of the playerbase just plays for WvW and even that population has died due to the lack of meaningful changes to that system. Hell, if you aren't T1 or T2, WvW is sparsely populated.
GW3 could be the clean slate that GW2 needs, especially in terms of engine upgrades. However, after how the GW1 population felt screwed over that they never got their Utopia expansion (which turned into GW2), GW2 fans might feel screwed over by development of GW3, since that would effectively kill GW2. At that point, I'm not sure what type of fan base they would have left.
GW2's development all along has been sort of... up and down. They make some really odd design choices, at times. Sometimes it seems like they are just spinning their tires in the mud.
I suspect that ESO has a healthier budget to work with than does GW2, also. Of course, GW1 has been around for ages and, as far as I know, still exists, so GW2 could be around a good while.
Personally, if I had to choose between the two, right now, I'd probably pick ESO because they are steadily adding tons of content and diversity, in comparison.
Plus, GW2's RNG system is just god-awful.
TLDR: I don't think either game is going anywhere anytime soon. Unlike some of the other posters, I seriously doubt we'll ever see a GW3, though. It's really just all personal preferences of features, tbh.
BTW the RNG in BDO was MUCH worse imo.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
spvp is better
But, back to the issue. I have played them both, but I would say GW2 has the edge. ESO suffers from exploring and adventuring as far as I'm concerned, and that to me is what the core of an open world game should be about. /shrug
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
GW2 has only had one expansion so far with another one in the works, which has been confirmed many times. Throughout its life, its been given 54 major content updates with i think about 20 hidden content updates left up for players to just find or figure out, not including the expansion, fractal updates, and 100s of extra achievements. Throughout all of this, the entire map still hasn't been fully uncovered. (Its slowly being revealed as new living story updates come through)
Mysteries and stories from gw1 have yet to be solved, and could be brought back up in gw2. (The Gods, Demons, the mists, etc. The rest of the Fire islands, the Tengu lands, Far shiverpeaks, the blood legion homelands, the Crystal desert, and much much more. Also, gw1 had two other continents, which have yet to be seen in gw2. There was a leak a few months back that kinda hinted that one of those continents may be making a return. So yes, gw2 still has alot of life left.
As for ESO, that game has had an established Lore since the 90s. However, ESO takes place in the past. Wayyy in the past before Skyrim, so its time is fixed. It can only be stretched so far, where as with gw2; its in its current timeline and can change and become anything that it wants to become.
So they went the other route and made it a grind fest game with semi regular updates to keep people interested.
I havent played GW2 for a few years. Replay factor isnt nearly as good as ESO is. (Which I JUST started playing again after leaving that game for 2 years.)
But which game that will stand time best depends. I think GW2s slightly cartoonish graphics will long better 5 years from now but that of course depends on future graphics and so on.
As for gameplay wise it seriously depends on future expansions, both games have a lot of possible new content from earlier games (in ESOs case the TES games). HOT was a rather mediocre expansion and if GW2 continues like that it might eventually get problems but if it would release Cantha or Elona things would look up a lot, both those settings are in my opinion a step more interesting for a MMO then any TES setting.
Also, both games could improve the PvP a lot, if one or the other succeeds that it will get an edge.
Graphics/artstyle - GW2 is going to last far longer here. Kinda similar to WoW, and WoW still looks good today. That includes vanilla WoW before graphics updates, many areas in vanilla still look great. ESO is going to look very...ugly...within a few years. However its not the engine that is the problem (SWTOR still looks pretty great on same engine with all its colors), its the drab character models, how the world looks and colors. "Realistic" looking graphics very rarely last long. Look at RIFT or Vanguard Saga of heroes (that one doesn't exist, yes, but screenshots do) and both look ugly today, despite being "newer" than say WoW which even vanilla still looks pretty.
Content in terms of value - Honestly, I'll be going with ESO on this one. GW2 is too focused on the cash shop, with no optional subscription. With ESO, I pay 15 dollars, get cash shop money every month, ALL dlc for free (except Morrowind I guess), all content for just the price of a monthly sub and a bunch of other bonuses. GW2 however, its cash shop is VERY expensive, and there are items are you are forced to have (like immortal harvesting tools and many other things). And in GW2 you can't pay 15 dollars to unlock it all, you HAVE to pay tons of money to use their cash shop, they don't give you an option to pay a sub like ESO, which actually saves a ton of money. Also ESO produces a ton of content every year, GW2 doesn't.
Content in terms of things to do - I'd say before ESO opened up the whole world, GW2 had this one...now its really half/half, but slightly in ESO favor. GW2 you don't have to worry about grinding, you can do anything and not feel nerfed or forced to do it. However, the downside is there is never a goal and the hearts they added in beta really ruined things. ESO, its more typical MMO grind for better items, and now that the whole world has opened, there is a lot to do like in GW2. Really with that change, it feels like GW2 in terms of content, but better. You get epic quests, vampire stories, dark brotherhood...none of that really exists in GW2.
Content (more in terms of events) - ESO wins this by far. GW2 dynamic events are put on a timer by players (that ruined the game for me), which means Arenanet lied and falsely hyped that up, when they are timed events, not dynamic events...which also have no effect on the world or zone like Arenanet also said. ESO has amazing events, while not dynamic, are FAR better done and much higher quality. So I put ESO to win this category, just by the quality of said events. That and they never lied and said they were dynamic or world/zone changing events.
So in the end, GW2 will look far nicer for longer, ESO has far better and much higher quality content and brings out a TON of content every year (like I said above) compared to GW2 very little content added every year.
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