I can see why ArenaNet is going to fight tooth-and-nail every step of the way to not make things easier, especially when you do something like throw the MMO role holy trinity out the window. People are still getting used to this: everyone complains about the dungeons until they finally figure it out (same thing with the clock tower from the Halloween event).
And, maybe, it’s the same with Orr.
Orr is different. No more cute little hearts to turn gold. It’s brutal. If you go alone, and you are not very skilled (like me, heh), you’ll die a lot. It bugs me to death that most of the waypoints are contested and nobody can save the stupid choppers.
It’s just not easy. And ArenaNet is not going to hold our hands and make it easier. Can’t clear major objectives on the map? Things are going to stay bad until the players finally get their act together and coordinate. It does happen, just not all that often, it seems.
But in most other MMOs you could max level without ever dying once while questing. Nothing was ever really a challenge except raids (and even, for some people, not so much). In GW2, Orr and dungeons are (mostly) that challenge. Maybe this is partly what ArenaNet meant when they said the whole game is “endgame.”
You’re not gonna have a good time in Orr unless you’re really skilled or in a group at least, and coordinating with other groups at most in order to clear the bigger objectives.
I think a lot just depends on the attitude of the player. If you’re the kind of person who gets angry when things don’t go your way, that’s not exactly bad game design. That’s just your disposition and attitude about it (notice I didn’t say bad attitude, I’m not judging here).
Take the clock tower, for example. Some people got really mad, really fast and others (who died just as often) laughed their way through it. Was the game design good or bad? Seems to me that people too easily mistake their own assumptions and attitudes for “obvious” “truths” about the game. I think it’s more about the characteristics of the player, not the game.
Which leads me to guilds.
Most guilds really aren’t all that great because in the rush to get bodies in the door (gotta get them influence points and bigger is better amirite???) you don’t have a cohesive group of people who respect each other. The guilds I’m in organize Orr hunting trips, people often want to do the dragon events or run dungeons, and roleplay. The most important job of a guild leader is picking the right people to be in the guild in the first place, but most people don’t know that.
I don’t want to seem like I’m lecturing or like I know it all, here. But I’ve actually been thinking about all this stuff a lot. I used to get really angry and frustrated very quickly when things didn’t go my way, and I’m not a particularly skilled player so you can imagine how often I’d rage. At first, dungeons seemed impossible, but other people kept completing them, and repeatedly, so obviously they weren’t impossible. There’s plenty of video proof out there, people are not lying or trolling. Same thing with the clock tower. And maybe it’s the same with Orr, too.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that while I would get really angry, other people did not. In fact they laughed it up and loved every minute of it. That was a revelation for me about my own assumptions and attitudes, and I’m still wrestling with it (I still rage more than I want to). But it’s why I’m saying what I’m saying here, how you know where I’m coming from. I’m not just blithely judging or dismissing your concerns.
I can’t speak to PvP because I almost never engage in it, and the story and voice acting is a very subjective thing. I’m not very critical of the voice acting and I don’t know the whole story yet (still working on that). I think the underwater combat in this game is the best I’ve seen but the only other games I’ve played with underwater combat are WoW and Rift. So, again, it’s just a matter of opinion, really.
But as to some of the other concerns you raised, I hope this was somewhat helpful.
The obstacle is the path.
