Guild Wars 2

For years I have been a loyal Blizzard fan, from Warcraft to Starcraft games, Diablo and WoW.

As time passed, many new MMOs hoping to surpass WoW were released. They always failed.

However with Diablo 3, Blizzard really forgot about the importance of delivering to the players. It might possibly be a downhill slope for them if they continue to disproportionately prioritize profits over customer satisfaction.

Positive points I have noted in Guild Wars 2

- Strangers are actually helpful, rezzing and helping you with quests, mobs and events. Granted they are probably doing it for the experience, but the end result is still pleasant.

- The simple concept of level-scaling completely eliminates malicious ganking or griefing.

- Almost any spec/weapon setup is viable even if someone eventually figures out the absolute optimal setup.

- Exclusion of the Tank/Healer/DPS Holy Trinity. While a dungeon would probably be easier with those dedicated roles present, it does not seem to be an essential requirement.

- Underwater combat. I usually hate this in any game as the gameplay either feels clumsy, my character seems weaker or both. Actually I still would rather not fight under water in GW2, but at least I can say I won’t completely avoid it.

Thank you ArenaNet for such a wonderful game.

By the way, could we please have mounts?

It is done right, everything screams “They thought of everything!”

One disagreement/agreement.

Strangers being helpful for 0.1% of their bar in experience? I really think it’s done because it’s good, not tedious, gives a minor reward, and usually sparks a tiny bit of dialogue.

Compared to a game where there is no reward for rezzing – say a battle rez for a Druid in WoW – there’s no experience and in most cases the Druid iskitten he had to waste his rez on a DPS.

GW2 delivers in that the tiny insignificant experience gain is kind of like the happiness you get in real life when someone drops their books and you go to help them pick everything up. There is no reward besides the good deed, a bit of character improvement, a brief dialogue, and it’s over.

I’m sure that you don’t remember the last guy you revived in GW2, but I can almost guarantee you remember the last time YOU were revived in GW2.

@ Vexus – You are probably right. It was mostly the pessimist in me talking. And yes, druid brez used a lot more frequently on dps than tanks or healers in my experience.

In WoW, I could die somewhere with a healer class farming nearby or walking pass without even so much as a pause to notice me.

I too always rez people out of goodwill.

Anyway for some reason people in GW2 appear to be more mature compared to WoW.

I happen to like Diablo 3. I think you’re looking at things through rose covered glasses also. I have met some pretty mean people in /map chat. They are there and people are people. I do like the idea of everyone getting gathering nodes and credit for kills. Makes it a lot easier to get along with everyone else. Perhaps that is why you believe the people are nicer on this game, because they are not dealing with competition.

I rez people because I see a blue mark on my screen and if its close I just go over there and start doing it. I dont think theres a reward for it is there? Never noticed or cared to find out.

The underwater combat is great actually compared to most games and I think I am with you in the respect that I dont prefer it but dont hate it either.

I do not think this game is a ground breaking second coming of Jesus or anything though. I whole heartedly believe the next big thing will use vitualized GPUs and will be playable on any device with an internet connection.

I have also played a great deal of MoP and it is also quite good. Cataclysm was a terrible expansion and MoP makes up for it. Perhaps I just like games, I like all of the games we have talked about here in this thread.

For many many years, my friends and I have played every MMO that came out to challenge WoW. And every single time, we ask ourselves, “Is this the best they could do?” There are so many simple, basic gameplay systems that are ignored or maltreated.

When we all jumped into GW2 for the first time, we said, “This is the MMO we’ve been waitin for.” It just feels like the developers sat down and asked themselves what makes a good game, and then went out and built that game. No cutting corners. No half assing it. Make it good, make it fun, and make it challenging. End of story.

I disagree, I think GW2 is a huge step backwards. Certainly for PVE coop play. It has some imporoved elements from other games a more refined feel in some areas, but the whole point of online games it seems to miss….that is to play as a team with other people.

It’s just not there at all…adn I don’t know what kind of lasting community can come from a game with no core coop gameplay. There is PVP…I have not tried, wanted to get to level 80 first…but I doubt i will now. I had hoped dungeon runs would give xp and break the monotony of running around solo. This is not the case. I don’t think I have it in me to level to 80 just running around zones killing the next pez dispensed iteration of a boar over and over.

@Cromx

Coop in what way? Questing and Dynamic Events are full of people working together in one way or another. I have never played a game where I have worked/played with so many other players. This may just be while everyone and their dog is playing it and it may even out a bit, but still.

This game is a giant step forward in a ton of respects. It’s not perfect by any means. But they sure did put together one hell of a great gaming experience.

This is the first MMO, in a long time, that I’ve actually been able to come to, and not compare everything to WoW on a constant basis. It’s nice to be able to come in and get a fresh experience.

I’m already level 50, and I don’t even feel like I’ve been leveling. I’ve just been playing the game as it comes at me. It’s so refreshing to not feel like I have to grind quests to reach level-cap. Getting 100% completion of every zone, is something I’m definitely looking forward to doing.

ANet really put together a nice game for all of us, and I’m enjoying it thoroughly.

Swiftshadow.9763:

For years I have been a loyal Blizzard fan, from Warcraft to Starcraft games, Diablo and WoW.

As time passed, many new MMOs hoping to surpass WoW were released. They always failed.

However with Diablo 3, Blizzard really forgot about the importance of delivering to the players. It might possibly be a downhill slope for them if they continue to disproportionately prioritize profits over customer satisfaction.

Positive points I have noted in Guild Wars 2

- Strangers are actually helpful, rezzing and helping you with quests, mobs and events. Granted they are probably doing it for the experience, but the end result is still pleasant.

- The simple concept of level-scaling completely eliminates malicious ganking or griefing.

- Almost any spec/weapon setup is viable even if someone eventually figures out the absolute optimal setup.

- Exclusion of the Tank/Healer/DPS Holy Trinity. While a dungeon would probably be easier with those dedicated roles present, it does not seem to be an essential requirement.

- Underwater combat. I usually hate this in any game as the gameplay either feels clumsy, my character seems weaker or both. Actually I still would rather not fight under water in GW2, but at least I can say I won’t completely avoid it.

Thank you ArenaNet for such a wonderful game.

By the way, could we please have mounts?

Just so you know a large amount of people who made GW1 where people who had left blizzard for one reason or another. So this game was created by a mostly ex blizzard staff.

I don’t know that this game is a break through exactly, but it has been lots of fun for me so far.

I have to agree w/ Teracide, in that this is the first game since WOW where I don’t find myself comparing the 2 games. GW2 is has enough dis-similarity w/ WOW, to me, to make it some thing other than another WOW clone.

@ Adiyen – Diablo 3 wasn’t exactly a terrible game, but the fun felt short compared to Diablo 2. Me and my entire group of friends quit after killing Inferno Diablo ( We played D2 for years though).

@ Cromx – Your negative dungeon experience is probably due to the lack of the Tank/Healer/DPS roles. Co-operative gameplay can work just as well if teamwork is adequately cohesive. Deaths are expected but can be avoided with enough experience and skill.

@ everyone else – GW2 is a start of a new type of MMO that doesn’t completely revolve around gear grinding. IMO it definitely feels a great deal more “immersive”.

This is a good indication of any favorable improvements to future MMOs.

I guess my thought is the GW2 is alot like WoW was. Nothing they did is grounbreaking or hasnt been done before. But they may be the first to do most of it all at once and get most of it right.

Groundbreaking? No. Fun? Heck yeah.

Wryscher.1432:

I guess my thought is the GW2 is alot like WoW was. Nothing they did is grounbreaking or hasnt been done before. But they may be the first to do most of it all at once and get most of it right.

Groundbreaking? No. Fun? Heck yeah.

^{^What this says}^

Korix.9835:

@Cromx

Coop in what way? Questing and Dynamic Events are full of people working together in one way or another. I have never played a game where I have worked/played with so many other players. This may just be while everyone and their dog is playing it and it may even out a bit, but still.

The zerg fests can hardly be considered coop play. They are just a bunch of people spamming attacks…its so chaotic and usually thigns die so fast, as everyone simply tries to “tag” as many mobs as possible. There is no strategy no communication, most of the time its hard to tell the difference between players and NPCs.

I don’t consider this coop play in any meaningful sense. Its a sad day when real coop play has been surplanted by 3 minute zergfests. But after all its much easier to make a dynamic event spawn a boss mob or mobs and let people just zerg and kill it for risk free easy experience and call that coop play.

Its like so many companies these days they refuse to take the hard path to making a really meaningful coop game. You have to have good AI good balanced player skill sets, and inspired dunegon design. Its almost like arena net said…heck we can’t do this…so we will just throw in token “dungeons” and people will think we do have it…then we can just drag and drop some dynamic zerg fests into the open zones and call it revolutionary.

I guess I just can’t get to excited about a zerg fest where I might hit a mob or two here and there if I am lucky and then its over before I really udnerstand whats going on. The whole game is missing all the intricacies for coop team play. If you can imagine football with all the players being the same size, no formations, no game plans, no options, no 2 point conversions, field goals…..I mean what kind of borefest would that be to watch? Its the same thing in MMOs, pretty darn boring when you hollow all that away because you don’t feel like trying to make it balanced and fun…..not sure why I am forking over my money then.

The Players Helping Players subforum is only for players to ask for or give help to/from other players. The forums are only partially open at this time, and other sections will be rolling out in time. Please help keep the forums clean by staying on topic.