Back in December, Guild Wars 2 boss Josh Davis told fans that “alternate servers and hardcore modes aren’t a priority for ArenaNet,” as the team believes it’s just “trend chasing” that runs the risk of “alienat[ing] the game’s existing fans” and “usually doesn’t pan out.” At the time, we opined that it was an incongruent idea in the genre as we’ve been doing alternate servers in MMOs since before the turn of the millennium. It’s not a new or trendy idea; it’s time-tested, and it’s made a bunch of aging MMOs a crapton of money by catering to multiple eras, perhaps most famously World of Warcraft.
But I wonder if Davis wasn’t on to something when he suggested it alienated existing fans. While smaller games like Lord of the Rings Online seem to handle it OK, certainly we see huge rifts in the WoW community between Classic and Retail players, as each believes they are the core players and the other side is playing the game wrong – and sucking down resources better spent on the mode they’d prefer.
Let’s talk about it in today’s Daily Grind. Do alternate and classic servers risk alienating existing MMO fans?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
