Guild Wars 2

I’m sick and tired of devs ignoring this topic as it’s obviously an issue that needs to be addressed. TDM should have been released with this game at launch like it was with GW1. There is NO excuse. Conquest should have been left for a much later expansion (although there is no need for it in this game at ALL). No one I know enjoys conquest. Conquest is NOT “PvP”. They need to STOP spending time on this.

That being said, I wouldn’t mind seeing 4v4 TDM like in GW1 or 5v5.

I can’t believe people are talking about LORE in an PvP forum in what is obviously supposed to be a PVP game.

The PvP is bad, period. For many reasons including lack of PvP modes, yes this includes GvG – the heart of this game.

You Loreboys can go back to the PvE forums thx.

Division.9618:

Angelus.1042:

people say it took GW1 years for these other PVP game types to come out…buuuttt…this is GW2…why would we have to wait forever again for new PVP game types that they (the ANet PVP Team) should already be experienced with and should not have a hard time making in GW2 since they have years of experience with GW1.

Just an observation.

it’s because GW1 and GW2 are only similar in setting. This is a whole new game with lots of new things to it that a lot of MMOs have never tried before. I understand if they’re a little weary and taking it slowly.

Look at class balance now. Imagine how bad it would be across multiple game modes.

Also to address the OP. I’m pretty sure it’s called guild wars for lore reasons, not because player guilds can fight each other.

1) Honestly the only thing “new” in this game are the “dynamic” quests and having them non-instanced. Clever little implementation. Non-instanced environment however, are features that should be standard in 2012, I am not impressed at all. Other than that, GW2 smells like every other game on the market.

GW1 til this date has the most revolutionary/in depth skill/spell system in my opinion. It’s a fun game, GW2’s auto-pilot attacking is not.

2) “Guild Wars” is just lore? Are you kidding me? Is this a loltroll? You’re saying Anet totally dropped the core bread and butter of what they’re known for only to release a “F2P PvE WoW”? I’m sick and tired of hearing “F2P” used as some excuse/rationale, you honestly can’t even pay me to play this boring game.

I played GW1 6+ years since DAY 1, it was F2P and NEVER felt like I should “leave and come back months later”. Anet dropped the ball here, it’s plain and clear for everyone to see.

Best thread title ever.

Honestly with all due respect, people who keep hurling the F2P “arguments” need to go back to the game they came from because they obviously did not play GW1. Guild Wars is supposed to be a PVP game.

All they gave us here was GW1’s version of AB – the most boring of all. Fans creating threads like this, just shows what a joke it is to release a game with conquest map types.

GW1 was released fully prepared as PVP game, these issues of boredom people complain about did not exist then for good reason. I will say it again and my post may get biasly deleted because of it, but Anet needs to re-evaluate the team managing arena PvP initiatives(obviously not the same people from GW1) and see if any cuts need to be made. Heart of the Mists is simply NOT FUN.

Well unless you have any other suggestions for a good game with PVP?
Where the main objective is to kill the other team.

Yup. Went back to playing GW1 and surfing these forums on occasion. Random Arenas is pretty much how it’s always been. That and HA is really the only reason I logged into GW1. That was what “GW” was to me. It’s still a populated game.

What this game is.. I don’t know but don’t like it. It’s missing TDM in sPvP so until then I’ve stopped playing.

Other than that, I’m waiting for DarkFall 2 on Nov 20th. The new content coming out for GW2 doesn’t interest me in the least… for sPvP they’ve introduced a new……. conquest map. /sigh.

Tito.3270:

So far they haven’t been able to balance the pvp around a single gamemode, how should they do it with several gamemodes?

I honestly wouldn’t care if they threw away conquest in sPvP all together and focused on TDM and Capture the Leader. No one I know likes conquest objectives or eventually got “bored” of it. Never liked it to begin with, gave it some time and still hasn’t “grown” on me. I stopped playing.

This has absolutely nothing to do with balance. I wouldn’t mind playing an unbalanced game temporarily as long as it’s at least interesting in the slightest bit.

merry.3247:

any other pvp modes planned soon? getting bored of those spvp maps and their objectives…

This.

I don’t really care anymore for “sPvP”, or this game in general, until TDM or Capture the Leader objectives are implemented.

/signed

party vs party everywhere and anywhere.

sPvP Capture the Leader Game Type:

-Random player chosen by server is designated as ‘Team Leader’
-Objective is to kill enemy team leader and their remaining team members to win
-Team members will continue to re-spawn at death until Team Leader is killed

Notes:
-Similar to TDM, 5v5 would provide good gameplay without becoming a zerg fest
-Maps should provide decent amount of hiding/protective spots for 5v5. I’d imagine one in a city setting similar to a select area of Divinity’s reach (housing structures ect..)

I do realize two of the top requested game types are TDM and CTF. However, the current “conquest” mode in game is not doing it for many people, myself included. There’s a thirst for real PvP action and I think this game type plus TDM would provide just that.

Post your thoughts or /sign the thread to make it happen.

This has been asked 1000+ times, I’ll /sign this thread. I’m sure they will implement a “Relic Run” version of this. Although I’m upset as this should have been here at launch. I agree, conquest is so boring.

I’m ultimately waiting for TDM however, and some form of ‘Capture the Leader’ similar to Gears of War where the objective is to kill the enemy leader(randomly chosen by the server) to stop the team from spawning at death(and then kill remaining team).

Title says it all. Regarding the necro’s ‘Lich Form’ elite skill.

ARENAnet need look no further than their first creation GW1. It seems after Factions, they lost a core of their good staff(those who created HA/TA/RA and got the ball rolling on seasonal events).

Anyway as a player, I learned:

1) I really appreciate an elaborate selection of high-impact skills like in GW1 as opposed to limited low-impact auto-pilot skills like we have here in GW2. I literally can go make a sandwich while my toon fires away.

2) I despise conquest game types in PvP. My type of game is where the objective is to go in and kill the enemy team, period.

3) If by “gated” you mean “instanced”, I definitely do NOT like instanced content, so I commend ARENAnet for their dynamic events system although the fun-factor is limited because the auto-pilot style of fighting is boring.

ARENAnet should have put more focus on PvP or at least the same amount as they did in PvE. What it boils down to is people expect Guild Wars to be a solid PvP game as part 1 was. No one bought this game for PvE and assure you those that did are not the hardcore fans. They’ll move right on to the next pretty grind-fest that comes along.

4) I don’t like theme park games. I find all this talk about “I’m bored at level 80” hilarious. What do you expect in a theme park game??? That’s the entire reason they’re crap. For great lasting PvE, sandbox is where it’s at.

After 12 years+(since UO) the MMO community is still waiting for a big budget company to bring a massive multiplayer online world simulator sandbox with:

-Open PvP
-Non-instanced housing
-City conquering
-Crafting with a purpose. Contributing something useful unique to the world. Not simply grinding away for self sufficiency.

Reclusiarh.2674:

miracle.4216:

. ………Where the hell is Guild vs Guild? This is GUILD WARS. TDM needs to be implemented asap and other game modes such as Capture the Leader or CTF. How about Party vs Party in the open environment. WvW is a zerg fest injected with “PvE” elements that I want no part of.

For a name like “GUILD WARS” they left out much of the GUILD and the WARS. …….

My thought exactly. And have you noticed how they actually eliminated the word war from the pvp content? Now they are constantly using phrase eSport. /facepalm hard and smah the keybord with my head

I mean I respect all kinds of sports, but I’m here to smash some head and spill some blood of the enemy fighter…..ups sorry I meant to say I’m here to score points and win over the opposite team in a fair sports match. /facepalm again.

Read my sig and consider it again Anet. War matters.

Totally agree, don’t even get me started I’m biting my tongue as it is.

The final point in all of these threads is going to remain that PvP in Guild Wars 2 is beyond crap at the moment. It’s frustrating how anyone could have told ANet staff, “Stop right there, this conquest mode in sPvP is just garbage.” Why did they bother initiating that route to begin with?

No one here has an issue with the graphics, game is beautiful. Obviously there’s a BIG issue with gameplay and ANet needs to start looking at their staff management/team of PvP and see if any cuts need to be made.

For everyone else, if your driving motivation to click on the GW2 icon on your desktop daily is to log on and run around aimlessly for hours on end in tonic form, good for you.

Gaboon.7389:

I really really really don’t want to go back to WoW.

I was so bored that I went back to GW1 last night.

When the devs have created lackluster PvP “sPvP” or whatever they want to call it then yes they are responsible for what they’ve created.

Where the hell is Guild vs Guild? This is GUILD WARS. TDM needs to be implemented asap and other game modes such as Capture the Leader or CTF. How about Party vs Party in the open environment. WvW is a zerg fest injected with “PvE” elements that I want no part of.

For a name like “GUILD WARS” they left out much of the GUILD and the WARS.

I think many share the same view that we just can’t comprehend 1) Why conquest was the first type to make it at launch for sPvP and 2, instead of wasting time creating new PvE content, this game’s PvP needs major work like soon to hold anyone’s interest. No one bought GW1 for the “PvE” and same goes for GW2, PvP is supposed to be the bread and butter here and it’s pretty dire at the moment.

There’s no such thing as good “end game” in theme park games. For good real “end game” you need sandbox games such as Ultima Online, DarkFall, Mortal Online ect. Unfortunately these are dated or managed by some indie company. There hasn’t been a big budget company competent enough to take on a sandbox game yet, perhaps there’s no money in it although I don’t see how that’s possible.

HappinessFactory.4910:

There seems to be little to no work in the pvp section of this free to play game. They may be working their kitten off at anet but I’m not seeing results I’d like to see.

This.

Enough with the “this is free to play” arguments. Guild Wars 1 had PvP GREAT at launch. There is just no excuse here.

My opinion is the graphic artists at ANet should be given huge raises and the management/team in charge of sPvP or all combat in general should be looked at very closely to see who gets the axe. It almost seems to me like after GW Factions, ANet lost a core of their good staff(those who created HA/RA/TA) in GW1, the game started becoming cartoonish and then things like Jade Quary started getting injected into the game.

Seriously, who came up with this conquest mode and how long until we get something ELSE. It’s not a matter of “getting bored too fast” this is just NOT fun, anyone could have told you that before you even created it.

Where is TDM??

I’m waiting on the name change desperately… 2 slots on my account are merely placeholders for new names for 2 of my other characters. I’m just hoping it’s not going to take 2 years+ for ArenaNet to implement this as it was in GW1.

My account too had a log in from China yesterday. I did not click the authorization link. And I too have a unique PW to arenanet only.

Address: 219.144.123.2
City: Beijing
Region: 22
Country: CN

I am still able to log in, However, the gems in my account look far less than what I thought I had and I’m unsure how to check transactions on my account?

How do I check if gems were converted into gold and when?

UPDATE: Ok so I was able to change my pw, but a little upset on how it was so simple? Why was I not asked to authenticate this change through email? Is it because it’s the same pc/location I’ve always been using? If so then ok, just wondering why the person from China didn’t go ahead and update the pw on my account on their own.

Regarding that Google Authenticator app, it looks relatively new and I’m iffy about it, has anyone else here used it?

I just submitted a ticket: 121020-002897

I definitely deleted my first char soon after creating it and was not aware bonus items were only distributed to the first initial character only. I have one of the premium versions(not sure how to check) but pretty certain it’s the DD version.

Thanks for the sPvP update recently.

While renting servers sounds exciting, I’m a little bit confused as to still not a word on different game types? Is it just me?

While you may not have a definitive list of the game types just yet, surely you have something planned for the future in regards to adding variety to game types. Surely there’s plans for PVP other than conquest?

PvP is the endgame in Guild Wars, all this PvE stuff and current sPvP is out of boredom and in anticipation of something other than conquest eventually(like soon).

Many people are anxious about this. Right now it feels like we’re in limbo. Don’t know whether to drop the game or get excited. We want to hear that you have definitive plans of adding different game types and that you excited about this as we are.

Ok many thanks for your help Hyena.

If anyone else has any info on this would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Hi all, my login screen didn’t display that info until level 43 or so (I’m lvl 46 now). Thankfully I joined the right order. Clicking on ‘my story’ did not tell me up front which order this character joined.

The way I figured it out was seeing that my char completed the Stealing Secrets mission. That’s the mission the wiki pointed out is in line with Order of Whispers. I do see the OoW banner on my login now but this alone wouldn’t have been helpful if I had multiple chars past level 30.

Thanks all for the help!

I feel you on this, my current char is lvl 41 and it’s been hard.

Vigil, Durmand Priory or Order of Whispers, I’m level 41 and joined one of these orders but I forgot which.

How do I check what order I joined?

I want this char to have armor from Order of Whispers once I reach 80. What happens if I joined the wrong order at this point? What are my options?

I doubt this armor can be “legendary”… can you provide a link? I can’t find any info on this anywhere. If someone actually has the armor pictured, it would be great to get some feedback.

I’ve only seen one person so far in PvE with it but at the time I didn’t know it was such a pain to find the PvE name for it so I didn’t ask.

See attached, no one seems to know.

This is supposed to be a PVP game aka Guild Wars. I personally didn’t buy the game for PvE so I can’t help you out there. When you buy a “Theme Park” game, you’re always going to run into the inevitable “what now?” PvE wall. Personally, if you want a great on-going PvE experience, look into sandbox games, that’s what I was hoping GW2 would be but unfortunately there’s not that many of them out there for god knows what reason. There’s a reason why the name Ultima Online still floats around after over a decade, and no it absolutely is not nostalgia. My guess is that it’s more profitable to pump out expansions every few months to power up the hamster treadmill once again? Although I don’t see how/why that should be the only way a company can make money especially with Arenanet’s BLTC system.

The point of PvE in Guild Wars 1 was to get armor to look sexy in PvP. PvP in GW1 was amazing and the reason why it was my primary MMO for over 6 years. Unfortunately, PvP in GW2 is currently BORING because conquest mode is NOT “PvP”. Until they add new game types in sPvP such as Capture the LEADER, TDM and/or CTF, I would say go find another console/fps/mmo game and come back to this once Arenanet hopefully refines what they are supposed to be known for which is PvP.

For PvE in Guild Wars 1, after you reached level 20(the cap there) the only incentives around were to farm gold towards better armor so you could look sexy in PvP.

GW2 looks like GW1 all over again, however this time there’s no point in PvE’ing because sPvP is a totally separate world with an ungodly long time to grind for armor and sPvP is flat out boring as there’s only 1 game type: conquest. Conquest is NOT “PvP”. The only other PvP “option” is WvW which is a zergfest I personally want no part of.

I agree with your sentiment of “What now?” after hitting max. Yes GW2 is beautiful, but I didn’t buy this game for PvE. I define “PvE” as immersing myself in a living breathing world. I don’t care whether it’s “free” or paid, the key features that hold my interest for PvE in an MMO are:
1) Non-instanced housing
2) Conquering cities(with brute force, not farming conquest Jade Quary maps for alliance points like in GW1)
3) Crafting with a sense that you are contributing something useful/unique to the world, that you’re recognized for. Not simply grinding away for self-sufficiency.
4) Reasons to attend dev-ran events such as limited edition skins/items that won’t be available again(but these types of things are only rare occasion).

I’ve learned that if a game’s “PvE” doesn’t have some of these key features above, you’ll always end up in one of these “what now?” moments.

Aside from #4, I personally see no hope for GW2’s PvE, at its current state. It’s the same ol same ol, another masked hamster wheel to no where. I was looking forward to great PvP in Guild Wars 2, but I’m not getting that at the moment which is what’s the biggest shame and my biggest qualm here.

To answer your question, I’d tell you “go farm cash to get better weaps”, but I’m afraid once you’ve done that you’ll be back here asking that very same question again. When it comes to PvE, it just looks like GW2 is just going to be another one of those MMOs powering up the hamster wheel by pumping out new lands, races ect.. instead of working on making their current world a truly living and breathing environment. But hey it’s made WoW millions right?

They’re better off adding additional PvP game types like Capture the Leader, Team Death Match and Capture the Flag, as well as GvG and Party vs Party within the PvE environment. These are easy solutions that will solve the current dire state of PvP – what GW is supposed to be known for.

I agree 100% it DOES seem kind of regressive. If you want to play some of the best PvP to date (aside from FPS games out there) play GW1.

KogarasuMaru.7036:

Population in the mists have been steadily declining. On Blackgate, there are maybe 30 people standing around. Half of them are afk. Sometimes there are a few people looking for groups, otherwise map chat is dead silent. Blackgate is supposed to be one of the pvp servers too.

This. I used to sPvP daily but conquest is beyond boring. i cant take it anymore. Everyone knows jade quary only attracted PvEers in GW1 looking to make easy cash. conquest is NOT “PvP”. why the devs decided to start with conquest only in GW2 is beyond me

I’m awaiting ra/ha in gw2 and/or something new like capture the leader to get back into PvP.

You know…. PVP = kill the other team. Simple.

I’m really hoping for this as well as a name change like in Guild Wars 1. Two of my char slots are simply placeholders for a name change to 2 of my other chars… hopefully it’s not too far off..

I want to see Capture The LEADER (similar to Gears of War) where a random team player gets designated as the team leader.

TDM is like a no-brainer, I don’t understand how this is not in place yet?

CTF would be ok, I’m more into the 2 modes above though, there should be separate servers for game modes that people enjoy. I want to strictly play game modes where the objective is simply to kill the other team, simple, nothing more.

This is GUILD WARS we need more focus on the PvP here. I agree, regarding PvE, the world is BEAUTIFUL, but dead. There is not point except to grind, acquire, achieve, and farm to oblivion. PvE could be so much more, but that’s another topic.

Please address sPvP.

Recently.1043:

Honestly, as someone who has 2 level 400 crafts, there’s really no point in crafting, its just a money sink that gives you some exp as a consolation prize.

Anything that you can craft yourself, can be bought on the TP. Does it cost less to make that exotic you want yourself than to buy it on TP? yes, but not by much. It costs way more to level to 400 than the extra you pay to just buy the gear. Worse off, you can get the gear free instead of you farm karma or run dungeons.

If your looking to make a legendary, you will need it, but getting 400 crafts is probably the easiest part of the legendarys to do anyways.

Thanks, I actually found a list of skins posted on another thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Legendaries-Appearance/first#post300692 (wish this had showed up in google?). I don’t really see anything there worth getting (for the time/money it takes to do so) so I guess becoming a crafter is not for me at this time. Thank you all for your help!

Wulfrim.4793:

If he searched online then he’s either kitten or just plain lying. Its LITERALLY the first link. Literally. Everything he asked can be found by typing exactly his words in google and clicking the FIRST link. There is something wrong with asking the community and I can’t believe I’m the only one who sees it. He’s becoming completely reliant on people for help.

The first link is a video, the 2nd 3rd and 4th are not lists of images which is why I came here. Can you just get out of this thread please? You are NO HELP at all.

Thanks.

Yes I did read the replies, obviously things are still not clear. I don’t know what the “auction house” is. Is that the BLTC? Unfortunately someone needs to put on wiki that winged is also same as champion(I don’t know how to do this). Did not know this and did not find any info on that regarding champion armor.

I got the how about nightmare, no need to repeat it. i simply want to know if i need to be a crafter or not, my guess is no then.

Is there is a list of the Legendary weapon skins? I simply want to know why bother becoming a crafter. If there are non-tradeable crafter-ONLY items such as legendary weapons as mentioned, then it would be helpful to have someone point to a list of these skins online.

My guess is such a list does not exist anywhere as no one has posted one yet.

So bottom line, if I want “Winged”, “Nightmare” or Wizard’s PvE skin armor do I need to be a crafter yes or no?

Please take this as nothing more than constructive criticism. If people have concerns about lack of end game, it’s because there is. Much of what is listed here is either common sense, or it is indeed a grind. You can accomplish much of this here from any old MMORPG free or paid that you pick off the shelf or a website.

Keywords like Endgame are code-name for grind fests. Most MMOs out there are grind fests so this isn’t a knock on GW2 specifucally at all. I was a big GW1 fanboy, primarily for it’s PvP and primarily for RA/HA. In my opinion, GW1’s PvP was ground breaking, unmatched til this very day. GW2 sadly is a different story.

GW2 is BEAUTIFUL I am blown away by the graphics, however, there’s no soul to it, no purpose. What are you supposed to do after you “grind”, “farm”, “achieve” and “acquire” yourself all out?(these are your own words)

The ideal MMO should not have an endgame, it should be an on-going adventure. And no.. completing the same event over and over is not an adventure.

The name of this game is Guild Wars. As I walk around the beautiful landscape, I can’t help but wonder how much more GW2 could be. How hard is it to implement a Party vs Party PvP option so players could fight it out right in the middle of no where.. or everywhere. With all the beautiful cities/housing structures throughout the land, why can’t there be non-instanced housing? Perhaps a mix of non-instanced/instanced. Perhaps guilds could take over cities and actually use/live in them. Perhaps doing so can spark unique events, or affect taxes for merchants within the BLTC.

These are all ideas off the top of my head that really don’t seem that difficult to implement at all. I do thank you for the time you’ve put into the post but I’m also partially concerned that _Arena_net has thought this to be sticky-worthy. Perhaps, they feel this is a good list of ideas to kill time now, but I do hope there’s bigger plans for this game in the future.

Ok, thanks. Is there like a comprehensive PvE armor list anywhere? Like where can I obtain Champion or Nightmare armor? Can it be made by another crafter? If not then where/how?

Maurier.6094:

Sad that in the first few weeks a master crafter is akin to a hobo holding a sign saying ‘Will work for Food’

GW2 crafting at its finest?

LOL

Post is in no way intended to be sarcastic, but those are the types of responses I seem to get in game.

I honestly have no desire to be a crafter, but I’m wondering if there are any benefits besides making money in crafting? Are there certain non-tradeable items that are only obtained through crafting?

If so, what exactly are these items, can someone point me to a list somewhere detailing this? For example, why can’t I find any Wizard’s or Champion armor in the Trade Post? Can’t a crafter make this for me?

Lastly, just note I’ve looked everywhere on the wiki and google before posting here and I still don’t understand the point in becoming a crafter but still can’t find where/how some items as the ones mentioned above can be obtained.

B)

There is rampant YAWNING everywhere. Annoying beyond belief.

ShRNA.4376:

Please just bring back the Random Arena/Team Arena structure in GW1. It is so much better than the Hot-join zerg fest /Free T premade pug stomp we have right now. And it should be easy enough to do so.

Oh my god YES PLEASE /agree

-I can swallow the fact GW2 PvP is a pet/clone fest (This is a fundamental flaw devs implemented for whatever reason and will probably never be fixed. Whatever, I can “deal” with this flaw.)
-I can swallow the fact there is obvious class imbalance at the moment and a number of other bugs. (This will probably be fixed eventually.)

However, I simply cannot stand the cap/conquest mode. I despise it and never played Jade Quary because that’s just not my thing. Old school Guild Wars players know RA and HA is essentially what the game was founded on. I can’t believe TDM isn’t even an option at the moment.

I’ve reached rank 20 and I’ve found that once the allure of getting “sexier armor”(which still I’ve yet to unlock the ones I want) has ceased, that I practically have to force myself to play GW2 to grind away glory to god knows what level just to get it. I’m over it already. Conquest is so BORING, I’m not having fun along the way. It’s not what I nor many here consider to be real PvP. “Guild Wars 2” has become this forum for me now.

Masquerade armor in PvP locker is not showing correct skin. The name/icons looks like it should be referring to the armor on the right below (image from Google), however, the armor preview shows the tribal style set seen on the screen shot I took(bottom left).

Please fix, really looking forward to having the armor on the right in sPvP!

Upon Google-ing ‘Masquerade Armor GW2’, you’ll see an armor skin(one of the best looking female armor skins in the game imo) which is pretty much identical to the Mesmer’s armor in the character selection screen.

However, in the PvP locker, the preview of this skin looks like some tribal type of skin… meh…. from the icons/name, you’d expect the better looking mesmer-ish armor to appear. Is this a bug? hope so!

Same, an option I would like to see is TDM with a Quake Live/Quake 3 Arena ‘Freeze Tag’ mode twist. The goal/way to score is to “Freeze”/kill the entire enemy team. You are able to “unfreeze”/revive your team mates during the match which works well with GW’s “downed” system. I prefer this over TDM where the goal is simply to rack up the most enemy kills.

I would also love to see a Capture the Leader game mode similar to Gears of War where one person on each team is randomly designated as the team leader. The enemy will keep re-spawning until the leader is killed.

Anyway Aeson, I agree with your original post that there should be non-instanced housing! Especially in Divinity’s Reach.

However, Non-instanced housing should serve a purpose in GW2 and here’s how:
-Any vendor/bank access needed should easily be available from your house alone.
-The house can remain “open” to the public as other building structures currently are,. You could decorate it by displaying trophies of your achievements, rare items, mini statues of your characters or decorative items to be purchased in trading post.
-Housing would be a method for players to learn about others, view their “personal Guild Wars 1/2 story”, their achievements and encourage player interaction.
-Each time you decide to explore a city, you have the potential to learn something new.
-Certain areas/structures could be seen as premium spaces purchased by wealthiest individuals in the community or those who have impacted the world in some way.
-Perhaps you may have unlocked/achieved X things in GW1 and 2 in order to be qualify for premium non-instanced housing and keeping it may be a grind on its own.

Things like THIS would make a city ALIVE and make exploring interesting/meaningful. Obviously there would need to be some on-going costs/work to keep a space dedicated to you otherwise it would grow stale from inactive players.

Again, not everyone should have housing some may not even want it. But there are people like us who want to immerse ourselves in the game in a meaningful way. There could also be an instanced housing option that would provide some of the same benefits, perhaps housing within instanced Alliance Guild Cities/Halls? (as opposed to each guild in the alliance having their own hall ala GW1 as all of them were frequently empty).

Aeson Thackery.5927:

Not sure what you mean with the “hand held” questing…because this game is the complete opposite of that system…you can do what ever the hell you please really.
And I often do see a lot of people away from the city centers, exploring, RPing, just chilling, getting vistas, or whatever, at least on my server. This might be different across different servers.

By hand-held, I mean Guild Wars 2 is(unfortunately) NOT a sandbox game. It is a theme park game. All theme park games feel “hand-held” to me. If you think GW2 is sandbox, then you’ve never played a good one, just my opinion. I don’t like theme parks, but I love GW because of its PvP and it entertains me as an interim game until the next “Ultima Online” sandbox game comes along if ever. Just feels like such a shame because GW2 could be an epic sandbox game with some additional tweaks.

I’m on Yak’s Bend a fairly populated server. Regarding people away from city centers "exploring, RPing, just chilling, getting vistas or “whatever”… Getting vistas is all I see on rare occasion. I don’t see anything else you’ve mentioned there rarely ever at all. Housing within the city would/should add some fundamental meaning other than just doing “whatever”.

Perhaps Guilds can fight over control of particular cities and those who have control can enjoy the non-instanced housing, although I’d much rather there be a system where it’s available for purchase/on-going maintenance.

roqoco.4053:

miracle.4216:

I just wrote a thread about this. I’d LOVE to see non-instanced housing in Divinity’s Reach.

Really this isn’t going to happen – It would require changing the design of the whole city for starters. And, of course there never would be enough space for everyone. Further when people are offline for extended periods or when they’ve finished playing the game their “house” would just be wasted space. Maybe you might get to rent a flat in an apartment block or something.

The “there never would be enough space for everyone” argument is simply not valid. Just like in real life, not everyone can/should have own a property. Furthermore, with a brainstorming, there could easily be a mix of non-instanced housing, instanced apartment/housing or no housing for those who don’t want/need it.

Unused housing would never be an issue. I don’t know what games you come from, but obviously there would be on-going costs to owning a non-instanced property in the form of taxes/maintenance.

I don’t think much change of the city would be needed. As it is, much of the city AWAY from any main vendors is pretty much EMPTY/DEAD/USELESS. The game is beautiful and there’s a lot of depth to it, unfortunately it’s also dead once anyone strays away from “hand-held” questing. Housing would add a vibrant sandbox element to this beautiful game and also additional income for Arenanet and money sinks to help the economy.