Guild Wars 2

I fail to understand why melee warrior type classes are always so popular in MMO’s. MMO’s are mostly fantasy-themed games. I don’t know about you guys, but when I think “fantasy”, I think magic. Hell, the fantasy genre definition is as follows: “Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting.” Notice “magic” and “supernatural” in there?

So, why do people go for the least magical class in a fantasy MMO? I don’t get it. Aren’t games a means of escapism and entertainment? What’s entertaining about hitting things with a sword or stabbing them with a dagger, when you can easily do that in the real world? You can’t conjure powerful orbs of fire to literally burn your enemies alive, call upon minions of death and drain the life force out of them, or summon clones of yourself to confuse your foes in reality.

Magic makes you feel powerful. Who doesn’t want to feel powerful in a fantasy game? Not to mention magic classes always get the best animations. So tell me, I’m truly curious as to why some people always go for the melee warrior-esque classes in games.

Infinitism.6019:

What’s entertaining about hitting things with a sword or stabbing them with a dagger, when you can easily do that in the real world?

so what your saying is you’ve held a big kitten sword before ? and your dual wield a dagger and actually stab / kill something ?

your fantasy and mine aren’t the same , i wanna hold a bad kitten sword while you wanna pretend to be a fairy and use magic and stuff..

what is it to you if people want swords/daggers more than magic

Infinitism.6019:

I fail to understand why melee warrior type classes are always so popular in MMO’s. MMO’s are mostly fantasy-themed games. I don’t know about you guys, but when I think “fantasy”, I think magic. Hell, the fantasy genre definition is as follows: “Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting.” Notice “magic” and “supernatural” in there?

So, why do people go for the least magical class in a fantasy MMO? I don’t get it. Aren’t games a means of escapism and entertainment? What’s entertaining about hitting things with a sword or stabbing them with a dagger, when you can easily do that in the real world? You can’t conjure powerful orbs of fire to literally burn your enemies alive, call upon minions of death and drain the life force out of them, or summon clones of yourself to confuse your foes in reality.

Magic makes you feel powerful. Who doesn’t want to feel powerful in a fantasy game? Not to mention magic classes always get the best animations. So tell me, I’m truly curious as to why some people always go for the melee warrior-esque classes in games.

Because i want to.

Do elementalist hit 38k with 1 move? does necro? hundred blades does and this is alot of people’s mindset, some people just like big numbers, and thats what the warrior glass cannon is supposed to do, nothin wrong with it. the “magic” classes just never have big numbers compared to the melee classes.

Swagger.1372:

Infinitism.6019:

What’s entertaining about hitting things with a sword or stabbing them with a dagger, when you can easily do that in the real world?

so what your saying is you’ve held a big kitten sword before ? and your dual wield a dagger and actually stab / kill something ?

your fantasy and mine aren’t the same , i wanna hold a bad kitten sword while you wanna pretend to be a fairy and use magic and stuff..

what is it to you if people want swords/daggers more than magic

No of course I haven’t, but the point is, I can in real life if I want. I find things I can’t do in reality more fun. But hey that’s just me.

Oh of course, I get called a fairy for using magic. Society’s gender roles at its finest.

It doesn’t affect me at all, I’m just truly curious as to why.

plain and simple.. " cuz they want to "

Warriors – people play because they are usually the strongest and require a minimum amount of stardegy to play, the game becomes pretty easy.
Theives – no clue

Magic tends to be boring, and there’s only one animation for most spells..

On the other hand, there’s a lot more variety and kittenery to be had in weapon skins.

huki.8251:

Magic tends to be boring, and there’s only one animation for most spells..

On the other hand, there’s a lot more variety and kittenery to be had in weapon skins.

Magic tends to be boring? That’s a new one. But, to each his own I guess. And where are you getting “one animation for most spells”?

Infinitism.6019:

What’s entertaining about hitting things with a sword or stabbing them with a dagger, when you can easily do that in the real world?

I don’t know what kind of post-apocalyptic Road Warrior scene you’ve got going on, but ’round these parts I am exactly as likely to hit a dude with a sword as I am to shoot radioactive hellfire at him from my eyeballs.

Pretending to be a huge guy who carves people up with dual-wielded battle axes and swings around a greatsword the size of a surfboard like it’s made of foam rubber is at least as much fantasy wish fulfillment for me as pretending to raise the dead or confound my foes with illusions, even before said huge guy stows his axes and swords to shapeshift into a giant grizzly bear. I work in ISP Tech Support. I don’t even own a single battle axe, much less a matched pair.

Also, real-world sneaky stabby guys don’t do a whole lot of teleporting through shadows, petrifying people with magic venom, turning invisible, hurling thousands of daggers in a few seconds, performing acrobatic ninja maneuvers through a hostile battlefield unscathed, etc. While Warriors present an exaggerated version of things that have rough real-world analogues, Thieves in this game are just as overtly superhuman as any of the Mage classes.

Shake it off!

Infinitism.6019:

Magic tends to be boring? That’s a new one. But, to each his own I guess. And where are you getting “one animation for most spells”?

Every spell has its own animation. As in from level 1 – level 80, every time you cast that spell, you’ll see the same animation. This gets boring (IMO), whereas you can swap up your weapons countless times.

karma.8763:

Do elementalist hit 38k with 1 move? does necro? hundred blades does and this is alot of people’s mindset, some people just like big numbers, and thats what the warrior glass cannon is supposed to do, nothin wrong with it. the “magic” classes just never have big numbers compared to the melee classes.

You must be a Mesmer, because you’re pulling numbers out of the air that don’t exist.

If you’re going to state things you’ve heard other people say, please make sure its accurate.

Warriors are strong. Thieves are fast.

I can satisfy my magic-needs and sword-needs by playing a sword Mesmer, but I don’t feel all that powerful. I don’t feel all that powerful regardless of what weapon I use.

Well, haven’t seen one of these threads before. Kinda decent attempt at trolling, I guess.

Melee mechanics tend to be more complex in most games. You have range and positioning to worry about, blocking, combos, etc. (the more actiony a game is, the more this is true. See Dark Souls, Dragons Nest, etc)

Ranged combat / magic combat tends to be pretty shallow in most games. Neverwinter Nights / Baldurs Gate 2 did it well, with magic having all sorts of contingency spells, being able to counter a spell by casting another of the same type, elemental types, interactions betwen spells, etc.

Infinitism.6019:

I fail to understand why melee warrior type classes are always so popular in MMO’s. MMO’s are mostly fantasy-themed games. I don’t know about you guys, but when I think “fantasy”, I think magic. Hell, the fantasy genre definition is as follows: “Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting.” Notice “magic” and “supernatural” in there?

So, why do people go for the least magical class in a fantasy MMO? I don’t get it. Aren’t games a means of escapism and entertainment? What’s entertaining about hitting things with a sword or stabbing them with a dagger, when you can easily do that in the real world? You can’t conjure powerful orbs of fire to literally burn your enemies alive, call upon minions of death and drain the life force out of them, or summon clones of yourself to confuse your foes in reality.

Magic makes you feel powerful. Who doesn’t want to feel powerful in a fantasy game? Not to mention magic classes always get the best animations. So tell me, I’m truly curious as to why some people always go for the melee warrior-esque classes in games.

How many Fantasy novels have you read, that only contains magic? I don’t know about you, but quite a few novels I’ve read that are categorized under “Fantasy”, are only categorized so, due to being in a “Fantasy” world with dragons, unicorns, phoenix’s, etc. The list goes on. And get this, the “Main Hero”, always comes wielding a sword, and slays so called “Dragon”. So why is it, that, “Fantasy” should just be categorized as “Wizards”, and sorcery? That doesn’t make much sense, at least coming from someone who’s read his fair share of “Fantasy” novels.

To answer your question though, I’ve always found myself to stray from any ranged classes, Archers, Wizards, Sorcerers, etc. as it feels a little boring. It doesn’t feel like there’s much rush of excitement as when you rush in there swinging like a mad-man. Some players just love the way melee classes feel. I’m not saying I hate ranged classes by any means, I just don’t get the same feeling as being all close-quarters.

That being said, the animations in Guild Wars 2 for spells is pretty well done. But, once you’ve seen it all, you might as well be swinging a sword, at least then, you don’t notice how bored you are with how the spells/animations look.

I have always been a warrior since wow (2005) when i started playing MMOs.
Fantasy games is not always about mages, but this big world with dragons, and large kingdoms and crasy wtf armor

And i dont play MMOs for the fantasy thing, but the open world and char progression.

Bubbles.1047:

Well, haven’t seen one of these threads before. Kinda decent attempt at trolling, I guess.

^^^^This.

Please guys, don’t feed OP, the troll. I’ve seen enough of these type of threads when I roamed BF3 Battlelog forums.

Because in my fantasies I don’t run around in a dress shooting pixie dust from my hands. I’m far too manly for this.

I just wish the dual sword spec actually felt like a dual sword spec

Why do people play some classes over others, that can be attributed to an individuals personality.
People who play thieves generally like to remain in the shadows and deal with threats using cunning/have a plan.
People who play warriors generally like to face problems head on and have little to hide, they also generally like the physical power to deal with threats.
People who use magic (broadly speaking) usually prefer the “intelligent” character types, they use non-physical power and intelligence to deal with threats.

When I play fantasy RPGs I prefer to play the stealthy thief/assassin/rogue type as I don’t like to be in the spotlight and I don’t tackle problems in the most direct manner, I also enjoy being able to hide from people and plan elaborate means to accomplish my goals.

Infinitism.6019:

You can’t conjure powerful orbs of fire to literally burn your enemies alive, call upon minions of death and drain the life force out of them, or summon clones of yourself to confuse your foes in reality.

This is my everyday life.

Swinging swords in game allows me a relaxing escape from the dreary spell slinging I must do.

Because in my fantasies I don’t run around in a dress shooting pixie dust from my hands. I’m far too manly for this.

^^^ Agreed.

To the tune of a popular holiday song….

Slashing through our foes
With a good two-handed blade
Over the corpses we go
And through the gore we wade.
Blades on helmets ring
Making bodies fly
What fun it is to sing our slaying song
and watch these monsters DIE!
Oh, ring their bells with swords and spells
don’t let them get away!
We’re brave and bold for fame & gold
We’ll make a lot to day!
Oh, ring their bells with swords and spells
don’t let them get away!
We’ll hack and slash, blast and trash
And blow these dudes away!

Merry Guild Wars Day!

Graviton.1983:

Shake it off!

lol. I don’t think it’s going to work on this one

As far as the fantasy thing goes they are not just lots of magic. I would say most movies/books of that genre have the magic characters as support (Merlin) or support+dps (Gandalf). There is always someone at the front wielding a melee weapon (Conan, Arthur, Dwarves in general, Aragorn … ).

I play Thief because the Medieval fantasy I grew up with were Conan, Solomon Kane, Farhrd and the Grey Mouser, Jimmy the Hand, Ali Baba, Aladdin, The Three Muskateers, Bilbo Baggins and Gord the Rogue. Sure there were wizards in those books but the ones I loved were the Sellswords, Mercenaries, Rogues, Thieves and Barbarians. That is why I play warriors and thieves instead of wizards and necromancers. Also, Necromancers are inherently evil in the pop-culture that I grew up with, playing an evil wizard that summons or reanimates corpses grows old after a while, I want to kill evil wizards not be one.

I guess youve never seen Conan the barbarian then, or perhaps Lord of the rings? both are fantasy and both feature warriors and rogues alongside the magey types….those of us who swing blades and stab faces are the front and middle ground that help your magey types not get your heads bitten off by big nasty monsters whilst your faffing about in robes and slinging sparkly fireworks about and despirately hoping you dont get to overwhelmed before we can come save you….again!

Fantasy has many genre’s within its milleu do some more research and you’ll see its not all fairies and magic.

unless you’re like the guy on the picture i highly doubt that running arround with dual dagger, pistol, sword or even great sword is common.. anywhere. unless it’s halloween ;D

Well, I’ve been enjoying playing through all the professions, but when it comes down to it I’m a melee player first and foremost. I agree completely with the above posters that when you examine the fantasy genre there are always melee characters there alongside (or more accurately, in front of) the magic geezers. They don’t call it ‘swords and sorcery’ for nothing!

To answer the OP’s primary question, when it comes to feeling powerful it is hard to beat a heavily armoured, well armed character that can just wade in amongst the enemies and kitten them with an axe, large sword or other sharp pointy thing of your choice. I enjoy the intellectual challenge of playing the squishier classes at times, but for sheer bad-day-at-work-relieving smitey goodness, its a warrior’s life for me.

Finally, when you actually think about it, in Guild Wars lore, all the melee professions make extensive use of magic as well. Or do you really think nailing fifteen lizard scales to your sword improves your power, precision and toughness?

Just read the “Night angel” trilogy from Brent Weeks and you’ll sure as hell start thinking bout thieves as magic users

I typically like fast/evasive characters in MMOs. Thus I play Thief and played Assassin in GW1. That and I was born a ninja. .-. Also love daggers, 1handed swords, 1h guns/throwing weapons, and hand-to-hand weapons most in games. (Wish Anet gave Thief H2H.)

I generally don’t like playing tanks in MMOs and Warrior was my least favorite in GW1, but they ended up 2nd place favorite in GW2. Not bound to a tank archtype, tons of weapons and they’re just plain fun. and they have cool armor~ I feel like heavy armor was spoiled when they designed it compared to medium/light.

The thing about warriors and thiefs in this game is they have ranged options, 2ndly there is no tanks in gw2 except maybe bunker guardians or eles. On that note, what game other than Gw2 do mages tank better than warriors. This is a really messed up game you know.

Wiki – Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common.

Plot, theme and setting, we have it all. Fantasy has nothing to do with a movie, book or game full of characters doing magic stuff. BTW my warrior can turn into a wolf, bear, raven or snow leapord and my Guardian summons Hounds of Balthazar = magic.

Infinitism.6019:

I fail to understand why melee warrior type classes are always so popular in MMO’s. MMO’s are mostly fantasy-themed games. I don’t know about you guys, but when I think “fantasy”, I think magic. Hell, the fantasy genre definition is as follows: “Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting.” Notice “magic” and “supernatural” in there?

So, why do people go for the least magical class in a fantasy MMO? I don’t get it. Aren’t games a means of escapism and entertainment? What’s entertaining about hitting things with a sword or stabbing them with a dagger, when you can easily do that in the real world? You can’t conjure powerful orbs of fire to literally burn your enemies alive, call upon minions of death and drain the life force out of them, or summon clones of yourself to confuse your foes in reality.

Magic makes you feel powerful. Who doesn’t want to feel powerful in a fantasy game? Not to mention magic classes always get the best animations. So tell me, I’m truly curious as to why some people always go for the melee warrior-esque classes in games.

Fantasy is a wide genre. It also wouldnt exsist without real life mythical tales and eposes, the ancient grandfathers of fantasy.

Throughout history, warrior types aswell as thieves and tricksters have been well represented in every cultures lore really, just as much as magic, or most oftenly a combination of both.

Sigurd Fafnrsbane in germanic/norse lore, a mighty, yet very regular warrior kinda guy with a magic sword that slays a dragon.

Beowulf, same example, regular warrior, granted a magic sword by a person who at first hated him.

Conan the Barbarian, a thief that hates magic and talks kitten about his patron god on a daily basis. Although not a cultural myth, its still a great example.

Thor, the thundergod, a warrior type killing giants with a magic hammer and wearing a magic belt.

There is a even a whole cult dedicated to anti magic in Warhammer and Warhammer 40k, the Khorne cult. The lore is also filled with warrior type heroes that gain their strength from magic weapons.

Those are just a few examples.

And a question, have you ever seen or can you even imagine a real life guy with a greatsword doing 100 blades? Isnt that some form of magical strength behind being able to swing a sword that fast?

And there are other more regular life professions in this game. Engineer and Ranger, neither of them have supernatural powers really. Both of those are probably more common as everyday occupations within the gaming community.

People still hunt (with bows and xbows) and people still invent and enginner things.