2005 Game of the Year: City of Villains, Cryptic Studios / NCSoft
They won Developer of the Year, so I am sure some saw this coming. City of Villains had the advantage of coming out in a relatively weak year for the MMORPG genre, but that does not diminish what it accomplished. The game has the singular distinction of not only being a solid stand-alone product, but making another product - City of Heroes a lot more fun through their PvP-interplay.
At an event in San Francisco, Jack Emmert told us that the base-building feature was meant to be to City of Villains what character creation was to City of Heroes. This feature lets players build their own evil-layers and even extends back into City of Heroes for those that play both.
Throw in the previously mentioned PvP additions, in-depth character creation, the villainous theme and rich world Cryptic Studios has developed and you have yourself an extremely fun product that delivered on its promises. It also launched just a year and a half after Heroes, despite the fact Cryptic also put out a number of free-expansions to the original during this time.
Overall, 2005 was not a banner year. Besides Villains, we also saw Guild Wars - another NCSoft product and our Honorable Mention in this category. Beyond that, the pickings were slim as Irth Online and The Matrix Online - two other theoretical contenders - launched to niche audiences and less than rave reviews. This made it a two-horse race, but one in which City of Villains emerged as a clear winner.
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The following eligible game did not win the category, but does deserve a nod for their efforts in 2005.
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Guild Wars, ArenaNet / NCSoft
It is an MMO or isn't it? Well we believe it meets the criteria and list it as such, thus that was not a consideration. Guild Wars launched a great product, but a lack of subscription fee was not enough to push it over the edge. It is fun, it is fast paced, but simply put: we liked City of Villains more.
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;)
