Well, the most of my feedback I could be giving here already was mentioned by others, no much to add actually. However I wanted to make some points…
By chance did the one behind these changes think that new players couldn’t be that new for MMOs too? Did they think that this game’s meant to be played by low QI ppl? No offense intended but with some changes it sounds like they think the players are 5 years old who just must to follow what’s said. Was this new system meant for ppl with a brain of a potato? (No offense intended). C’mon, this game was already by far simpler than several MMOs out there.
What’s the difficult about dealing with bundles? It was what gave me immersion in the game, like “shinny, I can pick up stuff and use them”. What about being transformed in other creatures? One of the things that good me hooked in the game was becoming a sylvari hoard at my very first hearts. I didn’t even wanted that heart to finish… The tooltips in game was very enough to tell what to do with bundles.. did you pick up a bundle and your skills gone? No panic, hover your skills and learn what they do, you’ll find one saying “Drop bundle”. It’s hard? “Drop bundle”? Simple that?
As others have said, it’s not about fun anymore, it’s like a job: do what we say and you’ll get a reward. The fun and immersion in this game is about making choices and taking decisions, it’s been taken away from new players. Also, it’s not a leveling experience anymore, now it’s a huge boring tutorial. Why keep teaching ppl until they reach 80? I learned about WB when I was around lvl 20 (new system teaches about it at lvl 76)! At level 5 I already knew about map completion! (and this kept me in this game too, it was nice to know I could do hearts at a specific place instead spread around map and at anytime I wanted or any level (if I did it later) as they don’t vanish when I’m highter lvl).
Taking away features isn’t the proper way to teach things. To teach things one must show and tell about things. Do parents take away any furniture like chairs, drawers, etc from a baby’s room just bc the baby isn’t ready to use them? NO. Well, one could say “the baby isn’t supposed to use them anyhow” but the adults will. Also the baby’ll get used to that stuff and it’ll be already known to them when the proper moment arrives. What does this have to do? That’s how I feel about removing things from starter areas and low level players. How a new player’ll know what a renown heart’s meant for if they can’t even “feel” what world completion’s about?
Why removing merchants, TP and gather nodes from starter areas? Ohh it’s so difficult for a new player to approach a gather node and hit F? Ok, they couldn’t have the proper tools but then… hey, the game is telling me I need a tool equipped, where’s the logical place to find such items? Merchants! Then go to the nearest merchant and there it is. No tools with that merchant? Let’s seek another, like in RL, if you don’t find a thing at a place you seek at another.
I work with development of interactive computer courses and I’m aware what level new ppl could be, but hiding and locking stuff isn’t the proper way to teach. Hint! Tooltips! Instanced tutorials! Why denying things from a whole player base just to teach some newcomers? By using hints or an instanced tutorial one could have a plenty of tools to teach newcomers without taking away any fun from everyone else. The game had a Help panel before with useful hints, it’d help me a lot to refresh my mind about some mechanics. Why taking it away? Just because that bug with an achievement couldn’t be fixed? Remove the achievement instead.
The point is, give the player the right of choice! With the new changes the game’s deciding for us, either newcomers or veterans. What hooked me in this game was the ability of make choices in the PS mainly. But being forced to go through things that I could already know or was too obvious that I wouldn’t need a tutorial takes away the whole fun.
That’s it, with this system things are being forced on us. Let’s choice when to do PS or map completion. “oh but it’s higher level than your.” Well, let us take the risk, no challenge no risk. Talking about PS… wth was wrong with the previous sequence? Why messing up with the logic? No comments about that, others has already given my point. Leveling was easier between story steps, now it’s a boring task.
Ok, I wrote a lot. I may have repeated what others have said but that’s some of my thoughts about NPE. Therefore, I’d suggest to revert these changes and go back to planing table. The idea and intention behind it is great, but the system needs to be reworked from scratch, sadly enough. (I really hope there are changes coming and not mends instead…)
