Guild Wars 2

Loading screens have always been “dead time” in video games. Our hardware got faster, but the amount of data to load grew too – so loading screens are not a thing of the past (unless you load dynamically). While the loading screen is up, ALL resources are put into loading. But it wouldn’t have to be this way.

I would accept slightly longer loading times if a fraction of the resources would be dedicated to keeping some secondary UI elements functional:

• Inventory window
• Hero window
• Chat window

This way, loading while loading might take a couple of seconds longer, I wouldn’t mind it at all – I would spend the time continuing to be able to chat with my party, re-organise my inventory, dye armour, manage my achievements watchlist, etc.

All of these things are manageable even with a little lag or drop in frame rates.