Alright, before we kick this off, I’m willing to admit that maybe, just maybe, I’m garbage at playing some classes. Maybe I’m just ridiculously slow at learning a couple of basic mechanics. Maybe I’m a friendless loser who only tries to solo content because I’m lacking social skills or because I’m so soulcrushingly boring. Maybe all of the above. You can provide your own context, I’m sure.
Right. So hey! How about that Living World 2, huh? Do you like long, unskippable dialogue? Do you like to wait for several minutes on end before your actions start to make any sort of impact on the game? No, you don’t. Stop lying, I can smell the dishonesty on you.
It’s now – oh, wow. It’s almost 2016. So yeah, this content’s been around for some time, and we’ve had plenty of time to see how HoT handles dialogue, achievements, alt-runs and the combination thereof. Maybe it’s time time the good folks at Anet took another look at the old LS2-content, now armed with fresh knowledge. Considering LS2 is still touted in the store and considering how everyone in HoT kind of assumes you’re fresh out of LS2, this does not seem unreasonable.
LS2, especially compared to HoT’s missions, has the annoying habit of front-loading a ridiculous amount of dialogue. You, as a player, only serve to move the dialogue forward – and given that there are few or no branches, your task could have been served by an auto-scroller. You are superfluous. You do not matter. Sometimes you need to move to a specific location, but again, auto-scroll. You then fight a handful of scripted fights, and then you return to a set location where, hopefully, you’ll be able to do something that matters – i.e., fight a boss, jump through the achievement-hoops, or both.
It gets so much worse when you’re playing an alt – because this alt is not eligible for achievements until he or she has finished the entire chapter as well, unlike in HoT where, if character X has finished a mission, character Y can then run his or her own personal story and immediately break stride to get some achieving on. It’s incredibly forced, and given that HoT does allow this, I’m guessing the good folks at Anet know what’s up. So yes, look back on your old content and please apply these lessons.
PLOT-TWIST! I’ve been front-loading this entire post. There was no reason to read all of the above, because the only thing that matters can be boiled down to a single point*:
When we are prompted with the question “Would you like to replay <MISSION> for achievements?”, acknowledge our choice. Don’t bog us down with the dialogue. Don’t make us jump through additional hoops, don’t keep us waiting, because we’ve seen and done that already. When we comply with your explicit question, allow us a straight run, unhindered, until we get to the event where our skill is demanded.
In other words: allow our decisions to be meaningful. It’s what Sid taught us.
- Next time you read this post, you can skip the entire introduction and head straight to the end. Basically, what achievement-runs need. It’s almost as if I planned this!