Curse

symeonreturns · Mar 14, 2015, 11:05 PM // 23:05

Hi guys, not sure if many people visit here any more but I just wanted to share this article I found. It got me thinking about Guild Wars, and how there really hasn't been another game like it since - even though there is surely a demand for one given the number of people disappointed by GW2. Perhaps one day, some small developer will take up the reins and make a spiritual successor to GW?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertco...imcity-failed/

Quote:

'Cities: Skylines' Succeeds Where EA's 'SimCity' Failed

...

It’s interesting, as Cities: Skylines continues a trend of smaller studios trying to make a game from a series that a bigger studio screwed up. The other most notable example of this phenomenon would probably be Path of Exile, the hardcore dungeon crawler that was meant to be everything Diablo 3 was not (at least at launch). D3 was criticized for everything from a too-bright color palate to a skill system that took a huge amount of complexity out of the game. Enter Path of Exile, with a much darker overall tone, a ridiculously huge skill tree, and a microtransaction system that players appreciated far more than D3’s Auction House. Without the initial failure of Diablo 3, Path of Exile may not have existed. The same could be true of Cities: Skylines, or at least if SimCity did what it was supposed to do, this game wouldn’t have made this much of an impact.

I think the lesson is clear for big studios. If you screw up your own beloved game series, there are countless other smaller studios who can do what you do better, given that they’re free of huge sales expectations and the need to insert things like online requirements or nickel-and-dime DLC. So tread carefully, or you may find yourself getting schooled by a company a fraction of your size.

The Mr Crow · Mar 15, 2015, 12:35 AM // 00:35

I WOULD IN A HEART BEAT GIVEN THE CHANCE!!! I have 11 years experience game designing as well as a few friends, there's enough to make a company with us.

Zahr Dalsk · Mar 15, 2015, 12:46 AM // 00:46

I hope so. And it would seem to make sense from a business perspective; GW1's abandonment has basically left open the niche that it occupied. But perhaps big publishers are more interested in traditional MMO model and pay returns, and small developers don't feel up to it.

ArenaNet in GW1's earlier days was after all composed of a core of the brilliant devs who made Diablo, Diablo 2, and Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction, and further composed of an assortment of more extremely talented individuals they picked up. It was a highly skilled team with a lot of experience. They could take on this kind of project; most devs, I think, couldn't. Indeed the people making up current ArenaNet would fall flat on their asses if they were the ones who tried to make GW1 from the start. EotN is proof of that, as is GW2.

**cosyfiep** · Mar 15, 2015, 01:03 AM // 01:03

sounds good. would love to help out.

Pleikki · Mar 15, 2015, 07:48 AM // 07:48

Wohoo Finnish game succeeding, allways happy for own countrymens ! ;D

ruk1a · Mar 25, 2015, 12:07 PM // 12:07

We just need someone with the experience, passion, and professionalism that existed in ArenaNet during GW1. In fact.. a few people with those traits would be enough, just take a look at how ANet started.

Where the hell are those devs anyway? It was a slow trickle of people quote "moving on to other projects" that I saw on these forums and elsewhere during the development of GW2. Probably got fired for suggesting not designing a pile of dog shit.

I am 100% prepared to support and spread the word if someone would pick up those reins.

It is pretty obvious that if ANet at this stage touched GW1 it would mean a cataclysm for the game.. I can already see the massive amounts of RNG and increased particle effects by 9000% with the removal of a majority of skills.

I'd much rather a spiritual successor.

The Mr Crow · Mar 26, 2015, 11:27 AM // 11:27

I'd love to pick up those reins as you suggested, to bad I may never get that chance

bLeda · Apr 01, 2015, 05:16 PM // 17:16

1. Crack the game
2. Open private server
3. ...?
4. Profit, chicks and fame!

Lord Asakurra · Apr 01, 2015, 09:58 PM // 21:58

bLeda, I'm only going to half respond to your post because I'm not quite sure if that's an april fool's joke or not.

First off, if you've ever run a private server or even LOOKED at the dat file for Guild Wars, you'll find the majority of the files are hosted server side. How would you "crack" the game if the most important information is stored somewhere you don't have access to? Granted, you could spend a huge amount of time hacking the actual server and having the files dumped to you, but that's a huge waste of time.

Secondly, you COULD open a private server, however if you DO decide to use the same or similar server files that Anet currently has, your 4th point would be non-existant because, as they own the rights and licensing for Guild Wars, any attempt to make a profit off of the game would be futile as they would sue you to kingdom come with their army of lawyers.

Thirdly, your 4 point plan has me a little confused. Do you really think hosting a private server for an MMO is that feasible? I'll lead you to some examples of private servers on the backbone of a game that was created a little before Guild Wars' time.

http://projectswg.com
http://swgemu.com

I'm quite positive swgemu has been around since the Combat Update was implemented in 2005, and they are STILL working on implementing features and such that are required to play the game smoothly.

ProjectSwg is now on it's THIRD CORE release, which means they've wiped their server twice to rewrite the core files more efficiently. They have been around since 2011. Doesn't appear to be that simple to just "make a private server".

bLeda · Apr 02, 2015, 05:15 PM // 17:15

Asakurra - As you can tell, I have no idea how stuff works.

I found this: http://gw.pegast-hk.com/
...but couldn't get it to work yet.

Chrisworld · Apr 08, 2015, 09:25 PM // 21:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Asakurra

-snip-

There really aren't any inherent dispositions to emulators that make them as bad as SWG emulator. It's just about game popularity; amount of people willing to spend hours and not get paid to code a solid successful game the way it is meant to be. Other SOE based emulators that have this shortcoming are everquest 2 and Vanguard (which was closed down almost one year ago). Not sure about Project 1999 or other EQ1 servers though. They have some hardcore followers.

Take World of Warcraft for example though. It was and still is SO popular, so there are tons of people willing to work on emu's for the game. There are so many different versions of that game running on ready made repack emulators that it isn't even funny. You can make use of an old pc or buy a rack mount, fill it with WoW servers and have a small community all before a stable GW emulator ever becomes available worthy enough of adding a few rudimentary NPC's and skills to it.

If MMO's were built like actual single player games or games without a centralized online server, then people could crack any version they wanted of the game provided they have the disks or backed up old copies and have the entire game to play at their leisure any time they wanted.

Sadly some of the greatest games we love are MMOs....

ruk1a · Apr 10, 2015, 06:25 PM // 18:25

I thought ANet gave permission for a group to open a server back in the day to do their own balancing for pvp and such, they must have been willing to give the files unless I am mistaken.

I recall a couple of attempts, maybe someone else that was around then has more info.

Would be nice to push some opensource model so players can make their own server.

But now we are talking about an ANet that held NA vs China tournaments on official GW2 servers and both teams had like 500 ping rubber banding and lagging everywhere, so professional they don't even know how a LAN works lol so fking sad seriously.

flow1000 · Apr 13, 2015, 09:23 AM // 09:23

Just imagine a GW pre-nerf server... <3

Smoke Nightvogue · Apr 14, 2015, 12:49 AM // 00:49

Pre-nerf to which of about 12.000 nerfs?