GuildWars and NCSoft

During the E3 NCSoft presented one of their future MMORPG, GuildWars, which is scheduled to come out in 2005 (well, they still claim 2nd half of 2004, but its hard to believe). An alpha version of it could be played not only at the E3, but could also be downloaded over the internet. Here is my short review of it:

GuildWars is probably closer to multiplayer Diablo than to classical MMORPG games. The controls are completely mouse driven, as long as you don't want to chat. Movement and combat is point-and-click. You even have the classical red bar for hit points, and blue bar for magical energy.

Technically GuildWars is interesting in that it has a very small initial installation, and then downloads the zones when you enter them. On ADSL that is surprisingly fast, taking not more than twice the usual "zoning" time of other games. For an alpha version the game ran rather smooth and bug free. Graphics were nice, but of course the alpha version didn't have all that many monster models and zones yet.

Gameplay is centered around these zones, with each zone corresponding to a mission or series of missions. There are zones where you can simply fight solo to gain xp and loot. But the more interesting zones can only be entered by a group. When you enter the zone, you land in some sort of entry area, where you have to form a group of a specified size to be able to continue into the zone and mission proper. There will probably also be level restrictions, although in the alpha version every player was always level 15. There are zones where your group fights PvE against computer controlled mobs, and other zones that allow you to fight PvP against other players. The zones are "instanced", so in the PvE zones there will only be your group, and in the PvP zones there will only be 2 groups, but these groups could potentially be very large.

One typical mission I did consisted of our group of 4 having to explore the zone, battling minor monsters, until we found the enemy army. Then we had to rush back inside a certain time limit, to warn our army, with the enemy army in hot pursuit. Well done, and interesting.

The business model of GuildWars is also based on these zones. Because this is a MMORPG without a monthly fee. Instead the game you buy gives you access to a couple of zones where you can play as long as you like. But then there will be expansions which give you access to more zones. Most probably the initial zones will be limited to a certain level, and if you want to progress further in levels, you will be forced to pay for the expansions. I just hope that for the expansions you don't need to buy a box with a CD, but can simply buy some sort of access code online. Interesting business model, I like it.

One last thing about zones is that traveling to them is as easy as it could be. You simply open your map, and click on the zone you want to go. No more tedious overland travel.

GuildWars has 6 character professions: Warrior, Ranger, Monk, Elementalist, Mesmer, Necromancer. Each character choses TWO of these professions, of which the first choice determines your look. But otherwise a Warrior/Monk is the same as a Monk/Warrior. Your professions determine which skills you can learn. But in any case, to learn a skill, you first need to find the corresponding skill gem, gain a level to have a skill point, and go to a trainer to learn the skill. Once you have more than 8 skills, things are getting tricky. Because only in the non-combat zones (cities), can you change which skills to put in your 8 skill slots. During each mission you are limited to the 8 skills you chose, even if you have already acquired many more. This is supposed to balance things, but as your character level is probably more important than how many skills you have, it still isn't much of an equalizer for PvP.

There are no tradeskills, but there is item crafting. You can salvage many of the looted items into their components, like iron ore, and the build new items by going to a NPC crafter and supplying him with all the components he needs for a specific item, plus some gold.

All in all, some interesting ideas, but too early to say whether that will work together well. The developers call it not a MMORPG, but a CORPG, for Competitive Online Role Playing Game. As I am not a big fan of "competitive" games and PvP, I'm not sure I'll like it. Although the fact that I could buy it and not pay a monthly fee is certainly luring. It seems especially to be designed to have whole guilds or clans battle against each other, but I'm not sure how they solve the problem of guild members differing widely in levels.

With its latest E3 announcements NCSoft is well on its way to become the industry leader for MMORPG games. Well, they'd claim they already are, as their first game "Lineage" with 1 million subscribers is the most commercially successful MMORPG ever. But as Lineage was practically exclusively played by South Koreans, it is their second generation of games that is making a splash on the international MMORPG market. NCSoft wisely spent the profits of their big local Korean success in buying in game developers in the US. They got Richard Garriot, the brain behind the Ultima series, including the first big commercial MMORPG Ultima Online, developing a game named Tabula Rasa for NCSoft, and acting as advisor for other games. And GuildWars is developed by guys that were originally working on Battle.net for Blizzard, which explains the "competitive" approach.

Their other E3 announced games include AutoAssault, a MMORPG where you battle with armed cars, and AlterLife, "a social activity game for trendy female gamers". Good luck with the last one, they'll need it, the competition failed miserably with "The Sims Online", in spite of their big name. Of course they also presented their already released games Lineage 2 and City of Heroes (and expansion City of Villains). With City of Heroes being the top selling PC game in the US in the week ending 1st of May, they at least got one big success on their hands. Which means they are here to stay.
- posted by Tobold @ 12:58 PM Permanent Link