An MMO Manifesto from the Guild Wars 2 Team

^{Disclaimer: I confess to being a fangirl of NCSoft, publishers of City of Heroes, which I studied  for about 5 years.  They have also published the Lineages, the original Guild Wars and Aion.}

So...

The intrepid warriors from NCSoft and ArenaNet are presaging the pre-holiday beta launch of Guild Wars 2 with a declaration of independent thinking. More on that in a sec.

First off, let's review its pre-cursor, the original Guild Wars. What made it obsession-worthy?

- accessible to the 'casual', newbie MMO gamer.
- highly instanced combat (Sir Richard cringed).
- grouping that includes NPC mercenaries.
- very beautiful emotes like the Monk's dance.  Amazing landscapes, architecture, everything.
- alternative play modes allowing high-level play for the low-level n00b.
- observer mode: enjoy the gank gladiator-style, you emerge un-scathed.
- 'no loot stealing, spawn camping, and endless travel'.
- guild capes  (I confess to leaving guilds if they had ugly designs that didn't match my outfits.  How shallow of me!)

I have more than a few opinions about what an exciting, 21st century MMO might encompass.  Happy to say it appears that true evolution is in the works.  Deviations/expansions of established MMO conventions in Guild Wars 2:

- Doing away with the grind.  Not all will agree this is a good thing, but as my kid says, there is nothing worse than a videogame that is both 'hard and BORING'.
- New character classes (professions) like the Ranger.
- Personalized story-lines.  NPCs remember you.  You are not on the exact same quest path as everyone else, with the same goals, outfits, spells, items, etc. at the same levels.
- Cause and effect prevail, personal agency is paramount.  Changes you effect on the environment persist.
- Dynamic events, a mechanic that has worked very well for CoX.
- PvP in non-zoned, non-instanced areas.  Huge-scale world vs world combat events.
- Variations on healing and death rituals.

And for the techno-geeky among you, it's all being built on a new physics engine, Havok,  that allows the designers and developers to more fully realize their conceptual vision:

We're creating a world, and what's the point of exploring a world if there isn't the awe and wonder, you know? We try to create those moments of awe and wonder. - Jeff Grubb, ArenaNet

For those of you who don't readily embrace change, Guild Wars servers will continue running, and an ongoing free trial is on offer.

Any predictions on the effect on social dynamics, innovations that are likely to stick, etc?  Other games trying new things? My kid, for instance, is obsessed with Wizards 101, a pay-for-stuff-the-kid-MUST-have MMO that creates accessibility and safety for the semi-literate aspiring gamer.

I think things are about to get very exciting in Videogame Land. To over-use an over-used term, epic!

More on GW2:

• The official website.
• Wikipedia is chock-full of up-to-the-minute details.
• Guild Wars 2 Community Hub (wiki, blog, video - share, share, share! - talk to devs and they will listen!)
• The art of Guild Wars 2, in coffee-table-book-format. (when you can't stand to look at your computer anymore)
• A playable demo of the game is available at Gamescom 2010 (August 19 until August 22, 2010). Another playable demo will be available at PAX, from September 3-5.

Comments

[Richard Bartle]

1.

>I have more than a few opinions about what an exciting, 21st century MMO might encompass.

21st Century?

>- Doing away with the grind.
>- New character classes
>- Personalized story-lines. NPCs remember you.
>- Cause and effect prevail, personal agency is paramount.
>- Dynamic events
>- PvP in non-zoned, non-instanced areas.
>- Huge-scale world vs world combat events.
>- Variations on healing and death rituals.

These are 20th Century. Everything you list here appeared in text MUDs; probably not all in the same text MUD, but they're not new ideas. Some are gimmicks, some are following a dead end further (some MUDs offered 50+ character classes), some are nice in theory but not so nice in practice.

>And for the techno-geeky among you, it's all being built on a new physics engine, Havok

This is something that the old text MUDs couldn't do, and is ultimately why so few people play them today. It trumps all the rest.

Richard

[Mike Sellers]

2.

I seriously doubt that physics engines are what's made the difference between MUDs and MMOGs. Graphics, even with minimal physics, made MMOGs more accessible to more people than MUDs long ago. Interestingly, "social games" are now trumping MMOGs with their easy-in gameplay, even when the graphics are far from cutting-edge.

If GW2 can pull off some of the things they're talking about in a substantive way (and IMO that's a big if), then they will be pushing forward MMOGs and how they're designed. I remain somewhat dubious about the degree to which cause-and-effect will really affect the world, and how much effect player-agency will have. We'll see.

[LisaG]

3.

Hey Richard, can't say I disagree with you, but MUDs got to evolve for a long time and MMOs are catching up with some of the more creative conventions that began there. Text affords a bending of imagination not available when the intent is to create graphical representations of everything.

I am hopeful.

[greglas]

4.

Lisa -- thanks for this. I saw that "independent thinking" video too and I was impressed. I'm looking forward to seeing how they implement some of those ideas. The graphics do look amazing.

[Richard Bartle]

5.

Mike Sellers>I seriously doubt that physics engines are what's made the difference between MUDs and MMOGs. Graphics, even with minimal physics, made MMOGs more accessible to more people than MUDs long ago.

Yes, sorry, it was the graphical aspects of the engine I was alluding to, not the physical aspects; I should have made that clear.

Richard

[Edward Castronova]

6.

I'm in.

[thoreau]

7.

The single biggest deal about GW2 is the removal of one of the holy trinity of RPG classes - the healer.

The new game mechanic requires each player to carry one healing spell with them. All party members will be able to rez.

I think there is an entire population of gamer who only play a healer. It seems that NCSoft is willing to let them buy another product.

One wonders if in GW3 the tank classes will be removed. Then you will be left with only dps classes.

Pick you class! We have 8 variations on the theme.

[Lorna]

8.

There are 3 Scholar professions. Each have them can have a primary support build to heal. For example a Water Elementalist. Arenanet realizes the audience of people that only like to play healer.

The biggest change though is the fact that it is an open world unlike guild wars 1.

[Patrick]

9.

"New character classes (professions) like the Ranger."

The Ranger was in GW1. I haven't heard any mention of new character classes. Although GW1 did come up with some creative ones like the Ritualist, so we'll see, although that was in an expansion pack.

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10.

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