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[Razorice]

What is up with the GW2 hate? Can't you guys be happy that a game is doing well?

[korruna]

Hate it or love it GW2 is making an impact on the MMO genre. Players who experienced it realize how antiquated and antisocial the system of "tapping" mobs is. Months after GW2 was launched WoW redesigned its quest creatures to share tap and scale up. WoW is also feeling pressured to produce content at a faster pace because of GW2's bi-weekly releases.

Comparing GW2 to WoW is pretty ridiculous; WoW's success is unprecedented. The truth is though any MMO only needs 200k-500k active users to actually thrive as long as it has a good way to monetize the game. It's actually quite shocking to me that WoW players pay monthly fees for that game in addition to paying for expansions... You do realize that those monthly fees have been more than paying the salaries of producing each expansion, and yet they continue to charge full price for access to it? Let's not forget micro-transactions! I'm also not talking about the Sparkle Pony but rather services like Name Changes, Race Changes, Server Transfers, etc.

Considering how much ANet is hiring, I'd say they are doing quite swimmingly - which is quite a feat considering how much of a monopoly WoW has had over the MMO market for almost a decade.

[Karizee]

As someone who currently plays GW2 and who used to play WoW I can say this:

GW2 does not have WoW-type raids. If tweaking macros, futzing with your UI and spending weeks to take down a boss is your thing look elsewhere. But if you like dungeon running (33 dungeon paths + Fractals + monthly content dungeons), frequent content updates (every 2 weeks), character customization to the moon, and playing with absolute tons of people everywhere, you will like GW2.

WvW is the closest thing they have to raiding, there's a whooooole shitton of players that call it raiding, they min/max everything, coordinating entire servers on teamspeak - your server becomes like a mega-guild. It's worth buying the game just for that.

There's no denying the game's success but there's no "killers" here anywhere. GW2 isn't going anywhere, WoW isn't going anywhere, as gamers we can hope these devs play off the strengths of both games to give us better experiences.

[Ilfayt]

I'm not bashing GW2 itself, but you gotta know the numbers their giving are BS. Then again everybody's PR is BS... but VANILLA WoW(not the expansions) had more than that in about a year. It was harder to find, I had to put 'time' restrictions on search, but just about every article I can find and every source I can find is citing '4 million' or higher at September 2004. It did have a slower day 1 launch I think, but Wow started becoming a 'firestorm' over the next year.

The ones I could find are, http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/01/comm...column_gaming/ and http://www.gamespot.com//news/world-...llion-6132187? alongside a few other references, but they were to dead links(how time flies in a decade...)

[Rapti]

What is up with the GW2 hate? Can't you guys be happy that a game is doing well?

This is mainly wow fanboy site with other games being simply mentioned. You will get hate when fanboys get butthurt.
GW2 is a very good game and going strong. WoW is still going strong despite massive sub losses.
I ended up with playing GW2 mainly and leaving WoW as I didnt like where the game was and is heading.
Not to mention the sub fee being so out of date and retarded these days (yes I can easily afford that - I earn my money on my own so dont need to use mommy/daddy credit card), especially when they start to put up so much shit in Blizz store (way too greedy).
In GW2 I do stuff all time time, in WoW quite often Orgrimmar afk (which is very common with majority of players).
Another thing is achievements - GW2 got me hooked up on em, they are way more interesting and worth of my time - they got em right. Some are retard grindy (WvW ones mainly) that will take ages to complete which blows a bit on one side.

Thing is both games can deliver (SOO looks pretty cool, but Ill pass on it - raiding got ruind with current blizz design with flex/lfr/norm/hc for me and such short gear lifespawn and crazy ilvl jumps). Maybe next expac will fix it and make WoW entertaining for me (ilvl jumps in vanilla/tbc were perfect).

[Kazuchika]

So many fanboys getting mad about GW2 - wtf is wrong with you people ? You should be mad about soloing heroic raid content in same expansion - it's just retarded. I'm not suprised Blizzard is loosing 200k subs each month with crap like this.

Someone geared to the teeth who is not me solo'd the first fight of the first instance of the expansion almost a year after it was introduced and more than likely abused a mechanic makes me absolutely furious bro. I've already shattered my discs and cancelled my account.

People are calling NCSoft and ArenaNet out on their bullshit smoke and mirrors attempt. That's not getting mad it's called calling their bluff and mocking them for a pathetic attempt at lying.

[BrerBear]

The comments are less about GW2 "hate" and more about putting their weaselly marketing half-truths in their place.

I don't hate the game, but when they want to make claims like "Fastest Selling MMO in History *", they deserve to get smacked down.

If you actually read their caveat, it says:
"* Based on initial 9 months combined digital and retail unit sales against PC pay-to-play MMORPG games; includes North America, Australia, and Europe."

Nine months? How curious why would they choose nine months sales to celebrate their one-year anniversary?
Answer: Because if they include a full year, they *are not the fastest selling MMO in history*. By the end of its first year, WoW had nearly 5 million subscribers. And GW2's sales tanked after the first nine months. Not to even mention comparing current sales to a release in 2004, with a smaller market and when digital sales didn't even exist. So yeah, it's sleazy marketing.

And by the way, congratulations to you for reading "The Best Post Ever in the History of MMO-Champion*".

*Based on posts submitted between 5:20 and 5:30 am GMT.

[Karizee]

The comments are less about GW2 "hate" and more about putting their weaselly marketing half-truths in their place.

I don't hate the game, but when they want to make claims like "Fastest Selling MMO in History *", they deserve to get smacked down.

If you actually read their caveat, it says:
"* Based on initial 9 months combined digital and retail unit sales against PC pay-to-play MMORPG games; includes North America, Australia, and Europe."

Nine months? How curious why would they choose nine months sales to celebrate their one-year anniversary?
Answer: Because if they include a full year, they *are not the fastest selling MMO in history*. By the end of its first year, WoW had nearly 5 million subscribers. And GW2's sales tanked after the first nine months. Not to even mention comparing current sales to a release in 2004, with a smaller market and when digital sales didn't even exist. So yeah, it's sleazy marketing.

And by the way, congratulations to you for reading "The Best Post Ever in the History of MMO-Champion*".

*Based on posts submitted between 5:20 and 5:30 am GMT.

That 5 mill at the end of WoW's first year includes China. Before they went to China (at the nine month mark) they had only 2 million in the US & EU. I'm sure that's why ANet is looking at that time frame.

GW2 is in beta in China now so maybe next year we can compare those numbers

[Deleted]

good job to arena net for making a game that didnt flop and has made it past the first year brilliant game from what i played of it

[Phasma]

The comments are less about GW2 "hate" and more about putting their weaselly marketing half-truths in their place.

I don't hate the game, but when they want to make claims like "Fastest Selling MMO in History *", they deserve to get smacked down.

If you actually read their caveat, it says:
"* Based on initial 9 months combined digital and retail unit sales against PC pay-to-play MMORPG games; includes North America, Australia, and Europe."

Nine months? How curious why would they choose nine months sales to celebrate their one-year anniversary?
Answer: Because if they include a full year, they *are not the fastest selling MMO in history*. By the end of its first year, WoW had nearly 5 million subscribers. And GW2's sales tanked after the first nine months. Not to even mention comparing current sales to a release in 2004, with a smaller market and when digital sales didn't even exist. So yeah, it's sleazy marketing.

And by the way, congratulations to you for reading "The Best Post Ever in the History of MMO-Champion*".

*Based on posts submitted between 5:20 and 5:30 am GMT.

You should take a closer look at Blizzard's marketing schemes if you think that's bad.

[Deleted]

Gogo Guildwars 2!
WoW is just a sinlge player "daily game" much money for nothing...

[Deleted]

Whenever a company has to lie to make the figures look good you know the game isn't doing as well as expected and this goes for all games.

[BrerBear]

You should take a closer look at Blizzard's marketing schemes if you think that's bad.

OK.
Show me a Blizzard marketing scheme that is slimier than this one.

- - - Updated - - -

That 5 mill at the end of WoW's first year includes China. Before they went to China (at the nine month mark) they had only 2 million in the US & EU. I'm sure that's why ANet is looking at that time frame.

GW2 is in beta in China now so maybe next year we can compare those numbers

Yes, clearly it was for the sake of accuracy that they picked a number that wasn't aligned to their one-year anniversary announcement.

I suppose GW2 will be able to show 8 million purchases by the end of their second year to at least keep on pace with WoW's second year. GW2 needs to more than double its first year purchases, even though sales are plummeting in existing markets. Care to wager?

I expect no less of the "fastest selling MMO of all time", if they stand behind their marketing.

[Thessik-Irontail]

Only 3.5 Million in the first year? I would sure be interested in the real number, how many are actually still playing of those 3.5 Million. I know that GW2 sold nearly 2 million right when it launched, then the game tanked and you never heard from it again, as large numbers of players left the game after releasing that the anet devs had lied and delivered a shallow and hallow console game trying to pass off as an MMO. My guess is the remaining players of the 3.5 is no more then 1.5 million, which is better then some other games out there, but just no comparison to games like WoW, or even EQ2 for that matter. Now normally this would not be an issue, but for a game that claimed it was going to try to dethrone WoW, and change the MMO genre, etc.. GW2 has had very little, if any at all, lasting impact.

GW along with TOR, also has the award for the MMO with the most people leaving in the shortest time as well.

In addition their 2 week updates are a joke, there is no meaningful content being added biweekly.

[Irscary]

fun boss this was!