Guild Wars 2

A couple days ago while wandering Gendarren Fields looking for events to complete my daily I happened upon Nebo Terrace being over run with Harathi, I typed in map chat that there was an event happening and what happened next was amazing.

There were about a dozen or more players holding the Harathi at the gates, no big deal right?, I was running from the southeast gate to the west gate lending support to fallen and pushing back the onslaught. After a while more and more players showed up and then the fun starts, when what seemed to be more than a hundred or more players joined in the game scaled so seamlessly, soon all you could see was a sea of blue names and Champion and Elite Harathi. Somehow, the Harathi had managed to take the center of Nebo and everyone closed in, the battle became epic, and we were barely holding on, downed but not out characters littered the battlefield to the east side of the courtyard, the west side had a little more room to roam and we weren’t pinned up against any walls. In the heat of battle you generally don’t stop and do a headcount but judging by the nearly solid blue ring of names I would guess that we had over two hundred and fifty players converge on the event ( having seen a similar response during the Shadow Behemoth daily a few days prior) …

What I found so enjoyable was the way gameplay kept growing and adapting to the players. So many times when someone calls an event by the time you arrive the “Zerg” is picking up the drops and moving on. This time everyone who showed up got a chance to participate. Quite possibly my most favorite recent event encountered, if this is what exploring a new zone is going to look like in the future, this game will be unsurpassed by anything else for decades.

Consider I have been playing GuildWars and GuildWars2 collectively for the past decade, it generally takes a little more than a nudge or teaser of something like Heart of Thorns to get me excited, but what I experienced in Nebo ignited my imagination of what I had hoped to see, a game that adapted to the players … I guess you had to be there …

The scaling is sadly far from perfect but yes, even with the issues it has it’s very very impressive. It is a mechanic which has completely ruined most MMOs to me as I cannot take non-scaling fights serious any more.

It’s usually busy all the time, because it’s a really popular event, and there’s a lot of loot bags that drop during the event, and it’s also needed for a trait unlock. Sometimes it never gets started though because people don’t like going through the chain of events that are needed prior to the main event at the end.

Well, since I have no other games with which to compare I admit my view may be somewhat limited, don’t misunderstand me, I have tried many other games out there, but since playing The GuildWars, GuildWars2 franchise I have become spoiled by the richness of the content. I do not play for titles or grind because I want to been an elite in the game, I play for the fun of discovery, and when something happens like this seamless scaling of a simple event not a Boss, where the only reward is the you were there that to me was awesome. I have heard some players complain that once they’ve raced through to get everything that they thought this game has to offer that they’re bored. For me it has always been about the journey. I don’t PvP or WvW, it’s all about my finding my place in the world of Tyria, seeing something new. Racing through to what you think is the end game of GuildWars or GuildWars2 simply means you missed “it”. Kind of like living in the real world, don’t be in such a hurry that you can’t look back with all the fondness of having lived and experienced ( or savored) every moment.

We did this event last night and successfully completed it. Upon successful completion, you get a bonus chest like one does with a World Boss.

So, at first it was difficult, but if we all treat this event (that never even used to be a [Group Event] until recently) as a World Boss, it should be doable from now on

I agree – witnessed a similar episode with Nebo Terrace today as well. Excellent work and very enjoyable.

With the new daily system (which I quite enjoy as it does focus players on a specific zone) there is an increased need for events to scale up enough to cope with a horde of level 80 ascended godlings running around, so it was nice to see this happening.

Hopefully this will be rolled out across more dynamic events as time permits, especially in the lower level zones.