How did GW2 managed to build its hype "without" GW1?

[Valeron]

Nobody really enjoys gear grinds do they? Most MMOs take me moths to get Max geared PvP toons but I really enjoy taking down geared up people in my garbage gear, hence the satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment. Myself, I feel the "everyones geared the same" system will actually tarnish PvP by allowing someone that has zero skill to join/hamper the matches. There's nothing keeping the dead weight out of your matches what so ever unless you premade

Well I think your premise is flawed here. Isn't League of Legends the most played online game in the world? And it doesn't have a gear difference.

[Sylvanie]

What part of the game is genuine and innovative that wasn't in Warhammer?

First of all, elimination of roles such as tanks and healers, downleveling, no bimodal endgame. (If you want to argue that these were inspired by City of Heroes -- or, in the case of the lack of a bimodal endgame, UO --, I won't disagree. See below.)

Second, when I'm talking about innovation, I don't mean any single part of it. It's difficult to find a single isolated aspect of any game that hasn't somehow been done before (there are only so many ways in which you can dress up the process of killing pixels on a screen). And just adding a single new idea does not innovation make. Conversely, being different just for the sake of being different does not innovation make; it has to fit into the overall design.

The thing is, while GW2 has borrowed, its borrowing has been pretty diverse and forged into a coherent vision, which -- as a whole -- is what is innovative, because no other game has put them together in the same way. There's a fairly big delta between GW2 and any other MMO on the market that I can think of.

Just as, simply because there may be only thirty-six fundamentally different plots, that doesn't mean that storytelling can't innovate. Frankenstein and My Fair Lady aren't the same story, claims to the contrary aside, even if they can be reduced to the same plot at some level.

[Tekkommo]

Well GW1 has a solid fan base and sold many copies, so it was always going to get attention.

From my beta experience they are doing many things right, I'm interested to see how long it will hold my attention for, can't wait to see the lvl 25+ zones, the world is done very well.

I hope every new MMO does well, more options and competition is a great thing.

[Miah]

Well I think your premise is flawed here. Isn't League of Legends the most played online game in the world? And it doesn't have a gear difference.

LoL is F2P of course a lot of people play it in today's economy. Do you need a newer computer to play it like SWToR?

[Valeron]

LoL is F2P of course a lot of people play it in today's economy. Do you need a newer computer to play it like SWToR?

Look, free to play or not, if people don't enjoy it they aren't going to play it.

[Malthurius]

LoL is F2P of course a lot of people play it in today's economy. Do you need a newer computer to play it like SWToR?

I don't see how it being F2P has anything to do with the actually quality of that game. HoN went F2P as well because of LoL.

[Tekkommo]

Look, free to play or not, if people don't enjoy it they aren't going to play it.

You are underestimating how cheap people are.

[mvaliz]

Honestly I don't care what the GW2 hype is... SW:ToR's hype was 10x more that of what GW2's hype currently is, and look where that ended up.

Nothing against Guild Wars 2, but I honestly don't believe it's going to surpass 2 million. If it did, it won't last long... all depends on how good the end-game is.

EDIT: Though I will admit this is the BEST time for GW2 to come out. Right now WoW fans are bored to tears waiting for new content (as evidence of the 1.1 million subs lost to Diablo III last quarter) and the way it sounds, Diablo 3 fans are very disheartened by that game too.

And, honestly, I don't think the Theramore event will bring people back. hell, half the WoW audience for the world event is being told "Grab a mop and bucket and clean up what the other half did. Doesn't that sound like more fun than exploring a whole new world?"

Couldn't have picked a better time to release it. ^_^

[Valeron]

Honestly I don't care what the GW2 hype is... SW:ToR's hype was 10x more that of what GW2's hype currently is, and look where that ended up.

Nothing against Guild Wars 2, but I honestly don't believe it's going to surpass 2 million. If it did, it won't last long... all depends on how good the end-game is.

It doesn't have a sub so that really is irrelevant.

[Eggoman]

At first I would like to point out that I am a Guild Wars fan (perhaps even a fanboy) and I have big hopes for GW2 so by no means I am looking to question potential merits of this game. I am just curious. What exactly happened and when did it happened that caused GW2 to be such a highly anticipated game? I mean, GW2 is all over the place right now. One could even get an impression that it is regarded by some as a savior of the MMO genre. I keep asking myself how did this happen. I played GW1 since its release in 2005 and I loved it. But the fact remains, that I know very few people who actually ever even tried that game. Over the years of playing WoW I met dozens of players, some of them very hardcore. Many of them played different MMO games as well or at least tested them. And yet I know only maybe four folks who tried GW1 (aside from the community which I had in GW1 itself naturally).

And now we have GW2 launching next week and I suddenly realize that everyone and their mom wants to play it. Some on-line friends I didnt heard from since months are contacting me and asking about server choice in GW2 and things like that. Honestly, I am a bit in a WTF state becouse of this. What exactly happened and why? Is PR work from A.net really that good? Not that I mind if it is, I would like their game to succeed. But the fact is, I spent few thousand hours in GW. I loved their lore, their game mechanics and style. That is why I believe in Arena and I believe they have what it takes to make GW2 an awesome game. And there are many people like me around the world I guess. But why people who never had any interest in GW (or some of them wasnt even aware of such game existence few years ago) are now suddenly going like "OMG GW2 GW2 GW2!!!"? Is this some sort of self-propelled hype mechanism? Someone noticed when it exactly started and how? In case of a sequel (which GW2 is) shouldnt the good experience from the original game be a key element needed to build up such hype? And as I mentioned before, most of people hyped by GW2 that I know never even knew or cared about GW1.

In the end I really do hope that GW2 will succeed. I would like to play this game for years to come and for Arena.net to have motivation to release more and more good expansions. I am just curious (and a bit cautios at the same time) about all that hype that surrounds it in the recent months.

I think there is a certain amount of hype that will come with any MMORPG game. But added to that is the what makes GW2 different then other games, it is almost an exact check list of "what I hate about today's MMORPGs and how to fix it" for a certain group of people. Namely the MMORPG fans.
Stuff like "I think PvP should be skill based". Problem solved... "I hate the gear tread mill" ok there is none. "I feel like I have to play because of the subscription"... how about no subscription... the list goes on and on and on. The hype was there but it is more enthusiastic because those people understood that this game is the MMORPG they have been waiting for.

[Miah]

You can get the same feeling you describe by killing a player in GW2 with a higher rank than you and better looking gear. "Oh yeah! I killed a Dragon Ranked PvP as a Rabbit!". There is still a reward for PvP in ranks and cosmetic gear; gear grinds in PvP only create imbalance.

---------- Post added 2012-08-19 at 10:50 AM ----------



I don't understand the relevance to GW2.

How do I know they're a Dragon? Do Dragons appear different on the screen? Where do I see how I fared against the other players when people that don't fight anything get rewarded for running around capping nodes? I found the point system a little weird as well, I always fell into the upper tier of points but I never really understood why. Kills and caps? Is there something you scroll over at the end so you can check Damage, dodges, objectives, healing, damage taken?

---------- Post added 2012-08-19 at 03:04 PM ----------

You are underestimating how cheap people are.

You got that right! Its the only reason I can see why people play LoL

[Jayded1]

It comes at a time when WoW is really boring so the Wow community hypes the only game coming out? Simple enough. It will fail though.

[Miah]

It doesn't have a sub so that really is irrelevant.

I've never understood why success or failure is ever an issue. I don't know why people even care at all, then again I don't see how anyone can still play WoW, it would be like still playing Counterstrike to me. Everyone says SWToR was a huge failure but I still log in every morning and have more fun PvPing there than any other game ever. So do a couple hundred others that are on at 4 am PST. If 500,000 people are still having a blast how can something be a failure unless they lost money?

[Kamakiri]

It didn't build it up without GW 1. The people who started all the word of mouth were , for the most part, GW 1 players. They brought in more and more people over time and the effect snowballed. People who were truly curious about GW 2 decided to try out GW 1 to get a glimpse at where it was coming from. Some went with gameplay and others just watched videos but it gave a better basis for expectations then just forum posts alone.

This is EXACTLY what happened with me. A WoW friend played GW1 before WoW. He showed me some gw2 videos...long story short I'm now 30/50 HoM and ready for GW2.

I think people really needed to stick with GW1. I struggled for a while I didn't like it. Once I got heroes, meta builds for them and me I essentially sat back and really enjoyed the game and lore.

[mordale]

a boat load of targeted media and a whole legion of haters who are fresh with disappointment that SW:toR ended up failing to kill WoW.

[Deleted]

How do I know they're a Dragon? Do Dragons appear different on the screen? Where do I see how I fared against the other players when people that don't fight anything get rewarded for running around capping nodes? I found the point system a little weird as well, I always fell into the upper tier of points but I never really understood why. Kills and caps? Is there something you scroll over at the end so you can check Damage, dodges, objectives, healing, damage taken?

Why ppl still play LoL ?
Or starcraft or age of empires etc ?

Fun :PPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

U could make a 5v5 team and aim for the tournaments , stomping opponents and get a special cookie for getting in the first place :P

[Miah]

It comes at a time when WoW is really boring so the Wow community hypes the only game coming out? Simple enough. It will fail though.

Hasn't it been boring for 3-4 years now? That's probably why every MMO in the last 4 years has been Hyped. SWToR had the IP to lend additional Hype as well as being so many years beyond the last time WoW was fun

---------- Post added 2012-08-19 at 03:17 PM ----------

Why ppl still play LoL ?
Or starcraft or age of empires etc ?

Fun :PPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

U could make a 5v5 team and aim for the tournaments , stomping opponents and get a special cookie for getting in the first place :P

Because they're broke and have old laptops? I do like cookies!

[Eggoman]

Honestly I don't care what the GW2 hype is... SW:ToR's hype was 10x more that of what GW2's hype currently is, and look where that ended up.

Nothing against Guild Wars 2, but I honestly don't believe it's going to surpass 2 million. If it did, it won't last long... all depends on how good the end-game is.

EDIT: Though I will admit this is the BEST time for GW2 to come out. Right now WoW fans are bored to tears waiting for new content (as evidence of the 1.1 million subs lost to Diablo III last quarter) and the way it sounds, Diablo 3 fans are very disheartened by that game too.

And, honestly, I don't think the Theramore event will bring people back. hell, half the WoW audience for the world event is being told "Grab a mop and bucket and clean up what the other half did. Doesn't that sound like more fun than exploring a whole new world?"

Couldn't have picked a better time to release it. ^_^

I assure you WoW fans are in for one huuuuuuuuge disappointment if they are looking for this game to fill the hole WoW has left them for the past 8 months or so. It is so different and satisfies a totally different customer base.

[Merendel]

Y It is easier to get immersed in the world when there is no some guy named "Analtorpedo" (a genuine specimen I met during a 2nd beta weekend) strafe jumping around you.

Report goons like that, that kind of name pretty clearly violates nameing policy and once a name has been banned once chances are it can not appear agian.

Back on topic I think its the fact that they set out to change several aspects of MMO's that the comunity as a whole as accepted as "Just the way things are done" since WoW became king of the genre. By and large Anet have succeeded in what they set out to do. Players have goten to try the game, liked it, and spread the word and the excitement has just ballooned.

[styopa]

Timing, boredom with the current slate of games.

I played GW1, found it dull, more of a group-AI solo online game, than an MMO. I thought the world beautifully done, didn't like that we were stuck with humans glued to the ground, invisible walls, instanced zones.

However after 7 years of on-again, off-again top end raiding I just got tired of WoW. I'd tried AoC (*loved* the setting, truly, but the game was hilariously bugged and quality of the zones fell off badly after tortage), LotRO (again, very pretty; fun to play, but I found the free to play straitjacket too tight; if GW2 wasn't coming out, I'd probably be playing this); TSW (loved the beta, the new setting, the new 'take' on level-less play, absolutely entrancing voicework, but scaling was very bad, instances gimmicky and too easy once you found the 'trick', if it stayed F2P I'd have considered dumping some money in its online store too). WAR was (now) uninhabited, as well as cheesy red vs blue. So really I was casting about for something new, and GW2 feels like "it". Honestly, I've been MMO-free for nearly a year, I'm almost wondering if I will still be interested in committing hours/week to play a computer game...the BWEs make me think I probably will. GW2 seems well done, the price is absolutely right, and it's at the right time.