Guild Wars 2

Ok guys, I wanted to talk to you about some problems I’ve noticed in Meta Maps, and offer some suggestions. I am a graduate on Media Design and Comunications and I’m making my graduation project about Guild Wars 2, so this came to mind while analyzing the game’s design. Excuse my english, as it’s not my main language.

When I joined Guild Wars 2 about three years ago, I was shocked at the game; I was rewarded for exploring, moving at my own pace, being part of a personal story, discovering new locations and secrets… Doing what, in most other MMOs, is completely ignorable or unexistant content. I still remember the magic of the group events; I still remember the mystery of my first Shadow Behemoth, or the first time I participated on defending Ascalon from the centaurs!

This all changed with the HoT expansion; Hearts were gone, exploration was there, but gated behind masteries, and those colorful group events transformed into a mandatory grind to be able to experience everything, and not only that; you are tied by them, it’s impossible to progress at your leisure, alone or with friends, you depend on timers and the activities of others.

This has been discussed once and over again in various forums and topics, however it seems the tendency to make purely meta based maps still exists during Living Story Season 3, to one or another degree (Berry and Bloodstone farming, for example), and the feedback on said maps in my opinion is quite negative.

Maps shouldn’t depend on a Meta. The Metas placed on maps are means to an end, usually towards gold farming or gearing, but they shouldn’t be the baton that guides the flow of one’s time playing with friends or alone, because sooner or later the Meta dies when another loot game comes out, and the map becomes abandoned, like it’s happening on HoT maps. Tarir meta was nerfed, and less and less people does Octovine. Dragon’s Stand is only full when it comes on Dailies, and pretty much the same with Verdant Brink. And no, LFG is not a real solution, as interest in those maps can wait a person with a mentor tag waiting for hours or getting a very reduced group, not big enough to zerg through the map.

In my opinion, instanced group content IS the way to go, with map meta events divorced from one’s map and character progression. GW2 was branded initially as a “play how you want” game, some people would rather progress alone and join groups for instanced or meta content, some others like the zergs; abandoning Dungeons in favor for developing mandatory open world zerging was in my opinion, a big mistake.

In fact, instanced content is, mostly, the way to go if you want to brand the game as a social activity. It makes it easier to promote Guilds and meeting new people, they are easier to run through, play through and understand. In fact, I met my fianceé on the Nightmare Court Dungeon, so yep, that’s the power Instanced Content can have.

What will the population do when the new expansion comes out and brings a new Meta? How will people progress trough Dragon’s Stand when the map becomes another Orr?

I don’t think the LS3 maps depend on any meta events. There is a semi meta, but really it’s the spine of the map’s story to make it clearer what that maps narrative is, which is a very important part of the open world story telling at the end game level.

Metas for HoT will have to be looked at down the line. There def felt too much emphasis on them, hence the change in direction in LS3 and too many meta maps is unsustainable, esp if the game ever decides to expand beyond this continent.

As new expacs arrive and older content becomes harder to fill with people, I suspect we will see a rebalancing or scaling down of those events to make them doable. We’re not at that stage yet, but I can envision that day potentially coming in 2-3 years time. I don’ think we will see complete abandonment for even longer, simply because new people will continue to come up through the ranks and as long as the rewards are relevant, players will still do them.

As for dungeons, I’m not as convinced about their power as you are, they certainly lack the community working together feel of the open world. Having said that, instances are unquestionably a draw. I hope we don’t see a point where dungeons themselves are gone for good, but I think the addition of raids and the much improved emphasis on fractals has been a decent enough compromise which fits this game right now.

I certainly don’t see the draw of instanced content. I hope that is not the direction the game goes to in the future. There’s already enough complaints about Raids.

I don’t see any real Map Meta requirements in Living Story Season 3 maps, either. It seems quite easy to solo those maps. I’m not sure what gathering Winterberries or Bloodstone has to do with a meta. It doesn’t require an organized, or even an unorganized, group.

Good luck.

So you think instanced meta events would be better? That it would solve these problems? How do you figure? You’d be even less likely to find a group for the content you wish to complete and you’d be even more reliant on LFG.

LFG may not be a perfect solution, but it is a solution that works. It’s unfortunate that many players don’t seem to understand how it works or why they need to use it in order to have reliable success with meta events. It would resolve most of their issues.

You seem to prefer non-meta maps. But that is all they are: a map that doesn’t have anything going on that requires any sort of organization. I fail to see why you need such maps. Why can’t you have hearts and small scale events on a meta map? In fact, isn’t that exactly what the HoT maps are? I’m not sure I understand why this is an issue that must be resolved by removing meta events and relegating them to instanced content.

Your solution seems worse than the “problem”.

If you are suggesting turning the world maps in to instances no ty. That was what we had in GW1 and what they wanted to move away from. That would be taking the game back a step or two….