"In the words of Bob Dylan, "The Times They are a-Changin'...". That's the way I feel about the MMORPG genre as a whole. For a long time things have been pretty much set as far as how MMORPG games are designed. However, I feel that with the release of Guild Wars 2 things will begin to change. Now before you write me off as some crazy Guild Wars 2 fanboy I ask that you finish the article, you may be surprised.

Let me start with explaining my thoughts on where I believe the current genre stands. Although World of Warcraft wasn't the first MMORPG to do most of the things in the current design build for MMO's, it was the game that popularized it. They took what was out there tweaked it a bit and made it user friendly. They gave us static quest, dungeons/raids, epic loot, powers and skill trees among other things all of which you will find in most MMO's today. Now there have been MMO's that have tried to break away from this structured design but developing new ideas like Warhammer Online adding in public quest, or Age of Conan having a combo fighting system. Both are unique ideas that bring something new to the genre. The rest of the game however was just like every other MMO. They just didn't change enough to in their games to bring the genre to a place where people expect more of what they offered with newly developed MMOs.

This is where Guild Wars 2 comes into the mix. With all of the different content that is being added by GW2 on ground breaking levels I can feel a shift coming to a new breed of MMOs. One that has evolved into so much more than just questing, grinding mobs, and choosing a cookie cutter skill. The age of every class looking the exact same with the same armor on, using the same skills and talents will be over. There will be so much more diversity in future games after ArenaNet releases GW2 and everyone sees what game design companies are capable of delivering and will expect nothing less.

One of the ideas I think post GW2 games will take advantage of will be the great dynamic questing system. I mean the ability to completely change the environment and social aspect of everything around you by choosing to help someone in need as opposed to just running around looking for a yellow exclamation point is just amazing to think about. Another great thing GW2 has to offer that I think future games will take advantage of will be your skills changing based on your weapon selection. I think that the customization that this has to offer for each individual class is just too much for game makers to turn down. Making the game play have no dependency on specific classes being involved is another great design that will be something gamers are looking for in games after the release of GW2. Now these aren't the only ideas, just a few I could think of off the top of my head that offer a great blueprint for future developers to build with.

Now I'm not saying that Guild Wars 2 is going to kill all other MMO's and take the title for most popular game in the world. Although I do think it will put a major hurt on the subscriber base of some of the larger MMO's out there and will definitely be one of the top games for a long time. I am saying however that I feel with the release of Guild Wars 2, when gamers see what a company can do with a game giving you the diversity to look how you want to look, play how you want to play and have a world that revolves around decisions that you make in the game all with no monthly subscription.... This is the way of the future... Times they are a changing."

-abStractDeath