Guild Wars 2

If I’ll buy it I guess I would play through the story once or twice and explore the maps. Then I would probably repeat the grind for hero points and xp for (mount) masteries just like in HoT.

I heard the meta events won’t be map consuming/huge as in HoT, but rather like Cursed Shore. So I guess I would play them a few times, complete some achievements and then move on, after all:

2-3 months after the release, they will probably expand Elona with the continuation of Living World Season 4. But if the maps are like Season 3, they’ll last maybe a week for me.

So do I get back to the expansion maps then? Depends on their replayability.
All in all it feels like they’re now focusing on releasing ‘lighter’ content with a faster pace – IIRC that’s what NCsoft expected them to do now, release smaller expansions more often.

New content at a faster pace doesn’t sound bad at first. But none of the Living World Season 3 maps had the replayability value of Silverwastes e.g. for me. I know that many people will like the current maps due to their lighter feeling, you can jump in and out as you wish. But to me, they all felt the same, there was nothing special I could remember about them and after getting a certain item in this map, I never looked back.

All in all, it feels more and more rushed to me. The maps are more like a means to an end in order to buy certain items with map currency. After that, they’ll be left aside and the new map will be played for a week or two. It seems like it’s getting even more casual than before.

What exactly do you want to hear from us now? Of course you are done within a few weeks by the way you play that game. You would be in any game that is out there to play.

Guildwars 2 is about making your own goals and tasks to keep you motivated. And thats pretty simple as it has soooo many options and possibilities.

If I rush thru the content, I would be done (with a normal online time spend) in 3 days with the main Story, 2 days LW2, 3 days Hot and again 2 days LW3, if I am going to rush.

So what is your point now? Go head out to the world and explore it. Do events, play with friends, try to find hidden or hard to get acivements. Repeat the Story in case you maybe missed something. Or just grind your butt off for something you want.
You cant expect the game to keep you entertained and motivated when you are rushing it. Maybe do a event evening with your Guild on one of the maps. This can be so much fun, and maybe you will find some good loot? especialy with the new bountys that are coming. They are soooo much fun I am telling you.

Guildwars 2 is not and has never been one of those games where you go like: “Oh Story done, okay guys, the game is over. I will be back when the next expansion comes out.”

Just as an example: last monday I finished the Main Story for the I guess 8th time? And guess what, there still has been parts I was suprised about. Maybe because I didnt noticed or wasnt paying attention. I dont know.

So, as a conclusion: make your own goals in this game, step by step, and you will see how long a expansion can last for you. It took me 6 months of gameplay until I was able to say “Okay guys, I am done with HoT now. I did it!”. And no, it was not after I have killed mordremoth

Greetings

There will be collections, full armor sets, new weapon skins, bounties, achievements, etc to earn. If you’re going to ignore all that by only doing the story line and the events and then leave then of course the expansion will feel light on content.

I’m just afraid that PoF and Season 4 will follow the same pattern as the Season 3 maps.

Silverwastes and HoT maps were definitely designed with replayability in mind due to these large map wide events that made them special.

Season 3 maps however feel like they’re only there to bridge a short amount of time until the next map is released in 2 months. And I’m afraid that PoF + Season 4 will do the same, more short sighted, designed only to last aprox. until the next release.

There’s no point in reading a book if in 2 weeks you reach the last page. No point in seeing a movie the will end only one hour forty minutes. Why play an MMO if the story ends, might as well quit right now.

Hybarf Tics.2048:

There’s no point in reading a book if in 2 weeks you reach the last page. No point in seeing a movie the will end only one hour forty minutes. Why play an MMO if the story ends, might as well quit right now.

This discussion is quite different since they already had a way to make it last longer and now shifted back to another design.

If you know that it’s possible because it’s been done before, you may wonder about why they changed their attitude and approach now.

Tekey.7946:

Hybarf Tics.2048:

There’s no point in reading a book if in 2 weeks you reach the last page. No point in seeing a movie the will end only one hour forty minutes. Why play an MMO if the story ends, might as well quit right now.

This discussion is quite different since they already had a way to make it last longer and now shifted back to another design.

If you know that it’s possible because it’s been done before, you may wonder about why they changed their attitude and approach now.

And again, what do you expect us to answer now? We know as much as you do, we don’t know in what way and how you enjoy games. So… Whats the point of this?

Listen, the world don’t work like this. You wont get fun, entertainment and joy when you don’t put effort in it. Why don’t you just lay back and see what is coming in 3 weeks? There is no point to discuss this now.

All I can tell you thus far is: You will not enjoy this game (as much) when you are going to rush it. Maybe you should go and watch a movie? It’s like the same. You get told a Story without any input by you.

Anyway, no need to discuss this at this point now.

HoT maps owed something to the DT and SW map designs, with changes based on complaints by the community. It seems a lot of people disliked elements of the HoT maps, so S3 maps shifted away from that kind of design. Crystal Oasis made it seem like PoF maps will owe something to S3 map design, but we’ve only seen part of one map. Perhaps ANet has learned that there ought to be different types of map designs rather than all maps of the current iteration being similar. We shall see.

I don’t want to be too materialist, but if a 30€ game grants me 30/50 hours of content ( new content. No farm contempled. Just exploration, jp, story, some interesting achies, events… etc… ) i am fine with it.

Then the farm and the grind are going to come.
Obviously.
And as ts said players will probably chose the Most efficient ma to make stuff.

But At The end of the tour, this is simply Normal.

I just see gw2 as a filler game, and ofc sometimes happens that i decide to play for a Little longEr ( maybe a specific skin, or something else ), but still it is, to me, not something that has to be seen as a problem, but on the contrary a Good quality.

I would Say buy the expansion if you want more of the same, and if you got tried, simply change game and come back when ever you want ( ls4 maybe or seasonal events ).

My combo is currently monthly hb + gw2.
Talking about vg.
;)

I too hope the maps are like HoT with large dynamic map events. I repeat these zones more than any other. The LW map events are missing depth to me. I love verdant Brink and rushing from one camp or another to defend and secure our posts/access. Helping new players find hidden masteries and hero points; bring drawn into fights or seeing some lone player struggle to hold an or post and we detour. The new maps do not pull people together to succeed toward a common goal. It feels like anti social and more grind/farm oriented.

Verdant Brink was spendid.
Definitely the best of 4.

Josh.4016:

I too hope the maps are like HoT with large dynamic map events. I repeat these zones more than any other. The LW map events are missing depth to me. I love verdant Brook and rushing from one camp or another to defend and secure our posts/access. Helping new players find hidden masteries and hero points; bring drawn into fights or seeing some lone player struggle to hold an or post and we detour. The new maps do not pull people together to succeed toward a common goal. It feels like anti social and more grind/farm oriented.

Couldn’t agree more.

Emprer.7256:

Josh.4016:

I too hope the maps are like HoT with large dynamic map events. I repeat these zones more than any other. The LW map events are missing depth to me. I love verdant Brook and rushing from one camp or another to defend and secure our posts/access. Helping new players find hidden masteries and hero points; bring drawn into fights or seeing some lone player struggle to hold an or post and we detour. The new maps do not pull people together to succeed toward a common goal. It feels like anti social and more grind/farm oriented.

Couldn’t agree more.

It’s basically a matter of can’t please everyone. If you make all the maps in to map wide meta events, you get a lot of complaints that the content is too difficult for solo players and that many of the achievements are impossible to complete if you are someone who is only available to play off prime-time. If you make the metas in to smaller scale event chains, well… you get this.

For the record, I like Dragon’s Stand a great deal even as a mostly solo/duo player. It is not always difficult to find an active DS map. Tangled Depths on the other hand, I don’t even bother going to. It is difficult to navigate, difficult to gain any rewards as a solo player on a non-meta map, and the Metas are rare and rarely successful. I dislike that every map follows the map-wide meta strategy in base HoT. A few maps like that is good, a few jump in and jump out maps is good. All or nothing is bad.

Seems like the achievement is the gated issue, which can easily be removed or altered.

Dragons stand is neat because of how Grand the ending and boss cinematics. Length is that maps largest detractor in my eyes, it takes a solid 1.5 hours. By the time I get to Mordremoth I just want to punch him for talking so much; he’s also one of my favorites to show new players. The map itself is a little dull as it’s so centered around the event.

Tangled depths is a mixed bag, I love the art and multi tier design. I’ve solo’d so much there, but the mobs are aggravating.
A mix between LW3 mobs and HoT map design seems like the sweet spot. Combine these features with a dynamic event that scales based on map population and speed of progression through the chaining mini events.

Maybe you guys have a good idea on achievement structure for the devs?