Guild Wars 2

Hear me out, because I already know what some of you want to tell me; that Guild Wars 2 is called so for a reason. Although I’ve played other MMO’s that are generally about fighting, I think Guild Wars 2 has potential to become so much more, so hear me out.

Main discussion
So it came to my attention that when I first started playing, everything seemed to revolve around fighting. Well, almost everything, it was still possible to feed cows or solve Raven riddles, which is good, but I quickly noticed that every single task involved some sort of fighting, which I now ended up finding tedious and repetitive, which is far from what I hope ArenaNet aimed for when they made such a diverse and fun MMO with such an unique aspect.

What I think, is there should be more activities involving completely different things than killing; honestly, you get tired of it, and today you just don’t play Guild Wars 2 if you don’t want to kill stuff.

What I suggest is new forms of playing, like fishing for instance, a mechanic that can get huge in this game. The reason is it can be made more interactive than other game’s fishing, like Runescape for instance, and who wouldn’t love to throw out their fishing rod and use your fishing technique to reel a huge one? With the pick up objects and gain new abilities system, you can even make a whole skillset based on fishing. It could work like moving resource nodes perhaps, so you’d not stay fishing all day, but actually had to search for the fish, actively exploring more terrain and introducing fishing guilds that helped people find fishing spots.

Another mechanic I thought of is golemcrafting. Now I know this is the area of the most genius of Asura, but what if you introduced a workshop where you help an Asura build a golem, and you get to design it and play around with it afterwards. This can be a really fun experience IMO, and will give every race a reason to go to Rata Sum.

If you can think of anything more, or have any questions or critics, spill it I’m here to read your opinion, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t post

Thanks for reading! ^^

I see the point, and I like the idea. On the other hand it’s a little bit like complaining that Call of Duty games are all about shooting.

It’s the genre that we swing a sword and swing a sword and swing a sword (or cast a blast of fire cast a blast cast a blast).

They definitely did get lazy in design as the zones progressed in level. The first ones had more interesting and varied stuff.

Something I like, tho, is they put traps and puzzles in as well. Think AC where you win a fight just by pulling chains, or Arah where you’re firing artillery, story where you bombard the shore with your cannon thing. I think they stretched the standard genre without changing it too much.

I like the puzzles, especially the jumping ones, I absolutely love them and would like to see more, but as any other content in the game, they usually end up with a bossfight at the end. What I would like to see more of, perhaps in the later zones, since I agree they’re a bit tame in originality compared to the starter zones, they could add content that was completely unrelated to combat, so we could get some change.

Runescape is a good example of a successful MMO that wasn’t all about combat. What I would like to see is more skill-based activities unrelated to combat, but in a less grind-ish way than Runescape. More dynamic.

I think they are already trying, there’s kegbrawl in Hoelbark, and Rata Sum has a polymock arena though it’s inaccessible at this time like it’s something they worked on but ran out of time.

Thing is, the game is still buggy and there are other priority issues Anet needs to solve (guesting, anyone?) before they’ll start working on optional minigames, imo.

That is true Shinzan, I’m glad you noticed these things cause I never heard of Kegbrawl or polymock Both sounds interesting, and I agree that these kinds of things must be added at a later date, after the bugs are fixed.

Of all the MMOs that I know, this game has the most non-combat things to do (with the exception of The Shire in LOTRO but that is just one area).

Yes, most regular and event-quests are combat, but all MMOs are like that.

I can see the market for a crafting MMO or a building MMO, but other than that, this game has more non-combat things than other existing MMOs.

Good ideas all around

Not really, the past 3 weeks of GW2 i have spent in Lions arch, on the trading post. GW2 is my market simulator. I play Dishonored / DOTA2 / Crysis 1 / insert FPS for any adrenaline needs.

I want fishing. Seriously.

I’m terribly jealous of those fishermen in Queensdale.

Capn Evan.4586:

That is true Shinzan, I’m glad you noticed these things cause I never heard of Kegbrawl or polymock Both sounds interesting, and I agree that these kinds of things must be added at a later date, after the bugs are fixed.

Kegbrawl is already in, just look near the frozen lake.

umm kegbrawl is combat

I’m thinking of things like memory game, match the patterns, human-chess board, making music, that sort of thing.

We have jumping puzzles galore, but that twitchy style is only one way to do it.

Let’s see, I’ve:

SPOILERS!!!

Turned inta a wolf and played with pups.
Fed hungry guards
Had a snowball fight with kids
Answered riddles from Ravens, Scholars, Bears, Spirits
Prayed at Shrines
Had a Drinking Contest
Picked Fruit
Dug out lost weapons an’ put em in graves
Gathered all sortsa stuff an’ brought it ta people
Tossed broken wall pieces inta a river
Fed animals
Turned inta a Cow and trained other Cow
Erased and fixed tons of stuff
Done Jumping puzzles all over the place
Seen tons ah Vistas
Taste tested Ale
Tested all sortsa Asura gizmos, some ah which were not combat items
Caught rabbits
Found secret places with chests or resources
Lit Signal Fires
Encouraged sleepy or depressed soldiers
Turned inta a bird ta open treasure chests
Bartered goods with Ogres
Convinced Ogres ta follow a leader
Helped brew a love potion
Smashed stuff what didn’t summon monsters after
Tricked Grawl inta listenin’ to a giant head
Built fake idols for Grawl ta worship

And that’s all just off the top of me head. There’s plenty ta do in this game what doesn’t involve killin’.

Jack of Tears.9458:

Let’s see, I’ve:

SPOILERS!!!

Turned inta a wolf and played with pups.
Fed hungry guards
Had a snowball fight with kids
Answered riddles from Ravens, Scholars, Bears, Spirits
Prayed at Shrines
Had a Drinking Contest
Picked Fruit
Dug out lost weapons an’ put em in graves
Gathered all sortsa stuff an’ brought it ta people
Tossed broken wall pieces inta a river
Fed animals
Turned inta a Cow and trained other Cow
Erased and fixed tons of stuff
Done Jumping puzzles all over the place
Seen tons ah Vistas
Taste tested Ale
Tested all sortsa Asura gizmos, some ah which were not combat items
Caught rabbits
Found secret places with chests or resources
Lit Signal Fires
Encouraged sleepy or depressed soldiers
Turned inta a bird ta open treasure chests
Bartered goods with Ogres
Convinced Ogres ta follow a leader
Helped brew a love potion
Smashed stuff what didn’t summon monsters after
Tricked Grawl inta listenin’ to a giant head
Built fake idols for Grawl ta worship

And that’s all just off the top of me head. There’s plenty ta do in this game what doesn’t involve killin’.

Me like all this stuff, and when you list them like that it seems to be quite a few things to do, but they’re not permanent, like fighting is, and after you’re done with all these awesome diversions from fighting, only fighting is left to do, well, apart from running around searching for nodes, but that’s boring and repetitive if you do that alone.

(What does your name stand for btw? Jack is usually a short term for a longer name)

We only have 1 minigame atm (Keg brawl) but we will get more… probably at least 1 minigame per city like Polymock in RataSum

no. Computer games took the rpg label and did what computers do best: calculate. It is just not possible to have a perpetual immersive roleplaying experience that p&p rpg offers in a computer game. Even the games that did great storywise are combat oriented as this is the aspect where computer games are strong. Even after all the Avatar stuff in Ultima IV it was always about Minoc sells magical throwing axes in the end.

Jack, you forgot the awesome quest where you carry crabs to the crab haven to protect them from skales, I still have a pic

Wow, nobody’s mentioned Jumping Puzzles? That’s one of the most innovative things in this game, and they stole it from Tomb Raider (who probably stole it from someone else).

If I think back on my other MMO experiences there’s only a few things you’ve ever been able to do besides fight stuff. Craft, Trade, and Play Dress Up. They usually add Play House later on. Then there was Star Wars Galaxies, which at release was the least combat oriented MMO I’ve ever played (if you wanted it to be).

Of course, I’ve often logged onto an MMO just to chat with random people or guildies.

So, there you have it. Since SWG is dead and buried, there are only a handful of things you can do in any MMO that don’t involve fighting.

Play Dress Up
Craft
Trade
Play House (once implemented)
Chat with People

and now Jumping Puzzles

PinCushion.7390:

Wow, nobody’s mentioned Jumping Puzzles?

So, there you have it. Since SWG is dead and buried, there are only a handful of things you can do in any MMO that don’t involve fighting.

Play Dress Up
Craft
Trade
Play House (once implemented)
Chat with People

and now Jumping Puzzles

And that huge list ah stuff I mentioned – which isn’ even close ta everything – but did include jumpin’ puzzles.

Capn Evan.4586:

when you list them like that it seems to be quite a few things to do, but they’re not permanent, like fighting is, and after you’re done with all these awesome diversions from fighting, only fighting is left to do, well, apart from running around searching for nodes, but that’s boring and repetitive if you do that alone.

(What does your name stand for btw? Jack is usually a short term for a longer name)

Well, sure, in any game once ya’ve done everything what isn’t fightin’ the only thing yer left with is fightin’; once ya’ve used every color in the crayon box but red, the only color yer left with is red.

But ya gotta remember that they’re addin’ new stuff with updates an’ events … like the Halloween update an’ the content update in November, both which are gonna add more material ta play with … an’ I doubt it’ll all be combat. (in fact, they mentioned new puzzles)

Don’ get me wrong, I’d love even more non-combat stuff ta do … ya sure you betcha, but for an MMO I’d say GW2 has done alot ta offer more options than jus’ beatin’ stuff up.

And it’s Jack … dad wanted a boy, mom wanted a pumpkin.

it is called guild “WARS” … i don’t know how it could be centered upon anything except combat.

It is not "Guild:
cold war
chess war
baseball
puzzel masters
party games
etc.

I’m not trying to minimize your comment, because I enjoy diversity in my games; but it is clearly named and thus I cannot complain that it is what it is.

Glabb.9163:

it is called guild “WARS” … i don’t know how it could be centered upon anything except combat.

It is not "Guild:
cold war
chess war
baseball
puzzel masters
party games
etc.

I’m not trying to minimize your comment, because I enjoy diversity in my games; but it is clearly named and thus I cannot complain that it is what it is.

You sir, have clearly not read the first paragraph of my thread.

Glabb.9163

it is called guild “WARS”
____________________
but where are the warring guilds?

ed: wtf is wrong with this forum, could it be more of a hassle just to reply to someone?

I would love to see more non-combat stuff as well, that has long been one of my favorite aspects of MMOs!

Player.9621:

Glabb.9163

it is called guild “WARS”
____________________
but where are the warring guilds?

Yeah I was seriously hoping for some guild versus guild action – then guilds would become a vital component of the game and bring about a whole new level of social experience.

A large part of adventuring in RPGs is always going to be combat, but in Guild Wars 2 it has grown a bit more tedious to me because of the super-overblown mob density and respawns just seconds after death. I enjoy the combat in GW2, but after killing the 50th trivial mob in 20 minutes just traveling from point A to point B, it becomes way too repetitive to remain fun.

I will always appreciate a wider variety of activities in MMOs, though. I can often spend a lot of hours wasting time with fluff and chat — it breaks up the pace into highs and lows and makes me appreciate the intense combat situations more.