Guild Wars 2 Devs Aiming For the Top

As various MMOs have been released over the past several years, their developers have been wary about the inevitable measuring against World of Warcraft, often saying that "second-best" is more than good enough for them. Not so for ArenaNet as they work on Guild Wars 2; they're aiming right for the top. And according to a detailed preview now up at Eurogamer, their effort is paying off : "Two huge and risky decisions have been made in its design: junking the 'holy trinity' of character class roles (protective 'tank', damage-dealer and healer) and doing away with the quest-style architecture for game content. Yet, in moment-to-moment play, Guild Wars 2 looks and feels instantly and reassuringly like a fantasy MMORPG – just a noticeably fresh one. It's a question of flow. Combat is still hotkey-based, but faster and smoother and more streamlined, involving more movement and positioning. The levelling curve is now an almost flat line, replacing the epic ascent with a steady journey where content, not advancement, is king."

Re:Feeling bad for them.

[Anonymous Coward]

ICQ's momentum?

Myspace's?

Halo? TV? CDs? VCRs?

What about every single fashion and fad in the history of mankind?

When the momentum is "too big", time and time again it has proven to be "too big".

Tell your theory to the next guy you see cancelling his facebook account.

Re:Feeling bad for them.

[Nocturnal Deviant]

WoW is going seriously downhill, the developers are making horrible decisions, I cancelled my account and havent gone anywhere near looking back. to be honest when guild wars 2 comes out I along with many others, specifically PvPers will be moving to it.

A lot of people have lost faith in blizzards ability to balance recently, sorry to say but soon there will be a new MMO king, and I do not think it will be made by Blizzard.

This of course does not count Blizzard's new MMO that is coming out, That might have a chance to topple the replacement for WoW. Of course any replacement probably will be short lived or niche being that blizzard has the marketing capability to move people to it's next big MMO, however after watching how they have squandered away WoW I personally will probably not be moving to it.

Blizzards main strength are its casual players who play because friends do. at this point however people still look up to the Elitist people, most of which 2400+ arena players or progressive PvE guilds, all of which are really searching for something new, myself included.

Re:Damn!

[Quirkz]

I think you may have just sold me on trying this game. I've stayed away from many other MMOs because real-world time is a huge barrier for me (and also because I can't stomach monthly fees, though part of that comes back to feeling like I need to play to get my money's worth). But this sounds like something I can enjoy casually, or in depth, as time is available and the mood strikes.