Guild Wars 2

This is gonna be a long one so be prepared.

Just for some background, I’ve put in over 1000 hours into the game, played all aspects of the game (PvP, WvW, open world PvE, dungeons, etc), have 5 level 80 characters, have gotten one legendary (Sunrise), and bought an embarrassing amount of gems from the gem store.

Let me first say I love this game. No one puts in 1000 hours of their life and boatloads of money into a game that they hate. Arenanet not only has created a great game in GW2 but also has shown that they are steadily improving the game and will only get better as time goes on.

That being said, after a year of updates, my worries for the game has been growing steadily. More specifically, I feel the open world experience has not been improved in significant enough ways and needs a serious overhaul in how it functions. Here are where I feel Arenanet are failing with their improvements. Some of this will be rehashing what many have already said. I’m sorry if it is but I might as throw my voice in there as well.

Dynamic Events and their manifesto

Practically everyone who followed GW2 prior to release knows their manifesto video. It’s the video that hooked me and I’m sure many others into hopping on the GW2 bandwagon. Here’s the video for those who haven’t seen it.

Key amongst the features they presented, was the idea that a player’s actions would matter. That when we finish an event, the world would be changed. Now tell me, when’s the last time you felt that? When’s the last time you finished an event, not for the loot you got, but because you felt you were affecting the world? This was GW2’s biggest promise and arguably its main draw, and to be honest, it’s failing in this regard. This is what was supposed to separate it from the MMO’s of the past. Instead, dynamic events and much of the world has turned into exactly what the manifesto said it would avoid: a grind for loot.

Look there’s nothing wrong with loot. Personal progression is a core feature of any RPG. But that is all a temporary pleasure and goal. Once you get that skin you want, once you get that ascended gear, once you get that Legendary weapon….what keeps you playing? The lack of “gear grind” (aka WoW) is a double edged sword in this respect. What keeps me playing? More skins? How is that really any better than any other sort of gear grind? Dynamic events and accomplishments that mattered were supposed to answer that. Forget the loot. Forget the gear I can get or that skin I’m working towards. If I’m actively affecting an ever changing world and changing how it develops, that’s something that will never get old. But at the moment, there are very few events that actively change the way the world functions. Which leads me to my next point.

Convenience is getting in the way of meaningful Events

Watch how in the vid that while they talk about dynamic events you see a bridge collapsing. It almost implied that “Look if you fail an event, you lose access to this area via bridge”. That would be a meaningful event. You want to get into here? You better protect or build that bridge. Take that idea and blow it up to a grand scale and that’s what I hoped dynamic events would be.

Sadly, the idea of closing off a region or adding in meaningful consequences is very lacking in GW2. There are only a handful of events across the game that functions like this. Most are simply losing access to a waypoint or to a dungeon. A big reason behind this is because Arenanet has put such a huge emphasis on quality of life and convenience.

Now don’t get me wrong, a lot of these improvements are great. Stuff like desposit collectibles, TP access from anywhere, waypoint travel amongst other is actually a big draw to the game. But at a certain point, convenience can’t take the precedence over meaningful gameplay. If everyone has access to everything all the time, meaningful experience cannot occur.

One of my favorite events in the game is the Straits of Devastation map. It is three dynamic event paths that come together for one final push onto the Temple of Balthazar that remains closed off until you capture it. Even though its consequences are definitely still not where I would want it to be, there is such a sense of accomplishment when you final complete that last push and kill the risen priest. Why? The consequences if you fail are that you have to start all three event chains over again and lose access to something that is important. The worse the consequence of failing a task is, the more accomplished you feel when you complete it. Unfortunately this is an exception as most events in the world are simply “complete this and get loot”.

I feel Arenanet, in an effort to appease a fanbase that is constantly clamoring for more and more easy access to everything, has grown a fear of developing any content that inconveniences the playerbase and are avoiding consequences as a result. Close off an entire region until a dynamic event chain is completed? The give-me-everything-I-want-when-I-want-it culture would totally reject that. As a result it’s hindering the sort of dynamic events we wished for.

Difficulty of open world PvE is stupidly easy

Open world difficulty is kind of a joke right now. Little to no organization is required to complete events and tasks, particularly when there’s a zerg involved. Sure there are exceptions like Temple of Grenth. There will always be exceptions. But by and large group events are just chaotic events where you try and tag as many things as you can for loot. Where is the difficulty like in the dungeons? Where’s the skill that’s required like in the fractals?

Champions and large group events need to be overhauled to deal with zergs. Any sort of challenge in the open world is lost in the mad grab for loot, and what’s disturbing is that the community seems fine with being placated with new avenues of personal loot instead of challenging new gameplay.

My suggestion

I’m sure many of you are already saying something along the lines of “They say this is coming so just wait”. You know what? I’m sure it is. Arenanet has already been introducing some elements of what I talked about. The living story is a magnificent way to introduce permanent world changes and recently also introduced player interaction on how that changes. Map invasions are a nice addition to open world activities. But these additions have not come together to offer the open world experience that was promised. That’s the frustrating thing about this whole situation: Arenanet has put all the necessary ingredients of a great open world experience in place but has not capitalized on it and brought it all together

Here’s what I would love:
Take the idea of WvW keeps/towers/camps and apply it to a map that is the subject of a living story segment. Holding or capturing these points on the map would constantly generate points towards the living story event. If enough points are accrued, the map changes for the better: maybe a new town is established with new skins or instead of a barren wasteland the land heals and a forest grows with a plethora of new resource nodes. Something that is permanent and map changing. If that point threshold isn’t reached there is a negative consequence both in the story and in the map. Instead of a town, now it’s a den of thieves. Instead of a forest, the wasteland becomes home to dragon minions. This could also be applied to any new map that comes our way. It would be wonderful for the community to get involved in how maps are created and would give purpose to doing things in the open world regardless of personal loot. The key is bringing all three points I mentioned above together. Make events meaningful by creating consequences and rewards that are world changing, and make sure it is challenging enough so that there is always a risk of failure.

All that being said, Arenanet has been consistently improving their game, and I trust they will continue to make the game better and better. They’ve shown a willingness to listen to the community and have given it a lot of the things it’s asked for since launch. For that reason, I wanted to put my opinion out there to be heard. Cheers.

TL;DR – Please make open world activities that are challenging and have consequences and meaning behind them.

The sad thing is that the average GW2 fanboy will simply brisk over this post and respond with, “lawl go play another game then. GW2 best MMO ever”, too blind to take anything objectively.

superbeast.9873:

The sad thing is that the average GW2 fanboy will simply brisk over this post and respond with, “lawl go play another game then. GW2 best MMO ever”, too blind to take anything objectively.

sounds like you are just going to generalize everyone who has a different opinion than you…

mmkay then…

Im a guild wars vet and the feeling that we had in guild wars 1 is missing… as it was fun at the begining but now its becoming more and more static with that said i agree with CommanderChopper this is someting that is missing and would give new life to the game.