Guild Wars 2

Ultima Online’s Felucca/Trammel split comes to mind. Of course, to be fair it was possibly a necessary evil. In the face of Everquest’s success, for all we know, Ultima Online may not have survived without some PvE friendly changes. While games like Eve Online have similar rulesets to classic UO, they weren’t faced with a direct competitor.

What was a big blunder, however, was the Item Insurance system. A fixed rate of gold for insuring any equipment item on your character (and it wasn’t very expensive at all). With insured items, they act as if they are blessed and will not drop with your corpse if you die (UO was a game where anything you carried was fair game if you died). However, even a less developed character could afford to keep his gear insured at all times due to its flat rate. It didn’t make much of a gold sink because of this, as even the best items would cost a paltry 600gp to insure (yes, that’s actually lunch money in UO). Finally, no more gear dropped on death in PvP because of it, effectively killing off the main income of Murderers/PKers in Felucca (even though, by this time, there weren’t enough players there to hunt anyways).

Ultima Online – Custom Housing

Ultima Online had a housing system that served multiple useful purposes, other than fluff, such as storage for items and chests, crafting stations, hired vendors to sell your wares to traveling players, and guild halls. Every type of item could be locked down in the house, giving players great control over the look and feel of their home. Creative players would use all manner of objects to add a new artistic depth to their house, from creating rugs out of wool piles to designing aquariums from dyed leather and scattered small fish. It was kind of the same creativity people put towards Minecraft today.

However, in the Age of Shadows expansion this customization was pushed further, allowing players to build their homes tile by tile, wall by wall, with a variety of tilesets to choose and mix n’ match from. You could literally design your home to look however you wanted, with how many rooms, nooks, and crannies you desired; it was a step away from being Sims friendly. This level of customization was a big gold sink, but it was effective. The houses existed in the world in real-time, so wandering players would encounter the houses around the world.

The only con to this housing system was the limited space for which houses could be placed. Not everyone would be able to have one, and several more would have to pay exorbitant amounts of gold just to buy a plot from another player (and in many cases, real cash). But to this day I have yet to see a housing system that gives the player so much creative freedom as Ultima Online’s.

Dear Toymaster Tixx,

For Wintersday I would like a Zig.
So when I shout “For Great Justice!”, they take off every Zig.
So please, move Zig.

You know what you doing.

I personally think the next profession will have to be a soldier class, because there are three scholars (Elementalist, Mesmer, and Necromancer), three adventurers (Ranger, Engineer, and Thief), but only two soldiers (Guardian and Warrior).

In thinking about what the next profession should be, I have noticed a pattern with the professions of each category, though it could just be a coincidence. Even though the character’s alignment in the story tends to lean towards good, the profession’s tendencies lean towards a light and dark side based on theme. The Scholar and Adventurer classes seem to have one light, one neutral, and one dark profession associated with it.

(This is my interpretation, it may vary from other perspectives)

Scholar
Light – Elementalist
Seems to be an accepted path of magic that calls on natural forces such as fire, lightning, water, and earth.

Neutral – Mesmer
Includes elements of showmanship and glamour, as well as elements of deception and illusion.

Dark – Necromancer
While not forbidden in the world, it is obviously a dark knowledge not to be taken lightly.

Adventurer
Light – Ranger
Nature and the Wild seem important in several cultures, including the Norn, Sylvari, and Kodan, and exploration of the world seem to be on a high note.

Neutral – Engineer
They can be beacons of progress and invention, or the cogs of the war machine and industry.

Dark – Thief
Obviously a shady and deceptive profession dealing with stealth, backstabbing, poisons, and theft.

The Soldier class only has two professions, but they seem to follow the pattern similarly, with Guardian being the “Light” profession, and Warrior being a “Neutal” profession. I consider the Guardian as a light profession due to it’s supportive and protective nature of its magic. The Warrior is neutral due to it’s non-magic nature, and how it can be both an aggressive and tactical role in combat.

If I had to hazard a guess, I would think the next profession would be a Soldier with a “Dark” theme to it. I’m not thinking along the lines of a Deathknight from WoW, or a Shadow Knight from Everquest (though I love them Shadow Knights), since the Necromancer already fulfills the undeath thematic profession. And I’m unsure of any pre-existing GW1 professions in game or in lore that would fit the bill, making this a potentially brand new addition.

I enjoyed phase two. And I appreciate Anet’s work on the new content that came with this patch. The fractal dungeons are amazing (except for the swamp fractal, that tends to break up my groups in frustration), and I’m anxious to see what the final battle will be like, regardless of the lag. Some problems seem a bit better now, monsters were rendering faster for me this time.

My world server (TC) cleared the Southsun Shoals pretty quickly, lots of dead Karka all along the beaches.

I guess you could say we…

Puts on sunglasses

Tarnished their Coast.

I can never go back to other MMOs. I have WoW still subscribed, but I only ever log on these days to keep in touch with friends, even with MoP on the way. Soon, once I can convince some friends to get an actual instant messenger program, I may be saving 15 dollars a month from then on.

GW2 is fun for me to play. I don’t feel stressed when I play it, or have the desire to constantly grind out new gear/faction/whatever. At level 80, the world is my oyster and I just do whatever I please for my entertainment. I could play Kegbrawl all day, and even though it doesn’t offer much in tangible rewards it is just fun to play. That’s what is most important to me: how fun the game is to play.

The idea that an MMO needs to have a gear progression system to be fun is a trap. It’s just an illusion that gets people thinking they are being productive with their time, like a job or commitment; in reality they are simply playing a video game. I don’t find those games enjoyable, because it’s not fun I’m feeling when I’m grinding for a new piece of gear. I feel desire and satisfaction, but never fun. And the gear climb just seems so pointless; in the end, the final raid of the expansion’s gear will have the best stats but no reason to use them once you have it (unless you love raiding over and over again for no other rewards). And in the next expansion it’ll be replaced by quested gear halfway towards the new level cap anyways.

Maybe my outlook on what is fun in an MMO is biased. My first MMO was Ultima Online, and the game didn’t have much of a gear progression. It had a bit of a skill grind, but once I was passed that the rest of the game was very enjoyable. I explored, PvPed, roleplayed, attempted to fight dragons with a warrior template of skills (it’s almost impossible without cross-healing with someone else). I only started playing it during Renaissance, but it is still the best MMO experience I ever had. I thought the game went downhill after Age of Shadow (the game became a bit of a gear hunt at that point).

Point is, gear climbs never impressed me in traditional MMOs. They may enthrall me, but once I snap out of it I realize just how unpleasant the experience has been.

It may have been posted before, but this is one feature I’m surprised is not in this MMO.

• Who/Social List
  I thought this would be under the contacts panel, but I was wrong. MMOs tend to have a command or panel that lets us see a list of the players currently in the zone/map at the time. It’s pretty important to be able to know if there are other people around, that way I don’t waste time asking the map chat for help with a skill challenge or a difficult dynamic event if no one is actually around.

As for other suggestions.

• Isolate Particle Effects
  It would be nice to to have an option that dims or reduces the graphics of many spell particles in the game except your own, so you can actually see what’s going on. This could be extended to show only your group’s particles as well, or only the monster’s, or none at all.