Need A Reason To Not Buy GW2 - Read

I'd be more likely to read this differently. This isn't about turning away from games. This is about broadening the focus of the company and looking at ways to succeed even beyond the many phenomenal accomplishments of the past. It seems a natural to me!

Don't worry -- NCsoft will be making and publishing games for a long, long time to come. (And FYI, TJ Kim is a huge Guild Wars fan.)

I've asked if there is more to the story, or any additional bits of info to share, and if there are more details, I'll be sure to pass them along.

Right next to the OP's article they posted, is this response by NCSoft

http://kotaku.com/gaming/mmos/ncsoft...mes-326745.php

I don't get it.
So much hype over a company making investments in another sector.
Actually if people would read it a bit more careful, they would see that it is a strategy to keep the stock prices up. And I think its not a secret that investors will keep their stocks if they start dropping to much.
They prefer to see them go up.
But maybe the experts here can tell NC Soft a bulletproof way how to gain more income with their current line of games.

Of course is Lineage 2 getting less subscribers, the game is older then WoW, and it is a bit overrun with adena farmers and bots.
And that the L2 engine starts to get a bit limited with adding new content that is interesting enough to keep the player base up.
But they got a new mmo (Aion) on the way, which will be very interesting to see. Seems to me like that is the takeover for L2.

About calling no monthly fee for a failure... can I start to laugh now?
Was Diablo II a failure?
How about NWN?
And there a other games with a constant player base where there is no monthly fee.
But I guess some never tried to calculate income with expansions and online shop sales.

Exactly! Thanks, Masseur.

I don't know how they can get more money out of their current line up of games. Lineage isn't new and neither really is city of x. Guild Wars makes then fairly good money, but they definately want more and companies think that they can throw an MMO out there and make the hundreds of millions that Blizzard is making from WoW. To focus on MMOs has worked for them but I think that they need to start up/buy up a company and have them make just normal offline games. Steadier money and don't have the upkeep of bandwidth and server costs that online games have. The problem with that is if a game is offline then you HAVE to have the bugs ironed out, or have a online mode like Diablo where the option is there for advanced play and updates but the game is designed to be played offline and online is just a bonus.

Yay! Well this is a really good thing, then. Expanding is usually the best thing a company can do, as long as it fits within that company's corporate values. NCSoft seems to be headed in the direction of online software and entertainment, whatever form that may take. So, this is a logical step forward in that department.

Ok so now Gaile has responded and set the record straight, how about some some juicy Guild Wars 2 news !

need a reason not to buy gw2? how about it being another copy of world of warcraft, and we already have enough of those?

guild wars is a money making franchise. should ncsoft dump it, i can see other publishers punching and trowing bags of $$$ to have it in their portfolio

GW is a marketing game. You hook them with the no monthly subscription so you can easily advertise your other games that are monthly subsciption. GW used to be a great game. In the end the business model is self destructive. It cannot support itself for a long period of time.

Tournaments are sponsored by companies giving free hardware. Again marketing. It doesn't cost the company nearly anything to donate a few, and I do mean a few, pieces of hardware to have their name put out their directly to the demographic market.

I was more referring to the $100,000 purse tournaments which Anet cannot keep doing because of its no monthly subscriptions. Again its marketing. They did the cash prizes twice and never again. "Look we are offering money go buy our game. Oh wait no monthly subscription I have your money now and could care less what happens to you."

PvE is a grind. No matter how you look at it there is a lot of grind. PvP is a grind getting unlocks and ect. If you want to be good at PvP you'll have to grind HA or GvG. Some grind is more fun than others but none the less its grind. Playing any kind of video game is a GRIND that's the entire point.

Why do you think titles were added? Anet realized they didn't have enough things to do in the game to hold people over till the next chapter release. So they make titles that GRIND so GW stays fresh in your mind when the next chapter hits and also doubles to discourage you from playing other games (the competition).

Exactly the reason Anet will never keep customer for long and less will be returning in the future. People will only fall for the same ploy so many times eventually people will just stay away from whatever product you make because of your reputation......oh wait.....I said eventually......its already happened.

Wrong. It's been technically a brilliant piece of software, with a brilliant group of developpers, artists and a community model (though it had evolved). Amazing how things can be more complicated that one's thinking? (Yes I do include myself in this comment, GW has a marketing side to it, but it's far from being a central component)

Or rather "Look we are giving you free new content, week-end events almost every week-end and no one forces you to buy this game. And we do care more than most companies about what players think." (lesson to learn: it's very easy to put words in the mouth of other people, it's more difficult to understand their situation)

You're so wrong, it's even difficult to start explaining why. And worse, I think there's no point because you won't listen. To keep it simple, I can say I enjoy PvE far away from grind and I doubt I'm a rare case.

Yet another "Truth about Guild Wars"... Were you at one point an Anet employee? Have you direct contact with them? Can you back this "opinion of yours" (same question as asked before, still no answer)

What are you still doing here then? If you continue your reasoning and act reasonably, you should be playing a different game or no game at all, but surely not spend your time on GWG, right? Or you have a different agenda maybe?

Actually, that's mostly incorrect. The new 'free content' is largely minimal, the most significant of which was Sorrows Furnace, which is actually quite small. As for weekend events, notice that they are only made recently? Clearly they coincide with a decline in players, so if they have a different weekend event every weekend, it will bring more players online to participate. As a company, I imagine Anet could care less about the players on the whole. Players are just big dollar signs. Their intention is to make money, not to make people happy, no matter what they tell you.


PvE is grind, that is a fact. You may not see it that way, but it is. It has no 'end', as there is always something else to grind. Titles make it worse, as of COURSE people are going to try and max every one (Gotta max 'em all?). Titles were to give people a reason to grind, in the form of a 'reward'.

Since GW1 isn't a WoW copy and the devs are saying that GW2 definitely will not be a copy either..... why would you say that?

They've been running for over a year now. I left NCsoft in mid-May, and the weekend events were already a well-established fixture back then. While I can't comment on specifics for a variety of reasons, I can assure you that player population was not declining when the weekend events were started. Quite the opposite.

1) It's free; 2) It may be minimal to someone playing A LOT, but not to most people.

You're kidding, right?

GW myth FTL?

They didn't tell me anything, I made my mind myself, thank you. Yes they're here to make money of course! But that does not mean that they're not also trying to make (some of) us happy, and I'd say they're globally succeeding. Those not happy complain on forums and make a small %age of the population, the others enjoy the game.

Well, I'd say that it's you who's not seeing the game the right way. I am enjoying it fully, no need for me to farm or grind or whatever else you'll mention. May be you only see in the game what you are expecting to see, not what there is in reality?

Who cares about GW2 when SC2 will be coming out around the same time?

That is indeed pretty problematic.

The person that gets both?

Even if I could afford both, I'd be spending more time with the game that was better.

Well ... errr ... the one who doesn't care about Starcraft? (do I get a cookie? ) I mean, if you didn't care about GW2, why would mention it on a GW forum? (no offense)

I do. I have no intention of playing SC2 but I have every intention of playing GW2.

seconded...

Starcraft bored me compared to the C&C series, and I have other RTS games to play now and from what I've seen of SC2 its nothing new

Because we have no clue when they will actually come out? GW2 will have beta sometime in 2008 for a release in 2009/10, or so we have been lead to believe. Starcraft 2 was announced this summer and will probably be released around xmas 2008 or early 2009.

What's that I hear? The chime of an RTS?!

/SNORE

Different genres. I don't know about you, but I like to have an RTS and an RPG.

Besides, unless you think you're going to get anywhere playing online, SC2 will only last long enough to get through the story and any custom maps you download.

Do you have any idea how many people spend their entire LIFE playing Starcraft vs. a computer in pubs around the world? Plus, what kind of people WON'T be playing online? Starcraft was released 11 years ago. It is still being played to this day. In fact, I saw several copies being sold LAST WEEK. SC2 will be so addictive it might just kill WoW.

~For those who keep mentioning Diablo 2, NWN, ect. success vs. GW's success:
Look, Diablo 2 and NWN is NOT an online ONLY game. You can play it on Single Player, and thus they are not the same thing. In fact, I haven't seen a MMORPG with as much story and lore as NWN.

~Is GW a free-to-play?
Yes in technicality. Out of all of you, how many of you have all 4 games? How many of you have bought additional accts, collector's editions, ect.? That's how Anet gets money. Not as much as monthly fees, but almost up there.
Another thing to consider. GW is INSTANCED (which in my book, automatically doesn't count it as a MMORPG, since how many of you run with pugs often?), thus, the server upkeep is not nearly as expensive as WOW, which means less cost from Anet's side. Yes, the upkeep is still a significant amount, but it is LESS. That was how it worked with Battle.net. Why'd you think it was free? Your computer does all the work hooking up with other people. The only time you are truly on the server is when you are in not in a game. That was how Diablo 2 worked, and thus why it was free. That does not work in a game like WOW, and thus the monthly fee.

~The Direction of GW:
Guild Wars has shifted from a "any time you want, skillful game" into a "GRIND FEST x 100". All games are grinds, since you are doing the same thing over and over again. However, what people commonly refer to as grind is "Killing monsters over and over and over and over again for XP so you can raise your integer". GW doesn't have a high max level, not even a medium one. HOWEVER, you have to grind for some crappy titles that doesn't even show outside of town in a game where most people play with computer-controlled heroes and henchmen. In addition, you get no benefit from having most of these titles.
When you are forced to grind for levels in games like Everquest or Diablo 2, your character actually get stronger. Some people like to argue that in GW, the playing itself increases the player's skill, but do I really need to point out the massive amount of idiots running around who has been here since Prophecies? So it comes down to this:
GW has the grind of your regular MMORPG without the levels to show it.
That is just horrible. I myself quit GW 3 times and I am nearing the 4th. Why? GW is a fun game, no doubt about it, but the fun has been going down. Plus, in WOW and Diablo 2, you get the addictive fun of getting randomly modded items that boost your character TREMENDOUSLY. You DO NOT get that in GW. That, coupled with low level cap, means the players lack things to do after they "beat the game". Yeah sure, there are "elite armors" I can buy, but so does WOW.
Now, I quit 3 times at playing with each campaign enough (at least to me). I only came back because I figured, I am that far in GW anyway, why don't I just buy the new campaign so I don't feel "left out"? The new contents would keep me going and going, but it will eventually end. There are simply nothing to grind.
Finally, Anet wised up and made titles. A significant amount of people stayed in the game and love up on the titles. However, these titles give me nothing that great, so why should I grind it? Oh no, to prepare for GW2 that is years away and sounds like a WOW clone so why don't I just go play WOW instead?
In the beginning, Anet took out features from D2 such as high level cap and powerful items to add in the SKILL factor. Anet did a great job, except soon the need to keep the players means adding more and more grinding. Since they don't want to follow all the other MMORPG's footsteps, they made titles that are even WORSE. As a mean to keep players excited over the X year period it will take them to release GW2, they made titles something that will provide bonus in GW2. It's a wise plan, but like twicky said:
P.S.: A lot of people bought GW in the beginning thinking it was EXACTLY like Diablo 2. WRONG. I myself shifted from D2 into GW and so did 90% of my D2 buddies. I am the only one who still plays GW. All of my old D2 buddies are either in WOW or some other MMORPG. I am not saying GW should be a D2 clone, it itself certainly was at the right direction in the beginning. However, that direction itself has shifted awkwardly into the grinding zone, and provided the worst kind of grind possible: grind without the good rewards. Grinding in GW is like working out, except you don't gain the strength or the muscles to show for it.

I'll try SC2 but doubt I'll play it long

I was a SC fan before I discovered the online world of MMOs


MMOs are what get my time now
(GW, EQ2, WOW)

regarding NCSoft,
games may not be lucrative anymore but they're not failing either

reminders:
http://news.filefront.com/lineage-dr...q2-821m-sales/
COH/V has only 150,000 subscribers btw
-- dont need to be size of WoW to pull in cash


http://www.thegamerstudio.com/2007/1...-ps3-game.html

Sorry, bud, but, they are. You do everything in GW you do in D2 and NWN's. You are restricted to a server area and you party up with up to 7 friiends and go out into the wild and kill stuff for loot and experience. D2 has chat rooms as opposed to towns/cities/outposts, but, that makes no nevermind since the same principles apply people can chat with each other there. In NWN's they have the broadcast system like GW has and you can OOC all over the world actually not just the local town/city or outpost.

All 3 play the same and are the same because none are mmorpgs in that masses of people can be at one spot at the same time. That is why you have so many districts in GW same as the number of serviers in NWN and D2.

The only difference in them is that GW can only be played ONLINE, but, it's as much of a solo game now as D2 and NWN's were out of the box. You don't have to group and you can build a band of heroes/henchies just like you can in NWN's.

The significant difference is D2 and NWN's have sold more copies than GW's, but, they have been out longer as well. The other significant difference is D2 and NWN allow you to progress futher in levels (99 for D2 and 40 for NWN) and both have unlimited PHAT LOOT to be aquired which gives them both more longevity that GWs.

GWs is more of a toddlers toy for those that want to play and meet up with their friends online and play. Or people who like to talk to strangers much like here. There's not much meat to GWs at all really. It is definitely a casual gamers game. Hardly has any hardcore elements to keep the real mmorpg type masses interested for long. Not like NWN's with unlimited mods, over 4000 last I looked, now THAT'S CONTENT baby. D2 has the unlimited phat loot and that makes both stand out moreso than GWs.

But, yep they are very simular in many areas. Even NWN's and D2 you could call cooprpg games so that's nothing new that the developers of GWs are trying to call it. NWN's has the most and best content though overall three. The combat system of GWs is the only thing really unique about it. But, they have nerfed that into oblivion pretty much. Myself I prefer being able to use all my skills at my choosing like NWN's and D2 allow.

Please note that NCsoft is scattered across all business models there are:

They got "pay once play free" titles such as GW
They got "pay once pay more" titles such as City of Heroes and Tabula Rasa
They got "download free, pay per month" games such as Dungeon Runners
They got "microtransaction/ads" games such as Exteel.

NCsoft really is scattered across all schemes.

HOWEVER ANET IS NOT

Anet mocks pay2play games, they insult them, they insult their wasteful resource management and they compete with them not only on a gameplay level but also by being very competitive about their pricing. Sure, Anet wants to make money but I am confident that this can be arranged even by not charging monthly.


I also dare you to count the number of max stats skins in the game and name a competitor that has more! Sure you can get a sense of completion more easily in GW, but then again, just having linear progression until infinity is the very opposite of good game design. It is an exploit of gamer psychology to sucker him into paying more money, while he is treading on the same spot, or is killing Diablo over and over again anything else? I suggest everybody runs an update on themselves and patch that exploit.

thats a *critical* difference

I have many friends that never play games online - including NWN / D2

being able to play without internet is a selling requirement for some gamers

GW2 will be okay...I hope...

Well, I'll be getting it if it's a "buy once play free" thing. It won't be that much(I hope) and it won't be like gambling my house away. If it's a monthly thing, I'll just buy SC2. Well, I'm getting it anyway.

Also, they should make Diablo 3. Because I REALLY want to kill Diablo again.

I did say GW was a great game......at one time. Now its a like bad garbage that some one forgot to take out. Poor updates adding features with huge flaws and each new chapter breaking the game has taken a big toll on GW. You don't need a complicated game or cutting edge graphics to make a game good. Simplistic games with not so good graphics tend to do better in the long term.

As far as the developers I don't think they are that brilliant. In most of their interviews they tried to relate GW to MTG. I've been a MTG player for over 13 years. I thought to myself, "hey this is great if you are copying MTG you can't go wrong." Again this was marketing. Tie your new product to an already existing one. My real issue with that is they didn't take the biggest lesson MTG had to offer. MTG had to break up the expansions into formats with banned and restricted list. Without the formats each expansion would have to be stronger than the previous (power creep). We were already at turn 3-4 kills. If you keep adding power creep you'll be down to 1-2 kills (which eventually happened and almost destroyed the game). No one wants to play a game where depending on what you drew in your opening hand who wins and not enough turns to draw an answer to threats. The game would be self destructive if MTG continued on that route.

The best thing GW can do for its pvp is to break it up into formats based on chapters. Unfortunately the developers were not "brilliant" enough to even see that. It might not be technically possible due to the programming. Anet has never said it wasn't possible either.

No one cares about weekend events. The only weekend event anyone even cared about was raising drop rate of greens. Sorrow's furnace was the only real free content added to the game and it was small. Also it was never repeated.

If you play the game you must have some sort of goal to achieve right? To get to that goal you must do what? Wait for it.....wait for it....oh ya you have to GRIND. If you have done it more than once you are grinding at that point. GW took all the complaints from other MMOs in the past and basicly said, "We don't like that either so we have this in our game." It was marketing hype that works very very well. Just look at the number of people that try to defend it.

I was a beta tester for Prophecies and beyond. I do not repeat things I was told specifically. Most of my observations are pretty standard company practices (not just Anet or NcSoft's practices) and things other players have already seen and pointed out. In the end Anet and NcSoft are companies aiming to make money. You will never hear or see something like this, "I like this player's suggestion. Its going to blow our entire budget for the year but lets do it anyways." Unless the change justifies the cost, which means can they do it very very cheap, they won't happen. The bottom line IS and always will be money. You'll get as much customer service as GW can afford which isn't much. Because GW relies on selling copies they'll never be able to take a huge risk. There is no steady income for GW. Really if you look at any company that has a monthly subscription (not just video games) and compare it to companies that are in sales. The monthly subscription company will do better in the long term as long as they keep their customer support up.

I'm here because I do care about the game. GW still has the best pvp mechanics and game play outside of first person shooters. The biggest fans will be the harshest critics. I've been here since the game hit beta and will probably be here until the servers go offline.

I never said I didn't play other games. In fact playing other games is what allowed me to see how flawed GW really is (preset not past). I played GW before I ever played a monthly subscription game. I vowed never to pay monthly for a game and got caught by the GW hype. Since then I do play monthly subscription games and see a HUGE difference in ability. Monthly subscription games have a larger budget, better customer support, and more updates more often. If $15 a month will make or break you as far as budget you have bigger problems than a video game. As far as minors needing a credit card that is also a none issue. Paypal and pre-paid cards can be used by minors. Pre-paid cards can be picked up in most retail stores. WoW also has a game card you can purchase from stores in lue of CC or paypal.

GW2 is following the same path which is why I won't buy it at this point. Anet already has they hype engine going before the game even hits beta. The no monthly subscription means it will be a short term game that will more than likely have less players than GW1 as many players will not be returning and players staying behind in GW1. If they shut the servers down on GW1 people will be pissed and make them even less likely to buy GW2.

I agree with some of what you say, but not this.

I predict GW2 will have more players. You have to understand Guild Wars appealed to a niche of players who didn't want to play monthly fees, and who wanted a level cap, with the marketing mantra "Skill over time."

That has gone out the window. GW2 will appeal to more people, because higher level caps, multiple races, and time > skill will appeal to more people (I hate to say it, but it's true: most people want the time they've played to mean something. The success of "achievements" from X-box live to the latest Call of Duty support that conclusion.)

As you say, ArenaNet wants to make money. They wouldn't have even considered GW2 if they thought it would bomb.

It's pretty simple: There is only room for so many pay-to-play games out there, which is why so many MMORPGs either go under or change their payment structure.

Guild Wars 2 will succeed because it's free to play and it will have persistent area, higher or no level cap, multiple races, etc.

Will it be a game I enjoy? I'll wait and see. But Anet won't have trouble finding several million people to buy it. It won't be as successful as WoW, but it could be closer than people think!

Trust me, if Anet was a money grubbin company, they'd charge monthly.

They wouldn't have displayed to the world that MMOs can be run without branding the wallets of those who play it.

But they also aint no dummies when it comes to marketing. I imagine this BMP deal is just here to scare the living daylights out of the people who didn't order EN online, but give it a few days/weeks and it'll be offered to the public. (Unless it isn't much of anything, in wich case give it like a month or two)

Anyway, back to the point. GW2 is going to be a hit, initialy at least, if we lose NCSoft, i'm sure there are more publishers just itching to get their hands on GW.
-Especialy without subscriptions: More money is going into buying the game in boxes rather than straight to Anet through bills.

I guess the biggest concern would be with getting more servers out to all those new countries they added GW to.

It probably broke your feeling about GW rather than the overall impression of players, given the (relative) success and growth (if not, they wouldn't do a 2nd one!). GW has exactly the right balance between great graphics running on many platforms, story and special treats. At least for me, obviously not for you.

We didn't read the same interviews then. And they ARE brilliant, as developpers, but not as PR for their programs (I know all about it ). (I've been played MTG for 7 years)

Totally aside discussion: IIRC MTG was dead to a lot of people at one point, then marketing enabled it to expand and attract new (young) audiences. MTG is a HUGE money-sink.

Just a minor detail here: the general ideas and format of a game is decided by "designers" (such as O'Brien, Wyatt, Strain), and based on the designs implementers do their job (then based on what they did designers iterate an update of the game, until it becomes too costly and you start from scratch, like with GW2).

You obviously are "everyone". What can I do against such a powerfull force? More seriously: stop looking too much at yourself, you're not the center of the world and in particular GW's World. If Anet is continuing this (and as was clearly demonstrated by GhostRaptor's posts above) it's because it's successful, if not they wouldn't spend the time of people they pay.

[quoteIf you play the game you must have some sort of goal to achieve right? To get to that goal you must do what? Wait for it.....wait for it....oh ya you have to GRIND.[/quote]

You shouldn't answer yourself to questions you ask me! Yes, my goal is to enjoy myself, and that can take many many shapes in GW, from enjoying the beauty of Tyria, Cantha or Elona (landscape, monsters, skill emotes) to achieving the bonuses for missions. I'm not grinding and I'm not intending to (don't have the time).

As I said before, you are projecting your vision onto the facts. I'm not denying that they are marketting their product (it's perfectly normal, it's their job as a company) but your vision is totally biased.

Of course! Your sentence is ridiculous, no one who would do that would survive in the world of business. They already made the boldest move ever in the MMO world, not ask for monthly fees. They're not going to go further by giving away what they earn then, especially considering the selfishness of a lot of GW players (you can read that in various threads of GWG, which is probably only the tip of the iceberg).

Good for them, Anet will survive because they have support from a lot of customers. Is that iritating you?

I disagree with the first point, after some time people tend to become arrogant and use "critics" as weapons. The weight of years of playing of GW is unjustified, it's like "I've played 15.000 hours" with 75% afk or I've got KOBD maxed. Being harsh brings nothing either to the discussion (I'm not Anet) or to the argument.

At this point during the discussion, I'm really wondering if you're trolling or simply trully thinking that everyone is like you. I could write pages only to answer to this sentence, but I won't. Let's hope that you realise the stupidity of your sentence.

I think, once more, you're seeing what you're expecting. I see no "hype", no pressure to buy GW2, I'll see when it's out. But given how much I enjoyed GW for only £70 over 1,5years, I'm pretty sure I'll be in GW2.

Mordakai already answered that. I'm pretty sure GW2 will be much better technically from GW (given Moore's Law, it'll be more beautiful, given their experience with GW it'll be more challenging and technically more advanced). My opinion is that it'll pave the way for future MMOs, but that's only my opinion.

What GW really needs is a TV ad. Like WoW, they have a TV ad, and look how many players they have?
I'm not saying WoW is better, I'm saying they have more players. Because of one reason: Advertisments

I assume Jeff Strain is still in charge.
And according to the interviews and speeches with him, GW2 will in no way be a WoW clone.
Anet even announced that they will keep the nice instanced parts for quests, loot etc. so we keep continuing to have our private own adventures at the same time.
Please read the whole thing posted in interviews, press releases and other things published in cooperation with Anet employees, not only the parts that you dislike.

WoW gets more players by mouth to mouth then with advertisments.
Plus the fact of that the company name "Blizzard" and previous released games help a lot on that as well.
And the majority of WoW players have been playing previous games released by Blizzard.
So the TV add really only shows that they got a new game.

Indeed true, they feed us campaigns are character spaces that we have to pay for. You know, with a PTP game, you actually get updates, like HUGE ones. The only one we got that expanded contents were SF. People always yell about prices. Look: You get what you pay for. That is why GW has no huge updates like other games. Seriously, the original Starcraft got more content updates than GW.

Well at least in D2, you HAVE to play with people if you want a party. The only time you play SOLO is when you want to farm. Plus, D2 is very different from both GW and NWN in that it is a HACK-AND-SLASH. 1 vs. 151251256 monsters and still alive to talk about it. People like that kind of thing. It's like the example of DotA and other AOSes in Warcraft 3. DotA is about the crappiest designed custom game on Warcraft 3 (While D2 is the simpliest designed game out of all 3, but it is the most fun and interesting), but it is the most popular because it ALLOWS YOU TO OWN. In GW, you can't solo thousands of creatures under 2 min by blasting them all with a spell and live to talk about it.
People always talk about making a game complicated. NO, you can make a game complex yet still keep it simple. That was how D2 worked. With GW, look at all the non-core classes. Each one of them gets more complicated.

WOW.

They actually are making it. Blizzard is making another game atm that has not been announced title-wise. The team that is making it is called "Team 3". Some info have already released about it. Some people say those are just rumors, but if Blizzard is making SC2, why can't people believe they are making D3?

Skill over time died when Factions released.

Higher level cap = greater range of difference which is counter-intuitive against skill over time, which was what attracted at least 40% of the people to GW. A lot of people got in GW because of D2. If D3 is on the horizon, what do you think?
Another thing: Hellgate: London. I saw at least 20 people in my alliance went inactive since release date.

"Yeah, no monthly fee, but you got to buy these content updates that all the MMORPG provides freely because they charge monthly fee and these need character slots because I don't want you to have more than 4 in the beginning. Since you want to play all classes, now you have to buy my slots. Oh, by the way, let me put out some SPECIAL EDITIONS for 20 bucks more."

The several million you won't have because of SC2.

And lose competition against all the other monthly fee'd games with bigger contents, better grinding, and way phater lootz?

Again, look at all the money you spend on all the campaigns, character slots, and CEs.

That's why they waited until 2 years after the original release to put it in China, the country with the MOST PEOPLE (and gamers) IN THE WORLD? That was not the end of it, they tried to compete with WOW in China after WOW has strong-rooted there all the while having some crappy company host GW. The company that is hosting GW right now has the worst customer support and the crappiest server.

NCSoft owns GW. If it sells it to another "publisher", what made you think that publisher won't want to change some aspects of GW? People always have their own ideas.

A second one that is not a GW but a WOW-clone. Yeah, I was successful, but since I was, I am going to do things differently the 2nd time so I can fail?

When you game, you grind. Game = grind. The only difference between a good grind and a bad grind is whether or not players want to keep grinding because it is interesting and fun vs. whether or not players want to keep grinding because it has become a job for them and since they have came so far, they think it's a waste to stop so they keep going.

But asking you for about the relatively same amount in other various shapes and forms and reducing content updates.

Yes, that plus the fact that every Blizzard game is on the top of the list. Most people I asked doesn't even know what GW is. Plus, what does the title have to do with the game? Guild Wars... well no guilds are really at war, and most players never even played GvG.

They told me GW was skill > time as well, look what happened.

That sounds awfully familiar... where did I read that... omg... it's on the tip of my tongue... hmmmm

"Instances, also known as instance dungeons or simply "dungeons", are areas where multiple copies of the same area can exist concurrently.[17] This means that multiple groups can both be doing the same activities in the same location, yet not interfere with one another.

"Instance" can also refer to a particular copy of such an area. Other areas, such as battlegrounds, are also instances, enabling multiple groups of players to participate at the same time."
Oh yeah, this little unknown game called World of Warcraft. Ever heard of it?

In that my grind will raise my integer, give me phat loots, allowed me to interact with players outside of towns that GW didn't have. These new features uberly pwn so m-
Oh wait.