Guild Wars 2

Dynamic events was originally going to be major feature of Guild Wars 2 that would revolutionize the whole MMO experience. So let’s talk about how the system holds up today. First of all I would recommend you watch this video from the GDC in 2010 on describing the dynamic event system, before the game was released. The video still holds up to what currently happens in the game today, since nothing has drastically changed in the last few years (the new LS events being one of the few exceptions).

If we took the final encounter events with Scarlet as the best new example of what could be done with the rest of the game. Would it fit the rest of game events to make them better or worse? What would it take to make events feel more “dynamic;” where by repeating them would not be akin to a typical bland routine? Do the rewards (or enjoyment level) of completing an event currently feel balanced to you?

To me personally I think there needs to be more randomness in these events. They are way too linear in their current formulaic layout. Events should not as much reset, as they should cycle to the next random level of the same encounter. Yes, you can be successful in defeating the centaurs for the millionth of time, but they should learn as well. Creating a distraction for our heroes (falsified kidnapping, or a devastating supernatural sandstorm). Perhaps they start sending in stealth/undercover assassin/mercenaries (players have to uncover) to kill several VIP’s, to spread unwanted chaos among the town denizens.

Scaling up the encounter could also have random elements attached. Next time you face that boss it could different set of passive area of effect abilities to make it difficult to kill. Like the gambits from queen gauntlet or the fractals mistlock instabilities could trigger randomly within the event area. Or perhaps you don’t fight the Megadestroyer, but Primordius dragon champion. Based on how many randomly successful times the Megadestroyer has been slain. Which in turn also means better rewards for event chain becoming more layered in it’s difficulty/complexity.

Before that any of these should be implemented.

There needs one thing added first:

• Incentives.

If there is no incentives, no one will do it. It has to be in a way where DE won’t be farmed over and over repeatedly and turned into champ farms.

Once there is people in the open world, then ANet can go ahead and add whatever they want to make Dynamic event awesome.

The cumulative success/fails is a good idea, but could be expanded upon not to become so simplistic by mixing in a few more elements like inter-relationship among a set of event-based conditions, average players’ levels, average players’ classes, etc. In case of long chains that end up with a boss, tune it to become real mad according to a very specific condition that needs to be unveiled by the community (even if it’s a kittene that could take time, or would be weekly) that could have a more reasonable chance of dropping good stuff (maybe it’s time to introduce cosmetic progression with a token- or material-based + crafting layout).

Assemblying conditions based on events, cumulative successes/fails, players’ data, time-gating (not long though, weekly is fine), and rare elements would turn the events more worth doing and engaging in a sense of exploration and risk vs. reward.

Thoughts?

“To me personally I think there needs to be more randomness in these events. They are way too linear in their current formulaic layout.”

In terms of time, a random time for each event isn’t necessarily good. It only works if players are in the zone doing stuff and they can join events as they happen. Waiting for an event just because it has a random time is bad game play.

I think you are right in describing the linear event chains. Some of them are just one directional with stage 1-2-3-win with potential failure at each stage. Even the more complex chains are just two directions, forwards or backwards along states 1-2-3-4. However I don’t think the problems you mentioned are the ones that need solving.

“Yes, you can be successful in defeating the centaurs for the millionth of time, but they should learn as well. "

You seem to be assuming that the same players are there each time. They shouldn’t be. They should be moving through the zone or to different zones rather than playing an event through more than twice, say. There’s no point freshening up an event for players who are seeing it for the first time. There’s no point changing the difficulty and rewards for players who have already left. There’s no point punishing new players for events failed by people who have since logged off.

Cursed Shore is the main repeatable end game event zone and it would be interesting to have some new random events coming through. However as soon as you do something like add an extra champion to a risen invasion if a waypoint is contested, players will just rig the system and make sure it is always contested. Simpler design can avoid those complications.