Guild Wars 2 set to reinvent MMORPGS.

Pioneered primarily by EverQuest way back in 1999, the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) market skyrocketed to unprecedented heights of popularity with the release and gradual fine-tuning of World of Warcraft, but after many years of WoW’s design system dominating the genre… well, the ‘tried and true’ has become the ‘been there, done that’.  Far from being one to criticize the depth, variety or user friendliness of the game, I’ve also noticed that WoW is a dangerous mold in which far too many other developers put their faith and expect to achieve similar results.  On the contrary, the results are endlessly bland copycats that hope to dethrone Blizzard’s long running cash cow and fail on every level.

Let’s be honest, competition is only a good thing if the challenger offers and encourages innovation, NOT the same basic game skeleton with far less going for it in terms of lore, attitude, and charm.  We can use a lot of games for this example, but we’ll pick a random title from the hat of randomness.

Cabal Online is a poorly executed MMO in the style of WoW, but it doesn’t have the marketability or variety to compete.  In addition, it’s a F2P (Free to Play) title with minimal GM interaction; in fact, when starting in the opening area of the game, player chat is virtually impossible to distinguish from the epileptic flood of gold spammers.  When you actually get into combat, you’ll feel like maybe those gold spammers you left behind were the best part of this travesty.  Clunky, colorless, and uncoordinated is no way to go through life, Cabal Online.

Aion is probably a fairer comparison, since the game includes a subscription fee and at the very least, GM’s who monitor spam (if not their own sadistic behavior).  The graphics are amazing too.  However, as I played I saw too many similarities to WoW than made me comfortable, leading me to believe that it too was another level grind that was dependent on time spent and gear earned, and little in the way of actual skill.  Where WoW succeeds in using this formula to attract the casual gamer, Aion abused it and early super-geared players were practically gods in the PVP zones (ie: most of the game maps).  Click this icon, watch a fight animation take place, fall asleep, repeat.  Insult to injury was added when NCSoft totally fucked up the game’s faction balance around the same time as the new patch was released, enraging many players to the point where they no longer play this beautiful, gold coated, diamond encrusted piece of crap (Hi Mr. Repose!).  Golf clap.

But wait, there’s good news.  Flash forward to 4th quarter 2010 – early next year, when a game that claims to be changing a lot of what makes MMO’s so dull, is being released at last.  A long time in the making, Guild Wars 2 is set to change how we view the traditional MMO in very certain terms that the developers have been more than happy to talk to the public about (not always a common happening).  In various interviews and developer logs, the makers of GW2 have already unveiled more innovations per article than most MMO’s have bothered to consider since 2004.  What does this mean for the finished product?  Well the great thing about MMO’s that initially deliver on the hype is that, with their funding taken care of for the foreseeable future, any ideas that could not be implemented due to time constraints will follow along shortly after release in the form of patches.  Even if GW2 fails to make good on every single last little promise, it won’t spell doom for them as it would a lesser company’s hard work.  ArenaNet, the creators of the original Guild Wars (which is still updating its content and holiday events to this day), have always put 110% effort into their projects, and even if I personally thought the first game had a few major functionality issues (ie: no jump button?  On-rails mountain paths that you can’t fall off of?  What happened to gravity?), it still remains a solid game that can be played without a monthly fee.

And what does that mean, boys and girls? It means that GW2 will be following the same payment style.  You buy the game, you enjoy the game, and you don’t pay a single cent extra for “subscriber” content.  Can I get a HAIL YEAH?  What’s more is that GW2, for the most part, seems to resemble GW in aesthetic style only, meaning the fantasy nature of the game doesn’t so much spring from dime store fantasy fiction novels ala WoW as it brings a more stylized approach that is both rich yet believable.

For the most part though, what has a lot of gaming fans hyping GW2 more than even Final Fantasy 14 (according to MMORPG.com), is the brilliantly executed leveling curve.  The developers maintain that the game is designed to provide entertainment and variety all the way to level 80 (the as-yet determined level cap), including your own character’s personal story and most interestingly, events that actually change the nature of your surroundings simply by you having taken part in them.  Slay a mob of raiders to save a village and that village will be indebted to you.  The mob will not respawn 10 minutes later, only to have someone do it again as a line forms behind them.  ”Hey that was my mob, I needed that for a quest!   You suck noob!”

This is a bold move, and without any evidence of how this will take place as smoothly as the designers claim, well I’m left to ponder what traditional MMO weened gamers will do if everything is not set to a timer or instance.  Freak out and piss their pants is my guess.  Otherwise, I think the majority of people who have been grinding and grinding and grinding in WoW and its clones for the past 6 years will be on this new concept like a native American on a bottle of rotgut.

That means they’ll like it.

Guild Wars always provided much of the direct competition to WoW when it was in full swing and ArenaNet has proven without a doubt that it is a survivor, but will their gem be enough to kill WoW?  It may not be what they’re after, but it seems there will finally be a viable alternative in the end, at the very least, with the drive, the manpower, and the imagination to make GW2 a history maker.

For more in-depth news and images from the official source, visit the Guild Wars 2 website.

- Wells

This delightful nugget of information was brought to you by:  2nd in command, because it's all the power with less responsibility. Dispenser of verbal justice and handy with a game controller. More from this author

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