Guild Wars 2

After reading through almost the entire 100 pages of discussion on the new update. I felt compelled to come up with a thread.

There are different faces of reaction to this update. I strongly understand the depth of this reaction. I am not sure, If I can bring a conclusive point to this argument. I am confident of bringing a down a constructive face to this discussion.

First let me start explaining the different faces of reaction,

1> The fear of tread mill & grind (feeling betrayed)
2> I’am not sure. It looks bad. Will wait and see
3> I am excited. Now i can stop thinking about legendary(which was starting to look like a huge task – ending up to be a grind like feeling).

The reason for this fear is: Experience.

The mmo community is not some stupid community. They have a good population of experienced gamers. From previous models of MMO. They felt compelled to play GW2 as there was something really unique which will remove the fun killing – grind. Looking at the article released by GW2, they are struck by a huge lightning. Its the same old thing. There will be nothing interesting to do. But spend hours and hours just to get another armor set.

I have an answer guys. This by far is the only rarity tier expansion. The intention is to fill the void between legendary and end game content. People feel less compelled to even participate in fresh content(which is supposed to be fun in papers – but not working out practically). As they feel making a legendary would be a more important task. I am not saying this(ascended armor update) is the best solution. But, It is the quickest solution. This grind will not at all continue. This is a small token you receive for playing new content. You can frown if the content is boring. No more new tiers will be released.

There is another big information which is still yet to be revealed. No matter what you did. Dungeon, WvW or Exploring(crafting). You where slowly moving towards the maxed out armor set(exotic). I believe they will have a solution for this. They will introduce a similar ascended item to the exiting modes of progression*.

modes of progression = playing wvw all day (or) just love exploring nothing else (or) love the toughness of a dungeon.

so like: I hope they will have a ascended ring that can be bought with the badges of honor. say 500 badges of honor or 500 tokens from CoF. This is where the possible tread mill scenario will be eliminated. So no one is forced to play a content. But simply, given a good incentive to do so.

The world is not coming to an end, In this update. Just hold on to your thoughts. Let see what happens. But there are greater fears that needs discussion IMO.

What is my fear —--

- There is a huge world out there(in Tyria ofcourse). Maps like mount maelstrom and fire hear rise. The only reason to be there is?
– To finish your exploration.
– To level up
– “we have a dungeon here”
– they put a new jumping puzzle.
– There is lore to explore.

What it should have been like.

- I love going back to the map just to do that dynamic event which I love.
– This part of the map is so unique. We like playing this like a mini game. I love when I get together with my friends here.
– My friend was passing through this map yesterday.(as he wanted a change, not grinding in Cursed shore). He found a new dynamic even that triggered when he turned a rock(or when he saw an incription on a night sky)
- bottom line: Cursed shore/Frost gore sound/any highlevel dungeon – As a content is not so great or creatively equal to a few low level places like: fireheart rises/lornar’s pass. But why should cursed shore alone be more populated and most played????

Why should it be like that….

- These maps are huge content. Lots of great designing and time has gone into it. But is it performing for its worth of time and labor?. A BIG NO. (what does it teach us??…… there is some fundamental flaw ….which can be corrected of-course)

Why is it not so….

- The drops don’t scale.
- The reason they have had it so. Then people would start farming easy mobs in queensdale.
- Then this question pops up. Why not?. Make some sort of scaling adjustment. To make it a tough fight. (like you have leveled us down and not the armor or weapon we hold)

Conclusion:
One might feel are they running out of ideas or not being creative. Their business model has created a great environment for creative people to thrive with ideas. In time we can see this game molding into a better model. This is the best possible Game we can get in the current world economy. Pure creativity in an matured field like gaming is starting to fade. It is just not possible(in my opinion of course).

There is no reason to loose hope on GW2. It is the best MMO. It will be the best for next few years. (REASON: The game is designed in such a way that: It can be improved to great heights if done right(which takes huge time IMO. so i dont feel like judging a great team based on a single update…. that too, the first major update)).

Foot note: I lost control of my thoughts and writing when I was rambling up the content. I will add clearer perspective as the constructive discussion starts to unfold.