So no, its not an MMO.. Or maybe im just tired of MMO’s completely and im really picky?

I don’t see why purists have to think that an MMO must be like the games they play and love. People need to realize that the definition is broadening.

Guild Wars IS an MMO, and a damn good one if you get into it. Some people seem to think it has a learning curve but it doesn’t really. Great game, yes. Is it your style, maybe not. But the numbers speak for themselves.

Guild Wars is NOT a persistent world. I think that’s where we’re getting the semantics wrong. It’s just a different experience. If people go into it expecting a traditional persistent world, they’re wrong. But every MMO website that has news about MMOs seems to see fit on reporting this game. I think you’re one of a minority that doesn’t think this game is an MMO.

It’s like when I bash EVE online for being painfully boring and mundane, while also sucking the lifeforce out of me in order to just get far enough to enjoy what everyone else is, and I get attacked by fanbois who feel they have to defend the game with all their heart.

Bottom line, it’s just not my style. But I recognize it as an achievement and a great game that I will never play.

Being a MMO is having dedicated infrastructure that supports thousands of players at a time in the same persistant world. Even the Guild Wars developers have stated it’s not a MMO, simply calling it a Competitive Online Roleplaying Game.

Just because every MMO website can’t keep their terms straight and wants to jump on the Guild Wars is popular bandwagon still doesn’t make it a MMO. If you want to go by the definition that Guild Wars is a MMO you have to start including nearly every multiplayer game that had large instanced lobbies or meeting areas, may as well claim Diablo was a MMO (which some people do).

This has nothing to do with whether it’s a GOOD or BAD game, it’s about why the so called fan bois feel the need to be part of the “MMO club” when they refuse to play real MMO’s, yet are insistent that their favorite multiplayer game is a MMO without a monthly fee and somehow better. Why is that?

1) ArenaNet themselves never claimed GW was an MMORPG. They created their own acronym CORPG (Competetive/Cooperative Online RPG) but that didn’t catch on. What happened was all the gaming mags, gaming news sites, and fanboy sites went to the E3’s and other industry shows and saw an online fantasy game, with 3D avatars, hotbars, WASD movement and immediately started printing articles of “ZOMG GW is teh awesome MMO with no fee$”

It’s not an MMORPG, but it’s a great online action RPG and can be a lot of fun. It’s also one of the few skills-based games out there, which leads me to…

2) Scott and Dorlar, along with many other MMO gamers who see the box in the store, check out the screenshots, etc. and *assume* in a similar manner to the media I described above that you’re getting a WoW/EQ2/whateverthefuck traditional MMORPG experience but with no fee. Boy were you in for a shock when you got home, eh? No jumping? At what point in GW do you need to jump? It’s not that kind of game. Plenty of FPS games jump, and plenty of others don’t. “max level is 20? WTF?” So? Again, this isn’t WoW or EQx. In GW the *ONLY* thing a 20 over your head means to the rest of us is that you’ve completed the noob area, and you most likely have enough skills and enough armor to be useful to the group. That’s ALL it means. GW is a skills based game, not level/gear based.

The analogy I often use to describe GW is that it takes elements from [insert your favorite traditional fantasy MMORPG here], Diablo, and Magic: the Gathering into a single action RPG. It’s online multiplayer or soloable (with heroes/henchmen NPCs) it has 3D avatars, hotbars, WASD movement just like your MMO, but much like MtG you can have a collection of hundreds of cards (skills) and the real point is to create a deck of cards (your skill deck/hotbar) for whatever mission or purpose you plan in whatever PvE zone you plan on working, or for a particular function in PvP. That’s why you can respec yourself in each outpost, because you might decide you want a different set of skills to be used in the next zone if you know the mobs or bosses there have a particular set of skills you’ll have to deal with. When playing with other real players, we often collaborate on what skill builds we will all use so we’re all complementing each others abilities, my strengths to make up for someone else’s weaknesses, and so forth.

But it’s still not an MMORPG… :p

My cousins are big fans, probably because of free online multiplayer play. They have several accounts with a bunch of upgrades.

Can it be worse that Ryzom, which also has no jumping? (Seriously, you do not really have a 3D world if you have no jumping. Dungeon Runners does the same thing.)