Feeling Like A Kid Waiting For Something
When was the last time you felt like a kid waiting for Christmas, for Santa? When was the last time you couldn’t wait for something to arrive, and you feel like you’re gonna die waiting for it? Well, my memory probably fails me, but the last time I felt like that was before The Matrix Revolutions got released. And that was 8 years ago.
Then comes Guild Wars 2.
Four years ago, I first heard that Guild Wars 2 was in the making. I was all hyped up for it, and I had already made up my mind to get it once it was out. After all, it’s the first full 3D MMORPG that I’ve played, not considering Runescape. Well, the hype died down after so long, but it has been revitalized. A closed beta is coming soon, but what really got me going is the video above.
Sure, I’ve clocked over 2520 hours playing World of Warcraft (just look at the xfire image on the left), easily more than 10 times the time I played Guild Wars. I haven’t even played the expansions of Guild Wars, and I know almost nothing about Guild Wars lore. But somehow, Guild Wars just comes across to me as something special, something I can reserve part of my heart for.
Guild Wars is one of those MMORPG’s that sets itself apart from the horde of MMOs out there. With so many WoW clones, or MMOs that cannot break away from the typical MMO gameplay, Guild Wars makes things so special for the player by changing the way skills can be used, and changes the way quests are done. I am glad to see that Guild Wars 2 continues with this system, not succumbing to the temptation of emulating WoW/EQ, like how games such as Rift, Warhammer and SW: TOR have done.
The video game industry has been rather stale the past few years, sticking to the tried and true methods of generating profit (Call of Duty anyone?), not thinking up of new ideas and gameplay for the people. It is heartening to see that there is a company out there that actually tries to be a game changer. It is just so lovable to see that the company that tries to do this isn’t one that is earning big bucks (World of Warcraft anyone?), but one that only earns from the initial purchase of their game and the cash shop (which wasn’t around for a long period at the start), which really isn’t a lot. I’m not really sure how they pay their employees with just that alone, but it’s just amazing.
I mean, considering that one guy earns $4000 a month, which I think is pretty low for a designer/programmer, they have to sell 4000/50=80 games a month to keep one guy. Taking the Wikipedia statistic of 270 employees and a $4000 monthly wage as an average, that’s $1.08 million that they have to earn monthly from game sales and the cash shop alone. And that’s just for the employees wages. How is it possible? Kudos to ArenaNet.
How… did I even start talking about how they can survive with their business model? -.-
So yeah, Guild Wars 2, I’ll be seeing you once you’re out. I’ll be waiting.
