Guild Wars 2

I think I finally figured out why the developers chose to have the camera have the inertia as it currently does. For those who still have been noticed when you rotate the camera it doesn’t precisely following your mouse movement. In the beginning there is a slight delay in the camera rotation speed as if to mimic the movement of a real camera. Think of a steady cam or some other film camera being panned in a scene. The camera doesn’t just immediately start jerking to the left or right but instead accelerates into the movement speed.

Many Players especially PVP players complained because this feels very clunky. I agree. I finally figured out why they chose this instead of a completely In real time camera movement system. The answer is because shout casts. Shout casts and E sports is the reason. It simply makes the game more pleasant on the eye to watch during a PVP match. If you look at for example world of war craft PVP videos on youtube many of the top players constantly jerk their mouse and it is very irritating on the eyes of the audience watching the video.

I think the developers thought OK we have an option either we make it very pleasant to watch or make it extremely responsive to play somewhere we have to make a compromise. On one hand players would like a more responsive camera and that would mean the game becomes more popular in PVP. However to make the game into a successful E sport, you also need a large audience who enjoy watching the game. And the more audience that watches the game the more players will be motivated to play the game. So maybe this is their compromise.

I for one am all for responsiveness and I do think the camera is clunky especially compared to the extremely responsive PVP of world of war craft. On a side note I still enjoy the PVP in guild wars 2 much more than in world of War craft. But I also have to admit the PVP videos and shout casts have a very lifelike camera movement has if a real camera was hovering above the player.

PVP players as skilled as they are and as adaptive as they are wILL GET used to the camera in eventually not even notice it. Just my speculation however this to me makes the most sense because there is no way the developers did not bring this up as an issue when it is such an integral part of a PVP gaming experience

It also makes for a more realistic feeling camera because of the inertia. Shout casts and PVP videos look much nicer because usually what you see are the top players jerking around their mouse quickly and the screen jerking and shaking. This isn’t exactly easy or pleasing to watch.