Guild Wars Still In The Thick of Battle 46
1up.com has an interview with community relations manager Gaile Gray. They discuss changes since the launch, and how the company has acted to keep the player-base happy in a title with no fee to keep them grounded. From the article: "August's event showed us that increasing the rewards for PVP play was both necessary and wise. The feedback we received before the event provided us with a lot of guidance on what players wanted most. We reacted with a substantial boost to faction points and with special rewards for PVP accomplishments...and the players loved it. We're going to keep watching the gameplay progression and reward systems to ensure that both PVP players and cooperative players are adequately rewarded."
Re:Well (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Well (Score:1, Insightful)
It could be worse (Score:3, Interesting)
What I like about GW is that the "best" weapons/armor/etc while expensive, are not horribly overpowering vs the regular stuff.
Re:Well (Score:1)
Re:Well (Score:2, Interesting)
The grinding only exists for PvE characters and play....and really, the PvE players would be complaining if there was no pointless goal to grind for.
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:2, Informative)
In fact, considering that you apparantly don't even know that they haven't released ANY paid expansions yet, I think I'm going to have to assume that you haven't actually PvPed in the game at all, and therefore are pulling that out of your ass as well.
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:1)
I regret purchasing the game. I put less than ten hours into it before uninstalling.
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:1)
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:2)
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:1)
Guild Wars= $50 retail price + price for expansions (say $45 at the most)
Random Subscription Game: = $50 retail price + $10-$15 per month subscription
Guild Wars would have to release about 4 expansions (give or take) per year to equal the amount of money you're paying for a subscription MMO.
Just a thought.
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:2)
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:1)
Don't get we wrong... world of warcraft is a great game, but as a college a student, I have a hard time justifying paying $15/month for time playing on their servers that I should be using to study.
It is impossible to compare Guild Wars like this. It's easy to pick up and play for 20 minutes and have a good time. It depends on what
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:2)
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:1)
Random Subscription Game: = $50 retail price + $10-$15 per month subscription dont forget about expansions for subscription games. i used to play dark age of camelot. buy the game ($50) $15 per month. then you had expansions. thats another $20-$35 right there. so, it can depend on the game. im hoping for either LARGE pay expansions, or sorta big free ones. (Take the sorrows furnace in GW for example)
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:4, Insightful)
I've played month to month MMOs. Unless you are hardcore into the genre, they suck in terms of monetary value.. Period. It's a horrible payment schme. Every day you aren't playing the game - you're still paying for it. Oh, and if you dare play with friends and don't play enough to keep up with them
Yeah, the expansion will cost about as much as the original. I'm sorry, how is that any worse than Sony charging nearly full price for an expansion to PlanetSide
And who will buy it? Well, people still interested in the game. Since you don't obviously don't play GW, I'll just assume you didn't know how silly a statement it is that you'll need the expansion to keep playing. I've picked up games with veterans, joined games with newbies, and I haven't even touched the additional content to date. What ANet is doing is assuming that they'll be doing a good enough job that the people who have played the original will want more. The expansions won't be required for play
Guild Wars is a different beast than other MMO's out there. Comparing it to other, subscription based, games with expansions is just ignorant.
Head back to your cave. I'll be in Ascalon if you need me.
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:2)
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:2)
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:1)
If you think the designers won't be able to get around this problem, I suggest you take a peek at the game and the server s
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:2)
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:2)
I've spent probably 10-15 hours just making another character and flopping around the tutorial area of the game. Playing in "just" the common area is quite fun and easy to get pick up games with. In fact, some of the best
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:1)
So far, my GW experience has been more akin to Diablo 2, with the same quality and challenge of encounters as opposed to something that I'm likely to find in WoW, FFXI or EQ. As to the monthly fee being so horrible because you pay for it every day, let's look at exactly what that entails, shall we?
I'll use WoW, my current M
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:2)
Since they cost about the same, I don't see what's so wrong with that.
I'll use WoW, my current MMO of choice, which has a month by month fee of $15 bucks a month. Average of 30 days in a month, which gives us a cost of *gasp* 50 CENTS A DAY. Yea, that's so horribly expensive, isn't it?
Actually, it kinda is. And if you don't believe me, go buy a newspaper every single day, but only read it once or twice a week. Bet you start to notice and stop pretty q
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:1)
Personally, I look at it more like I do EQ. I bought EQ, played it for about the same amount of time as GW, and came to largely the same conclusion. I still didn't pay a monthly fee.
As to the newspaper analogy, I don't quite see where you're going w/ that. Instead, let's compare it to some other forms of popular entertai
Re:To Summarise.. (Score:2)
Except that with EQ you had a deadline, and if you went over that deadline the clock would start running and you'd have to pay for it. GW doesn't have any such restrictions, like a normally priced game.
Instead, let's compare it to some other forms of popular entertainment out there, like a movie.
OK. Fine. Let's say it's $10
Good so far. We'll see. (Score:3, Interesting)
It still hasn't been tested by their expansion model, though. For the game to survive long term, they need to sell those expansions, and they need to keep doing it for years.
I'm skeptical whether that will work or not, but we'll see. I'm rooting for them, and not because I play the game (I don't), and not because I think this model is any better than the subscription model (I'm on the fence about that). I'm rooting them because I love MMOGs, live them, and anything that shakes up the MMOG paradigm is a good thing. The market has begun to stagnate as it moves closer and closer to Hollywood budgets.
This pricing model has the potential to allow more newcomers in the field, if it works. Not everyone is a MMOG nut like me, tossing out dollars for subscriptions without even thinking about it. I think a large part of the market is still scared of subscriptions. If this pricing model reaches those people, the whole industry benefits.
If the allmighty dollar is going to dominate this market just like it does everything else, anything that attracts more allmighty dollars is a good thing-- there's a higher chance some of it will reach a good developer.
We'll see.
GW -- reasons for long-term success (Score:5, Insightful)
Try it briefly, and you'll see why they are extremely likely to succeed. There are five key reasons why I think it's almost guaranteed, by design:
It's mind-bogglingly complex to be fully aware of the professions of those you are fighting and what skills they are using, to counter them appropriately, while at the same time managing your energy reserve, and looking out for your team. This is nothing like a straight turns-based MMOG like EQ, where once you engage combat, the outcome is largely decided as long as you don't do something dumb. GW is fast and furious --- no tank taunt to trivialize the gaming in PvE, and effective foe AI so that the healer always gets it first, just like human players do.
If you've absorbed the above, you'll realize that PvP in Guild Wars is either fantastically brilliant (if you like PvP) or appallingly dreadful (if you're a PvE-only fan), because GW's PvP is trully player-skill-based: ie. the best man/woman wins, regardless of equipment. This is why the Koreans own GW's PvP space --- they work hard to understand the game, and it's their human skill/experience as players that makes them use the in-game skills so devastatingly. (America comes a beleagered and very battered second, and the chewed up and splattered remains of Europe a very distant third.)
In summary, Guild Wars can't fail, not by rights anyway. It will fail only if not enough people hear about it, or if its totally excellent developers leave the company. (No, I don't work there, I'm just an appreciative player, completed it on main.)
Re:GW -- reasons for long-term success (Score:2)
Re:GW -- reasons for long-term success (Score:1)
Re:GW -- reasons for long-term success (Score:1)
While I agree with most of what you said, I have to disagree with the small excerpt above. If you check the Guild Wars ladder http://ladder.guildwars.com/ [guildwars.com] you'll see that Korea, if anything,
Re:GW -- reasons for long-term success (Score:1)
I agree with this. Instancing is something I don't like a lot in my games. Although without instancing guild wars would not work the same at all. I would be interested to see someone make competative game like guildwars but not relient on instancing.
Oooo... (Score:4, Insightful)
Can you imagine it? People are still playing a game that was released a whole six months ago? Unprecedented! Completely unheard of! Truly, a landmark in history of Internet gaming! [bat.org]
I don't have objections to Guild Wars or such, just happy that they're building a strong community. Yet, I find it a bit odd that in general, nowadays, some people might consider it weird to play a game that was released more than 2 months ago. Are we really heading to "throwaway entertainment" culture in video games too, or what?
Do call me back when Guild War reaches five-year limit though, like Neverwinter Nights will in next summer, still at the moment as lively as ever =)
MMORPG? (Score:3, Informative)
However, I'm disappointed that we've gone from calling it a CORPG to an MMORPG. People buy this game expecting "WoW for Free!" when they should be thinking "Diablo Done Right."
If you're looking for a fun, skill-based, multiplayer RPG then Guild Wars is the best you'll find. If you're looking for something that you can play every single day/night, find an active guild that plays a lot of PvP.
Oh yeah, and get your free trial [ati.com]. Don't worry about entering a serial number.
I enjoy guild wars (Score:1)
But for some more free fun check out the url under my user name.