Guild Wars 2

With all of the rage about the Ascended gear (which I’m pretty disappointed about as well), I started pondering MMO design in general and certain design choices made in this game.

Here’s the thing: even though GW2 did away with some MMO conventions, it didn’t go as far as it could and in many ways should have; the only way it really feels much different from other MMOs is that it lacks the strict enforcement roles and feels a bit more dynamic. Considering that, it’s really no surprise that we’re seeing the introduction of what will likely lead to never-ending (even if it’s gradual) progression.

One thing that particularly bugs me about gear and the way it typically works in MMOs (including in GW2) is that they think along the lines of “the more gear the better” when in reality that’s not true. The more unique gear the better, but having endless iterations of the what is fundamentally the same gear is pretty nonsensical. At a certain point, having too much gear becomes overwhelming and trite.

What would have been my solution? Gear should not have both level and rarity, it should only have one or the other. This would have been a great change to make for GW2. Allow me to elaborate.

There are 5 rarity categories (all the current ones except for Ascended), and no gear levels. All “growth in power” is tied to character level primarily and gear rarity secondarily. Legendaries and Exotics could have had the same stats, but I would have even been okay with Legendaries having slightly higher stats due to the degree of difficulty in obtaining them (which I suppose is no different than the introduction of Ascended gear).

This would have several benefits in game:

1. You would not be forced to micromanage your gear constantly as you level. You would only need to replace a piece of gear if you obtained a better quality one, but there would still be plenty of diversity through skins and specific stats and you could micromanage it as much as you want.
2. Crafting could be cleaned up substantially and made much more interesting, which would in turn affect the game’s economy (hopefully for the better).
3. You could hang on to gear you like much longer.
4. It would be easier to manage your inventory and sets of gear built for specific builds.
5. More development resources could go to gear variety in terms of skins/themes and interesting effects rather than endless iterations of the same gear for different levels. In effect, loot tables are much cleaner and gear is more exciting to get.
6. Too much gear (especially when it’s based around stats and not skins or cool effects) is actually trite and tedious to deal with.
7. It just makes more sense from a simulation point of view.

Now, what does this have to do with Ascended gear? Admittedly, not a lot directly, but I was thinking in terms of the way stats are allocated on gear being set in stone based on the gear’s rarity level. So basically it would be a way to help prevent constant inflation of stats on a particular tier like how it happens in WoW, which helps reduce power creep.

Bottom line: Stats aren’t that interesting, especially when you’re only talking about increasing the same stats by a few more points. The game would have benefited from having cleaner loot and no level attached to gear.

Personally I think the whole idea of “gear” is stupid in general. Why cant your character grow. In real life if you want to be tougher, stronger, faster, wiser or improve yourself in any way you have to train or study.

Waiting for the day when an MMO focuses on your characters personal development rather than “acquiring the Magic Underoos of Wisdom” or some other meaningless crapola.

Sure, you can buy better equipment in real life. I mean, I’m an archer, but the gear I use has little bearing on how good I am. Rather, having the “gear” is purely a product of money…having the skill is purely a product of practice.

Most MMO’s work like this, two characters both level 80 (same class and race) take off ALL of their gear and duel, neither one has an advantage (apart from of course one might be actually better at playing the game, faster fingers or whatever)…but one is fresh level 80 and the other has done every dungeon in the book and killed epic monsters left right and centre for months. Hell, if that was real life I know which one I wouldn’t want to fight.

Same goes for the imaginary content, like magic for example. Which guy should be more powerful, the guy wearing the “Gloves of Fairy Fire” (that he bought off the TP) or the guy that has adventured beyond the far peaks, reached the temple of the masters of magic and studied their ways, completed their trials and unlocked the inner mysteries?

MMO’s are all straight out of the box, uninspiredcopycats of each other, whether there is gear grind or not its still all about gear.

How about an MMo where your character actually has to improve himself mentally and physically….? Now that would actually be interesting.

I don’t think that gear should be removed entirely, but I totally agree that MMOs focus way too much on it. That’s why I feel narrowing down the gear selection by removing gear levels and letting only the type and rarity determine a piece of gear’s characteristics is a nice compromise.

Additionally, all rarity levels should be rarer than they actually are in the game (except Legendaries of course). It should be fairly common place to have to use White gear while leveling, for example, because you haven’t been to obtain a blue or green upgrade yet.

pricer.5091:

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How about an MMo where your character actually has to improve himself mentally and physically….? Now that would actually be interesting.

Amen to that! The various ‘personal stories’ are a timid (and quickly redundant when you play Alts) attempt in that direction. But they are superficial. The core of the game remains within the general framework popularized by WoW and others.

This said I do not know how difficult it would be to code ‘progression’ differently – I’m no programmer. What I do know is that gear stats has to be the quickest and easiest way to do it – therefore the least expensive way…

Personally I would do away with leveling altogether. As I would dispense with the reductive concept of ‘endgame’ – as if the entire world offered was nothing more than a prelude for countless dungeon runs once one hits max lvl. On the contrary, there should be content for of all players (from novices to heroes) in every zone thus keeping the population relatively stable in each.

What if the experience you gain doing whatever it is you choose to do was the currency with which you ‘barter’ for whatever skill you choose to get? Not in the current automated manner of reaching lvl X – unlocking skill Y – but rather in a personal way – where you’d deplete a portion of your accumulated XP to get this or that trait?

For example if you accumulate say… 500XP in 2 days of play you could spend 300 for one skill which would bring you back to a pool of 200. Since the next skill you want costs 800 – you’d have to occupy yourself however you want and accrue 600 more XP before you get where you want to go. Other prerequisites could be added as you – oh look at that – progress; things like karma\fame\clout – whatever you want to call it. Or things like a particular event chain. Or one time events. Or gold. Or procuring/crafting certain goods/artifacts. The same economy – or management of resources – could be used to determine a character’s progression. For instance going from ‘Novice’ to ‘Regular’ might require:

- having accrued a certain amount of XP;
- having accrued a certain amount of karma;
- having visited X numbers of POIs;
- having viewed X number of vistas;
- having participated in X number of a certain type of events;
- meeting the relevant authorities in your chosen field and passed whatever exam they have for the qualification.

Then and only then would your status/rank change. A which point you could go back to the started zone and tackle monster/foe/specific event which you couldn’t dream of doing before. I presume ANet tried to achieve something like this with the dynamic events and the ‘downscaling’ mechanics – but it fall short since the zones have been designed with level segregation in mind.

Another thing I find lacking is the absence of other… paths one can choose from. We keep returning to the tired old combat professions – as if there was nothing to do in the world than go from one killing spree to the next. Again this was partly simulated with the heart quests/tasks – but once they’re done – that’s it you’re done with them. While crafting exists here – it is nothing more than an adjunct for whatever combat profession you chose. You craft to get the gear you need – because your ‘value’ in combat is contingent to what you wear…

Personally I want to be able to do other things than fighting in Tyria!

G.