Guild Wars 2

- Impliament a simple skip tutorial button that is triggered after the first play through of the tutorial segment (the trigger mechanism requires that the player has completed this races tutorial at least once).
- There would be a confirmation button, yes/no “do you want to skip the tutorial?”
- Only apply it to this particular personal quest, since it is shared universally between origin stories.
- No, repeating it is a choice for people that actually want to do that segment and considering it is literally less than a percent of the game, its not necessary to offer it.
- Also no, your kind of jumping the gun with that final point, no, it would not mean you can just skip the entire thing, only the most unessential part, being the universally shared introduction quest that your specific race does, which is universal no matter the choice.
- The point would be removing that for people that have already done it and wish to alt simply makes things faster and easier.

The Razing has been a definate plus, everything about this patch, simply said, is what the direction of GW2 needs to be more of, something for everyone, and it really has given, something for everyone.

Keep up the good work devs, this, is where the game needs to go.

Too much effort?

Scripting something like that takes less than half an hour, granted, longer to impliament on server wide scale but for the simple scripting your joking? Have you ever used C++?

Its not hard, it would take a few tweaks but it wouldnt hurt to add it either, its an unnecessary waste of time and more importantly its depressingly borish to go through that tutorial for the 30th time hearing the same lines over and over (yes I have “alot” of alts, even with a level 80 ranger main).

Honestly, too much effort? You could do something like that on a sandwhich break.

Im 90% sure you get tired of doing that world boss after the first three times on your alts, I think its safe to say most want this feature simply because it makes leveling faster, there is no real point in having that tutorial segment except for flavour, which is pointless cause everyone does the same tutorial part anyway.

TL:DR?

Option to skip personal story tutorial mission, please?

Admittingly one thing id like to see is an alternative to the hall of mists items, like being able to buy them outright for more expensive amounts of gem purchasing.

It does seem a little ironic that you can outright “buy” digital deluxe items but you still have to buy gw1 and play the hell out of it to get every HOM item.

That Karka event was the most painful amount of lagtastic brutality ive ever experienced and for those that didnt experience it, your the lucky ones. You missed nothing, this event was basically:
- get bowled over and 1 shot by half a million large karkas that couldnt be evaded because they were located convinently on a long fall platform.
- spend at least 2 solid hours doing this event untill your fingers hurt spamming buttons because it was that boring.
- It lacked any kind of enjoyable immersive point, like for example, the fact that the Karka attacked and the only motivatino was to kinda kill off their species, wow, not really immersive so much as outright stupid.
- We never got enough lore for the Karka to justifyably attack them and honestly I felt this entire event was dumbly designed from the start.

They built up a really nice premise to be fair, the Karka “was” an idea that wasnt so bad, but Living story has impliamented this kind of idea a THOUSAND times better.

If the Karka were part of a later living story reintroduction then yes, but only if they were retuned significantly and revamped to be ALOT more farmable, as it is, the reason nobody goes there is because they are downright STUPIDLY hard to kill and with very little need to get gear from them since they dont drop decent equipment worth the effort.

If there was a lesson to be learned here its: Greater challange means people want exotics at the end of it, because nobody does something for the sheer hell of it, even if they claim otherwise.

If they bring back the super karka either:

1. Nerf the hell out of it untill its actually a doable event that DOESNT take 2 solid hours to complete.
2. If failing that, make the loot reward “worth” the effort, since while a few got welfare legendary precursurs, some of us got a useless trinket and a 20 slot bag being the only viable item worth the endevour.

Yeah, that does sound like a load of backside ache but honestly it really was “that” bad, for those who felt cheated, you missed nothing.

So your promoting the idea that casuals should have to farm for things that hardcores have already got? Thats my entire point in a nutshell havent you been reading?

The entire issue here lies in the fact that the challange is biased because the people who already “have” said skins also have the statistics that come with them, and as such, have undeniably the best gear in the game, leaving them the full advantage over those less fortunate.

There are other factors in this too:

- Open World PVE is indeed for casuals playing the game but it also features world boss challanges for casuals and hardcores, also, the entirety of Orr (before being patched) was pretty much one giant hardcore exclusive zone, and to a degree, still is.
- Dungeons aernt designed as a challange alone, the explorable modes as a concept was to give people a sense of replayability, during the development that was the plan, it was not to give people a sense of boringly generic bosses, some whos difficulty are outright undooable without proficent gear, extremely versed tactics and the patience to die many times to succeed thanks to the removal of res-rushing which most people exploited for their gear anyway.
- WvW is “Not” for large scale cooperative combat, its simply a method of alternative pvp which is used purley for zerg-rushing and how best to employ it at the time. Honestly, I dont think you’ve commited to WvW enough if your argument is that people cooperate in it, while it is true, it isnt often employed since most people find zerging a far more simplistic and yet surpisingly effective tactic.
- PvP is where cooperation matters, because with a smalelr group you “need” to work together to win, and thats why more PvP teams exist than WvW teams, because PvP is more centralised and thus, easier to micro manage the group your in.
- Fractals were not designed to be on par with dungeons, they were designed to appease hardcores (I dont believe im repeating myself again) because they were intended to offer people a sense of end game, A-net even openly said that during their announcement. They were intended as “the” end game for a hardcore gamer, looking for the “challange” of the PVE content.

I believe in honesty you’ve bene compleatley neglecting the points made and more importantly, I dont speak for all casuals, I reprisent a large base of people on my community that have mutual feelings about this (plus, if you read the posts, im pretty sure in smaller sentances most agree that dungeoneering is flat out, not, fun.)

No offence, but this seems like a hardcores defencive talk to avoid having to have dungoneering nerfed to cater to a more casual friendly audience, where as the reality is, the most money is made by casuals for any mmo, its also the largest community base and thus needs the highest level of appeasement. That DOESNT mean that hardcores should be ignored however.

I believe one of my friends recently suggested the idea of a fractal style scaling system being employed into dungeons, which is something I rather agree with, it would give casuals the chance to complete and enjoy dungeoneering while giving hardcores the enjoyment of doing the more difficult challanges within it.

You want an effective compramise, there it is, its not a matter of saying “that doesnt work” its a matter okittennowlading that “Nobody” should be denied the right to do something, even if it takes them longer to do it.

I would argue that dungeons aernt the real end game, since they made it clear that fractals are technically the end game of the game itself. Look at the difference between the format, dungeons have a stagnant progression, you cant change what is there because its literally what it is, occasionally there might be a few secret extra events but thats all down to chance.

Fractals were intended for hardcores, people who “want” the challange to have a sense of progression and intended primarily for them to do something “end game” that they can continue doing indefinatley.

Now granted, players have a choice, a choice of what challange they want to do, but when it comes down to it, why should the choice be forced?

Honestly, the hardcores have no second reason to go back to a dungeon because end game gear for a hardcore is in the ascended items from fractals. Statistically, they gain more from doing fractal runs while dungeon runs are not casual friendly, especially after the people who already “have” dungeon gear are effectivly making it harder for those that want it.

This is a matter of privlaging and an attempt to subvert others right to that privlage, is it wrong? Yes, it is wrong to deny others the full content of the game because a few wanted it exclusivly to themselves. Thats why dungeons “should” be easier, more accessable, more casual friendly, more simplistic, because they are intended to be fixed, stale, one way.

As I said, this is why you should let the people “looking” for a challange stick to fractals, they were “made” to be the end game for dungoneering hardcores, so that by definition means they should be hard enough to be entertaining for a hardcore player.

Why should a casual be denied their entertainment in turn? Does that mean a casual should spend the entirety of his carrear doing wvw, open world pve and pvp if he can be bothered? No, it means he should be allowed to do the same content at his own choosing.

It doesnt mean you have to stop the content being challanging, theres always a way to compramise this through long sessions of programming and tuning, but it should not be designed purley to deny the casual gamer his chance at the trophie just cause the hardcore wants a challange that only he can overcome.

Again, Dungeons as an example here, dungeons arent going to be anymore hardcore than they are and they have no reason to change.

Fractals could literally be “the” best way forward for dungeoneering for hardcores, because its a puzzle, challange, and intended to make the player feel a sense of teamwork, accomplishment, and wisdom thinking.

Dungeoneering doesnt need to be that complicated, its there for the lore, for the story mode (which even now is harder than it looks barring maxed out gearsometimes). The biggest issue isnt just in teamwork, its in the fact people that are working as a team already “have” the end game gear, and thus dont have to “work” for it.

I think people are missing the point, its not just being evil, its being the anti-hero (or even anti-villian) so yes, you can be evil, but the actions you take might still save the world, inavertly, your just doing it for a more self-gaining reason than others would.

The idea is to show the devs that a hero doesnt have to be genericly kind and compassionate, and equally doesnt have to be dark and broody and talk about how depressing life is.

Sometimes, you can have heroes whos motivation is more about their own gain in the long term, be they a haggard mercinary, a bounty hunter whos morals aernt conflicted by the job, an assassin who takes pleasure in murder no matter the target.

You could ascend to power with the intention of raising into greatness, or conquering your lesser rivals (in the story) you dont “have” to be “nice” to “save the world”.

Even a bad guy can see the practicality of killing an all destroying force for the greater survivability, they just dont have to do it for altruistic reasons.

Im hoping, A-net will see the benefit in this, why not have an edgier tone, the temptatino to join the dark side and have a little reap of what you’ve sewn in tyria, instead of doing it purley for the greater good.

The problem here is that one guys idea of greatness is another guys idea of pointless suffering.

I agree with the OP, dungoneering is “not” fun, and the real issue is that some guys who complained it was too easy have no consideration for those who didnt get the chance to “enjoy” the easy mode, so those guys who now have the best gear already, and thus have no real reason to return to dungoneering ANYWAY now have the best gear while others have to work EVEN harder to attain it than they did.

This, pointless, backwards, elite-based logic needs to die in a fire somewhere and never return, preferably in an inferno.

The fact is, the difficulty of dungeons should scale based upon the personal choice of the player, if the player doesnt WANT to try hard why should they be MADE to? Sure, im prepaired to take longer than the other guy to get my epics but that does NOT mean I should have no right to get them.

Heres how I see the system working:

1. Its clear that dungoeons are flat out ignored in favour of fractals anyway for the hardcore farmer, rarley are they used anymore because people have no reason to go back to them in favour of fractal gaming, and im looking at you, hardcores.
(solution:) Make dungoneering easier while upping the anti on fractals, make fractals the end game focus for hardcores and dungeons, including explorable mode, more casual and easy to do, because they are purley there for vanity and story anyway.

2. Give hardcores a more focused gaming style, give them something to truley enjoy that is hardcore focused, like more fractals, possibly even a super fractal that is unlocked after a certain number of fractal accomplishments, giving end game gear that is specificly vanity gear for hardcores only. This allows casuals, who could do explorable at “any” time, to simply enjoy that gameplay at their own pace.

Long story short, let the hardcores have the fractals, let the casuals have the dungeons,b ecause the hardcores dont even bother going back to them once they have their dungeoneering gear ANYWAY so whats the point in arguing about this?

Yes, that means making dungeons easier, and thats because dungeons are for the guys who want to know the lore, the world and the setting more, not the guy who wants the best loot, he doesnt even CARE for the story.

So focus fractals on “that” guy, so that they have less reletivity to the lore (but still have some, interesting lore tidbits) while giving them harder, more interesting challanges, while future dungeons and current ones could be revamped to be more accessable to everyone.

Its a fair trade hardcores, think about it, you get what you want, the casual base gets what “it” wants, nobody looses, everybody wins.

Food, for thought.

Now that you’ve saved the world a heavy weight weighs on your heart. Many lives were lost in a goal that has only subdued the indefinate return of an evil that will outlive you in time.

Your heart is darkened, your soul shaken but not yet lost, yet, the linguring temptation wonders in your mind, is there truley a point in stopping oblivion?

Another temptation lingers… can you controll oblivion, can you change it forever, can you truley wipe out the dragons and in such a way they will never return…

…At what cost?

This, is the Dark Side of Tyria, and the temptations that could alure you to a edgier, but more interesting future:

Okay, so introduction aside, this suggestion topic is about the future of GW2 and namely, how we can continue to progress our main character on their journey to legacy in the mists and beyond.

Along the way though every hero has to face a trial, a personal moment when their legend is stained with memories of black deeds and questionable actions, and motivations… can a hero remain heroic forever?

Im talking of course of a new, fresher use of the current in game morality system, but im not really sure how to impliament such a thing, which is why I opened this topic, im trying to promote the interest in seeing alignment pulled forwards and maybe even rewarding it, so here are my fivety cents:

Alignment in the future could be the core of your defining legacy. Based upon actions you take in the living world, good or questionable, you are pulled further or closer to the mists depending on these choices. As a result of your actions your rewarded with variant vendors across Tyria, who serve to offer several features:
- Cosmetic Upgrades for races that allow you to buy hair colours/skin colours based on your alignment, aswell as new faces, eye colours and other features (like tatoos for norn or patterns for charr).
- Armour and weapons vendors that sell items depending on your moral standing, the higher or lower the morality, like the cultural items, they are divided by tiers, but unlike the cultural items, you require a certain moral standing to unlock them.
- Cosmetic changes to skills and abilities that reflect your morality, for example, those with a lighter heart might have a visual change to the thieves abilities, making them seem more misty and airy, while those with a darker heart might have more omnious thief like powers that make their abilities look more terrifying and disturbing (such as nightmarish visages in the smoke clouds gleaming with red light in the darkness).
- You become more assosiated with the “enemy” over time, allowing you to befriend certain npcs, attain new (dark heart) quests that allow you to gain dark karma rewards or exalted karma rewards for doing heroic deeds.
- Your moral standing will affect over time how your former friends view you, you might even grow the enmity of the former heroes of destinies edge and the pact, whom you have been fighting for all this time, as you become more pulled into circles of darker orders, with more neferius purposes for Tyria.
- While not being able to simply align yourself with a dragon for example, you would have access to certain orders that seek to control their power, or the world itself, through underhand actions and malevolant deeds.
- Story quests would reflect your choice in a comming expansion, based on your moral standing, you would be diverged in two different directions and given a chance to redeem or fall from grace over the course of the plot.

These are a few ideas, I try to be realistic and I know they cant all just be added in a day, im talking more about over time, and where they could go. These are things that could be, over time, and could be interesting if they were exploited to their fullest.

If theres one thing im tired of doing, its saving the world, I admit, id like to have a moment when I was tested to see just “how” noble I can be, and weather id be willing to do the questionable and become as bad as my enemies, to save what I love, or rule it with an iron fist.

Darker, edgier, but no less possible to remain true to the perfect hero template within a stalwart effort of heroic firmness, if one chose to be.

Sorry Kyn but you are “that guy” and the very reason the problem exists, shortcuts are there to stop you having to do the same thing twice which is, by definition, insanity! (or sparta depending which logic you go by).

Leveling in this game isnt necessarily hard, but grindy? I dont agree, especially the end stretch considering you will literally run out of quests to do if you dont spend the entirety of your time farming every single zones heart quests just to get to the end game.

And the entire point of this topic “is” that going from zone to zone farming every single heart is arduous and ruins immersion. Whats the point of alting if you’ve done it once already? Its fun to have a bit of new each time you try something old.

I dont think your point is a bad one but I dont agree with it at all, honestly, its that thinking that prooves that if we allow that kind of method to remain then nothing will change and mmo’s in general will stagnate.

Its an old, outdated method of going about questing each area at a time and unless you enjoy uniform leveling (which im sure by the posts here, alot of us dont) then you’ll likley want something fresh each time.

AS mentioned however:

- Living Story is a possitive start, but not enough to bring the feeling of immersion back.
- Events such as Wintersday and Halloween definatley did something right.
- Boosters are okay, but the fact they only work by forcing you to kill even more mobs defeats the point of xp boosters in the first place (especially since they dont even stack).
- Leveling, isnt the problem, the experience of the leveling “is” the problem.

Its not about how fast you do it, its about how you do it at all that matters. The issue here is that with a lack of end game and a heavy enphasis on world exploration, you kind of feel railroaded into having to do world compleation to consider yourself “end game” material.

Thats not what I define as end game, I define that as what happens after I hit the level cap? The Level Cap in GW2 is 80 and once you hit it, you’ve pretty much done everything, you can reach everything now, congradulations, but… that defeats the point again:

Because now you have the issue that you pretty much did everything already in the first place to reach it, so now theres no real reason to go back because you’ve already hit cap, so unless your indulged enough to farm for a legendary (which not all of us have the time to do) then you really wont care much for that focus.

Heres what really needs to become a bigger focus in bullet points:

- Skill point challanges that unlock new abilities aswell as skills:

This idea is basic but simple, you have what is already in game and expand on it. Making skill point challanges more interesting by making them almost akin to an oldschool quest, but with a significantly more impactful reward at the end. For example, maybe you want a new set of abilities but in order to aquire them you have to, proove yourself to some expert trainer who demands you kill something “impressive”.
You go on a quest to find said impressive thing (a champion mob) and hunt it down with friends, at the end, your rewarded with new skills to add to your current ones, and the capacity to unlock one of them immediatley, while having to continue gaining skill points to unlock the others.

- End Game World Bosses:

There is truley not enough of these, epic fights like the shatterer (which are epic in theory but admittingly a bit too lackluster in reality) arent focused on enough. The world is really alot more interesting than Anet gives it credit and instead of instancing everything we should have the right to be exposed to it more.
So in those end game areas, we should have more, epic, titanicly grandeur bosses, that require multiple groups of people to take down, hard, bosses, that cant simply be facerolled and make the sense of taking on a great evil feel more rewarding.
On that note, these bosses should be tied to the story of a zone or event, such as a great giant drake trying to destroy one of the pact forts in Orr or a monsterous primal karka trying to destroy the (hinted to be upcomming) villages in lost shores. Something that gives you a feeling your saving the world with your epic army of friends and companions.

This, needs to be the direction that GW2’s “end game” heads, but more importantly, the capacity to enjoy that end game should come sooner, and more immersivley. By reducing the level cap, or simply making the xp to get to end game faster, you get more to do in end game and feel like you have more to accomplish on a char. That way, even when you do it more than once, you still feel a sense of progression because its up to you where your char goes from there.

The End game, should be the beginning, not the end, the beginning “of” the end.

Compleatley agreed guys, this topic needs to get notice because the more people that speak out about the old system the more likey and hopefully A-net will consider future designs around improoving it for us folks who are fed up of constantly grinding to that 80 level cap!

Thank you so far for all the possitive feed back on the topic and I believe some good suggestions are being made here, alot of them infact.

Im going to bet that based on GW1 refferences and the fact it was hinted GW1 players would get this im going to bet, and strongly so, its Lazarus the Dire, the last surviving mursaat (known to anyway).
Given his backstory and his vow that “Countless generations would suffer” he is a logical antagonist for the choice since he promised this vow would afflict ‘everyone’ not just humans.

Some might say it might not be recognisable to GW2 players but I would argue it could very well make “alot” of sense, Lazarus had an extremely passionate desire to uphold his vow and it would make sense he becomes a reoccuring antagonist (and awesome because Mursaat are fun).

Okay, I can see why this feature was taken out of explorable mode, but for story mode there are some bosses that this actually NEEDS to come back because of.

For a game that promotes the idea of eliminating the holy trinity I found it pretty unbearable to try compleating some of these dungeons in story mode because some of the encounters are near unbeatable, and some, truley “are” unbeatable without EXTREME amounts of patience, guide reading, constant messups and respawn camping.

One example im sure alot of story mode dungeoneers will remember is a certain frost blowing ice spamming boss in the honor of the waves story mode.

You can do this guy “many” times and its irelevent how many you do him, he has no pattern, no optimised combat style, you just run around, hope, and try to kill his mobs as quickly as possible.

Random encounter bosses are not fun, still not convinced?

How about the engineer before the Kudu fight in the Crucible of Eternity? The Confusin bombings and lack of pattern in her combat make her nearly unstoppable if it wasnt for a few lucky shots from one of our extra rangers.

Now, It is whining but heres the deal, its a casual friendly part of the dungeon experience, the story that is. This isnt the explorable side were talking about, that, I can actually understand requires a degree of hardcore gaming.

But the Storymode needs either a kitten heavy nerf, or to bring back zerg-spawning so we can simply enjoy the experience of the story rather than feel how unbearable it is.

There are some dungeons where I felt relief having a spawn zerg ability, like caudecus manor which has a few neferius areas whereby the whirlwinding mobs will annighilate you for a lack of mobility and area movement.

Im not talking about nerfing explorable here guys, im talking about making the story mode more casual friendly, which it should be, as its supposed to be the casual friendly easy-mode for the newbs.

Have pity on a few newbs, we do try you know to be good at what we do and we do try to learn.

I know theres a learning curve and from someone who has played both hardcore in other mmos and casual in even more, I can say this game is actually a little too biased when it comes to story dungeoneering.

Its not much to ask, having an easier time doing them.

The problem with that Kormona would be that new players would find it very hard to catch up to the old, which would force the content to be more casual friendly. The real issue is making the content “worth” replaying more than once which seems to be the angle a-net is going, and its not working save the introduction of living story, living story is a start, but its not the answer.

I vote for a legacy system on the leveling note, where players can effectivly enhance their leveling experience per every 80 character they aquire, so that when you do role an alt you get an immediate boost over a new player, but you still have to play content again, however.

I also believe that every zone should be free-form from level 1, I pretty much see the ideal way of this games direction becomming more akin to WvW levels where the level is irelevent, the challange becomes more interesting.

So if your going to continue having a system “Where” leveling matters, make the adventure worthy of that system, make people have the option to go straight into the hardest areas from day one at their own pleasure, because honestly, the adventure is far more exciting than the grind.

You want an effective, definate way to remove grinding? That is it, you need to make this game utterly sandbox so that levels are either part of the progression for later content, or, you reach them much faster, much earlier, and give people the ability to experience the main story in their own free time.

The moment you put a barrier on levels is the moment you slow it down to a halt, your forcing people to go from X-to-Y-to-Z which isnt fun for anyone after you get used to it. Maybe I want to make a charr whos entire life is all about flame legion slaying, or a human who spends his entire carrear killing bandits all day.

Maybe I want to go straight into Orr and fight and harden myself from dark gritty experiences of war.

Things, need, to be, shifted so that the experience is more open.

Really what the system needs isnt necessarily npcs but a method of assuring that the borderlands of each team are significantly harder to capture than the EB itself. That said, adding more npcs would be a good start, for example, making your home teams npcs appear more frequently in borderland areas assuring that its significantly harder than simply zerging your way through because you have to contend with the sheer weight of the home team.

Really, what needs to be addressed is a means for the teams to keep hold of their own borderlands more easily, at least then, you have a way of balancing things.

It becomes a vicious cycle.

Let me recount to you my memories of TOR:

Beta, Starting:
- Wonderful start, full of story quests and cinematics!
- OMG THE RACE CHOICES ARE AWESOME!
- This is so the game of the year.
Beta, 2 weeks in:
- Okay, im getting bored now.
- WHY IS EVERY MOB AND ITS BROTHER ABLE TO ONE SHOT MY IMPERIAL AGENT kittenIT!
- Seriously, you mean to tell me that if I want to do certain missions I am FORCED to join a group?

Vanillia:
- Okay I hope to god they learned from the Beta…
Vanillia: First Week:
- Urgh, no they didnt, its the same kitten mistakes made before and why is my class so god kitten fleshy.
- Why is it that no matter how much dps I do this guy can out heal everything!
- ARGH.
Week Two:
- Okay so ive made my guild, were cool.
- Hey this game is actually kinda fun, the flashpoints were interesting at least, right, right?
- Who am I kidding.
Week Three:
- Oh hay they announced patch content, that sounds promising, the devs sound like they actually care!
Week Four:
- The content is for level 50’s only? Great, well im level 50, and im bored, ive just finished my PvP grind and my end game gear is a laughable joke because its getting replaced in the next patch anyway.

Now, allow me to repeat this:
For the past… oh…
Eight? Nine? MMO’s I have played, this process seemed to be literally reoccuring.
Lineage 2, Everquest 2, WoW, WAR (oh god why), RIFT, LOTRO and even to some degree GW1 was guilty of this stagnacious clicheness that makes so many mmo’s appealing to one audience, and offputting to the latter (me and my bros).

GW2, is the first game ive felt I actually “want” to stay on this game and keep going, I actually “want” to enjoy the content. But there are times I feel the game literally goes down nostalgia lane and from there its only a matter of time before the same old same old strikes and then…

Well, I quit.

This time, I havent quit, but I feel… dissapointed, that this game is definatley the best of its genre, but not quite all it could be.

So please, please, do not fall into that pithole of doing what every other mmo has done, failed to surpass and ultimatley devoured itself on.

Please, look at what the game is, and make it the best it can be with what it is, rather than doing the steriotypical thing of making the game the exact same game it was and will be like every neat, robotic uniform mmo out there today.

Break, that, tradition.

Exactly Elx, the fundamental problem is that leveling was intended long ago as an experience built for cooperative gameplay and the game, that encourages soloing and non cooperation because you dont even have to join a party to help others, prooves that it does not “need” a long, boring, predictably cliche system to make itself the same as every other uniform robot out there.

The sandbox method is needed here, something that takes us a whole new direction, I dont actually see an issue with the soloing system infact what I think needs to be done is to enhance the open world for the solo gamer. That is the part of the world the soloist, the individual is going to want the most of to themselves. Some might argue that an MMO’s fundamental is about having more than one person but you know what? Thats what Dungeons, WvW and PvP are for.

Leave my open world exploration to me, and my friends that I so willingly choose to work with “if” I want to, otherwise, leave it to me and to me alone.

The point is, this game needs to be friendly to that dogma, the idea that, I dont honestly have to care about going through EVERY zone from 1-80 over and over, but rather, maybe one day I feel like doing Frostsound while the next I can simply make a long treck over to the Shatterer.

It should be free for me to decide where I go, with a scaling system in the open world segment of the game that indulges the random explorer rather than puts him off by throwing unstoppable mobs his way.

Sometimes, killing said mobs is actually inavoidable, ive noticed times when ive literally done ‘every’ vista, heartquest, skillpoint challange, point of interest, completed a zone and still not capped it.

Then I find myself realising that fact I didnt want to.

Im going to have to go to a completley diffrent area to finish my leveling and that immediatley bores me, I shouldnt “have” to do that.

The game should never once feel like you are forced to go through every single area, thats the joy of having more than ONE character you can go BACK and explore that area you DIDNT explore with a DIFFERENT character.

That, A-net is honestly the best way to approach the game as a fundament, the idea that as a concept, we, the player, have the right to indulge in the world you, the developer so eagerly want us to explore.

The reason so many games last so long is because they give the player more control to enjoy it. Take that away and the player is quickly reminded why they skipped the previous boat to this one.

The point of the topic was to raise awareness mostly in the danger that GW2 will fall into that same unpleasant cycle that so many an mmo has done before it, lets look at that cycle and see why it has ruined many compeditors to a certain titanic mmo -cough-wow-cough-.

The Cycle: Leveling, Progressing, Expansions, More Leveling, More Progressing.

The problem with this cycle is that it starts off as a simple yet basic concept, that works, its not a good idea, but its a safe one, it doesnt take risks from tradition which in my humble opinion A-net, dissapoints me considering how much you murdered the holy trinity, which was a good step forwards.

Leveling, is a system that im sure alot of long vets are getting outright fed up with, not because its progressive but because it ISNT progressive, its the same old same old you’ve done a hundred and ten times on the last mmo before it. Theres only so many times you can use that system to its death untill finally someone says “screw this, this is getting ‘really’ old.”

And it is…

The fact is, if GW2 spent more time developing the world exploration, the content that made its leveling fun, it would make more use of it and make the game last longer because of it. The game needs to be more of a legend of zelda rpg than an mmo, the way its built could be so full of rich potential for this, from soloable dungeons to massive group events that unlock huge changes in the gaming world that week.

This game is RICH for “NEW” methods of progression and it should EXPLOIT that to the fullest it can, rip a new one in the old and say down with regieme because im honest here, theres nothing more boring than being reminded that a few mmo’s ago I was doing the same thing over and over again.

Levels are not a fun method of progress anymore, they are just a safe way to make content longer which isnt a good way to make it work. Leveling should be an unconsious process on par with Skyrim, where your leveling with the world, around the world, not because you had to go through one area to reach another.

And before people say this isnt TES, or that it ist Skyrim, look at the way this game is formatted and tell me im wrong:

- You get waypoints that for a fee you can instantly go to anywhere in the world (rather like skyrims fast travel system).
- You enter places of vast, explorable wonder, filled with strange and wonderful architecture and encounters (rather like skyrim, again).
- You venture through explorable secret areas, jumping puzzles, minature open dungeons, and group with others to do fractals and dungeons. (Rather like, okay, excluding the grouping- (oh wait we get npcs on skyrim, nevermind!) Rather Like Skyrim!)

See where this train of thought is going?

This game, needs to be more like TESO than TESO can be, by being an open world sandbox mmo that actually promotes exploration, adventure and most of all, rewarding the player for actually taking the time to go around and appriciate the long worked architecture the devs put into it.

INSTEAD OF USING AN ARBATARY OUTDATED SYSTEM TO STOP US REACHING THAT CONTENT IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Seriously A-net… you know better, and thats a slap to your own pride, you know having made GW1, people dont LIKE being told they cant go somewhere. Even less so when theres a big level cap telling you “lol no reach this level before you go here”.

Now… in defence of this, you can technically go anywhere at any level but its hardly a smart idea and not really recommended. This is the problem, this game really needs to up its effort on promoting the world exploration deal a whole lot more, it would be a VASTLY more enjoyable game for it and nothing, and I do mean NOTHING would be lost.

A-net, I really love this game, if your reading this, take the time to consider what you “COULD” do with this product instead of what everyone else HAS already done.

Let me make this one clear before I get brutally beaten down by the wow-fanboy brigade.

This topic is not a matter of the idea of weather leveling is a bad design, but why using it is a crux for Guild Wars 2’s own success and why expanding the game with any more levels would not in any way advance it at all.

Unlike my previous topic on a suggestion for guild housing, this is a cross between a rant and a suggestion on how to improove the game from it:

The Basics:

Leveling is an extremely crux-worthy method of hindering the progression of most mmo’s purley for the sake of trying to justify it with a concept of advancement through numerical statistical supremecy. In any other mmo, this statistic based format would work flawlessly, as evidenced in games like world of warcraft, the old republic and others that are designed for it.

But the way that A-net fundamentally designed this game clearly makes it try to be as different from WoW and other mmo’s of that fundamental oldschool belief as possible.

For a start, we have a clear cut dumbed down set of statistics that allow for more clear cut min maxing regardless of your profession. For another thing, we have a game that fundamentally prides itself on a design philosophy that it tries to do all it can to utterly destroy the holy trinity, and the grind.

For the most part, it has succeeded, except for the grind part.

This is where GW2 begins to fall into the trap that many of wow’s previous compeditors made the mistake of doing. Using levels as a crux to add numerical statistics rather than making optimisted and long lasting end game that was not only enjoyable, but enjoyable to reach in the first place.

Leveling, is an old system, one that simply doesnt work in a quasi-action rpg like GW2, which could near enough be considered Fable with multiplayer based on the way the gameplay and the design works. This game needs a different kind of leveling system, and most of all, it needs the entire process of “leveling” to DIE in a fire.

You want a fun, enjoyable, casual game, that wil appeal to a large audience both casual and hardcore based not on its stats, but on its gameplay? Then I advise this:

1. Do not, make any more levels for this game, this game already has 80 and that is a very healthy and good enough standard, please, despite what has been promised, reconsider levels as your focus, its not a good way forward and its a trap so many mmo’s have fallen into and fell far from.
Example in Question:
TOR: TOR had a railroaded leveling system that tried to compete with wow, and as a consequence of this, it used leveling to make its content as long paced and boring as possible leading to a conclusive lack of end game and thus an outraged fanbase (despite the fact some still enjoy it today, more remember it for that very unfond reason). Do not fall into the trap of what TOR did with its leveling and end up focusing all your effortt into making content that reaches the end game, rather than having content that “is” the end game.

2. Focus more upon getting people “to” the end game early, leveling is a tutorial, not an obligation, and to force it down peoples throats eliminates the fundamental enjoyment of the game because it ultimatley reminds you that in order to explore that next bit of content, you will have to be generically pathed down that bit of content all over again. This quickly becomes a stagnacious and uninspired road to nowhere, and having 1 level 80 seems enough for me because try as I may, I havent really motivated myself to reach level 80 again with an alt (and I have quite a number to count from).
TL:DR version: Make every area in GW2 open world from the start, people should feel that its their choice how they reach 80, and feel like its their choice how their hero evolves, not the games linear pathing.
(I know thats development hell considering how much the game put in but considering your next promised patch is more or less an overhaul of old content, this kind of thing couldnt hurt to give a serious look at if you want GW2 to truley be different from every other mmo.)

These two big points addressed would immediatley make this game alot more worthwhile to play in the long run, and as for big end game, well its pretty easy to add story content that lasts a long time (see GW1 for example) or more expansive ideas such as skill point and ability challanges that require you to unlock new abilities by doing a long adventuerous mini story.

GW2, is a game fundamentally closer to an action rpg with multiplayer than an mmo. I would ideally like to see Anet push it that direction rather than steering it towards (generic valley) or the clicheville of every other mmo out there.

I do not want WoW MK2, I want GW2, a game that I bought to get as far away from that design as possible.

Your 2/3 the way there A-net, with a bit more effort, you could be there 100%.

Actually that would be a good idea too, well spotted

Plane Features:

In addition to buying a Guild Plane you can also purchase other things from it, as customisation grows you can purchase a personal guild bank, a guild blacksmith where all the crafting benches can be found for crafters, a guild library, allowing players to personally charter some of their guilds adventures and their own, within the world of Tyria.

It would also be possible once per week to change the theme of your guild hub if your not happy with it. But remember, once you change it you’re stuck with it! At least for another week, but once that week passes, you’re free once more to adapt you’re guild’s theme how ever you feel!

More importantly, the most hard working Guilds will gain an extremely rare privladge, each guild pre-generated plane will have a single dungeon instance, that can only be unlocked by a week pass guild influence purchase. This allows guilds to enter their own personal dungeon, fighting a small mini boss like encounter (similar to a fractal) while the pass is active.

These mini bosses offer special themed reward depending which plane they came from, giving guildies small treasures and memorable trinkets to carry with them.

Balance:

Obviously this all sounds lovley, but it will take alot of time to make, and alot of effort. It also becomes apparent that some of these features might create isolated societies and drive mainstream, guildless players into an uncomfortable possition. Well, fear not! There is a way around that.

Firstly, as mentioned, dungeons cannot simply appear and become the possession of the guild, the guild does not own its personal dungeon, it simply has the right to access one, by earning an influence pass that costs an average of 1000 influence a week to purchase. This means you cant simply say its you’res and deny other people the right to use it, since you have to earn the right to do so you’reself!

More importantly…, there will be a guild-trial mode which allows a newcommer to ‘invite themselves’ into a guild they have seen and have an interest in joining. If the guild leader accepts this invitation, the player is invited to the guild for 7 days allowing them to be apart of it on trial and decide if they like being there, just as much as a guild can decide if they like that player being there in turn.

Its a happy medium for everyone, and a win win for everyones interests.

But lets not get too distracted since all of this is not about guild features but specifically, guild planes and the right to customise guild housing.

What are Guild Planes vs what they are Not.

Guild Planes Are:
- Places in the mists that have a pre-rendeered design made for the players to explore, enjoy, and bask in within a confined area.
- Areas that can be customised with upgraded features, these features appear in the same generated spot for every guild.
- Themes can be purchased, and allow the guild leader to transform his/her guild headquaters once per week to what ever theme they feel is appropriate for them.
- Areas with a personal Dungeon, that can be accessed by a weekly pass purchased from guild influence.

Guild Planes Are Not:
- A Mod Developers Toolkit.
- A place you can openly transform with minature bits and pieces at will, it will not be like minecraft.

To clarify the design and how it would work, read the above.

Final notes:

Impliamentation, how best to impliament all this:

As said, firstly it takes time to develop content, and it takes time to develop it all at once, so dont expect it to appear all in one go. If the devs do like this idea then understand that as players we must be patient for every little nook and cranny they make since if you’ve ever made content for a mod or a map or wrote a script you will appriciate it doesnt happen in days.

Such things require constant testing, retesting and impliamenting untill they dont bug out when you go to them. So we are talking a good few months for this to happen optimisically, years, more realistically.

Would it be worth it? Absoleutley, it would be one of the most ideal mediums for devs to create content while players can enjoy it and use it. Barring a personalised map editor which would be fun in optimism but extremely hard to design and create in realism.

So this is the best design I could come up with, I hope the devs read it… as a final note:

How would one get into these guild planes?

I mused this one for a while and concluded that in every capital city (to prevent lag) aswell as the order areas and the pact headquaters, there would be a single portal, each of these leads to the same guild plane.

Easy, no?

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading, thank you for your time, I hope to think of more ideas, and more importantly, I hope people like them.

This list is based upon the factors of:
- Can it be done in the game?
- Is it realisticly possible?
- Would it be entertaining?
- Would it be motivational enough to make people work for it?

The answer to all the above is, hypothetically, yes.

Its really up to the devs if they like this idea but its a few bits of food for thought, both for players and devs alike, without further adoo, I present my veriation of how to make guild housing in guild wars 2, and hopefully you’ll enjoy the idea.

Guild Housing:
Guild Housing will require a series of unlocks that have to be attained through the influence system, presently an effective and motivational way for guilds to work to attain the best possible equipment and gear for their guild, aswell as upgrades to help further their personal endevours.

This system will work and operate on an expensive approach to guild housing, it will not be a cheap purchase for guilds, but it will be worth the investment for a number of reasons.

Lets start with the price:

How Much?

We are talking a minimum of at least 25’000 influence for the inital price, this will allow you to unlock through the politics tree a “Guild Plane” which is effectivly your guild housing.

Themes?

Themes will be the central most reason for upgrading your guild housing, initally you will be given a basic guild housing theme which resembles the classic style guild lodge with a few upgrades and maybe a small little fortification around it. It would be a stylish little manor with a small moat and field and a surrounding inaccessable forest for a barrier.

Themes would initally be hard to impliament but once the inital run is done they would become signiicantly easier, both for devs to continue making and for players to continue working for.

What inital themes are we talking about?

Initally the Guild Themes that can be purchased will be limited to:
- The Five Races of Tyria Theme (this allows you to make your guild plane resemble a pregenerated area resembling a homeland of one of the five race).
- The Three Orders of Tyria Theme (this allows you to make your guild plane resemble a pregenerated area resembling one of the three orders, The Vigil, The Priory and The Order of Whispers.)
- The Evil Factions Theme (feel like being different? Perhaps you like the way the vilianous, insidious planes of Tyria look and want to make your guilds home a flame legion fortress or a horrifying nightmare touched glade? Now you can, be the enemy, think like the enemy… or embrace, the enemy.)
- The Dragon Factions Theme (Weather your a fan of Primordeus, Zhaitan, Jourmag or Kralkattorik, now you can make your guild plane resemble one of the four dragon marked landscapes and forever change the shape of the mists to your pleasure.)

Each of these themes would understandably be difficult and time consuming for devs to make, so initally the only two themes available would be the Races of Tyria and Orders of Tyria themes, priced at a hefty cost of 5000 influence per package. The later ones would become more expensive as time goes on, making people aware that its not just a privlage to have these things, you have to earn them, or pay for them (devs need love too you know).

The next stage is how to implament it, how to customise it, and how to make it work effectivly, aswell as what features each plane might contain individually or universally?