Guild Wars 2

6. Alternate progression. This is one aspect that most games tend to fall flat on. While fine for single-player games (and to an extent limited multi-player games), players should not be shoehorned into one path of progression. Guild Wars 2 suffers from this mindset. One of the hardest things to do in MMO games is how to marry the “casual” and “hardcore” crowds without alienating one or the other. I do understand that. However, I find that most developers over think the solution and end up causing a bigger rift between them and the player-base, and between the two player-bases themselves.

There is nothing wrong with hardcore commitment and casual play being mutually exclusive to themselves. There is also nothing wrong with having both player-bases having access to similar, rewards. Note that I used the term similar, and not same. Let’s take the previous point to base this example on. The dungeon in question can be attempted by every (max level) player in the game. Upon completion of each path, the players earn tokens/relics just like they would any other dungeon. These tokens can be redeemed for lesser versions of some of the items available in later paths. These lesser versions should have enough variation that they are distinctly different than the ones obtained in the dungeon further on. This could be as simple as certain weapon skins not having a particle effect to armor skins looking dull, matted or unfinished (even fewer dying options). Again, I’m warning you, no spikes. Just don’t even think about spikes.

7. The game needs to be objective, not reactive. This is mostly in regards to WvWvW but can be applies to normal PvE and some PvP content as well. One of the major problems in WvWvW is that it is extremely reactive in what is accomplished. It is more focused on being about clearing a point and moving on, rather than building on an overall objective to progress the match. Zerging each point and moving on to zerg the next point and then falling back to a previous point is all reactive game design. To stop this there needs to be varied objectives in matches that can change the outcome and to counter-balance the entire reactive style of play. The breakout events are a great example of the start of objective content. But even this can be further refined.

For start, players have no tangible benefits to certain points. One keep does not do something another keep doesn’t do. If Keep A and Keep B offer nothing, or the same thing, there is no point in maintaining a strategic hold on those points. By offering each point a tactical advantage of some type, these points become actual objectives. This can be seen in the weather temples in the borderlands (while they are a great start, the are ultimately not needed). Imagine if Keep A provided constant waves of (temporary) NPC enemies that would go and attack certain points. Or if Keep B provided temporary held bundles that gave new weapon abilities (or bombs!). This changes the format of WvWvW to being about maintaining your objectives rather than merely reacting to zerg tactics.

This can be further streamlined by implementing sub-objectives in each of the main objectives as maintenance. A farm supply camp has an event where players need to gather food to fill a supply gauge to increase the rate of supply provided to Keep A. One mine supply camp needs materials gathered and brought to create supply crates that the players can carry to Keep B to spawn more weapons or bombs. These players would be vulnerable to enemies unless escorted by other players.
By creating objectives like these in WvWvW, you move from the current static environment into a more dynamic and competitive environment. All without a focus on zerging.

4. Explorable dungeons should be simple in execution. The number one problem with most dungeons is that the progress of the dungeon is littered with encounters that serve little purpose other than to hinder the progress of the dungeon. Most of the enemies have too much health for the players to waste their time with them. There are also too many enemies between points for players to even consider clearing the enemies to be worthwhile. In fact, the enemies tend to be little more than obstacles that most players avoid. Stacked with the fact that often times there are enemies with abilities that are borderline overpowered, even worse than some bosses (these are supposed to be minions, right?), it is no wonder that players bypass the content all-together.

Again, the solution is fairly simple. Reduce enemy status from veteran to normal in a lot of cases. Remove or lower abilities on “trash” enemies and cut some of their health. Create different types of encounters in dungeons to increase the player involvement and interaction with the dungeon. Two encounters I was surprised not to see in the game were gauntlet-style (dodge between pillars to avoid getting perforated by arrows by ranged enemies on the far side of a ravine) and split tactic-style (split the party into two, two-man teams while the fifth member controls gate devices) encounters.

5. “Endgame” content needs to be implemented. Or rather, max level content needs to be implemented, as that is the main point of contention regarding the issue. One of the biggest compliments of design can be found in Guild Wars. The Underworld, Fissure of Woe and Domain of Anguish were great examples of max level content that serves as a point to base new, lasting content that players can strive for. I was surprised to not see something similar release for Guild Wars 2. As it stand right now, the closest we have is explorable Arah (which is still nothing like what is needed) or Fractals of the Mist. Due to numerous issues, however, both fall flat in those regards as well. Arah suffers from the curse of several of my previous points, while Fractals of the Mists suffer from a lack of any new or dynamic content.

A great example I would love to see for Guild Wars 2 is a instance that allows a group of players to go through and determine the length of time they wish to spend, and their commitment. The basis could be a hub area of the instance in which the group has to advance through each stage/path in order to unlock the next stage/path. Each of these stages would be fairly challenging, requiring different tasks and encounters, finally culminating in the end-point of that stage. Further, there should be a fail-state of the dungeon. This means that players have to complete large portions of the dungeon and cannot continue when they fail. While it does sound harsh, it means that players are given a sense of accomplishment and progression through doing.

The rewards of these stages should be limited to the dungeon and be in the form of weapon skins, armor skins and material and rare dye caches. When the group finishes the stage, they go back to the hub to unlock the next stage. As they progress through the stages, they should get increasingly harder in challenge to complete. Note that these challenges should follow the points I outlined above. As the players progress through this dungeon, the rewards should become better and better. More skins (increasing amount of armor or weapon skins dropping), bigger caches or special items (special stone to teleport you directly to Lion’s Arch, for example) as you progress, with the final culmination resulting in special armor or weapon skins being rewarded. Also, no spikes. Stop with the spikes. Seriously.

As a note for the armor and weapon skins, there should be four types obtainable: masterwork, rare, exotic and, yes, legendary. Each of these types should have their own distinct look from one another (but maintain the theme of the dungeon) with the legendary skins and dyes (imagine armor dyes that mimic effects like Twilight or Sunrise) being obtained from the last reward chest in the dungeon. This would give a sense of progression through the dungeon. As well, the masterwork and rare skins are the only ones that should be sell-able on the Trading Post. Some of the special items should be sell-able, as well (mini pets, certain vanity toys).

2. Less focus on RNG, more focus on accomplishment. Guild Wars 2 suffers from a severe case of the mantra, “Throw enough stones and eventually you’ll hit a bird”. As it stand right now, much of the long-term content of the game is focused on playing the numbers. I understand the design on this. They are trying to emulate the risk-reward system of gambling and loot pinata games such as the Diablo series, Torchlight and Borderlands. This is not a bad thing, but the way they are handling it is. There is nothing wrong with having a few random elements to a game. The problem is that many of the games that utilize this system do so after an accomplishment—and they aren’t stingy with the rewards. In Guild Wars 2 the rewards don’t follow a notable accomplishment; also, the rewards don’t fit the time involved with acquirement. Legendary weapons are a major example of this. The acquisition of a Legendary doesn’t mean you accomplished something notable. It just means that you threw enough rocks (farmed/bought enough materials, used gold) and eventually hit a bird (bought/combined a Legendary Weapon).

How do you solve this? The overall theme that should be followed is that RNG is okay for basic content (material farming is an example) but should not be used so heavily for content that is considered “end-game” like that of Legendary Weapons. Instead, there should be a focus on accomplishments that reward players. The Molten Weapon Facility was a step in the right direction but still focused a lot on RNG. The reward chests from the event achievements is a bigger step in the right direction. The Fused Armor ticket obtained from finishing the Frost and Flame Living Story event gave players a method to obtain an item that let them pick their reward after getting all the achievements.

Why can’t this system be in place for, say, precursor weapons. Make a set of required achievements to unlock a special item that can be redeemed for a single precursor. Have it so that a player needs to accomplish every single path in certain explorable dungeons. To add to that, create new achievements within those dungeons that must be accomplished as well. These achievements should be difficult to accomplish—yet manageable (clearing all of a certain enemy within a short time frame, defeating bosses with specific tactics, or even defeating a boss by purposely being under the effects of certain conditions). Furthermore, make the achievement sets repeatable similar to the Agent of Entropy achievement—in that when you finish a certain achievement it adds to the progress of the overall achievement. If the worries are about how fast these achievements can be obtained (or farming achievements) it is okay to lock progress through one sub-achievement per meta-achievement. That also makes players diversely pursue those achievements. This is also one of the rare cases where I would suggest time-gating content.

3. Proper boss design. Another big gripe I (and many others) have with the current design of bosses and encounters is that they do not follow the philosophy of the game. The design of the game allows for tactical thinking and movement while being simple and effective in execution. However the encounters thrown at players generally fall under two categories: throw enough enemies at the player or throw bosses with giant health pools at the player. Both of these designs have little to serve a game designed for the action-based, tactical combat that the game design promises.

The solution to this is fairly simple to provide—but harder to implement to various reasons. These reasons can range from player apathy to time commitment. However, if the design is thought out well enough, these factors diminish over time. The game already has some encounters that are well designed. The final fight of the Magg path in Citadel of Flame is a great example of a tactical encounter. The Destroyer boss in Crucible of Eternity is a great example of a tactical encounter. Then there are encounters in the game that are full of bad (or poorly implemented) design. ALL of the Subject Alpha encounters in Crucible of Eternity are bad and poorly implemented designs. This subject also leads to the next point.

I have a suggestion to keep people coming back to areas in the world, instead of just 100% world map completion, and helping out friends.

Why not add in rare skins, town clothes and other fun items (does not have to be combat based) as rare drop items to certain groups of enemies. This could contain special armor skins like an eye-patch from pirates, lumberjack town clothes or even one-use click items like balls of confetti to throw. The success of vanity items like those have proven to be a huge draw for a lot of people in other MMO games post-cap, so it may alleviate the “level 80 hum-drums” and provide another outlet for people to explore.

The other side of this would be the “grindy” feel and the over-camp of certain desired items. This is understandable, but provide some sort of incentive to go after them (perhaps special circumstances that would increase the chance to obtain the item? Kill enemies with certain weapons). They should also be soulbound on acquire to prevent RMT from capitalizing on them in the TP. Well, except may confetti. Everyone loves throwing confetti.

I have a suggested fix for skill point challenges that break. Add a fail timer on those events. It seems to mostly (if not only) affect the skill point challenges in which you must kill a target. Put a 5 minute timer on the event. If it fails, reset the challenge.