Guild Wars 2

1 of the things I really miss in the game are decisions with visible consequences. I often really feel like the game wants to press me into a role I dont really fit in. There is only 1 way which leads to the goal and there should be more.
Example: Just imagine Caudecus coups queen Jennah and takes the throne. We as players either have support him (Tyranny) establishing his rulership or help the queen retrieve the throne (Justice). Both choices got their benefits like people who chose the tyranny gets more gold rewards and other personal advantages while those who chose justice will receive help from most of the NPCs like hidden paths, more dungeon paths and a discount on all vendors. Also people from both fractions can fight against each other for the control of territories while each territory under control grants a specific boon. And if people dislike both sides they can join the 3. fraction: Neutral/Mercenarys. You will get no disadvantages/advantages from this side but you can take assignments for money, tokens and other items for both sides.

Another example: During a mission you captured 1 of the white mantle “terrorists” .
Now you have the choice: Try to convince him with bare words, play good cop bad cop or simply punch the information out of him. Every choice leads to the goal but have different personal impacts.
If you convinced him with your words he will help you, also your reputation among the people goes up. They are more likely to tell you things that they actually wanted to keep secret. With a high reputation they start to trust you.
Play good cop bad cop and you wont lose/gain reputation but it will eventually lead to your goal.
Torture/Punch the answers out of him and he will tell you everything but wont help you further, you have to do it without his help. Fastest method but you will lose reputation. People will mistrust you and trying to avoid talking to you.

as much as I love this concept, mmorpgs generally cant support that kind of content, which is why most of those hard core decision making games are single player rpg’s. We currently just don’t have the technology maybe in a few years though

Its my belief that we will eventually have games like this. Where every players actions and decisions ACTUALLY makes an impact on the “world”, large or small. Two of the main problems would be in creating such a game that could support it, which is by far the hardest, and in people letting go of their hardwired belief that they should be allowed access to everything and anything that every other player has or had access to. It would be a TRUE Living World.

Personally I would love a game like that…

But make no mistake – Guild Wars 2 will never be that game.

Though from my understanding the OP is suggesting that decisions made don’t actually make a difference because they will always end up at the same conclusion. Which means that there is only an illusion of choice… which is not a choice at all. I wouldn’t enjoy that as much.

Azhure.1857:

Its my belief that we will eventually have games like this. Where every players actions and decisions ACTUALLY makes an impact on the “world”, large or small. Two of the main problems would be in creating such a game that could support it, which is by far the hardest, and in people letting go of their hardwired belief that they should be allowed access to everything and anything that every other player has or had access to. It would be a TRUE Living World.

Personally I would love a game like that…

But make no mistake – Guild Wars 2 will never be that game.

Though from my understanding the OP is suggesting that decisions made don’t actually make a difference because they will always end up at the same conclusion. Which means that there is only an illusion of choice… which is not a choice at all. I wouldn’t enjoy that as much.

They actually should do make a difference, the losing side from the clash between Caudecus and the queen will get some disadvantages like they are not allowed to buy/sell things in Divinitys Reach and getting randomly attacked by (NPC) followers of the other side from time to time.
And about the other example: your reputation will form your future path. Depending on how you decided people will make remarks and you will get different missions depending on how high/low your reputation is.

I can recall one moment in the game where players had a choice that made a serious effect; the vote between Ellen Kiel or Evon Gnashblade to become the next member of the Captain’s Council. This decided which fractal was going to be made, determined some in game benefits such as cheaper Black Lion Keys, or cheaper waypoint travel, and also made a change in the story line. Evon repeatedly talked about how things would have been different if he was on the Captain’s Council (Although I seriously doubt it would have gone down differently, but it does make you wonder what would have been different had he been on the council.)

Seeing more in game choices like that example would be a great benefit to the game in my opinion.

Once upon a time I played Divine Divinity (single player game). There you built up your reputation by your actions, good or bad, better reputation gave you lower prices at merchants, worse reputation gave you higher prices simply because they didn’t like you, but on the other hand, some merchants only sold stuff to you if you were a bad boy. This is a thing I miss.