Hello folks,
I’m really happy about the WvW update as of today. WvW finally got some love and even a slight one as this is appreciated.
The improved rewards might bring more people to WvW, motivating new players that have never tried it before to go and try it as well as improve the quality of life of those who already do it regularly. Making the game mode more “viable” in terms of personal reward is a good motivation for everyone to go for it.
Though the main problem with WvW remains: Mechanics.
I’m not criticizing personal rewards and I think it’s a great approach, but truth is it patches nothing out of the WvW problems. For example, old players, that quit WvW (and even GW2) for good due to the lack of appeal in WvW “Guild Wars” will not come back because of a “personal reward” system. Also, Commanders, in a majority, are mostly dedicated players already with endgame gear and they lead because they love to do it, not because of personal rewards.
What WvW really lacks is the main thing all PvP-based games and systems build their foundation over: The sense of winning.
WvW lacks “sense of winning”. When you WIN a War, it means nothing. There’s no “feel” to it. You don’t go screaming on voice-chat with your friends celebrating. You don’t jump off the chair and let your beer drop, crashing on the floor. You don’t yell “YEAH!!! kitten!!! WE DID IT!”. You shrug. You and everyone else.
Same happens along the road, which is the worst thing. If you can hold your keep, great. If not, ok, you wait a few minutes and try to get it back. There’s nothing compelling you to go beyond and do anything you can to keep your objectives. Nothing.
The current mechanics do that to you along the road. You start lacking motivation. You never get to “feel” the win, when you have one. You don’t feel the losses either. It’s empty. That’s what the game mode of WvW makes you feel when you look at it out of the box: empty.
I’m not a game designer. I’m not a wise man. I’m not an academic in psychology. I’m just a player but this is what I feel about WvW in GW2. I don’t know a magic recipe for solving it without ruining and redesigning what GW2 already have consolidated as WvW but I think a few suggestions could collaborate into leading WvW towards the right direction. That’s why I came in to write a few suggestions that might improve the “feel” of what we have today.
Those suggestions are pointed towards making it important not to just “take” objectives over and over and over, drowning each player in Karma and WvW experience, but into actually HOLDING taken objectives, leading players to collaboration and a sense of reward as a whole, instead of individuals.
Please feel free to point me dumb or to post your suggestions as well, but here we go. I think a good point from where to start without major changes are the Supply Camps.
Supply Camps 2.0
When a Camp is captured and it successfully delivers 5 caravans to a Tower/Keep, it launches a special type of caravan with a Merchant/Trader. Apart from being different from a standard Dolyak and have a merchand riding it, it’s also indicated as a different color on the minimap.
If the “Trader” successfully reaches the Tower/Keep, it establishes a “Trade Route” with that Tower/Keep. A Supply Camp can have trade routes with both the Tower/Keep it supplies. If the Trader fails to reach the destination, the Supply Camp will launch another one after 5 successful caravan deliveries. Once a “Trade Route” is established with a Tower/Keep, it no longer launches Traders to that location.
After a Trade Route is established, it finishes only when either end (the Supply Camp or the destination) is captured by the enemy. Also, as soon as the Trade Route is established with a Tower/Keep, a special Trader NPC will appear within it, with 4 tabs of special goods being sold to players, 1 for each kind of Special Supply; this will be explained soon.
Continues —-