Guild Wars 2

I don’t normally post in forums, but in this one I have to.

I play in a standing team that gets together when we can to play our way through the game. Last night we’d just finished the Chapter 2 story and were looking forward to knocking through a couple of levels to 23 or so and then hitting the next one tonight. All three of us have lives and play other games, so we’re not playing Guild Wars like it’s a job. Previously, all three of us agreed that GW2 had a great design in its story missions and how they were placed; there was definitely a very organic flow to where the missions were, side missions/hearts/group content/etc. between them keeping us decently near where the missions were. Now, that hard work by the design team to lay all of that out is getting thrown away, and we feel like we’re going farther than we were actually intended to before getting the requisite story elements.

Furthermore, I think this is a horrible idea especially for players just starting out in their first character. They do their tutorial, and where previously they were easily able to find and fill a couple of hearts to get to the next story mission, now they have to go out and wander aimlessly before a big chunk of story is thrown at them. I don’t think a lot of players will make it that far. You’ll lose them before you’ve properly hooked them.

To draw on a comparison made further up the thread, I liked the more organic, episodic feel of the previous “level a bit then do a story mission.” It broke up the story into bite-sized chunks that were easily handled. Now for those of us who only get a level or two a week, we’re looking at months of mindlessly bashing NPCs before we get anything interesting.