Mainly because of the difference between the game and all other games in the genre. It took a huge, daring leap, and succeeded with grace.
Mainly because of the difference between the game and all other games in the genre. It took a huge, daring leap, and succeeded with grace.
First of all, GW2 used social network sites extensively to advertise information about their game. They have Facebook and Twitter accounts, they did AMAs on Reddit, and largely relied of word-of-mouth from there.
Second, they were unusually open for an MMO company when it comes to how they build their game. People in general love to get a look at what happens behind the stage (such as "making of" documentaries), and that's something that they rarely get in the MMO industry. So, that gave gaming geeks a lot of stuff to lap up.
Third, they have some genuine innovation, which is what made talking about GW2 worthwhile in the first place. By innovation I don't mean something revolutionary, just that they attempt something genuinely different from other MMOs in its overall design.
And at some point, the talk just reached critical mass and went viral.
Last edited by Sylvanie; 2012-08-19 at 11:38 AM.
You're the one who mentioned WoW in the first place
---------- Post added 2012-08-19 at 12:48 PM ----------
So SWToRs decent story leveling experience crippled it? It had a lot more than a good story. Old, underspecced computers/ no server transfers for 6 months crippled SWToR
---------- Post added 2012-08-19 at 12:50 PM ----------
What part of the game is genuine and innovative that wasn't in Warhammer?
Right timing, and just different enough to catch peoples attention.
WoW has been sloughing off subscribers, SWtoR didn't reach the heights it imagined, and new MMOs (TERA, TSW) are really trying to innovate. GW2 comes in, and it is a well polished, deep, semi-innovative game. It interests the consumer.
what I am about to write, states it all, to be brutally honest.. this is what happened to Guild Wars 2
Say you saw a trailer for a movie, and everyone goes nuts for it, that is HYPE.
Now if you've seen the movie, and everyone is talking about how amazing it is, that is WORD OF MOUTH.
There is a difference..
edit: and since you specifically ask if anyone can pinpoint when the insanity began.. I can. It began after the Press Beta.. the endless blogs and youtube videos that all came out.. that's basically the "Birth" of the Guild Wars 2 LEGEND! specially from Yogscast who followed up their videos with MoP Beta videos which they just got into. You could feel the utter boredom, disgust and contempt Simon and Lewis had with MoP after the "GW2 Experience"
Last edited by charlieprince; 2012-08-19 at 01:04 PM.
The reason Guild Wars 1 didn't garner the attention the sequel has is because it's not an MMO. It's basically a single player game with a co-op mode and multi-player chat system. I played Guild Wars 1 way back when but I never was that into it. I enjoyed the chess match of skill selection but the controls, especially the camera, are pretty crappy. I recently returned to work on getting 30 HoM points and at least once per session I had the camera go into some crazy position making it difficult to see my character.
Guild Wars 2 on the other hand is a totally different beast and really stands on it's own merits. I have done a total 180 on GW2 in the last few months. Here are a couple of my posts from my guild forum back in February:
Not trying to be a dick here but honestly I couldn't care less about Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars was fun for awhile but it wasn't fun enough to me that I ever stuck with it for very long. I still can't fathom how people actually played that game strictly for the PvE. That part of the game was terribly boring IMO.As beta weekend 2 rolled around, the guy I was conversing with on our forum made a post about it. I didn't have anything going on that weekend so I said 'what the hell, I'll pre-purchase and play this weekend. If it sucks, I'll cancel my purchase.'Well I have a bit of a negative view of GW2 just because of all the hype it's gotten and is still getting. Right now it's the 'next big savior' on the horizon for all the whiny bitches that are never happy with anything in MMOs. I'm getting really tired of hearing them tout this game that nobody has played. Here's some paraphrased examples of what I'm talking about:
(From Rift forums)This game sucks. Trion is fail! This game will be dead in 6 months! I can't wait for SWTOR and GW2 to come out!
(From SWTOR forums)This game sucks. Bioware is fail! This game will be dead in 6 months! I can't wait for GW2 and Tera to come out!
When GW2 comes out, their forum will look like this:
This game sucks. NCSoft is fail! This game will be dead in 6 months! I can't wait for Tera and Game X to come out!
So like I said, it's not GW2's fault but I'm sick of hearing about it already lol.
Well I haven't looked back since. The game is a lot of fun and my two biggest beefs, gear grinds and trinity are nowhere to be found. I'm a happy camper and I'm glad I kept an open enough mind to try the game.
???
In what context? That I played it? How does this relate to throwing around insults about how "that other game" is made of fail?
These days it would be hard to find something that is really innovative. So many more or less known games on the market. Pretty much everything was done before. I think that the general opinion about innovative content comes from the overall feeling from playing the game. I guess that innovative is perhaps a bad and overused word. More like independent and self-contained. Following own mix of concepts and mechanics without trying to copy other previously successful set of concepts.
Last edited by Awe; 2012-08-19 at 01:05 PM.
Warhammer's events wernt "dynamic" didnt spontaniously happen and was only a couple in each area that were very stale with nothing really happening, just mobs standing around untill someone actually showed up and would last for 2-3 stages in the same area, plus warhammer still had those homing in projectiles and dedicated tanks/healers and warhammer has a subscription fee past lvl 10 :P and is still quite heavily quest driven rather than their events and no active dodging/moving out of the way of projectiles, (basically no havok engine to track projectiles/weapons swings properly) by having the entire world not just selected specific areas being affected by dynamic events makes it innovative
I see allways stuff like ''wow is dying as it lost x amount of players'' or ''this game failed as it only has 1million players''
GW2 will do fine, no matter are the sells 1million copies or 10 million copies during the 1st week, its just up to you do you like playing it.
what comes to the ''hype'' im really exhausted on wow, i have ben playing it for 7-8 years now and it never does anything good with its expansions, i would love to switch to another game and gw2 really feels the next mmo to play.
the artwork drew me in. I follow artists all the time and once I came across something daniel dociu did a couple of years ago. I researched it and found out he was doing concept art for a game called guild wars 2. I was hooked and needed to find out as much as possible about the game. I did play wow so I was used to the mmo genre but these designs looked so much better.
one week to go. finally after a 2 year wait.
---------- Post added 2012-08-20 at 01:23 AM ----------
A few months ago they presold 3million copies so it looks to do well. Considering WotLK sold something like 4.7-5 million copies.
GW2 has garnered a lot of attention by trying to do things differently.
And then, people like me will play it and realise it's not that much different from all of the other MMOs out there. Thankfully, there's no subscription fees, because based on my beta weekends, unless the game picks up after the initial zone, I wouldn't sub.
Have you heard of the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV? With an expanded free trial which you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 for free with no restrictions on playtime?
3 million seems too high, where did you find that number? There was a thread on Reddit where they looked at the invoice number to see how many people had pre-purchased through Arenanet and I think it was around 1.5 million mid august (that's only Arenanet direct sales though, but 3 million a few months ago from all retailers? Sounds too high)
GW2 is more like WoW than it is like GW1. To a first approximation, GW1 was a game that the majority of players just did not like.
GW2 on the other hand is going to appeal to just about everyone, and WoW players will probably like it more than GW1 players on average.
It's not a WoW clone, but it does what WoW did originally. It takes all the best ideas and iterates on them to make a better, fresher, gaming experience.
Rift and SWTOR were absolutely WoW clones.
The fact that 2 is not like 1 at all actually helped keep the hype under control, sine so many people thought "oh, I hated GW1 so I can ignore this game".
PF.
The MMO genre felt stuck and no longer appealing to me. Queue for dungeons, get your weekly tokens and the gear you need. Hop into tier 1 raid of said game/expansion, do the dungeons for tokens again the week after. Repeat until you get to tier 2, do dungeons weekly etc.
The "fun" part quickly vanished after it felt like a job, in Vanilla and TBC it was fun to me because it still did feel new to me as WoW was my first MMO. Although vanilla and tbc were a lot more grindy than now (fire/nature/shadow resistance gear/potions anyone?) it for some reason was fun. I guess it had to do with feeling so awesome when you finally down a boss you've finally managed to beat after 3 to 10 weeks being stuck on it. Vaelastrasz, Huhuran and 4 horseman pre-nerf, m'uru all being such exceptions. Sure it killed guilds, luckely mine got to finished both expansions and everytime you killed such a "cockblock" you felt awesome.
Still, the concept is old and clearing dragon soul after 3 weeks of being 80 while casually playing (on normal), which I've done just didnt feel like a lot of fun. More like "so, that was it?" to be honest.
It may seem like I am bashing WoW, I'm simply pointing out what killed it for me. I've also played Rift and SWTOR and it all felt a lot the same. People need a change, and the fact I love GW2 this much is that they're pushing the genre to a new direction.
After it's announcement in 2007 I even forgot about GW2 for a year, pretty much lack of information. After that I've been following it off and on, getting really excited around 2010 and still am. I've bought GW and played it, it just didn't really 'catch' my attention too much. I'm sure it's good, though!
well, it wouldn't get so hyped without GW1 so i disagree with you there.
GW1 was a solid game. it had its own niche, its own following. i think people are hyped about GW2 because the developers have proven themselves capable with GW1.