Why WoW beat Guild Wars

I’ve been thinking a bit about Guild Wars lately. It’s a subject I have some measure of familiarity with. I mean, it’s a well-kept secret in that probably only a few people are aware of it but the alias I’m writing under here is a big one when it comes to Guild Wars. Or at least it used to be. “I” was one of the chosen few who tested the game. Moderated some fansites. Helped to start a few others. Joined some guilds – The Illuminati, The Number Crunching Zombies, Idiot Savants, the Fianna, even the Alphas. I’ve been the first to enter a new zone or find a new skill. I’ve gone on raids. I’ve climbed up the ladder. I’ve held the Hall. I’ve done just about anything possible in the game back when I was playing. Not by myself, though, I had a lot of help from friends I’ve lost, somehow, along the way (Mostly through faults of my own. Again, if you know my name from somewhere else, I’m sorry.). Probably doesn’t mean much to anyone who hasn’t been following the game for years by now but, well, at one point I did. The Alphas were one of the first guilds formed in the test, you know, and although I wasn’t there in the beginning I was at one point a member. Nothing but some digits in some computer database and some warm memories at this point but, at the time, it meant a lot to me. In ways I could probably never even been able to begin to express. I’ve faded from the game – pulling the plug like I always prepared to do so - vanishing into the comfortable anonymity of those who only play infrequently, if at all. But at one point I was a member in good standing not just of one guild or another but in what we called the community[1]. Those people who tracked the game, talked about it, participated in it, and, somehow, helped it get to the point where it is today. Each in our own small little way. You won’t find us in the history books or anything – no more than you’d find the names of the people who voted in the first elections following the Declaration of Independence. But I’d like to think we were important if only to one another. Because we were the ones who cared.

It’s by no doubt apparent to those (few) who’ve been following me here but I’m a bit of an evangelical. Not about religion, mind, but by that I mean that I just love to spread the good news. When I find something I like or the latest and greatest thing, my impulse is to run out and let everyone in on the fun. I’m sorry, it’s just how I roll. I joined the community – forced myself upon it, really – not just because I wanted to foster my own interest in the game but, as time went on I realized, to develop the interests of others. Seeing a new fan minted or hearing from someone who’d sampled the game for the first time and become hooked, brought a special sort of smile to my lips. Mostly, the kind no one ever saw because I was sitting on the other side of their computer screen. So I worked at it. Harder than I have at many things, if I’m going to be honest. I poured my time and my energy into doing the things I thought would help. The game, the community, myself, at a certain point it didn’t really matter because they’d all blended into one another. People need hobbies, I guess.

I mean, if you’ll permit me to sermonize for a bit, Guild Wars is a great game. It’s by no means perfect but what, really, is? It’s just fantastically well put together. If, like me, you’re a little sick of some of the trappings of the MMO genre while still liking some of the conventions then you’re going to find something to like in the game. The easy thing to focus on is the fact that you don’t have to pay a monthly fee. No, you just buy a box. You don’t even need the original game, any expansion – and there are two out now – will give you everything you need to hop on and start playing at no added cost (Well, in terms of money, anyway. If you’re like me then this game is going to rob any number of other wallets or bank accounts you might have). As long as you buy that one box you can pick up and put the game down any time you want. I mean, my account’s still sitting there waiting for me to get over myself and log back in (Which I’m not going to do. Not until they put in an auction house, anyway) to this very day – I’ve never had to pay another dime or cancel my subscription or anything. I can just pick right up. Which is what most people seem to overlook, to me at least. My characters (And, yes, I have a few) are all at max level with almost everything they need to play the elder game – it’s part of why I’m not playing, anymore, really. If I wanted to, I could hop back on inside of a few minutes and be grouping up with people to raid the high level dungeons to grind away for the uber loot. Or, I could go and do something entirely else. The low level cap in Guild Wars and the fact that the best items are only incrementally better than the standard stuff means you can grind away for prestige items or differences in percentile points, if you happen to like the treadmill. Or you can just play the game without spending hours hoping for a drop, you’ll be good enough that you won’t be making a fool of yourself. Either way you want to play, it’s there for you. And not just in that way, of course. Did you know that these days for just a few dollars more than the retail price you can purchase all the skills and items you need to create any PvP-ready max-level character at the drop of a hat? People who don’t want to PvE never have to spend a second leveling up or exploring and can get straight to the nuts and bolts of learning the complex and intricate system of moves and countermoves in Guild Wars competitive playstyles. And people who don’t want to become PKs never have to spend a second in PvP. It’s a great game if you’ve never played an MMO before or if you’re a veteran of dozens. And, oh, the complexity. If you want to spend hours pouring over different combinations of skills – over a thousand at this point if you have every expansion with the promise of still more to come - that can be mixed and matched like a hand of cards then they’re there for you. But you can also just find a few favorites to stick with because they’re all compartmentalized based on the classes and campaigns. Whatever way you like to play that sort of game, if you in fact do, there’s something for you. Like the best of game it’s deceptively simple. Easy to pick up, hard to master. It just has so much going for it that, to me at least, it’s easy to see why in a crowded market of “next generation” MMOs that Guild Wars was the one that caught my eye. Most people I know who’ve given it a fair chance have stuck with it.

I’m obviously mor than a little biased. But Guild Wars was a game with, as they say in the marketing biz, “mainstream appeal”. It was more than a little designed to appeal to those people, like myself, who were interested in playing online but weren’t really interested in playing any existing MMO for any number of reasons. There was, correctly in retrospect, a large, untapped market for a game that was an MMO but better. Guild Wars was it for me. So, I’ve always been a bit sad to see that it wasn’t quite Guild Wars who became the game to break multiplayer roleplaying out of its niche. No, it was World of Warcraft.

Just take a look at MMOGChart[2] which tracks the amount of people playing these sorts of online games. WoW shatters any and all records by other games. Over 7 million people are said to play it. That’s more than double the peak of the historically second most played MMO – Lineage. More impressive is the rate at which WoW has attracted new players. That steep climb makes Lineage’s rise look positively gentle. That amazing growth seems, to my untrained eye at least, to have leveled off. But, well, how many other MMOs have national commercials or South Park episodes devoted to them? And how many people are going to get a copy of the game for the holidays this year and send that subscription base higher still?

WoW is just a massive success it’s hard to imagine a world when MMOs were hoping to get a million people to sign up if they were lucky. But that was the case when both WoW and GW were in development. The two games, after all, were released only months apart. And, had Guild Wars come out on the schedules I was aware of, it would have been even closer still. It’s impossible for me to look at things and not wonder what if?

Because, and I’ll share another little secret about myself (And this is one that no one else has known), but what got me involved in Guild Wars in the first place was WoW. You see, I’m an oldschool Warcraft fan. I’ve played, enjoyed, all the games since the first. More than that I’m a Blizzard fan. I’ve played all of the games they’ve made, even hunted them down, from the days of Rock & Roll Racing and Lost Vikings. Never had a major disappointment with their games. They take their time but they always turn out a quality product. And sometimes, as with Diablo or Starcraft, they come up with something revolutionary. They really came into their own with the original Warcraft. The release of which happens to coincide with the start of my own particular golden age of computer gaming[3]. So, well, I kinda sorta grew up alongside those great games of yesteryear that Blizzard made. I’ve hung around Battle.net and run through Hardcore mode. Some of my first online experiences involved finding someone to dial-up Warcraft II with. I am, after all, an avid player of many sorts of games. I might not be particularly good but I do enjoy the diversion from time to time.

But, one game I’ve never really enjoyed is the online one. Truth be told, I play video games to get away from people not to interact with them. So, although I had plenty of chances to sign up with the very first MMOs he way I’d occasionally foray into an FPS Deathmatch or twelve, I just never bothered. If I wanted to play and RPG I’d play with my tabletop friends. Or some other form of CRPG where I could go at my own pace. So, I missed out on things like Ultima Online and EverQuest the first time around, no matter how much my friends tried to convince me they were fun to play (Don’t worry, they got theirs back when I tried to tell them about the power and glory of Guild Wars. Repeatedly.). But, well, times and tastes change and somewhere along the line I heard that Blizzard was going to try their hand at making one of these MMOs that people seemed so keen on. I was sold, sight unseen, because I knew that any game that Blizzard released was going to be polished and well-crafted at the very least. Not having to worry about playing a game that was going to sour on me in a few months or be a bug-ladden mess meant that I was more than willing to throw some more money Blizzard’s way. I made noteof the game and kept checking back to see when it was goin to come out. I registered on their boards, applied to their beta test (I’ve been in more than a few, myself, in case it’s not obvious), and settled in to wait until the developers were ready to launch.

While waiting, though, I happened to stumble on a free trial for this little unknown game – to me, anyways – called Guild Wars. It was something called the E3 for Everyone, just a few days where the developers let everyone who wanted play a bit of the unfinished alpha version of their game. And, man, after a few nights of cramming every hour full of gaming to explore every nook and cranny of this online demo, I was hooked. Still am, really. The game was everything I wanted from an online RPG back then, anyway. And I wanted that rush to continue even after the test ended. So, I went back to the resources I’d found while on my whirlwind tour just to keep involved – the places where I’d found maps and skill information and guides and tips and, more than that, kindred spirits who were likewise enthralled with the game’s potential. Made a post on this fansite, then that fansite, and before I knew it, I was sucked up into the whirlwind and spinning more than a little out of control as the game and the community grew around me. It was a hell of a ride, if nothing else, and I’m not sure I’d trade my experiences during my time with the game for anything else at this point. It could easily have happened with WoW, it’s just Guild War’s fanbase was a little smaller and easier for me to find my place in, I think.

See, I never really forgot about WoW. When they had their own free trial, I made a point of investing just as much time into it as I had during GW’s demo. But, well, I can’t say I had a bad time, just that I found the experience wanting when compared to the amazing, fantastic time I’d had with my namesake[4]. WoW was a wonderfully well-done MMO, it hit all the right notes and did everything in a way I liked. It’s just that I’d found something better. I’d found Guild Wars. And I fully expected other people to, eventually, if only they’d give the game a chance. At least enough that the game would be a success and attract enough people that I’d never have to worry about the devs pulling the plug and ending my fun.

Well, it turns out that I was right, somewhat. Guild Wars is a success, too, just not on the same scale as WoW. But it’s been up and running for a while and it looks like it’s going to continue for a little while longer, if nothing else. So I take some small measure of satisfaction in that. As well in the continued success of those organizations and people whom I happened to run into in my Icarus-like trajectory through time.

It’s just I read things like this comment (#2 by David Glover, about whom I know absolutely nothing about except I like the way he thinks) and I can’t help but think about what might have been. As David says, I couldn’t understand how “[Guild Wars] didn’t appeal more than World of Warcraft”. It was a bit of a running battle between our two communities, you understand, as the fans of each unreleased game attempted to convince the other they were deluded – something like Baptists trying to convince Lutherans they’ve gotten things horribly wrong, I imagine. Although I’ve tried. And I’m not really sure I have the answer but it does make me wonder two things, really.

First, if things had bounced another way would I have felt this passionately (That I can start off trying to quote a small blog comment and run off with a good couple thousand words inside of an hour when I have a novel to write) about World of Warcraft? I was never as deeply involved with things on that side of the fence, so to speak, but I think the potential was there. Did Guild Wars really suit my preferences or was it simply the right game at the right time with the right people to keep me active and involved?

Less navel-gazingly, I wonder what would have happened if Guild Wars had been called something like Diablo Online. Because, really, to me at least, it could be. It was something of a joke amongst the community that we could call the game “Diablo III”. To some that was a way of insulting the game but, for me, it was a major selling point. Replace the text based lobbies of BNet with graphical ones, add in some extremely rigorous balancing, and include the latest gaming innovations to make the next sequel in that franchise and, really, you’ll get a game that’s going to be a lot like Guild Wars. This isn’t really all that surprising because the developers of Guild Wars, some of whom I’ve had the pleasure to meet although I doubt they’d remember me, were lead by the very same people who created those Blizzard games I loved so very long ago. They were the designers and programmers of things like StarCraft, Diablo, and even Battle.net itself. And, from my admittedly limited understand, they were heavily involved in the early stages of Warcraft Online, what became what we know as WoW. They just were forced out of the company or left of their own accord because they wanted to take that game in a different direction than it was going. Those are the people who formed ANet and whose first (and to this date, only) game was Guild Wars.

And it’s here that I think I’m touching at least one edge of the answer to Mr. Glover’s question. To explain, unlike Guild Wars which had to start from scratch my fictional Diablo Online would use all the familiar names and places that fans of Diablo have come to know. It would have a built-in fanbase the same way James Bond does. People who’ll sign up no matter what the actual product looks like because they’re sold on brand reputation alone. Like I was going to with WoW, they’ll buy the game or the movie ticket or the song or book or whatever else simply because they trust the makers to deliver a quality experience, somehow, for their entertainment dollar. I’m not alone in my regard for Blizzard as an excellent game making factory, after all. Many other people I know feel the same way. So, Warcraft and Blizzard itself draws people and lets them overcome their skepticism, for whatever reason, about a generic MMO in a way that something new and unproven like EverQuest can’t. It breaks into the mainstream and makes such an impact on our popular culture not because it’s particularly innovative or experimental the way, say, StarCraft was, but because it’s an expertly crafted version of an existing product by a company that people trust. If it was called Land of Conflict or something with no other difference than removing the intellectual property that remains Blizzard’s property, I am convinced what we know as WoW wouldn’t have been nearly as big a hit. There are a lot of other reasons it appeals to people including the fact that it is a good game and some people do like the treadmill style of the traditional MMO but, I think, it all starts with the fact that it already had some name recognition to help get its foot in the door, so to speak. The fact that most upcoming major MMO releases – the ones people are looking forward to, at least - are based on existing IP like Lord of the Rings or Star Trek would seem to suggest that this is something that gaming companies have already realized. The way to mainstreet isn’t paved with creativity so much as it is with familiarity. The mainstream is where most people wade, of course, so it’s where you’ll find consensus if you can find it anywhere these days. And I’d think most people would agree that they like things similar to what they’ve liked in the past.

[1] – One of the things I’ve always been impressed with about the makers of Guild Wars, (ArenaNet, is the way they handled their fanbase. Especially in the early stages of the game’s development when they were an unproven and unusual product, they really did things right. One of these days I’ll have to get around to setting down just why I feel that way but not today.

[2] - I’ll note that Guild Wars isn’t listed on MMOGChart – likely because it doesn’t match the strict criterion for being consider a true member of the genre. No monthly fees and the developers has gone out of their way to brand it a “CORPG” would be the most likely causes. The official site states that Guild Wars has sold over 2 million copies by this point. And while that number is somewhat circumspect because it doesn’t account for people who’ve bought multiple copies and the like the numbers for “subscribers” to an online game is likewise an imperfect measure of how many people are actually playing. My admittedly brief investigation reveals nothing further about other metrics from the world of GW. Still, it’s useful as a comparison, if nothing else, and were there actually anything close to half that number of people consistently playing the game – the way I’m not – then Guild Wars would chart quite well alongside of WoW. Better than everything else besides the two Lineage games and possibly even passing them at this point in time.

[3] – This comes from the world of comic books. The quote is by Mr. Roy Thomas who said “The Golden Age of Comics is five”. I suspect the golden age of gaming for most would be a bit older than that but the basic point that when things are their best is when you’re too young to know any better is a particularly nicely put one.

[4] – Yeah, one of my characters is named “Sausaletus Rex”. First one I ever made and one that got recreated more than a few times. I’m not really playing right now but feel free to add me to your buddy list because even I don’t know when I’ll be back. Just that I’m going to be someday.