Greetings! I’d like to take a moment to express an idea I’ve had for awhile now, so if you would bear with me and lend your ear.
I have been playing Guild Wars since Beta, and have come to notice a slight flaw. It isn’t with the gameplay itself, but more the social aspect. As it is currently designed, Guild Wars 2 fosters a great environment to party up, explore, and at it’s most basic level: do things with people.
The part that is missing is the ability to be social, as in, areas in which you feel you can freely socialize; be it with party members, guildies, or just sitting down in a starter zone and meeting new people. The environments as they currently are are completely activity based to keep you moving from one area or event to the next, always on the move. As a level 80 with 100% exploration under my belt, I’ve “Been There, Done That”, as the title says. When I log in nowadays, I feel all there is to do is wander from zone to zone and kill things while helping people I come across, do events or dailies, or run dungeons/fractals (with WvW and PvP as other options, of course). Mainly: It feels like I am always having to do something, always active and never being able to stop and chat.
What I am getting at here is the need to pause in this constant run and be able to set up an area and sit down to relax, enjoy the stunning scenery that Guild Wars 2 has to offer, and simply talk with those in your party or Guild. Standing around in a field is ok, but it just doesn’t have the feel of relaxing and getting to know one another. Monsters are about, events are going on, and a dozen things pulling for your attention. What I, and many others I have talked to, would absolutely love would be a way to, say, set up a simple campfire to sit around and talk. Or perhaps chairs: sitting in the dirt in a field is informal, while actual seating is more refined, even if it is upon cushions around a campfire. The closest you can get to this currently is dropping a Tray and /sit’’ing around it, if not spending a load of Guild Influence for a Banquet that only lasts an hour (I believe). I know it seems insignificant while you are all working on events and updates to the game, but just some way to sit down and chat would go a long way to fostering more in-depth connections between Players and Guild Members.
Having a place to meet and discuss goings-on, be it planning for a dungeon or just catching up on how everyone’s week has been, would be an amazing addition. As for how it is currently, it just feels… informal and fleeting. Face-to-face, even through our characters, has far more impact upon a person then party chat or guild chat while dodging hordes of creatures. It helps in building a more profound connection between people. Add in a relaxing and more formal (compared to sitting in the dirt in a field) environment to chat in and you have yourself a new aspect to Guild Wars 2. It isn’t just about playing the game, grinding for gold and gear, and getting things done. It can also be a means to sit down and get to know your fellow players and guild members within the world we all love.
That is my general idea, along with my personal opinions of it.
Sure, the usual suggestions of Player Housing and Guild Halls are a way to remedy this, but what I feel is that being able to drop a chair and sit with friends out in the world of Tyria somewhere, or even just find a niche in some scenic area to be able to sit in and talk, would be great. (The ability to actually sit in chairs would be a start, for there are many seating areas already in Tyria that players are unable to use due to the lack of the option)
If anyone else has ideas on this, respond and lets see if we can brainstorm some practical ways to bring this to the game (and save the dev team time in doing such :P ).
(edited by Giere.7948)