Guild Wars 2

To be fair WoW’s growth was sort of freak of nature thing when it happened. Well, maybe not exactly seeing what vacuum it filled but even today it’s going through the same growth mechanics as other MMORPGs (exodus when nothing left today, re-sub/come back when there is). Most MMORPGs stagnated pretty quickly after that, most saw their maximum 2-3 months after launch then settled at something more reflecting the state of the game. The MMORPGs I have experienced struggled with their endgame options or their state of it as well and seeing it being symptomatic for newer MMORPGs it makes you wonder somehow but it wouldn’t surprise me if they had not miscalculated on that in GW2 as well.

I’ve personally given up playing games for endgame only because I tend to hop around games too much and never focus on one. I used to play one game, an MMORPG exclusively, for the endgame though. So I do know both sides of the fence. So it was no surprise when I happily agreed to the level 2 is endgame formula because that meant whenever I log in I am not held back by gear constraints and lack of steady commitment. My hope was that the game stuck to that and that was the only hope I had.

In fact I remember in the few pre-launch hype-for-GW debates I’ve had I tended to emphasize that people will be utterly disappointed how it may not match their exaggerated expectations and hopes, that it will have issues, a lot of them and that they may not be happy with aspects such as the endgame. But it’s very hard to encourage moderation during such times but it on the other hand I’d have been happy to have been proven wrong by reality then.

Lastly since this is not a subscription MMORPG – which then is hailed for F2P-in-three-months – the metrics for success and profitability are different. I also doubt with its current weight it will just vanish and be forgotten. It will still linger around while everyone talks about his own ailuropoda melanoleuca avatar.

NCSoft is publically traded so we’ll probably see GW2 numbers eventually… Since GW2 doesn’t have subs, maybe not?

Cataclysm sold 4.7m copies.
GW2 opens and sells 2m.
Mists of DailyPandaCraft launches and sells 2.7m.

We know where they went

Very much so. GW2 is an uncommonly good game, better than most MMOs entirely depending on the arbitrary way in which we individually judge these things . Of course that entirely depends on whether you believed it was going to be the shaker of worlds, or merely a very well made game.

But then, there’s always been this apparent need to over-analyse the MMO, more so than any other genre it seems. No game type seems to provoke as much buyer regret as the MMO does. What’s really quite amusing to me is that even when a very well made game that doesn’t charge a subscription comes out, people still apply the same old tired arguments and make the same old tired predictions.

Here’s a prediction for you – when MoP has long since gone the way of Cataclysm, people will still be logging in to play a bit of GW2, they’ll have a few wvw or spvpmatches, maybe start an alt and get it to 30 so they can see the changes that ANet have made to the order and scale of dynamic events in lowbie areas. They’ll maybe take an 80 through some low level dungeons – because they can do that without it seeming entirely redundant.

In other words, when the dust has settled, there is plenty of scope for GW2 to improve, to be tweaked and rounded out. Then there are the expansions and little ways in which ANet will entice us into sticking with their game.

Because contrary to current abiding opinion, I believe ANet are in this for the long haul, they have every intention of keeping us engaged beyond initial box sales. They certainly won’t be interested in spending all those years producing this game, only to let it slide into oblivion. No more so than they did GW1.

But don’t let any of this get in the way of a good bit of buyer regret doom saying. Carry on being a wet weekend. Good luck OP, finding peace….somewhere.

People should stop gauging quality with popularity.
McDonald’s food is widely more eaten than Italian food; does that mean the trash McD sells is better than Italian food?

“The majority” likes trash music, trash food, and yes, trash MMOs.
They eat McDonald’s because it’s quick and easy.
They listen to JB because everyone does.
They play WoW because it’s quick and easy and because everyone does.

GW2 is too complicated for your average Joe.
They can’t deal with non-automatic dodging, no ezmode tank/healer gimmick, etc.
Let them play ezmode games, eat trash food and listen to JB.
I’ll keep eating Italian food, playing GW2 and listen to good music.

I think the game is a huge success as a singleplayer-coop game. I think it needs some evolution to turn it into an mmo and/or e-sport. SPVP still needs ranking system and paid tournys (what those tickets you’ve been earning are for i imagine) before most people will start taking it seriously. League of legends has no “end game content” the progression is in “i might go up in rank for the uber bragging rights”. this would be enough to build this part of the game.

As for my “not an mmo” comment. I think community functions are weaker in this game than others as many have pointed out that the game makes people feel free to disconnect and not socialize, also there isnt as much benfit TO socalize as most any part of the game outside dungeons (which require 4 other people) can be done entirely solo….i can just join a zerg to take down a dragon, join a zerg to wvw, join a zerg to karma grind etc etc… Also spontanious epic rewards for job well done on world bosses and dungeons is still missing, replaced with “grind this dungeon till you get enough tokens” over “get excited on each boss kill for the chance at something rare”. I didnt see that as a good trade or a trade that needed to exist, coulda just put both in.

I think solutions to a lot of these kind of problems are around the corner, and i think due to the game having to subscription fee when they’re put in people will migrate back, but i also have seen over 50% of my RL friends quit the game already….not for WoW pandas…just simply bored or dissapointed that certain features arent put in yet so playing other stuff.

I think GW2 is a successful product since it has given so many reasons to spend hundreds of hours,

(1) Dynamic events which are better than the old questing systems
(2) A beautiful MMO universe with day/night and environment changes
(3) WvWvW which is extremely fun but has a few issues still
(4) Gems/gold conversion to buy cash-shop items such as additional characters, etc

Now, let’s look at how ANET has messed up GW2 (from my point of view):

(1) Gold is harder to ‘farm’ unlike other MMOs. Combined with relatively high armor repair costs and teleportation costs, many players are left near broke at max level.
(2) Gems to gold conversion ratio is completely out of whack.
(3) Mystic forge is the biggest troll ever
(4) Armor sets of casters (i.e. light category) are poorly designed and look abysmal. Some starter sets (acolyte) look better than the dungeon sets and the god-set. Only the CoF set looks like something to get.
(5) Weapons look abysmal and extremely non-flashy compared to other games (e.g. Tera, etc). Starter weapons look fine, but the end-game weapons which require tokens MUST look phenomenal. At the moment they don’t. Legendary weapons also look average, yet will take the average players months to get (time is not the issue here, but the looks are)
(6) All dances except the human dance look abysmal. GW1 had much better dances. I wish they brought the old dances back….if they didn’t have much time to work on new ones
(7) Where is the dungeon finder which is now a standard in many MMO games? Even GW1 had a better system in place.
(8) Skills locked to weapon type is a step backward from GW1. Mixing skills is not possible anymore which was actually fun. The ‘build’ system in GW1 was free, but in GW2 if you want to play a certain ‘spec’ you have to pay to re-spec (which is BS even after you have brought a Grandmaster manual).
(9) Cash-shop items are over-priced, and many items are not ‘cool’ (such as armors). GW1 cash-shop items looked much better!
(10) BUGS everywehere – more every week.
(11) Where is my chibi-Gwen mini-pet? I really miss her.

I played over 8000 hours of GW1 – tells you how much I loved their product. I know GW2 is much bigger than GW1, and requires significant work – let’s hope ANET brings it to the form it promised us during marketing.

I think GW2 is a huge success and the step the MMO genre needed. It`s the first MMO I`ve played in a long time (maybe ever) that I felt I was in a mutually massively cooperative environment.
Despite some of GW2`s rough edges and early launch problems this game solves so many problems the genre had I`m certain it will become the model future MMO`s will be built on.
Overall the game gets high marks from this 15 year MMO veteran, so I crown it a huge win for MMO gaming.

So to everyone sayin that the decline has begun and pops are dropping…anet just launched a new NA server yesterday, what’s your logic on that?