Guild Wars 2

I just threw down some initial thoughts for the CDI tomorrow about Vertical and Horizontal progression. Anyone who wants to add theirs to this thread go right ahead. I’m sure a number of us will be at work or otherwise busy, so we won’t be able to get into the initial discussion.

I happen to lean way towards a horizontal progression model similar to Guild Wars with little vertical progression, but for anyone that leans towards a the far otherside with vertical progression feel free to post y’alls initial thoughts here as well.

Hopefully people in on the initial discussion can carry over ideas in this thread for both sides.

Horizontal v Vertical progression

Shockwave.1230

The risk you run when implementing vertical progression is not allowing the player to return to a similar experience to what they were having. Updates to skills, and traits does this too, but that is negated by there being no time barrier to reworking your skills and traits. Time barriers do exist when you implement Vertical progression

The horizontal to Vertical progression ratio should be less than Guild Wars 1. In Guild Wars 1 the only vertical progressions were leveling from 1-20 and the incredibly shallow PvE Skill progression / passive title progression of the LB and EotN titles. The main reason it should be less is because when the title vertical progression first was implemented it was more significant than it became later. The later levels that it arrived at when it was first implemented was perfect from the casual player perspective. Plus you’re ANet, your innovations in that game gave you almost a cult following, why not take those same things that worked and innovate them further, while NOT utilizing the things people complain about for existing MMOs.

It was perfect from that perspective because of the exponential diminishing returns and because numerous skills would reach maximum effectiveness midway through the progression all while being able to be obtained in a timely fashion. It worked well for hardcore players too because there were meaningful rewards for maxing title progress, such as the awesome Rainbow Phoenix (which was the same as any other pet, but way more aesthetically pleasing). Guild Wars’ horizontal and vertical progression model should be the model to follow.

Also yes, ANet should keep the casual player in mind, because that’s how you grow your userbase. You appeal to untapped markets for growth and untapped markets are casual gamers. People for example spend millions on micro transactions for candy crush, so one thing ANet should also do is provide options for smaller purchases of Gems as they grow their user base.

Time gating things that people view as extremely meaningful needs to stop, and time gating horizontal OR vertical progression will only serve to irritate players. Work on good pacing with multiple ways for people to progress so that they aren’t only stuck with a couple of things to do. The more ways people have to progress a single “whatever” the less stale content feels over time and the less grindy it feels. So no time gating progression please, hard line on that.

Recap:
1. Use GW1 as a model for horizontal and vertical progression. You’re ANet, be the ANet we loved that innovated, not an ANet that takes things from the existing MMO genre and reskins them.
2. Cater to the casual for vertical progression while providing exclusive value to the hardcore player via horizontal progression, (I know I’m just saying the GW1 model again with a little more detail, but it was great so innovate it in a good way!)
3. Absolutely ZERO time gating on progression both horizontal and vertical (it severely repels casual and middle of the road players, you need to be casual and middle of the road friendly while still providing value to the hardcore group)

Most importantly ANet keep the people with little time and money in mind.