Guild Wars 2

I’ve always thought that one factor that could really boost gw2 accessibility in not just pvp but also other areas would be a complete rework of tutorials on your first startup of the game. I’ve seen many new players and have had too many real life friends try this game out, but dismiss it almost immediately because there was just too many unexplained concepts and controls.

Speaking from experience, to become familiar with the many intricacies of this game such as dodging, free camera, combo fields, condis, boons, sheathing weapons, and cancelling skill channels took me at least half a year after the beta (even now I’m still learning, and honestly can’t tell you what every single leap finisher does in every single combo field). Granted, this may be because I did not play the game very often at the time or due to my unfamiliarity with PC console MMOs, but there was just too much with such little explanation. It could’ve (and should’ve) only taken a good tutorial worth one hour or so to have saved myself from this confusion at that time. Maybe even the personal story could be reworked so that it incorporated some tutorial.

I’ve always thought that the tutorials from guild wars 1 were a pretty good example of teaching new players how the game worked. I think gw2 should adopt a tutorial based around gw1, and other common console role-playing/adventure games. It shouldn’t be just a bumrush into a mega-huge-boss and then an immediate expansive world after that.

If I were to structure the tutorial, it would be forced upon initial purchase of the game and creation of the first character (to decline it would be a warning), and future tutorials would be optional. NPCs would each explain a separate concept, then demonstrate it, and followed by the player attempting it. A possible layout might be:

1)Movement, camera, and basic interface
As soon as you create that character, explanations with arrows pointing to different parts of the screen show up. Basic explanations of where the minimap is, movement (with wasd or mouse), etc. would appear. The game would then prompt the player to move to the next NPC in front of them, and showing how to interact with the NPC.
2)Skills, Targetting
This next NPC would explain the skill bar, and explain/demonstrate/prompt the player to use a skill against a training golem.
3)HP bar, downstate, fully dead, resurrection, waypoints
The next NPC would show what happens when each of these states happen, and how to ressurect.
4)Dodging
The next NPC would explain/demonstrate/prompt the player to dodge an attack by the NPC
4)Equipment
5)More Interface (equipment, how to change controls…etc)
5)Combos+Combo fields
6)Class specific mechanics
7)“Advanced” Stuff
From here, it is up to the player to be done with the tutorial or continue to this section. In this section, players could learn about WvW, PvP, and such, or things such as sheathing a weapon or turning around quickly.