Arenanet has really come up with a great idea here. Guild Wars has been out for a while. It has several expansions and has sold millions of copies. The game was solid and had a huge player base. It still runs today and remains popular among players. Guild Wars 2 is coming and as a sequel pretty much negates playing the original any more. Sure some players will stick with Guild Wars after the sequel, but many will make the leap over to the new game. Other game companies have run the risk of switching a player base to a sequel and in an MMO it definitely carries more weight. However, with the Hall of Monuments Arenanet is giving players a reason to stay in Guild Wars and eventually make the leap to the sequel when it launches.
So if you are a Guild Wars player right now you should be working toward your achievements. Just as any player would, only now, those achievements will actually give you some great items and titles in the upcoming sequel of the game. Guild Wars 2 has a host of rewards for incoming players who have reached achievements, giving fans a reason to go back into Guild Wars and start playing again, especially if they are very excited about the sequel.
Arenanet has even given players a calculator online to work out how the achievements are tallied. So even if you are not a Guild Wars player, you can still get in and start earning some points to get ready for Guild Wars 2. Among the rewards are armor sets, pets, miniatures, weapons, and titles. This is a pretty great selection for players who have really put the time into the game.
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So the question is, will players jump at the chance to reach these achievements? Well if I was an established player then yes I would be very happy to see how many points I had and what I needed to do to earn some more to get the perks in Guild Wars 2. There might be some players who are excited about Guild Wars 2 but did not play Guild Wars and they pick up the game to get the achievements while waiting to play the sequel. These are two very real possibilities. The bottom line, I think, is that Guild Wars players are being rewarded for their efforts and encouraged to join Guild Wars 2 when it comes out.
This is a great marketing plan and continues to show that Arenanet puts its players first. Other game companies have launched sequels and done nothing to reward players who join the new version of the game. This system is fresh and looks at making the player’s experience exciting more than anything else. I wish there was a way to see how many players are now back in Guild Wars to get these achievements. I wonder if the plan is working, not because of the competition, but because it is a very good idea and something other MMO companies can learn from.
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Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 continue to drive MMO game play and design. Recently reading the website I saw the note, “a bold step for gaming.” I do believe this is a very true statement and something that will stand for the next decade. With the Warcraft dominated last six years, many game companies promised to not be WoW. Unfortunately, all they were trying to do was compete with WoW and lost sight of the fact that innovation is what brings players to new games. While I believe WoW was the combination of great MMO ideas from the years 1997-2003. I do believe Guild Wars 2 will be a great combination of ideas from 2004-2009. There is still a lot of originality in both games and that is what players will be looking for when Guild Wars 2 launches. The Hall of Monuments is a great reward system to active players and presents a bright future for Guild Wars players as they step into the sequel already ahead of the game.
