It’s obvious that Dueling generates a lot of interest. Which, is something I find pretty strange.
Guild Wars has never been about a 1v1 experience. In fact, Guild Wars 1 was strongly positioned against it. Guild Wars 2, while more suitable for dueiling (I suppose), isn’t exactly designed for such gameplay. You can certainly duel, it is possible – obviously. However, what’s the purpose in regard to an outcome? You 1v1 until one build is proven better than the other. If you lose, you adjust your build to counter their build (pending they haven’t changed something to more-so dominate your build). The cycle continues until the excitement putters out. That’s why 1v1 on Guild Wars is referred to as “Build Wars.” There’s no point to it at all.
Many MMORPG are not designed for 1v1 and still have dueling.
With that being said – why would the Devs spend their time (and Anet’s money) developing and implementing a feature on the game that serves absolutely no function? You can duel in custom arenas. At least your “PvP” format is somewhat supported. I’m not complaining about the fact that there’s no HA style competitive play where maps progress with the same team… I’m not complaining that there’s no GvG style game play wherein Guilds can competitively play each other on maps with complex objectives that require coordination and skill. (Well… maybe I am.)
Devs should spend their time because dueling is fun.
Dueling in custom arenas does not work because it is griefable.
The ONLY way I could see dueling being a legitimate feature in the game is through either dueling in the Hall of Memories itself (Near the Profession NPCs), or implementing an NPC that brings both players to an instanced mini-zone in which to duel. This could be incredibly beneficial to conceptualizing builds and practicing/teaching new builds. For these purposes, and in this format, dueling can be a benefit to the gameplay.
How about no?
However, dueling in PvE isn’t a viable option. It’s distracting for PvE players who are playing casually and learning the game, it’s incredibly annoying to receive random duel invites, it’s an inefficient use of Dev time, etc… Think about how much effort would go into just making it so the AoE damage would only affect the dueling participants, and not the environment such as surrounding enemies, any ambient creatures, etc… and nullifying enemy aggro. You WOULD want enemy aggro nullified while dueling, right? (If you say no, and that you’d just duel in little outposts, what’s the difference in hoping into a custom arena?) So why couldn’t 2 players “duel” each other and just not fight… and run from LA to Malchor’s Leap without aggro? – Exploitative.
PvE players can just turn it down and Auto decline.
Your logic is flawless. Nice retorts. Your counter arguments are near perfection.
“How about no” in regard to a feature that would improve the playability of tPvP concepts that could also be utilized as a dueling function? Makes sense. Why would you want a feature to be cross-utilized? That would only be efficient. In what world would efficiency be accepted?
Also, I’ve played several games that weren’t balanced for 1v1 that allowed dueling. And I’ll say it again… it was pointless and clumsy and rather annoying for the average PvE player. Guild Wars was literally driven by GvG. The dev team has always been proponent to team-based strategic gameplay and have always been openly against the 1v1 concept. It’s a pointless mind-set. It settles nothing. It’s a waste of time.
Again, it ALWAYS comes down to Build Wars. Not skill. 1v1 dueling in an open world environment will never happen. Good luck if you truly believe it will happen in Guild Wars 2.
Rank: 50+
Guild: [CoSA]