Ok guys. Here's a sneak peek into the upcoming release of the Guild Wars 2 Forum Blog. I wrote this article earlier today, and figured it would make a good discussion topic for the forum.
There's a long running topic in the gaming journalism community concerning games being either revolutionary or evolutionary. When a game releases, does it provide brand new concepts or is it simply improving on systems which came before it? It can be difficult to peg which category a game can fit into. Many times a game will be revolutionary in some areas while evolving in others.
Which leads us to today's topic: From what we've seen so far, is Guild Wars 2 revolutionary or evolutionary?
This article might be a smidge early, as there are many features which have yet to be announced (so stay tuned for updates!). However, we have seen enough of the game to form opinions towards many critical gameplay, story, and graphical elements. The blurry picture is starting to come into focus, and we are beginning to see how many important elements will take shape.
Before proceeding I feel it imperative to tell you that the argument between revolutionary and evolutionary isn't necessarily 'good vs bad'. Many times when something is revolutionary, all sorts of negative consequences can spawn. One need only look at World of Warcraft. There were aspects to that game which completely turned the MMO genre on its head, and sparked a revolution in the genre. By introducing elements to MMO games which provided greater simplicity, and accessibility to newcomers it allowed the game to rule atop the mountain. However, it sparked a formula which led many games to adopting way too similar elements and flood the market with clones.
It's put up or shut up time, so I'll simply say that everything we've seen from Guild Wars 2 looks to be evolutionary.
I am going to say Revolutionary, and I had to think about this because when it comes to individual elements a lot of them are evolutionary but when you put all of them together into one single game and taking components from a FPS and a RTS. Most games take a few components from other MMOs and change them to fit their theme or what not, whereas Guild Wars 2 is taking a lot of components from multiple different types of games and improving them/polishing them and putting them into one game. There are a few revolutionary things in Guild Wars 2 also,like not using the holy Trinity. But why not take something that is fun and make it more enjoyable and better. So even if we know some of the elements are evolutionary, the fact of taking so many parts and evolving them and putting them into one single game and not taking it all from 1-2 game but much much more, I think that is a revolutionary idea.
i think that cryptis is right at some point, like taking some ideas of other genres and adapting/polishing it to a MMO. It is a revolution in the evolution if i might say. Because they are not taking GW1 and polishing it. They are implementing brand new mechanics to the genre too, like the dynamic event system, the merge of the holy trinity into one thing, since each will have dps/support/heals of their own. Their are making a revolution in the evolution is seen. Instead of making something old better, they are trying something that have an even better feel (theorically at least). that is a revolution, in my honest and INDIVIDUAL opinion of course ^^.
In my opinion GW2 has so many differences from most MMOs out there today that it is a revolutionary game. Although in all honesty I wont be able to give a 100% answer to the question until Ive actually play the game.
All the Richard Garriott bashing in another thread got me thinking about Ultima Online, how revolutionary it was and how much World of Warcraft, and Everquest for that matter, ruined the genre. I stumbled upon this article that made me pretty nostalgic and reminded me what an MMO should be.
It might be asking a lot for GW2 to completely reinvent the wheel, but I believe they're on track to make what could be the closest thing to a revolution of the genre we've seen in over 10 years.
yes, WoW and Everquest are examples of how a revolutionary game can ruin a genre. As I stated, sometimes evolution is just fine. And many times is what I prefer.
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