Guild Wars 2

The premise, one that doesn’t show up in many games nowadays, is a simple one: Keep the world in constant turmoil.

Zones are empty, dungeons are run; people are starting to suggest that Anet adds raid content now. Raids are not the answer, and neither is gear progression. The community is growing jittery because there is an end to the content of GW2. It was designed as a story, and all stories have an end. Most games bandage this with expansions, giving players a new story to unfold. We all know those only last so long.

The only way to truly make a never ending game is to set up systems that keep the world in constant turmoil. Turmoil in this sense can be large or small: the centaurs took over Beetletun and if we don’t do something now they’ll take over the farms of Divinity’s Reach. Or it could be that the farmers need a hand harvesting their crops. Create a world with aspects of the fantastic and the mundane, and make those aspects need constant attention. Final Fantasy XIV had a good idea, before the reboot, to create Hamlet events. These were a couple of days long, in phases: Phase 1 was a crafting and gathering phase where people brought resources in and crafted defenses for the hamlet. Phase 2 was the battle phase, where you saw whether or not your defenses could help you turn the tide of war. Each zone is already set up for events like these: humans vs centaur, Charr vs Ghosts/Flame Legion, Syvari vs Nightmare Court/Krait, Asura vs Inquest, Norn vs Sons of Svanir. Not only that, but utilizing the elder dragons to create large scale turmoil within the world. Have events that cycle randomly, roughly every couple of weeks, where dragon minions start to invade lands. Things that not only draw attention but affect the world. As stated before, Beetletun could be completely unaccessible. Or it could be bolstered by players with defenses.

On the more mundane side of things, allowing us to help more than just “Kill the worms!” by utilizing our crafting skills to help NPCs. Tailor clothes for the orphans, cook food for the sick, repair buildings, etc.

I say these things are easy when I really have no idea how programming works at all, but they all seem to fit within the established systems that Guild Wars 2 already has up and running. I’d also like to mention that even these kind of events could grow dull to players, I brought them up to serve as the seeds for greater ideas.

Which zones are empty? On a small-pop server I saw people in intro and lowbie zones, mid-level zones, and in level 80 areas, at non-prime time. And, of course, in pvp.

You do have some good ideas. I’m not sure about making things too random as I can see people complaining that the randomness means they are never able to participate as the random events always seem to occur when they’re not in-game.

As far as random events, I was thinking they would take place over at least a couple of days. Giant umbrella events, while most of the zones regular events continue to take place (unless the giant event gets too out of hand). This would allow for players to partake in the fortifying of defenses, planning of strategies, and actual combat even if they can only log in for an hour a day.

And I’ve been on Gates of Madness and Maguuma, and a lot of the time I play I don’t see others until I go to a city. I play on a 50 right now, and there are some events, particularly anything with a champion, that I’ve resigned to not completing because I can’t find enough people in the zone to take it down. I’m very interested in the updates coming this month, I’d love to see larger populations out in the world.

The problem is players don’t give a kitten if centaurs take over farms because it has no real consequences on them.
Centaurs could take over Tyria completely that players would not be affected and would only bother to liberate LA.

I say that what happens in the world should affect players in some negative ways so they go solve that event (but the reward should be scaled).
For instance, if Cents take over a farm all human characters get 10% less gold from loots (pve only); if they liberate the farm, the malus goes away for 24 hours.

The problem I see lately is that Lion’s Arch is too overcrowded. They never should have placed everything into the one zone as a HUB. Yes it is convenient, but it is counter productive having a gaming HUB with everything and over a dozen zones with tumbleweeds.

The whole game is endgame and you can’t lose.

Ever seen a failed dragon event? I haven’t.. Even if we did, nothing would change so who cares. If the event failed and the zone turned into a huge crapfest people would just WP out, if the reward was awesome they would stay and fail the even as often as possible. Mundane to say the least.

Endgame is where the loot is phat, the karma is best and the coin drops the most.

Just throwing this in here.

The only reason I want GW2 to implement Raids (WITHOUT the gear grind) is because GW2 has the perfect system set up for it. 10 Man Raids could give guilds something to aim for and do together. It could drop prestigious looking armor and reward unique Titles and weapon skins. There could also be achievements. Not only that, but a Raid in GW2 wouldn’t become out dated, you’d have a steady growing amount of Raids that will always be desirable. A Raid released in July of 2013 will not be outdated by June of 2014.

Seems a shame that GW2 doesn’t take advantage of that. I’d love to have more difficult boss encounters with a controlled number of players (on a larger scale than Dungeons). If Tier 1 of difficulty is World Events, Tier 2 of difficulty is Explorable Dungeons, Tier 3 being Fractals, then Raids would be TIer 4 on the difficulty scale.

Lastly, there aren’t enough prestigious armor sets. The only thing I can think of is the Tier 3 Racial Armor, but that’s bought with money and not skill / team work. I want unique looking armor for doing awesome things, not how fat my wallet is. Though based on this update, I believe I saw icons for Armor sets as a reward for doing World Events. That’s a start, but World Events are so easy, if anything it’s just going to turn into a common grind. Not to mention if World Events are too hard, then zergs don’t want to do them. God, I wish GW2 had Raids. There’s nothing challenging in this game in terms of PVE.

/rant

Hmmm I’m not sure if “endless turmoil” is what GW2’s endgame is lacking. It kind of already exists, with the current dynamic quests and the Pact constantly struggling to take Orr. What GW2’s endgame lacks are:

-A high level of required co-ordination. Dynamic quests are not challenging at all, with everyone just shooting at the boss and doing their own thing.
-High-risk high-reward content. In GW1 you had to pay significant gold for cons and entry to have a shot at the end-game, but you were rewarded accordingly for succeeding.
-Complex mechanics that can be approached in different ways. There isn’t much reward for devising new player/group builds for the endgame. Most general purpose PvE builds do fine.
-Interesting player-made content. I’m looking at WvW here. There’s so much potential to make the meta-game more interesting by adding more keep upgrades, control nodes, player-made fortifications (Orcs Must Die style, perhaps) etc. More ways for player creativity to create new exciting gameplay.

Nappychappy.7046:

The whole game is endgame and you can’t lose.

/cheer

just like Donkey Kong, PacMan, Ghost and Goblins, DCUO, Halo, Gears of War, Devil May Cry, Half Life, Left 4 dead, etc etc etc. even mmos have limited content and an intended end of game (typically the story mode/missions), yet the loot or hoarding potential can extend game interest for some players, where PvP modes extend game interest for others. Players motivate themselves beyond the intended ending of a game in many fascinating and boring ways. With the online game product, a game can get DLC or added content to extend interest in a game.

At launch is the special time for every game and getting launch populations in the starting areas will not likely ever happen again. Heck they had prelaunch days available for preorder users. The phenomenon that is calling special content of any game “end game” is a bizarre one. When I first saw this phrase being tossed around, I thought of the “congratulations” screen or animation at the end of a game… I think this phrase has been redefined many times in recent years.

If the UI is adding a LFG in game, that might help guide users in a vast land to explore in a communal way of playing. My most recent 3 alts reaching rank 50 recently had no need for others. Ok, maybe I need others @ Shatterer.

Player motivation is not a universal carrot. Not all players will be motivated by things you might be motivated by. Maybe after having 3 rank 80s, they’d rather take a learned/experienced fast route to rank 80. Cue up the Socializing aspect, which is to say raise a flag and see who salutes. Then make a guild from those saluting.

I was disappointed that you could die a unlimited times in dungeons, its one of the things i miss from gw1

I’d like to point out that raid content does not equal gear progression.

Contrary to the popular belief, there’s no law in this world which forces game companies to design raids with better loot than the rest of the game offers.

I’d personally like to see very slow gear progression, but the improved items should be available to even those who never do raids or smaller instances.

Czar Peter.7961:

I’m not sure if “endless turmoil” is what GW2’s endgame is lacking. It kind of already exists, with the current dynamic quests and the Pact constantly struggling to take Orr.

The problem with this is that none of these events really put the world in danger. They happen, people clear them out so they can get karma or mine some node, and that’s that. Basically, only people interested in intentional farming are doing these events over and over. And that’s not bad, but it does leave out a group of players who don’t want to “farm” in the traditional sense. That’s why a more structured form of zone invasion/defense/whatever event could be really great: it fits with PvE lore, it won’t feel like grinding if it has multiple ways to participate, and it gives cause for groups to come together.

I like what you said about WvW. In my opinion it has the potential to be the strongest part of the game simply because there never is a lack of tasks, the battlefield is constantly changing, and people must work together, not by force but buy consensual necessity. WvW is the playground, hopefully Anet will give us more tools and toys to make great things happen. My idea would be in some ways a PvE simulation of what goes on in WvW. This, I think, might also get those who turned away from PvP for whatever reason more interested, and possibly bolster WvW ranks. Of course it could drain them as well if the events are awesome enough and the loot is phat enough.

Red Falcon.8257:

The problem is players don’t give a kitten if centaurs take over farms because it has no real consequences on them.
Centaurs could take over Tyria completely that players would not be affected and would only bother to liberate LA.

I say that what happens in the world should affect players in some negative ways so they go solve that event (but the reward should be scaled).
For instance, if Cents take over a farm all human characters get 10% less gold from loots (pve only); if they liberate the farm, the malus goes away for 24 hours.

Hell yeah, this is what it should be to encourage player go back to low level and do DE and make this game more lively in PVE.

Anet should consider this ASAP.

Red Falcon.8257:

The problem is players don’t give a kitten if centaurs take over farms because it has no real consequences on them.
Centaurs could take over Tyria completely that players would not be affected and would only bother to liberate LA.

I say that what happens in the world should affect players in some negative ways so they go solve that event (but the reward should be scaled).
For instance, if Cents take over a farm all human characters get 10% less gold from loots (pve only); if they liberate the farm, the malus goes away for 24 hours.

This is a nice idea, give each race some specific events which increase/decrease their stats for a few days if they get unattended.

This would be awesome. When the game was being developed and they talked about the dynamic events “that matter to the world”, this is what I envisioned. Currently the closest thing that exists are the dungeons that get closed off if certain dynamic events fail.

Bravo. You’ve addressed what I also see as a problem for the current game world. I’m baffled as to why this hasn’t been added to the game yet, as it can seriously revitalize the game world if players can do something that matters.

Red Falcon.8257:

The problem is players don’t give a kitten if centaurs take over farms because it has no real consequences on them.
Centaurs could take over Tyria completely that players would not be affected and would only bother to liberate LA.

I say that what happens in the world should affect players in some negative ways so they go solve that event (but the reward should be scaled).
For instance, if Cents take over a farm all human characters get 10% less gold from loots (pve only); if they liberate the farm, the malus goes away for 24 hours.

All i can see coming from that is flood of complaints, first would be orr grinders that get 10% less because low lvl zone event failed. Then would come cof p1 grinders and fractal grinders that have no desire to do low lvl content but wants their gains unaffected.

I’m surprised more people haven’t commented on this. This is a great idea to give the revive the current game world that falls within the manifesto AND would be an ambitious mission to create the feeling of a living world