Guild Wars 2

http://www.gamespot.com/best-of-2012/platform-awards/index.html?page=1

Congrats GW2, you deserve it!

And NBC awarded best art direction in games for 2012.

Gz. i love gw2 hope continue this way

Awsome! congrats
GW2 deserves it

IGN’s game of the year announcement is on 12/21.

GW2’s art won it for Anet, but the gameplay was a let-down to too many people’s expectations.

Even in the video, they only talked about how “GW2 looks like a painting in motion”, “the beautiful scenario that pushes you on to the next level”, “tree trunks with painted barks”, even “inspiring stories to go along with the scenries (as a part of the cultural art)”, but the gameplay was barely mentioned (other than where they complemented that the game can be easily picked-up for casuals).

GW2 combat gameplay has done nothing that stands out… while what they did to the art, rendering, and complementing the stories with these massively beautiful scenrios has been tremendous and deserves most of the credit for this game’s success.

I think by no means is the GW2’s gameplay “bad”. But GW2’s art just had that ‘it’ factor, and it’s also universally agreed upon by every gamers out there who’s played the game that the game’s art is something special; in contrast, the gameplay does not get the same universal nod.

Well said^. I agree with this.

LOL@Gamespot….every single experienced PC gamer knows gamespot are terrible, did you see the other nominees, and the lack of some seriously good PC games ?

This like a kindergarten teacher voting the new Audi “car of the year” because its a pretty colour…….absolutely worthless award from a worthless source..

I’m sure no major gaming company with high standards would celebrate winning GameSpot PC game of the year beating the likes of Dishonoured, Mass Effect, The Walking Dead and Xcom.

Nayru.3947:

I’m sure no major gaming company with high standards would celebrate winning GameSpot PC game of the year beating the likes of Dishonoured, Mass Effect, The Walking Dead and Xcom.

Actually those are all decent games. Dishournered’s probably the worst bang for the buck, but it’s still really fun.

And another game of the year award for GW2 xD

But really, it beat out really good games like ME3 (shame about that ending), XCOM, Dishonoured (too easy) and TWD, all of which were among the highlights of the year (Torchlight 2 should be in that list also) – so very good result there

I’m also glad all the over-hyped trash this year like Diablo3, Halo4, CODblops2, WoW MOP, and AC3 got denied.

Richly deserved win GW2, congrats to Anet once again

http://www.gamespot.com/best-of-2012/peoples-choice/index.html?page=2 now vote for it in the PCA

only 19 hours back and we are almost %10 behind

That award is for ***PC***-only.

GOTY hasn’t been announced.

It’s a well deserved award, if only because, for once, we have a game that mostly lived up to the hype.

Although I’m disappointed that Torchlight II was not even nominated.

Bearhugger.4326:

It’s a well deserved award, if only because, for once, we have a game that mostly lived up to the hype.

Although I’m disappointed that Torchlight II was not even nominated.

not everything can be

Antipode.2518:

That award is for ***PC***-only.

GOTY hasn’t been announced.

GW2 doesn’t have a chance for GOTY, graphics alone will not win that award. Case and Point, GW2 has great graphics, but anet has to work on everything else.

There’s no way that’s true. It must be an ancient conspiracy created by ArenaNet to continue to oppress us!

Robbyx.1284:

LOL@Gamespot….every single experienced PC gamer knows gamespot are terrible, did you see the other nominees, and the lack of some seriously good PC games ?

I see this same argument used against every single reviewer who puts forward an opinion that someone else disagrees with.

- an experienced PC gamer.

xiv.7136:

And another game of the year award for GW2 xD

But really, it beat out really good games like ME3 (shame about that ending), XCOM, Dishonoured (too easy) and TWD, all of which were among the highlights of the year (Torchlight 2 should be in that list also) – so very good result there

I’m also glad all the over-hyped trash this year like Diablo3, Halo4, CODblops2, WoW MOP, and AC3 got denied.

Richly deserved win GW2, congrats to Anet once again

Means nothing. Let’s wait to see what the people say.

And before you call WoW overhyped trash, to keep 10 million people playing an 8 year old game, they’re obviously doing something right… Just saying. But Diablo 3, yeah, very overhyped. It was entertaining the first time through, but then lame.

No need to wait I’ll tell you right away: it’s not getting GotY from the popular votes for the simple fact that it’s not a console game and gaming consoles are more popular than gaming PCs.

Still, PC Game of the Year is a nice feat, I’d be very pleased with that.

tonyl.5063:

xiv.7136:

And another game of the year award for GW2 xD

But really, it beat out really good games like ME3 (shame about that ending), XCOM, Dishonoured (too easy) and TWD, all of which were among the highlights of the year (Torchlight 2 should be in that list also) – so very good result there

I’m also glad all the over-hyped trash this year like Diablo3, Halo4, CODblops2, WoW MOP, and AC3 got denied.

Richly deserved win GW2, congrats to Anet once again

Means nothing. Let’s wait to see what the people say.

And before you call WoW overhyped trash, to keep 10 million people playing an 8 year old game, they’re obviously doing something right… Just saying. But Diablo 3, yeah, very overhyped. It was entertaining the first time through, but then lame.

The only people still playing WoW are kids and immature adults whose sad egos are caught in an unhealthy rat race – believe me, I know this in rather gruesome detail.

In the end, GW2 is winning a lot of GOTY awards, and that’s fine, it doesn’t automatically make it the best game ever, it’s just awards that will boost sales and increase visibility. Play the game if you enjoy it, don’t if you don’t.

xiv.7136:

tonyl.5063:

xiv.7136:

And another game of the year award for GW2 xD

But really, it beat out really good games like ME3 (shame about that ending), XCOM, Dishonoured (too easy) and TWD, all of which were among the highlights of the year (Torchlight 2 should be in that list also) – so very good result there

I’m also glad all the over-hyped trash this year like Diablo3, Halo4, CODblops2, WoW MOP, and AC3 got denied.

Richly deserved win GW2, congrats to Anet once again

Means nothing. Let’s wait to see what the people say.

And before you call WoW overhyped trash, to keep 10 million people playing an 8 year old game, they’re obviously doing something right… Just saying. But Diablo 3, yeah, very overhyped. It was entertaining the first time through, but then lame.

The only people still playing WoW are kids and immature adults whose sad egos are caught in an unhealthy rat race – believe me, I know this in rather gruesome detail.

In the end, GW2 is winning a lot of GOTY awards, and that’s fine, it doesn’t automatically make it the best game ever, it’s just awards that will boost sales and increase visibility. Play the game if you enjoy it, don’t if you don’t.

Or people who might, you know, actually enjoy the game… There’s more to an MMORPG than the gear you get from the raid, and being as strong as possible… To a lot of people, it’s about the journey getting there, and the people you play with. It’s about working together to finally kill that last raid boss before the new raid is released. A lot of you bash the game, but I’m not sure you were ever really part of the game. And that gear progression predates WoW by pretty much the entire life of MMORPGs until WoW was released… There’s a reason why so many games use it.

But what I was getting at: Gamespot isn’t a good thing to go by. It’s the opinion of a few people. Maybe they bought this game and that’s why it won, maybe (though probably extremely unlikely) ANet paid them for that. That’s why I said to wait for the poll from the people. It might say the same thing and it might not, but it gives a better idea of what the people who actually matter (the players) think.

Congrats to Anet, if it was based on the game when it first came out I would have given it GotY too but as the game is at the moment, not so much.

GW2 just keeps racking up the awards and allocades. Well deserved for the greatest game of the year!

I think that Gw2 definitely belongs in any nomination list for GotY; however, after that it’s up to a personal preference.

The scale and direction of Gw2 are definitely good; an ocean of active events that make the world feel alive, lots of areas to explore… there is plenty in the game to do. It’s nice that the Gw2 has a variety of activities to do in game besides pure combat; an emphasis on exploration, jump puzzles are entertaining and fun to come across, seasonal events that are just fun, dynamic events make boring grinds into an actual mission to accomplish that makes you feel part of the world. Gw2 is a game that definitely has something going for it.

However, there are also many things that need to be worked on; many events reset too quickly and players are left with a watered out sort of accomplishment, more emphasis could be placed on exploration and jump puzzle rewards, some classes need some major balancing and bug fixing. Things like these bring the game down a notch.

A game is to continue to live up to the scale it currently promotes is going to be an uphill fight for Anet, but I think they can win it if they ensure that good changes happen in a timely manner.

tonyl.5063:

Or people who might, you know, actually enjoy the game… There’s more to an MMORPG than the gear you get from the raid, and being as strong as possible… To a lot of people, it’s about the journey getting there, and the people you play with. It’s about working together to finally kill that last raid boss before the new raid is released. A lot of you bash the game, but I’m not sure you were ever really part of the game

I’m fairly sure I’ve done more in WoW than you have. Very high world-ranked raiding guild since vanilla, multi-season glad, legendaries, etc… a few years ago, it was a great game and ahead of other games, but now in 2012 it’s a tired, ugly and dull rat race for kids who can’t move on.

GW2 kittens all over it. Join a guild, make new friends, and enjoy the best MMO out there. I actually used the word kittens (rather than any expletive) because I know that’s what the filter will turn it into

FluffyDoe.7539:

GW2’s art won it for Anet, but the gameplay was a let-down to too many people’s expectations.

Even in the video, they only talked about how “GW2 looks like a painting in motion”, “the beautiful scenario that pushes you on to the next level”, “tree trunks with painted barks”, even “inspiring stories to go along with the scenries (as a part of the cultural art)”, but the gameplay was barely mentioned (other than where they complemented that the game can be easily picked-up for casuals).

GW2 combat gameplay has done nothing that stands out… while what they did to the art, rendering, and complementing the stories with these massively beautiful scenrios has been tremendous and deserves most of the credit for this game’s success.

I think by no means is the GW2’s gameplay “bad”. But GW2’s art just had that ‘it’ factor, and it’s also universally agreed upon by every gamers out there who’s played the game that the game’s art is something special; in contrast, the gameplay does not get the same universal nod.

Yes, this exactly (sorry Colin et al.).

Worth also mentioning that GW1 set a really high bar for gameplay (namely, the awesome depth and choice in the skill system) and GW2 hasn’t really lived up to it.

The more time that passes, I think the key failings of the combat system are:

• combat is too spammy (because of no resource system)
• too many constraints on the combo system (few self-combos, combos aren’t dramatic (read: “fun”) enough)
• severe lack of build depth/diversity, which means not enough scope for theorycrafting and experimentation. the game needs many more skills and more compelling traits and basic trait fixes/improvements/balancing.

What i do not get is why has Far Cry 3 not been on any of the year list?

xiv.7136:

tonyl.5063:

Or people who might, you know, actually enjoy the game… There’s more to an MMORPG than the gear you get from the raid, and being as strong as possible… To a lot of people, it’s about the journey getting there, and the people you play with. It’s about working together to finally kill that last raid boss before the new raid is released. A lot of you bash the game, but I’m not sure you were ever really part of the game

I’m fairly sure I’ve done more in WoW than you have. Very high world-ranked raiding guild since vanilla, multi-season glad, legendaries, etc… a few years ago, it was a great game and ahead of other games, but now in 2012 it’s a tired, ugly and dull rat race for kids who can’t move on.

GW2 kittens all over it. Join a guild, make new friends, and enjoy the best MMO out there. I actually used the word kittens (rather than any expletive) because I know that’s what the filter will turn it into

If you think GW2 is a great game, not very likely. It’s just too extreme of an opposite from a skill based game like WoW’s endgame. And you’d be able to do stuff like your login screenshots and stuff of your character who actually raided in a highly world-ranked guild, as opposed to being a “friend” rank in the guild, or being carried… Funny how these posts never seem to come with any proof… I was Paragons main tank… That claim holds the same weight as what you just said.

GW2 is a good game, but it’s far from the best MMORPG out there. It’s just too much of a step back into the past. It doesn’t bring anything new to the table except for looking pretty.

GW2 is far better than WoW.

Better is a subjective word how you’re using it.

Does GW2 have points where it’s an improvement over WoW? Yes. Does WoW have things that just completely blow this game out of the water? Yes.

But I think their biggest mistake was not following Sony and Blizzard’s example. Don’t recreate the game, innovate the game.

I’m surprised by that. With all of the people unhappy with the game here and in my guild, and in map chat… I wouldn’t expect players to vote for it to win.

I agree with tony’s comment completely.

But I guess we kind of knew the type of company that Anet was… they only support “home-grown” ideas/products.

I wonder how much it costs to bribe GameSpot..

Clark Skinner.4902:

I’m surprised by that. With all of the people unhappy with the game here and in my guild, and in map chat… I wouldn’t expect players to vote for it to win.

Well you can see what actual players think of it…its losing to Max Payne 3…LOL

Karizee.8076:

GW2 just keeps racking up the awards and allocades. Well deserved for the greatest game of the year!

I am sure you meant to say accolades.

Back on topic: Personally, I don’t put much stock in these awards. TSW just got RPG of the year at tentonhammer, but of course that isn’t mentioned here. I do agree the artwork is great, but once it said “inspiring stories” I just had to laugh. Say what you will but these storylines are total cheese. Very standard at best. That comment just sort of nullified the whole thing for me.

tonyl.5063:

…

GW2 is a good game, but it’s far from the best MMORPG out there. It’s just too much of a step back into the past. It doesn’t bring anything new to the table except for looking pretty.

Feel free to not believe me.

GW2 has an incredible gameplay system.

Try playing another MMO after playing GW2, honestly, every other MMO plays like garbage after playing GW2.

I bought and tried MOP, but it was just so bad, so clunky – so old. Also, the rat race recipe is just so transparent and we’ve all been there done that, and arena and PVP class balance is worse than ever, the see-saw with warriors for example is reminescent of early cata. Overall the game is just old and ugly, just showing its age. Its time is past.

I played a lot of Secret World: great setting and fresh ideas, loved the conspiracy/occult modern day angles, the “lore” is far better than GW2 – but gameplay wasn’t great once you worked out the wheel and broke the game with overpowered weapon/ability/passive combos, you realised gameplay was stiff and unskilled, and PVP was terrible

SWTOR well, we all know what a disaster that was. Nice stories, but basically it was KOTOR, all the MMO stuff was very poorly done.

Tera had interesting gameplay ideas, all destroyed by a combination of korean ultra-RNG grind for gear you actually needed to get to be viable, and the whole immobile while channeling abilities, which made for very stiff gameplay. Some classes had dodge, but it just didn’t work properly like in GW2, and overall the metagame made for very poor PVP.

etc etc

GW2 gameplay wise is the best MMO out there.

For lore? Definitely not. My favourite MMO for lore and setting is Secret World. For raiding, it’s gonna be WoW or Rift, but really who cares any more, we’ve all done raiding to death. For everything else, GW2.

Pastryfighter.4379:

I wonder how much it costs to bribe GameSpot..

Rent some advert space and every game you create is a 9-10 star dazzler

I think the GotY is voted by actual players though. I pay no attention to most game sites reviews now because they are not to be trusted. I just go straight to user reviews and as with IMDB I ignore the 9-10 star ones.

I wonder how much they Comped these “sites” to post them as game of the year.

I agree totally with the Art and Sound awards, that section of the Anet team deserve huge bonuses. But then no one just runs around to see the sights, do they? I cannot state enough praise for that section of Anet.

As for the game mechanics and ideas crew, they need to be fired or retrained or send these folks out and experience life or read a good book or something because they pretty much suck for ideas and execution in this game. Even the simple common sense game mechanics blow and contradict Anets vision, Read: A game made for gamers not farmers and grinders.

Dont get me started on the devs currently screwing up the player balancing or the joke that is Wv3. How does an mmo get game of the year when patches come out, and just for giggles i will use this example, one of thousands. Patch note: X skill increases from 8 seconds to 10 seconds, then the devs find the increase really doesnt work and in the next patch they change the TEXT in the tooltip to read 8 seconds, wala! Fixed! Brilliant work there devs. And yet you get game of the year, those examples abound in this game.

I will give you Art and Sound of the year, but that is all this game deserves in its current shape.

Congratulations to the entire team working on GW2. Congratulations ArenaNet!.

Raven Paradox.1860:

GW2 is far better than WoW.

Sorry but there is a reason WoW still has millions playing it and GW2’s servers are begining to appear barren.

Now I am not saying GW2 sucks or it’s dying, but in contrast to WoW it does have a lot of polish to work on.

So you have every right to YOUR OPINION but a blanket statement like that couldn’t be anymore false.

Nayru.3947:

I’m sure no major gaming company with high standards would celebrate winning GameSpot PC game of the year beating the likes of Dishonoured, Mass Effect, The Walking Dead and Xcom.

Why? Gamespot was the first gaming web site I went to going way back. I just typed “pc games” in google and its the first hit.

Would people PLEASE stop coming into these posts and making them all about WoW vs GW2. The original post had nothing to do with WoW. It’s a silly argument – and if people want to have that discussion, Im sure they can find dozens of threads on non-GW2 forums to do so.

And grats to GW2. I personally agree with this decision by Gamespot. This game is awesome.

Congrats ANet! Keep it up and never stop blowing us away. I really love the game.

Blaeys.3102:

And grats to GW2. I personally agree with this decision by Gamespot. This game is awesome.

So if you agree with Gamespot’s decision, then basically you’re saying that graphics and art direction alone determine a great game (considering their judgement says nothing about any of the other elements of the game). No offense, but I’m sure you like the game for more than it’s prettiness; if anything, the gamespot justification for giving the award to GW2 does Anet a gross disservice of all the labor they put into everything else that makes this game great.

In some ways, I understand why GW2 wins, or stands to win, a lot of awards…. Just like in 2011 when Skyrim took many awards. The undertaking of these projects are massive and both were decently executed (some parts much worse than other parts)… but if size & “shiny” > execution & fundamentals, then how do any smaller (in scope and/or budget) projects win? How award recipients are decided is important because if the award giver is just “yay you get a gold star for all your hard work”, then the industry learns nothing other than grandiose and tons of pop is greater than substance…

TL:DR Awards that view a game more holistically and pit it against other games is better for the industry.

Clark Skinner.4902:

I’m surprised by that. With all of the people unhappy with the game here and in my guild, and in map chat… I wouldn’t expect players to vote for it to win.

Are you being sarcastic? I never understood why people would play something they’re not enjoying. Doesn’t make sense.

FluffyDoe.7539:

GW2 combat gameplay has done nothing that stands out…

You clearly never played any other MMO in your life. Go get WoW or any themepark MMO and you’ll quickly miss the great combat of GW2.

You could have said anything, but not “combat gameplay has done nothing that stands out”. For kitten sake…

Robbyx.1284:

LOL@Gamespot….every single experienced PC gamer knows gamespot are terrible, did you see the other nominees, and the lack of some seriously good PC games ?

This like a kindergarten teacher voting the new Audi “car of the year” because its a pretty colour…….absolutely worthless award from a worthless source..

Omgzzz, it was stiff competition I mean likez halo 4 or w/e. GW2 wouldz definitely have won against halo 4 if it actually was considered a PC game. The Walking Dead makes me laugh as well…

Congratulations ArenaNet, much deserved award!

I would take a critics award over a players choice award any day of the week. I doubt there’s very many players out there that have played every game published this year.

I find it rather amusing that people bash on this game for gameplay. Mass Effect 3 you were lucky to get 50 hours out of it, Walking Dead was good for 2 hours of play and 18 hours of movie scenes, Borderlands 2 and Journey couldn’t even keep me interested for 5 hours yet I see people come on these forums and bash this game when they have 1000+ hours spent playing it.

Hey buddy, there’s no subscription fee here. If you got 1000 hours out of this game for $60 I would say it was a pretty good kitten game even if you do hate it now.

FluffyDoe.7539:

GW2’s art won it for Anet, but the gameplay was a let-down to too many people’s expectations.

Even in the video, they only talked about how “GW2 looks like a painting in motion”, “the beautiful scenario that pushes you on to the next level”, “tree trunks with painted barks”, even “inspiring stories to go along with the scenries (as a part of the cultural art)”, but the gameplay was barely mentioned (other than where they complemented that the game can be easily picked-up for casuals).

GW2 combat gameplay has done nothing that stands out… while what they did to the art, rendering, and complementing the stories with these massively beautiful scenrios has been tremendous and deserves most of the credit for this game’s success.

I think by no means is the GW2’s gameplay “bad”. But GW2’s art just had that ‘it’ factor, and it’s also universally agreed upon by every gamers out there who’s played the game that the game’s art is something special; in contrast, the gameplay does not get the same universal nod.

What?!?! GW2 is winning industry accolades???

Quick! To the discredit-mobile!