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I'm ready - does GW2 have what I've been seeking?
Allhallows
Member Posts: 43
The only point of this post is to get even more excited for the game. I've been waiting for a game like this forever. My history of MMO's starts with Everquest 2 and Asherons call. I played those two for years and they'll always hold a special place in my heart.
Since then I've played most big name MMO's ending with WOW, which I've played for from launch to the end of Lich King. I quit wow because the end game turned into a job. My guild raided for 4 hours a night 4 days a week and while really fun, I started to lack the time due to dailies every day for $$ and enchants on top of the raiding. I don't need another job. I actually really liked Vanguard. Too bad it didn't take off.
What I did enjoy pre end game was collecting pets. I had most of what you could get. I also enjoyed mining and completing random achievements. I accomplished a lot, but constant raiding left a sour taste in my mouth and I also had a baby on the way and couldn't dedicate a ton of hours to raids and required dailies anymore.
Here is what I'm hoping GW2 can provide me, since I didn't play 1:
- a lack of a quest log with dozens and dozens of chores .... I mean quests.... That never ever ends. Questing started to get on my nerves. They were repetitive and felt like a job. Kill 10 x, talk to this guy in the next town, bring back animal parts, etc... So sick of these.
- tons of exploring. I want to discover caves and good hunting grounds that I think "I" only know about. I want to be part of a living world.
- rare drops off mobs. Whether the drops are a valuable rock from a stone monster used for crafting (1 out of 200 drop rate type loot), or rare dyes, pets, spells, enchants, etc.
- solo exploration. I know an MMO is usually gear towards groups, but I love going solo some times.
- a causual approach to advancing. Like I said I have a kid now. I might not have the time to join a group every night. I would still like to take place in the DE's.
- fear of dying. EQ and Asherons Call had this. The death penalty was enough to make me really think twice about a fight. I read that in GW2 if you are good at the game you can take mobs that are stronger than you based on your skill. That's awesome, but there should be a good death penalty so EVERYONE is always only hunting the stronger mobs.
- a friendly community. People in EQ and AC were sooo nice compared to nearly everyone in WoW. Here's hoping mmo communities as a whole haven't forever changed.
Also, how does gear work? I know the game doesn't revolve around gear, but are there still rare drops to treasure hunt for? What's the appeal to gear, the skin/look? So what people hunt for is good looking gear rather than stats? That's cool.
Thanks for listening. I'm just excited once again!
Comments
wow, had to edit. Apparently posting from an iphone just gives you a "the giant wall of text"!
http://www.overclock.net/pc-games/816771-official-guild-wars-2-discussion-video.html
I'll comment on a few of your points.
- GW2 does have a quest log out on the right of the screen like most mmo's. It shows your next goal in your personal story(you ever only have one goal to complete). It also shows the DE's going on in the area.
- Arenanet have spoken about making exploring rewarding, like rare hidden DE's you can trigger by going off the beaten track.
- GW2 is a very casual game with a flat leveling curve(about 90 min for each level) and a no grind philosophy. link
- Arenanet have specifically made it a point that there should be no fear of death in GW2. They want death to be a learning experience and not a punishment. link
GW1 did have a large quest log, but with GW2 the only quests you "should" see would be your Personal Story quests. As the poster above said, you'll also see a log for any DE's that are in the area, but they won't show up in your "Log," just on the sidebar. It also looks like your Personal Story diary reads more like a real diary, instead of a giant list.
As for exploration, they've dropped plenty of hints about exploration. In this post on their blog they say this, for example:
Player exploration of Guild Wars 2 will be encouraged and rewarded, just as it was in the original Guild Wars. It’s up to the environment team to fill our game with memorable locations worthy of that exploration. A series of broken stone columns turns out to be a jumping puzzle to reach a hidden cave mouth overgrown with vines. The caved-in floor of a ruined fort drops you down several stories into a flooded subbasement haunted by the cursed ghosts of pirates. A hatch in the basement of a farmhouse conceals a tunnel to the cavern hideout of a bandit gang.
I'm not sure about rare drops, but I imagine they'll have them. Most likely they will be crafting materials. I don't think they will be rare drops of weapons or armor though, or if they are, they are likely just skins; they don't want you to feel the need to grind a boss a hundred times in order to get that one sword that has a +1 attribute.
In the dungeons, rather than hope for rare drops, they reward you with tokens that you can trade in for the weapons/armor you want, so you only need to do the dungeon as much as you want.
The solo experience in GW2 should be great. I tend to be a little uncomfortable in groups myself, and its hitting all the right notes for me, though I do look forward to the casual common-purpose group activities of the DE's. So far, it looks like the only required group-play is in the dungeons, or in structured PvP.
Advancement-wise, its also casual-friendly, largely due to the flatter level curve, as well as the variety of options to level. I seem to remember them saying you could level up purely from DE's, WvWvW, crafting, and even the minigames (though it might take awhile). Realistically, though, you're likely to casually level just by playing however you wish, for as long as you want. I'm hoping the pressure to level won't be there, either. Taking my time to do things how I want rather than rushing always makes me a happier player
Death-wise, I don't think there is anything in the way of a death penaly, apart from a very small fee (like maybe 10 gold) to warp to a waypoint to rez, plus the time to run back to the battle. Of course, if you are in a DE, dungeon, or WvWvW where there are other players around you, its in their interests as well to try to rally you up when you are downed, if they are able.
Community is probably the largest thing that is beyond Anet's control. The GW1 community is generally nice, but as with every MMO there are the bad apples that like to pollute the airwaves. I'm hoping that since GW2 is very "communal" with respect to casual grouping and everyone having common purpose, that might help foster a friendly community. Every other game I've played that has faction warfare tends to result in a lot of more childish behavoir (a little faction RP is fine, but when its nothing but SUXXORS posts, it gets old REAL fast). Even GW1 has this, actually, whenever you bring up Kurzicks/Luxons. Assuming Anet provides a decent blocking feature, this should be tolerable. Or just disable ALL chat, and hang out with your guild.
EDIT: By the way, I got a chance to play the demo at PAX last year, and should be able to again this year. While forty minutes wasn't nearly enough time to judge much of anything, I CAN confirm that the casual, cooperative group play aspect works. I was able to play with players, without really having to interact with them. Certainly I could have whispered and tried to formalize a group, but it wasn't really necessary. We'd play through a DE together, then go our separate ways to find other DE's, and end up casually playing with other people in the area.
Don't expect nothing, accept the game as it was created, enjoy it as it was meant to enjoy, and you'll have a fun and rewarding experience for sure...
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Most of your points seems to be included, but the rare drops will mainly be crafting materials, Mobs don't drop armor (that you can use at least, only salvage).
As for the community, that is impossible to say yet.
I hate to be negative nancy or drew or whatever you want to call it, the game itself looks great, and fun at times.
The statement i put in red there though is the one that is the biggest issue i have with this game.
I see a lot of this your playing along side other players but not actually interacting with them. Which means as you stated in the very next line i could have whispered to them but i didn't need to. I forsee as this happens iin a lot of MMOs that a lot of people will be playing together, just noone interacting or talking. See it in FF14 and all recent games, people talk when it benefits them. Sure some will be friendly and send you a tell but it seems like it so rare now a days and this game seems to be encouraging the solo friendly enviroment in nearly everything it does.
I could be wrong here but it just seems that way from everything i've heard from both features as they are incorperated to what fans of the game are saying.
Maybe it's my EQ origins but i want to need these other players and i want them to need me. I don't want to be joe number 36 who happens to be in the area. If people like that, thats fine but everytime i hear that you can do stuff by yourself and others aren't really needed it just makes me more weary of it.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
Now that isn't true.
"Armor can be acquired in several different ways:
Purchased from an armorsmith.
Crafted through the disciplines of the armorsmith, leatherworker, and tailor.
A loot drop from a monster.
A reward from completing a dungeon's explorable mode.
A reward from the Hall of Monuments.
Armor is restricted by level and can only be worn once that level requirement is met."
http://www.wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Armor#Acquisition
Valid concern, I'd say.
This is where I think its going to come down to the community to a degree. You've got the freedom to be social or anti-social. What people do with it once they get their hands on it is anyone's guess. I tend to lean slightly more on the anti-social scale, but sometimes I do feel like talking. I feel comfortable knowing I'll be able to play the game, no matter which mood I'm in, but thats just me...
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Cloudsol/
Some people just like the ambiance. Something you can't get from a single player game.
This is what I'm thinking too. The game has the areas where you absolutely need an organized group and it has the areas where you can do without them. I believe forcing people to need others in all areas of the game isn't something a game should do, knowing when and where to do that sort of thing is what a designer should be focusing on and also giving players the freedom to choose if they want to.
This is not a game.
Or the amount of content, the idea of a huge world to explore... can't find that in most singleplayer games.
Really? And not just to be salvaged?
Ok, it seems like I was wrong on that account, I had just missed reading this on the forum.
^I think that upgrade components will also be considered "rare" loot.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Cloudsol/
Yeah, doesn't sound great to me either, but at least it is better than the open world quests of ost modern MMOs that all people seems to solo.
GW2 do have real group content as well, both massive dungeons and PvP and I think I (and probabl you as well if you get the game) will spend most of my time in them.
Notice that he did say "most".
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Cloudsol/
I also loved EQ, but EQ certainly was not 'casual'. In fact, it was not unlike a job with job descriptions and CV's having to be presented before each raid. Once engaged in a session it could not easily be broken without losing all credibility. You just had to stick it out until the end, and with an additional corpse recovery run that could mean many many hours. Nevertheless, the hardships of the game resulted in great camaraderie. There were also moments of solitude, like sitting at a spawn point waiting for a rare spawn, sometimes in week long sessions.
I will play GW2 like I played GW1, as a casual game where I decide over my own engagements. It fits my life quite well right now, but I do long for a game that is so hard that it will bond its players in ways not seen since EQ. Sort of like a MMO equivalent of Demon's Souls (if you are familiar with it).
My personal experience with MMOs is that games that allow playing together just for fun create stronger bonds between players than games that require people to play efficiently or force them into performance group play.
I would assume that is because the former relates more to cooperative experiences, whereas the latter is stronger related to competitive play.
There are even videos where you can see armor drops from mobs that are of blue rarity etc.
Run a dungeon.
You can use < p> < /p> to paragraph your wall of text from iOS (without the blank spaces)
I think your list is catered in GW2 except fear of dying. The death penalty is very mild in GW2. Though they've circumvented it somewhat with a "Downed State"; pots to spam to help weaker players etc but also you can always challenge yourself with higher level mobs too if you ARE finding the mobs too easy at the expected level range that the story guides you along. So I am not sure there will be much "FEAR" of dying which I also like a lot in mmo but replaced with actiony combat and options and range of skill to be employed to practice finishing off mobs. I think according to GW players the AI of the mobs will be decent too so that again helps with the cost of dying being reduced?
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
This is what scares me. If I have any doubts about the game it is this and the lack of a trinity. Like someone else stated, I play the game to be social with people. I like filling a role....(normally a healer) in a group. I also can't imagine doing a major event in the game that required no coordination or communication. I play MMO's for that simple reason. I play them to experience things with a group of people. If I don't have to communicate or I don't need to communicate and there aren't predefined roles for people to fill, then I just fail to see how the community will develop. I got the same feeling for GW1. It was an alright game, but I really didn't need anyone and found that since everyone could really accomplish things on their own, there wasn't the same kind of community in the game or at least that I look for at any rate. I know you "can" communicate....but if there isn't a need it just doesn't seem to develop.