Tenton Hammer names Guild Wars 2 best MMO of 2013

[barackopala]

Maybe it is just me but GW2 as best mmo? Really? I got to lvl 40. Max!!! And after that it was unbearable, the leveling was utter crap and if you got 2-3 adds on you at the same time, oh boy, you were dead after like 10 seconds( played thief and mesmer). In the end its still personal opinion that matters and i really enjoyed Tera and I am surprised it wasn't mentioned anywhere. For the lotro community I can't judge it really, i have a few nice friends who are playing it so it might be true that the community is nice since I haven't heard them bitching about anyone they met ingame.

What... then you really don't know how to play if you got killed by 3 monsters lol.

[Kelimbror]

What I find more disturbing than these worthless awards is the need for fans of their games to use them as propaganda to support their view of the game. When I saw the thread title, I knew exactly what or who to expect. It should be enough to simply like the game...no need to go to great lengths lobbying for other people to feel the same. I just don't understand this.

I guess it's my jaded view as a player who used to discuss my enjoyment of a game in similar ways. I've since realized how petty it seems. It's simply better to play the game and have fun instead of talking about how much fun you're having. GW2 is no exception to that. There's no reason I can see why it would be the best MMO of 2013 nor would SAB be the best update/expansion considering how much stuff happened this year.

I can only imagine these awards serve as a way for employees of these sites to take a break from giving real news and pick what they like from personal bias...their opportunity to be fans. There's nothing wrong with that, but we shouldn't really spend any time discussing something of that nature. I mean is there really any value in saying "Look how much fun I'm having with this awesome game...guys? guys? Hey look...these people on the internet agree with me. GW2, best MMO of all time and space!!1111!"? /oldmanrant

As an aside: I love GW2. It doesn't captivate me enough to play it regularly, but that's more my fickle nature and not the game...which is done very well. I did do some Christmas activities however, but still couldn't motivate myself to do the meta or anything. If only I could split myself into like 8 versions with 8 computers.

[Deleted]

What I find more disturbing than these worthless awards is the need for fans of their games to use them as propaganda to support their view of the game. When I saw the thread title, I knew exactly what or who to expect. It should be enough to simply like the game...no need to go to great lengths lobbying for other people to feel the same.

Well, some people just like to hear what others opinions are on it. I read reviews, I read articles, I watch let's plays, I watch award ceremonies.. I enjoy seeing what organisations and individuals think are the best games and why. Sometimes it encourages me to play something new, sometimes I completely disagree with them but plenty of people enjoy the discussion/debate and other peoples opinions. There is value - to some - in opinion like this, even if it is entirely subjective. Others couldn't care less what other people think or what other people have enjoyed most and that's just a personal thing I think.

[Karizee]

Seeing as how I've never even heard of tentonhammer...

I use to use Ten Ton Hammer leveling guides like eons ago, way back before LFD was a sparkle in some developer's eye, when it was better to grind bear asses in Feralas than do quests in WoW. They had a breakdown of best mobs by level/zone to grind.

This was seriously a long time ago lol. Ye gods, I'm showing my age!

[Kelimbror]

Well, some people just like to hear what others opinions are on it. I read reviews, I read articles, I watch let's plays, I watch award ceremonies.. I enjoy seeing what organisations and individuals think are the best games and why. Sometimes it encourages me to play something new, sometimes I completely disagree with them but plenty of people enjoy the discussion/debate and other peoples opinions. There is value - to some - in opinion like this, even if it is entirely subjective. Others couldn't care less what other people think or what other people have enjoyed most and that's just a personal thing I think.

I specifically meant there's no value in discussing the merits of the awards and by extension using that to justify your view of a game and then expressing that to other people. There's obviously tons of value in reading the actual idea behind the awards and evaluating that for your personal experience. In your case, trying new games. I do the same thing with Steam games. I keep seeing people talk about certain ones even though I've never really seen it or 'heard' about it before so I will often give them a shot.

[Valeron]

I still think that for many people, MMOs are like a religion. They can demand such a commitment of time and effort that some people feel the need to justify that commitment by declaring their game of choice "The One" and declaring all others to be false gods.

I rather refer it to the Highlander attitude

[Kelimbror]

I still think that for many people, MMOs are like a religion. They can demand such a commitment of time and effort that some people feel the need to justify that commitment by declaring their game of choice "The One" and declaring all others to be false gods.

As someone guilty of it in the past, it's certainly something I have picked up on. I just don't understand how it can be kept up for so long. As soon as I started playing other games, started realizing how silly I was sounding, I pretty much immediately started working on cultivating an inclusive nature to my video game views and discussion instead of an exclusive one. The weird part is that it's much more enjoyable to accept and play all games than to spend so much energy validating one game. *shrug*

[Svifnymr]

I would say it's pretty safe to ignore their obviously biased opinion on the award.

Well, yeah, every internet site is pretty much an opinion piece when it comes to "best of" tripe...

The SERIOUS lack of content since release has been simply inexcusable. And no, that joke of a thing they call living story does not count.

So it has no content as long as you ignore the content, gotcha.

Hell, the living story updates pretty much revolve around the gem store, trying to get you to spend money every two weeks for "limited time items" and gems to convert to gold.

So their business model is to give you free content and then offer further cosmetic incentives for sale? Diabolical! They should just charge a sub fee and give sporadic random content that you have no choice in, that seems a much better option.

And don't even get me started on how they pretty much abandoned/ignored every thing they said in their manifesto. Anet are complete sell outs, end of story.

Every single thing? Not one thing was followed through?

So we have an MMO that has a serious lack of PvE content to do and PvP that is in shambles. So what the hell is this game suppose to be? Because it's failing pretty hard as an MMO right now.

It seems a consistent thing with all MMO's that they cannot produce content as quickly as it is consumed. No matter if it's a "every 4 months give 1 month of content" or GW2's "every two weeks give 2 days of content", they lag behind and even when they do release stuff it's usually not of broad appeal but more focused. How many MMO's saw a lot of expansion/development during 2013?

- - - Updated - - -

I still think that for many people, MMOs are like a religion. They can demand such a commitment of time and effort that some people feel the need to justify that commitment by declaring their game of choice "The One" and declaring all others to be false gods.

Not MMO's, "recreational pursuits". MMO's, other video games, sporting games, "mine is best, yours sucks!"

[Deleted]

Ten Ton Hammer's Best MMO of 2011 was SWTOR. Best MMO of 2009 was Aion. They didn't have a year end award in 2010 but they did have E3 award's and gave the Editor's choice to Tera. Ten Ton has some great taste.

They are obviously ABW's (anybody but WoW). Fucking haters.

[Smitzelplix]

So their business model is to give you free content and then offer further cosmetic incentives for sale? Diabolical! They should just charge a sub fee and give sporadic random content that you have no choice in, that seems a much better option.

Also in the case of WoW they charge the sub fee but also have cosmetic mounts, pets, and now cosmetic helm armors. So with WoW you get the best of both worlds, a mandatory subscription with content you might not always like and a free to play cash shop all rolled into one . I think Arenanet should do the same thing with GW2!

[Deleted]

Also in the case of WoW they charge the sub fee but also have cosmetic mounts, pets, and now cosmetic helm armors. So with WoW you get the best of both worlds, a mandatory subscription with content you might not always like and a free to play cash shop all rolled into one . I think Arenanet should do the same thing with GW2!

That would probably promote GW2 to my favourite mmo tbh. I couldnt give a shit about cosmetic rewards/armour/mounts/pets but I just cant justify paying the absurd gem prices for some of the other items. (char slots, inv/bank spaces and all the living story exclusive 2 week items.)

[Smitzelplix]

That would probably promote GW2 to my favourite mmo tbh. I couldnt give a shit about cosmetic rewards/armour/mounts/pets but I just cant justify paying the absurd gem prices for some of the other items. (char slots, inv/bank spaces and all the living story exclusive 2 week items.)

I think you missed the part where I pointed out that WoW charges for a sub and still has a cash shop that rivals that of a f2p/b2p game like GW2, so if GW2 did have a sub it would probably have both the gem store and the sub fee just like WoW does. They would probably stop charging for bank, inventory, and character slots though, but keep everything else that the gem store currently offers.

[Lane]

As someone guilty of it in the past, it's certainly something I have picked up on. I just don't understand how it can be kept up for so long. As soon as I started playing other games, started realizing how silly I was sounding, I pretty much immediately started working on cultivating an inclusive nature to my video game views and discussion instead of an exclusive one. The weird part is that it's much more enjoyable to accept and play all games than to spend so much energy validating one game. *shrug*

I'm guilty of this too. I believe I've come to recognize the "honeymoon" phase of an MMO. As someone who loves leveling and alts nearly every MMO seems amazing in the beginning. It's like a new house, I guess? When you first move in it's great. Then about 4 months down the line you notice the shoddy plumbing, the electrical is barely up to code, the roof is cracked, the pool needs resurfacing, etc. Suddenly you realize you put all your hopes and excitement into something that in actuality needs a lot of work to be what you thought it was.

I think you missed the part where I pointed out that WoW charges for a sub and still has a cash shop that rivals that of a f2p/b2p game like GW2, so if GW2 did have a sub it would probably have both the gem store and the sub fee just like WoW does. They would probably stop charging for bank, inventory, and character slots though, but keep everything else that the gem store currently offers.

GW2 has been my first experience with a game functioning almost solely from a cash shop. (Rift and Tera went F2P after I quit both.) Frankly, it's worse than what I expected. I didn't know that every little thing was going to be itemized from character slots to inventory space. (I didn't play GW1 so I wasn't accustomed to it via that either.) I was apparently really naive thinking it would be predominantly vanity items. If I bought everything I would like to have (most of which readily come with subscription games) I suspect I would have spent way more on GW2 than your average vanity purchaser. I'm sure that's the point, but that's not what I thought it was going to be.

I actually don't think WoW's cash shop is that bad, comparatively. Granted, I haven't checked it in several months, but the last time I did they hadn't added much more than what they had when I quit during Cataclysm. Compared to GW2 or Tera which add series of new items every month (and Tera was doing that during its subscription days). GW2 also frequently loves to play the limited/one-time-only card, which I can't stand.

I can say with absolute certainty that if GW2 started charging a subscription I would quit and not look back even if that transition included unlocking all bank/bag slots.

[Svifnymr]

GW2 has been my first experience with a game functioning almost solely from a cash shop. (Rift and Tera went F2P after I quit both.) Frankly, it's worse than what I expected. I didn't know that every little thing was going to be itemized from character slots to inventory space.

I've not done a lot of F2P games, but it's nice that GW2 was built up with the idea of it. Check out SW:TOR for an example of "hey, lets make it free to play by cutting features". Hide Head Slot, Additional Action Bars, all sorts of things.

I fully expected Additional Character Slots to be pay, and it actually always irked me that WoW never gave the option for it. Additional Bags is irksome, but again, lots of games just don't offer the option at all. Bank space is very short supply in GW2 though and is the biggest area that says "hey, we're extorting money from you to play".

But, you can convert gold to gems, so it hasn't really been a huge handicap IMO.

- - - Updated - - -

That would probably promote GW2 to my favourite mmo tbh. I couldnt give a shit about cosmetic rewards/armour/mounts/pets but I just cant justify paying the absurd gem prices for some of the other items. (char slots, inv/bank spaces and all the living story exclusive 2 week items.)

The thing that gets me is the price of some things, not so much their availability for cash. Char slot for $10, meh, but bank slots? Name Change is $10? Same with WoW, the paid services are just outrageous pricing, IMO, and the mounts being $25 just seems silly to me. The helmets cost as much as a GW2 armor set.

I would prefer greatly if GW2 do would do the armor sets by piece, say 200 gems per piece, 800 for the whole set or similar, but oh well.

[Lane]

I fully expected Additional Character Slots to be pay, and it actually always irked me that WoW never gave the option for it. Additional Bags is irksome, but again, lots of games just don't offer the option at all. Bank space is very short supply in GW2 though and is the biggest area that says "hey, we're extorting money from you to play".

But, you can convert gold to gems, so it hasn't really been a huge handicap IMO.

I'd have a lot less issue with the bag slots if they were account wide, but per character is ridiculous. Likewise, $7.50 for 30 slots of bank space means you're paying for the convenience because economically you're better off buying another character slot to use as a mule.

I've never had an easy time making gold in GW2, in fact, I recently posted that after almost 3k hours of /played time I currently have less than 100g and last I checked gems were ~8g for 100.

[Svifnymr]

I'd have a lot less issue with the bag slots if they were account wide, but per character is ridiculous.

It would be nice if they did like some other MMO's and had a singular unlock or account unlock, at the least.

[GoldNSilence]

I haven't heard of this site until this thread, looks like I haven't missed much at all.

[barackopala]

I'd have a lot less issue with the bag slots if they were account wide, but per character is ridiculous. Likewise, $7.50 for 30 slots of bank space means you're paying for the convenience because economically you're better off buying another character slot to use as a mule.

I've never had an easy time making gold in GW2, in fact, I recently posted that after almost 3k hours of /played time I currently have less than 100g and last I checked gems were ~8g for 100.

you can make easily 10g an hr by just having some dedication to it :P

[jadedfuture]

Great, now I don't trust a word that comes from TTH. Best MMO of the year goes to the game with little character progression and an extremely homogenized class/combat system? Nice.

[Risale]

I think these sites just put WoW in a bracket of one and then judge everything else.