Guild Wars 2

Hello, this is a topic I feel strongly about, and I believe my point of view will be tragically underrepresented. I don’t like the new orange circles. Let me explain, from an artistic perspective…

If you do not believe video games are art, I direct your attention to Exhibit A and submit that anything modified or affected by humans may be considered art.

The question then is what do we consider good art and what do we consider toilet art?

The orange circles accomplish a clear goal in regards to gameplay functionality. Their utilitarian purpose (as I see it) is to give players a very clear, immediate heads up to incoming threats under circumstances where there is an excess of gameplay information for the player to process. Basically, with the players concentrating on the regulators (Marionette) and all of the adds and wurm mechanics (Triple Trouble), it is unreasonable to expect players to notice certain boss animations and avoid them without the orange circles as a warning. I understand the need for this on a functional level, and I support their use in large chaotic boss fights with an excess of gameplay mechanics going on.

I’m currently a student of game design and character animation. Animation is one of the most difficult artistic rolls in the industry to master. The work that goes in to animations can mean hundreds of man hours for something as simple kitten seconds of a single character moving. Add to that the hard work that went in to the modeling, texturing, rigging, scripting, etc. A lot of hard work and amazing talent goes in to bringing things to life in a game. Anet has some of the greatest artists in the industry.

What I’m getting at is that I feel that animation should be the key to anticipating mechanics. If a boss is going to punch you, it should pull it’s fist back and you should clearly be able to understand what is about to happen. If you slap a brightly colored aoe sticker on top of it, the players attention is shifted from all the hard work and talent that went in to creating that fist-pull. The attention is instantly redirected to this simplified orange sticker.

If you are going to boil everything down to simple brightly colored geometric shapes, why bother animating at all? Is it the goal in the industry right now to phase out animators and utilize gimmicky visual effects to save money on development? Is Anet really willing to sacrifice artistic quality just because some other game is doing it? I would be appalled if indeed Anet has decided to emulate other MMOs “just because.” Anet always talks about pushing the envelope and pioneering ground that no one else is covering. If that’s true, then Anet should be sticking to their guns and remain true to the quality of art they have been putting forth thus far.

I write all of this because I desperately don’t want to see Guild Wars 2 devolve into a clusterfrakk of brightly colored stickers which amount to a gross oversimplification of visual information. The orange circles are, at best, a functional compromise to the fact that the Marionette is literally kicking people from off-screen and way above their heads. At worst, they destroy the quality of video games as art, and vastly diminish the efforts of every artist that touched the character(s) involved. They have no place in small-scale content such as spvp and dungeons. Please, Anet, keep these orange circles to a minimum. Use them only in extreme circumstances when combat mechanics simply wont work without them in these large-scale battles. Allow your talented animator’s work to shine through!

Edit: Again, I understand the need for them on the Marionette and Wurm fights. What I’m advocating against is the idea of slapping these stickers across the entire game. We don’t need them everywhere. There are better ways of doing things.

lordkrall.7241:

kta.6502:

Regarding future LW content
Also, make the future content PERMANENT with animated cut scenes. Ditch the visual novel storytelling style that was used too heavily in the PS. There is a reason visual novels don’t sell well in the West: They don’t allow the characters to convey body language, facial expressions, and actions that heavily used by English speakers

The issue with that is that animated cut scenes take a rather massive amount of time and resources to create, which would either mean much less story in each update, or less updates overall.

How can we have less story? We barely have any story with each update, you can cram a lot of of info into a short cut scene, let’s say under one minute.

We would also get less updates over all? You mean we could get thought out cut scenes that better explain what’s going on and because of that we’d get less update spam? What’s the downside here? Sounds like we are creeping away from quantity and into quality where do I sign up for that?

BobbyStein.2315:

minbariguy.7504:

BobbyStein.2315:

[SNIP] …Or would you like future LW releases to cover other topics? Share your thoughts, but please keep it constructive. Thanks.

Honestly, it does not matter what topics are covered in the LW releases; if I cannot play through the content at my own pace, I will not play it at all. It is so frustrating to have my play timeframe constantly dictated by ANet. You folks put a lot of work into this stuff, I know, but my enjoyment of it is completely spoiled by the stress of waiting for the carrot to be yanked away.

This is a common complaint, and one that we’re very aware of. We’re discussing a variety of ideas that will allow players more flexibility in experiencing the Living World content, but we’re not ready to announce the details since the designs aren’t finalized yet.

Bobby, with all due respect, I don’t understand Anet’s seeming infatuation with the notion that temporary content is this great, revolutionary idea. Apart from the fact that most players are just interested in more available content in general (and not interested in content being removed), it just doesn’t seem like a workable idea in a game like GW2. IMO, The Living Story in its current form just needs to be scrapped, with the already released and removed content being re-released as expansions to the PS (rename it if you want), which future development (both story and gameplay) should build on.

To my mind, Anet should be laying the ground work for the narrative that the player experiences on his or her own terms, not forcefully moving the story irrespective of the player experience. Most people at various points are going to get bored or distracted by something else and stop playing, and the fact that they immediately start losing out on content is just going to make it less likely they’ll want to return.

There are so many things that could be done to shore up the somewhat weak PS structure to make it more interesting (since it isn’t fundamentally broken) in place of wasting so much development on temporary content. You could-

- add deeper, more involved/immersive missions at various levels to fill in the gaps
- add a way to replay missions
- add recruitable henchmen/allies that you can customize and take with you in PS missions.
- make better use of the home instance (decorating, recruiting allies, NPCs to run shops, etc.)

The only workable alternative in my mind is to remove the Personal Story from the game virtually entirely and only have a living story that progresses on its own, but with a greater focus on opening new zones than on changing existing ones. However, if you do this, the execution needs to be significantly better than it was in year one (more cohesive, more epic, bigger in general) for it to be engaging or interesting enough to hold player interest and draw back in lapsed players.

That’s just my two cents.

Concerning the living story i learned several things that i think that got to change to increase players intreset and will to play more.

Plot – Living story so far has been hints and suggestions there is no large chalk of story in it, the eurogamer artical compared it to somthing about wanting it to be song of ice and fire books, but at best its more like the trailer to the tv shot. Players said time and again that your living story is hallow shallow ith little to know plot and any sub plot in it is OUTSIDE the game , a quite unlogical notion.
Also you need to asume players did not play gw1 nor did they remember it or know every bit of lore , we need explanation direction and understanding from the ground up like babies. Some might not like it for the mass of story and find it boring but a large amount will love it and invest even more into the game.

Content that come is here to stay – SAB is my favorite patch so far, its unique intresting and different from the game, i do agree that the last was too long in tribulation mode the most but that can be fixed . Problem why is not in the game right now? its an amazing mini world that players can play for fun and get skins they luck, but why not let us get it in our own time? I quited tribulation beucase i got frustrated and wanted to return to it but no! its gone why?
What a waste of development time stuff like SAB should just stay in the game so players can do it at their own pace and get some decent rewards from it.

Rewards – this is the biggest stick in the mud i think. Like many players i want reward for my time i need a reason to do it and get some sense of achivment (and not achivment point only) Areananet so far have been realy cheap in their reward and didnt want a reward that good beucase they dont make a profit of of it. I relise as a company you make your money from the gem store thus you dont want us to get that good of a reward and buy it from the gem store or not get such good reward that will give us large sum of gold from it.

Some exsamples i can give are – Queen jubalie transofmation kit, its a unique transformation that allow you to play while looking different . The only problem it last 5 min with 30 min cooldown why? why is somthing fun beucase somthing that we just stare at and get angry. WvW season 1 reward talk for itself, Fractured reward the same. And more and more back skins we want some Fun stuff that you cant get from the gem store that will worth our time and improve the game.

In the end you need to reward players with fun item beucase there is a limit to how many skins we use ( i got alts and all of them got everything i want), so its time to say hey lets reward them somthing intresting and also put somthing on the trade post they will want also!

All in all thats my major 3 points in the living story failure so far

Can we have more skimpy armor – I honestly don’t think there is enough!

We used to have a tattoo armor set in GW1 on monks- would love to see something like that introduced again.

ok, i was waiting to use this, now you know too.
http://nebezial.deviantart.com/art/now-you-know-410571226

permanent content with new songs every few months
tnx

The epic-ness of the original GW story missions, I loved them and they kept me engaged, would like to see similar things to these as opposed to the current setup.

Sube Dai.8496:

More GW1 lore: Human gods, mursaat, white mantle, etc.

+1

What I would expect in GW2 Expansion is level cap raise to final level of 99, 90 total trait points and crafting level of 512, as well as new cooler looking armor that makes your characters look like kicking butt is all they’ve ever known. And of course the Personal Story would rather than give you more choices make the previous choices tie into the story better giving you more of a roleplaying experience. Also solo friendliness is a must!

Rather then being hung up on the current story, lets focus on future stories. Compose things we would like to see in any major expansions. May contain spoilers.

Let’s start were we left off. People griped about Trahearne, but he gave you command before the story ended. This should not be forgotten. This makes the personal story redeemable for those who didn’t like not feeling more in control. In future games, the player character should take center stage.

I also think that story should be more solo friendly. Even in an MMO, not everyone is social or can simply get a group together any time of the day. This includes the final boss. You could always adjust the rewards to be better fro group play.

Needless to say any expansion needs it own rewards. New armor and weapons are a must. New craftables as well. This I would expect. Just make sure they are unique and worth having.

I actually like Trahearne but I think this would be an awesome idea. That whole “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”

Sometimes the greatest villains were the ones who were among the greatest heroes.

Indirectly, I would say. Unlike -say- Faolain or Cadeyrn, a “Pirate” Sylvari’s not robbing and murdering for a “greater reason.” They want money, and they want it now.

Also a valid concept. They could always be a splinter of the Soundless, at that.

Reikou.7068:

I do kinda wish they added more Sylvari-themed gem-store gear.

We already have Asura/Human (Aetherblade/Magitech), Norn (Brahm) and Human (Phoenix) gear.

want some plant-themed gear.

I want more plant looking weapons too…

I do kinda wish they added more Sylvari-themed gem-store gear.

We already have Asura/Human (Aetherblade/Magitech), Norn (Brahm) and Human (Phoenix) gear.

want some plant-themed gear.

I know how to salvage Trahearne on a plate with thousand island dressing.

WyldKat.4712:

And what happens if two people try to summon this at the same time?

Caladbolg + Caladbolg = magic combo, Trahearne appears.

Kills (of boredom) every allies in the area.

I hope commander tag and legendary becomes account wide. pretty pls.

Make commanders more useful and turn random WvW into organized playing.

My suggestion is simple and i think it would be really useful:

Implement some kind of commanding ability to those who have the commander title.
Like 5~10 customizable commands that he could use in order to direct players who’re following him.
“Retreat” “Attack” “Regroup”
That all the players around him, and maybe some sort of special message to players in his squad can receive fast orders and improve random zergs.

It is important that he can customize it, that guarantees the usefulness of this tool, and gives commanders a new way to excel.

Welp, that is it. Pretty simple, pretty useful.

Please go +1s or -1s if you read it to show what you think about and show the devs too.
Thank you {:

Not just a Dandelion, but a DAHN-delion.

Definitely some good chuckles in this list.

I can already see my sylvari donning her fancy winter outfit for Wintersday next month and joking that she’s a dandelion.

She’s such a dork.

My asura will refer to a sylvari as “cabbage”, but that’s probably more a slur than a slang.

I’d like to see this as well. There are many times when I want to run dungeons at late hours and can’t find anyone to play with (and no one from my guild is online).
Also, even during peak hours, there are many PVE maps that are pretty much empty.

Yes, there should be such an option. Even when in a guild, we sometimes miss one party member to go to a dungeon. Henches could solve this prioblem.

It’s been soooo long. They should create a month long Living Story that revolves around high profile tailors and crafters vising Tyria and fitting Sylvari males properly by customizing all our armor with their amazing skills while they’re here.

Would be THE BEST living story ever.

NO ELVES THANK YOU VERY MUCH. So overdone and boring. How about skritt playable race. Special racial skills like “Throw a Distracting Shiny”

Aww. No love for the Hyleck. I would love to be a frog person. And a mole man.

Henchmen: So all of us can experience the suffering of ranger pets… agreed, the AI for friendly NPCs is just not good enough in gw2 to make them worth while… though with decent ai or a WHOLE LOTTA health and damage, it might excise the pain of Arah pugs >.>

While I loved how heroes & henchies added an almost RTS element to GW1, I will also state that I thought they were the death of multiplayer in that game.
Oftentimes, hero monks were easier to get than human ones and performed more reliably too. The same was mostly true of interrupters, necros and ritualists.

Be careful what you wish for.