I normally spend most of my time on a forum providing feedback through constructive criticism, but something hit me after the reveal today, that I really want to share.
When Arena.net first promised that Guild Wars 2 would be about the journey and not the destination, I was more than a bit incredulous. Lots of people claim that as a goal, or at least claim it’s a possible perspective on their game, but I have rarely, if ever, seen it delivered, to the point where I didn’t really believe it was possible. In this day and age, it feels like our access to information will always funnel people into an “endgame” regardless of how much time you put around it.
I wasn’t really that fond of Guild Wars 2 when I first started. I was actually pretty hyped, despite what I just said, but my enthusiasm ran thin fairly quickly. I pushed myself to level 80 though, and stopped playing for awhile. I came back every once and awhile, but never really stuck.
While hearing the rumors for this expansion though, the first revelation hit me. I don’t feel bad about taking breaks from Guild Wars 2. That may sound bad to some, but it actually makes me feel really good about the game. Too many MMOs nowadays are such a grindfest. Even when it’s not a grind in the traditional sense, there’s a certain expectation that you’re constantly around, and if you’re not, even for a holiday, then you fall behind and don’t get to do anything fun. It creates this constant, low level stress the whole time you’re playing, and even when you’re not.
Guild Wars 2 doesn’t really have that for me. I feel like I’m not missing anything I’ll regret missing. That I can wait for things I want to do without being woefully behind when they come around, which I think actually fits the buy-to-play business model very well.
Waiting for the reveal, however, I had to admit that I was expecting some compromising of the original vision. I’m used to that from pretty much every other company, and as much as I had a hard time imagining how it would be justified, I wouldn’t have been surprised by an announcement of a level cap increase or new gear tier, with some really heartfelt justification.
It was nice to hear that the level cap and gear tiers were staying the same, and very pleasantly surprised to see a continued commitment to everything else as well, including the spirit of cooperation and wanting to see other players.
My final revelation about the journey being more important than the destination, though, came when I considered the new zones. At first, as much as I wanted them, I worried that more zones will just stretch the playerbase thinner and thinner, and was wondering how long that model could sustain itself. But then I realized, the philosophy of this game makes that problem irrelevant.
While leveling to 80, those zones might end up barren, but leveling is largely soloable (though some quality of life tweaks if that became a problem would still be nice). Since there’s no level cap or gear tier increase though, once you hit 80, you can immediately join in on the “active” content, whether that be in the Silverwastes, Maguuma, Cantha, or Elona.
And unlike most other MMOs, those other zones, while they might end up empty, will never end up obsolete, and that’s because GW2 has been working on horizontal progression this whole time. Wardrobe skins, achievement challenges, jumping puzzles, collections, you name it, there’s always something unique. Zones will never become fully obsolete, because they’ll always have their own unique rewards. Even if the playerbase gets spread thin, all of the content will nevertheless remain relevant.
I want to see this keep working.