Guild Wars 2

The more I play, the more I think to myself. Who is the target audience of Guild Wars 2?

While I’m sure this isn’t true, as an 18 year old college student, I feel like the game is aimed a little young for me. The “cuteness” factor is a little high, as shown especially by the silly dialogue of all of the races, races like the quaggans, the word “fart” used in a very serious seeming cutscene, and a number of other things.

I feel like the game caters to people who don’t have a lot of time to play and enjoy ticking things off of lists. This can be found in Map Completion, Achievement Points, most every living story event I’ve played so far, dailies, time-gated material, etc.

I wish GW2 kept the same tone as GW1. If they just did that, the target audience may have swayed my way.

Head south and hang a right.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ruins_of_Orr

You’re welcome.

Awesome. 3/28ths of the game that I can feel at home in. Hanging out with the Pact and their megalazers.

I’m not sure who the game is aimed at, but I’m pretty sure ongoing development is no longer aimed at people who liked the original game as presented in BWE and at launch.

Actually, there was interview with Johansen where he said their “core player” was the guy who only had an hour to play each day.

Time-gated dailies for end-game gear were created with him in mind, so he could log in and still feel he was progressing.

Also, my personal feeling is too that the design of GW2 is veering close to Facebook type games. Checklists, achievements, daily time-gated content.

GW2 really is becoming a type of Farmville.

I don’t know OP…I’m 51 and I feel like the game is aimed at me. While some stories are lighter, others aren’t. There is a charr story I thought was quite poignant. There’s plenty of little dark moments as well.

But I think as you get older, you also learn to take some things less seriously. There are things I’d watch and enjoy now that I’d have never watched and enjoyed at your age, even though they might be considered less serious and more silly.

Thrumdi.9216:

Actually, there was interview with Johansen where he said their “core player” was the guy who only had an hour to play each day.

Which is why the daily timegates total to far more than an hour. Yeah, right.

The larger MMO’s haven’t had a narrowly defined target audience for years. By their very nature they are able, if well designed, to appeal to a large audience and a wildly diverse player base in terms of skill level and interest. It really wouldn’t make sense to talk about niches unless you were talking about aspects of the game designed especially for them.

I’m 57. I feel personally that the game is aimed at a far far younger target. Having a serious discussion thread re LS and having CJ pop in to ask “what’s your favorite TV show” was a bit disconcerting.

In a thread discussing mainly lack of particle effect control, again, a red name pops in to assure us they are making the UI simpler and more streamlined?
Huh?

We are directed like a bunch of kids in a pre school, sans nap time. We are given cheap shiney baubles for going along with the other kids and not raising a ruckus.

When we ask for common sense tools, like a checkbox to hide LS screen clutter, configurable UI, more graphical adjustments, they react with the same horror one would if a 3 year old asked to play with the carving knives.

I think their concept of their market is pretty young.

GW1 seemed much more mature even though it was also 12+.

You get a little bit of everybody playing this game. Given the emphasis on the BLTC, I’d say there’s heavy placement towards older individuals with disposable income.

The target audience is and always has been anyone who’s willing to buy.

If you think you’re too mature to play a game, you most decidedly are not too mature for the game.

Thrumdi.9216:

Actually, there was interview with Johansen where he said their “core player” was the guy who only had an hour to play each day.

Wow… if that’s true then where did the Tequatl enhancement come from? You have to guest on a server that still does it, and then wait well over an hour just waiting (assuming you even get out of Overflow).

GW2 audience are players that never played any kind of mmo’s.

Vayne.8563:

I don’t know OP…I’m 51 and I feel like the game is aimed at me. While some stories are lighter, others aren’t. There is a charr story I thought was quite poignant. There’s plenty of little dark moments as well.

But I think as you get older, you also learn to take some things less seriously. There are things I’d watch and enjoy now that I’d have never watched and enjoyed at your age, even though they might be considered less serious and more silly.

“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly.” C. S. Lewis

I agree that the tone seems awfully cheery for a world that is supposedly threatened by total destruction. A little comic relief (Quaggans) is okay but it gets tiresome after a while.

Thrumdi.9216:

Actually, there was interview with Johansen where he said their “core player” was the guy who only had an hour to play each day.

Time-gated dailies for end-game gear were created with him in mind, so he could log in and still feel he was progressing.

That guy will get his laurel every day if he focuses on it.

He’ll never get an ascended weapon, legendary, run a fractal, or complete an LS meta-achievement, though.

Aeolus.3615:

GW2 audience are players that never played any kind of mmo’s.

GW2 is my 8th MMO since 1998 and I think GW2 is great. My taste in MMOs has evolved significantly over time. In my younger days I played games like UO and AC: constant grinding, it didn’t bother me, I loved it, and honestly I still find grinding somewhat therapeutic. Just throw on some headphones and drift away mindlessly grinding. You wanted to level? You go out and “hunt”, literally just kill things until you level, Lineage2 worked like this too.

Then WoW came along and OMG no more “hunting” to level, I just need to do these quests! It really did change the genre completely and I loved it. What I stopped liking pretty quick was the gear treadmill. Months of hard work is now gone because this patch has the next tier of gear. Grind more months to get it, new patch, now my armor is garbage again. It got old after 4 years. (I don’t care what your thoughts on Ascended gear is, it still isn’t a gear treadmill and those that insist it is really don’t understand what a gear treadmill is and/or haven’t played a game with a real gear treadmill).

Fast forward through various MMOs and now here we are in GW2. I’ve grinded and have run on gear treadmills for years at this point in my MMO gaming life. I’m through schooling and have been in the workforce for years, I just don’t have the time to game like I used to. GW2 completely nails it as far as my player type. I can get on, play an hour or two at night and still not feel as though I’m falling behind. Ascended gear can be my “long-term” goal, and by long-term I guess I mean a couple of months, which apparently is WTF TOO LONG for many people on the forums. To me personally that is completely reasonable, and if anything it’s a little too fast for BiS gear.

I think regardless of age, this game is geared towards people that don’t have the time to play hard-core.

To OP who feels the fart joke Marjory made was immature. Do you only think that because of the word fart? You are 18 years old and what, you think just because the word “fart” was used that clearly it is geared toward children? As a college freshman, you are simply to sophisticated to appreciate anything like that I imagine. (HEADS UP: this is your first semester, if you haven’t realized by now that college is four years of doing whatever the heck you want with schoolwork in between, then you sure will. College students are by and far some of the most immature idiots that have ever graced our planet, and God freaking bless them. Best four years of my life lol)

Her comment fits with the character: a crude, rough around the edges sorta gal. It wasn’t meant to be a ha-ha moment, it’s not even a joke, really. If you think it was written to get a laugh from children, I don’t think you quite understand what they were going for. I’m sure if they could, they’d have Marjory swearing like a Navy SEAL, but you simply can’t do that in a game that could be played by children, so they have to find a way to portray her crude side without offensive language.