WoW, SWTOR or Guild Wars 2?

This year is going to see the release of many an MMO: some good, some bad; some you’ve heard of, some you won’t have done; some you’ll play, some you won’t both with. There are three, however, that you’re likely to be at least mildly interested in and at least one that you’ve probably already played. These three games are going to be responsible for the majority of MMOs game time this year and, unfortunately, there’s going to come a time at which you’ll need to pick one to play religiously.

World of Warcraft, the game which has been ruling the MMO roost for the better part of a decade, is seeing a new expansion, Mists of Pandaria, which is likely to bring many of the bored masses back for another go. With unique features, like a playable race that’re able to choose their allegiance, there’ll be reason for more play-throughs and Blizzard are probably well aware of the temperamental nature of their fan-base. Star Wars, similarly, is likely to see a dip in players as the game starts looking less shiny, but as word of mouth spreads and new expansions are announced (I’m expecting something sooner rather than later), more and more people will take to a galaxy far, far away.

World of Warcraft- Mists of Pandaria

Guild Wars 2 will remain a neutral zone, something completely different from the other two but probably without the backing they have. It’ll be the go-to game for people who spend a lot of their time playing MMOs and that alone will make it a success. How big a success is yet to be see.

With three so wildly competent experiences to choose from, it’s going to be difficult to know exactly how you’re going to fill your time, but hopefully this quick guide will fill you in.

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft has been long faithful, high quality and pretty damn enjoyable throughout its lifespan. Though each decision made at Blizzard is met with resistance from fans, it remains one of the most popular MMOs around and holds its place in history as the MMO that made the genre truly part of popular culture. That doesn’t mean that recent rumblings of trouble, including a drop in players, can be completely ignored, but haven’t largely been exaggerated. They could lose a few million players and still be top of the subscriber’s tables by a long, long way. Despite that, the people that left are very likely to be returning in one form or another over the next couple of months.

Firstly, Mists of Pandaria is offering a new set of locations to explore, more moves, levels and characters to choose from and a great deal more. World of Warcraft expansions of big deals and I know a lot of people who haven’t played for a long time that’ll be purchasing on day one so that they can see how the world of Azeroth has evolved. It is this that Warcraft has going for it this year: returning players who’ve been away since a few weeks after the last expansion. It’s not exactly Blizzard’s bread and butter – I’m sure they’d much rather have regular subscribers – but a bunch of otherwise uninterested players paying full price on an expansion will provide a nice numbers boost for the accountants.

Also worth mentioning, although not directly great for the official version of the game, is that somebody has managed to put together an emulator for the vanilla version of World of Warcraft. People who didn’t play the game in its original form are now able to and it’s proved to be hugely popular. People who left the proper game for whatever reason have also got into the emulator, reliving what they used to love. In the long run this’ll probably prove quite beneficial to Blizzard. People intimidated by multiple expansions and updates will be able play it from the very beginning and people who haven’t played the newer version may be tempted back to the expansions once they’ve done everything they possibly can in the vanilla version of the game.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic has a few major things going for it: firstly it’s brand new; secondly it’s developed by Bioware; it has the advertising budget to back it up; lastly, it’s Star Wars. That’s a winning combination and it’s important to note that I didn’t once mention gameplay. Gameplay doesn’t need a mention because, frankly, making a decent Star Wars sim is more important than making a good MMO. Thankfully, from what I’ve heard, The Old Republic is a pretty good game in its own right and that means that it’s going to have a long and successful run (although whether it’ll beat WoW is a different question).

With no announced expansions yet, but plenty of word from voice actors concerning their work on the game, it’s fair to presume that we’ll be getting some form of expansion this year. Whether it’ll be something on the scale of Mists of Panderia or if expansions for the game will be smaller in scale but more frequent is yet to be seen, but the game is definitely evolving and it’s worth watching for that reason. If you want to get in on what’s going to be a fantastic MMO on the ground floor, you need to start playing the Old Republic now. Expect that with that early play, however, will come a certain degree of change and general maintenance as well.

Guild Wars 2

An MMO that is a long time coming and still has countless Guild Wars fans waiting eagerly by their Amazon pre-order page, Guild Wars 2 is different enough from the other two that it can exist in its own right. Without the subscription fee that comes with both World of Warcraft and The Old Republic, there’s a certain demographic of anti-monthly fees who’ll get involved on principle. Guild Wars 2’s biggest asset is the trust the developers have built after the original Guild Wars and the fact that it really seems to be a very solid game.

That, ultimately, is what’s important. With the all the advertising money in the world, if the Old Republic was a chore it wouldn’t be being played – just look at Final Fantasy XIV. With distant rumours of a console version as well, this could be the first major MMO in a long time which makes the jump from PC to console, giving it a definite edge over competitors.

Final Words

What it all comes down to, unsurprisingly, is personal taste. World of Warcraft offers something familiar, building on a proven formulae. Star Wars isn't a million miles away from the norm either, but it's setting offers a safe place that non-MMO players can enjoy and recognise. Guild Wars might seem the least "threatening" of the three - almost like the Wii when compared with the 360 and the PS3. We all know how the Wii turned out, right? The best thing about Guild Wars is that it can co-exist with the others, people will switch back and forth without getting "quest fatigue."

The interesting thing to watch will be how WoW and The Old Republic battle it out, the two biggest MMOs of the year. Could it finally be time for Azeroth to topple? Only time will tell.

M. Growcott
© 2011 DevilsMMO.com