I suppose the OP question is part check on if DEs mainly breadcrumb you around the map with no other option to level up if you stumble on some small content and enjoy that more, for eg?
I think a good eg as it is playable is GTA. You have a "PS" in that too, and as you complete it a %-meter fills up with your completion of the game. However between attempting these "missions" that drive the story onwards, the rest of the world feels like a sandbox you can while away many hours doing all sorts of things eg rampage, finding stuff, buying/trading drugs and cruising around or being a vigilante cop or such lol! I think GW2 will have a similar structure. So to complete the game you pause the persistent world and wander off to do PS chapters... these lead you to the right location to continue the next chapter with the appropriate DEs stories that build around your main PS story. (As to if some of these PS missions go on in the persistent world, not sure, but I think they do eg interacting with a sympathetic race choice for eg is a DE and partly PS driven?)
It's potentially a smart system to allow flexibility in how they/you progress: (1) "hard progress" ie advance the story (permanent effects to your actions/choices) with (2) "soft progress" such as exploring, finding new things, interacting with others, building bridges, playing sub-games etc that directly are measured also as XP-pings that help you become more powerful at eg Dungeons and your PS and the general area you are levelled in so you feel (3) "power progress" as well ie new kit and an easier time with the mobs than when you first arrived.
What you'll find, hopefully is that you can spend ridiculous amounts of time with (2) forgetting about both (1) & (3). (3) comes naturally doing (2) and (1) may wish to "save it up" for when you feel like you have covered the full area and experienced everything before the next chapter opens up to you. Alternatively some players want to zoom through the content so they'll max (1) as soon as it's available and then learn how to get all of (3) as fast as possible with minimum effort for (2) to push forwards... if need be.
My only/major concern is how variable, repeatable and changeable DEs truly will be to allow players to feel they are away from quests and closer to eg GTA where a hooker randomly approaches in the street and weird things like that keep happening to you.
I suppose the OP question is part check on if DEs mainly breadcrumb you around the map with no other option to level up if you stumble on some small content and enjoy that more, for eg?
I think a good eg as it is playable is GTA. You have a "PS" in that too, and as you complete it a %-meter fills up with your completion of the game. However between attempting these "missions" that drive the story onwards, the rest of the world feels like a sandbox you can while away many hours doing all sorts of things eg rampage, finding stuff, buying/trading drugs and cruising around or being a vigilante cop or such lol! I think GW2 will have a similar structure. So to complete the game you pause the persistent world and wander off to do PS chapters... these lead you to the right location to continue the next chapter with the appropriate DEs stories that build around your main PS story. (As to if some of these PS missions go on in the persistent world, not sure, but I think they do eg interacting with a sympathetic race choice for eg is a DE and partly PS driven?)
It's potentially a smart system to allow flexibility in how they/you progress: (1) "hard progress" ie advance the story (permanent effects to your actions/choices) with (2) "soft progress" such as exploring, finding new things, interacting with others, building bridges, playing sub-games etc that directly are measured also as XP-pings that help you become more powerful at eg Dungeons and your PS and the general area you are levelled in so you feel (3) "power progress" as well ie new kit and an easier time with the mobs than when you first arrived.
What you'll find, hopefully is that you can spend ridiculous amounts of time with (2) forgetting about both (1) & (3). (3) comes naturally doing (2) and (1) may wish to "save it up" for when you feel like you have covered the full area and experienced everything before the next chapter opens up to you. Alternatively some players want to zoom through the content so they'll max (1) as soon as it's available and then learn how to get all of (3) as fast as possible with minimum effort for (2) to push forwards... if need be.
My only/major concern is how variable, repeatable and changeable DEs truly will be to allow players to feel they are away from quests and closer to eg GTA where a hooker randomly approaches in the street and weird things like that keep happening to you.
To the part in yellow, exactly...thanks for seeing that I wasn't just trying to troll or something.
This is a pretty good way to look at it I suppose, although I think of it more like Morrowind/TES than I do GTA, but that's just personal conjecture (mostly from RPG elements).
I hope that it's like that at least, especially considering they've taken the grind out of the picture with a focus on fun and exploration instead of progression. Good post man, good post.
+1 to you sir
To SB fans, please stop making our demographic look bad.Stop invading threads that have nothing to do with sandboxes.
Comments
I suppose the OP question is part check on if DEs mainly breadcrumb you around the map with no other option to level up if you stumble on some small content and enjoy that more, for eg?
I think a good eg as it is playable is GTA. You have a "PS" in that too, and as you complete it a %-meter fills up with your completion of the game. However between attempting these "missions" that drive the story onwards, the rest of the world feels like a sandbox you can while away many hours doing all sorts of things eg rampage, finding stuff, buying/trading drugs and cruising around or being a vigilante cop or such lol! I think GW2 will have a similar structure. So to complete the game you pause the persistent world and wander off to do PS chapters... these lead you to the right location to continue the next chapter with the appropriate DEs stories that build around your main PS story. (As to if some of these PS missions go on in the persistent world, not sure, but I think they do eg interacting with a sympathetic race choice for eg is a DE and partly PS driven?)
It's potentially a smart system to allow flexibility in how they/you progress: (1) "hard progress" ie advance the story (permanent effects to your actions/choices) with (2) "soft progress" such as exploring, finding new things, interacting with others, building bridges, playing sub-games etc that directly are measured also as XP-pings that help you become more powerful at eg Dungeons and your PS and the general area you are levelled in so you feel (3) "power progress" as well ie new kit and an easier time with the mobs than when you first arrived.
What you'll find, hopefully is that you can spend ridiculous amounts of time with (2) forgetting about both (1) & (3). (3) comes naturally doing (2) and (1) may wish to "save it up" for when you feel like you have covered the full area and experienced everything before the next chapter opens up to you. Alternatively some players want to zoom through the content so they'll max (1) as soon as it's available and then learn how to get all of (3) as fast as possible with minimum effort for (2) to push forwards... if need be.
My only/major concern is how variable, repeatable and changeable DEs truly will be to allow players to feel they are away from quests and closer to eg GTA where a hooker randomly approaches in the street and weird things like that keep happening to you.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
There is another map with pointers, how DEs progress.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1013691/Designing_Guild_Wars_2_Dynamic_Events
To the part in yellow, exactly...thanks for seeing that I wasn't just trying to troll or something.
This is a pretty good way to look at it I suppose, although I think of it more like Morrowind/TES than I do GTA, but that's just personal conjecture (mostly from RPG elements).
I hope that it's like that at least, especially considering they've taken the grind out of the picture with a focus on fun and exploration instead of progression. Good post man, good post.
+1 to you sir
To SB fans, please stop making our demographic look bad.Stop invading threads that have nothing to do with sandboxes.
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