Guild Wars 2

Erasculio.2914:

Nuage.5230:

It is an awesome game and it won’t fail. Some here seem to almost want this game to fail.

Yep, a lot of people here want the game to fail, that’s pretty much what a hater is.

You haven’t stated what is your definition of “failure”, though.

From my point of view, ArenaNet has already failed. They made a manifesto with their intention, and they didn’t really managed to accomplish most of what they stated as their goal.

Does this mean Guild Wars 2 is a bad game? For some people, yes. For others, no. For me, yes.

Its only been about 10 months. I understand that you were saddened that by release their manifesto didn’t match with the game content provided, but they indirectly stated that the things they stated were their GOALS. Goals are things set to be accomplished in the future.

Nuage.5230:

Like what I mean to say is that while I personally love GW2 and appreciate it, does it have staying power. Only time will tell, I guess.

Well if it doesn’t GW1 almost doesn’t have any players left by now, but the servers are still open. I think that GW2 could still live on quite happily with 70% less players than it has right now.

Mirta.5029:

Nuage.5230:

Like what I mean to say is that while I personally love GW2 and appreciate it, does it have staying power. Only time will tell, I guess.

Well if it doesn’t GW1 almost doesn’t have any players left by now, but the servers are still open. I think that GW2 could still live on quite happily with 70% less players than it has right now.

Hmm, I do wonder what the official numbers are for GW2, like a million or two perhaps?

Nuage.5230:

Hmm, I do wonder what the official numbers are for GW2, like a million or two perhaps?

With 50 servers and a lot actually having people in them? I would say that the bought copies are at about 6 million or so and we have about 2-3 million of players that show up and play. But hell how much people you see depends on what server you’re on, so all we can do is guess.

Mirta.5029:

With 50 servers and a lot actually having people in them? I would say that the bought copies are at about 6 million or so and we have about 2-3 million of players that show up and play. But hell how much people you see depends on what server you’re on, so all we can do is guess.

There are people who play every day, and people who only play on weekends, people who only log in long enough to do the dailies, people who only play PvP or WvWvW… people who only log in once in a while when they feel like it.

With no sub and no gear treadmill, a player is free to come and go as it suits him without losing much. Most people don’t get obsessed over how many points they have, or what achievements they’ve crossed off the list, or whether they have the latest backpiece or mini pet. There are far more casual players who do not log in every single day than a lot of people posting here realize. Because the people posting here are more likely to see those things as important, they think everyone else does too.

So it’s just not possible to make a firm guess about how many people play the game at a given moment. It’s easy to log on during the midafternoon, server time, and go to a random midlevel zone and say “I don’t see anyone here, therefore the game is dead.” I play a lot during off-peak hours, middle of the night and midmornings and so on, and I rarely go longer than than 20 minutes without seeing another player. When events happen and during peak hours I see a lot more people.

People tend to see what they expect to see. Convince yourself the game is dead and you won’t see the other players running by doing their own thing.

Nuage.5230:

mesme.5028:

I do love gw2, thou i wish it was gw2 and not a new game with the lore of gw.

The game just feels nothing like gw, the profession’s are missing some of the original favorite’s, Ritualist and Dervish were loved, instead we got engineer, pffft thanks a lot.

Of the professions we did get, some just bad interpretations of the ones we had, take Mesmer for example, i loved my gw1 Mesmer and her play style, what they gave us is not the Mesmer most loved.

I think gw2 will last a while, thou i feel the gem store is showing a-net in a bad light,
with all the offers they have, you could be forgiven for thinking you are playing a blizzard product.

On the blizzard note, i wonder how well gw2 will survive when World of Warcraft goes f2p on release of Blizzards next gen mmo Titan, i guess we will have to wait and see:).

Good insight. People are rather hostile to the Gem store and for many reasons. One reason is that it’s a cash grab, but I can’t blame Anet – they gotta make money. Sometimes people are a bit to hostile to the notion of a company doing what companies do… profit.

One problem I have with the gem store is there aren’t enough things in there. We need more clothes, more everything. I would spend a lot of money in there if there were more appealing things.

People have commented on how GW2 is a niche game, and that’s one thing I like about it. Let WoW and Titan do what they do – let them get 10, 15, 100, 200 million players and I, along with many others, will still enjoy GW for the style, the combat and the lore. A lot of folks get hung up on how many subscribers an MMO has, and that’s understandable – but mass appeal is not equal to a quality product which it itself subjective.

Let GW2 be 2nd, 3rd or 5th on the World MMO stage, but as long as the Devs put their heart into this game I am a happy camper. That’s that I ike about this game, man; I can’t ut my finger on it exactly, but it seems the people who make this game really have put their hearts in it, and it seems like this for GW2 than most other MMOs

Also, again, I absolutely love Guild Wars in-game community. A game that is not marketed to the masses has a sort of “small town feel” and I really enjoy that. Let WoW and others like it be the Big Cities of MMOs and I’ll be fine here.

I really do like this game. And I tip my hat to Anet for what thy have done. GW2 just needs a bit more of polish and it will be, for me, the best game I have played.

The best games i played were Warcraft 3, League of Legends, The Burning Crusade and Gw1 share position 2.

Gw2 while i do have fun, it’s lacking, i don’t know what the thing is, but what ever it is, the aforementioned games had it in abundance.

I really dislike the gem store and how the game revolves around it.

mesme.5028:

Nuage.5230:

mesme.5028:

I do love gw2, thou i wish it was gw2 and not a new game with the lore of gw.

The game just feels nothing like gw, the profession’s are missing some of the original favorite’s, Ritualist and Dervish were loved, instead we got engineer, pffft thanks a lot.

Of the professions we did get, some just bad interpretations of the ones we had, take Mesmer for example, i loved my gw1 Mesmer and her play style, what they gave us is not the Mesmer most loved.

I think gw2 will last a while, thou i feel the gem store is showing a-net in a bad light,
with all the offers they have, you could be forgiven for thinking you are playing a blizzard product.

On the blizzard note, i wonder how well gw2 will survive when World of Warcraft goes f2p on release of Blizzards next gen mmo Titan, i guess we will have to wait and see:).

Good insight. People are rather hostile to the Gem store and for many reasons. One reason is that it’s a cash grab, but I can’t blame Anet – they gotta make money. Sometimes people are a bit to hostile to the notion of a company doing what companies do… profit.

One problem I have with the gem store is there aren’t enough things in there. We need more clothes, more everything. I would spend a lot of money in there if there were more appealing things.

People have commented on how GW2 is a niche game, and that’s one thing I like about it. Let WoW and Titan do what they do – let them get 10, 15, 100, 200 million players and I, along with many others, will still enjoy GW for the style, the combat and the lore. A lot of folks get hung up on how many subscribers an MMO has, and that’s understandable – but mass appeal is not equal to a quality product which it itself subjective.

Let GW2 be 2nd, 3rd or 5th on the World MMO stage, but as long as the Devs put their heart into this game I am a happy camper. That’s that I ike about this game, man; I can’t ut my finger on it exactly, but it seems the people who make this game really have put their hearts in it, and it seems like this for GW2 than most other MMOs

Also, again, I absolutely love Guild Wars in-game community. A game that is not marketed to the masses has a sort of “small town feel” and I really enjoy that. Let WoW and others like it be the Big Cities of MMOs and I’ll be fine here.

I really do like this game. And I tip my hat to Anet for what thy have done. GW2 just needs a bit more of polish and it will be, for me, the best game I have played.

The best games i played were Warcraft 3, League of Legends, The Burning Crusade and Gw1 share position 2.

Gw2 while i do have fun, it’s lacking, i don’t know what the thing is, but what ever it is, the aforementioned games had it in abundance.

I really dislike the gem store and how the game revolves around it.

I see where you’re coming from to a degree. See on one hand I do like the gem store, I like the idea, I like micro transactions, hell, again, I wish there was more in the store – but the emptiness I feel is how it seems professions are rendered useless and gold making is kitten or sacrificed on the altar of trading gems for gold. It sucks.

The thing is this, even with such flaws, some of them big, GW2 still, for me, manages to be a kitten good title. Perhaps it’s because the other MMOs out there suck so bad; maybe it’s because I played WoW for almost 7 years and logged more hours there than I care to admit, but this game just does it for me.

GW2 is, for me, like the really, really nice and appealing girl who has a few physical drawbacks. I don’t know what it is about this title exactly – I am usually harsh on games and take no issue with leaving a “your game sucks” post and leaving forever.

Mirta.5029:

I would say that the bought copies are at about 6 million or so and we have about 2-3 million of players that show up and play.

Rose collored glasses are bad for your health, kids.

ArenaNet announced that Guild Wars 2 sold 3 million copies. They had also announced that the game had reached 2 million copies, and with GW1 they always told us whenever the game had reached past a new million mark.

To claim the game has sold 6 million copies by now and ArenaNet would not have announced so is one of the most preposterously ridiculous arguments I have ever seen.

Erasculio.2914:

Rose collored glasses are bad for your health, kids.

ArenaNet announced that Guild Wars 2 sold 3 million copies. They had also announced that the game had reached 2 million copies, and with GW1 they always told us whenever the game had reached past a new million mark.

To claim the game has sold 6 million copies by now and ArenaNet would not have announced so is one of the most preposterously ridiculous arguments I have ever seen.

They announced it at last year’s September. Then there was silence. However their sales did not stay at zero.
And why do you think that I’m posting a claim?

But hell how much people you see depends on what server you’re on, so all we can do is guess.

I’m posting a guess. Because all we can do is guess, because no official numbers were announced since.

Mirta.5029:

They announced it at last year’s September.

Wrong. Try paying attention to the link in my previous post.

Mirta.5029:

I’m posting a guess. Because all we can do is guess, because no official numbers were announced since.

Wrong. Try paying attention to the content of my previous post. Sales have not gone past 4 million copies yet.

Great game, horrible storyline.

The personal story should just be tossed out entirely. It makes the game look bad. In fact, just disable Arah Story Mode until the final boss fight is redone entirely.

I wanted to get close and personal with ZHaitan, but all I got was a big chicken!

Erasculio.2914:

Mirta.5029:

They announced it at last year’s September.

Wrong. Try paying attention to the link in my previous post.

Mirta.5029:

I’m posting a guess. Because all we can do is guess, because no official numbers were announced since.

Wrong. Try paying attention to the content of my previous post. Sales have not gone past 4 million copies yet.

" in the few months since Guild Wars 2 launched we’ve sold more than three million games"
1. “In the few months” the announcement for the 3 million sales did indeed show up pretty early. For one thing http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/09/13/guild-wars-2-sells-2-million/ that was the amount sold in the first 2 weeks.
2. “more than”. More. At January they had more than 3 million.
http://2p.com/229489_1/NCsoft-Released-Q1-2013-Earning-Report-Lineage-Still-Robust.htm <- divided by GW2 price this alone would put us over 5 million. However gem purchases go into it too, so it’s anyones guess.

Nuage.5230:

mesme.5028:

Nuage.5230:

mesme.5028:

I do love gw2, thou i wish it was gw2 and not a new game with the lore of gw.

The game just feels nothing like gw, the profession’s are missing some of the original favorite’s, Ritualist and Dervish were loved, instead we got engineer, pffft thanks a lot.

Of the professions we did get, some just bad interpretations of the ones we had, take Mesmer for example, i loved my gw1 Mesmer and her play style, what they gave us is not the Mesmer most loved.

I think gw2 will last a while, thou i feel the gem store is showing a-net in a bad light,
with all the offers they have, you could be forgiven for thinking you are playing a blizzard product.

On the blizzard note, i wonder how well gw2 will survive when World of Warcraft goes f2p on release of Blizzards next gen mmo Titan, i guess we will have to wait and see:).

Good insight. People are rather hostile to the Gem store and for many reasons. One reason is that it’s a cash grab, but I can’t blame Anet – they gotta make money. Sometimes people are a bit to hostile to the notion of a company doing what companies do… profit.

One problem I have with the gem store is there aren’t enough things in there. We need more clothes, more everything. I would spend a lot of money in there if there were more appealing things.

People have commented on how GW2 is a niche game, and that’s one thing I like about it. Let WoW and Titan do what they do – let them get 10, 15, 100, 200 million players and I, along with many others, will still enjoy GW for the style, the combat and the lore. A lot of folks get hung up on how many subscribers an MMO has, and that’s understandable – but mass appeal is not equal to a quality product which it itself subjective.

Let GW2 be 2nd, 3rd or 5th on the World MMO stage, but as long as the Devs put their heart into this game I am a happy camper. That’s that I ike about this game, man; I can’t ut my finger on it exactly, but it seems the people who make this game really have put their hearts in it, and it seems like this for GW2 than most other MMOs

Also, again, I absolutely love Guild Wars in-game community. A game that is not marketed to the masses has a sort of “small town feel” and I really enjoy that. Let WoW and others like it be the Big Cities of MMOs and I’ll be fine here.

I really do like this game. And I tip my hat to Anet for what thy have done. GW2 just needs a bit more of polish and it will be, for me, the best game I have played.

The best games i played were Warcraft 3, League of Legends, The Burning Crusade and Gw1 share position 2.

Gw2 while i do have fun, it’s lacking, i don’t know what the thing is, but what ever it is, the aforementioned games had it in abundance.

I really dislike the gem store and how the game revolves around it.

I see where you’re coming from to a degree. See on one hand I do like the gem store, I like the idea, I like micro transactions, hell, again, I wish there was more in the store – but the emptiness I feel is how it seems professions are rendered useless and gold making is kitten or sacrificed on the altar of trading gems for gold. It sucks.

The thing is this, even with such flaws, some of them big, GW2 still, for me, manages to be a kitten good title. Perhaps it’s because the other MMOs out there suck so bad; maybe it’s because I played WoW for almost 7 years and logged more hours there than I care to admit, but this game just does it for me.

GW2 is, for me, like the really, really nice and appealing girl who has a few physical drawbacks. I don’t know what it is about this title exactly – I am usually harsh on games and take no issue with leaving a “your game sucks” post and leaving forever.

I do understand, and agree to an extent, (changes girl to guy) lol.

I am quite happy to log in a few hours, log out and go watch a movie or whatever, upon logging out gw2 and gaming in general is forgotten.

Now i think therein lies the problem.

You said you played wow for 7 years so ill that as a way to explain…

from Vanilla upon getting The Burning Crusade and standing in front of the dark portal, like many others i hear illidan, YOU ARE NOT PREPARED !!! jumping on my mount and going into the portal i think, we shall see.

On exit of the portal i look at outland and pause, take a deep breath and yell back, FOR THE HORDE !!! lol the game experience all through that expansion had me in awe.

Yes Gw2 is fun thou.

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

Actually, this isn’t quite true.

In order for you to rate whether or not something is fulfilled in the manifesto, you have to define certain words. Words like fun.

I understood exactly what Colin was saying about grinding and fun. Some people choose to take comments from that paragraph out of context and assign a different definition of grind than the one he’d already given. By taking that line out of context, they are changing the meaning of the entire paragraph.

But the manifesto talks about fun things to do also. That you’ll be able to do fun things without this annoying grind to get to them. That’s simply a matter of opinion since different people find different things fun. I certainly was able to do a bunch of stuff I personally found fun, but someone else might not find the same things fun, so the paragraph might not hold true for them.

You are mistaken. The experience of fun may be subjective but the word itself has a definition without our creating a new one.

I just revisited the manifesto for the first time since it was released. Afraid that I have to agree that it has not been achieved based purely on objective examination.

1) Does it include everything that was loved about GW1 ? No. There are things that some loved about GW1 that do not exist in GW2.

2) Does the storyline branch, “fully ?” No. There are very few points of story branch. Had the word, “fully,” not been included in the manifesto this aspect would have been achieved. It was an unfortunately poor choice of wording.

Is the storyline personalized ? No. Storylines are pre-designed with a small number of options. If something is shared, potentially with hundreds of thousands of others, it is not personalized.

Most rewards in GW2 are based on RNG or repetition. Ive yet to see a definition of grind that wasn’t at least close to something like, “doing task X repeatedly in the expectation of eventually receiving a desired reward.” One cannot get dungeon armor without this. One should not expect to get a legendary weapon without this. If your definition of grind is different than any other Ive seen I might be inclined to cede this point. On the other hand the manifesto mentions avoiding the boring stuff to get to the fun stuff. As there is no option to bypass leveling in order to gain access to higher level dungeons the manifesto fails if there are players who consider high level dungeons to be fun and leveling to be boring. The decision to not make GW2 a level-less system guaranteed the failure of the manifesto in this aspect.

The boss, in GW2, does respawn, “ten minutes later.” The manifesto spoke against that and yet it is present in the game.

You do not affect things in the game world around you in a, “very permanent way,” as the manifesto claims.

“The village that you rescued,” does not in fact, “stay rescued.”

I am not claiming that GW2 is not fun. I like the game. I enjoy it (admittedly less after the recent patch). Fun is subjective and so for each player to decide for himself. But the manifesto is rife with claims and goals that objectively failed to come to fruition. Unless you can demonstrate that when you defeat a boss it stays defeated, and so on, these failures are not subjective.

Great post exactly how i feel about the manifesto, it is not accurate at all, and very much the opposite of what we got and what many expected from watching it.

Guildwars 2 was Awesome in it’s own way when it opened quite buggy though, since then its taken a multitude of nerfs and content additions that ruined it (for many) to a point where a lot have just given up..

Dante.1508:

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

Actually, this isn’t quite true.

In order for you to rate whether or not something is fulfilled in the manifesto, you have to define certain words. Words like fun.

I understood exactly what Colin was saying about grinding and fun. Some people choose to take comments from that paragraph out of context and assign a different definition of grind than the one he’d already given. By taking that line out of context, they are changing the meaning of the entire paragraph.

But the manifesto talks about fun things to do also. That you’ll be able to do fun things without this annoying grind to get to them. That’s simply a matter of opinion since different people find different things fun. I certainly was able to do a bunch of stuff I personally found fun, but someone else might not find the same things fun, so the paragraph might not hold true for them.

You are mistaken. The experience of fun may be subjective but the word itself has a definition without our creating a new one.

I just revisited the manifesto for the first time since it was released. Afraid that I have to agree that it has not been achieved based purely on objective examination.

1) Does it include everything that was loved about GW1 ? No. There are things that some loved about GW1 that do not exist in GW2.

2) Does the storyline branch, “fully ?” No. There are very few points of story branch. Had the word, “fully,” not been included in the manifesto this aspect would have been achieved. It was an unfortunately poor choice of wording.

Is the storyline personalized ? No. Storylines are pre-designed with a small number of options. If something is shared, potentially with hundreds of thousands of others, it is not personalized.

Most rewards in GW2 are based on RNG or repetition. Ive yet to see a definition of grind that wasn’t at least close to something like, “doing task X repeatedly in the expectation of eventually receiving a desired reward.” One cannot get dungeon armor without this. One should not expect to get a legendary weapon without this. If your definition of grind is different than any other Ive seen I might be inclined to cede this point. On the other hand the manifesto mentions avoiding the boring stuff to get to the fun stuff. As there is no option to bypass leveling in order to gain access to higher level dungeons the manifesto fails if there are players who consider high level dungeons to be fun and leveling to be boring. The decision to not make GW2 a level-less system guaranteed the failure of the manifesto in this aspect.

The boss, in GW2, does respawn, “ten minutes later.” The manifesto spoke against that and yet it is present in the game.

You do not affect things in the game world around you in a, “very permanent way,” as the manifesto claims.

“The village that you rescued,” does not in fact, “stay rescued.”

I am not claiming that GW2 is not fun. I like the game. I enjoy it (admittedly less after the recent patch). Fun is subjective and so for each player to decide for himself. But the manifesto is rife with claims and goals that objectively failed to come to fruition. Unless you can demonstrate that when you defeat a boss it stays defeated, and so on, these failures are not subjective.

Great post exactly how i feel about the manifesto, it is not accurate at all, and very much the opposite of what we got and what many expected from watching it.

Guildwars 2 was Awesome in it’s own way when it opened quite buggy though, since then its taken a multitude of nerfs and content additions that ruined it (for many) to a point where a lot have just given up..

To bad most of the stuff in that post picks on single words, personal interpreations and completely ignores Anet’s clarifications and explanations published immediately after it came out.

It’s going to shrink to a fraction of the original playerbase and become a niche game though. Not fail.

Vayne… I really enjoy reading your posts. Thank you for bringing your insight.

Vayne.8563:

To bad most of the stuff in that post picks on single words, personal interpreations and completely ignores Anet’s clarifications and explanations published immediately after it came out.

You do realize, I hope, that the same could be said about your criticism of those who point how the Manifesto is wrong. You usually pick on single words, personal interpretations and ignore the context of ArenaNet’s claims in order to try to twist reality as much as possible so the Manifesto would be true. The last time you tried doing that and someone called you on it, your next argument was that the Manifesto doesn’t matter because it’s two years old.

It is an awesome game and it won’t fai

It has already failed…

Gankfest.4965:

It is an awesome game and it won’t fai

It has already failed…

how so? Plenty of people including me are playing it and enjoying playing it.

Gankfest.4965:

It is an awesome game and it won’t fai

It has already failed…

In some very strange definition of failure maybe. In reality, no it didn’t.

maddoctor.2738:

In some very strange definition of failure maybe. In reality, no it didn’t.

And what do you think is ArenaNet’s definition of failure?

Kain Francois.4328:

Great game, horrible storyline.

The personal story should just be tossed out entirely. It makes the game look bad. In fact, just disable Arah Story Mode until the final boss fight is redone entirely.

I wanted to get close and personal with ZHaitan, but all I got was a big chicken!

I agree on the story line wasn’t good but the Zhaitan dragon was not one of them, I really liked the looks of him, the fact that last part stumbled to me was all the inserts of in game “movies” then a few still art images, then back to some in game npc talking then repeated even more of the same, I got the story but it still was a mess to me.

Also a hero do his own work, he dont just shoot with cannons to kill the superior main boss, instead of an epic fight we get a few mini bosses as side events that felt really detatched by the story.

Erasculio.2914:

maddoctor.2738:

In some very strange definition of failure maybe. In reality, no it didn’t.

And what do you think is ArenaNet’s definition of failure?

I’m not working for ArenaNet so I can’t be sure what their definition of failure is but I can take an easy guess:
Empty or close to empty servers?
Very low income from gem store sales?
Not enough new players buying the game?

Just some examples. Since we don’t see major layoffs at ArenaNet it means financially they are doing well, therefore how can anyone say the game failed?

maddoctor.2738:

I’m not working for ArenaNet so I can’t be sure what their definition of failure is but I can take an easy guess:
Empty or close to empty servers?
Very low income from gem store sales?
Not enough new players buying the game?

Just some examples.

The issue with those is that, as you appropriately mentioned, we don’t know any of that data ourselves. We don’t know what definition of success ArenaNet is using, and if they are, we don’t know the data about said definition.

For example, let’s assume they are using the definition of failure as “very low income from gem store sales”. How much is “very low”? How much do they make from gem store sales? We don’t know.

So, in objective criteria, can we say Guild Wars 2 is a success? Not really, we simply don’t know. Can we say Guild Wars 2 has failed, from ArenaNet’s point of view? Again, not really, we don’t know.

ArenaNet did write a blog entry called Is it Fun? Colin Johanson on how ArenaNet Measures Success. That’s a subjective way to evaluate success, but one ArenaNet itself mentioned. And under that kind of definition, it’s possible to say “Guild Wars 2 has failed”, meaning “To me, the game is not fun”.

What I find incredible, is that one person is so obsessed with the GW2 Manifesto. Its time to let it go. Get outside and enjoy the sunshine.

Erasculio.2914:

Vayne.8563:

To bad most of the stuff in that post picks on single words, personal interpreations and completely ignores Anet’s clarifications and explanations published immediately after it came out.

You do realize, I hope, that the same could be said about your criticism of those who point how the Manifesto is wrong. You usually pick on single words, personal interpretations and ignore the context of ArenaNet’s claims in order to try to twist reality as much as possible so the Manifesto would be true. The last time you tried doing that and someone called you on it, your next argument was that the Manifesto doesn’t matter because it’s two years old.

Sorry but no. You seem to forget. language is my business. It’s what I did for a living for quite a long time. I’m not just making stuff up here.

When someone defines something like grind in a document, the definition of what they mean by grind is what they described. Otherwise, why go to the trouble of defining it.

Grind has too many definitions to ignore the one provided. This isn’t taking single words, this is reading English.

It’s very easy to take single words and try to make the entire context about them, but it’s not the right way to read. And frankly, using “fully” branching personal story line, as opposed to just a “branching personal story line” is just silly.

It’s an attempt to pick holes. It’s what lawyers and politicians do. If you want to be a part of it, go ahead. But I’ll not let it get by without commenting on it.

The manifesto is merchandize. More precisely, it is an example of the bloated merchandize language ArenaNet increasingly used when the release drew nearer. It’s not really the cornerstone of ArenaNet’s design philosophy.
ArenaNet wanted to create an MMO with artistic design without item threadmill, with a combat system that is different from the usual tank&spank-setup, without content blockers, where it is reasonable for high-level chars to hang out in all areas of the game and not just the high-level ones and with an action-gameplay in which other people are welcome and not competitors.
This is what the idea of GW2 was all about and I would argue that that is what it mostly has become.

ASaturnus.4980:

The manifesto is merchandize. More precisely, it is an example of the bloated merchandize language ArenaNet increasingly used when the release drew nearer. It’s not really the cornerstone of ArenaNet’s design philosophy.
ArenaNet wanted to create an MMO with artistic design without item threadmill, with a combat system that is different from the usual tank&spank-setup, without content blockers, where it is reasonable for high-level chars to hang out in all areas of the game and not just the high-level ones and with an action-gameplay in which other people are welcome and not competitors.
This is what the idea of GW2 was all about and I would argue that that is what it mostly has become.

Thank you for this. The manifesto was written a long time ago, before SWToR was out. When they talk about stuff like the personal story, there was no MMO with a personal story at all at that point. Even now, it’s only SWToR and Guild Wars 2. So yeah, the personal story isn’t what Dragon Age is, but it’s a HUGE step up from MMOs in the past, and certainly a step up from any MMO when the manifesto was published.

The same thing with dynamic events. While Rift and even Warhammer had a form of public event system, neither of them was brave enough to do away with the traditional questing model. Guild Wars 2 has 1500 dynamic events, push the genre envelop.

Anet envisioned a different kind of MMO and largely created a different type of MMO. One with a personal story that centers in the open world around dynamic events. This is what the Manifesto talks about and this is basically what they’ve done.

If you want to pick on individual specific words or take lines out of context, you can pretty much prove anything, but if you watch the manifesto and look at what Anet is actually saying, they’ve pretty much created the game they describe (with the exception of the everything you loved about Guild Wars 1 line).

The game can’t be called a failure, even if it hemorrhaged a good number of players right after launch. It has beautiful graphics, great innovations, and fluid gameplay, and I got put in Queensdale overflow just yesterday so it still has a solid number of players.

I think the real issue with GW2 is that the setting and story sort of fell flatter than was expected. The story of GW1 felt a lot more gripping and epic than the story of GW2 , which engaged you and created a feeling of immersion. It’s hard to put a finger on why really (though the mediocre personal story certainly plays a role), but I think it’s responsible for the game feeling a bit more shallow than it should feel and that causes people to just lose interest easily.

I hope and think this is something that will be recovered over time if Anet takes the right approach.

Einlanzer.1627:

The game can’t be called a failure, even if it hemorrhaged a good number of players right after launch. It has beautiful graphics, great innovations, and fluid gameplay, and I got put in Queensdale overflow just yesterday so it still has a solid number of players.

I think the real issue with GW2 is that the setting and story sort of fell flatter than was expected. The story of GW1 felt a lot more gripping and epic than the story of GW2 , which engaged you and created a feeling of immersion. It’s hard to put a finger on why really, but I think it’s responsible for the game feeling a bit more shallow than it should feel and that causes people to just lose interest easily.

I hope and think this is something that will be recovered over time if Anet takes the right approach.

The reason why Guild Wars 1 was more immersive is because it was completely instanced. So your quests could match what you were doing in missions. In Guild Wars 2, what you’re doing in your personal story really can’t match the world, because it’s not only not instanced but it’s also less linear.

I mean Guild Wars 1 was very linear. By the time you did the four missions in Ascalon, you were also fighting charr constantly in the world. There’s a bigger disconnect here between your personal story and the open world. When everything feels more compartmentalized, it feels more like a game and less like a world.