Guild Wars 2

So, in development (the point where I bought into Anet hook, line, and sinker) Anet made some claims. I can’t speak directly to PvE because I play in sparingly, but here are my observations:

Then: GW2 Will be an e-sport:
Now: One of the least feature-rich PvP experiences out there. 1 game type, no players to play it.

Then: We want to make the most social game out there. We don’t want to punish you for meeting new people and playing with them.
Now: I can tell you, you definitely don’t get punished for playing with people, but there is no incentive to meet new people. I think what they’ve done is remove the need to ever speak with anyone (outside of dungeons, but I can’t speak to those since I don’t do them). HoTM is linked only to your server and there is nobody really to communicate with. DEs allow you to never even meet or speak with anyone in order to complete large party objectives. I find this to be very solo friendly, but one of the least “social” games I’ve played. Since Hotjoin has no incentive for winning, there isn’t even communication in there other than “you just got merked chump”. Winning = coordination = meeting new people.

Then: We want combat to be about making creative choices, and it needs to feel immediate, active, and visceral
Now: Combat is super fun to me and many others. It feels immediately, and visceral. It does not however give a ton of creative choices (IMO). I feel the game is early, so hopefully balance and tweaking will allow for more unique customization, but at least in PvP, you find the same few builds on each profession with little variation.

Then: We do not want the game to be a grind. We don’t think repetitive gameplay is fun gameplay
Now: I don’t know about the Ascended gear because PvE isn’t my cup of tea, but I hear people screaming that it is very grindy. As far as PvP goes: 1 game mode that you grind for insane amounts of times to get to each tier = grindy. It was very very fun up to level 15. Now…it definitely feels grindy. The fun of combat is placating me for the time being, which is a huge praise to its fluidity.

Then: In PvE, we want questing to be organic and dynamic and have everlasting effects. If you save a town, it will stay saved and remain saved.
Now: Again, maybe someone else can correct me, but I’m level 30 in PvE(400 hours played 95% in PvP) and I have yet to see a town saved permanently. I see it saved…for around 10 minutes, until the event starts over. The questing system is basically the same questing system in every other MMO except you don’t speak to a quest giver, when you get close, he just throws it into your questlog (essentially).

What are some of your thoughts on things that were idealized in development? I hope my post doesn’t come out as a downer. I am a little bit jaded at the moment and this is my way of venting. Obviously, this game has an amazing foundation, because even with these issues, I still find myself logging in daily. So, it’s not all doom and gloom, just some frustrations.

You are pretty much right on.

I think Anet did A LOT of things right. But they also dropped ball on a few things. pvp conquest is not fun. pvp not gp friendly. pve is ok but I don’t pve. Did Fotm a few times and I will most likely never do it again. WvW is pretty good, not DAoC good but pretty good.

I think all the problems can be fixed. There is a good core that is the combat . And the idea of same gear for everyone in pvp is also a good one. At this pt they really need to make pvp MORE FUN. imo balance and esport should take a back seat. Make the game fun and you’ll get more players , esport will follow.

After all of these posts… will someone please post a link of Anet “promising” e-sport status in 3 months of release? Because all I remember reading was some Devs saying they loved their game and were going to work hard to make it an e-sport, something that has been completely taken out of context.