Guild Wars 2

From the history of video games, the gamers at the end have allways come to the same conclusion. No matter what you do, the most chalenging adversary in the video game will be the one played by a real person. That’s the fundamental law that allmost every FPS online multiplayer game follows.
Do you really believe that anyone would play those II. WW FPS if you were only able to play the good guys? I don’t think so.
So FPS games are fought between two warring parties, but both are controlled by players.
So why don’t fantasy MMO games follow the same rule? Why do we allways have to fight only on the side of the good and the bad guys are allways controlled by the AI? Why aren’t the bad guys being controled by human players as well? Because that would really be challenging, wouldn’t it?
Well to be fair, some games do follow that rule and those games have the most dedicated players base.

But why is anet with GW2 not implementing the same mechanic? It would be so much more deep, challenging and fun, at least in my opinion.

So in short version: here’s the suggestion to Anet and to the community:

Allow players to fight for the other side.
How it works:

Upon finishing the personal story and having leveled to 80, you unlock a special mode. In GW1 it was called Hard mode. In GW2 it can be called :

The path of corruption.

What does that mode do:
1. On the map it is being reveled a secret location
2. Once you get there you join a secret Order of the Dragon
3. You get missions from the NPc stationed there.

In those missions you are now doing the opposite than the rest of the world: you are no longer trying to save the world from the dragons, but are instead trying to help the dragons to conquer the world.
You were a hero at the beginning but now you have changed your mind, now you are an antihero, fighting for the bad guys.

This is short version of the idea, I will elaborate on it in the suggestion subforum. Here I’m testing the concept in the community.

If Anet would adopt this idea, the whole new world of possibilites would open for the endgame:

New classes
New armor sets
New perspective of PVP in the PVE zones: think fortress sieging in PVE
New missions objectives: assasinations
New WWW mechanic: Bad guys versus god guys.

and then we can truly talk about Guild WARS.

And then we can see how many people will be still complaining about ‘’No endgame’’.

Cool idea, but I think it would take a complete redesign to pull of.
Still: cool idea

OP I like this idea. It would be a win for those that like to play on the dark side. Also, as you pointed out, it would open up a whole new level of content. Maybe Arenanet would consider this for one of its expansions.

If you have not already done so, please put this in the Suggestion forum so it will get Arenanet’s attention.

Umm, no. Just… no. If they are going to have playable bad guys from the start why not simply have it be consistent and just be one from the beginning?

No. You are asking for Open World PvP other then WvW and they arn’t going to do it. There are plenty of gamers out there that do NOT want anything to do with PvP and you would basicly be forcing it on them. It would also serve to creat friction between players within a server where Anet is trying to bring communities together within a server so they can work together in WvW.

You want to fight players? There is WvW and sPvP, we don’t need it in the PvE world.

I like the thought of playing a bad guy the only thing is that I would want a different look other than whats currently offered. It would be cool if they added an opposite faction or different races to the game. If they were to choose to use the same races then the dialog should atleast be changed to a more darker tone. Im all for this though, id rather be on the dragon side then a hero.

Nice idea. For GW3. Will never happen in GW2.

Kimbald.2697:

Cool idea, but I think it would take a complete redesign to pull of.
Still: cool idea

I was thinking about the concept as part of the future expansions, but some work would have to be done for sure,

( I will adress other posts later )

They might still bring out factions at some point, like they did in GW1. I wouldn’t be surprised.

I think Warhammer got pretty close to that idea.

I remember in the Dwarf vs Greenskin PvE area there was a public quest (dynamic event) that was actually a PvE/PvP public quest, hub on each side was for both races and you basically had to compete and push the event chain in your favor. Was pretty neat.

dalendria.3762:

OP I like this idea. It would be a win for those that like to play on the dark side. Also, as you pointed out, it would open up a whole new level of content. Maybe Arenanet would consider this for one of its expansions.

If you have not already done so, please put this in the Suggestion forum so it will get Arenanet’s attention.

I will do that, but I’m not sure if anyone from the Anet reads those.

This is in Lotro it’s called monster play. If anyone wants to give it a try Lotro is also free to play. Its actually a neat concept in that game you can lvl up and have different skill trees depending on what monster you are.

Agemnon.4608:

Umm, no. Just… no. If they are going to have playable bad guys from the start why not simply have it be consistent and just be one from the beginning?

I personally wouldn’t mind that, but I believe that majority of the players wouldn’t be interested in playing the dark side, so it would be a wasted effort, maybe, but I can’t really tell. The reaction to this concept so far has been pretty weak.

On the other hand, the concept is based on two premises:
1. It’s an expansion content, if you are not interested, you don’t buy it, and nothing changes for you. If you are, then you unlock all these features for yourself.
2. It’s a bonus content, you unlock it with the achievement of playing the game. But once unlocked, you are able to start a new character on level 1 playing the game from the perspective of the dark side, like you said.

Drake Brimstone.3706:

No. You are asking for Open World PvP other then WvW and they arn’t going to do it. There are plenty of gamers out there that do NOT want anything to do with PvP and you would basicly be forcing it on them. It would also serve to creat friction between players within a server where Anet is trying to bring communities together within a server so they can work together in WvW.

You want to fight players? There is WvW and sPvP, we don’t need it in the PvE world.

You didn’t quite get it. The main attraction lies in replaying the PVE – game through the eyes of the former enemy. Secondly in creating the dark side exclusively professions. Thirdly in creating the fourth order – of the dark side. Then comes PVP, but in very small dozes, like restricted small areas in Orr, could also be just one island. And lastly, the content would only unlock through the expansion. so if you don’t like it, you skip the expansion and nothing changes for you. Think of this as factions of Luxon and Kurzick from GW1, who were constantly fighting for the territory. This also answers your concern about the friction between the players. If it was good for GW1, then it should be good for GW2, too.

They won’t even let my thief be like a normal thief. I get coerced right away into selling out the gang and working as a snitch for Captain Logan.

And on my 3rd character now, no matter which choices I make, I get stuck as personal assistant to a flaming Veggie Tale Trahearne.

mulch.2586:

They won’t even let my thief be like a normal thief. I get coerced right away into selling out the gang and working as a snitch for Captain Logan.

And on my 3rd character now, no matter which choices I make, I get stuck as personal assistant to a flaming Veggie Tale Trahearne.

That bothers me as well. It was the same reason, that got me pondering. My Norn character for example, doesn’t have the chance to even think if he might rather join the Sons of Svanir, you know those bad guys who worship dragon power. But orders are orders and since he is a warrior he has to obey the rank, right?

Maybe the whole issue here might be, that this game has 12+ rating, so basically it’s meant for kids. (by heart of course. )

Which makes my argument even stronger, Anet has to give us at least one expansion, which would be more mature in nature, like for 18+ audience.

In spirit, I’m totally with you, Reclusiarh.

But the devs here have given a very strong stance that our characters absolutely must be the very cleanest of Boy Scout types (minus the homophobic/pedophilia aspects).

It’s just how they made it, as an axiomatic principle. You can dress like a pirate, but you’re always beholden to the man.

mulch.2586:

In spirit, I’m totally with you, Reclusiarh.

But the devs here have given a very strong stance that our characters absolutely must be the very cleanest of Boy Scout types (minus the homophobic/pedophilia aspects).

It’s just how they made it, as an axiomatic principle. You can dress like a pirate, but you’re always beholden to the man.

Amen.

Still, one can hope. :/