I know a lot of people are going to rage about this, but take a moment to consider what I’m saying.
WoodenPotatoes commented in their videos before Heart of Thorns released that there could be a real problem with having just four maps come out in this expansion. I think every one of us that has played an MMO before could understand this anxiety.
The major concern with video games, from a design point of view, is consumption. The more a person plays the game, the further they have consumed that product. This necessarily makes the calculations that define content consumption a Time-based Equation.
Many people, game designers included, don’t understand stand this. Nevertheless, it is a major part of what creates a good video game whether it be an MMO or otherwise.
Why? Because when a player goes out into the world and instantly obtains anything the value of that thing is determined by just two considerations at the start: “How long did it take me to get this?” and “How long can I use it?”
Longer a player spends getting something the more ‘grind’ they feel it has. However, the longer the thing is used post-grind the longer the player feels that thing has value. For this reason our characters are ALWAYS the longest grind in any game. Their value is always greater than their grind.
Not so with items, abilities, and other things our characters may acquire. Therefore, it tends to be that a player ‘likes’ (feels good about) something when they have to work for it about 1/3rd of 2/3rds their utility with that acquisition.
Here’s an example:
Gliding 2: Updraft Use. It takes some time to get. Maybe an evening’s grinding or two for most of us. But, then the more we use it the more we find use for it. This is because gliding and it’s components were so well implemented throughout Heart of Thorns that our time spent playing does not exceed our utility in their use.
HOWEVER. There is a catch here. The GRIND itself, is ALL leveling whatsoever related to this Maguuma Mastery track. Therefore, when we begin to exceed our time spent Grinding with our time spent Gliding we begin to subtract our appreciation for it until it effectively moves from a category of ‘ability’ toward a category of ‘game mechanic’.
This sort of emotional and mental relationship players have with a game rarely complicates further than this.
Unfortunately, this is can be conceived as a much more complicated thing than it is since Development of a game rarely notices that temporal [time based] nature of this aspect of game design.
This is so commonly misunderstood and unintentionally complicated by people that pointing it out tends to invoke a lot of contradictory responses. Many would simply say there is no way to address this.
The reality is much less daunting. The basic unit here to be considered is Time and the basic subject Content Consumption.
Addressing Content Consumption is a matter of calculating Time as it relates to Time Spent and Retention of [blank] Earned.
In playing Heart of Thorns I’ve noticed that the color most of the content is focused on running around. That’s it. There’s absolutely no other content. If you are at any point A you are absolutely and always impelled toward some point B. Stationary combat and/or activity is wholly absent from the Guild Wars 2 experience.
Psychologically this means we never consume portions of the content provided for us. Instead we run around a map thoroughly once. Having done so it is as though we have utterly and completely consumed that piece of content. Psychologically this is so because we have memories. The more we completely run around the map or even any one portion of the map, the more we perceive we have consumed that piece of content. Since there are only four maps in all of Heart of Thorns this is a very bad situation. It gives a player the impression that there really isn’t much to Heart of Thorns. It makes the ladder to the top, the Grind, that much more emphasized.
By contrast, any MMO that came out before World of Warcraft, actually refused to allow for this. I only point this out. I’m not saying we should go retro by stating it. These are the facts of a great many of those old MMOs and some new now: FFXIV for example.
Why did they do this? Why were there camps?
Well, for starters it made certain players consumed only a portion of some environment . And even World of Warcraft made use of this. A player starting as a human would first kill wolves and bandits in Northshire. Then they would progress to Gnolls, bears, and if the dreaded Murloc. Much of this well before level 10 and some hours spent at each local. Later the experience grind was shortened, but nevertheless, some hours were still spent in each location. By level 20 a player could expect to spend as much as a day progressing just one level and this only if they were dedicating themselves to a particular camp.
Thus, there were Werewolve camps haunted by players throughout Duskwood, Gnoll camps in Westshire and Elwynn. World of Warcraft itself took these ideas from such games as Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot. In Dark Age of Camelot players camped Water Beetles near Mag Mell and Adree, starter towns, as far as level 12. Then they might progress on to Bantum Specre and Siabre. In Everquest it was Orc camps that most players would remember as their first camp experience, though back then the games were more primitive and aggro could not be dropped least a person died or zoned.
With each location players knew they could find other players to do the MMO thing with. That is, _ play with other players_. The only time that actually occurs in Heart of Thorns is major events. The difficulty of creatures has come down enough people are soloing once more. I don’t think this is due to any nerfs, but rather people have come above the learning curve.
As I type this I am standing at Lights Waypoint, Straight of Malchor, Orr. There’s one of these weird arched zones here and some stairs. In an older game I might have been able to teleport to this place easily enough, but then to actually break into Orr itself would have required some real assistance. Why? There’d be groups right here, at this stair way camping these creatures for experience. And just like Heart of Thorns has now, going further inland meant more challenge and getting to better camps with a better experience bonus. Especially this was true of Dark Age of Camelot.
Instead of this the entire experience of Guild Wars 2 is: I teleport to a location, I run to another location, and I leave. All of the content in between has been utterly wasted on getting me there.
If, instead, there were tough creatures at the stairs and people were camping these not only would this be a memory we would all have shared. This would be a place we could go to meet people and make friends. The best way to make friends in a game is to help each other not die. Especially so with casual players the vast majority since we’re here to play and not have a second job in a game.
Best of all, we’d be consuming the same spot of the game over and over again, relaxing with people we know rather than the very frequently one off experience with a stranger. We’d consume less content, enjoy more of it (for all the reasons stated above) and have that much more content to do that’s fun like tagging POI and Vistas, doing Hero Challenges, and generally not changing a darned thing about what you’ve already made as a game. The only thing that would change is we could actually spend time with our friends, rather than spend time running around doing something alone.
And yes, Heart of Thorns is actually rather Anti-Social by unintentional design. I might need Hero Point A, but my friend needs B. I get no reward from helping them nor they me, so we don’t group up. Some people might be doing this over here, but to get there requires Mastery Such-and-So while over there I can get just fine, but none of my friends can. This can’t improve since by the time we’ve all evened out on the Masteries we really don’t need that help any more.
Thus, Heart of Thorns IS a Grind. I don’t say that negatively. I’ve played far worse, but I do conclude this. Further it does not promote socializing unless people are coming together for large map events. Even the small map events are challenged in accessing because the mobility skills like Gliding Updrafts, Wallows, various Shrooms, Exalted, and etc are so preferentially chosen that it is unlikely you’re fast route to the event is even close to the fastest route for your friend. And, again, all we are doing usually is rushing through these really well made maps just to reach a mine node or POI. There’s no real use of your map content.
You really need to think about this. There should be scenic areas that you make iconic just by dropping some tough creatures there a dedicated group and grind away on to level up. It’s VASTLY more fun than running around maps again and again.
This would free up our keyboards for things like typing. Talking to one another. That’s physically impossible right now. We would be standing in place more often. We’d be able to actually observe what our character is doing and learn about how our characters work by doing so. We’d hear other player feedback about our contributions. We’d give ours. We’d appreciate it, even if we griped about it, because we’d be playing with others instead of logging into a place with other people there.
Please really consider this. Your game has none of this and could really powerfully benefit from this.
Thanks