Galaxies To Beat World of Warcraft? 164
We reported previously on an interview with John Smedley being run by Gamespot. They've put up the second part of the interview, and in the closing paragraph John takes the gloves off. From the article: "One thing that I love about our company is that there is no 'quit' in this company. It's about making sure that we have pride in what we do. People within the company feel so much pride in this game that they want it to beat the crap out of World of Warcraft. That's something we feel very passionate about. We know we are capable of making the best stuff out there, and I'm proud to say that with the changes we're making in Galaxies, I think we're headed in the right direction."
Guildwars Nitpick (Score:2, Informative)
First off, there are 6 classes (Warrior, Ranger, Necromancer, Mesmer, Elementalist, Monk).
Second, if by "specializations" you are refering to atributes, each class has 4 (or in the elementalist's case, 5) attributes, one of which you only get when you have that class as your primary class (So characters have 4 primary + 3 secondary attributes, + 1 to one of those if they are an elementalist primary or secondary).
And finally, each class has ~75-80 skills the effect of which is based on your attributes. And there aren't any "primary class only" skills.
Also, the way I see guildwars is as basically two almost entirely seperate games you can play, PvM and PvP Guildwars. A quick explanation for anyone interested! (Everything after this is a plug for what is IMO a great game, not intended as a reply to the parent)
The PvP half of the game can be played entirely without the PvM and quest/story. PvP only occurs in one of the games arenas (4v4 Random Teams, 4v4 Arranged Teams, 8v8 Arranged Teams, 8v8 Guild Ladder). Also, players can make pre-leveled PvP characters using any skills and weapon/armor mods they've "unlocked" by either finding them in the PvM parts of the game, or unlocking them through the "faction" system (think XP, except global for your account and gained for PvP kills). That aspect of PvP is great because it means you can test out character builds (granted, not for PvM) without having to spend hours/days leveling only to find out your idea won't work. PvP on the whole is very self-contained (although going straight to PvP with a new account means you don't have much unlocked) and the random-matching means you can always get a quick game in if you don't have much time.
On the other hand, the PvM half of the game is also very well self-contained. Players level like in a normal RPG (althoug, max level is 20 and you usually hit that anywhere from 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through the game). As you progress, you find better equipment, new skills, get more attribute points, ect. However, the kinds of things that constitute "phat loot" in Guildwars do so mainly because they make your character look better (atleast in theory). It's not immune to grinding, but atleast all the grinders get is cooler looking armor and maybe an extra +1 or 2% damage/armor (where as in the SWG story above, where grinding is the only way to compete [note: token on-topic sentance]). The story is decent enough, and most of the quests are interesting. PvM definetly a great way to play if you love exploring, collecting things, or the social aspects of MMOs