All hope rests on Guild Wars 2

[Giovanto]

First off, lets remember that people thought Everquest was immortal before it was killed by WoW.

Second, I want to clarify something, WoW rips off things, other things don't rip off WoW. I once heard some guy playing GW say that GW stole the Assassin class from WoW, ripping off Rogue. D&D had Rogue originally, and Assassin was a variation of said class. So no, I don't want to ever hear any ignorant prick say that WoW gets ripped off by everything. The interface maybe, but almost every fantasy RPG gets its ideas from D&D.

 

[Silva]

I'm personally glad that WoW tends to suck up all the newbies, leaving slightly less annoying people for Guild Wars servers. Except on Tuesdays. Then you get all the bored WoW players signing onto GW1.

Plus, we'll get all the sensible people not interested in a subscription fee. Unless, I don't recall, is GW2 paid monthly? In which case, I'm not even getting it.

 

[Perivayne]

Hmm, seems to me if numbers are what determine if a mmorpg lives or dies, then the WoW killer's already been released....Hello Kitty Online

I'm waiting to see what GW 2 is since I loved the original GW. My guild's still hanging around, hoping to see something released soon.

 

[MmmFiber]

For people that dislike wow, any new mmo is a "wow killer." And people who are most likely to purchase wow expansions are people that have invested large amounts of time into the game already.

If wow doesnt mix things up pretty soon, I think it will peter out.... at least in terms of growth.

 

[dirk45]

Now 4 more are on the making (Star wars Old republic MMO, Darkfall, Guild wars 2, Chronicles of Spellborne").

Darkfall and CoS are already out. Both fail the WoW test miserably. Darkfall doesn't even try to, it's a game for hardcore gamers where people run naked without armor because they fear losing it. CoS has a new skill system that only adds another level of frustration. Both games won't pass the 100 K player mark. GW2 needs to prove that it's an MMO and SW:TOR will probably be a good MMO that will just notice that too many people spent too much time with WoW to give it up for another MMO.

 

[Jupsto]

who cares about the fabled "wow killer" nothing is going to kill it. just shut up seriously, I don't give a monkey and neither should you. I want GW2 to be a good game not a awful but popular one like wow.

 

[Azhrarn-101]

Well if Blizzard releases SC2 before this then they have no chance in the Korean/Asian market which = fail for them.

(Is it seriously their un-offical national sport?)

I wouldn't even call it the unofficial national sport, but the official one. They have TV channels dedicated to it, big matches have hordes of fans in the studio watching, the players have groupies (hot ones too). The top players are celebrities. Just for fun, find some ProLeague games with the original Korean commentary on YouTube and feel the excitement pour out of it, it's quite a spectacle even if you can't understand a word they're saying.

 

[olicon]

Isn't GW aimed at a rather different group from WoW though?

Honestly, I think GW did a lot of things right. There is certainly a very interesting core to the game, but it's just not an MMO. It's a semi-real time fighting game (like DotA, so to say), with a larger lobby. If they continue to improve the from the first game, I know I will definitely get it again. (I never get to really play the first GW though.. tried buying it, got ripped off, gave up.)

I think what GW2 (or any other game) need to compete with WoW is the ability to be silly. Honestly, every game gives you equally cool ability to hack a person's head off, but how many actually gives you a crazy teleport skill like Demonic Circle. Granted it's a crappy skill that is not very practical, it has a very distinctive flavor. If GW2 proceeds down the path where not every skill is about seeing big numbers flashes on screen, then I'm sure it will be very successful.

 

[Darthlex]

I for one can't wait for GW 2, but not because i expect it to drag all the addicts from their daily/hour'ly/minute'ly needed WoW fix .. I want it out simply cause i want to see how they are going to handle it this time, with the pressure of another game weighing upon their shoulders.

One thing that worries me though, is that someone said there would be jumping, but still .. there can't be the kind of senseless "jump over an edge and survive" thing like WoW, simply cause GW isn't an MMO like that, as soon as you step out of the cities .. We will now have weird looking walls of nothing that keeps us inside the borders? OR maybe you will simply fall down and die .. which would make sense .. am i the only one worried about jumping in GW2?

If i may remind the few of you that ever tried SWG, that a MMO, and a popular one it was, can be completely destroyed by ignorant developers. Blizzard has enough of those, just give them time.

 

[theklng]

Well if Blizzard releases SC2 before this then they have no chance in the Korean/Asian market which = fail for them.

(Is it seriously their un-offical national sport?)

they'll have a market regardless. starcraft and guild wars focus on entirely different things.

it won't kill wow, because at this point wow cannot be killed. however, i am glad to see that arena net is doing well. some good people are working there, including some from blizzard north (diablo 1-2 studio). these are people that know what they are doing, and they're doing it well. to me, they're up there with valve on the throne of excellent developers.

 

[Sewblon]

The concept of one game killing another game is a joke, remember all the "Halo Killers." If Blizzard keeps making new content people will keep subscribing.

 

[WheresMyCow]

The real question here is who cares? It does or it doesn't. Regretfully my computer has degenerated to a load vibrating monstrosity and my last attempt to download something from a CD resulted in a shattered disc.

So I'm just gonna stay behind in GW1. It should be interesting.

 

[edinflames]

Well if Blizzard releases SC2 before this then they have no chance in the Korean/Asian market which = fail for them.

(Is it seriously their un-offical national sport?)

Yes, it is. There are many many many TV channels dedicated entirely to StarCraft:Brood Wars.

Over there the really hot girls are with the top SC players, i'm not joking, just google for some video streams and you can see them all on free TV. For some reason computer games have taken the place of physical sports in the hearts and minds of the Korean youth.

Korea is Blizzard's real money maker, they are still playing Diablo2 out there and you can bet your life that they will still be playing StarCraft and D2 after SC2 and D3 are released. Several people have died of complications brought on by endlessly playing WoW. I think one of them had heart failure in a net-cafe after he was pk'd.

Since GuildWars was made by ex-Blizzard developers the Koreans loved it, and since so many of them play it to a degree of dedication hard to find in the West probability dictates that Korea will produce all the best players.

Personally I'm looking forward to teaching English ata private school in Korea next year so I can get a 'hands on' experience of Korean gaming culture.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

I doubt it will topple WoW but I don't care if it becomes more popular, I will play it because I like GW and I won't have to pay to play. Maybe a higher level cap or more reward for getting enough experience to advance a level after 20 would be nice.

 

[Phenakist]

Well Blizzard said that they are working on something bigger than WoW and it's a brand new rpg. And it's not SC2 or diablo 3. That could be going up aganist GW2.

Blizzard just want to suck more money out of people, you can almost be sure that the vast majority of Wower's will subscribe to this SECOND game, along with a bunch of other new players, Blizzard just doubled their income thanks to grind and hype.

Frankly I see no point in subscribing for a game, it's renting it, but just put forward in a different way.

I hated GW1... and I don't see why I'd like GW2. It takes all the aspects of RPGs and MMOs that I DON'T like and puts them together.

Excessive instancing with almost no chance of grouping - check! Henchmen, which may be useful in general, but often only make it harder to find a group - check! No actual open world PvP, or open world in general -check! Inability to jump, which I hear will not be there for GW2, check! Inability to go beyond a small area where you're "supposed to be" - check !

And by the last thing I mean that when I see a bridge over an endless hole I should be well DAMN able to jump down the hole. I HATE when games restrict you from jumping off something, climbing something, or force you to look for a new route if there is a fucking branch in your way.

And yes, I'm well aware that Guild Wars 2 will supposedly change some of these things... but urgh. I also hate the style of the game. I do like anime and things like that, but most of the armor, especially for female characters, really pisses me off. If they can't come up with something good, just give all the casters a damn robe instead of some fucked up half invisible dress. Caster = robe or tunic, no matter the gender.

And no matter how I may dislike WoW, I can guarantee there will be no wow killer, ever. It doesn't work like that. Look at freaking UO and DAOC. There are still people playing either. And chances are, some people will still be playing those games in 5 years. Or even in 10 years.

Same goes for WoW, but with higher population, you might expect a lot more people to keep hanging around.

Edit: I also hate most of the combat system in GW. Dodging projectiles is a nice touch, but the rest of it is just urgh. Most of the PvP I remember doing back on my warrior (Or whatever you called them in GW, I don't even remember, it was a while ago. Some time when Factions were just released) consisted of running up to a person thanks to the whole approach of the game doing EVERYTHING for you like running towards target, keeping it in front and everything, and hitting them repeatedly to hopefully build up adrenaline or whatever they had in place. Which was also a stupid system. At least, in WoW, you knew where you were going with each hit. Here...perhaps I didn't bother to look into it long enough, but how the hell does a costly adrenaline ability appear before the cheap one? When the cooldown wasn't triggered yet? And other roles were little better.

Also, just 6 spells ( or was it 8?) was a major annoyance.

And, just to complete this rant, I HATE GAMES THAT REALLY, REALLY FORCE YOU TO STAY ON A SMALL PLAIN/ZONE INSTEAD OF EXPLORING OR BEING ABLE TO CLIMB OR JUMP OVER THINGS!
I hated it in KOTOR, I hated it in KOTOR 2, I hated it in GW, and I hated it in every other implementation.

If I want to jump to the endless pit of doom, I should be damn able to.

No wonder you didn't like GW if you were running a warrior... they are probably one of the more boring professions to use, usefulness aside, the 8 skills system isn't a bad thing, as I mentioned before, in Wow it's all about the macro's, limiting factors give games more skill, that is just a fact not an opinion. And who cares about the armor, it's better than the "lets see if I can be seen from pluto" competition there is on Wow, which is all about it's items, it's an endless chain of grinding for slightly better armor and weapons each time I can't see how anyone could find that fun.

 

[Neosage]

I don't really care, I would prefer to keep non-gamers playing WoW than whatever game I was playing.

 

[sanguis3k]

the problem is no game will ever topple wow because gamers being the whingy bastards they are wont give it the time to get the polish that wow has had so they will flock to it in the start claiming it to be their new messiah for MMO's and then abandon it when it doesn't have every shiny thing wow has

 

[broadblik]

I played GW a fair bit, but to me it was just another grind fest, only this time, it didn't cost so much, I liked the expansion where they brought in the ninja people, I can't remember its name.

But anyway you pretty much did the tutorial and you were at level cap, it was awesome.