Guild Wars 2

What would you want to change. What do you wish never happened at launch and what would you rework now if you could start over with a blank slate. What do you love about gw2 and would want to keep the same?

Personally I would want to

-Change how the armor system works entirely, doing away with heavy light and medium. Make armor a basic model with only 1 look and 1 mesh. Then have all customization done with skins. Outfits wouldn’t exist, just skins.

-Remove stats from armor and make armor all about customization through sigils and slots. Make traits have more depth and have traits the sole focus of build customisation. Add slots for permanent tonics and aura effects.

-Improve on core maps events. Making more meta events and less random small events to create more narrative driven maps as well as making events easier to find and follow. Have a meta always up and tie achievements to each meta. Make large visual changes to maps once the meta is done, especially in orr.

-Rework S1 to change the focus more on dragons and less on scarlet and her alliances. Make it repeatable and not temporary.

-Solidify basic systems that got way too many reworks and were unfinished at launch like dailies, minigames and fractals.

-Improve the final zhaitan fight

-Do literally everything differently in pvp..sorry but yeah..

I would keep the exploration, idle npc chatter, personal story choices, map design, mounts, gliding, collections, achievement driven content, jumping puzzles, world bosses and instance content the same.

-

It seems that I would take the game into a totally different direction than you, given the chance to do so.

• Remove outfits or make them only usable out of combat. I really loved the town-clothes system and was sad, when it was replaced. Outfits are the first step the remove the distinct look every class should have.

• Introduce fancy class-specific armor pieces that use a special slot where only class-specific pieces can go.

• Make more skills and traits with high-risk, high-reward. Something like: “While this skill is active, stack burning on yourself. Activate again to transfer burning from yourself to your enemy.”

• Make the personal instance customizable.

• Make weapons and backpacks dyable.

• Dungeons and raids would not have the tube-like structure they have now, but consist of a rather open map and a list of objectives.

zombyturtle.5980:

What would you want to change. What do you wish never happened at launch and what would you rework now if you could start over with a blank slate. What do you love about gw2 and would want to keep the same?

If they could start all over, I would request the following:

• First and foremost, keep the qualified writer(s) you had in the beginning!

• Second most important thing, continue with the Personality mechanic as well as the multiple path choice mechanic, so that storylines progress based on your choices (and possibly also on your race and choices made during creation)!

• Add profession specific content that is only accessable to the respective class. Little quests and that sort of thing.

• Stay true to GW1 in some aspects: 1. Remove the “your weapon dictates your skills” mechanic, 2. Re-introduce the concept of having new starting areas for characters created in an expansion, 3. Add new classes rather than elite specializations, 4. Maybe add a hero henchmen mechanic where you can use your other player characters as trusty henchmen with whom you can create your own full party.

• On the technical side of things, put more NPCs into the core campaign’s missions. You hear a horde of people cheering during the celebration, and at least a hundred warcries during supposedly huge battle scenes, yet — with the limitations given to avoid lag — all those scenarios feel rather empty and lack the intensity of the moment.

zombyturtle.5980:

What would you want to change. What do you wish never happened at launch and what would you rework now if you could start over with a blank slate. What do you love about gw2 and would want to keep the same?

Personally I would want to

-Change how the armor system works entirely, doing away with heavy light and medium. Make armor a basic model with only 1 look and 1 mesh. Then have all customization done with skins. Outfits wouldn’t exist, just skins.

-Remove stats from armor and make armor all about customization through sigils and slots. Make traits have more depth and have traits the sole focus of build customisation. Add slots for permanent tonics and aura effects.

-Improve on core maps events. Making more meta events and less random small events to create more narrative driven maps as well as making events easier to find and follow. Have a meta always up and tie achievements to each meta. Make large visual changes to maps once the meta is done, especially in orr.

-Rework S1 to change the focus more on dragons and less on scarlet and her alliances. Make it repeatable and not temporary.

-Solidify basic systems that got way too many reworks and were unfinished at launch like dailies, minigames and fractals.

-Improve the final zhaitan fight

-Do literally everything differently in pvp..sorry but yeah..

I would keep the exploration, idle npc chatter, personal story choices, map design, mounts, gliding, collections, achievement driven content, jumping puzzles, world bosses and instance content the same.

-

I will just answer yours…….since I very much do like how it started out.

-That would make customization very boring and not that different based on if ur light/medium or heavy. Removing outfit would also limit the potential of costumes you can make. But again, I mainly do WvW and never have other gears showcased.

-I kinda agree on this, but I hate to grind anyways, and currently Viper/minstreal is what I need, and that require some time and gold to get

-I would not go so far, the flow/exploration and no grind was literally the main reason as of why Gw2 got a 10/10 score from Angry Joe at that given time (if you look at the reviews from 4-5 years ago, all the big reviewers mentioned heavily on the tiresome grind is over with Gw2, and now people can enjoy the game and have fun). People played Gw2 because there was no grind, that everything was open, explore and the world was interesting from every aspect, an asura telling his life story that you now have to figure out how to open to get into it, the pirate ship jumping puzzle in LA, the dark room in the icy place where a skrit comes out…etc etc

Meta events came out solely because people needed something to repeat again and again until expansion came out, not because it is more fun to do. And that would have driven a lot of people off at that given time before people got settled in the game.

-well, it isnt from the beginning LS1 begins but a year after or something, but maybe. It got weird when they jumped from dragons to…..that….

-Well, dalies and fractals weren’t there at launch, and as you may have guessed, the rework in these 2 areas, was generally done to repeat the content

-Yeah zhaitan fight in the dungeon was basically keep pressing 2, even though the way up to him was quiet a lot of fun.

-In the beginning pvp was very interesting, because it was new and different at that given time. But yeah, I would probably change it…to PvP aswell

Hmm things I’d change, if I could launch GW2 today newly:

• Change the Story completely and merge the Personal Story with the Living Story practically as “Season 0”, so that characters like Marjory, ect. already play from begin on a role and we can view the game out of different perspectives in regard of what these characters did at that time, while we were going against the first elder dragon
  A complete storytelling like made in one cast with Season 1 fully integrated back into the game like it should be, completely replayable like all the rest of the game.
  Would have started the game not with Tyria, but with Cantha as its much smaller than Tyria and could have been better used as a Starting Point for a Story, that progresses onto the Elder Dragons and continuing with Tyria next and then Elona and then a new undiscovered exotic continent lastly – Utopia, while the story aroung the Elder Dragons unfolds more and more slowly starting with the first Elder Dragon to defeat beign the Deep Sea Dragon instead of Zhaitan, so that we get the way free to travel from Cantha to Tyria.

• Would have introduced with the beginning at Cantha also 2 more Elder Dragons that have awakened there – the Elder Dragon of Wind and the Elder Dragon of Life, last one being aside of all others known as the only friendly one, that protects Cantha from the Wind and Deep Sea Dragons influence

• Would have completely redesigned the Battles with Zhaitan and Mordremoth to make them feel more epic as dragon battles and not as cheap boring gimmick battles. Would have made Zhaitan like 5x bigger, he was way too tiny for an Elder Dragon.

• Complete different Weapon List with no Pistols, no Rifles, no Tridents, no Harpoon Guns and instead therefore Polearms, Whips, Chakrams, Claws/Cestus, Greataxes and Shields, differentiated between Shields (MH/Bigger) and Bucklers (OH/Smaller)

• Starting with additional two playable Races – the Tengu and the Largos with Largos being redesigned from scratch

• Max Level being 100, Attributes having Dual Effects consisting out of Power, Precision, Toughness, Vitality, Agility, Courage, Wisdom, Concentration and Dexterity, Attributes no longer tied to Equipment, but raise on Level Ups and freely distributable with a Reset Button as Gold Sink.

• Mastery System and Elite Specializations merged together with alot more Masteries from begin on all over Tyria as part of all Maps, not just only the Expansion Maps.

• Completely reworked Dungeon System and alot more Dungeons, including some of the old ones from GW1. Fractal Dungeons enhanced with more Fractal Modes (Heroic Fractals a.k.a Bonus Mission Pack 2.0, Hunting Grounds a.k.a huge Monster Hunting Fractals, Dungeon Crawl Fractals, which are each tiem different when you enter them, like a 100 floor Sky Temple Tower, which challenges players every 10 floors with mighty bosses and rewards become better and better so higher you get, Trial of the Ancestors Fractal- where you start as Level 1 getting only the equips you find in this Dungeons (Lufia Style), where you can find unique equipment that you can keep if you get alive out of this place, while you lose everything else again that was of just normal equipment and items.) and lastly challenging Zelda-Style Solo Dungeon Fractals, cause the Fractal Gameplay allows it practically to make all these crazy things possibly in the mists, which would have just outside of fractals on the normal world map no place in the game, while in the unendless space of the mists, you can make all of this possible without any problems.

• A completely reworked Trait System, that offers own Traits for Land Combat, Water Combat and possibly eventually later even Glider Combat and Mounted Combat too, so that no class loses build diversity, only because of changing the location from land to water ect or due to changing over to your mount.

• Completely reworking WvW by letting it have from begin on more different maps (Snow, Desert, Djungle, Mists, Tropic Islands, Marshlands, Urban) no borderlands, adding lots of WvW Masteries more and implementing especially class based WvW “Roles” for each class into which you can specizalize that allow your class unique WvW based actions to define better the roles of each class in WvW with Thieves for example being either Saboteurs, Infiltrators, Marodeurs, Reavers or Snipers as a role in WvW that defines what you can do with your class specificly in WvW, what no other class can do in WvW.
  Reworking the Supply System to split it up into multiple Supply Types to make Supply strategetically more important (Food/Ore/Wood/Oil)
  Make Siege Weapons more limited and only craftable at for them fitting places. (So no more siege weapons build at totally illogical places >.>)

• Start with a completely reworked Personal instance that is customizable in regard of Player Housing building up your own home, after it gets first burned down to ashes, so that youve a reason to build it up again and make it better, than ever before/ Gardening System for your own planting culture there.

Part 2:

• Improve the Crafting System so that it actually is and feels like crafting and not just a boring UI full of recipes. Added now with new Gathering Professions – Fishing & Digging. Added now new Craftign Job – Alchemist that allows you to turn Materials into different materials.. make out of s*** gold you know ^^ and which creates tons of environmental items, elixiers that can permanently boost our stats (PvE only), transformation/battle tonics

• Starting with all the missign minigames, that should have been there form begin on and are still missing 5 years later (Polymok, Bar Brawls, Target Shooting to name a few)

• Events everywhere, including TOWNS, and not just only on holidays!! Impementing aside of Events also a solid Quest System in the Game based on an Order Guild that serves as location for gettign Bounties, Guild Missions, Crusades, General Missions and various tasks of all sorts, Daily, Monthly, Weekly Questslines

• Have more different Stronghold Maps and not already stop with that after its implemention with only 1 map of its kind, like Anet did, as if this part of the game massively flopped including adding a ton of more “Mist Heroes” like Mhenlo, like Snaff, like Pyrr Fierceshot, like Gwen Thackeray, like Ventari, like Ogden Stonehealer, like Melanni, like Togo and so on. Add on top of that moire different PvP Modes (Last Man Standing, 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, GvG in a smaller scaled WvW Style of 50v50 and 100v100)

• Bringing back Companions (your own made account characters as “Heroes” and bringing back Henchmen (making characters like Marjory, Rox ect. practically Henchmen) (only useable in instances, while herioes can be used everywhere in the open world, therefore, that you need to build them up)

• Adding “House Pets” allowing you to tame and charm mostly any creature in the game to hold it as a house pet. Remove Minipets completely from PvP/WvW and reinvent them as somethign, that takes part in Polymock instead and allows you to transfrom into something for Costume Brawls instead of having just a miniature running way too slow for you behind you, doing nothing

• Completely redesign Raids from scratch and unbound them from everything that has to do with “Living Story”, so that players aren’t forced to do raids, just to get access to the full story of the game. Make Raid Maps also completely normal explorable Maps for everyone which are just only instances, if you play them as “Raid” but unless you aren’t making a raid in the, these maps should be completely normal persistant maps that are free to explore by everyone, so that you can make specific achievements in them also, without being distracted by the toxity of elitists, that don’t care for achievemnts, but just want only quick loot and gettign done everythign as fast as possible, without any distractions on the way

• Add with speeders and carriers two more Mount Types, the first one being especially fast as a runner compared to other mount types, good for dodging things, where other mounts are too slow and get hit by attacks while you are riding them and carriers, special mounts made to carry a whole group of 5 players around at the same time controled by the owner of the mount as unique mounts meant for group content/group transport

• Significantly improve the loot system and make asctually Magic Find more effective. Remove all idiotic RNG mechanics out of the game that exist only to turn the game into a grind fest by producing massively unneccessary arteficial slowdowns of player progression that give you only unneedy the impression that Anet wants you to draw with this to buy gems en mass to avoid the grind. Implement instead as a more steady income flow of real money an optional “Premium Account System”, where players get fashion advantages (no gameplay advantages) over other players, and gemstore price discounts if they decide to go over into an optional subscription fee model to support anet this way with an ensured static income for ANet, what would strenthen anet also then to add more high quality content with expansions similar like FF14 does

• Remove Equipment restrictions, no Medium, Light and heavy stuff anymore, you can mix and match all skins however you like. Outfits stay but get unlocked also as individual armor skins so that you can mix and match parts of them together as you like. Weapons/Backpacks dyeable

• add tons of quality of life features, like build templates that players want now for nearly 5 years

and alot more, if I continue here, I’m probably tomorrow not done with the list of changes xD

REALLY would have loved seeing housing implemented fully with a lot of customization. I think having a ‘home base’ to design and decorate goes a long way in making the game fun and giving that niche a role. It also lends itself better in creating a living world. Just saying!

- Clarify roles, strenghts and weakness of each classes, with all skills clearly fitted for. Guardian is supposed to be the tanky support ? Ok, so don’t bring healing skills to the ranger (druid) instead.

- Don’t make the PC a chosen one / commander / boss / wathever. PC is an adventurer assisting Rytlock & cie.

- Don’t create wings & bunny bugs.

I would fire Colin Johanson…

Zylonite.5913:

I would fire Colin Johanson…

I chuckled. It definitely does seem like he was largely behind a lot of the problems this game had for years after it launched. Mostly the obsession with the living world concept that clearly wasn’t as good an idea as he thought it was.

Seems more like a wishlist. :v

Buttcapes removed or option to take scissors to them (toggle). No armor tiers, skin everything with anything. Normal clothing type skin options, like town/npc clothing (something nice about Secret World), ability to hide any armor piece, and outfits not 1 solid form.

Fix/kill off all instances of having to click something 1000+ times.

Delete green and yellow sigils/runes

Make Order and Lesser Race story choices more important, such as missions you can do within them to rank up or unique skills, cosmetics, furniture, npc allies, etc. Ability to change them; probably at a cost. A lesser race reward could include a combat tonic for that race.

Housing on par with Wildstar.

Replicate Fort Aspenwood from GW1 entirely + Cantha on release… Could probably even do an Opt in for open world PvP outside of towns and outposts with Kurzick/Luxon uniforms for fun.

Underwater weapons removed (skins could be moved to Staff and Rifle and/or added to Land Spears) and replaced with altered underwater versions of existing skills and weapons. Just stab the shark in the face with your Dagger. That way it’s easier to add tons more underwater content without worrying about balance.

All weapons for all classes already. Weapon dyes.

Norn male redesigned to look cooler, more muscular, more proportionate rather than their current deformed selves.

Story book from the very start. It’s too bad they created it after Season 1 when they realized it’s flaws.

Build templates for both equipment and skills/traits.

I’d reduce the level cap to 40. The story would be the same length and there would be the same number of maps, but you’d reach the level cap with most of it still uncompleted. Hopefully that would make the point that reaching the level cap doesn’t mean you’ve finished anything, just that you’ve unlocked all your options.

I also think it would help to make every level meaningful. I’d keep (or reintroduce) the concept of level up rewards (which didn’t come into the game until later) and getting enough hero points to unlock all your skills and traits by the time you reach the max level, but because of the lower cap it’d be much more condensed so you wouldn’t have levels where you just get some random items or a slight boost to your core stats.

Oh I’d also go with the current version of the trait system rather than the original version, but maybe bring back the option to put lower ranked traits into higher spots in place of the defaults.

I’d also introduce Order specific dailies – for example the Vigil would have to kill a specific champion, Priory would have to complete a mini dungeon or something and Whispers would have to find and spy on an NPC (stand near them, but not too close, while they have a conversation). And maybe race and profession specific too. But with the current limit that any extra dailies you do after the first 3 don’t get you achievement points so people don’t feel forced to do them all.

Oh yeah, I’d also make all items from Black Lion Chests, all mini pets and the vast majority of other cosmetic stuff tradable. Some things would still be account bound, like dungeon skins, achievement skins etc. but anything with any type of RNG involved or which players may not choose to get would be tradable.

Would keep everything about the game as it is, but overhaul the engine for better performance all round. The current game engine is very poorly optimised and it’s performance will only get worse as time goes on.

Other than that, I’d maybe make all gem store items tradable. Would give people more reason to buy gems, stimulate the economy, boost GW2’s revenue and allow free players who are unable to buy gems themselves purchase gem store items from other players

rapthorne.7345:

Would keep everything about the game as it is, but overhaul the engine for better performance all round. The current game engine is very poorly optimised and it’s performance will only get worse as time goes on.

Other than that, I’d maybe make all gem store items tradable. Would give people more reason to buy gems, stimulate the economy, boost GW2’s revenue and allow free players who are unable to buy gems themselves purchase gem store items from other players

I thought free players could buy gems. They can’t convert gold to gems and can’t buy certain gem store items (like gliders) but they can buy gems with real money.

Danikat.8537:

rapthorne.7345:

Would keep everything about the game as it is, but overhaul the engine for better performance all round. The current game engine is very poorly optimised and it’s performance will only get worse as time goes on.

Other than that, I’d maybe make all gem store items tradable. Would give people more reason to buy gems, stimulate the economy, boost GW2’s revenue and allow free players who are unable to buy gems themselves purchase gem store items from other players

I thought free players could buy gems. They can’t convert gold to gems and can’t buy certain gem store items (like gliders) but they can buy gems with real money.

I mean in terms of people who are unable to afford gem purchases, rather than being restricted from making use of gems.

Having been an unemployed gamer in the past, I know how much it sucks to have so much epicness locked behind a paywall you can’t get around if you enjoy having food and shelter to last you.

After Season 1 we had so far nothign anymore that comes even close to the original concept of the living story.. we have just only farm maps now with overcomplex meta events that permanently repeat themself in several hour cycles, see the hot maps for example or silver wastes.. all season 3 maps are the same concept..
Nothing seriously has changed in the older maps anymore after season one, where living story was the very definition, that the environment changes also over time (see Kessex Hills for example, which is a completely different maps since the nightmare tower was there and got destroyed)

GW2 needs more of that.
The problem with colin was – this man thought, he had a great vision for the game, but in fact mostly nothign what this man has envision and what got described by his manisfesto he made with the other devs, actualyl really found into the game already from day 1 after release not until today

i swung a sword, i swung it again ,oh i have swung it again cough
Events in this game feel like an half baked element, they are nothing but just infinite loops of always the same things that happen which affect the gamew, the map and the surroundings of that map in NO WAY, which would be honestl the true meaning of a living breathign world, that if something hapens in map X, that you are affected by this change in map X also in Map Y, that you see differences happening everywhere all the time as consequence of what happens in all of the maps ..

That sort of “Super Events” can possible result of this, which can permanently change whole enviroments of multiple maps for a longer time (like a month), until we get the chance to revert the state of those affected maps back to their original state, if players work together successfuly in that reversion super event, without that we need extra for this a living story patch first, just to see some environmental changes only for a single old map…

I hope Season 4 will return again more to the roots of that concept and brigns aside of some new explorable maps also some bigger changes to older maps to revitalize them and to add also masteries for the older tyrian maps, so that we get to use some of over overflow mastery points on those maps.

Revitalizing for example Fireheart Gorge would be great with an introduction of a new dragon general boss for primordus that appears there as an equivalent for Tequatl, Shatterer and Jormags Claw.

A truly living breathing gameworld is technically just impossible to do, unless we get suddenly so technically advanced, that we can create the game, which programs itself with an A.I. that does everything to provide always for players new content by itself alone like the A.I that is responsible in the anime novel of Sword Art Online, which creates by itself alone for all the players new content on a prodecural basis.
Because only if you let a game expand itself automatically on a prodecural kind of way, where you always get as a player new quests, new events ect. that affect the game world with all of its concequenes of doing them – positively as negative, only then can you truly speak of a living breathing game world that comes as close as possible to a real life simulation, but just in a fantasy world being played.

Games like No Mans Sky also kind of show us already, what is possibvle with procedural technology. Just think about it, what a MMORPG of the complexitiy and quality of GW2 could be like with such an intelligent tech that constantly generates new content by itself alone, if we could really have some day “intelligent games” that are alone by themself able to keep us players entertained, with developers only needed then to maintain the game and to fix bugs and make game balance changes andadd maybe quality of life improvements.

Thats what I personally would call a “vision” into which kind of direction we should try to go with gaming, trying to make this kind of science fiction we have in things like Sword Art Online actually the reality of tomorrow we will see in games of the future working there, as if it would have been already always the most natural normal thing for us.

Danikat.8537:

I’d reduce the level cap to 40. The story would be the same length and there would be the same number of maps, but you’d reach the level cap with most of it still uncompleted. Hopefully that would make the point that reaching the level cap doesn’t mean you’ve finished anything, just that you’ve unlocked all your options.

I also think it would help to make every level meaningful. I’d keep (or reintroduce) the concept of level up rewards (which didn’t come into the game until later) and getting enough hero points to unlock all your skills and traits by the time you reach the max level, but because of the lower cap it’d be much more condensed so you wouldn’t have levels where you just get some random items or a slight boost to your core stats.

Oh I’d also go with the current version of the trait system rather than the original version, but maybe bring back the option to put lower ranked traits into higher spots in place of the defaults.

I’d also introduce Order specific dailies – for example the Vigil would have to kill a specific champion, Priory would have to complete a mini dungeon or something and Whispers would have to find and spy on an NPC (stand near them, but not too close, while they have a conversation). And maybe race and profession specific too. But with the current limit that any extra dailies you do after the first 3 don’t get you achievement points so people don’t feel forced to do them all.

Oh yeah, I’d also make all items from Black Lion Chests, all mini pets and the vast majority of other cosmetic stuff tradable. Some things would still be account bound, like dungeon skins, achievement skins etc. but anything with any type of RNG involved or which players may not choose to get would be tradable.

Yep. I feel like 40 levels would have made far more sense than 80, and almost wish they would devote some time and energy into squishing them down.

The whole game would feel more polished and well calibrated if there were 40 levels instead. You would reach the level cap faster while moving through individual levels more slowly. This would allow you to properly experiment with gear and builds while leveling, and would allow them to have a better distribution of mob level ranges throughout the existing world. They could hypothetically remove gear levels and have the stats only be determined by rarity, which would be a much cleaner system.

I would also make the expansion structure more like GW1s – new expansions add new leveling content in addition to end game content, rather than only the latter, with new races built around a new personal story.

I also think they’ve really dropped the ball on adding new weapons, although I remain optimistic that will happen in time.

I would probably have made the personal story involve fewer branching elements, and made the individual missions much larger with better-written stories (those cutscenes need to go). I would also have an NPC library in the story and/or a hud interface for NPCs within missions, since it’s way too easy to forget who is who and who did what.

I’m okay with most other aspects of the game, actually, at least in terms of what they could pivot with and build off of in the future.

Change the whole story from dragons killing everything to the human gods coming back to tyria to rule over people again and basically warping the maps in there likeness, so having an underworld up top being corrupted and chilled by grenth, or having FoW type land that Balthy corrupted. And basically all the races trying to resist the control of the Gods because they (the gods) don’t want to live in harmony. Oh, and making the ritualist an actual profession.

Some really interesting ideas have been mentioned so far (as well as some wacky/impossible ones, but that’s half the fun). I guess I’ll join in as well. Keep in mind, I’ve just started replaying the game like a week ago (quit after 3 months… I found the game at launch painfully boring), so some of this stuff might actually be in the game and I just don’t know about it.

PART ONE:

• I don’t want to sound offensive, but the overall quality of writing (especially in the core game) was… dreadful. Sure, the game is rated T for teen, but that doesn’t mean you can’t explore some deeper concepts or have multifaceted characters. The game’s audience is not primarily composed of children and idiots; they shouldn’t be treated as such. Also, the story aspect should have been completely revamped. The elder dragons can stay, but the story really should have focused more on individual characters that stuck around. There’s just too big of a disconnect between the racial stories and the main one. Having the surrounding cast continue onto the offensive against Zaitan by organizing the entire effort around each race’s contribution to the war would have made everything sooo much better. Sure, it might not make sense that your barkeeper or anarchist friends would participate in front line combat, but they could always contribute in their own way (and that allows the player to gain more perspective on the war anyway by seeing how non-military individuals get dragged into it and decide to help). The pacts getting center stage was a bad idea. More story branches would also have been nice. Oh, and don’t treat the player character like a hero after 2 minutes of gameplay. That never feels earned. Make them start off as a nobody and actually work for respect.

• No temporary content: everything that is added to the game stays in the game (obviously some seasonal stuff will come and go every year, but it shouldn’t be a one-off). You can still charge latecomers for access to living seasons, but it’s probably a better idea to bundle that in with expansions. As someone who started playing HoT content without accessing season 1 or 2, the story is utterly incomprehensible (which is not a good first impression). Alternatively, keep the current system but make sure that the living world is not directly related to expansion content in any way. Instead of bridging the gaps between expansions, it should revolve around smaller stand-alone threats.

• A wardrobe system like the current one, but no (unlimited) transmutation charges. At the end of the day, it’s a stupid limitation, because it just makes fashion have less of an impact (and selling clothes nets Arenanet some easy money). Weapons should be included in the dye system (at least to some degree).

• Things such as weapon stats (on ascended gear), sigils, runes, and infusions should be permanently recorded by the game (not tied to a particular item but to an armor slot or weapon category instead). At any safe zone or hub city, players should be able to reassign all of these things at will, so long as they previously had access to the new sigils, etc. This would require a MODEST fee for each item. This fee is waived completely for legendary items. That system would still reward those who work for legendary weapons and at the same time encourage way more experimentation and build diversity.

• There should be more ways of gaining gifts of mastery after achieving 100% world completion. People shouldn’t be asked to create throw-away characters just to farm for them if they want lots of legendaries. Additionally, after crafting a legendary weapon, it becomes accessible on ALL level 80 characters for that account. Permanently.

• The world map should be less stylized, and there shouldn’t have been giant gaps between playable zones. It just looks ugly when you zoom out. Also, not every zone needs to be a giant rectangle.

• More interesting playable races in general. The sylvari were excellent, but the norn should have been scrapped altogether. Come on… they are just slightly taller humans. Why couldn’t we have played as the Kodan instead? It’s also a bit weird that there is no aquatic race, when a significant portion of the game’s content is underwater. Largos, Hylek, or even Quaggan could have made for a more exciting racial selection.

• Better underwater content. I admit this might be impossible in practice (for some reason no MMO ever has good underwater content), but at the very least all existing skills should work in some way underwater, and movement should be a lot less clunky. Traps, for example, could rather easily become underwater mines with a spherical range (similar to anti-projectile shields that are already implemented underwater).

PART TWO:

• An overhaul of combat that brings back some semblance of the holy trinity without the rigidness of it. The philosophy of “everyone looks after themselves” becomes an unfun mess in group content. My ideal solution would be a system partially inspired by Rift and The Secret World. Each profession and elite spec is broken down into the following areas: Offense (physical and condition), Defense (vitality and toughness), Support (group buffs and debuffs), Healing, and Mobility. The devs then publicly assign each area a score from 1 to 5 for each area and sub-area. This would give the community a clear message about each profession and specialization’s intended role (maybe even that of individual weapons!), and hopefully force the developers to design with that in mind. Seriously, can any dev tell me what the Ranger’s current intended role is? Cause 5 years of development seems to indicate the answer is, “We have no idea.” Anyway, group content (even open world group content) should be designed around having different combinations of these roles available. That way every fight doesn’t just break down into: kill everything as quickly as possible and try to get out of the way or respawn if the boss decides to target and murder you.

• Dungeons with less bugs and more refined gameplay/tactics (as allowed by the above point).

• Way less waypoints around maps, but increase player movement speed (both within and outside of combat) by 50% across the board. Then allow mounts for even more movement speed (I really liked how the raptor mount felt in the PoF demo). Eliminate all movement speed increasing signets (they are boring and feel too mandatory during the leveling process). Superspeed grants +100% movement speed but doesn’t stack with mounts (it really should be noticeably better than regular swiftness in combat). Oh, and no flying mounts whatsoever. But keep the gliding system, it is quite nice while possessing limitations.

• Jumping puzzles which are designed to work better with the camera system and all races in claustrophobic environments. Attempting some puzzles with a norn character is torture.

• A far more robust and customizable player housing system (still instanced). Every NPC that plays a major role in the racial storyline should be located inside this instance, and possess lots of extra dialogue (about the state of the player’s past choices, how the NPC feels, etc.) The NPCs should be almost like old Bioware companions (not quite as reactive, but same concept). The player should be able to unlock a ton of stuff (both functional and cosmetic) for his/her house instance, including activities for visitors to participate in.

• A far more fleshed out Guild vs Guild system (the name of the franchise is literally Guild Wars). Each guild has a castle which can be heavily upgraded and customized. Once a week at a set time (timing varies per server, so players in different time zones aren’t punished), this guild castle is joined to another random guild’s castle on opposite ends of the same (symmetrical) map. Whichever guild breaches the opponent’s castle and controls their throne room first is the winner. There could also be 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 variants. The winning guilds and members get some minor rewards and higher placement on leaderboards (and will be matched up against higher-tier guilds in the future). Guilds may also volunteer to drop out of this matchmaking system (due to lack of available players or whatever). Additionally, at any time (24 hour advance scheduling necessary), 2 or more guilds may sign up for an unranked match against each other specifically. There are no rewards for winning, but it can be a good way to train people, have some fun, and settle inter-guild disputes.

• More drastic meta events that actually feel meaningful. Extend the duration of meta events (so that humans aren’t pushed back by centaurs 5 minutes after taking a base) but have some sort of event always going on throughout the map. Maybe even meta events that span multiple maps (if centaurs conquer enough bases on one map, they spread to a neighboring one).

• A voluntary 1 vs 1 dueling system (just for fun) anywhere in the open world. Failing that, just have a designated area in each hub city for it.

• Make heart quests less boring, and make absolutely certain that if a heart quest requires swapping a player’s weapon for a temporary one that the temp weapon is actually more fun and/or powerful than normal. I don’t want more experimental rifles with a single 2 second recharge ability that take forever to kill things.

• Way more game types and maps for pvp. Seriously, I remember trying pvp at launch and thinking… “Wow, this is just the same thing over and over.” World of Warcraft did a very good job of providing varied pvp game modes that were (generally) fun, so a couple of staples like capture the flag and elimination mode isn’t a lot to ask. If you want to be more ambitious, take a look at Resistance 2’s pvp model, which split large battles into small squads and gave them varied objectives (hold a point, assassinate a target, reinforce another squad, etc.). It was a brilliant system that required teams to switch up their playstyle without having the larger battle devolve into zergs or chaos.

• Give players destructible forward bases and mobile siege bases that they can teleport to for free (after a slight death delay) in WvW. If I don’t need to waste so much time running around the map to actually find people, I might actually play more of it. There is a reason why supply lines are important in real life warfare.

• Lower the level cap to 40 (at most). A cap of 80 just feels like unnecessary filler.

That’s all I can think of for now.