Guild Wars 2

I recently saw a video on youtube about why we aren’t playing Guild Wars 2.
- Now, it has been some time since it was posted, and some minor changes (which actually has seemed to matter a great deal) has been made since then.
However, it made me think about the topic, since it is an issue I know for myself (and I also have seen it discussed by some of you guys, but no one really seem to conclude anything).

Some things I have noticed to be an important factor are the zones.
- Now, each and every zone in Guild Wars 2 is absolutely stunning. The game looks good and plays good, but still there have been something missing.
Many people complain about the lack of end-game, but we get the answer that no particular zone is “end-game” and no particular content is “end-game” content.
- I thought about that for a little while and went into the world of Guild Wars 2. Here’s what I experienced about the zones as end-game.

First of all: There seems to be little variation to the zones other than the different looks of them. The Dynamic Events in a zone consist of the same four challenges: Escort, Fetch, Defend/Taking over an outpost and Boss fights (ANet said that they will be implementing more Dynamic Events for variation, which I’m looking forward to). Basically this just means that the End Game might be content we’ve already cleared, and there is little to no real reason to get out there again.
- Personally, I like the jumping puzzles, but sometimes finding them can be hard, and I am not one for wandering aimlessly around. Actually, hold that for a moment: “Wandering aimlessly around” – This is why I find end-game in Guild Wars 2 to be lacking, when it comes to PvE.

Personally, when I think about my days back in WoW, I got acquainted with the different areas, the villages and people there. When I reached max level I would still have an urge to go visit places that I had particularly enjoyed.
- Even in the Original Guild Wars there were places that really caught my attention, and with the ability to switch to hard mode, I could go back and experience low level zones again, and they even got scaled up to fit my level of expertise (joke), but seriously, this is a huge issue to me in Guild Wars 2.
- With my main in lvl 80, I created some other characters, just to get a hold of names for them, but I managed to put up 5 new characters that I were happy with, and want to level up (I found it a hard thing to do, getting into levelling another character up).
As I progressed with one of these, I came to revisit many sights, I had almost completely forgotten, and you know what? It felt great!
Some areas in GW2 actually had caught my attention, but they just didn’t hold onto those in the long run. Personally, I think it is because of the task-system (the heart-quests, as some calls them). I just jump in without talking to any NPC to find out the lore of that particular village or area. While convenient, it has ruined some the immersive gameplay (I try to talk to scouts to have them telling me the current ongoings in the areas, but yeah, I think you get my point with the task-system).

Once you’ve completed a zone (not necessarily meaning that you have found all the jumping puzzles or other content that might be there, such as Dynamic Events) there seems to be little reason to revisit it later, and it is a shame, really.
- ANet has put so much effort into creating the world, and I think they intended for players to be out in the world, but so many zones are underpopulated.
- In WoW, because of these places that I got acquainted with, I would actually have, although small, and urge to wander aimlessly around, and even then, I wouldn’t be wandering aimlessly around, since I knew where I was going, and why.

In conclusion: I think that more lore needs to be implemented, or something that tells the story in a zone more thoroughly. Hopefully, they will do so in the future, and maybe implementing more Dynamic Events will add to this effect.

- Hope you guys enjoyed the long post, and feel free to comment.

I do believe that as guild missions get fleshed out, it will get people into specific areas depending on the mission. Depending on the events and the awards, there could be real incentives for large groups to go to different areas every day.

Open World Incentives:

• You can also increase the amount of people in areas by providing unique skins/gear recipies in those areas. For instance, people simply THINKING that the shadow behemoth drops Final Rest got people fighting it.

• Having champions or zone bosses drop weapon/gear recipes and a unique crafting material for creating them.

Towns (except LA)

• Adding DEs to these towns would liven them up immediately and constantly provide a reason to visit. Adding rewards and titles unique to these towns provides more incentive to be there. DEs don’t have to involve killing anything while in town, but having events gives people something to do AND provides a lively way of expanding the lore.

• Minigames unique to each town is also something that should be introduced. Hoelbrak has Keg Brawl, but there are 5 other towns, including LA, that need a unique flair. Divinity’s Reach should have archery, for instance. Remember to provide a unique award (weapon skin, mini, etc.).

Personally, I think there is plenty of PvE content that requires people to fight. I think the creation of content that requires 0 fighting will challenge the dev team, but in the end provide content that is genuinely different from the rest of the game.

Arcomage.

Seriously, most fun mini game I’ve ever played in a game. It was in Might and Magic 7, you played it in the taverns (towns) and had to win in different towns in order to play in the next ones.

After all these years I can’t let this mini game go.

People are so used to the usual linear boredom/grind fest MMO games that they see it as a MUST to have ‘end game’ content.

Nobody has an interest in these zones after a while, because they really aren’t that much different than the stuff you see in any other mmo.

GW2 does not make any use of phasing; so i follow the emotionally dead rock, sorry plant, around Orr to cleanse the place. We eventually win, but not really. Because everything still looks as dead as ever, so zero impact coming from the story.

And the events are the same really. The biggest thing that can happen is you lose a WP/Outpost, that’s it. Which downgrades events to simple quests, with the only difference being, you don’t have to pick them up from a guy before you do them.

You just work your way through your checklist, check out an event a couple of times and move on. There will never be anything new or interesting, you’ve seen it before and it’s incredibly limited.
So really, why would i want to escort some guy for the 387th time, defend him from some undead and then take over an outpost; if i have done this so many times before.

Events all follow the same, very predictable pattern. And after a while, that just gets kind of boring.