Guild Wars 2

Just a couple of things that I thought would be “nice to have” at some point in the life of the game.

• Vistas
  I enjoy roaming the PvE world and just finding stuff. Vistas are among those interesting things. Initially, I wanted the ability to select and view the vista cut scene anytime in game after discovering it. However, since the scene is rendered using the game world at that instant which would have an impact on loading times and would probably make implementation more trouble than it is worth, I propose a more doable middle ground.

What might make a nice compromise would be to unlock “postcards” of completed vistas. Implementation could be a lovely prerendered screenshot, an artist’s rendition of the area, or a merging of the two. You could even add story fluff or artist notes on the back of the ‘postcard’ to make the content all the more interesting.

• Maps
  This is a small annoyance. There is no obvious way to view the level of completion for an area that I have at least appeared in but am currently not present in. So for example, if I am in Lion’s Arch I can look at the world map and see my progress towards completing that zone. However, if I wanted to know my progress exploring Lornar’s Pass while in Lion’s Arch I have to go to Lornar’s Pass.

Sure, the “easy” solution would be to teleport to a waypoint in that area and make a decision from there, but my playstyle tends towards me being cheap and my attention span is roughly zero. Why teleport when I can leg it, and who knows what I’ll find along the way. It’s entirely possible I won’t even wind up in the target zone.

• 3rd Person Movement
  Guild Wars 2 is my first experience with the MMO genre. What drove me crazy when I first started playing in the closed betas was the control scheme. I got horribly frustrated with controlling my character very early on. When I discovered that I could click and hold the right mouse button to drive my character more like a 3rd person action game, I was quite happy. This is pretty much how I play the game now. The traditional method of controlling your character in an MMO doesn’t do a thing for me.

This wishlist item is to simply add a checkbox option under controls that would allow for the mouse to aim my character as if I was holding down the right mouse button. While I’m sure there will be members eager to inform me to ‘learn how to play the right way’, I’m not so sure there is a “right” way. The method works for me overall, it’s just silly that I have to spend 80%+ of my time in game holding down a button so I don’t get completely turned around.

That’s it! Thanks.