One thing that is really starting to annoying me on the forums are people that go like:
"swtor is a wow clone, gw 2 is gonna rule!"
"gw 2 is the gonna be the best game ever!"
Wall of text inc:
What annoys me is that people are making their choice on a game before the game is even out, if it's a game that already out go ahead makes your choice, but with a game that's only a few months away, can we please curb this huge amount of swtor hate.
And mostly because I been wanting to do it, I shall compare certain parts of swtor and qw 2 in the following categories: developer, game play, pvp, rgp, and setting. Which should cover most of where the hate for swtor is coming from and love for gw 2.
Developer: this will be short one compared to the others, because I will only cover developer cockiness. Bioware, I love bioware games, kotor, ME 1 and 2, I love them and I will get ME 3 and swtor. The impression I get from is that they want to make a story driven mmorpg. However, Arenanet, I get the impression that they're trying to promise so much, yet not really living up to it, which I will get into later, but if you want to see how cocky they are, watch this.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/media/videos/#gw2-video-manifesto
Yea... Arenanet is one cocky developer.
Game play: Each game has an advantage the other does not, for swtor, its familiarity will means the veteran mmo players will pick up on game mechanics quickly and so can focus more on the story and less on how to do the combat part of the game. Meanwhile players new to the mmo genre will be able to learn easily since bioware is using combat used in other mmos. Though at face value appears similar to combat like in WoW, but is more interactive, sparks fly, shots make players and foes stumble, hitting someone with the butt of a gun makes a loud crack, the combat is more interactive then in other mmos.
Meanwhile, gw 2 uses combat that would not be out of placed in a hack and slash game, which for mmo in new grounds in combat, but what makes the combat more fun is also a downside. How many mmo veterans play hack and slash games? Meanwhile new players will have trouble figuring out what to do. so despite being better, the combat of gw 2 could make it a small game.
Pvp: A few months ago this would have gone togqw 2 because I had little info on swtor pvp, but since then Bioware has released some more info on pvp in swtor, plus a new mechanic that in my opinion can makes for some serious world pvp.
First off gw 2 pvp, there is three types, structure, server vs servers vs server, and world pvp. world pvp needs no explanation. Arena pvp is comes in two types 3v3 and 5v5, which all players getting to max lvl and having all skills unlocked, while this resets after they are done pvping, I like this because it ensure skill means more than gear, because everyone is wearing the same gear. Finally server vs serves vs server pvp, this is rather unique at first glance, but it has a host of problems, such as people with slow internet, people who don't want to do pvp or be social, two bigger servers ganging up on the smaller one, etc. See while good at first glance, this mode of pvp has a host of balance problems, as I see it.
For swtor pvp, I will mostly cover one thing: guild alliances/ adversaries mechanic. This allows a guild master to select up to three guilds on either side, 3 on their side can be allies, or 3 on the enemy side can be adversaries, this is great, for social as well as pvp aspect, this far surpasses qw 2 server base combat because of one thing: its gives the players choice when they want to pvp and who fight or fight with. It's like giving a kid a box of legos and let him do what he wants rather then qw 2's method of giving him the box and telling what he can and cannot do with it.
an example of this in action:
3 members of a Republic guild head to a planet to farm for mats, do story quests etc. meanwhile an empire guild that is mark by the republic's guild master as an adversaries comes with 5 members to attack the republic guides, shortly after members from the republic guild plus two allied guild head to the planet, while the empire guild comes in force with its own two allied guilds, soon the planet becomes a battleground with massive guild vs guild combat, and it's awesome to play and watch.
Another example of these useful mechanic is let's say the guild master or a rather large guild, has two sub commanders that think the guild should do a few things differently, (how they get new members, training, etc.) but want to be able to called upon the resources of other guilds with ease, like the example above, so the guild master removes them from the guild then they form their own guilds and with guild members who thought like them, meanwhile the guild master of the old guild master marks their guilds as allies. It's a mechanic that useful for both social and combat game play.
Setting: swtor wins this hands down. For two reasons, 1 its star wars, only a few people don't know about star wars, and most that do are arguable looking forward to playing this game, so more people will likely give two cents about swtor more so then gw 2. Secondly gw 2 is generic fantasy steam punk setting with the only new things being the races. I do like how the charr are not savage brutes but are fierce and smart, I like that, but that doesn't stop it from being generic fantasy steam punk game 1,000...
RGP: this is the most important part of a successful rgp, and gw 2 flat out ignores a huge part it: player choice. They promise you can do what you want, when really that choice when you make a character. During character creation. There is one part which is why gw 2 is not a good rgp, this part is selecting how you will always response in dialog options, worst of all, there's only three options, royally, romantically, or aggressively, what no wisecrack? sadistic? aloof? really only three options? I can respect that they did not go with good, evil, grey responses but when you makes this choice that is how this character will talk unless deleted. What if you don't like how you character talk 5-7 hours into the game? or what you want him/her to speak differently? You cannot change the character dialog unless you make a new character, that's gonna really tick off some people. This is also compounded by the speaking sections, this is a speaking section. One character on each side, waving their arms with their mouths barely moving, this isn'y interacting, it's a cut scene, and a poor one at that.
Why am I making a big deal over this? Because Arenanet is not giving the one key part of rpgs, player choice, that is what Bioware is giving in swtor. If you want an rgp got to swtor, if you want combat go to gw 2 it's that simple. Rpgs are not about stat tracking which is in most games nodays, rgps just have more stat tracking than other genres normally. Rgps are separated from the other genres by giving player a choice or how to progress, do I grind? do I blaze though the story? Do I kill the guards? bribe them? seduce them? That's what is the basis for an rpg, and gw2 does not support player game play and moral choice. even the questing is just grouping up what would have been 2-5 quest in any other mmorpg, it's a checklist, not a story quest...
I think I have spent all my ranting energy for now, I may come back to add some more stuff to this post, but we shall see.
"swtor is a wow clone, gw 2 is gonna rule!"
"gw 2 is the gonna be the best game ever!"
Wall of text inc:
What annoys me is that people are making their choice on a game before the game is even out, if it's a game that already out go ahead makes your choice, but with a game that's only a few months away, can we please curb this huge amount of swtor hate.
And mostly because I been wanting to do it, I shall compare certain parts of swtor and qw 2 in the following categories: developer, game play, pvp, rgp, and setting. Which should cover most of where the hate for swtor is coming from and love for gw 2.
Developer: this will be short one compared to the others, because I will only cover developer cockiness. Bioware, I love bioware games, kotor, ME 1 and 2, I love them and I will get ME 3 and swtor. The impression I get from is that they want to make a story driven mmorpg. However, Arenanet, I get the impression that they're trying to promise so much, yet not really living up to it, which I will get into later, but if you want to see how cocky they are, watch this.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/media/videos/#gw2-video-manifesto
Yea... Arenanet is one cocky developer.
Game play: Each game has an advantage the other does not, for swtor, its familiarity will means the veteran mmo players will pick up on game mechanics quickly and so can focus more on the story and less on how to do the combat part of the game. Meanwhile players new to the mmo genre will be able to learn easily since bioware is using combat used in other mmos. Though at face value appears similar to combat like in WoW, but is more interactive, sparks fly, shots make players and foes stumble, hitting someone with the butt of a gun makes a loud crack, the combat is more interactive then in other mmos.
Meanwhile, gw 2 uses combat that would not be out of placed in a hack and slash game, which for mmo in new grounds in combat, but what makes the combat more fun is also a downside. How many mmo veterans play hack and slash games? Meanwhile new players will have trouble figuring out what to do. so despite being better, the combat of gw 2 could make it a small game.
Pvp: A few months ago this would have gone togqw 2 because I had little info on swtor pvp, but since then Bioware has released some more info on pvp in swtor, plus a new mechanic that in my opinion can makes for some serious world pvp.
First off gw 2 pvp, there is three types, structure, server vs servers vs server, and world pvp. world pvp needs no explanation. Arena pvp is comes in two types 3v3 and 5v5, which all players getting to max lvl and having all skills unlocked, while this resets after they are done pvping, I like this because it ensure skill means more than gear, because everyone is wearing the same gear. Finally server vs serves vs server pvp, this is rather unique at first glance, but it has a host of problems, such as people with slow internet, people who don't want to do pvp or be social, two bigger servers ganging up on the smaller one, etc. See while good at first glance, this mode of pvp has a host of balance problems, as I see it.
For swtor pvp, I will mostly cover one thing: guild alliances/ adversaries mechanic. This allows a guild master to select up to three guilds on either side, 3 on their side can be allies, or 3 on the enemy side can be adversaries, this is great, for social as well as pvp aspect, this far surpasses qw 2 server base combat because of one thing: its gives the players choice when they want to pvp and who fight or fight with. It's like giving a kid a box of legos and let him do what he wants rather then qw 2's method of giving him the box and telling what he can and cannot do with it.
an example of this in action:
3 members of a Republic guild head to a planet to farm for mats, do story quests etc. meanwhile an empire guild that is mark by the republic's guild master as an adversaries comes with 5 members to attack the republic guides, shortly after members from the republic guild plus two allied guild head to the planet, while the empire guild comes in force with its own two allied guilds, soon the planet becomes a battleground with massive guild vs guild combat, and it's awesome to play and watch.
Another example of these useful mechanic is let's say the guild master or a rather large guild, has two sub commanders that think the guild should do a few things differently, (how they get new members, training, etc.) but want to be able to called upon the resources of other guilds with ease, like the example above, so the guild master removes them from the guild then they form their own guilds and with guild members who thought like them, meanwhile the guild master of the old guild master marks their guilds as allies. It's a mechanic that useful for both social and combat game play.
Setting: swtor wins this hands down. For two reasons, 1 its star wars, only a few people don't know about star wars, and most that do are arguable looking forward to playing this game, so more people will likely give two cents about swtor more so then gw 2. Secondly gw 2 is generic fantasy steam punk setting with the only new things being the races. I do like how the charr are not savage brutes but are fierce and smart, I like that, but that doesn't stop it from being generic fantasy steam punk game 1,000...
RGP: this is the most important part of a successful rgp, and gw 2 flat out ignores a huge part it: player choice. They promise you can do what you want, when really that choice when you make a character. During character creation. There is one part which is why gw 2 is not a good rgp, this part is selecting how you will always response in dialog options, worst of all, there's only three options, royally, romantically, or aggressively, what no wisecrack? sadistic? aloof? really only three options? I can respect that they did not go with good, evil, grey responses but when you makes this choice that is how this character will talk unless deleted. What if you don't like how you character talk 5-7 hours into the game? or what you want him/her to speak differently? You cannot change the character dialog unless you make a new character, that's gonna really tick off some people. This is also compounded by the speaking sections, this is a speaking section. One character on each side, waving their arms with their mouths barely moving, this isn'y interacting, it's a cut scene, and a poor one at that.
Why am I making a big deal over this? Because Arenanet is not giving the one key part of rpgs, player choice, that is what Bioware is giving in swtor. If you want an rgp got to swtor, if you want combat go to gw 2 it's that simple. Rpgs are not about stat tracking which is in most games nodays, rgps just have more stat tracking than other genres normally. Rgps are separated from the other genres by giving player a choice or how to progress, do I grind? do I blaze though the story? Do I kill the guards? bribe them? seduce them? That's what is the basis for an rpg, and gw2 does not support player game play and moral choice. even the questing is just grouping up what would have been 2-5 quest in any other mmorpg, it's a checklist, not a story quest...
I think I have spent all my ranting energy for now, I may come back to add some more stuff to this post, but we shall see.
