General Discussion

Yeah it, DDO and PSU are MMOs in my book.  The only reason that people like to jump all over GW not being one is because ArenaNet said that they had RATHER call it a CoRPG.  But unlike what people like to say ArenaNet has never said that it wasn't one. 

People have that opinion because in Guild Wars everything is instanced except towns. So some think that there ain't much difference between a game where you meet in a chat and then join the same server or a game like Guild Wars where you meet in a town, form a group and do any mission or quest together.

Personally I think that Guild Wars can be very well considered as a MMORPG though it's of course not what you expect when someone talks about that specific genre.

Another argument for some might be that there is no "roleplaying" in Guild Wars what seems like pure nonsense to me since no online RPG is really suited for actual "roleplaying". Maybe a MUD or maybe Neverwinter Nights but still... I can't understand why people keep insisting that "roleplaying" is the real shit and feel so superior because they are THE "Roleplayers", it's poor to struggle for doing that in an online game if you ask me.

Then some others argue that Guild Wars is missing a proper economy and crafting system. However there is an economy and a crafting system too, not the most complex stuff around but it is still in the game.

Anyways, compared to so many other MMORPGs Guild Wars seems just too much "lite versioned" to a lot of people to deserve the title MMORPG but that doesn't change that Guild Wars is a massively-multiplayer game with thousands and thousands of players in an online environment based on a roleplaying game system where you develope a character who performs a specific role like tanking, healing, casting or whatever. It is not essential for an RPG to actually "act" your character like the "roleplayer fascists" insist on doing, actually it's merely all about a characters "function" in trading, battle, dialogue aso situations.

Something else about "roleplaying", last argument though because I don't want to troll too much into offtopic stuff. I think playing Guild Wars feels more like playing a trading card game though you have your avatar and items but in the end it's all about a certain amount of skills you can choose from your deck. Considering that the most interesting part in Guild Wars is PvP I think that a card game a like system for the sake of "balance" is almost impossible to beat. I think you could say that Guild Wars is an RPG with your character having some mean trading card deck in her/his pocket or so.

Guild Wars IS an MMORPG since it fulfills every necessary condition this genre is all about.

  Most of the gameworld is not what anyone would consider massively multiplayer, period.  Game is an expanded multiplayer in my mind.

I have been reading many forums and listening in games that people are saying Guild Wars is not a MMORPG.

Why?

I mean its in the site MMORPG.com and it has wat a mmorpg has:

roleplaying, classes, leveling, and grinding.

so why do people say GUild Wars is not an MMORPG

remember im not taking any sides just asking

It is an MMORPG.  You can group with/against lots of players, it is online and you can roleplay.  It just isn't your traditional MMORPG. 

The developers don't call it one.  Think they call it a CORPG?  something like that.  But basicaly it is still an MMO

Some people on this site have very narrow definitions and views.  If it doesn't satisfy every tiny little detail of their definition they feel the need to call it something.

Venge Sunsoar

OP makes a good point. PSU, DDO, PSO, CoH, CoV and even EQ2 all use instancing. Hell - eve uses zoning so badly that youre lucky to see another person in most zones. GW is extremely tactical twitch based combat and is also an extremely fun mmo. Once you hit max level theres an endless ream of achievements to gain that most people just cant be bothered getting so they think max lvl is end-game.

If you like to be stood in the middle of nowhere on your own grinding away then dont play GW :P If you like to be in a packed towns forming parties then play GW. Simple choice really.

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Originally posted by grimboj
OP makes a good point. PSU, DDO, PSO, CoH, CoV and even EQ2 all use instancing. Hell - eve uses zoning so badly that youre lucky to see another person in most zones. GW is extremely tactical twitch based combat and is also an extremely fun mmo. Once you hit max level theres an endless ream of achievements to gain that most people just cant be bothered getting so they think max lvl is end-game.

If you like to be stood in the middle of nowhere on your own grinding away then dont play GW :P If you like to be in a packed towns forming parties then play GW. Simple choice really.

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    Way to misrepresent everything else and hype up GW, fanbois ftl.

A MMORPG is more of a category than and many game fall under it MUDs MUCKS MUX's etc etc all fall into that category guild wars is also in the category, People just like to try and be smart asses all the time.

Is Diablo 2 a MMORPG? If you answer yes, then Guildwars is also an MMORPG, but if you answer no then it is not.

GW = D2, with the only difference being the chat rooms used to orginize games is represented with a 3d town. Otherwise once a character group leaves the town(chat server) an instance is created on one players computers much like diablo 2 used to host games off people's computers.

This is why GW is free, it only needs to maintain the single chat server everything else is ran off of the one of the player's computer. For this reason it is an online rpg that seems like an mmorpg in lots of ways, but since it lacks a persistant world some aspects found in mmorpg's cannot exist. This is why the developer doesn't call it an mmorpg.

Some could easily argue that it is an mmorpg because massive amounts of people role play online, but then I would argue it would have to be redefined as a non-persistant world mmorpg.