Is it ironic?

Why do people still do battle on many forums and in many discussions about GW not being a MMO? And why is it bad? I just saw this article and I am freakin glad that it is not an MMO: http://soulkerfuffle.blogspot.com/20...-from-top.html

It's aimed at WoW but it pretty much sums up the mentallity of all these "MMORPGs".

Many people on this forum suggest MMO-like features for GW. Read this, and then think. Be careful about what you wish for.
Im freakin glad that GW is what it is.



But is it irony? I heard someone saying that, Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet and Guild Wars, was actually the lead designer on World of Warcraft back in 99. But he got mad at some of the other blizzard designers, because he wanted something more along the lines of Diablo(free) but Blizzard wanted a monthly fee game. So Jeff, along with two others left, to create ArenaNet.
It's really funny to think about. It's funny how things go...

I just hope that Jeff is happy with the succes he has at Anet, and not bitter. Gailie, you got any input on this?


/lawnmower,
mowing lawns all over Tyria

I saw that article about WoW addiction yesterday and was very glad that GW is nothing like WoW. At all. Yay for a little sanity in this genre. It almost seems to me that WoW was created to push all the addiction buttons.

I have lost friends to WoW, and it's just not pretty.

thanks for the article, lawnmower. looks like an interesting read

Monthly fee gets a lot of the younger genaration (teens with money controlling parents) to not get the game because of financial issue, with the game being 49.99 and no monthly fee they are able to play and keep playing. Addiction is ones choice in the matter of games, some people dont like the PvP and just keep pveing, in WoW pve is major emphasis

The game is $19.99. And some people lack self control, which is the reason for the addiction.

thanks and It makes me sad to know that so many things in that article are true.

Pretty much exactly the same thing in Guild Wars. Want a really high-ranked title or Fissure armor, you gotta do exactly the same thing in Guild Wars.

It is true that MMO's are very addictive and that to get anything cool you have to play forever. Same thing with Guild Wars.

So Guild Wars not being a MMO doesn't really change that aspect.

Dam true. I used to play a different, but free MMORPG (Conquer Online). I quit, leaving to GW and now I have much more free free time and don't spend time leveling skills and other BS. That's what annoys me about MMORPGS: grinding mindlessly for things that don't matter like ingame currency, armor, upgrades, weapons, etc. You shouldn't need 10 hours a day of time investment to move on in the game.

GW is great because you don't have to level skills and it takes minimal time investment. You can get through easily even if you play 10 Hours a week.
I remember it taking only roughly a week for the missions in Factions even if you play casually 1-2 hours a day.

Compare this to WoW players that need 10 hours a DAY to play... geeze.

Plus, with WoW you are in constant competition with other people's stats and levels. In GW just about everyone that had the game for a few weeks has a lvl 20 character, even if it isn't 200 attribute points.

The play model of GW has RTS/FPS qualities, which is why people play RTS and FPS: the low time investment. FPS typically give all players the same stats and weapons, with player spicking up weapons from the floor oonquering through skill (aim/movement) not through better weapons. RTS usually starts clean slate every match with the time investment being to build up units and buildings/structures given limited resources.

That is why I love GW to be honest: it cuts the crap. When you play a game you don't want to grind 100 hours to get to the fun part. The journey should be fun, if not the funnest part of the game.

EDIT: Navaros, think again. Is FOW actually statwise better than Droknar's armor? NO. Titles needed? NO. They are just to keep you busy, should you want something to aim for.

Thank you for finding such a good article.

I believe GW does a wonderful job at creating a game that avoids many of the pitfalls of WoW. Specifically the neverending amount of work required.

As a casual PvE gamer, I have raised five well developed characters and gone through both storylines multiple times. Including my Nightfall purchase in a week, I'll have spent $150 for about 990 hours in fourteen months. Once Nightfall comes out, I'll be driven to finish quickly a few times, then relax. For WoW, an equal amount of time could equal one superior character, and I would have paid at least 150% to twice what I've paid for GW. When Burning Crusade comes out everyone, including characters such as the author's, will be lowered, forcing everyone to keep working.


Mind you this is casual (In my mind, < 3 hrs/day) gaming; with school, family, etc. coming first. I did have a stint in AO, where the level cap was 220. I looked at my characters in the 60 range, how much work I'd put into it, and recognized the futility of it (luckily it was the free version, so I didn't waste any money). GW stopped that, since I regained a sense of self control. Once I'd played through, there was no drive to finish, just more to experience.


The author's situation was not shocking, I know it's true for many people, including a few friends of mine. I do intend to show them this article, though I doubt it will do any good.


GW does have it's addictive properties for some aspects. As I said before the early chapter rush; but also PvP, can be very addicting. I actually considered not going to a friend's halloween party, since it's the 28th .

Without GW? I'd be paying for and playing all kinds of different games. KOTOR, Morrowind, etc. Not much else to use up my spare time.

It's a hobby, and I'll probably be staying with GW to the end (though that isn't happening for awhile ).

it's like rain on your wedding day
a free ride when you've already paid
its the good advice that ya just didnt take
and who woulda thought it figures


sorry got carried away in song

What's the difference if they are "needed" or not? The stuff that the blog author was complaining about was not "needed" either. The point remains that in both cases of WoW and Guild Wars getting the coolest stuff requires endless hardcore grind.

The difference is that one actually changes your abilities, and as such it can get to a point where either you have those epic items or you're just not competitive. Fissure armour and titles are purely there for the aesthetics. A guild full of people with fissure armour and tons of maxed out titles isn't going to have any better a chance against a guild with normal armour and no titles will they?

Last Friday : "Over 5000 hours [playing Guild Wars], am I addicted??"

Less than a week later : Ain't it great how Guild Wars isn't addictive like that other game we all love to hate?

Yeah, right, sure...

I think there's been enough WoW bashing for one week, to be honest.

I used to play CO too.. It was pretty fun, but then it got too competitive. I was the 2nd highest level archer on a new server, but then I was out an entire weekend.. and came back to see that I was 5th.. Then, I started leveling again, but I could never catch up.. Yay for a GW level cap.

Nothing like WoW doesn't mean it's not addicting!

Oh damn...I hope I won't drop out of college by GW...

/age
1600+ hours played

What I like about Guild Wars is that it allows for you to have a job, a life and everything else and still be competitive. The guy in the article, however, is saying he had to put in 70+ hours in order to be competitive. That isn't to say people won't get addicted to Guild Wars, because it's obvious that some are. But the point being is you can be just as good as the guy with 100k + XX Ecto weapons and FoW armor if you have collector's weapons and Droks armor.

Whatever, just my two cents.

Need = the best stats.

Aesthetics is not need.

Only 1600 hours? How long have you has the game?

I got 1800 hours in 9 months

lol, I can understand that guy's feeling, it remind me of some past experience I had as well. That's how I end up quitting my first guild in GW.

However, unlike many other mmorpg, being alone in GW isn't too bad. It is not like lineageII where you are alone in high level ground means getting PK by even higher level or not even able to go to higher level area to play (no party).

Oh yea... NO MONTHLY FEE!! (or rather, cheap monthly fee... but I like GW anyway) I have to say, it was defintely the no monthly fee that stole me away from other competeting online RPG.

http://gw.stratics.com/content/arena...hp?nocookies=1

Gailie, do you have any input???

At all?:P

Navaros makes a good point, but there is one flaw in the design of his arguement. While it may take some time to make enough money for FOW armour, it is nothing compared to the hours required to get the best out of most mmorpgs. if you want the best out of say... FF XI, you have to spend hundreds of hours leveling up and perfecting your skills before you can even start to think about the elite loot. In Guild Wars, you can hit the level cap in less than 6 hours. I should know, 'cause I've done it. But the point is: How is GW exactly the same when it only requires a fraction of the time that other mmos take up to get the best out of it?

I think this blog makes a very important point about MMORPGs:

MMORPGs provide a sense of accomplishment often lacking in many people's real lives. Combine that with the social security blanket of /ignore and the ability to logout and people find it easier to socialize there as well. This is why it's so attractive to so many people.

An escape from reality.

Ladies and gents, Virtual reality is here already.

That being said, my /age displays 2100+ hours...

Addiction is about the people, not the game, however this sounds like the cigarette companys' tone, it is right. But MMO like WoW just keep taking advantage of this addiction to generate capital, it is what makes a game "good intentioned", certainly there are ppl like that in GW as well, but Anet has done their best IMHO, I praise them all the way and will continue to support them as much as I can. (Merge my NF account P

Triforge sounds cooler than ArenaNet to me. But I may be biased because I love Zelda.

If you're getting the CE for Nightfall, check out the making of GW video. This will probably give you a great insight as to how the company, and Jeff Strain, feels about GW.

And the general video game obsession articles make me very happy that I exercise regularly and have lots of healthy outlets.

-kel

Thanks for the article lawnmower. The same situation actually hit me a couple of months ago. I wanted my R3 SOOOO bad so i did some non stop PvP during my summer vaca with a very active guild. I woke up in the morning, do some HA if anyone was available. Then at night i would go into Hardcore mode and play from 6-3 in the morning. i was actually sacrificing dinner time with the family to play a game.

and the whole false accomplishment thing is so true. after i got my r3 i swore i wouldn't play so much anymore. college apps season is on me and i cant write on my essays that im r3 and have the glad title :/

The difference between grind-forever armor in WoW and grind-forever armor in GW is that Fissure armor doesn't make you more powerful than the guy with 1.5k armor.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/items/armorsets/
In the warrior set, most importantly, armor on Dungeon Set 1(Tier 0) is a couple hundred armor less per piece than Tier 3

Guild Wars doesn't seem as addicting as WoW but really you can get addicted to anything really (ever hear about the lady addicted to vaccuming). The important thing to remember is that you need to do some other thing and not completely lose your life.

The key difference is: The Fissure armor doesn't give you any advantage whatsoever, except look and prestige. Same for PvP titles. So you're not forced to obtain them in order to perform well in the game.

I don't think anyone in WoW actually has the best armor in the game yet...you need to get into a big guild that does the end-game raids...then you need to work your way up to actually getting to go in the raids which is when you need to make sure you have the gear that's good enough to survive in molten core...which is where you get the gear and the quest to go into blackwing lair...where you get the gear and kill the end boss to finish the quest that you get from the guy in that bug zone west of un'goro. i think you need to have enough cenarion faction before you can even get the quest.

then...you have to grind nozrabubu reputation or something by killing trash mobs in aq40 for about 1 year...

then the cool dragon will talk to you and you can ask for the opportunity to do quests for the best armor in the game.

after i put that all together in my head, i cancelled my wow account and started playing gw again.