Guild Wars 2

Due to my career, I was unable to play GW2 upon release. Until the last few days.

The first time I played WoW, I explored the game thoroughly, looking at objects in the world, curious to know what each one was, if there may have been something interesting or not.

This was because the map and minimap were very basic. The game didn’t hold me by the hand and point me in the right direction. When I needed directions, I asked a player, not an NPC. And I looked at the actual world, not the map.

Fast forward 5 years and GW2 is released, and is by far the most gorgeous MMO I have played. Yet all morning when running around areas for the first time, my eyes have been glued to the minimap, to make sure I’m on the right ‘bearing’ to the next marker of interest. It is sucking the life out of what is usually the most enjoyable part of exploring a world for the first time.

Now look at Oblivion/Skyrim. That game doesn’t hold players by the hand the way modern MMOs do. None of the map markers exist until you are within range of each of them. And exploring those worlds has been far more rewarding and satisfying than exploring Tyria has been these last few days.

Please, consider removing all map markers until players have manually discovered them. Map completion achievement will take much longer, but removing the empty feeling that I have right now following this ‘tick off list’ that you have given us will make it worthwhile.

Rift was the exact same, so ask anyone you know how much fun they had exploring Telara. It is because of this blatant hand holding that I spend most of my time in PvP, as PvE in MMOs has become far too convenient and boring.

you can remove the markers in the world map screen.