By far GW2 is the best MMO ever created. Arenanet did an MMO correct and they deserve all the success they have been getting with this game. I tried to play some other MMOs since GW2, and all of them pale by comparison, even ones that have been out far longer than GW2. Developers/publishers want to make a successful MMO, they should be looking at GW2 as their inspiration.
The thing is MMORPGs have moved away from the foundation, and has moved into what you described. The foundation of MMORPGs was to have a RP based game in a MMO environment. This means that the role is up to the player, and the world environment is generally shaped by players. However now it’s structured to be linear and static, where devs now need to add walls and grinds to spread out content since almost all content is dictated via whatever new stuff the devs can push out compared to how fast the player consumes it.
Granted WoW did balloon the MMORPG market probably more so than what it can sustain, and now it is normalizing itself. Doesn’t mean the market is dead, just that it isn’t where it was at its peak.
It is interesting though, Devs usually don’t want to take chances when it comes to investing in something outside of the box, yet continuing to do the norm can be just as fatal.
E: Also +1 to the post above me. GW2 needs to scrap levels and leveled zones, it doesn’t need it and limits the games potential.
That is just literally insane that a company is producing a product and providing incentive for customers to pay money for that product.
I mean, we are all entitled to full access to someone else’s livelihood without paying for it. I have this argument every time I need to fly somewhere and I call a taxi. Since my wife normally drives me to the airport, why should I need to pay for the taxi?
It’s complete elitism and infringes my freedom and needs to stop.
Cannibalizing old content and restricting it to new content isn’t providing incentive, it’s a dodgy business tactic to fluff a lackluster product.
I also think its much better than much of the single player RPG’s. For instance, I was a big elder scrolls fan before skyrim came out.. then it did. after a few months i was done, but when gw2 came around i found my new favorite RPG for the next couple years and I’m glad it was able to fill the gaping hole skyrim left behind. GW2 is a great MMO as well as an RPG in my eyes.
Even with ~1000 hours in Skyrim, it is the mix bag of the series. Regardless depending on what you are after, comparing the 2 really isn’t ideal. From an RP perspective Skyrim is much better than GW2 which is understandable when comparing a SP to a MMO, from a storyline perspective it’s a toss up personally. GW2 has a decent overall storyline, the PS was good up until Destiny’s Edge Arc, and the ending to the arc was lackluster, LS1/2 I cannot comment on, since I missed LS1 and never bought LS2 outside of select episodes.
However GW2 and ESO should have used the same overall gameplay concept as TES, but instead both went linear.
To play devil’s advocate, the MMO market has been pretty terrible the past 4 years, so it’s not that much of an honor. For years to come is also iffy at best, unless Anet actually figures out a long term plan they are doomed to only appease diehard GW fans. Pre-HoT and HoT has shown that Anet doesn’t seem to know where they want to take GW2.
They would need to support 2 clients, 64bit and 32bit, otherwise they will alienate those who run 32bit.
The cost to gain ratio probably isn’t seen worth it to do, even ESO runs a 32bit client, and WoW which has a 64bit client showed minor gains at best.
Lastly it would mean updating all the different engines and architecture for GW2 to ensure a 64bit client would even work. If it was as simple as people think it is, it would have already been done. Doing a move like this on a live product is really just a money pit, it would be more efficient to do work arounds when dealing with OOM issues then it would be to go back and make a 64bit client.
I was expecting more from the “living world” as well. As of now we get standard MMO fare: build yourself up, kill imposing boss figure, rinse, repeat. There are some aspects that are interesting, such as LA changing over the course of the game and it being a truly different experience depending on when you enter the world, but the big picture of kill one dragon then kill the next is pretty mundane.
That is what I would truly like to see this game become and is more along the lines of what I was expecting.
That thread is almost exactly what I figured/hoped it would be. Except instead of just the dragonspawns, apply it to all NPCs. The zones would shift based off player interaction killing, questing, etc, it would also allow the devs to add events that spread throughout Tyria.
Downside is Anet didn’t take that path, they instead used the current standard MMO structured setting, eliminated part of the structured aspect, and this is what we have.
It seems like most of this is based around guild halls, this is also another reason why Anet should expand on personal housing. Let small guilds congregate around personal housing and have guild halls be a end goal or for medium/large guilds.
Though not sure what people expect when they make a 1-3 person guild, if they make it simple or possible for a small guild to achieve something, it just means a large guild will be done with it in no time. It also disincentivises guilds if something is achievable solo or by a small group.
That’s just the appearance the queen needs to have out there. When the night falls and no one’s looking she’s… shall we say… getting a little Captain in her. Not all of it is rum.
The Queen doesn’t swing that way, hence why she appointed Countess Anise as the leader of her personal guard. Logan is just a creeper who should have died in Arah.
EDIT: I will say this again, someone BOUGHT this with 50 bucks, from arenanet, then gave it to me for 30. That’s not fraudulent, not in the slightest.
Sounds like someone bought for $50 then sold to you for $30 then did a chargeback or reported it stolen. Risk you take when buying from a “grey market”, that’s why you buy from authorized sellers, Anet can actually verify those.
I was under the impression that the OP’s account was only partially disabled. If a chargeback did occur he wouldn’t be able to log onto the forum to even post a complaint, much less hop on his account to take screenshots of his character select screen.
If he was just upgrading they probably only disable the key to the expansion without messing with the core account. They also may have switched how they handle it, or have multiple ways of doing it.
that is indeed true. i have skipped that part with tomes on every character except my first one.
however, i would argue that leveling is such a traditional and engraved mechanic in rpg games that you just can’t make one without.
Leveling systems in RPGs is relatively new, didn’t become the mainstay until after the WoW/EQ era. Prior to that it was mostly a skill system, which is more RPGish, leveling is just easier to design and creates a more linear gameplay.
I am sorry, what?
Leveling in RPGs is new?
What you been smoking!?
Key word is relatively. Modern RPGs do predefined levels and stat gains based on said levels. Prior to that, as stated, it was a skill system, your “level” was based on what you had skill points in and how high. Even games that did have levels, it was still primarily based off of the amount of skills/stats, using levels just made it easier to compare.
My smoking habits are irrelevant, maybe its just cause I feel old, or should have clarified to MMORPGs.
that is indeed true. i have skipped that part with tomes on every character except my first one.
however, i would argue that leveling is such a traditional and engraved mechanic in rpg games that you just can’t make one without.
Leveling systems in RPGs is relatively new, didn’t become the mainstay until after the WoW/EQ era. Prior to that it was mostly a skill system, which is more RPGish, leveling is just easier to design and creates a more linear gameplay.
The only disagreement I have is with the group aspect. GW2 isn’t designed very well to promote group activity. Guilds, dungeons, even world events are very “anti-communal” in the way they are designed, mix that in with mega-servers and multi guilds the “community” ironically becomes more distant. I would also disagree with the comparison to WoW, WoW at least early on was very good at promoting and maintaining a healthy community. Not sure where they failed in that regard, both games have toxicity, WoW is just known for it because of its size.
Almost everything about HoT has been a cash grab, shouldn’t be much of a surprise. It’s one thing to create content to incentivise buying said content, it’s another to downgrade current content to force it.
When did Nexon increase their holdings of NCSoft from their purchase of 15% to the 51% you claim?
The Walton Family only owns ~23% of Walmart stock, yet they are considered the majority shareholder. The majority shareholder doesn’t mean owning more than half of the shares, it means having the greatest individual influence on decisions.
Player localization is something I miss from older games. Now anyone is everywhere or can be in seconds. Before people found areas they liked and “lived” there, it wasn’t for camping or farming(metaphorically speaking, there was actual farming) reasons. When you decided to relocate it was a major decision and could be risky/costly. While some may see that as a flaw, one thing it did create was little communities and sense of purpose. One would say a “living world”.
There are actually only a few things I really like about GW2. The dynamic event system is good, the combat is fun, visually it’s well done, but most things people seem to rave about in GW2 I personally somewhat despise.
No issues here in windowed. However did have an odd incident the other day where the 2nd screen randomly went black for a few seconds, but guessing that is a hardware issue not related to GW2.
A full on AI would indeed lead to more frustration than fun. I would be happy though if the mobs were to dodge, move away, use defensive actions, etc once in a while. Most mobs (save a few bosses) in the open world are just fodder and as such defeating them is not even an accomplishment but a (brainless) chore.
There is already difficult AI available and I’m sure Anet has the ability to do what you want.. However you run into the issue of how GW2 is designed, it isn’t really designed to be challenging but to be easy for players. Especially since Anet has created the mindset of being inclusive, which means little to no difficulty due to a broad range of player skills and lack of.
Though I would find it absolutely hilarious if a dev did add in a “full on AI” mob just to troll the player base.
Advanced/Adaptive AI wouldn’t only just be indistinguishable from PvP, but could also surpass it. Given enough time it would be able to predict what will happen and instantly have numerous counters. It would have instant reaction time, a low to zero error margin, and develop counters that would be in meta/MLGs wet dreams.
While it would be fun and interesting at first it would turn into utter frustration.
Adaptive AI is hard enough to design in a SP atmosphere let alone in a MMO environment. Not to mention the process power needed to do it. So I highly doubt it.
Interesting thought, the lack of inspect could also be aiding in the toxicity and the need for meta in places like dungeons and fractals. When things are a blank slate people will get tired of failed geared/runed players who slows things down. Since there is little way to check diversity they take a all or nothing approach. Speedrunners could be more open to “non meta builds” so long as they make sense and show to work, however with no way to check this it creates a very reclusive environment.
This also leads to terrible checks such as AP checks, which is a terrible metric on a player’s skill.
Why if they’re getting free precursors and far more customization options. They’ll probably be getting Direct X12 or at least a 64-bit client too.
Apples to oranges. Not to mention the market for high speced PCs in China probably isn’t as broad as in the west. So DX12 and 64bit clients would make little sense in a market where a minority have the ability to use.
Its grind without the feeling of grinding. Having walls is to slow down progression, if everything was easily attainable then players would go through content almost instantly.
American versions of things always get the shaft unfortunately. Did you know that the Japanese version of Dragon kitten actually had blood, alcohol, and swearing in it? Also so many episodes and even an entire season of Sailor Moon were cut.
To be fair, some of the Japanese stuff is so off the wall its probably a good thing it isn’t moved over. Nor would it have as great of success due to culture differences and targeted audience. Not to mention the outrage people in the states will have over some of the stuff, regardless of if they are into it, “think of the children!!!”.
I do feel bad for the Aussies though, they PG the kitten out of everything.
They need to make GW2 a bit more dark. Traherne(and Logan) dies, the pact falls, the races begin infighting and war, all while the dragons continue to rise.
The end is nigh, and it is up to (player)guilds to restore balance, fend off the dragons, or instigate the wars among the races
I would love to see them spam this song in game for the countdown of the last 24 hours for the launch. It would be so cool yet so annoying at the same time. :P
Please don’t give them ideas, especially ones that will make people run to the hills.
It best work like this…if you salvage a level 80 item, you can potentially get from level 1-80 mats. In a sense, that should balance things out as it will mean no more farming low areas to get ‘low level’ materials.
So yeah, it’d be awesome if that level 80 cloth item sometimes gave linen.
Or just replace most green/blue drops into “scraps” that when salvaged can yield any type. Allowing level 80 items to salvage into anything creates the risk of using crafting to convert mats.
The mats economy wasn’t that great in the first place. Speed runs and chest trains have caused many of the markets to bottom out. While it’s too early to say, but increase in price would also mean increase of value of the drops you get. It also depends on which way the ascended market goes, increase due to demand for raids or decrease because of lack of need for multiple sets due to MF change.
While speculation is interesting, I would hardly say the sky is falling yet. Change isn’t always bad.
Games have been shifting towards torrent based for sometime now to alleviate strain on the servers. It also seems, as others have mentioned, that they have been upping recent patches to include HoT content that will be activated on release date. However the servers will be running like crap for a few days post release, which should be expected.
You could easily remove levels and rely on the talent/mastery system to replace them. You would still have the appeal of growing as a character without dealing with artificial levels/zones. This would open the world up, since you wouldn’t have to worry about screwing up “newbie zones”.
The norm of a leveling system is really only good for a linear based game, GW2 doesn’t seem to be designed as one, which makes the discussion of “end game” difficult.
If there was something in specific you could say that is obviously missing and would add to endgame I can understand. But a lot of playerbases are always seeking a feeling rather than the actual gameplay itself and don’t realize that there was a ton to do but they played it for too long to appreciate it anymore.
Make the zones dynamic and player driven. Have different zones have variables that if influenced in a certain ways change the gameworld, types of events, types of NPCs. Give incentive for players to localize in zones they find interesting without having the static nature. “Feelings” is what people play RPGs for, gameplay is one thing but sense of purpose and accomplishment can be more important. Simply doing a activity over and over without meaningful purpose just becomes redundant.
E: Dynamic quests do this to some degree however is short lived and cycled.
The game lacks satisfying “endgame”. Luckily though you won’t have to wait long for new stuff with the expansion on the way.
Can you define satisfying end game?
Curious what people are looking for.
Obviously what is satisfying to some isn’t the same for others. However having at least some form of either character development or world influence to provide goals for the player to seek is a start. Simply having everything you did while leveling as endgame is why these threads always appear. Also trying to sell the “fashion grind”, redundant world completion, or achievement grind as goals is why players burn through content so quickly.
One of the major reasons why I dislike it is because you lose half of your utilities, but that’s besides the point.
Half are gone? Did you not realize that you can fill those empty slots in while you are underwater to then again have all filled?
He is referring to skills that are unavailable while underwater, half is over exaggerating for most classes but relevant. However it would be nice if you could set or change underwater utility slots from the hero panel instead of having to go underwater just to set them.
