I would argue that there isn’t a lot of roleplaying in any MMORPG. Yes there is a roleplaying sub group that plays a game in character but for the vast majority it’s all about leveling or loot.
How do you rollplay “Hmm, it looks as if the Sons of Svanir are trying to corrupt the grawl, for the 5th time today, we must put a stop to it!”
If we had things like player housing or a player written bio for all to read to connect us to our characters more but to me my mesmer is just a variation of a Diablo II sorcerer that I played years ago. Generic female spell slinger, Mark 7. I feel no personal connection to them so it’s impossible for me to rollplay even if I wanted to.
But there’s another group that’s not RPing and not playing for loot. People like me (and I know others like me, so we are a group). We’re the kinds of people who play Skyrim or even games like Tomb Raider. We’re immersion players…but not RPers.
We don’t talk in character, but we “feel” the game and the world. The more detail in the game and the world the better we feel it.
Which is why I don’t min/max. My character never saw those numbers. You have a rough idea of what you want to do, who you want to be, and then you fill that in both in looks and with weapon and armor choice.
I don’t believe most people min/max, and I’m pretty sure most people aren’t all that focused on loot. Because most people aren’t farmers.
I believe most players are casual players and min/maxing and hard core farming won’t hold their interest.
I’m not a min/maxer other Vayne but I have a tough time connecting to an archetype that I’ve played for decades since I first got into AD&D over 30 years ago.
The last MMO I played, City of Heroes, I was able to connect to my character. Not roleplaying per se but identifying with them a lot more. Maybe because even at level one it was about how you look to the rest of the world due to the games character editor. Maybe it was because the setting was mainly just one urban center and a few suburbs. You felt more connected with the world.
Here the world is quite beautiful. And until you explore it you have to see it all on foot but for the most part it’s empty countryside with the occasional random encounter between outposts and farms. The cities are actually rather safe. I’m enjoying the game and to me it’s not about just the loot. I hated PvP from other games but I actually enjoy WvW here.
It’s just that I don’t have an identity for my character other than a female norn mesmer runt, with a puppy. I’m a handful of POI and Vistas in the EB to complete the world and when I do I’m likely to role something new but there won’t really be a compelling reason to come back and play her again. I had dozens of characters in CoH and I played the ones that suited my mood for that day. Do I feel like sniping from afar or take on a room full of critters. Maybe I want to fling people into the air or force them to attack their fellows. Here it’s just smash, smash, zap, zap.
For me WvW is most fun. But everythin to achieve is 100% PVE. Money making, legendary, gears, ascended, guild events world bosses for free rares and ectos PVE. WvW and PVP gives u nothin. Alot of players from my guild have left WvW because there is absolutely nothing. Yes Anet raised droprate but compare stack of spikes to hundreds of golds done in pve t6 mats, ectos, rares, ascended items .. u do the math. If u want to achieve anythin in game its 100% PVE and very dumb minded pve. (mention world boss that actually hit u. )
I’m not a min/maxer other Vayne but I have a tough time connecting to an archetype that I’ve played for decades since I first got into AD&D over 30 years ago.
The last MMO I played, City of Heroes, I was able to connect to my character. Not roleplaying per se but identifying with them a lot more. Maybe because even at level one it was about how you look to the rest of the world due to the games character editor. Maybe it was because the setting was mainly just one urban center and a few suburbs. You felt more connected with the world.
Here the world is quite beautiful. And until you explore it you have to see it all on foot but for the most part it’s empty countryside with the occasional random encounter between outposts and farms. The cities are actually rather safe. I’m enjoying the game and to me it’s not about just the loot. I hated PvP from other games but I actually enjoy WvW here.
It’s just that I don’t have an identity for my character other than a female norn mesmer runt, with a puppy. I’m a handful of POI and Vistas in the EB to complete the world and when I do I’m likely to role something new but there won’t really be a compelling reason to come back and play her again. I had dozens of characters in CoH and I played the ones that suited my mood for that day. Do I feel like sniping from afar or take on a room full of critters. Maybe I want to fling people into the air or force them to attack their fellows. Here it’s just smash, smash, zap, zap.
Did you play Guild Wars 1? As a Guild Wars 1 player, it’s probably a lot easier for me to identify with the character, because so much of everything is familiar to me. It’s one of the main problems with sequels.
No because when GW1 first came out most of the reviews pointed out that PvP was it’s strong suit. Like I said I’m not really a PvPer (I look at WvW more like capture the flag than a test of skill). Maybe it was flashbacks to the UO beta when ganking newbs was so bad that most players disrobed and carried everything in their packs so a passing PKer would think you were on a corpse run and didn’t have anything to loot. Fun times.
So no I didn’t play GW1. I understand that the later patches significantly expanded upon the PvE aspect of the game as well as the game lore.
Even the in the first game, the lore and story were relatively solid. In spite of the fact that the game did have a Pvp end game, the game itself was long enough and good enough as an RPG to make Guild Wars 1 worth purchasing.
And you get to know the world in that game, so when you play this game it’s a completely different feeling coming from Guild Wars 1. 250 years later or not, there’s a ton of “lore nods” to the Guild Wars 1 faithful that you wouldn’t see or get if you didn’t actually play that game. It makes this game much cooler…and probably a lot easier to get into.
The lore/story in this game doesn’t smack you in the face. It’s there but you have to look for it. I’m sure that was an intentional design decision, but I’m not sure it was the best.
The big problem, I think, with Guild Wars 2 and feeling your character is the way the personal stories were implemented. It was probably a lot easier to find your character in Guild Wars 1.
Guild Wars 2 is a pve game. Thank God for it. Or better ArenaNet. I wouldn’t play it otherwise.
If it is only me they could sink the spvp/tpvp aspect (but please let wvw stay). But it is not only me, so I accept grudgingly that development time is “wasted” on pvp
7 months of PvE updates, the PvE players said nothing.
The moment Anet releases PvP updates, the PvE players say PvP is being prioritized.
I have to agree with this. PvE players can be pretty tunnel visioned when it comes to patches. All patches should be about them. And it should always be their particular part of PvP. If a raider sees a patch go by with only a buff to open world content, it doesn’t matter if the past 10 patches were for raiding. Nope, this patch isn’t and therefor the game must hate raiders. It’s painful to watch adults being reduced to small, whimpering children throwing tantrums when they aren’t the full center of attention.
In answer to the OP: GW2 is not a PvP oriented game. The PvP in this game is… meh, at best. As a usually pure PvP player, I simply haven’t been able to bring myself to stick with it in any manner. I get my PvP from other games.
That said, I have 600+ hours of playtime on my account. If this isn’t a PvE game, where DID I put my hours? I’m nowhere near finished with everything PvE has to offer, and all these patches keep adding more.
This, just like most MMOs, is a PvE oriented game with PvP tacked on to the side. And for once… I’m ok with that.
7 months of PvE updates, the PvE players said nothing.
The moment Anet releases PvP updates, the PvE players say PvP is being prioritized.
That is because all the class balance is done mostly with PvP in mind, with often ridiculous results in PvE.
Seeing as the game itself is mostly PvE, it is irritating.
Actions, not words.
Remember, remember, 15th of November
The amount of players that flocked to GW2 for PvE is astonishing really. Guild Wars 1 was and was aimed to be one of the top tier E-Sports out there, why would Guild Wars 2 be different?
The amount of players that flocked to GW2 for PvE is astonishing really. Guild Wars 1 was and was aimed to be one of the top tier E-Sports out there, why would Guild Wars 2 be different?
Because Guild Wars 1 evolved and in it’s later life, most updates were PvE updates. Nightfall and EotN didn’t have any PvP upgrades to speak of, the final two products Anet launched. I think they realized on which side their bread was buttered.
Which explains Guild Wars 2 perfectly and why I like it.
The amount of players that flocked to GW2 for PvE is astonishing really. Guild Wars 1 was and was aimed to be one of the top tier E-Sports out there, why would Guild Wars 2 be different?
Because even GW1 ended up as primarily PvE game. And PvP component of GW2 is actually worse than in GW1, so…
Actions, not words.
Remember, remember, 15th of November
Most PvE players want to be on the treadmill. The “reason” contents to hard is because they haven’t climbed far up enough the mountain to feel “entitled” to their rewards. They enter sPvP, to try it out. They immediately see all their entitlement vanished, and find no real reason to go sPvP for it, because it doesn’t make them better than the rest. For players like me though, it’s one of the best PvP systems of any genre out there. The gameplay’s fun and competitive, doesnt require too much of a time sync, and rewards player skill not amount of entitlement earned which repels all the people I dont want to be playing with anyways.
I PvE as well, but you guys are seriously mislead if you think this game was designed anything close to a majority PvE mindset in mind…
There are 3 general game modes.
Open World- PvE 33%
WvWvW- PvPxE 33%
sPvP- PvP 33%
looks like its more pvp oriented than pve oriented to me… if you really want a pve im sure there are better options were 2/3s of the companies resources arent going to game modes you want NOTHING TO DO WITH.
Most PvE players want to be on the treadmill. The “reason” contents to hard is because they haven’t climbed far up enough the mountain to feel “entitled” to their rewards. They enter sPvP, to try it out. They immediately see all their entitlement vanished, and find no real reason to go sPvP for it, because it doesn’t make them better than the rest. For players like me though, it’s one of the best PvP systems of any genre out there. The gameplay’s fun and competitive, doesnt require too much of a time sync, and rewards player skill not amount of entitlement earned which repels all the people I dont want to be playing with anyways.
I PvE as well, but you guys are seriously mislead if you think this game was designed anything close to a majority PvE mindset in mind…
There are 3 general game modes.
Open World- PvE 33%
WvWvW- PvPxE 33%
sPvP- PvP 33%
looks like its more pvp oriented than pve oriented to me… if you really want a pve im sure there are better options were 2/3s of the companies resources arent going to game modes you want NOTHING TO DO WITH.
If you’re right, follow the money. What percentage of the investment of game development went to PvP, what percentage to WvW, and what percentage to PvE. I follow the money, because money doesn’t lie.
And since most of the game is voiced (including the whole personal story) and since voice acting is mad expensive (we know this from following SWToR), well, I think you’ll find Anet has put a whole lot more dollars behind PVe than PvP.
If you think otherwise, well…you’re entitled to that opinion. But considering the size of the PVe world, even the amount of temporary content they’ve made for it…I’d have to say that it’s likely a game centered around PvE.
Did you play Guild Wars 1? As a Guild Wars 1 player, it’s probably a lot easier for me to identify with the character, because so much of everything is familiar to me. It’s one of the main problems with sequels.
I played Guildwars 1 and i still have this disconnect with Guildwars 2 i don’t feel Guildwars 2 is anything like Guildwars 1, other than names and places this game has very little similarities to its predecessor..
I know i’m only one person, but from playing both extensively PvP felt much stronger in GW1 than 2, even though i never played much PvP in either( i did try some in both), at least in one they did it right with making separate characters PvP or PvE and the skill sets were apart too, here its just jumbled and slowly ruining all aspects of the game.. GW1 also had many different types of PvP, here its hold points and or WvW..
Did you play Guild Wars 1? As a Guild Wars 1 player, it’s probably a lot easier for me to identify with the character, because so much of everything is familiar to me. It’s one of the main problems with sequels.
I played Guildwars 1 and i still have this disconnect with Guildwars 2 i don’t feel Guildwars 2 is anything like Guildwars 1, other than names and places this game has very little similarities to its predecessor..
I know i’m only one person, but from playing both extensively PvP felt much stronger in GW1 than 2, even though i never played much PvP in either( i did try some in both), at least in one they did it right with making separate characters PvP or PvE and the skill sets were apart too, here its just jumbled and slowly ruining all aspects of the game.. GW1 also had many different types of PvP, here its hold points and or WvW..
I’ve said this before…but I should put it in every post I post, my perspective is strictly from a PVe perspective. I was never heavily into PvP in Guild Wars 1. In fact, I’ve already PvPed far more in Guild Wars 2 than I ever did in Guild Wars 1.
From the point of view of lore and story, there are tons of tidbits in the open world, just waiting for you to find. Gwen’s tomb, and you can hear her flute. Anton’s tomb, which you can interact with and talk to his ghost—to name just two. There’s so many call backs to Guild Wars 1 it’s not funny. Hell you can even revisit the ruins of the Temple of Ages and Old Lion’s Arch as well as The Henge of Denravi.
PvP was about the game, and mechanics. Not about getting into character. When I talk about that, I’m talking exclusively about PVe.
From the point of view of lore and story, there are tons of tidbits in the open world, just waiting for you to find. Gwen’s tomb, and you can hear her flute. Anton’s tomb, which you can interact with and talk to his ghost—to name just two. There’s so many call backs to Guild Wars 1 it’s not funny. Hell you can even revisit the ruins of the Temple of Ages and Old Lion’s Arch as well as The Henge of Denravi.
It’s like this: People who only farms CoF or does PvP (does something little all over again) tends to tell others that there isn’t anything else. Like I was told that there isn’t any challenge in PvE. Then I asked if that person did any fractals and stated lvl50+ fractals is challenging. He said he never does it because he doesn’t like it. I asked about Arah. He said he doesn’t like that either.
That is the type of the people who keeps telling these “facts/truths” about this game. They never actually want to do anything. And then complains. I also asked him to join the fractals lvl61. He said he doesn’t want it because it is too hard. Then the irony hit. I told him Arah is easier and he could join me on the run. He didn’t want that either. He said it’s impossible to get past Gigantus Lupicus.
That’s why I keep ignoring those people who says “there isn’t this and that in this game”
Edit: also they usually don’t have 100% world completion.
Feel free to argue with me. You learn something every time and it develops your personality.
People seems using word “trolling” out of context way too often…
I’d like to see the numbers on what percentage of players participate in spvp/tpvp on an even semi-regular basis. I have a feeling it’s quite low.
When we finally got some idea of this in gw1 (though polling on guru, never solid numbers from the devs) the best we could figure is that the PvP people were about 10% of the playerbase.
Unfortunately, they are also, far and away, the most vocal part of any gaming community – which I understand, it comes from the whole hard-line competitive mindset.
In GW1 they finally started separating all the game changes into PvE/PvP and left the other side alone. I’m glad they’ve finally started doing this with GW2, but I wish they’d done it from the outset.
It’s like this: People who only farms CoF or does PvP (does something little all over again) tends to tell others that there isn’t anything else. Like I was told that there isn’t any challenge in PvE. Then I asked if that person did any fractals and stated lvl50+ fractals is challenging. He said he never does it because he doesn’t like it. I asked about Arah. He said he doesn’t like that either.
That is the type of the people who keeps telling these “facts/truths” about this game. They never actually want to do anything. And then complains. I also asked him to join the fractals lvl61. He said he doesn’t want it because it is too hard. Then the irony hit. I told him Arah is easier and he could join me on the run. He didn’t want that either. He said it’s impossible to get past Gigantus Lupicus.
That’s why I keep ignoring those people who says “there isn’t this and that in this game”
Edit: also they usually don’t have 100% world completion.
Not all “difficult” games/modes are created equal.
What if there was a dungeon that, as you progressed, would randomly pop up with difficult equations to solve, with a time limit? At a level that, say, 99% of players would find impossible to do in their head? That’s a pretty hard dungeon! But it’s not exactly an RPG any more. It’s testing a completely different skillset.
Similarly, your friend may not find the RPG metagame in Arah or Fractals rewarding or fun. And that, once all the minigames of that “high end” content are stripped away, find the results (CoF path 1) so trivially simple that it makes Patchwerk look like Illidan.
