With Guild Wars 3, developer ArenaNet is looking to directly tackle probably the biggest challenge in the entire MMO space: these things are hard to get into, and even harder to get your friends into.
As part of our big Guild Wars 3 preview, we spoke to studio head Colin Johanson about ArenaNet's next big adventure. He examines the onboarding and accessibility hurdles endemic to MMOs, or in short, the second job problem.
"We want to have that next generation come play MMOs," he begins, "and I think that, honestly, one of the biggest challenges the MMO industry faces right now as a whole is when we tell people to come play our game, the first thing they say is, 'I don't have time for that. It's like a second job. I can't engage with it.' And I think that makes it hard for anyone, folks with families, to engage and bring their family in. Folks who are younger who have 50 games that they're trying to play that compete for their time, they don't want to have that experience that's like a second job."
Many recent MMOs have talked about getting to the good stuff faster. Johanson suggests this is part of the solution, but only part of it. The key, he reasons, will be getting Guild Wars 3 "approachable to the point that you can very easily play and progress and complete things, while also having the depth that MMO players are looking for, so that if I want to play for that long, I can meaningfully engage."
Here, he looks at play patterns. "I think a huge part of the problem for MMOs is there's this ingrained 'preparing to have fun' window where you load into the game, you figure out your inventory, organize your inventory, go through your quest log, set up your build, get your gear figured out, get your friends' gear figured out, your build's ready to go, and you're ready to play the content. And you look at the clock, you've been online for an hour, and you haven't started playing yet.
"So many other genres have modernized to the point now where they're accessible and you're able to very quickly get in and start playing the game, and immediately be able to get a return on your time investment. And you need to be able to jump into an MMO and have 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and be able to do something."
Momentum is directly reflected in Guild Wars 3's combat and movement, which veer closer to a traditional single-player action game – even spectacle fighters or character action games – than you'd expect from an MMO. A sense of weight turns actual momentum into a vector of power and strategy, sending you diving and soaring with rare physicality.
هەفتانە هەرسکردنەکان، چیرۆکەکانی ئەو کۆمەڵگایانەی کە خۆشت دەوێن و زۆر شتی تر
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/mmo/guild-wars-3-wants-to-solve-every-mmos-biggest-problem-and-might-actually-pull-it-off-no-subscription-fee-helps-there-too
