OMGRPG: Why WoW can't kill Guild Wars

Many MMOs are losing the fight against the Warcraft juggernaut. OMGRPG examines how one competitor is staying strong.

All right, I'm a few years late but last week, I finally got my hands on Guild Wars, Prophecies. A few years ago, I heard my cousin talked about Guild Wars and how you don't have to pay a subscription fee. I thought that was awesome. Now after playing the game, I concluded that the developer, ArenaNet, is made up of geniuses.

We kept hearing about MMOs going under left and right. (Tabula Rasa anyone?) As I am no MMO expert, I'm not sure if it was because most dead MMOs suffered from technical problems or bad marketing or what not. My theory is that they all failed because they tried to go head on with World of Warcraft. Seriously, how could you beat a 800 pound gorilla?

OMGRPG: Why WoW can't kill Guild Wars

Years after years, magazines after gaming magazines, I kept reading about this new MMO and that newly launched MMO. All of the developers kept saying the same thing, It's not impossible to beat Blizzard, we can do it.

I. Don't. Think. So.

Unless the MMO company prints their own cash or can borrow massive amount of money from China, it is very hard to beat Blizzard. As the saying goes, Money makes the world go round. More money means more designers and programmers and servers and technicians. Money also means better marketing campaigns. Seriously, is there an MMO game company out there who is swimming in cold hard cash other than Blizzard?

Blizzard has the funds to ride out their competition and wait for the hoo-ha to die down. Once the novelty of the new MMO wears off and people start missing their guild, friends or the familiarity of Warcraft, they tend to go back to WoW.

Plus, Blizzard made World of Warcraft an easy to pick up and play game. They nailed the formula and just kept on going from there. I heard and known so many people who swore off WoW but ultimately went back to it.

OMGRPG: Why WoW can't kill Guild Wars

So how does Guild Wars survive in the cutthroat world of MMOs?

I think it's because ArenaNet did not try to beat WoW at its own game. They created a game similar in some aspects but different enough that comparing the two is like comparing apples versus oranges. Sure the same old, walk, walk, walk, kill, collect loot, hand in quest, and level up formula is still there, but ArenaNet jazzed it up. For one thing, I really liked the click-and-you-are-there teleport system. The other was the lack of other players in the explorable zones. I no longer have to worry about getting ganked or ninja-ed. Plus, I love the fact that I can mix and match two professions; Warrior with a pet? Sweet! Granted, there are flaws: my husband grumbles about the loot allotment system. Regardless, Guild Wars does not feel like an MMO and certainly does not feel like a WoW clone.

I think that in order for an MMO to succeed and get out from WoW's colossal shadow, developers and publishers must think outside of the box. Maple Story is another happy case. Instead of charging players, Maple adopted the free-to-play and micro-transactions formula and look! They hit it big.

I don't know about Warhammer Online since I've not played it at all. But I would love to hear from those that have tried it out. Does it feel like another WoW clone? Or did the developers do something radical? Let me know what you think.

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Comments [14]

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ESRB_Hater

Before I started playing MMO's the sticking point for me was paying a monthly fee. Then I started playing world of warcraft, every free to play MMO I played really sucked compared to WOW. Ive never played Guild Wars, but thats only because I've started and stuck with World of Warcraft. I might switch if there was an MMO based off of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time or Roger Zelazny's The Chronicles of Amber or maybe even Frank Herberts Dune Other than that I haven't really seen very many MMOs of the Sword and Scorcery type that catch my interest......and as for that canned Halo MMO.........What were they thinking

Limitgtx

i'm more into the pvp part of mmo's, and guildwars is a lot more solid as the game was build with pvp in mind (hence the name guildwars) where as WoW's pvp system has been more of a progression over time (and i would say they have done a commendable job) but u while in playing pvp in guildwars it feels a lot more balanced as everyone is at the same level, and combat is faster pace.

spacer1205

I PLAYED WOW FOR 4 YEARS AND QUIT PLAYING IN LAST SEPT. OF 08. I STARTED LORD OF THE RINGS MINES OF MORIA IN DEC OF 08, AND I AM VERY PLEASED WITH THE GAME AND THE LORE OF TOLKIEN. ONE OF THE NICE FEATURES OF LOTR YOU CAN BUY A LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP FOR $200-$300, I BET WOW WOULD DO THAT THEY ARE TOO GREEDY.

Trandoshanjake

Blox wrote:

HURR DURR I COMPAER TEW VASTEE DIFRNT GAEMS ND SUK WOW'S MONEE-GRUBBIN CAWK

TribeMindMD

Personally, the thing that I like most about WoW is its character. Too many MMOs from what I've seen are too bland and generic with their settings; there's nothing interesting in exploring a world that's ripped straight out of a cheap paper-back Fantasy novel.

I personally think Guild Wars has done well because it still has a lot of "mainstream" MMO elements, but it doesn't have a subscription and its more conducive to solo play - a lot of WoW's more interesting content is off limits to those not interested or capable of joining large groups.

Tellumendil

I agree with TribeMindMD

The problem with WoW is the fact that it really easy easy to play but difficult to master. That on itself is not a problem but it does become an issue when you get to endgame content and most players become elitist jerks and stat whores. A casual player has a really hard time with endgame content and sometimes it just sucks a lot to get into a party to do anything since 95% of the interesting endgame content in WoW cannot be soloed. Your experience with WoW varies greatly depending on the class and how much time you will put into it becoming good at it to the point where the game almost become a second job. Anothe rproblem is the fact that this is a game where you need the best gear or it doesn't matter how good you are, you will never be able to keep up with everybody else.

Guildwars is more forgiving on that aspect since most of the game can be soloed since you have the option to bring NPCs with you and everything is instanced, which is also great since you don't have to worry about being ganked every 5 minutes. Gear plays a much smaller role on this game since even the rare drops don't improve the character that much. This game is much more about player skill than rare drops. The game is very beautiful even though it already is a few years old but it also doesn't have the big feel of community that WoW does since you only see the big crowds on the big cities where you actually meet other players and might form parties to try a given instance.

PvP on Guildwars is very solid and I would say much better and more balanced than WoW. PvP in WoW tend to be good for a while, then it becomes horrible for a few months and improves with time but eventualy a developer has another idea and it start to suck once again.

Anyway, I am done with MMOs for now. I stopped playing WoW in February and I have a stack of about 10 games to play for the 360 and PS3. MMOs are huge time sinks.

war02orc

The way I see it, there are 5 reasons why WoW succeeds and others fail.
1) The storyline is immersive and interesting (lore)
2) There are a variety of ways to play (PVP, PVE, Dungeons, raids, group questing)
3) You can just as easily play solo as you can play with a group (whereas many MMO's like FFXI pratically require you to play with a group to have any fun)
4) You can create multiple characters, and those characters are on the servers indefinitely until you decide to delete them (even if your account expires)
5) The game is easy to pick up, and put down whenever you want.

It only helps that each expansion adds some new innovation (flying mounts, phased content, etc). It just serves to keep the game fresh and entertaining.

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