Guild Wars 2

Hello ArenaNet,

I just finished reading “Guild Wars 2: The First Year”. It was a good read and made me remember all the things I love about Guild Wars.

You as a company and your Guild Wars games have come a long way since I first played beta in Guild Wars 1. I’ll never forget the gigantic wurms and exploding gnomes in the finale lol. It made a strong impression on me then that this company and it’s game had some fun surprises for us in the future. I went on to purchase all of your expansions and absolutely loved everything, especially Eye of the North.

Fast forward to 2012 and Guild Wars 2 didn’t just surprise me, it blew my mind. You made a fantastic game and still the most beautiful MMORPG on the market in my eyes. Not just beautiful, but full of great content with fun stories in PVE, quick access to the fast paced structured PVP, and the most epic multiserver pvp battles I’ve ever seen in WvW.

And that doesn’t include all the other great, genre bending features that make Guild Wars 2 stand out in a sea of “WoW clones”.

For example, you have a great dynamic event system that makes leveling characters by far the most interesting and enjoyable leveling experience I’ve ever had. I’m still in love and may never stop leveling alts lol. The dynamic events also work to give challenges even after max level and I am never going to tire of slaughtering the world bosses like Claw of Jormag. (You should have seen my face first time I saw they shot him out of the sky :O) Please add more!

Since launch there have been many interesting, entertaining, sometimes controversial improvements and additions to Guild Wars 2. You’ve tried a lot of interesting things, pushed the envelope (sometimes too hard) on what your game and it’s servers can do. I respect that a lot. The risks you take give me great confidence you’re not just playing it safe by following established formulas. You’re continuing to think creatively and develop in ways we as gamers and developers have never thought of for MMORPGs.

Despite some of the controversy for some of your added content such as Ascended gear and temporary Living Story designs, I enjoy most of it and have faith in what you’re doing. A combination of what’s good for short term, and the long term of entertainment in Guild Wars 2.

I could really go on and on, stroking your ego some more, but what better way to honor my favorite MMORPG developer than to give it some constructive feedback on a few things for Guild Wars 2.

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First off, the battle against Zaihtan. I really think that at some point, you should redesign the battle against him. Like instead of shooting cannons only, use the cannons to force him to clutch the mountain side, but then critical damage forces the airship to lose altitude and the heroes must abandon the ship and fight Zaihtan on the mountain, up close and personal.

Why is it so important to do this? Many have expressed their disappointment with the encounter and I also share similar feelings. It just wasn’t a satisfactory battle against what has been, one of the biggest and most dangerous enemies Tyria has ever seen. His defeat should burn in our memories and be the type of epic battle we want to redo, because it’s so awesome.

These suggestions are in no particular order by the way….

If they aren’t already, make the difficulty of world bosses like Shadow Behemoth scale better depending on the size of the group attacking. As it is now, some of these bosses are going down, awfully fast imo. And of course, loot should scale along with it. Just what is Shadow Behemoth’s story anyway? I think bosses like him should also have some kind of short quest line that involve battling against them and have some interesting rewards only they give.

Henchmen were one of my favorite things in the original Guild Wars. I loved collecting and customizing them. The same system obviously can’t work directly out of GW1 and right into GW2, but I would love to have some kind of NPC companions that travelled and fought with me and my explorations around Tyria.

To make sure no two players have the same looking companion, give them full customization to choose their companions armor and weapons. Maybe even the option to purchase a cash shop item that gives them the ability to change body, face and hair styles. And if it’s not too much trouble, also somehow incorporate them into some kind of quest line that gives us their story and a challenge to complete to earn them.

More dungeons and new challenges to existing dungeons! I really like dungeons in GW2 and I’d hate for interest in the already existing dungeons to completely extinguish. As for the difficulty, I think you guys will have to figure it out to some how be challenging to hardcore gamers but still completable by casuals. Fractals should definitely not be left out of this. Be sure to keep players interest in Fractals with new areas, bosses and epic loot to earn

Player housing! Having our own little spaces in places like Divinities Reach, Black Citadel or Lion’s Arch are dream many of us have. Hell, I’d even purchase a cash shop item with real money to have access to my own house similar like you did with the recent “Royal Pass”. This is definitely something I think if you’re not already working towards, you should really, really consider.

Skill Combos may be effective, but honestly, they’re a forgettable and unremarkable part of Guild Wars 2 combat by most players I think. Not only could they be made a ton more visually impressive with special effects at the very least, but could be a bigger part in how players work together to do something fun and impactful in combat with each other.

Improve Guild options and features. It’s hard to believe I’m looking at my guild roster and I don’t even know when people were last online. Same goes for people in my friends list.

First person view. You know how many talented machinima style video makers and average players would enjoy this? It may seem like a minor thing but trust me, it’s a highly desired feature by many.

A separate storage for armor and weapons on the go. Some of us are carrying a lot of gear so we can swap weapons and armor sets and would love for it to not take up our bag space. Impress us even more with the ability to create sets and switch it all with a simple click out of combat.

These are a few of the improvements that come to mind that could really beef up an already strong game.

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Hopefully you’ve read this far. I’ve got two more things to talk about and though I write them here last, are probably above all other suggestions for GW2.

Cantha. You’ve seen the reaction here on the forums and perhaps around other parts of the internet. The importancy of Cantha making some kind of return here in GW2 is paramount. Be it added literally or through time travel, I think most of us don’t care as long as someway, somehow, we can have it here in Guild Wars 2. In fact, maybe time travel in general I think is a good idea for Guild Wars 2. It could not only take us back to Guild Wars 1, but also important events before Guild Wars 1 timeline.

Precursors and other ultra scarce items in Guild Wars 2.
Before any of you get the wrong idea, this isn’t about, I repeat, NOT about wanting or getting easier access to Legendary gear. In fact, I think legendaries should take even hardcore players months of effort to get. The thing that has ruined other MMORPGs in the past and is already hurting Guild Wars 2 is the existence of ultra scarce, high demand items.

I wrote a thread about this some months back that was largely ignored or dismissed by many players simply because they didn’t see or understand it as a threat or priority to Guild Wars 2.

Ultra scarce, hard to obtain, and highly desired items like precursors and crafting materials are an open door for Real Money Trading companies, aka “gold farmers” to manipulate the market.

It’s no secret that there are a lot of gamers out there with disposable incomes and have absolutely no reservations about purchasing gold and items from 3rd party companies from their websites.

It wouldn’t be an issue if it didn’t affect other players, but that’s the point. It does. And in a big way. The more trading like this occurs, the more RMT companies become interested and the quicker the destruction of the in-game economy unfolds.

Many MMORPG economies are anywhere from heavily influenced by if not completely controlled by these “gold farmers” and the companies they work for.

But what does this have to do with Precursors and other ultra scarce items? Well let’s use “ancient bone” as an example of an item that is ultra scarce and in high demand.

Players have about two choices in obtaining ancient bones. They either A: farm it themselves, but that’s obviously difficult otherwise it wouldn’t be ultra scarce right? Or B: They buy it off the Trading Post. Either way it costs them a lot of time and a lot of effort to either get it through farming the item itself or farming the gold they need to buy it.

This is exactly what RMT companies want. They farm tons of gold, start buying out the high demand items from the Trading Post, and start controlling/inflating the cost of these items. It won’t be long once they’ve started that the price of these items is so high that the average player is incapable of affording these items. That’s when purchasing from a gold sellers website starts to look like a good alternative.

Let’s break that down real simple.

-Item X is hard to find and becomes very hard to afford.

-Many players are either too lazy to get it themselves or don’t have the time and so they instead buy gold to get what they want.

-The more this happens, the more the economy inflates, prices on almost everything of significant value rise, and the harder it becomes for players to buy what they want.

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It happens all the time in just about every MMORPG out there. Many players would rather spend 20 dollars and have the gold they need rather than farm the next couple of months to afford and obtain the item they want asap.

And that’s where we are with Precursors and other ultra scarce items in Guild Wars 2. I may be wrong in the RMT actual influence of the market here. Maybe they have no influence or control over scarce items. But at the very least, prices for these items has risen to insane heights because of ultra scarcity and players are already buying tons of gold from RMT companies which is causing a large amount of inflation in the games economy.

Precursors and other ultra scarce materials used to create legendary weapons need to be made available by some other means, and generally speaking need to be acquirable in more ways in Guild Wars 2.

I know you’re already working on Precursors and some new system to make them available besides through sheer luck or being filthy rich. That’s great. But please understand it’s not just precursors. Almost everything of significant importance or value to players, needs to be obtainable in more ways than a rare chance drop or on the Trading Post.

Ideally, almost everything players really want should be obtainable not by purchasing it with gold, but through moderate to heavy amounts of effort in game.

Dungeon armor is a good example of player effort rewarded with awesome items. Fractals as well. Through effort, not gold, players earn items.

Precursors for example could obtainable once a player has completed all dungeons and spends X number of achievement points and/or Laurels. That’s just a quick idea that came to mind.

For other items like ancient bones and other crafting materials, increase the drop rate that makes it not super easy, but easier than it currently is. More supply of these items will quickly drop the value/price of these items on the Trading post.

The result should be that Legendary gear is still hard to get. It will still take a lot of time, effort, but not seem unreasonable to most players. Then they’ll get it themselves the right way instead of resorting to purchasing gold from websites.

-phew- This turned from a simple “Thanks ANet!” thread into quite possibly the longest thread I’ve ever written on a gaming forum. I guess I needed to get these things out. What good is that after all to hold in these words of positivity and constructive criticism. If there’s even a chance that these words may influence the game or it’s community into a better direction, then it’s worth the time and effort to type this out I think.

Again, thanks ANet and everyone that’s had a hand in making Guild Wars 2. Happy 1 Year Anniversary! The futures so bright I gotta wear shades!