Guild Wars 2

Improving social interaction isn’t just about having a tougher elite boss or stage so people are encourage to group up. It’s about activities that lead players to make friends and rivals with each other. Real social progression lead players into developing memories and progressive friendships instead of meeting acquintances after acquintances.

I will touch on the war system in guild wars 2 and explain how it’s one of the important factor for social progression and interactions in mmorpgs that has war system.

Need improvements in the player war system
To be frank imo, WvWvW has no meaning and lack appeals for mmorpg’ers. There’s no reason why should Crystal Desert faced off with Jade Quarry. WvW is just there for the sake of having WvW. There’s no story, cause, emotions and purpose in the war. If we overtake a keep or being overtaken, we don’t feel anything. There’s neither glory nor prestige in the current WvWvW. Imo, GW2 has one of the most emotionless war system in mmo rpg history that has a war system.

I’ll give an example of an ex-mmorpg I played. In that mmorpg, there’s republicans and royalists in the whole RPG story concept. Guilds chose a side. There’s a purpose in the war. Every weekend, guilds fight for colonies in the PVE map. The guild that take an area of the map are listed under the PVE map [M] for the rest of the week. There’s prestige and glory. Among the chapters of wars, there’s real-time dramas, coup-de-tat, alliance forms or shatters and all the stories. There’re real emotions in the war.

I believe that emotions are quite an important element in rpg war system. In reality, wars have always been created out from emotions and human nature. There’s no such thing as an emotionless war. There’s always purposes and causes in the war. In the darkest times, that’s where players develop friendships and rivals. Humans with the same ‘cause’ became closer in dark times of any war. They don’t meet merely acquintances. They form real bonds and became closer through time. Guilds feel like families. Rival guilds feel like competitors. Players create their own stories among themselves – that’s what made mmorpgs with war system different from typical multi-player pvp games.

If guild wars 2 plans to implant GvG war system in the future, I hope the devs may take consideration of the points above. It does not only enhance the social progression and interaction aspect of the game. It can be a good appeal for end-players [mmo rpg’ers] to have more reason to go online more often. :)