Guild Wars 2

Future GW2 Update/Patch

I know I’m probably not the first person to think of this, but what if we took the current world of Tyria and turned it into a massive Realm vs. Realm?
For those that don’t know what I envision, take a look at how Eve Online has run their sovereignty system. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDTlvD6jAPY

First of all, why is this cool?
Because this gives people a chance to be a part of something really amazing that people will remember. How many of you Eve Online players remember “Sir Molle” or “The Mittani”? These people became game legends, for good or worse. Instead of GW2 having to focus on creating so much content to keep the masses happy people can dynamically alter the game world constantly striving for the goal of their realm conquering all of Tyria. This also would give WvW players a much needed change of scenery.
An important aspect is the ability for small realms to participate and leave an impact in the game. I can’t tell you how many little corps/alliances have impacted Eve Online and I would like to see all players from all realms feel that joy of sticking it to the big guy on the block. http://goo.gl/7czJu.
Probably the most remarkable benefit of implementing this is the fact that the low populated zones across Tyria will actually be populated!

So how would this work?
First things first, parts of the map are already separated by zones and to access these other zones one must go through the map portal or take a waypoint. My suggestion would be to model the world of Tyria to that of Eve Online’s jump gate system.

So how would all of this go down?
Well I’m sure the developers could do a better job of this than me, but I would say that the stage must be set at launch. We would need an option in the server list called “RvR Tyria” that people could join. I would say at launch there is a “rush” where all realms can pour onto the map via Lion’s Arch’s portal hub linked to the various capitals. However there will be one problem……no waypoints will be available other than in the capital cities. Players will have to hold and upgrade their zones so that they can get them waypointed and fortified just like in WvW, but through dynamic events and daily heart completions. Or maybe you’re realm slaughters enough enemies you can use the enemies supplies for your zone. Also once an entire region is captured, then a capital city can be taken over by that specific realm. Then that portal will no longer be accessible in Lion’s Arch. This will give players of that realm a huge buff, but not towards actually killing people, but rather with decrease upgrade times, resource production, workers, etc. Does this mean that people will be completely cut off from Lion’s Arch? Absolutely not. Once the realm has established a waypoint they can just jump from their waypoint to Lion’s Arch waypoint. If the realm doesn’t have a waypoint there will be Black Lion Merchants around trying to capitalize on the war.

So what about WvW?
Well it is still important part of the game, but instead of WvW bonuses helping PvE’s that don’t WvW, the WvW bonuses will help Realm vs. Realm players. Do I see WvW becoming much less densely populated? You bet, but structure/siege HP/DMG values can be adjusted accordingly.

So what about the rest of Tyria that does not want to participate this Realm vs. Realm action?
These PvE’ers that want to be left alone in peace will have the default setting of being on their specific realm. Now do I see PvE’ers being a bit discouraged about this move? Well I might suggest free or discounted realm transfers so that all the PvE’ers can relocate to highly populated PvE servers. Or maybe Anet can devise a system that after a certain amount of time guesting onto another realm other than the RvR Tyria server that that they can just transfer to that realm.

I think that this is a much needed way for GW2 to provide the casual alternative to Eve Online’s sandbox. If Eve Online can constantly grow through its 19th expansion I could see GW2 do the same thing if implemented right. The average person does not have the will power or the patience to put themselves through Eve Online and we need a great alternative http://goo.gl/pNdXb. I want the developers to stop creating new carrots to please the “content whores”, and let the players find their own carrot in the sandbox.

So with that, let’s discuss!

the prob is gw2 isn’t as sandbox-y as eve online. And what you’re describing is really quite similar to wvw in its essence. You’re essentially putting pvp into pve worlds. This is problematic for 2 reasons I can think of right now:
1.) pvp in a pve world is opposite of the kind of attitude and world gw2 wants to create. Notice that you don’t have to fight people for exp, loot and gathering node, these things scream communal and cooperative living. Putting pvp in a pve world only agitates the pve players, and makes wvw and actual pvp zones redundant
2.) You’re going to alienate people who play gw2 for a specific reason. Pve players get unhappy when their merry questing gets interrupted by a player from another realm, wvw players get unhappy coz they will lose a lot of wvw players, and even pvp will be more of a deadzone.

I do like the point you’re trying to make. However, instead of a Realm vs Realm thing, how about applying the same thing but in a PvE perspective (against an army that’s slightly more intelligent than your average risen)? I mean that the devs can create a zone that is in constant battle (tie-in to living story!) for a duration of time (maybe a whole month, with varying degrees of outcome), then a final culmination battle where previous victories and choices take into account. For example, let’s take server XY

All worlds will have a new map that introduces a new conflict, etc etc. There are a number of pve map objectives that you have to do. At the end of the day, a tally is made as to the number of objectives you have done, as well as critical choices made. At the end of each week, we will have a “turning point” battle, where the outcome will affect the final battle. These can be as varying as having access to certain key locations in the map, having artillery or air support, having server-wide buff, etc.

All great points and that is why I was thinking that if they created a RvR server that players can join to represent their server the PvEers will be completely left alone. My worry is that the PvEers on PvP servers might feel things are a little barren so that’s why I suggested maybe a earn as you go transfer. Love the PvE idea though.

It’s been awhile so I’d thought I’d see what other people thought of the idea.