See also: “Guild Wars: The MMORPG That Won’t Own You” Some interesting conversations arose from friends comparing the worths of of WoW and Guild Wars.
Friend Y, extolling the virtues of Guild Wars:
With no monthly fee, the game designers have no reason to waste your time.
[In response to "Is the game better for casual play?"] Yes, definitely . Not having the monthly fee makes it a lot easier to put the game down for a while. The only qualification I’d add is that I haven’t tried PvP yet, but I expect there’s a big learning curve there — so many people have been playing for so long that there’s bound to be some intimidating metagame wrapped up in it, like Magic. But for PvE, I think the reduced transit time, no corpse runs, and general lack of drudge work should make for a more casual time commitment — though I’m sure it depends on your social circle, too.
Friend R, questioning some of his answers.
I’m just tired of people expecting WOW to be all possible things to all people. It’s one game among many with plusses and minuses, and niches it fills. Unfortunately one of the worst problems has been that so many people play it and talk about it, that it becomes easy not to play it for your goals, but for goals that are “cool”. Ie, you can get the impression that you’re wasting your time playing it unless you reach lvl 60 and get all purple gear – when in fact, the game is designed to be equally satisfying to people who only want to play to lvl 40, accomplish a few quests, and then maybe roll a new character or even quit the game.
Anyway, yes, go play a game with fewer people and be proud of how that means more focused players and less teenager L3g0l4s’s – but a lot of what you describe is simply a matter of putting yourself in a smaller group, not that either game is superior or not. Of course, that may be an excellent reason to play a more elite game: smaller pool removes the dreck. But inversely, that smaller group means less likely to be able to play with the people you want to.
If you know your goals and what’s important, and what’s not important, then by all means pick and choose a game on that. WOW knows it for people that want a diversity of possibilities, none of which are optimum.
I see interesting similarities between MMORPG design, and social game design in other mediums (RPGs, CCGs).
December 20th, 2005 at 6:04 pm
Of course, that may be an excellent reason to play a more elite game: smaller pool removes the dreck. But inversely, that smaller group means less likely to be able to play with the people you want to.
So is that saying that the people you want to play with are dreck?
December 21st, 2005 at 11:07 am
I think it’s saying that people you’d prefer not to play with (but must interact with regardless) are considered “dreck” here. That’s more of a deal in MMORPGs that RPGs, where self-selection doesn’t necessary insulate you totally from griefers.
December 28th, 2005 at 10:05 am
It’s saying both the people you like and the people who suck are casual players, and insulating yourself from one has the cost of insulating yourself from the other (if your only means is to select a more elite pool).
December 29th, 2005 at 9:33 pm
But from what it sounds like, Guild Wars is more suited to the casual gamer, just that you have more local control over the individuals who you interact with. I don’t see how WoW or other MMORPGs that don’t have that filter option would make it “harder” to play with your friends.
(I’m a big fan of casual gaming, low barriers to entry, etc. BTW)