Guild Wars 2

This is probably the only MMO that doesn’t utilize this in some way, I assume because there’s no real quests in the game, but I think it could still be viable.

The main story of the game features 3 factions, which you join one and then after Fort Trinity is established it’s sort of brushed aside, but why not make them have some more purpose? The way I look at it, the three factions are a greatly underused asset Arenanet has in their game. They could add cool new weapon skins, armors, and other kind of faction items to each one, and basically have a number of different ways of raising your reputation so that you can buy cooler rewards from these factions the higher rank you are. I’m not trying to instigate a grind, but hey I think it would be a nice passive reward for doing an event for example. If you joined the priory for instance, and you notice an event taking place…well now you have more of a reason to DO these random events instead of over look them just because you’re level 80, as completing them would raise your faction reputation. Other things like just doing sPVP could raise rep too.

Been playing a lot of Destiny lately, so that sort of sparked this idea, but show some support if you think this is a good idea.

I too would love to have some reason to be part of the Vigil, Priory, or the Order of Whispers. In the order of whispers at least you can find a few extra hidden areas in the game that are only accessible by order of whispers members, and these hidden areas are scattered throughout the entire game which I think is pretty cool.

I was thinking earlier that perhaps GW2 could adopt something similar to the path system in NCSoft’s Wildstar. For example:
Vigil → Soldier Path
Durmand Priory → Scientist Path
Order of Whispers → Explorer

These paths basically create different opportunities and challenges for players of different paths. For example, Soldiers can trigger massive fighting/defense events, Explorers can unlock hidden paths and passages over and under the world, and Scientists can dig deeper into lore secrets and unlock puzzles to unlock secrets of the world.

Even though Wildstar has been suffering for a while, it has definitely brought some great ideas to the table of NCSoft’s MMOs, and this is one idea I think could work well in GW2. GW1 had something that allowed you to unlock PvE skills and bonuses through representing various factions throughout the world, but I think ANet is avoiding something like this since they are so focused on forcing PvE and PvP to share the same traits and as many skills as possible.

I could see a system similar to Wildstar paths working rather well in GW2 as it wouldn’t have to create an imbalance between PvP and PvE while getting players much more engaged with their faction(Vigil, Priory, Whispers) and fellow players in other factions to get through content that may require more than just one faction to get through.

http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/game/paths/

The Horizontal Progression CDI had a lot of people asking for and discussing more use for the Orders. It could be a thing in the future (though I’m not holding my breath).

here is the problem m8 they dont like u to earn those rewards grinding whit rep on factions like in outer mmo whic i respect and love so much but they like u to buy them from the gem store whic is sad .Now i do understand that arena net needs money and ncosft are dictating many things but not all and the final problem is how u can do cool rewards in game that has no gear treadmill u give skins and only skins whic is the main income atm for every moba and f2p mmo .

Brian.6435:

I’m not trying to instigate a grind

Yes you are.

Brian.6435:

Been playing a lot of Destiny lately, so that sort of sparked this idea, but show some support if you think this is a good idea.

Destiny is one of the worst games released this century so far. I think there’s nothing that proves more how far people are willing to grind while pretending they’re enjoying themselves.

Main difference between GW2 and factions in other games is that the three orders were never really opposed to each other. They have the same goal, just different opinions on how to best achieve that goal.

Please no .. all those faction grinding in other MMOs is just because there is mostly
no other “endgame” if you don’t like raiding.

So what will it change here ? Now we grind for money .. with faction grind we first
have to grind for enough faction that we can buy things at faction merchants and
then finally grind for the money to actually buy it. Great concept ^^

GW1 had a Factions campaign…. with factions points and Alliance battles. Because the player was inherently a neutral party, and only received points like a Mercenary gets paid, there was no benefit to sticking to one side other then grinding out elite armor on one side, then turning around and doing the same thing on the other side.

I don’t even remember Alliance stuff linked to your Guild either. You could theoretically go head to head in a public match against your own guild, just by the AvA match maker incidentally dropping both teams (each on either side of the staging town) into the same match up.

Opposing the player base only makes sense when the Lore inherently requires them to fight each other…. and thats where a lot of MMOs start making mistakes in their PvP structure. In WoW, Aion, EVE, and a few other games, where open world PvP is technically the primary activity, Alliances do a foundation to build on.

But Guild Wars, ironically in opposition to its name, has its lore built primarily around various races and nations against foreign, mystical, ancient or primeval forces.

Prophecies (while starting amidst the conflict against the Charr) chronicles the events foretold in the Flame Seeker Prophecies; Heros caught in a web of schemes involving all the nations of Tyira, and tasked with saving the world from the brink of destruction. Factions had Shiro building an Army of Afflicted for his own personal desires, threatening a Kingdom, all its people and damage to the celestial worlds in his wake. Nightfall was about a delusional general who was attempting to resurrect a fallen god in order to conquer all the lands of Elona. Eye of the North told the story of a motley crew of heros seeking to stem the tide of a ancient destructive force. Guildwars 2 ups the Ante to 14, by pitting all the races of Tyria against a Primeval force that pre-dates even the Mist walkers (aka Human gods) by unknown eons, and could very well be the source of the world they exist in.

All of these were bigger then any single conflict between any guild in the history of its Lore. As such, the goal of these campaigns, and the lore around them, are about setting aside everything from petty differences to even the most bloody of civil wars to unite against a common, greater threat.

The back story of humans in Tyria…
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Guild_Wars

Khisanth.2948:

Main difference between GW2 and factions in other games is that the three orders were never really opposed to each other. They have the same goal, just different opinions on how to best achieve that goal.

That doesn’t necessarily mean there can’t/won’t be conflicts between them or a sense of competition. So expanding the usage of factions can be done, just in a different manner.

Factions seem to be representations of 3 styles, force, intellect, cunning or really utilizing manpower, technology, and stealth. Having these differences could allow for dynamic changes to the game world without necessarily encroaching on others. Similar to how using the factions during the PS influenced the events, the same could be done on a grander scale. Content such as events, idle NPCs, even type of hostiles could change based off of influence of said faction.

Rewards and how you interact with the factions can come in different forms, but not necessarily just special vendor access. One aspect that can be expanded is personal home and personal faction instances. The more you interact with a faction would influence how your home instance would appear, not to mention the faction halls could evolve based off of your rank within the faction and the actions you do for them. Since personal instances are based around a single player they have actual influence on the rest of the world.

Interaction could be something as simple as a random mission giver from the factions, which can either lead to personal combat instances similar to PS or send you to different zones and trigger certain events.

While not a perfect idea, dismissing or ignoring the usage of factions in GW2 is wasted potential.

Anything that gives a bit more substance and differentiates between the orders would be something I could get behind. The Order of Whispers alone feels like a shadow of their former selves.

Faction wheels/masteries are good ideas

Beldin.5498:

Please no .. all those faction grinding in other MMOs is just because there is mostly
no other “endgame” if you don’t like raiding.

So what will it change here ? Now we grind for money .. with faction grind we first
have to grind for enough faction that we can buy things at faction merchants and
then finally grind for the money to actually buy it. Great concept ^^

… and once you got everything you want from one faction you start grinding for the other ones?

I think I would actually get more into PvE if they had more depth to the factions and various effects in-game. Not necessarily skill-based things as that adds just more complication to things, but it would be really neat to have LS events, for instance, where you require coordination between players in different factions that can do/activate different things.

Whenever there’s something in the game that requires you collect/earn/gather more of in order to gain some sort of reward (tangible or psychological), it always becomes a grind unless it can be done without farming specific content.

In the Silverwastes, getting Mordrem parts feels like a grind because it’s RNG and it can only be progressed by repeating the same 7 events (4 fort breaches, 3 vinewrath lanes).

This doesn’t mean that it can’t be done, I’m just not going to hold my breath for it to happen without grind.

GW1 turned into a massive rep grind for the HoM, I don’t want that coming back to GW2. Sorry, it adds absolutely nothing to the game (rewards could easily be tied to something else) other than a grind. And then come the double rep weekends, cheese methods, etc that undermine everyone’s work and ultimately just annoy people.

If you want faction grind, go to a game with faction grind.

What is a game without grind? A game you play through once. Seriously, think about it. Anyone that thinks adding more interaction with factions to the game would just create more droning gameplay are very narrow minded people. My idea is just a spark, I don’t know what Arenanet could ultimately do with the factions, but I believe SOMETHING should be done with them, ultimately it’s up Arenanet though.

But on the topic of grinding, c’mon people, you already do nothing but grind in the game one way or another. Dungeons, pvp tracks, events, whatever…it’s all a grind no matter how you look at it. Unless you play video games to play through the story once and never touch it again, then you must enjoy grind to some extent, that’s basically what mmo’s are.

Isn’t something like this coming with the mastery system? I thought one of the masteries involved you learning a language to communicate with some faction in the Maguuma Jungle, with higher mastery with the faction giving you greater access to stuff.

This is what i was asking from Anet few times.I think that those 3 factions deserve more gameplay then just those that we have by finishing personal story.Make our faction leaders give some special daily quests that will increase our reputation for them.Give us new skins,new rewords we can get from them.
And yeah for those of you that call this “grinding”,in this game you dont need to do anything you dont want to.I would rather grind then sit AFK in LA.This is at least gameplay.