Guild Wars 2

I’ve noticed over the past year that people have began to expect more and more out of Arena Net when developing Guild Wars 2.

While I can understand the desire to have more, I think people tend to forget all the great things Arena Net has accomplished with Guild Wars 2 and I think it would be a good idea to have a little reminder to that. Once something becomes the ‘norm’ in a game, it’s quite frequently overlooked, which is what I think happened with a lot of the features Guild Wars 2 has to offer.

Therefore, I decided to put this here on the Guild Wars 2 forum to remind players of all the good things Arena Net has done. Or rather, not all the good things, but 20 of them.

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1) No Monthly Fee. Let’s face it, most MMOs available these days are either pay to play or free to play w/ subscriptions optional. If you’ve ever been someone who has played a game like WoW or SWTOR, you know as well as anybody that these games offer a free to play option, but they restrict you with the amount of the game that you can play. These games will often neuter your entertainment in the game and force you to want to pay for the game. With Guild Wars 2, you can certainly purchase gems… but you can play the game without restrictions entirely for free, after buying the game itself of course.

2) No Fetch Quests. There are still some people who don’t mind doing fetch quests, but a lot of people have grown tired of the concept and want something new. With Guild Wars 2, having hearts that appear around the map is a much better alternative than talking to someone, then going to slay a certain number of mobs, and then come running back to talk to that person. No longer do I need to spend an hour running from somebody to a field and then back to that somebody, I can just walk into the field and spend ten minutes doing the heart quest before going on my way.

3) Instant Travel. Most games, if they have a travel feature (blimps, waypoints, etc.) will make you sit there and ride a vehicle or an animal before you reach your destination. While I’m one of those people who doesn’t mind doing this because you get to see the beautiful world the company has designed for you, I understand some people don’t want to wait 10 – 15 minutes to go from Point A to Point B. You still have to pay a travel fee like you would in other games, but it’s much easier to travel from Point A to Point B with waypoints in Guild Wars 2 than say, riding around on a speeder in SWTOR.

4) Dynamic Events. Similar to the Heart Quests, Dynamic Events are events that take place around the map at random times and you can join in to get experience. So again eliminating the need to have fetch quests, they make the world seem more alive by having these events occur, and some events will have chains that become different events and are a possibility to level even if you are in a low level zone.

5) No Kill Stealing. Yeah anyone who’s played an MMO is familiar with this concept. You’ve started attacking a mob, but then someone who does more damage appears out of nowhere and attacks the mob too. By doing more damage, they manage to take the experience, the loot, and the kill from you. This mechanic is what made it difficult for someone to level a Healer character because they didn’t do as much damage as pure DPS classes. With spontaneous grouping during dynamic events and everyone getting credit for attacking a single mob, it reduces the level of headache you might get when someone appears to help you kill something. It’s much easier to feel like you’re helping somebody when you appear to fight something and it doesn’t take experience away from them in the process.

6) The downed state. Anyone who’s fought a major boss in another MMO is familiar with the scenario where you and the boss are both at a sliver of health and then suddenly, the boss is able to defeat you and their health immediately refills to max, thus eliminating all the hard work you had just done. Having a chance to beat the boss and get back on your feet is a win in my book.

7) Plentiful variety of dyes & ability to dye armor. Most games didn’t adopt the ability to change the color of armor until long after launch, while as with Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, there has always been an option to dye your armor. In Guild Wars 2, every color of the rainbow and then some is available AND you are given a number of dyes upon character creation to make your character have a unique-ish look to them. In other games, you would have to find armor that looks exactly alike in order to ensure that you didn’t look like you were made of rainbows. With the ability to freely dye your armor as much as you like, and having the dye saved in your hero panel after you’ve unlocked it, is a MUCH better alternative than what other games have made us deal with.

8) Bot Hunting & Banning. When’s the last time you saw a bot advertising gold sales in map chat? When’s the last time you saw a group of bots running around in circles out in the wilderness to kill mobs? In other major MMOs, bots are generally ignored by the developers and you need to add them to your Ignore list yourself if you want them to go away. In Guild Wars 2, Arena Net has taken the fight to the Botters directly by acting on the reports they get and banning anyone who uses bots for any purpose.

9) In-Game Gold Transfer Option. Arena Net understands that gold sellers and gold farmers are scammers out to steal your account from you. So rather than making you rely on some third party website to get money in the game, they let you buy it directly from them. Granted with Guild Wars 2, the amount of gold you get fluctuates based on how much gems are worth at the time of purchase, but you’re still given the option to buy gold without the risk of losing your account or being hacked.

10) Armor transmutation stones. Don’t you hate when you get a really wicked awesome looking piece of armor in a game, but it doesn’t have the stats you want or need? I HATE when that happens. Arena Net allows us the option to take the appearance of another piece of armor, the stats and the rune inside to ensure that we look and fight the way we want to. Now while I am a bit annoyed that we’re still restricted to armor appearances that are light, medium or heavy, it’s still better than being forced to wear a set of armor that I don’t like at all that has the stats I need.

11) Server-wide trade post. Anything you’ve ever needed and some things you never cared to have but will buy anyway. Having a trade post that connects to all servers ensures that whatever it is you’re looking for (for the most part) is available to you when you need it. And if it’s not available, or if you can’t afford to pay the asking price, you can put in a buy order that anyone on any server can fill. That’s a LOT of people filling orders and trading gear.

12) Skill use while moving. Standing still and pressing numbers gets boring after a while, but in most MMOs, you have to be standing still in order to activate a skill. With Guild Wars 2, we are allowed to move around and cast skills. We still have to stand still for some skills, but we’re able to remain mobile which is something the gaming community has needed for a while.

13) Initiative to explore. In other games, exploration seems like something you would do only if you were interested in seeing the entire world the developers have created. Most people would focus more on content than they would on exploring. With Guild Wars 2, you’re encouraged to explore AND you get rewarded for it. What’s not to like?

14) Dungeons w/ multiple paths. In other games, dungeons generally remain the same no matter what. And while the case is similar with Guild Wars 2, they have multiple options or ‘paths’ for players to take. If they don’t feel like standing in a room full of exploding golems and trying to activate an escape sequence, then they can stand in a room full of exploding golems while a laser charges up and blows up a door for them to escape.

15) Multiple races, not all human. This one is short and simple. Not everyone likes to play pure Human characters and they like a little variety. Guild Wars 2 nails that.

16) Lion’s Arch Gate Hub. Getting from one main city to another is a real pain in the butt in other games… and a lot of new players who get to these locations will be horribly lost. Lion’s Arch has a portal hub area where people can go from the Black Citadel to Rata Sum after only 2 load screens and no gate fees, which is a hell of an awesome system to implement into the game.

17) A living story. While it’s not exactly something that everyone is in love with at this current time, you have to give kudos to Arena Net for trying to make the world actually seem alive instead of making players play the same content over and over for years before an expansion comes out and introduces new content.

18) Achievement Point Rewards. I don’t care for my Xbox Live Account’s achievement point count for the same reason I don’t care for achievement points in other games. Arena Net allowing players to be rewarded for every 500 achievement points is an excellent way to encourage players to actually try to achieve things in the game.

19) Account-Wide Wallet & Dungeon Token Storage. We all knew that storing dungeon tokens in our bank became a pain in the butt over time because some of us would stockpile these things like a dragon would hoard gold in a cave. And it became a pain in the butt to get on a character to put money into the bank so that we could log onto another character in order to obtain the gold so that we can finally buy that weapon or armor we wanted. With the account wallet, we’re able to just hop onto the character we want the armor for and go get it. No more hassle.

20) 5 guild slots. Having the option to be in up to 5 guilds and representing 1 at a time is an awesome feature to have. I like this because it further encourages community – especially in the role playing community. Having 5 guilds means that even if everyone is offline in one guild, you can hop on over to another guild and you always have something to do with the communities you’re a part of.

I can’t list everything that is awesome about Guild Wars 2, but I can say Thank You.

Thank You Anet!

Ultimately, this list represents the reasons I don’t really play the game anymore. They’ve all taken the edge off of the important features of what it means, to me, to be a good MMO. Especially instant travel, shared kills & resources and a game-wide economy.

Though, I agree with #7

There are many things to be appreciative for in GW2. Thank you, ArenaNet for all your passion and hard work.

Some of these are good valid points others…Not so much. The Transmutation stone thing is actually a hinderance imo, it’s a very badly designed cash grab feature as every MMO that has come out in the last 5 years has wardrobe slots that work way better than those stupid stones. Server wide auction house? Destroyed the economy. Downed state? Still cripples PvP.

Others are good valid points as I said, such as Dungeons with multiple paths and Dye variety as well as no quest hubs. All very nice features. You just have to take the good with the bad, roll with what worked, and keep playing if you are having fun

Not many are saying the game is terrible but critique comes when it’s deserved. The LS and some of the cash grab things come to mind with some people. Just because people point these out does not mean they don’t enjoy the game.

Sunshine.4680:

Not many are saying the game is terrible but critique comes when it’s deserved. The LS and some of the cash grab things come to mind with some people. Just because people point these out does not mean they don’t enjoy the game.

Bingo, I love this game, but to admit it has no faults is just untrue +1

The frustrating thing is that this game was/is on the verge of greatness. Yet, they do not make those final changes that will take them there. I am not going to list the things I think they should do as this is a thank you thread, so I will stay on topic.

Thanks for all the great an innovative things you guys have done.

Here is holding hope that 2014 will resolve some of the most glaring and dividing issues, so this game can realize all of its potential.

Right now, in my opinion, Guild Wars 2 is unchallenged in the mmo world. This game pretty much made me uninstall the other mmo’s I was playing.

Something that the server-wide TP did as well is keep prices in check more or less (yes, I know there are uber expensive items.) The nice thing is that if a log is 5s on TC, it’s also 5s on BG, or SoR, or JQ, or every other server. No more “server hopping” for a better price.

Yes, there are some issues with GW2, but in general, it’s the best game on the market right now and for the immediate future. I’ll probably be here until they turn off the last server and shut the game down.

There are a lot of great things about the game. It’s why I play it.

But it’s largely getting over shadowed for me these days by a lack of communication with and respect for the player base that plays the game and spends money in the store.

To me, it’s a bit like AT&T when they were the only ones that had the iPhone. The things you list, and other things I can think of? That’s the iPhone.

Support telling you to post in forums to have your questions answered, then asking those questions in the forum and having them completely ignored and dismissed. Collaboration? I’d look to the folks working Marvel Heroes for a much better example of how to collaborate with your community. All that is AT&T.

So yes, I agree. They have an iPhone.

But all the rest is AT&T.

I’d ‘love’ for them to start communicating better and provide a way to just answer simple questions that deserve answers. They did a great job with listing out the reasoning behind all the class changes and why. That’s great! We can read what they are thinking, and make a decision about whether we believe in those decisions or not, and continue to play the game or not, depending on how our own needs and desires align with theirs.

But then there’s something like the human female running animation.

Why was that changed? Where are the patch notes? Where is the statement (like all those class changes) explaining why, after 14 months or so, they felt it had to be changed? Was it the cause of a bug that threatened the in game economy? Perhaps it affected WvW balance? What is your philosophy as to why ‘that’ changed, so we can make an informed decision about how to proceed?

notebene.3190:

There are a lot of great things about the game. It’s why I play it.

But it’s largely getting over shadowed for me these days by a lack of communication with and respect for the player base that plays the game and spends money in the store.

To me, it’s a bit like AT&T when they were the only ones that had the iPhone. The things you list, and other things I can think of? That’s the iPhone.

Support telling you to post in forums to have your questions answered, then asking those questions in the forum and having them completely ignored and dismissed. Collaboration? I’d look to the folks working Marvel Heroes for a much better example of how to collaborate with your community. All that is AT&T.

So yes, I agree. They have an iPhone.

But all the rest is AT&T.

I’d ‘love’ for them to start communicating better and provide a way to just answer simple questions that deserve answers. They did a great job with listing out the reasoning behind all the class changes and why. That’s great! We can read what they are thinking, and make a decision about whether we believe in those decisions or not, and continue to play the game or not, depending on how our own needs and desires align with theirs.

But then there’s something like the human female running animation.

Why was that changed? Where are the patch notes? Where is the statement (like all those class changes) explaining why, after 14 months or so, they felt it had to be changed? Was it the cause of a bug that threatened the in game economy? Perhaps it affected WvW balance? What is your philosophy as to why ‘that’ changed, so we can make an informed decision about how to proceed?

A well formulated post with valid points. A good read. +1

1. No monthly fee: This is probably the biggest hindrance in this game for getting actual content and not gem store spam filler. This is my #1 thing that I don’t like in this game.

2. No Fetch Quests: There are still plenty of fetch quests, every day I have to fetch dozens and dozens of seige supplies and bring them back to an NPC to get the shatterer to spawn. This has not changed at all from other MMO’s.

3. Instant travel: Instant unless you actually want to go there cause something is happening. Then the nearest 5 WP’s are contested and you need to run twice as far as in other MMO’s and with no mount to get to where you are going. Good for traveling to places where nothing is happening, bad for everything else.

4. Dynamic events: Some of these are great, others are repetitive and boring. I’d consider this a step forward over other MMO’s though.

5. No Kill Stealing: or in other words… the rise of the zerg. You still need a group and you still lose out on kills because of the damage threshold and the prevalence of zergs. If anything this has made it worse then in other MMO’s since everything is a zerg for maximum efficiency.

6. Downed State: I enjoy this in PvE, I still find it annoying in PvP.

7. Armor Dyes: Probably the greatest thing GW2 has done to MMO’s. I love this feature.

8. Bot Hunting: There are 5-10 bots selling gold in LA all day on my server… I also get 10-12 PM’s and multiple mails every day for buying gold. It is just as bad if not worse as other MMO’s.

9. Gold to Gems: This has pluses and minuses. I like the idea, but it has caused items to be put at ridiculous price points in order to compensate. $200 weapon skins? $30 for bank space? I can buy entire games for cheaper then some items in the gem store. Good concept, bad execution.

10. Transmutation: This is fairly common in MMO’s these days, and is mostly just a cash grab. Games with monthly fees have this feature for in-game currency. So this is overall neutral.

11. World Wide TP: I love this feature, it makes a much more robust economy. This was a win.

12. Skills while moving: Another great feature. Not unique to GW2, but still great.

13. Exploration: Another win for Anet. The world is beautiful, and captivating. Unfortunately they have left this concept behind and now just give us predictable LW updates.

14. Dungeon Paths: This was a flop. 50% of the dungeon is the same across all paths in most cases, and the paths are just more of the same and never have any change. Especially considering there are only 8(?) dungeons as opposed to other MMO’s which have many more which are more significantly varied. Concept was good, execution was poor.

15. Non-humans: This is good, but hardly revolutionary… I’m pretty sure every MMO ever made (except SWTOR) offered non-human type characters.

16. LA hub: I like the hub, but it isn’t revolutionary either. Lots of games have a main trading hub with instant travel between other hubs. I’ll agree that GW2 makes it very easy to go between ALL cities instead of just the major ones.

17.Living Story: yeah… I’m just gunna let this one speak for itself…

18. AP rewards: I love this system. I hope other games use it in the future.

19. Account Wallet: This was a last ditch solution (though a nice one) for a problem Anet made themselves. The fact that there are about 20 currencies more than there should be in this game. I have never seen a game with such a convoluted currency system.

20. Multiple Guilds: Good concept but i’ve never seen or heard of a guild that doesn’t have a 100% rep requirement so in the end it is a useless feature for most.

About 14 of your 20 points are actually things that are wrong with this game or haven’t changed at all from other MMO’s….

My friend just came from playing SWOTOR and all these things are why she is really freaked out by GW2 and calls it paradise and happy land

She didn’t believe me for a year and now she can see for herself.

She also thinks that the GW2 community in game is so nice, she thinks there is something that she must be missing

high five on all your points
We are the most spoiled MMO community out there

Good points. This game has a lot of potential. It just have to work on the things that makes it a great game.

One thing I would add is down scale. Especially in this game with the dynamic events concept, I can only imagine what it would be like a lvl 80 full geared player getting to a low level world boss and 1-hitting it.

Lost me after the second page. I agree with what Ive read from the OP.

But I see more bot spamming now more than ever. Every single night I get one or two bots spamming me…so thats still around.

But OP, you are correct with most of what you listed. Those are good things, aside from Living Story. That alongside with ascended armor/gear has been a poison to this game and a constant debate. Why arenanet still invests loads of resources into both when they are the #1 and #2 debated issues, I dont know.

Other than that, well said.