Guild Wars 2

Someone will tell me that this is only a waste of time… but this will be my last message on the forum (not because i’m leaving the game but because it is very hard to get our message to interested persons (devs)) so i’ll try anyway.

First of all i want to say that Developers are working kitten updates and with this message i don’t want to ask them more but only explain how, in my opinion, they can get more (and more love from community) with the same work.

Gw2 is a game based on player ability over level up and unlock mechanics. For example in games like wow the only think that makes you play over and over is to get better gear and so get better overal scores. The result is that developers have to work on new content based on level up and so make player grind more and more to get better.
Gw2, instead, is based on “play the way you like” and it is “skill based”. Infact you can get better gear but your overall result only depends on player skill. So here i’ll explain, again in my personal and insignificant opinion (then you are free to agree or disagree ), why Anet Devs are working in the wrong direction.

1 – Game Mechanics

Gw2 is based on player skill -> gear progression doesn’t mean better performance
so how to keep players interested in the game? It is simply and overal better than the most of MMOrpg: adding new playable and skill based content. What does it means?

Simply, in others MMOrpg developers have to work continuously on new content which force players to grind more, in Gw2, instead, all what players need is something of new where to apply and improve their skill. Those things are generally known as “dungeons”, or “raid”, or (in gw2 world) like “world bosses” or “fractals”. Those are the only way for players to apply their skill which is the only thing required by the game! THE SKILL! What, i believe, keep people play gw2 may be the lore (see point 2) but above all the game mechanics; they are wonderfull! On the other hand those mechanics can be wonderfull if continuousily applied in new ways but also boring if applied for the same content over and over and over.

So the first solution is: to work on “challenging” contet and don’t listen all those complainers (“the game is too hard!”) because they don’t even realize that this game is different from “old gen” rpg (based on target and click); most of them don’t even know that there is a dodge option…

TL;DR (part 1):
Focus more on challenging content (dungeon, fractals, world bosses) since the game is based on skill, not gear grind, and those are the only things which require “skill”

2 – The Lore

I have to admit i don’t even know the complete story of Gw2 universe… but it is fine for me, i love gw2 and the story i learned playing it. But there is a problem with the lore… a big problem which is derailing everything: excess!

Well the lore is a big thing the one which takes everything togheter BUT and i want to underline BUT there is a big abuse of this during updates. As said in point 1 what gw2 needs is challenging content! is the lore challenging content? no, not now at least. So, don’t we need LS anymore? No, we need living story but not such big LS updates if compared to other content. The story is something which is required by the game in order to make our world to be a “living world” but, BUT, what about add (with every patch) few, FEW, instanced content scripted ONLY for story and, instead, get more open world things aside those FEW story tellings areas? Just an example:

during the “nightmare court” LS anet did something of perfect: added a good LS update based on few instances (1-3 i dont remember) but with a surprisingly open world add: the nightmare tower. Well this is my idea of “update”. I don’t want developers to work 24h per day to realize 100.000 more “nightmare towers” but if we get 1 of that content per month… well after 2 years… there will be so many things to do… TOO MANY

TL;DR (part 2):
Living Story update are very important but, if anet decides to add them on EVERY patch, cut them! reduce the ammount of instanced areas and use those work to create the challenging content in point 1; players, i believe, will be much more happy.

3 – WvW and PvP

What makes gw2 really big is not the game itself… the world isn’t that big at all but it is the unlimited development possibility! Such a game which can don’t care about “level cap and new skills (etc.)” should focus on increase the number and variety of things! example: 6 pvp maps are good for a start… now developers can avoid to work on new skills, or new skills system… so why dont add … let’s say 1 map every 4 months?! It is a big time… if they did so no we should have something like 12 pvp maps not … again 6 maps…

For WvW it is a bit different because developers can’t add infinite maps because to have 10 wvw maps only reduce the number of player per map. So what to do? Just my idea:
change those 3 borders and make each of them unique and work on more maps like Hedge of the Mists but …. BUT smaller maps, why? Because hotm and those maps aren’t the real “WvW” maps and should get a lower population in order to allow a much more quantity, much more fun and so much more (and different) things to do.

TL;DR (part 3):
WvW and PvP in Gw2 should get new maps also with a very great shedule, let’s say 4-6 months, i don’t think the community care about “how many time” but more on “how many maps”. Considering a 6 month shedule today we should have: 6+4 pvp maps and 4+4 WvW maps.

Well, that’s all for me. I hope do you share my thoghts on the ideal development not to say that the actual development status is wrong or bad but simply not optimized for game typology.