What a well put together post.
As for my own two cents, I’d like to start off by saying that I personally am not effected by the game’s current FoV, at least not in a mechanical or playability aspect. I don’t feel all that claustrophobic from playing in such a narrow field of view, and I certainly don’t feel nauseous. Were it not for the threads that have been popping up regarding this issue since launch, I’d likely have never noticed it.
However, after Jon Peter’s recent post, and the outcry from the players that it caused, I was a little… shocked; partially with how firmly the notion of adjusting the FoV was shut down, and partially with how serious some players responded to the news. Out of curiosity, I decided to see what all this fuss was about for myself. As per a few suggestions, I booted up the game, went into my options, turned on windowed mode, and shrunk the vertical height of the window.
The difference was quite noticeable. After toggling back and forth between the native FoV and my own (with the vertical axis shrunk about 1 inch top and bottom), I began to sympathize with the people who have been experiencing a cramped, restricted sensation when using the default FoV. Not only that, but the game world looked -much- more beautiful when I could see it from a natural berth. Instead of feeling like I was staring down tight alleys in Lion’s Arch, I felt as if I was taking in a grand view of the cityscape – as I was, I might add: seeing how I was looking out across the Mystic Forge plaza. Even when I hopped on over to my usual farming spot in Orr, the difference was noticeable. For once, I could look past the various shades of brown and the risen hordes that dotted the landscape to take in the beauty and craftsmanship that went into designing the zone.
I’m not much of one for being vocal about my opinion, or trying to sway others to see things my way, but in this case, I would like to kindly ask ArenaNet to at least consider implementing a FoV slider – even if it be in the long run. I trust John’s word regarding there being issues with implementing such a feature, and understand that if the dev team did go through with making such an alteration it would likely take some time. However, I believe that this is something that would only do good things for Guild Wars 2 in the long run. Those experiencing discomfort while playing will finally be at ease, and the beautiful world that ArenaNet has designed could be given the justice it deserves.
And that’s my piece! =) It isn’t much, but I felt compelled to make my voice heard.
~ Tessana Faethryn
