And for something completely different – why do you even bother with character progression. Unless immense amount of resources is put into it, it’ll always go either way – hardcore grind or current GW2 model. The RPG part of MMORPG is completely covered by GW2.
But what about the MMO part? Real incentive of MMORPG games is interaction with players. Players, not computer-controlled monsters. If game is about to be alive, one needs to feel emotionally involved with it. How the hell are you going to bound with virtual allies, with whom you don’t share anything special, no laugh, no anger at some hard content (unless, of course, you’ve lost your grip on reality, but i don’t think that’s the case for most of the players, although the flashy ones with their “omg i love rytlock” posts are quite visible). And i’m not speaking of another sPvP modes. Who cares about them. It’s still the same old thing – developers telling players what they are allowed to do while playing with each other. This game is called Guild Wars. Have we seen ANY war between guilds here? Anything? Political alliances, backstabbing, treason, double agents, triple agents, whole forum blocks on fire, when people interact with each other. This is what drives numbers, this is what makes, for instance, EVE Online, the game that constantly gain active players – because players create the world. Not new content, not new, flashy pixels you can farm and make your own, but the awareness of being part of a group – when mutual trust and dedication is a reward on it’s own, when your wit and cunning is what places you at the top, not the fact of how fast can you click buttons (hello sPvP).
So, this is so called Guild Wars 2. We have no guild management, no guild interaction, no wars. What we have is 5 man sPvP modes and 300 people per borderland, which, when compared to 1k+ players assaulting a castle or 5+ hours of constant, massive, guild based PvP over a grudge for killing a single mob on a farming spot in old Lineage 2 seems a bit…I don’t know…older-than-old-gen? This was supposed to be a next-gen MMORPG. What we got is COOPRPG. Game suited for playing kitten man parties, when guilds don’t matter (the only content available for them is guild missions, which are laugh in themselves, and WvW, which is a disappointment at best).
Character progression is irrelevant. This is an MMO. Not a single player. We already have a character progression, and this part is what ArenaNet did well. What you had not done, is this tiny little part of your game when it becomes massive multiplayer. A true Guild Wars.
