Guild Wars 2

With all these controversy around Ascended gear, it may seem tempting to generalize this situation in real life economics. It’s about class warfare. About the elites versus the egalitarian. The 99% who don’t believe in working hard to get what the 1% deserve. And if we keep the 1% from getting what they want, the whole 100% will crash and burn.

I can tell you why this argument is horribly misconceived. Because this isn’t real life. This is a game.

What makes a game different? For one, the main goal of a game is to maximize the enjoyment of the players. I know this cannot be simultaneously achieved, some compromises must be made. The other problem of using real life economics is the lack of scarcity.

In real life, it may well be that in order for scarce goods be distributed efficiently, we must distribute it to those who are willing to work the hardest for it. But in a game where the main commodity is fun and enjoyment, there is no such scarcity. There is simply no cost to allowing a player to get what he wants, to enjoy the content he wants. The problem with creating tiered gear and tiered experiences is that it denies access to fun. And this works both ways (see my other post). Lower tiered players are gated from higher tier content, and higher tiered players will find the rest of Tyria a complete pushover to be of any fun. And I think we can all agree that grinding isn’t fun. Why all the trouble to destroy something inherently valuable, arguably the main reason we play?

Now I know that some things in a game are scarce. The free time of players is scarce. The availability of content is scarce. Developers need time to design new dungeons and areas. But needless segregation of players into tiers arbitrarily by amount of time spent grinding is not efficient. It undermines the value of the game.

Some things, such as prestige, are scarce resources. If everyone is somebody, then nobody is anybody. But the previous manifesto-compliant system of dishing out “prestige” gear and titles to those willing to prove themselves is too an efficient way of distributing prestige among players, of differentiating them. And there is no requirement for them to be statistically more powerful than anyone else. In fact I contend that competing on an equal playing field and achieving those feats is itself more to be proud of.

The saddest part of this is the irony of it all: Developers such as Blizzard are picking up Guild Wars 1’s many design strengths and implementing it into their game even as Anet abandons them. The skill-bar interface of Diablo 3 is highly reminiscent of Guild Wars’ customizability, accommodation to different playstyles and tactics. They also ditched their long-held stance of no-respec, and allowed players to choose whatever builds they wished on the fly.

Most ironic of all (I don’t play WoW, might need a fact check), is that MoP is releasing dungeon modes with Horizontal Progression. Venture into these dungeons, but with standardised gear for all players! (So stop comparing the new metagame to WoW. Because GW2 is not even WoW anymore). That is a true test of skill, not grind. And it makes the game easy to play, hard to master. Values which Anet once held dear.

I am writing this, not because I want Anet to read and respond to this (because I know they won’t), but to encourage players to look beneath the illusion of progress and see and appreciate the well-thought out and carefully crafted design elements we once had.

Frankly I harbor little hope for GW1 as well. GW2 shows signs of executive intervention (as a business guy myself I can see its handiwork), which shows signs of financial distress. And NCSoft will not keep an unprofitable venture’s servers running for too long. Right now the devs are probably gagged because they still want their stock options. But screaming at them is probably of no use as many of them probably did all these against their best intentions to appease their financiers. They probably feel the death of their creation more dearly than we do. So it is time to move on.

The second reason is that a sense of progression can still be achieved without the use of Vertical Progression. Once your character has maxed out, the only way to be more effective is for the player to actually upgrade his skills to handle the toughest challenges. Guild Wars 1 had a few missions which were frustratingly difficult for me. The most memorable one I could recall was the Ruins of Morah mission where you had to kill Varesh. It was exceedingly difficult for my Dervish and I spent over seven hours trying to gather a team to defeat her. Eventually we had to strategise and completely rework our builds in order to take her down. But it was satisfying! By contrast vertical progression yields none of that exhilaration of problem-solving. Can’t face a gearcheck boss? Go grind some more, repeating content you have already completed just to make the content easier for you. I believe most players bought into the manifesto of Guild Wars 2 under the impression that the same fun of Guild Wars 1 could carry over.

The other problem with Vertical Progression is that one can have all the same prestige and fame with Horizontal Progression as well. Guild Wars 1 had Ascended armor too, but ironically they are just as powerful as basic armor. But they look way cooler and are a strong motivation to attain as well. By contrast vertical progression causes inflation and inexorably the devaluation and obsoletion of whatever prestige you obtained that separates the “Hardcore” from the “Casual” masses. However if with the same horizontal power one manages to clear the toughest dungeons, and gets rewarded with the rarest skins, that is certainly a bigger achievement to flaunt, as it signifies real skill rather than endless repetition. One such achievement that comes to mind (sadly only 3 weeks before this) was the Mad King’s Slippers, awarded at the end of the Clocktower jumping puzzle. It truly signifies the great skill the player has to navigate the level. (I know I can’t do it. I suck at platformers.) Can vertical progression be more satisfying than this?

TL: DR?

Vertical Progression both “gates” and obsoletes content, creating a lose-lose situation for all players.

Horizontal Progression can be similarly used to distinguish players, in fact more convincingly as the main separation will be that of skill rather than endless grind.

From what I see, there are two main reasons for players to want vertical progression. For many players, vertical progression is the driving force behind playing the game. As long as your character can grow no more powerful, you have run out of content to play with, and there is no point in playing. Another motivation behind the drive for endless progression is that there must always be a tier of “power” and “prestige” available, that are out of reach of “casual” gamers. There must be a scarce commodity out there that separates the “haves” and “have nots”, lest the latter starts feeling a sense of entitlement. The above reasonings, however, in my opinion, do not address the fundamental need behind gear progression, and do not take into account the side effects of its implementation.

Let me address the flaw with the first reasoning. Vertical progression, by definition, means your character gets ever more powerful the more you play. An equivalent interpretation, however, is that every monster out there gets easier the more you play. This flies in the face of traditional game design, where levels should generally get harder over time. More importantly, this destroys the very content you are looking for.

Let me explain. In Guild Wars 2 (let’s leave out Lost Shores first as I’ve not touched the game since Ascendedgate), there are exactly two PVE areas catered for level 80s. And most players stick to Cursed Shore. What about the rest? The truth is your character is too powerful to play in most of the other parts of the game. Enter a newbie zone and your enemies die if you so much as sneeze at them. Yes, the down-levelling is supposed to address this, but your gear is not down-levelled appropriately.

In Guild Wars 1, the developers have attempted to address this by implementing Hard Mode. Note that Hard Mode is accessible to level 20 characters, who can progress no further in stats. This means that the content remains relevant and challenging throughout your experience, no matter where you go. I think for most of us, having a sufficient challenge is an integral part of gameplay. My level 20 party can vanquish all the endgame bosses, do all the elite dungeons and still have to be extra cautious about fighting Roaring Ethers and Elementalist Bosses in Hard Mode.

When Guild Wars 2 was being developed, there was no doubt that they were recreating this sort of ideal. That every part of the game remains challenging. Yet Vertical Progression threatens this very ideal. A character with highly progressed gear would certainly find most content boring and unworthy of play. Already before Ascendedgate, my full-exotic (with nearly 200% magic find) Warrior is experiencing the problem of content obsoletion. Why bother with the rest of the world, when I can farm endlessly in Cursed Shore for the only worthwhile gear in the game? When monsters in other places die so easily, I fall asleep fighting them? Now Vertical Progression exacerbates the problem.

You wanna feel powerful? Fine. Don’t blame Anet when the rest of the content they painstakingly created and some of the most beautiful landscapes turn out unplayably easy for you. You are continuously funnelled away from these content anyway because they do not progress you, instead causing you to fall behind and denying access to the latest content. Because that is the ironic eventuality of Vertical Progression.

As a GW1 player I’ve never been more disappointed in Guild Wars 2’s apparent (and very sudden) change of direction. I have bought many character slots with gems to experience all the professions. Now it seems I’ll never get to experience my alts significantly because I need to be stuck grinding my main endlessly. And this absolutely kills the joy. Frankly I feel ashamed of myself for encouraging my friends to buy and play Guild Wars 2 on my credit card. I extolled many of the virtues of the game in reliance on the developer’s promises, which really convinced the ex-WoWers tired of grinding to turn to this game. Now I have to go back on my word simply because I trusted people who couldn’t keep theirs.

I understand that the game cannot possibly cater to the fancies of its entire community. I understand that there are people who absolutely love the introduction of vertical gear progression. There are people who absolutely trust and support Anet’s works in the future, in spite of this, and believe without a doubt that Anet still cares very much for its game and community. To me, however, that trust is all but shattered. And trust is very important.

In a community where the Developer has absolute and arbitrary power, we powerless gamers cannot do but trust the Developer to continue keeping the game enjoyable. Trust is what keeps the interests of Developer and players properly aligned. Don’t forget that the lack of a vertical progression is but ONE promise they have broken, and they have made other promises which may or may not be in your (any gamer) best interest to keep. Take Anet’s commitment to keeping this game from turning Pay to Win, from abusing its Gem Shop, or even to keep the game running at all? [Fact: Anet’s parent, NCSoft, has shuttered nearly half of its english MMORPGs it or its subsidiaries have ever developed.]

This may sound like fearmongering to you. But in the absence of trust, fear is all one has. And this fear is keeping me from ever enjoying this game from this point forward. I do not anticipate any amount of “noise” in the forums to make a difference beyond this point; the changes are likely here to stay. If I may indulge in the luxury of speculation, I’d say this sudden design change is not a rash decision by the developers. Nobody is more passionate and appreciative about a work of art than the artist himself.

Vertical progression may be a tried-and-tested marketing model. Still I do not understand why they would sacrifice its monopoly on no doubt a substantial player base in pursuit of a super-saturated competitive environment where countless other products have tried, and failed to get a foothold in the market. Just look at NCSoft’s other failures.

Yet, I have no place to comment. Anet is absolutely entitled not to listen to the 10,000 forum posts about this. It is after all their game, and no longer mine. I used to be super-enthusiastic about the one time event. Even after the changes, I wanted my characters to go out with a bang, to finish one last challenge and see a glimpse the next chapter of Guild Wars 2. But throughout the weekend I am absolutely repulsed by even the icon sitting on my desktop. For it represents to me what culminated in an elaborate lie and failed promises. As a final protest I am sitting out the event completely. Whatever last glimmer of irrational hope I harbor for this game, I am suppressing it to make a difference on the player count that Anet no doubt tracks the progress of. Honestly I cannot see how Anet can untangle this mess and restore Guild Wars 2 from this point without breaking more promises. I am certain a number of others are sitting this event out as well because of this. So I hope Anet would see this as a sign of things to come. Because people. will. leave. And what is an MMO without your core community? Perhaps when we have left, Anet might stop removing bot accounts, because that’s all the liveliness that remains to inherit what’s left of Tyria?