A few constructive criticisms

A few constructive criticisms

in Suggestions

Posted by: mikefang.4182

mikefang.4182

Recently I’ve been getting into the video series “Jimquisition” over on The Escapist. While I don’t agree with everything Jim Sterling says (or always care for his sense of humor…) I’ve been impressed with his ability to cut to the heart of an issue. One video I watched recently was this one: www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/5743-You-Should-Be-Mad-at-Diablo-IIIs-Always-Online-DRM

While the video focuses primarily on Diablo III’s always-online status and the problems it creates, it also touches on several other issues. One of the ones that struck close to home with me in particular was this one: many gamers want to complain about problems a given game has, but they’re afraid to because they believe, and rightly so, that the community at large will yell at them and shout them down, call them self-entitled and say they should take whatever they’re handed and be thankful for it, all the mistakes and problems in the world be kitten ed. But if you love a game or a game series, you -should- be willing to point out the faults and mistakes because nothing will ever get better if nobody acknowledges there’s room for improvement.

With that concept in mind, I’m wondering if we, the players, could level a bit of constructive criticism at Guild Wars 2. While I still think that it’s, hands down, the best fantasy MMO I’ve played to date, I do feel there is room for improvement. And I’m wondering if anyone else is interested in chiming in with their own two cents. So, with this goal, I would offer the following criticisms myself:

1. The game needs more roleplaying mechanics. When this game was being advertised, the interactive nature of the environment was something that really caught my interest. So far, we’ve seen the environmental weapons; the fallen branches and broken boards we can pick up to wack enemies with. However, we haven’t seen much else. For the roleplayers, we can definitely use more things like chairs that can be sat in, player housing that can be decorated and furnished, more emotes, perhaps animations for eating and drinking when not in combat that would play when sitting at special tables found in bars and in houses. Arenanet seems to be working on expanding flavor content, such as with its dancing book in the gem shop. I think we need to encourage (and see) more of that.

2. Where are the entertainment mini-games? Another feature that sounded neat when I first heard about it in dev interviews and articles were the mini-games like the bar fight, Asuran chess, Charr drag racing (I think), the human shooting gallery, and so on. But so far, I haven’t noticed any of those mini-games available. When I go to the shooting gallery in Divinity’s Reach, for example, I’m -still- told that it’s being hogged by a private party of NPC’s. Maybe I’m just missing something here, but if this content that was talked about before release still isn’t available, I think it should be made part of a content update, and soon.

3. Downed skills may need some tweaking. I will give the game credit that it actually poses a challenge, even in PvE when fighting enemies that are the same level as you. Grouping up is definitely something I’d encourage. However, I don’t think solo should be impossible, and there’s one particular mechanic I think makes it harder than it should be: the less-health penalty after you get downed. While I can see where the developer’s thinking was, wanting to discourage players from being reckless, when you have opponents who can down you in a 1-3 attacks, even without the penalty, it starts becoming less of a challenge and more of an annoyance.

I posted this topic on my guild website as well and got several responses from guild mates, each with their own thoughts and suggestions. Without dropping names for the sake of privacy, here are their thoughts as well:

A few constructive criticisms

in Suggestions

Posted by: mikefang.4182

mikefang.4182

“I want them to be better at cleaning up after Living Story events. In the Charr lands I’ve run across 5 of those listening devises and there’s still a bonfire in the Black Citadel. That stuff shouldn’t exist anymore.” (note: this was posted on May 27, so the issue may have been handled already.)

“I wish it were advertised that PvP is essentially a separate game from PvE/WvW GW2. It’s something I didn’t learn until recently, and I think it’s a really novel concept.”

“Guild Hall: We had these in GW1, we need them in GW2. There were a variety of halls that you could choose from that had styles more menacing to a more elegant style. I hope they put these in real soon as it will open RP opportunities and… guild parties!

“Charr Armor: We are approaching a year now and some Charr armor pieces on multiple sets are still messed up or just don’t look right, especially the shoulder pads which levitate. I hope really soon they will devote some time into fixing this.”

A few constructive criticisms

in Suggestions

Posted by: mikefang.4182

mikefang.4182

“1. Better rewards for sPvP. I don’t want anything broken, and I don’t want a gear grind. But I think it would be cool to have something like… sPvP collectible minis that you can only get through playing sPvP. Not through the Gem Store, not buyable off the Trading Post, etc. Like, since the ranks are already named after different animals, it would be cool to get a little Rabbit Mini after completing the Rabbit sPvP rank. And a Deer Mini for the next rank, etc. And it would be cool if their animations were aggressive in some way, like the Deer Mini lowering its head and shaking its antlers or something. To show the attacking sense.

“2. A way to tell which exact dungeon paths you’ve completed in your Hero Window. Currently, you can see that you’ve done 4 out of 5, for example, but it doesn’t say which ones. That means if you’re going for Dungeon Master and you did all but one of the AC paths, but you did them all on your first character, months ago, you have to dig through dungeon guides and try to think, “Oh, that sounds familiar. I think we fought that boss. Did we? Or was that the time we tried that path, but that one Necro left mid-dungeon and we couldn’t find a replacement so we never finished?” etc., etc. If the game can track that you’ve done 4 of 5, it should be able to tell you which 4, so you can clearly see which one you have left.

“3. Consistent item stacking. It’s annoying that regular items seem to stack up to 250, but things like salvage kits won’t stack at all, even if you have one stack of 7 and one stack of 6 — they won’t stack to 13. And gathering tools won’t stack, either. I’m not sure why this happens, but even if they don’t want you to be able to carry 250 scythes around at one time, they should at least let you stack two separate piles of scythes as long as they don’t exceed whatever they want the limit to be.

“4. Boosters and Minis count as collectibles and then get accidentally deposited. I love the instant-deposit option in the inventory: Deposit All Collectibles. But I think there’s a logical difference between several soft wooden logs and a few PvP Glory Boosters. I can’t count how many times I’ve pulled out my boosters and a mini to fluff around with me, then gone and gathered some stuff, and then thoughtlessly clicked Deposit All Collectibles to get rid of my gathered items… and forgotten that I have now lost my Booster and my mini. And I usually don’t remember that until I’ve already hopped into an sPvP game. And then it’s a giant pain to get out of the game, go back to the Mists, access my bank, grab my Boosters, and then try to go find another sPvP game. And it’s even more irritating if I already spent half a game as a Spectator just so I could be assured a spot in a full 8 vs. 8 game. And yeah, I know there are invisible bags that prevent things from being stolen or deposited, but I’ve had problems with that because the bag is bigger than I need, and new collectible items immediately fill the next open bag slot, invisible or not, so when I Deposit All Collectibles, then half my gathering tools stay in my bags because they’re naturally in the wrong bag, etc. I just think Boosters and Minis shouldn’t count as collectibles.

“5. Less sexist flavor outfits. Now, Arena Net is actually much better about stuff like that than a lot of companies. But for a case-in-point, the other day, I was super excited to see a Pirate Outfit in the Gem Store. The picture of it looked super cool, and when Dahkeus tried it on his male human, it looked epic and awesome. When I tried it on my female sylvari, it looked like one of those “Sexy Pirate Costume” things you find in Halloween stores — the top changed into a bikini-looking thing, etc. I was really disappointed. If you go to GW2 Armor, you can look at Sylvari Male medium armor vs. Sylvari Female medium armor — they look pretty much identical (except for the Named set, which could also be fixed with this suggestion). If Arena Net can do that with regular armor in the game, then surely they can do that with the awesome-looking flavor outfits in the Gem Store. Or, if they really want to offer “sexy” clothing, they should have it look the same on males and females. Personally, I’d love to see Dahkeus’s male human in a pirate outfit with tight pants and a cut-off shirt that shows off his stomach."

So, there’s a few suggestions right off the bat. Did anyone else have any constructive criticism they’d want to share?