Copernicus, AC 3

Originally posted by Roaki

I'm looking forward to Guild Wars 2 because its sub free, nothing else really, it's not as "innovative" as it's fanboys make out, but it will be good for a free game. Getting rid of healers, adding some dynamic content and getting rid of question marks over quest givers heads only makes a game different from WoW, not original or innovative.

 I appreciate that you're going to give GW2 a try but with all due respect, I really don't think you understand all the game is bringing to the table.

Dynamic events are not just removing question marks from NPC heads, but yes, that's the first thing, you don't have to talk to anyone or turn it in after, you can just see it and join it.  They run in cycles, so they're infinitely repeatable.  You can do any event you like over again, rather than just a one and done quest.  Coupled with the game automatically scaling you down in power, and at max level the entire game is open to you.  Dynamic events reward you based on how much you participate.  It's not like a quest where you're rewarded for killing 15 rats but nothing before that.  They're purely cooperative.  Griefing is impossible.  They scale up when more people join.  Everybody gets generic rewards of gold and karma to buy what they want to buy, rather than just getting certain quest rewards.  And because dynamic events run whether players are there or not, they can have all kinds of victory or failure conditions traditional quests would struggle to implement.  Bandits can attack and try to burn hay bales.  Think about how clunky that would be to implement in a traditional quest system (non scaling, triggered on accepting the quest).

In other words, they render traditional quests completely obsolete.

The combat is not just getting rid of healers and making everybody self sufficient.  It's a whole system designed to make combat more active and immersive.  Everybody does have a heal, but it's more about letting people play different roles and switch roles on the fly instead of being stuck as tank, healer or dps.  Mobs actually try to kill the people you'd think they'd want to kill, instead of being fixated on the tank.  Everybody can dodge attacks.  Shield stance can protect people behind you from projectiles.  Everybody can rez everybody, mid combat.  There's no targeted healing, they want people to look at the screen and not health bars.  Dozens if not hundreds of cross profession combos so ungrouped people can visually work together.  There's casting and attacking while moving with positioning being important.

And on top of that, branching personal story for every character with events reflected in a home instance, dungeons with story and explorable modes and multiple paths.  Five or six minigames per race capital city because they wanted to make their towns more social and give people places to hang out.  Hell, for some reason you can even see what your friends are doing in game from your iPad (I don't know why).

Yes, I'm a fanboy, but GW2 is also very much the real deal.

As of now, I'm most forward looking to ArcheAge. That could  change with more and more information being released, for all the MMOs I'm following. The point is, I'm not a fanboy of any game, i make my opinion of games based on available information, not blindly defending games or developers. (not even Star Wars games)

I'm waiting for GW 2 but ... actualy thats because I'm hyped so far about it because I like GW 1 but I'm just waiting for some great MMO with some new stuff, so far I'm most excited about Incarna for EvE and Dust 514.

1. World of Darkness.

2. World of Darkness.

3. Warhammer 40k Dark Millenium (sure its gonna be a flop after what ive heard the devs have told)

4. The Secret World (same as Dark Millenium)

5. Dust 514 (Since its gonna make the EvE universe even cooler)

The reason 40k and TSW is on the list is that they are the only MMO's that i can be remotly interested in even when i have very low expectations. I cant stand any more fantasy or sub-modern-day MMO's and i surely cant stand asian MMOs.

I guess most of you havent heard about WoD yet, but as soon the advertising and beta-testing starts, im sure all of you will make put it in your top 5 list, unless your a vampire-hater that is ;)  

Originally posted by cali59

Originally posted by Roaki

I'm looking forward to Guild Wars 2 because its sub free, nothing else really, it's not as "innovative" as it's fanboys make out, but it will be good for a free game. Getting rid of healers, adding some dynamic content and getting rid of question marks over quest givers heads only makes a game different from WoW, not original or innovative.

 I appreciate that you're going to give GW2 a try but with all due respect, I really don't think you understand all the game is bringing to the table.

Dynamic events are not just removing question marks from NPC heads, but yes, that's the first thing, you don't have to talk to anyone or turn it in after, you can just see it and join it.  They run in cycles, so they're infinitely repeatable.  You can do any event you like over again, rather than just a one and done quest.  Coupled with the game automatically scaling you down in power, and at max level the entire game is open to you.  Dynamic events reward you based on how much you participate.  It's not like a quest where you're rewarded for killing 15 rats but nothing before that.  They're purely cooperative.  Griefing is impossible.  They scale up when more people join.  Everybody gets generic rewards of gold and karma to buy what they want to buy, rather than just getting certain quest rewards.  And because dynamic events run whether players are there or not, they can have all kinds of victory or failure conditions traditional quests would struggle to implement.  Bandits can attack and try to burn hay bales.  Think about how clunky that would be to implement in a traditional quest system (non scaling, triggered on accepting the quest).

In other words, they render traditional quests completely obsolete.

The combat is not just getting rid of healers and making everybody self sufficient.  It's a whole system designed to make combat more active and immersive.  Everybody does have a heal, but it's more about letting people play different roles and switch roles on the fly instead of being stuck as tank, healer or dps.  Mobs actually try to kill the people you'd think they'd want to kill, instead of being fixated on the tank.  Everybody can dodge attacks.  Shield stance can protect people behind you from projectiles.  Everybody can rez everybody, mid combat.  There's no targeted healing, they want people to look at the screen and not health bars.  Dozens if not hundreds of cross profession combos so ungrouped people can visually work together.  There's casting and attacking while moving with positioning being important.

And on top of that, branching personal story for every character with events reflected in a home instance, dungeons with story and explorable modes and multiple paths.  Five or six minigames per race capital city because they wanted to make their towns more social and give people places to hang out.  Hell, for some reason you can even see what your friends are doing in game from your iPad (I don't know why).

Yes, I'm a fanboy, but GW2 is also very much the real deal.

As much as I (and many other people here) like this fact, there are those who have problems with leaving things undone.  These "completionists" get fairly screwed over by this, but fortunately they have added ANOTHER thing in the game that both helps those people who are die hard completionists (by giving them a way to show some kind of completion) and those who aren't sure wear to go next in the world (because they lack the personality to explorer types or whatever), while not making it a hassle to complete these tasks for those who are naturally inclined to exploration.

What is this feature?  why, its hearts that show up on your map that indicate that you have completed a small number of tasks for an NPC in a zone.  These tasks aren't quests either, as you can fill up these hearts by just doing DEs in the area near the NPC (thus helping them out) or by generally enterating with the environment in other ways (lets feed that farmers cows or gather ingredients for the pies that the farmer over there likes to cook).  Its cool because you aren't given a list of SPECIFIC things you can do to fill these hearts.  No check list at all.  you just do stuff that you want to do.

Raoki, the reason GW2 is considered to be doing things that are innovative and original is because developers have not put features like these into MMOs before, which is an important detail.  In an online game, there are a number of issues that the developers have to design the game around.  Lots of game developers lean heavily towards promoting competition between players in the open world PvE areas.  This is obvious when you look at the competition for kills of certain mobs for quests, the occasional PvPers who decides to kill the folks around them, sqabbling over rare material nodes, or the competition for rewards in WARs PQs to name a few things.  Players are not playing with each other, they are playing against each other.  In GW2, players ARE playing with each other, as opposed to the competition in other MMOs.  There are MANY design differences that are obviously caused by Anet's desire to facilitate this kind of gameplay (the kind where people work together, that is...).

Oh, and the reasons healers being removed is an innovative thing (on top of what cali59 said) are:

• It hasn't been done in this kind of MMO before. (themepark fantasy...though calling it a themepark is inadequate because of the fact that you actually don't have a set path in the game and progress in the story is reliant on decisions you make, not quest hubs.)
• players WILL end up having more fun playing this game (in my opinion, based on having played the demo).  This is an innovation because, in my opinion, MMOs aren't fun to play so much as they are addicting and provide an enjoyable environment.  GW2 is fun.
• neuters that whole "LF 1 healer for mission/dungeon" phenomenon.

1. ArcheAge

2. Undead Labs Zombie MMO

3. World of Darkness

4. Elder Scrolls Online

5. Dust 514

6. TOR/GW2/Secret World (tied)

Guild Wars 2.

Guild Wars 2 all the way

What ever happened to the TERA fanbase?

It used to very popular when the first information about it came out...

Every bit of information I hear about The Secret World gets me more and more excited for the game and I've been following it since I first heard it was in development about 3-4 years ago.  I do have my concerns about it, but I definitely think it's my most anticipated title right now.

Guild Wars 2 I'm also excited about.  It's doing a lot of things to revolutionize MMOs.  Considering it doesn't cost a subscription fee this is going to be a day one buy for me, even if it winds up not living up to high expectations (though, I actually think it will meet expectations).

I don't put much weight on MMOs with little information available such as Coperinus or Everquest Next.  I will follow these games closely as they release more information, but as of right now there isn't enough to get my excited about these.  Other games I'm keeping an eye on are TERA, Blade and Soul, and Archeage. 

It's going to be a good couple years for MMO gamers.

1) The Secret World

2) World of Darkness

That is all.

World of Darkness and Secret World.

For me

1) Firefall

2) Tribes Universe

World of freaking Darkness

A year ago it would have been TOR, but now it's GW2.

I'm not entirely sure why that is though. Either my expectations of TOR have greatly lowered or my expectations of GW2 have risen. Probally both.

EDIT: I think it's because the more I look at TOR, the more it looks like a product. The more I see of GW2, the more it looks like a project. A product being the sole purpose to make money, while a project is more to do with the sake of creating something credible, or something that matches the ideals of the creators (much like an indie game). That's pretty much the way I see it now.

Doesn't mean one game is going to be better than the other. After all, it's a product that sells. It's just that the overall direction that each game is taking is a big contrast. From my point of view.

1) Guild Wars 2. Easy pick

2) The secret world

3) SW:TOR (kind of, not really sure)

Gw2, easy.

Also, curious what swtor will turn out to be.

I voted None of the Above because I am most looking forward to LotRO expansion, Rise of Isengard.  Then GW2 ... if they still have mesmers.

Blizzard's next MMO