Every Theme Park MMO is a World of Warcraft Clone: Guild Wars 2
Once upon a time, ArenaNet created a fantastic online RPG with deep storytelling, competitive PvP, and one of the most dynamic skill systems ever created. While it’s still argued in the depths of Reddit whether or not Guild Wars is actually an MMORPG, it did have a lot simultaneous online players. Regardless, it was a fantastic game with a plethora of unique systems and game mechanics that won multiple accolades and spawned 3 expansions over a 3-year period.
It was so successful that a few years later, ArenaNet released its sequel: Guild Wars 2. However, instead of building upon the complex systems, lore and game modes that defined the original, ArenaNet decided to throw them all in the trash and create a clone ofWorld of Warcraft, which was all know was the first ever theme park MMORPG. The first Guild Wars likely avoided such fate having released too soon after Blizzard’s flagship MMORPG, or it also might have ended with the same fate because every theme park MMO since has simply cloned World of Warcraft.
In an ironic twist of fate, Guild Wars 2 doesn’t even have ‘guild wars’. In the original, guilds would choose their own guild hall and then battle other guilds in large battlegrounds based on the chosen hall. It was all very exciting and a fantastic way to show which guild truly was the best. Instead, Guild Wars 2 essentially stole World of Warcraft’s battlegrounds and World versus World PvP is just Alterac Valley that never ends.
Instead of building on the deep lore, Guild Wars 2 took the main antagonists and made them a friendly, playable race because we clearly can’t have a successful game without cat/cow people; Charr are basically just Tauren druids that got stuck in the middle of a morph. Now, all of the bad guys are dragons because it’s really easy to make people hate big, bad dragons while avoiding any real-life political connotations.
The main thing Guild Wars 2 did to separate itself from World of Warcraft was to stop pretending the PvE gear treadmill
Read more on mmorpg.com
