Things GW2 did right that I believe other themeparks can learn from.

Fadedbomb

Before you read any further please understand that I am a (sandbox / sandpark) player at heart. Be advised !

 

 

So GW2 obviously isn't where I personally believe the industry needs to go, however that doesn't mean I'm such an old codger that I can't see things that make so much sense that they, at least to me, should almost be required by other themepark MMOs if they're to compete with previous titles released in the past 10years.

 

 

List, in no particular order, of things I liked from GW2's themepark model:

-Public shared questing, no need to compete over those bears for them "10 Bear Butts"!

-Personal Open-World nodes, no need to get pissed off that some crack-addicted crafter has stripped the landscape bare of all resources. Each player can harvest any resource node until it is depleted ONLY for them. Allowing 100s of players to mine the same resource node before it expires for them personally.

-Social Rezzing, no more frustrating deaths when you have other non-grouped players around you. Additionally, the scarcity of a "Rez" from the even rarer public-rezzing healing classes need not apply anymore. Not to mention the dynamic nature and "coolness" factor that comes from battle-rezzing 50+ other random players during a massive World Event. Most of the time, success lies in keeping people up and moving rather than trying to be a personal rambo.

-Emphasis on skill  & learning your class rather than equipment & class abilities. I've been called OP hundreds of times now in PvP by my guildmate where we do a guild 8v8 by taking over an empty pvp battleground. Sometimes my Charr Warrior has even ravaged 5 of my guildmates at once in a 1v5, but they claim "OP" in terms of my class instead of me personally. Yet, when I ask about other warriors I absolutely "wreck" they claim those warriors "sucked" hehe xD! I'll never win !

-A RETURN of "Exploration" over linear questing. Make no mistake this is nothing new, but is most certainly a welcome RETURN of a long forgotten mechanic lost post-WoW era.

-Emphasis on choice over forced linear-handholding. I like the idea that I can either go randomly kill hundreds of things for an event, or I can go run around the map exploring/finding everything in order to complete the map % and get nice rewards and a neat 1500xp & some green mastercrafts, OR I can go around gathering every resource physically possible and craft my way through NORMAL levels just from crafting, etc etc etc. Being a "Sand Based" player choice is always a good way to earn points with people like me.

-Somewhat reasonable crafting for a themepark MMO. Obviously it won't compete with previous Sandpark/Sandbox MMOs like DAOC, SWG, etc etc. However, go look @ WoW and then come back to GW2 and you'll ask yourself "How is WoW so popular?" among other questions you'll ask about WoW, none of them positive. (Don't leave yet! More WoW-hate from me is bound to appear :P)

-Underwater combat, and exploration. What else can I say other than having DAOC flashbacks.

-Item-Loot for MY level as I explore in lower level areas again to help friends or to find events/quests i hadn't done yet. Seriously, doing a level 5 world event looting level 30 something gear makes re-exploring or re-visiting old areas worthwhile and meaningful. Yet, it's done in such a way that doesn't make it overpowered.

-Dynamic zone-level scaling that allows me to instantly pop from 30ish to level 5 in order to level with friends without worrying about anything at all.

-No crazy-wtf-whereAmI instancing going on. Private group dungeons, pvp, and personal story are the only instances that exist. I still wish dungeons were public hard-core things that require 100s of people exploring at once to complete, but that's me being a stickler again.

 

 

Again, I wish Themeparks would die out as I don't personally feel that developer driven content (ie: linear static content) is where an MMORPG should be. However, if Themeparks are to compete with newer MMOs, and previously released ones constantly pumping out content, the above are some of the highlights that need to be learned from.

 

Did I miss anything :P?

Fadedbomb

 

 

2nd page within seconds !

Sathnor

Lol at the second post, anyways I agree with you with a lot of those because Guild Wars 2 really did innovate with a lot of things and made them good, so good that mmos will probably copy a lot of these in the future, just like WoW.

Sluske

A pretty good post there OP.

 

I'd say that GW2 is a place where "themeparkers" and "sandboxers" will cross path.

 

Not the hardcore sandboxers though. they are way to cool for this school.