Well, while cruising around the internet for games to play in 2011, I decided to check out the MMORPG market which currently World of Warcraft dominates, two upcoming MMORPG's however interested me, Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Guild Wars 2 is the sequel to the original Guilds Wars (and its multiple expansions) and is being developed by ArenaNet. This MMORPG interested me because I noticed the fluid artistic style of the game. Now graphics aren't everything of course, so I checked into gameplay and it is surprisingly pleasing. Unlike WoW's (and many other MMORPGs) gameplay of basic combat (I slash, then you slash, then I slash, oh wait I DOUBLE SLASH, okay you slash now) I really like this one (especially that you can fight whilst moving [firing arrows in movement is awesome]).
Unfortunately, I no nothing of Guild War's or Guild War 2's plot/storyline so I've no comment on that.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is being developed by the joint effort of LucasArts and BioWare. This MMORPG has been in development for a while and has always been at the back of my head and something to check out once it is released. And pleasingly BioWare has repeatedly emphasized on it's own 4th pillar of MMORPG: Story.
The story no question (in my humble opinion) will be satisfying. The game already has a well-established lore (though it is contradicted often, so this is a hit/miss issue) and simultaneously has freedom of a new game (being set many many years before Star Wars Episode 1 and after Knights of the Old Republic 2).
Graphics. Graphics. Now of course graphics aren't everything, but something just irks me when practically every male character (atleast that I've seen) in-game has an expanded torso and every female is your classic perfect-body beautiful female. It might just be me and people prefer this, but I prefer a more realistic approach in graphics (like in Witcher 2, yay).
Now for Gameplay. So far this is not a plus for Star Wars: The Old Republic. The gameplay is too rigid and barely flexible, the lightsaber fights are well-designed but it's very very slow-paced and rigid, even more rigid than WoW gameplay. Now I understand this game is still in development (as many people say in the game's defense) but they already have this combat-system down and set, the only way to change it is to heavily revamp it (which I don't see happening, maybe moderate revamp), scrap and redesign (not happening), or somehow increase game speed and allow fluidity to the combat (I don't know how this is going to work).
Anyways, right now I'm leaning more to Guild Wars 2, but we'll see what will happen. Now I wish to open a discussion here to the DiabloFans community. Do you prefer Guild Wars 2 or more Star Wars: The Old Republic, or just don't care. For the former 2 please discuss/explain why, and for the latter, well good for you.
Article above might have be finally settled on Guild Wars 2. BioWare developer Greg Zeschuck stated that WoW is the 'gold-standard' for all MMORPGs and that SW:TOR is modeled after it by it's 'standards'.
Personally, WoW is a good game but I'm tired of it, and if SW:TOR is going to be another 'WoW clone' then I'm not getting it. Guild Wars 2 is anticipated to be a genre-changer and I'd rather have a new innovative MMORPG than a carbon copy of WoW.
It's not wrong what he's saying but Bioware took a different route with storytelling a big part of SW:TOR. Yeah, if they take some stuff off WoW and utilize them well, it's gonna be a success. The problem is that WoW is already out for 6 years and they had time to fix some wrongs that were in the game over the first few years.
A WoW clone will almost certainly be a sub-par game imo. WoW is a extremely mechanical game. It only works because the instance part is very well done and people really have fun in it.
Bioware make good storytelling but they are EXTREMELY weak in mechanics. Baldur's Gate worked so well because it used AD&D wich is good enough. Dragon Age and Mass Effect series have simplistic, uncreative, one dimensional, shallow mechanics. It's allways consist in a few pre-desinged skill combos. The player have no space to creat anything and he takes like 15 minutes in the internet to master it...
Bioware building a WoW-like mmorpg? Sure disaster coming imo.
Even throough i'm not impressed with GW2, i think it has a chance. GW is a great game. I had alot of fun PvPing there. If they keep what makes GW a good game (the awesome skill system) and try to implement a more organic gameplay, i believe i will like it.
Kinda wonder what is the use of all that education investors are supposed to have when they can't even recognize WoW is an anomaly, just like Google, and cannot be aimed at...
WoW is a really screwed up game it just came at a right time, right place, got the anomaly status, and now everyone thinks it's some kind of holy grail or something. It's not. It's a pretty average game mechanic with good polish. There's so much more you can do with the MMO genre but of course the coward investors are going to put evolution of the games to a grinding screeching halt because they want a piece of the WoW pie which, to my knowledge, nobody has gotten yet.
I have more hopes for GW2 because SW:TOR is too much of a WoW clone. Even RIFT seems more different.
If SWTOR is anything close to the awesomeness of KOTOR it'll be better than GW2.
And I think its a bit early to be calling SWTOR a WoW clone. Obviously in development many MMORPGs are going to look extremely similar to WoW, and many MMORPGs end up taking a lot of elements from WoW. I think the Star Wars universe and things like the space combat will make it unique enough.
Ehm ... if WoW has average mechanics then everything else is bellow average. WoW is by far the most complex game I know.
EVE is more complex, actually.
That aside, WoW is yes one of the more complex games because all the other games suck, because they all went ahead to copy WoW, except those that didn't because they came in a different time (EVE). There were also games like Neocron and the like which had pretty complex systems.
the other is so hardcore it hurts (good raiding/competitive PvP).
Yes, because following a guide is so freaking difficult. WoW's raiding is not hard. Tons of people finished it. Maybe it used to be hard back in the day (Naxx, etc.), but it was closer to EQ back in the day.
You might think you know your class and play it reasonably well and then you meet some random dude with comparable gear that blows you off the charts. Then you realize you only scratched the surface.
Probably because the situation where you both have comparable gear is so rare and because there are so few people taking WoW's lul PvP seriously. For instance, take me. It'd take me forever to get to WoW's true PvP. I won't even bother. Most of us won't bother, we'll go play SCII instead.
Progressive PvP = lousy PvP. Even if you take League of Legends, having bad mana regen can really screw up how you perceive your character. What do you expect from WoW? One would have to play WoW for many years to get anything out of it because of how the PvP progression system is built (NOT because PvP is actually complex, unless by complex you mean unbalanced).
Problem with MMOs is that their expected to be time sinks.
Um, no. That is a problem only themeparks have because they are using a faulty model. MMO's do not have any definitions like this. There's absolutely no reason a MMO needs to be a "time sink", w/e that means anyway.
Yes, you can do so much more with MMOs, problem is you would need to keep your dev team intact after release to develop more and more quality content.
No. You use USG and RNG. That's how MMO's were supposed to be from the start, WoW just screwed it up and made everyone want a themepark. That's why EVE can dish out expansions without charging money for them or the client while also being an indie company and having a game with a low number of players - they do not release content, they release features, the content is PvP, players make it.
All themepark MMO's release content as in stuff that a player can "finish". That's their problem. It's not a model that functions for MMO's (I have yet to see a quality game using this model. Do you really like the idea that what you're doing is a time sink?). Because there are too many people playing them. And if you want to know why people play WoW with a model of this quality - it's because it's social and there are tons of people, and people like being social. And there's really no alternative that also runs on everyone's computers etc.
What themeparks really should be doing is go back to the NWN model, which was far superior to the crap they're doing right now. And I know a LOT of people out there who really want another NWN multiplayer/coop experience like it was (which was partially USG, mind you). Because all people want is to collect a bunch of people (<40) and kill something. Do you really need an MMO for that? You really don't. WoW is nothing more, nothing less, a time sink, really, and the aspects I liked about WoW the most were unrelated to the raiding scene, because I liked the MMO aspects, not the multiplayer/coop aspects lol.
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Guild Wars 2 is the sequel to the original Guilds Wars (and its multiple expansions) and is being developed by ArenaNet. This MMORPG interested me because I noticed the fluid artistic style of the game. Now graphics aren't everything of course, so I checked into gameplay and it is surprisingly pleasing. Unlike WoW's (and many other MMORPGs) gameplay of basic combat (I slash, then you slash, then I slash, oh wait I DOUBLE SLASH, okay you slash now) I really like this one (especially that you can fight whilst moving [firing arrows in movement is awesome]).
Unfortunately, I no nothing of Guild War's or Guild War 2's plot/storyline so I've no comment on that.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is being developed by the joint effort of LucasArts and BioWare. This MMORPG has been in development for a while and has always been at the back of my head and something to check out once it is released. And pleasingly BioWare has repeatedly emphasized on it's own 4th pillar of MMORPG: Story.
The story no question (in my humble opinion) will be satisfying. The game already has a well-established lore (though it is contradicted often, so this is a hit/miss issue) and simultaneously has freedom of a new game (being set many many years before Star Wars Episode 1 and after Knights of the Old Republic 2).
Graphics. Graphics. Now of course graphics aren't everything, but something just irks me when practically every male character (atleast that I've seen) in-game has an expanded torso and every female is your classic perfect-body beautiful female. It might just be me and people prefer this, but I prefer a more realistic approach in graphics (like in Witcher 2, yay).
Now for Gameplay. So far this is not a plus for Star Wars: The Old Republic. The gameplay is too rigid and barely flexible, the lightsaber fights are well-designed but it's very very slow-paced and rigid, even more rigid than WoW gameplay. Now I understand this game is still in development (as many people say in the game's defense) but they already have this combat-system down and set, the only way to change it is to heavily revamp it (which I don't see happening, maybe moderate revamp), scrap and redesign (not happening), or somehow increase game speed and allow fluidity to the combat (I don't know how this is going to work).
Anyways, right now I'm leaning more to Guild Wars 2, but we'll see what will happen. Now I wish to open a discussion here to the DiabloFans community. Do you prefer Guild Wars 2 or more Star Wars: The Old Republic, or just don't care. For the former 2 please discuss/explain why, and for the latter, well good for you.
Article above might have be finally settled on Guild Wars 2. BioWare developer Greg Zeschuck stated that WoW is the 'gold-standard' for all MMORPGs and that SW:TOR is modeled after it by it's 'standards'.
Personally, WoW is a good game but I'm tired of it, and if SW:TOR is going to be another 'WoW clone' then I'm not getting it. Guild Wars 2 is anticipated to be a genre-changer and I'd rather have a new innovative MMORPG than a carbon copy of WoW.
Edit: Used above source in new discussion thread on the direction of the MMO genre
Bioware make good storytelling but they are EXTREMELY weak in mechanics. Baldur's Gate worked so well because it used AD&D wich is good enough. Dragon Age and Mass Effect series have simplistic, uncreative, one dimensional, shallow mechanics. It's allways consist in a few pre-desinged skill combos. The player have no space to creat anything and he takes like 15 minutes in the internet to master it...
Bioware building a WoW-like mmorpg? Sure disaster coming imo.
Even throough i'm not impressed with GW2, i think it has a chance. GW is a great game. I had alot of fun PvPing there. If they keep what makes GW a good game (the awesome skill system) and try to implement a more organic gameplay, i believe i will like it.
WoW is a really screwed up game it just came at a right time, right place, got the anomaly status, and now everyone thinks it's some kind of holy grail or something. It's not. It's a pretty average game mechanic with good polish. There's so much more you can do with the MMO genre but of course the coward investors are going to put evolution of the games to a grinding screeching halt because they want a piece of the WoW pie which, to my knowledge, nobody has gotten yet.
I have more hopes for GW2 because SW:TOR is too much of a WoW clone. Even RIFT seems more different.
It looks like fun whereas SWTOR looks boring and far to similar to world of warcraft.
And I think its a bit early to be calling SWTOR a WoW clone. Obviously in development many MMORPGs are going to look extremely similar to WoW, and many MMORPGs end up taking a lot of elements from WoW. I think the Star Wars universe and things like the space combat will make it unique enough.
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That aside, WoW is yes one of the more complex games because all the other games suck, because they all went ahead to copy WoW, except those that didn't because they came in a different time (EVE). There were also games like Neocron and the like which had pretty complex systems.
Yes, because following a guide is so freaking difficult. WoW's raiding is not hard. Tons of people finished it. Maybe it used to be hard back in the day (Naxx, etc.), but it was closer to EQ back in the day.
Probably because the situation where you both have comparable gear is so rare and because there are so few people taking WoW's lul PvP seriously. For instance, take me. It'd take me forever to get to WoW's true PvP. I won't even bother. Most of us won't bother, we'll go play SCII instead.
Progressive PvP = lousy PvP. Even if you take League of Legends, having bad mana regen can really screw up how you perceive your character. What do you expect from WoW? One would have to play WoW for many years to get anything out of it because of how the PvP progression system is built (NOT because PvP is actually complex, unless by complex you mean unbalanced).
Um, no. That is a problem only themeparks have because they are using a faulty model. MMO's do not have any definitions like this. There's absolutely no reason a MMO needs to be a "time sink", w/e that means anyway.
No. You use USG and RNG. That's how MMO's were supposed to be from the start, WoW just screwed it up and made everyone want a themepark. That's why EVE can dish out expansions without charging money for them or the client while also being an indie company and having a game with a low number of players - they do not release content, they release features, the content is PvP, players make it.
All themepark MMO's release content as in stuff that a player can "finish". That's their problem. It's not a model that functions for MMO's (I have yet to see a quality game using this model. Do you really like the idea that what you're doing is a time sink?). Because there are too many people playing them. And if you want to know why people play WoW with a model of this quality - it's because it's social and there are tons of people, and people like being social. And there's really no alternative that also runs on everyone's computers etc.
What themeparks really should be doing is go back to the NWN model, which was far superior to the crap they're doing right now. And I know a LOT of people out there who really want another NWN multiplayer/coop experience like it was (which was partially USG, mind you). Because all people want is to collect a bunch of people (<40) and kill something. Do you really need an MMO for that? You really don't. WoW is nothing more, nothing less, a time sink, really, and the aspects I liked about WoW the most were unrelated to the raiding scene, because I liked the MMO aspects, not the multiplayer/coop aspects lol.