Guild Wars 2 to be the Next King of MMOs?

[Teryaki]

As you probably already have seen, Blizzard Entertainment has said in recent blue posts that in this new expansion, Mists of Pandaria, they would be releasing new content as quickly possible. So far, they have kept that promise and are now testing patch 5.1 though the Public Test Realm. But what about the other side of things over at ArenaNet? Are they going to be left in the dust by Blizzard, or are they going to fight back?

Fighting back is just what they are doing. Colin Johanson, a representative for ArenaNet, was promoting their stand on "Live Game Entertainment." In his recent article, he describes Guild Wars 2 to be a breathing, living, dynamic world. With that, ArenaNet has promised to keep their customers happy by promising to release content faster than any other gaming company has done before. They plan to do this through sepsrate professional teams that are just focused on one part of the game, and that part only. Unlike with Blizzard, only having a few teams dedicated to the whole game and it's population, ArenaNet plans to have these teams to help players if they ever need assistance to the best of their ability. ArenaNet currently has 8 different teams working on particular portions of Guild Wars 2. They have a team for Live Security, Live Reponse, Living World, PvP/E-Sports, Holidays and Events, Mac & Performance, Bonus Teams, as well as the Commerce team. As stated above, they are all there to work on those particular sections only, which would possibly create faster customer service if you are looking into a problem that pertains to that section. You can read the whole article at this link: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/c...e-development/

Blizzard, on the other hand, is trying to compete with their new rivals. With the releasing of content even faster, they hope to keep their player base involved with the world of Azeroth. Mists of Pandaria undoubtedly brought back a large portion of the subscriptions of the player base, but can they keep their clients happy and keep a hold of them? Being that Dragon Soul was out for a year, and no real new content was being released, a lot of the player base did in fact cancel their subscriptions. Blizzard is starting to realize that long drawn out content actually looses sales, which is why they are promising the release newer content more quickly than in other expansions. Can their customer service change a bit? Probably. There is still a little bit of room for changing, but they are improving.

What about you Macintosh owners out there? Do you enjoy playing World of Warcraft on your Mac OS X operating system, or do you have to install Windows in order for the enjoyment of the game? For me being a Macintosh user, I am glad ArenaNet is dedicating a section just to the Mac development of the game. Playing World of Warcraft on Mac OS X isn't terrible, but you are limited on what programs and addons you can use if you like to customize your interface.

World of Warcraft players: After reading the article by Colin Johanson, would you consider trying out Guild Wars 2 if you already haven't, to see how their development compares to the current state of World of Warcraft? How about the Guild Wars 2 players, would you consider going to World of Warcraft if you've never played, or decide to go back to WoW if you quit? It will be quite interesting to see how these two companies fight for their player bases in the months to come.

See you next time!
-Teryaki

[nerfmeplease]

Botting will eventually destroy GW2 just as it has every game since WoW. I would like to see server capacities since launch in GW2, though, just as I did with SWTOR. They did make the right choice by going F2P, keeping semi casual players or the occasional bored gamer in reach by not having to pay to just log in and mess around with a new content patch. But on the flip side, no subscription makes it very tempting for hardcore bot farmers, as they have no monthly cost to run the game, so once they break the $60 mark, its all profit (assuming no electricity, blah blah). This is where I think D3 screwed up (one of the many reasons). Botters saw easy profit in a F2P game.

Its kind of difficult to pin these two MMO's against eachother, though. One being a P2P and otehr F2P. They both have different ways of enticing players, but nothing will ever replace WoW as the king of MMO's. No game in history has ever (or may ever) break over 8 years released with over 9 million players.

It will end up in the same boat SWTOR, Rift, Conan, Warhammer, etc, did. Just not the right economy for another MMO while WoW is still thriving.

[montgola]

Considering GW2 lacks economy and material prices are fairly poor.... I cant see how GW2 will rise anymore then it already has. Gearing in the game is more cosmetic and trying to make gold in the game is just unrealistic compared to other games... Games are all about economy and GW2 messed this up at launch.

[Teryaki]

I would have to agree. I just thought it was pretty interesting how ArenaNet is trying to keep up with Blizzard in the sense of customer service and faster content releases. I can see where they are coming from.

[1kaotik1]

i finaly hit 80 with my last class (mesmur). I now have all of them at 80. I can tell you that this game gets borring very quickly. Lack of economy makes grinding and farming kind of pointless. Even chains get boring quickly when i have full gear on all of my toons. I hope they release a new content patch soon because as of right now, i log in about 1-2 times per week in that game just to see whos online and see how WvWvW is going for us..

[Harambeqt]

WoW is still #1 and will probably be for a few more years.

[Ninjaderp]

Ofcourse they aim for it, but Iam skeptic.

[Poopzoor]

Guild wars 2 only gave me the feeling of an endless grind which caused me to stop before even reaching max level.

[Futile570]

Guild wars 2 only gave me the feeling of an endless grind which caused me to stop before even reaching max level.

Exact same

[Nemm]

As others already stated, GW2 initial sales were impressive, they did a lot of things right, but many people I know also stopped playing after reaching max level. Unfortunately, this is a game built for people who only have a few hours a week to play. While a lack of progression and mentality of 'Everyone is equal' looks good on paper, it just won't hold your attention. Sure, some people will play it for years, but will probably never invest enough time for it to be the 'King'.

Like I said though, they did a lot of things right.


*Edit* - I don't know what sort of infrastructure Arenanet has set up for GW2, but they will be relying on micro transactions to keep it up. GW has a strong niche base though, as long as they continue to buy the vanity items its fine
*Edit 2* - Also they will need to make enough off micro transactions to fund development of this 'Content*