GW2 thoughts after playing: The history of MMO failure's.. w/a sprinkle of WoW talk edition

[bluefan]

Open beta for pre-purchase seems a bit... stupid?

Kinda glad I haven't pre-purchased yet. It looks cool, but a lot of MMO's have looked cool and a whole lot of people have said new MMO's are awesome before they are released. Anyone that has pre-purchased kind of already has a biased opinion.

I played GW2 a couple times before the BWE started. Not biased if you got your hands on it, even if only for about an hour.

[Rhyis.]

Why are you the angriest gamer in the world?

[ringthree]

Why are you the angriest gamer in the world?

Always have been, always will be.

Sorry I can't be all "rah rah, your game is awesome", but I believe in this thing called reality. Sucks for me, I guess.

[Qalbert]

So someone says it's good and you're like BUT YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED IT!!11!!1 Now people have played and you're all LALALALALA DOESNT COUNT BITCHES. get the fuck over yourself.

[vrumpt]

Regardless, I'll agree that there needs to be open beta at some point to get hesitent people into the game. Previewing your game to people who are already interested in it doesn't do much to attract new customers like Arenanet wants to do.

[Takiwaki]

He's just sad he didn't get to play that's all =/, and as far as openly trying the game, I think that is what conventions are for, which they have been doing for a while. If you are hesitant and your peers are telling you damn this game is awesome what else do you need? I mean its just $60 just like very other game, and I am sure you don't get to beta test every single game that comes out, was there a distributed skyrim demo? Its a simple fact everyone that hasn't tried the game and is waiting on release will try it if all their friends tell them they should, there is no commitment, no reason not to.

With the way social media is now, attracting new customers really doesn't need an open beta, previewing the game to people that are interested does in fact attract new customers, advertising, blogs, press, guilds, twitter, facebook, have all been doing their jobs so far.. Sorry I had to disagree with you there Vrumpt

[Qalbert]

and let's be honest, if you preordered and the game was ass, you'd probably be pretty damn vocal against it, since you paid money already

[Zerocool]

Game is awesome. It's very convenient. You can do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it without being penalized for it. It could be partly because it's beta, but I don't really feel the need to rush to cap in this game. Especially since you're automatically put to 80 in sPvP. I can take my time, explore, and just enjoy the game. Overall, it's just a very fun game.

[Rhyis.]

Always have been, always will be.

Sorry I can't be all "rah rah, your game is awesome", but I believe in this thing called reality. Sucks for me, I guess.

The reality is you're telling people, that have played the game (albeit briefly), that the game will probably be bad when you yourself haven't played the game at all. It's like backwards day in preschool or something.

There were issues and all of them were already talked about in this very thread but, in general, the game was fun for the short amount of time I spent playing it. Some may or may not agree with this assessment, but they have the decency to have actually experienced the game before commenting on it.

[Ambrosia]

Always have been, always will be.

Sorry I can't be all "rah rah, your game is awesome", but I believe in this thing called reality. Sucks for me, I guess.

Nothing wrong with feeling that way. Hell after 13 years of MMORPG'ing and trying close to 40 MMORPGs (mostly P2P or B2P) I have slowly turned into what most folks would call a "Negative Nancy." And rightfully so with how so many AAA titles and/or really hyped up games post 2005 have unfortunately followed the generic ingredients (something I talked extensively in the past) that make up most of those games with only some fine tuning here and there.

But I have to say here, that ArenaSkyNet (at least to me) really made an awesome game taking into consideration every step. To me it seems they nurtured this project not just your typical OK-guys-lets-make-a-product-and-try-to-milk-some-money but rather as a passionate "hobby" but at a very professional level.

Obviously there are some things they have to fine tune, and the official forums have made some very constructive threads over them, but overall I have to say I walked away pretty happy with what I have experienced so far. The attention to detail from the actual World which is huge, to the cities, to the graphics and music, as well as the classes themselves (I tried engineer and warrior)... well it just left me speechless.

And exploration is something I have not felt in a MMORPG since EverQuest II (when you had the maps outside of the major cities covered in black) and had to walk every inch of the maps to see what you could discover. Obviously Guild Wars 2 doesn't have that "fog of war" but the sense of exploration is there, I mean I got lost most the time and was having fun getting lost out there. Sure you get experience points for discovering new areas and in some cases key structures, but I felt it was way more than that.

Adventure.

One last thing. If you haven't yet done so, you have to let go of your first love, not sure if it is FFXI for you. Problem I see with folks still attached to their first love or "brand name" is that they are extremely quick to judge anything outside of their game.

Some examples that I have heard this year from FFXI/FFXIV players:

1. WOW Clone.
2. Probably like Guild Wars 1, not an open world. (I remember how FFXIPro forums used to shit on GW1 left and right for so many reasons).
3. It isn't P2P and I am uncomfortable with that because that automatically means P2W.
4. It doesn't have the Final Fantasy name to it.

I mean these are some examples by what I mean "quick to judge." If you or any other folks are like this, then there probably is very little that can change your mind, until you try it. And even then you might still not like it (in part because of that attachment to that first love).

[Lucavi]

First time I can say it in years, but this ain't no WoW clone. I came in expecting Ranger to play just like a Hunter, and they're not very similar at all. I played a lot of engineer, and the closest thing I could think about comparison-wise would be a ranged shaman with totems that actually hurt, and even that doesn't work right.

Game is just fucking fun. Can't wait to dick around with my Suge Knight/Lionel Ritchie/Sahz engineer again. He kinda of took the wind right out of my Ranger's sails, but that'll change once I get a pet that can actually tank (lookin' at YOU, alpha bears!

[Zzsark]

Obviously Guild Wars 2 doesn't have that "fog of war" but the sense of exploration is there, I mean I got lost most the time and was having fun getting lost out there. Sure you get experience points for discovering new areas and in some cases key structures, but I felt it was way more than that.

I really like the way they handle the 'fog of war'. You get a basic sense of the lay out but everything is blurred until you enter that particular 'county' as it were and then a section will clear up on your map revealing details.

[Dragir]

I got very little exp from my catacombs run. Maybe 1/4 of a level? But you aren't running those things for exp anyways! I got an entire level just from getting all the points of interest and waypoints in Divinity's Reach. Granted, this was at like... level 4-5.

Flat levelling curve.

[Zzsark]

Cant really call it a curve if it's flat, and at those lvls it defiantly isn't. But I know what you mean. At later levels though.

[bluefan]

Game is awesome. It's very convenient. You can do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it without being penalized for it. It could be partly because it's beta, but I don't really feel the need to rush to cap in this game. Especially since you're automatically put to 80 in sPvP. I can take my time, explore, and just enjoy the game. Overall, it's just a very fun game.

This was the big sell for me. I can do whatever I want, whenever I want.

[Fairy-Killer]

Look, ringthree, I loved FFXI, liked WoW a little bit, and generally disliked all other MMOs. There were a few things I generally liked about each, TERA's combat, Rift's dynamic events, and etc. But... They all kinda fell short somehow. I couldn't pin point it until I played GW2 this past weekend. Detail. Life. Care. Every MMO since XI has just felt soulless to me. For example, TERA had zones, but there was nothing there. They served no purpose but to be a boundary for my quests. I really liked the combat, and the graphics. But... Just dead zones. Everything is so alive in GW2. Just walk around Divinity's Reach. People will be talking about random stuff all the time. People run up to you asking for help. I couldmake a ton of comparisons, but I'll save it as I don't even think you'll read this far. But to further my point, I was a complete skeptic on GW2 until a few months ago. Hell, I posted on here several times basically doubting it; lots can attest to that. But then I started seeing pictures, videos, and people talking. Buzz. I became absorbed. I kept telling myself, "Don't get too hyped, you'll be disappointed." I couldn't get rid of it, though. I gambled my $60 on spoken words alone. I tend to overhype games and then be extremely disappointed when something goes awry. But, I couldn't be mad at or disappointed by the game this past weekend. Yes, there were some things that didn't feel right or fair to me, but I was able to forgive them because they were listening and tuning, even during the weekend. I'll just cut this short since it's late, and I seriously doubt you bothered this far: I feel that this weekend alone was worth the $60. I have spent $60 on less enjoyment. I cannot wait for the release.

[Appie]

^I've read quite a few posts the past days after the BWE where alot of people just said: this BWE was worth the 60 bucks alone, because they put in 20hours or more into the game, while they would spend the same amount of money on a game that lasts 10 hours. And unlike in those games, you'd only be at 10% tops of the total game in GW2.

I do think they should have at least one open beta, word of mouth is fine and all, but you got people like ringthree, who just want to see it for themselves at no charge, that's fine. An open beta shortly before release should be good PR for the people on the fence and the added bonus for ANet is that it makes a good stress test.

[Rhyis.]

F2P I can understand if they don't go the open beta route. Not all single player games have demos either... I'd be nice though.

[Appie]

Why not for F2P? If anything I'd expect them to want to sell as many copies as possible, one open beta could help with that. Especially in this case, because the game is already pretty solid at this stage.

[Rhyis.]

People can "get their fill" from playing a weekend of the beta and never buy the game. Game sales, for at least the first 6 months, are the only time they'll be getting any kind of substantial money from their product so you generally want to lessen any chance of lowering your revenue. While this is also true of P2P, the people who decide to not pay the monthly fee for your game are most undoubtedly people that can't afford the monthly fee alongside game cost anyway.

Open beta has a risk with, in all honesty, very little upside nowadays. Peoples expectations for perfection right out the gate is pretty high. If somebody is playing your beta, they're already interested in your game. Word of mouth has already worked. You can turn away potential customers with issues that will no doubt arise in your beta since it's not the finished product (like performance issues in this one that just passed), that they probably won't have in the actual game. Which is why AN did this beta with pre-purchasers. They had nothing to lose. Those people already paid for the game.

It's just how the business model is set up... That said I'm selfish and don't particularly care how many copies AN sells, so I hope they do an open beta. I just want to play more.