Guild Wars 2 - How MMOs can work without a subscription

     I mentioned in my last article Annoying Game Mechanics how Guild Wars 2 was able to break the standard MMO subscription model with the monetization model it follows. I was asked to look at this a little bit deeper, so I wanted to elaborate a bit on how they are able to make that possible. 

      For those who do not know, Guild Wars 2 is a sequel to the genre-shattering original Guild Wars which also followed a non-subscription model. However at least for myself I found the original Guild Wars to be quite limiting and wasn’t nearly as compelling as the competing MMOs in the market at the time. Guild Wars 2 has learned a lot in its time, and is now a fully functional and compelling MMORPG with its own story and unique gameplay. 

      Much like other games of the genre, you still need to fork over the usual $60 (at launch, now much less) to get into the game. However thats where the similarities end, because that is all the financial investment you have to put into this game. You can pay more, and that is through their use of microtransactions. 

      Microtransactions are where you can purchase things in game to help you level up faster, get items quicker and the like. For those who have played free-to-play games this should seem very familiar. What makes Guild Wars 2 different is the absence of a pay-wall. A pay-wall which we discussed in another article is where a game requires you to pay more money in order to continue to advance. Essentially these microtransacations in Guild Wars 2 just allow you to level up and advance faster, and alleviate the need to grind. For most MMO players grinding is a non-issue, and it is always a challenge to get all the cool stuff WITHOUT having to pay. 

      What is great about Guild Wars 2 is that they also are continuing to add unique content. They add content every 2 weeks. This is quite the undertaking as most MMOs are not able to generate that much content on such a tight schedule. In the end it just goes to show that the people at NCSOFT and ArenaNet are dedicated to creating a quality product and keeping at a reasonable price. This explains the strong following this game series has generated and maintained. 

“MAKE IT STOP!” - Annoying Game Mechanics (Part 2/2)

      Alright, here is part 2 of Annoying Game Mechanics. Lets start up where we left off:

      Multiplayer Progression System - Most multiplayer First Person Shooters now use a progression system in which you have to continue to produce kills and meet objectives in order to level up. Leveling up usually unlocks weapons and additional perks. This encourages players to continue to play in order to achieve all the unlocks and to get the full game experience. 

      This system seems to work well enough for most players, however it does come with problems. The biggest problem is how this system integrates with matchmaking. Within the first 3 months the system works ok because of the fact that if you are a high rank at this point, you are probably pretty good. Later in the game’s shelf life this becomes an issue, as gamers take time away and become rusty, and also gamers who are not good may have just invested a lot of time to make a high rank. If your not a great player (me) and your forced to play good players just because of your invested time in a game, this can be a brick wall and ruin the fun. 

      Bad AI - Every played a game where the computer controlled opponents or allies have done some really dumb things? I’m sure we all have. This game mechanic is rarely a deal breaker, but certainly can be annoying and make certain tasks/quests quite frustrating. I will break this section down by allies and enemies. 

      Bad Ally AI - One thing immediately comes to mind when I think of bad Ally AI - escort missions. Having to escort a person who is basically a walking liability can be incredibly frustrating, especially if they lack common sense. Also RPG games suffer from this as well as Ally AI may not be smart enough to know to do certain things (for example heal) or to do certain type attacks that an enemy may be vulnerable to. Finally the last Ally AI example is when you have someone who is supposed to help you, but they are really just a liability and are really doing nothing. 

      Bad Enemy AI - I have seen the worst enemy AI in most FPS single player campaigns. It’s annoying when you get to certain areas where the enemies spawn in endless droves until you move on, this tends to be unrealistic at best. Also we see far to often situations in games that have stealth elements that the enemy AI is either too good, or too dumb. This quickly removes the feel of a quality stealth experience. In RPG games, we see enemy AI not necessarily using the best attacks in order to try and win, it is instead more of a random selection of attacks. 

      Quick Time Events (QTE) - The folks who helped contribute to these blog posts mentioned this as another annoying game mechanic. Their were a few things they mentioned in particular. The first being unrealistic activities that are QTE only. This happens in adventure games and RPGs alike, we see the hero (or heroine) doing some ridiculous stunt or ability that we will never be able to actually replicate in the real game. While I see the frustration in this, I would counter with better to see it in a QTE than not at all. The second part of the frustration with the QTEs is the inability to skip them. Many players want to get to the end, and are not as interested in the QTEs in between active gameplay. I personally disagree and think that QTEs really bring us into the game world, add to character development, and really tell a story. 

      Filler Quests - Collect 12 wolf pelts for me, slay 7 goblins, and find 5.678 pieces of pie around the town - Sound Familiar? To anyone who has ever played an RPG or MMORPG this should. Filler quests are side quests and activities that have absolutely no bearing on the plot or really do any work in world building. Ultimately I find this to be lazy as so many of these quests could have meaning if they were tweaked and provided a little context. 

      Thanks again to everyone who contributed ideas to this blog post. Next week I will take a look at Guild Wars 2 and how it is breaking the traditional MMORPG monetizing rules.