All right, I'm a few years late but last week, I finally got my hands on Guild Wars, Prophecies. A few years ago, I heard my cousin talked about Guild Wars and how you don't have to pay a subscription fee. I thought that was awesome. Now after playing the game, I concluded that the developer, ArenaNet, is made up of geniuses.

We kept hearing about MMOs going under left and right. WOW Argent (Tabula Rasa anyone?) As I am no MMO expert, I'm not sure if it was because most dead MMOs suffered from technical problems or bad marketing or what not. My theory is that they all failed because they tried to go head on with World of Warcraft. Seriously, how could you beat a 800 pound gorilla?

Years after years, magazines after gaming magazines, I kept reading about this new MMO and that newly launched MMO. All of the developers kept saying the same thing, it's not impossible to beat Blizzard, we can do it.

I. Don't. Think. So.

Unless the MMO company prints their own cash or can borrow massive amount of money from China, it is very hard to beat Blizzard. As the saying goes, Money makes the world go round. More money means more designers and programmers and servers and technicians. Money also means better marketing campaigns. Seriously, is there an MMO game company out there who is swimming in cold hard cash other than Blizzard?

Blizzard has the funds to ride out their competition and wait for the hoo-ha to die down. Once the novelty of the new MMO wears off and people start missing their guild, WOW Argent friends or the familiarity of Warcraft, they tend to go back to WoW.

Plus, Blizzard made World of Warcraft an easy to pick up and play game. They nailed the formula and just kept on going from there. I heard and known so many people who swore off WoW but ultimately went back to it.

So how does Guild Wars survive in the cutthroat world of MMOs?

I think its because ArenaNet did not try to beat WoW at its own game. They created a game similar in some aspects but different enough that comparing the two is like comparing apples versus oranges. Sure the same old, walk, walk, walk, kill, collect loot, hand in quest, and level up formula is still there, but ArenaNet jazzed it up. For one thing, I really liked the click-and-you-are-there teleport system. The other was the lack of other players in the explorable zones. I no longer have to worry about getting ganked or ninja-ed. Plus, I love the fact that I can mix and match two professions; Warrior with a pet? Sweet! Granted, there are flaws: my husband grumbles about the loot allotment system. Regardless, Guild Wars does not feel like an MMO and certainly does not feel like a WoW clone.

I think that in order for an MMO to succeed and get out from WoW's colossal shadow, developers and publishers must think outside of the box. Maple Story is another happy case. WOW Argent Instead of charging players, Maple adopted the free-to-play and micro-transactions formula and look! They hit it big.

I don't know about Warhammer Online since I've not played it at all. But I would love to hear from those that have tried it out. Does it feel like another WoW clone? Or did the developers do something radical? Let me know what you think.