How The Old Republic can compete and beat Guild Wars 2

[dontadow]

This a long post written to give an unbiased, educated and possible theory on small changes SWTOR can implement over 3 months to compete with GW2’s impending release.

I am, by no means, a person complaining about this game. The improvements to story and social aspects of the game really have made me a fan of the MMO genre once again (as opposed to just having something to do with my family, we actually have fun with the game.)

 

This is a big thing for me to say, considering I was never going to buy SWTOR until December 5th, when my brother convinced me. I just didn’t read enough that would make it sound more innovative than Guild Wars 2 .

 

However, it is not enough to stop me from wanting to play Guild Wars 2 because the major gripes are still there with MMOs (linear leveling zones, 1 and done quests, lack of spontaneity) star wars has 6 months at least, to implement game play options (not rehash the entire game, that’s impossible) that will make it able to compete with guild wars in terms of MMO innovation.

 

There are four aspects that I see as clear advantages guild wars has over star wars. Below is a list of these advantages and realistic ways SWTOR could close the gap without too much “effort”. As a programmer, I tried to think of suggestions that do not require major game overhaul. That can easily be included as additional content or patch somewhere in a 6 month period. So yeah, I would love the elimination of the xp system, it’s not going to happen.

 

Guild Wars has eliminated the holy trinity system

• SWTOR can not do this without rehauling their game. However, they can take the rift approach. SWTOR could allow multiple builds of characters. Another solution, is to allow players alts to become members of their crew, allowing players to easily change out characters using a quick logout-login process. Sure, DHT is still needed, but at least now players can more easily swap out builds for others.
   
  
• SWTOR could also implement new ability trees that blend and meld the trinity. Class options in SWTOR are limited.
  

 

Guild Wars will not have traditional quests, instead quests will be stumbled upon in the open world and spawn dynamic content based on variables.

• This is a hard one for SWTOR to overcome, but not out of the realm of possible. SWTOR could use this time to develop a third or fourth faction in their mythos with one of them being non-playable. This extra faction could be “random invasions” that happen in areas on the planet, in zones and be varied very akin to Rift’s rifts. These variable encounters could be zone specific and allow for additional quest threads. This would be a great 6 month mark introduction and encourage people to replay earlier zones. The threat level could be triggered by an equation that calculates number of people in the zone. And it could come with penalities. Perhaps increasing the difficulty of zone monsters if it is failed or providing a boost to rewards if successful. These will last until the next invasion is triggered. (possibly by a number of reoccurring quests being performed). In order to counteract Guild Wars (no need for exclamation mark quest guy) these quests can be automatically provided to players ni the area with everyone receiving the same rewards or penalties.
  
• SWTOR could use the method they use to autoinstance content for classes and change the formula to autoinstance content based on level. Thus parties of a certain level on newer planets may get a completely different story. This would greatly encourage SWTOR’s effort to get people to create alts.
  
• Give players the option (via preferences-interface) to cut off quest objectives (such as collect 5 of this, or kill 3 of this). This feels like it would just be instituting a button that hides some content.
  

 

Guild Wars will have autogrouping

• If Rift can do this, SWTOR should be able to. The #1 complaint now is people saying that they are not able to easily quest. Sure, I know this argument is lame. But most people are afraid to click on someone and rlight click invite for fear of rejection. Which is why Rift rocks. When you go into a zone, you have an option to join the public party and do the rift quests others are doing. This would be nice even now for heroic quests.

Guild Wars will have multiple storylines per dungeon

• SWTOR should be able to truly flourish with this one, using true/false conditions, SWTOR could introduce new content in flashpoints based on decisions. For instance, when playing essex, I really wanted to kill the supposed traitor diplomat, what would have happened if I had that option. Currently, too many dialogue options mean nothing in the long run (but light and dark points). SWTOR already has a few quests that do this, open up quest chains with alternative endings. This sounds like the easiet thing to do in SWTOR.
  

 

My hope is that bioware will clearly see that it is at a disadvantage with Guild Wars 2, and, just as it did to Rift/Wow, so will Guild Wars 2 do to them if they don’t have a few awesome patches before GW2 is released. So curious as to what others think.

 

::edited:: let me repeat that. In no ways am I saying that GW 2 is better than SWTOR or vice versa. I am saying that GW 2 has several major innovations that fans of the MMO genre has been asking for for years such as what is describe below. ::

Edited December 30, 2011 by dontadow

[Bollah]

I played GW2 twice, two 40 minute demos and the game is overhyped. It will do well with people that don't want to pay monthly fees.

 

GW2 is basically Rift + Warhammer Online. I think of GW2 as Rift 2.0.

 

No dedicated healers is a huge mistake that they will regret.

 

Also, the cinematics and voice acting are terrible when you compare it to SWTOR, Arenanet already is making excuses for how bad it is.

Edited December 27, 2011 by Bollah

[Jett-Rinn]

That is quite a write up. Honestly I was truly looking forward to GW2 and was chomping at the bit over it, but after having hands on time with it at both PAX's and SDCC I'm going to pass on it...honestly for me SWTOR does a lot better job at keeping me entertained. I get YMMV, but honestly I just feel that a lot of people are going to be let down by GW2

[ihateyouall]

Guild Wars 2 = PvP

 

SWTOR = PvE

[jarjarloves]

well first off GW 2 has to launch.... so check back in a year and we'll talk.

[Meldwyn]

I can't see anything in GW2 that would attract me to it. I fail to appreciate what they are trying to do and believe it will be a disappointment to a great many people. Niche market, here we come!

 

I am staying with SW thank you very much!

[Caelith]

Guild wars is fantasy still and most people are bored of been an elf.

 

Star wars has the advantage of been star wars and not high fantasy.

[einsoff]

as much as im enjoying TOR, I Know GW2 will be a revolutionary step for MMOs and am really looking forward to playing it.

[Dosblade]

Guild Wars 2 is FREE to play. Other than buying it.. not even in the same group. What you HAVE to start to wonder or worry about is how NCSoft is going to make MONEY! Everything is not getting better because they went free to play. Does anyone have a clue as to how much just one server cost to run?

 

Anayway GW2 is not out and to say what it will be or nor is silly.

[InfinityD]

Yeah... Not so much.

 

GW2 is going to be much like GW1. An excellent third person PvP game with MMO elements to it.

 

TOR is more or less a third person PvE single player game with MMO elements to it.

[einsoff]

Yeah... Not so much.

 

GW2 is going to be much like GW1. An excellent third person PvP game with MMO elements to it.

 

TOR is more or less a third person PvE single player game with MMO elements to it.

 

Actually it is 100% open world and fully dynamic questing. Learn to google.

[DigitalDigital]

you have me excited for GW2 cause SWTOR feels empty and old and it's brand new....

this is the 1st time I have played an MMO on an PvP server and well frankly it's a joke...

THE WORLDS ARE EMPTY!

[ceciken]

Guild Wars 2 = PvP

 

SWTOR = PvE

 

swtor has pvp servers, gw2 only has pve servers.

so

 

gw2 = only instanced pvp

 

swtor = all types of pvp

[EndoXIII]

Yeah... Not so much.

 

GW2 is going to be much like GW1. An excellent third person PvP game with MMO elements to it.

 

TOR is more or less a third person PvE single player game with MMO elements to it.

 

Actually I doubt GW2 is going to be much like GW1 at all... and that's precisely why I lost interest in it. The only major things I really wanted them to change from GW1 is:

 

1. Persistent world

2. Auction house

3. 3D movement

 

What really made GW great was the skill system, which will be completely gutted for GW2. Honestly, I don't think SW:TOR has much to worry about.

Edited December 27, 2011 by EndoXIII

[Fireline]

Guild Wars 2 is FREE to play. Other than buying it.. not even in the same group. What you HAVE to start to wonder or worry about is how NCSoft is going to make MONEY! Everything is not getting better because they went free to play. Does anyone have a clue as to how much just one server cost to run?

 

Anayway GW2 is not out and to say what it will be or nor is silly.

 

Just letting you know that the revenue that GUILD WARS 1 is currently generating is enough to keep every server NCsoft has running, this is including all Aion, Aion Asia (which has about 3-4million players) city of heroes, lineage II.

 

 

Also, according to the quarterly reports for blizzard, all their services ( customer support, server maintenance, etc) cost about 1$ 30 cents per each of their users, from a 15$ sub.

 

This is almost 2012 ppl, bandwith is not what it was in 1998 for ultima online, the sub is mostly a lie.

 

 

If you are in a queue like myself and want some decent reading:

Jeff Strain, how to make a good MMO, GC Developer's Conference

Edited December 27, 2011 by Fireline

[RedEnsign]

Guild Wars 2 is FREE to play. Other than buying it.. not even in the same group. What you HAVE to start to wonder or worry about is how NCSoft is going to make MONEY! Everything is not getting better because they went free to play. Does anyone have a clue as to how much just one server cost to run?

 

Anayway GW2 is not out and to say what it will be or nor is silly.

 

Wait, do you know how long GW1 has been out? How do you think they've kept it running and developed a sequel if they aren't making money? GW isn't a MMO killer. It's a "half-assed excuse for standard MMO 3rd rate PvP" killer which the first one was also. Most MMO gamers can't handle having to plan which 8 skills to use and constantly getting rolled unless you're one of the top 100 (out of thousands) of guilds there to PvP. That's a good thing too. Less idiots running to the middle of a BG trying to post big DPS scores.

[Fredcat]

Hilarious title. That will be the day when NCsoft can beat EA/Bioware at anything. Every game they've ever produced was supposed to be the next big thing and never panned out.

[Iamgoz]

Sounds like your answer is to make SWTOR more like GW2? Meh. I like SWTOR so far, and I'll play it until I get bored with it. I liked GW for the fact that it cost nothing past the software and the story was decent. I could pick it up and play when it was convenient and not have this guilt that I was paying 15 bucks a month for a game and therefore must play enough to make it worth it. Those of us with jobs, families and lives can appreciate that.

 

These are two different animals and shouldn't be compared to closely. I'll end up with both, I'm sure, but the monthly fee will be dropped a lot sooner than the free to play game.

 

As for GW2 making money, I hear GW1 did ok with itself, and the stuff in its "store" was mostly cosmetic...nothing game altering like most F2P games.

 

Anyway, my 2 cents.

[Vlacke]

I loath these GW2 threads.

Personally i will always choose SWTOR over that generic fantasy game, not just because SWTOR is an excellent game, but also because it has something very important to me that this other, generic fantasy F2P game doesn't have, and that something is Star Wars itself.

[Boesmith]

I played GW2 twice, two 40 minute demos and the game is overhyped. It will do well with people that don't want to pay monthly fees.

 

GW2 is basically Rift + Warhammer Online. I think of GW2 as Rift 2.0.

 

No dedicated healers is a huge mistake that they will regret.

 

Also, the cinematics and voice acting are terrible when you compare it to SWTOR, Arenanet already is making excuses for how bad it is.

 

No you didn't. Nice lie though.

[Iamgoz]

No you didn't. Nice lie though.

 

I beleive him. I did the same thing at Pax Prime. But I dissagree with his assesment.

[kalibri]

What is the purpose of this thread ? You feel threatened by something not even in beta yet ?

 

OMG, insecure much ?

[Darth_Grissom]

SWTOR is going to beat GW2 for me becaues I wont buy it as it is a F2P game after the initial box purchase and I will never play a non subscription game that is prone to have microtransactions like LOTRO turned into "Shrug"

[dontadow]

I guess I"m not looking for a GW2 vs. star wars posting.

 

Look at Rift, many folk said the same thing in comparison to SWTOR, and now so many servers are ghost towns. I feel that Trion had ample time to attempt to compete, but just didn't implement the kind of story things needed to make Rift as strong as it needed to be as a competitor to SWTOR.

 

Regardless on how you feel about it, GW2 is innovative when compared to SWTOR. Whether you like that innovation or not is another thing that I don't wish to discuss. People will leave to play this game. That is a fact. My guild is using SWTOR as a placeholder for GW2, most of my friends have preregistered it and indicated that if GW2 is as new an experience, they couldn't see themselves playing a lot of SWTOR.

 

None of my suggestion are "do exactly what GW2 is doing" because I don't think that's possible. However, they can mimic the innovative features within the programming of their own game.

 

What I didnt bring up in my post, was that, SWTOR's main complaint, atl east on the boards, are its linear leveling path and single game like feel. The first two suggestion would eliminate that.

[Nemmar]

I keep saying this but no one listens.

 

Guild Wars 2 isnt what you think its gonna be. You all think its gonna be this incredible innovative RPG. Let me crack that nut and say already that it isnt gonna be. I been with anet and the first Guild Wars for years and bought all campaigns and expansion.

 

Anet doesnt do end-game content. Thats just how they are. Also, they dont listen to anyone wich is both good and bad.

 

Guild Wars 2 is gonna be exactly that. The second Guild Wars, wich means very much like the original with a few new elements to it. Its not gonna be the second coming of MMO. The second coming of MMO is SWTOR.

 

And like others pointed out, healing was one of the strong points of Guild Wars 1. I criticized and lost much of my excitement when they announced the end of the dedicated healers, because i understand that that is also the death of team-play based content. Everything will just be one big zerg with potion spamming... sound familiar? Yes, because its been done before by other games.

 

With that said GW2 is gonna be a really fun game to play wich i am gonna get, but really you're setting yourselves up for disappointment if you think the game is gonna be the next revolution in MMO. Heck, TERA has a better chance of doing that than GW2.