Guild Wars 2

So I think the title about sums it up properly. I don’t venture onto the forums super often and when I do it is just simply to read what other people are saying. I typically like to see what people want, need, or just speculating about for the future of the game. I’m often a long winded person when it comes to typing so I’ll try and keep it short (no promises). I’ll try to sum it up into these couple of points that are around primarily suggestions and what I believe are reasonings for why ANET doesn’t want to or won’t do some things (at least right away).

Living Story vs. Expansion

I understand why some people would prefer an expansion over the Living World content. And just because they’re producing Living Story doesn’t mean they’re not also working on an expansion. I’m sure there’s a whole other department, separate from the LS department, working on that and they’re just not telling us. Think of it this way, instead of waiting 2 years for an expansion, they’ve been giving a new chapter in the evolving story of Tyria every two weeks (aside, of course, for the time they aren’t working on it and devoting their time to improving the game). I think it is more impressive that they’ve been doing this than just being like every other company and slowly running out of expansion titles. If we assume that they’re at least 3-4 months ahead of their last living story (which we can assume is true) then they already have a whole lot planned out and don’t just want to pull the plug on it. I think the real problem is with players is that they want more maps. I think it would be nice if ANET maybe started adding on full sized zones comparable to what originally launched instead of maybe one map (in 4 small sections) per LS sequence. I would be more than happy if they gave us a new zone every month to two months until they were ready for they bring in Elona or Cantha and I think a lot of people would be too.

“This is Guild Wars 2, stop making it like Guild Wars 1”

I’ve seen a few of these and I can’t say that I’ve read through them thoroughly. To be honest, most posts I get to I stop after I get a feeling that they’re just raging and then just sparknote it. Anyways, I like the idea that they are bringing in more aspects of Guild Wars 1. I have no need for some weapon skins, but I like to collect them just because they do throw me back to GW1. This game is supposed to follow it, not to mention there hasn’t been that long of a time difference between GW1 and 2. It’s not like suddenly everything that happened in the Flameseeker Prophecies just didn’t happen, or that the Order of Whispers is a new thing to GW2 or that Logan Thackeray is not related to a small girl that we all (or at least most) gave a cape and flute and saved all our red iris flowers for. Actually, I would like to see ANET bring back more stuff to fill in the void for people who didn’t read the novels. I want to eventually have story books (much like the Bonus Mission Pack Storybooks from GW1) where we can play as Destiny’s Edge in a group. I want to know more into the story of the Tengu and the genocide that pushed them to Tyria. I want to know why the Gods just up and left Tyria after they messed everything up. Show me some more GW1 lore that is still hidden away deep in the vaults of the Durmand Priory.

Armor

I understand why there is rarely any new armor sets (though they’ve been giving us more and more on the gem store which is nice). It is too hard (especially when dealing with clipping issues) to make a single armor set work. No matter what, unless they start making sets upon sets of cultural armor, it is hard to render an armor on a human and make it work on a Charr. We have to remember that when they make a new medium armor, they don’t just make one armor, they have to make 10. One per gender and one per race. Though, an Asura in Norn armor would be funny. I am looking forward to the changes and new stuff they’re bringing out. Can’t wait!

New Playable Races

This falls under the same if not more as armor. You design a Tengu (or Kodan, or Largos, or Centaur, or any other playable race…except quaggan). That’s great. Then you need to design cultural armor which is fine to an extent. Then they need to go through every piece of armor already made for players and redesign it to fit this playable race. It’s a lot harder than “oh look, a pretty picture, that’s how it looks. Scan it, copy and paste to GW2, and we’re done, crisis adverted.” ANET, whenever fits best for you to bring in a race, I will be sure to buy even more character slots so I can play them.

Guild Halls and Guild Related Issues

I wasn’t a huge fan of the whole representation thing from the start. I know it has its perks and allows people to be a part of different guilds (like one dungeon guild, one guild content guild, one WvW guild, etc) but I just always felt it really made it hard to get to know your guild mates if their gone ¾ repping someone else because it’s time for x event with that guild. That’s why I always thought it would be nice to cut out representation and make it that you can only be in one guild, but that one guild can be in a 5-8 guild alliance. That way they can help each other out in guild missions, wvw, etc etc. The members would all essentially be a part of the alliance instead of having to unrepresent one guild for a second or third or more.

As for guild halls, this has really been beaten to death on the forums so I’ll make it quick. Make it like Custom Arenas. Maybe you have to unlock the ability to use guild halls with T6 Architecture and then you have to buy the Guild Hall contract from the gem store. You then have to pay a monthly fee of tokens to keep the guild hall active. As for what should be in it, you only know what’s best. I thought it would be nice if you can buy other sections to add to the guild hall (like a trophy room where you get a trophy if at least 20% of your members fought and defeated Teq or a members own person HoM like GW:EotN). Also, allow guilds to buy additional guild hall styles in the gem store and make them seasonal like a Halloween, Wintersday, Dragon Festival, and Super Adventure Box (too soon?) guild hall.

Dueling

I don’t understand the appeal, I never played WoW or any other game with it. Maybe to fix this allow there to be a 1v1 PvP arena? Allow there to be regular tournament play and then also allow players to make their own on the fly that disappears after the match is over. Quick and easy, like setting up a guild war in GW1 from the guild hall.

Mounts

I also don’t understand the appeal. I’m happy just running around but if others don’t like it there are always waypoints (for now). Though, I do love the image of a big burly Norn riding into battle in WvW on the back of a bright pink moa.

Dungeon Griefing

A lot of people have brought this up after that update. Personally, I am happy you fixed the dungeons. Great job! Maybe, eventually, you can make it so if a player is kicked after 25% of the dungeon is completed then it is impossible for the next person added to get credit for completing the dungeon? That could prevent people from playing all the way through, then kicking the leader for their friend right at the last boss. So essentially, after “Event x” is completed in a dungeon, any new player that joins after that will not get credit, loot (aside from drops from basic level enemies) or completion chest. Just an idea.

Gem Store

Why don’t you reward players who buy gems anymore? I remember last year there was a period where if a play bought gems within a month span, that next month you would give them a special gem store item that was just released. Maybe to keep the incentive for players to buy gems you could reward us by giving us a “reimbursement ticket” or something that allows us to purchase any set of gem store armor for free or maybe when there is a new LS update give those players who paid for gems in the last month a gem store item (ie the Lightning Kite) that can also be purchased by everyone else. Just an idea. Because I know that if I was going to be rewarded for buying gems, I would pay at least $10-20 every month.

Communication

“ANET we want you to talk with us!” –Mob
“Hey, guys and gals, we’re here to talk more with you.” –Good Guy ANET
“ANET you’re not telling us what we want to hear, rabble rabble rabble.” –Mob

I, and I’m sure a lot of people, understand why you can’t tell us things. I am really happy to see a bit more involvement with the community in the past weeks from you, it means a lot to us. So thank you and I’m happy you keep a lot of things secret until the last minute. Trust me, knowing that something is going to be released and it not coming to fruition is worse than not knowing and being surprised when it’s ready.

Conclusion

Overall, I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 since beta. I waited from its announcement in 2007 until 2012 to play. I played Guild Wars 1 from 2006 until Guild Wars 2 came out. I can tell you one thing about these games. You can stop playing for months at a time and get right back into it. I took a 6+ month hiatus from GW2 between the Dragon Bash Festival (right before Aetherblades) to right after the Nightmare Tower fell and fell back in love with the game. I did the same in GW1. So when people say that they’re leaving GW2 because their “tired” of it, I say both “Good bye” and “Welcome back” because I know you’ll be back. ANET has done a lot of work on this game and made a truly stunning world, and to be honest, is still testing the waters with a lot of things. They won’t have everything right in the first year, two years, even five years. But one day, with our feedback, they’ll manage to clean up those little (and sometimes huge) bugs that we all complain about. I say all good things come with time…so just give them time and enjoy the ride.