MMO game mechanics: GW2, SWTOR, WOW, and Rift.

[Eikichi]

Ok so I think we all know these 4 games have certain distinct game mechanics which caught our eyes. To start it off GW2, I picked the "Dynamic events" mechanic just 'cause when I heard quest just randomly go to you thats when I thought "I might play this game". Next we have SWTOR and the Bioware "mmo storyline" I do remember playing wow and just grabbing quest but when a lore conversation was started in guild I had nothing to say. So no reading? F$%& yeah. Then moving along to Rift, "The rifts of Telara" this one was also an ear catcher but I just had a feeling I wouldn't like rift. Last but not least sometimes, Wow and their infamous NERFBAT(Nerf everything! make content easier!) haha I kid. TBH I don't know what game mechanic they pioneered, So if you could inform me that would be cool!

If you see any mistakes or think there is a better mechanic from a certain game that you think I should have used instead. Feel free and let everyone know.

[Deleted]

Well WoW excelled in a lot of areas but is now considered the industry standard so it's hard to compare.

When WoW shipped they focused especially on the accessibility of the game and the fact that you could reach max. level just by questing (something that hadn't been possible in previous MMOs, where most of the experience came from grinding mobs).

Where WoW also deserves credit is their exceptional raid-design. You can hate WoW for a lot of reasons but their encounters play better than any other MMO fight in the world. Blizzard are still the No. 1 when it comes to designing boss-encounters and I don't see that changing.

[Eikichi]

Well WoW excelled in a lot of areas but is now considered the industry standard so it's hard to compare.

When WoW shipped they focused especially on the accessibility of the game and the fact that you could reach max. level just by questing (something that hadn't been possible in previous MMOs, where most of the experience came from grinding mobs).

Where WoW also deserves credit is their exceptional raid-design. You can hate WoW for a lot of reasons but their encounters play better than any other MMO fight in the world. Blizzard are still the No. 1 when it comes to designing boss-encounters and I don't see that changing.

Thanks for the info, wasn't quite sure since wow was one of my first mmos. But not hating on wow :P only hating on their nerfbat haha.

[Deleted]

Is there more about SWTOR "mmo storyline", because more I read about SWTOR more it looks like single player storyline? Game is very story driven, but it looks like its very similar to single player games and have very little "massive multiplayer" in it where guild wars events are "massive multiplayer" and many players can join in some on going event chain when they see one (story itself).

[Eikichi]

Is there more about SWTOR "mmo storyline", because more I read about SWTOR more it looks like single player storyline? Game is very story driven, but it looks like its very similar to single player games and have very little "massive multiplayer" in it where guild wars events are "massive multiplayer" and many players can join in some on going event chain when they see one (story itself).

Well I am not sure how much you know of SWTOR there is a ton of content that has not been released to the public. But at E3 they just showcased operations for the first time still not much information just basically raids. The story doesn't have to been singleplayer you can bring your friends do the quest together and integrate them into the story. Theres a ton of info on Trollbanes thread http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...arious-sources or just visit the official website www.swtor.com

[jvbastel]

chose GW2's dynamic events, not (only) because I'm a fanboy, but because it deals with one of my major problems with mmo's these days, Namely "linear advancement". I hate levelling alts in WoW/Rift because it just gets so damn boring doing the same quests every time.

Now I realize GW2 won't have infinite DE's, but at least it breaks with the standard "do quest a then b then c, ..." design of MMO's.

It might also work with SW:TOR's personal story, but gw2 has that as well, although the cutscenes are better in tor

[Lefuu]

Guild Wars 2 have both "dynamic events" and "mmo storyline" a.k.a personal story as an alternative way of playing/leveling up/whatever. Personal story is more like a questing system through you can progress, level up and all kind of stuff. Dynamic events look fun, there are many in each zone and most have a chance to branch out, they fire off even if there are no players nearby. 3rd leveling option, while at leveling .. is pvp, you don't have to step out of it untill level 80.. players drop gear and stuff so you can both gear up and level up in pvp only.

[PACOX]

Rift - Endgame content, On Demand content, zone wide events, flexible yet traditional MMORPG class system

SWTOR - "Epic" Storyline. Smaller group play. Everyone has their own story, its Star Wars.

Gw2 - MMORPG with the "MMORPG" (what are considered standards in the genre). Large scale events. Come and go as you please. PVP.

WoW - I can't give a fair opinion of this game anymore. I can say Blizzard tries to create a homogeneous atmosphere.


Honorable Mention, Tera - Looking to revive "action" MMORPGs of the 2D era. Its gameplay is actually reminiscent of several 2D MMORPGs that were (some still are) around before EQ2/WoW launched. Their market team should market this aspect of the game rather than their whole "we are redefining everything" when they are not. I feel like the later is going to set them up for failure when the game final ports over.


Edit: I noticed a lot of people are placing GW2 up on a pedestal before its out. The game will be good, but if you didn't like GW you probably won't like GW2 even though they are pretty different. GW prides itself on being the asterisk of the genre. If you play League of Legends or any other MOBA games, Bloodlines Champions is GW, compared to the rest of the genre being LoL/HoN/DoTA. Its a flavor you either like or you don't, one reason why GW went with the B2P model.

[Verazh]

I chose GW2. But I would have choosen TOR if I could pick two options. Prolly gonna play both.

[MrSerious]

GW2 but not only for the dynamic events but for me it will be the epic scale three week long world vs world pvp... can't wait for that.

[Primernova]

Rift is a fail Gaembryo, get rich quick scheme, for disgruntaled WoW players.

Tera is a grinder, WoW players can't handle those.

GW2 is a reboot of a mediocre multiplayer PvP game that plans to be an item mall. If it hopes to compete with WoW, it needs to do more then tickle up the hype.

SWToR looks like dogshit IMO, simple DOGSHIT.

I has honest, deal with it.

[Watch the language]

[Deleted]

Reading what OP said makes me think he has no clue what the point of MMORPG is. And he prob didn't even play or will play all games.

You can't judge GW2 or SWTOR untill it's released, you just copy pasted stuff they advertise the game with. GW2 will get Dynamic events, but how the F do you know if it is gonne be fun or not at this point. (GW2 was just an example)

[captainchaos]

I'm not sure if WOW pioneered it but I know they made very heavy use of instancing and since then this has become quite popular.

[nixcookies]

GW2 is a reboot of a mediocre multiplayer PvP game that plans to be an item mall. If it hopes to compete with WoW, it needs to do more then tickle up the hype.

It's not, they have a different business model where it's buy to play instead of subscriptions, they make most of there revenue from the cash shop which is why it's necessary. If somebody wanted to they could keep their subscription active with World of Warcraft whilst at the same time, play Guild Wars 2.

Also when you say it's simply a reboot of the original, if you have tracked some of the changes that they've made you can see that they have made a lot of changes and improvements to the original. I agree with you that Guild Wars may not have been as popular as World of Warcraft, but it did sell a respectable 6.5 million copies last year, so while you may believe it is mediocre there are quite a few people who enjoyed the game and it's successor; Guild Wars 2, is highly anticipated by many.

[jvbastel]

It's not, they have a different business model where it's buy to play instead of subscriptions, they make most of there revenue from the cash shop which is why it's necessary. If somebody wanted to they could keep their subscription active with World of Warcraft whilst at the same time, play Guild Wars 2.

Also when you say it's simply a reboot of the original, if you have tracked some of the changes that they've made you can see that they have made a lot of changes and improvements to the original. I agree with you that Guild Wars may not have been as popular as World of Warcraft, but it did sell a respectable 6.5 million copies last year, so while you may believe it is mediocre there are quite a few people who enjoyed the game and it's successor; Guild Wars 2, is highly anticipated by many.

meh no need to respond, judging from his post he hasn't even done research on any of the games he bashed

[Eikichi]

Reading what OP said makes me think he has no clue what the point of MMORPG is. And he prob didn't even play or will play all games.

You can't judge GW2 or SWTOR untill it's released, you just copy pasted stuff they advertise the game with. GW2 will get Dynamic events, but how the F do you know if it is gonne be fun or not at this point. (GW2 was just an example)

Wow... You're right I haven't played those games and probably wont. Only one I am going to play is SWTOR and I've played wow since vanilla and thats it. I think the point of advertising a game is to make people interested... never did I say "this will be fun or that will not be fun" I had something good to say about all the games except WOW so I am going to take a wild guess and assume you are a wow fanboy that got mad cause his choice was "nerfbat" lol. Trust me I have done a bit of research on GW2 and SWTOR. All the info everyone has on any of these games(except wow) is what they advertise herp derp(unless its a leak).

[Blznsmri]

How is Primer not banned yet? All he does is flame shit.

GW2 has Dynamic Events and personal story, just FYI, however, if I could, I'd vote both GW2 and TOR, cause they're awesome like that.

[pateuvasiliu]

Ok so I think we all know these 4 games have certain distinct game mechanics which caught our eyes. To start it off GW2, I picked the "Dynamic events" mechanic just 'cause when I heard quest just randomly go to you thats when I thought "I might play this game". Next we have SWTOR and the Bioware "mmo storyline" I do remember playing wow and just grabbing quest but when a lore conversation was started in guild I had nothing to say. So no reading? F$%& yeah. Then moving along to Rift, "The rifts of Telara" this one was also an ear catcher but I just had a feeling I wouldn't like rift. Last but not least sometimes, Wow and their infamous NERFBAT(Nerf everything! make content easier!) haha I kid. TBH I don't know what game mechanic they pioneered, So if you could inform me that would be cool!

If you see any mistakes or think there is a better mechanic from a certain game that you think I should have used instead. Feel free and let everyone know.

k
WoW has lots of books as lore-sources,it had a really cool mystery added to it in vanilla,dynamic NPCs that undergo activities(like the guys that go drink in the Old Town etc.),creepy zones like Duskwood and so on.

[Blznsmri]

k
WoW has lots of books as lore-sources,it had a really cool mystery added to it in vanilla,dynamic NPCs that undergo activities(like the guys that go drink in the Old Town etc.),creepy zones like Duskwood and so on.

Big issue of mine with WoW is that I shouldn't HAVE to go read a book to find out about a good majority of it's lore.

[pateuvasiliu]

Big issue of mine with WoW is that I shouldn't HAVE to go read a book to find out about a good majority of it's lore.

Actually some books and games outside of WoW are referenced to ingame,if you click some books in various places like libraries or studies you can read about them.

Also,we're talking about WotA for example,that was 10K years ago,you can't really expect quest givers to still mention that..