Games for 2008: Guild Wars II

Gaming blog extraordinary Rock, Paper, Shotgun takes a look at Guild Wars II in their ongoing games for 2008 feature.

And, putting aside its many progressive and intelligent elements which I’ve ranted about time and time over, one reason outweighs them all. It’s because it had no monthly payment system. While I’ve never asked Arenanet about it, I suspect they’d admit as much. NCSoft certainly understood, using ONLINE GAMING WITH NO MONTHLY FEES as its tagline, just to make sure the message got across. Obviously, it wouldn’t matter if Guild Wars was shit but. well, Guild War’s the one where you buy the box and play the thing. It’s Simple. That the mainstream of the MMO world continues on the monthly fee route without anyone raising an eyebrow surprises me.

The thing is, trad MMO players response to Guild Wars was one of simple rejection. Yeah, it was fun for what it was, but it wasn’t a real MMO because of a half dozen reasons. The main one was that when you’re on a mission, you’re in your own world with your chums (or opponents, in the case of multiplayer). And, clearly, the presence of other people you’re never going to talk with in the area where you’re killing boars is what makes a game so demanding on the developer that you should pay a monthly fee for the privilege.

Okay – the mask of objectivity slipped for a second there, but. well, let’s say the trad view is right and running a shared, persistent world is just a more expensive endeavor, so justifies the monthly fee. That’s just how it is.

Well, what happens to that view when Guild Wars 2 comes out, with persistent shared adventuring areas and all the ol’ MMO malarkies. and still doesn’t charge a monthly fee? Well, I’d begin to question what those fifteen dollars trickling out every month actually are for.