[MUD-Dev] Guild Wars ?

[Don McGlumphy III]

Colin Fuller wrote:

> I also tire of people labeling this game as an MMOG. I see very
> little difference between Diablo II and Guild Wars. Both had an
> online lobby where players meet (Battle.Net and ArenaNet's hosted
> portion of the game, respectively). The only difference is in the
> interface (chat rooms vs avatar-based). Was Diablo II labeled as
> an MMOG? No. Should it have been? I don't think so. Same thing for
> Guild Wars.

There was an interesting thread on the indie gamer forums a couple
weeks back:

  http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=2982

Like many others I have also struggled over MMO classifications for
various games including Diablo 2.  Guild Wars made reconciliation
worse.  Late in the thread I proposed a new classification system
for RPGs.  Here is a copy of that post:

I guess my analysis wasn't all inclusive. I described two catagories
of RPGs: single-player and massively multiplayer ones. There's a
third that falls between them: mutliplayer RPGs. The game that most
closely fits what you would like is Neverwinter Nights. It's not an
MMO, but it is a multiplayer online RPG with a wealth of levels
(player mods) that you and a few friends can adventure with.

I was looking at the market as line with a point at each end:

  singleplayer RPG <---------------------> MMORPG

You bring up a good point that the scale has at least a few shades
of grey:

  singleplayer rpg = SRPG
  multiplayer rpg = MRPG
  persistent multiplayer rpg = PMRPG
  massively multiplayer rpg = MMORPG

thus,

  SRPG <----------> MRPG <----------> PMRPG <----------> MMORPG

Baldur's gate would be at the SRPG end of the scale (i can't
remember if BG had any multiplayer facilities), NWN would be toward
the middle of the scale, and the UOs/EQs/ACs would be at the right
end of the spectrum. I guess that puts puts Guildwars between the
two at the PMRPG point. It has some persistent elements to it
(mainly the economy), but the game world itself is fully
instanced. Similarly Diablo 2 would be at the PMRPG datapoint.

~don
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