Kill the teleporting- saw this sort of thing in FF14, made the community dang near silent. If you don't want to kill the teleporting at least make it so some classes can teleport you ala a EQ1 druid or wizard could.
Make more areas where you want to communicate and interact with each other beyond simply using spells inconjuction with each other. Right now i see (what is the majority of the game) the DE as such, you walk into an area, kill some mobs pick up some items and complete the quest (PQ DE whatever still a quest really) then everyone walks away. I know many fans have said but they chain so people will form relations...i still haven't seen this happen in the many times i've done PQ in both War and Rift, so i don't hold high hopes for it to happen here.
Kill the you can switch crafting skills and come back to the original at the same level. Make people choose one or two skills with crafting so they have to rely on others to get the items they want, at least a little bit. I still think you should be able to change crafting skills whenever you want, just make them lose the progress on the old one.
Make swiming important: put the breath meter back in, give people ways of extending that breath meter and get rid of that breathing apartus.
My advice so far. Basically it all ties back to make it so you can't just put your hand up at the community and play by yourself way too much IMO of that in this game, swiming can be done alone, crafting can be done alone, DE can for the most part be done alone and for all part never talk to anyone, PvP can be done alone as well or in a psuedo group that never talks to each other just follows the leader, really only the dungeons which seem to be a small part of the game do you need to rely on the community.
I'm not saying start putting raids in, you can but thats not what i'm saying, just make it where the community wants to talk more, make it more co-dependant on each other.
Note: I'm not saying that it will be entirely silent, just that this system sems to be promoting being by yourself and staying silent rather then breaking the ice and playing with other people. The most fun i had is when i needed a particular cleric in EQ and i wasn't sure how to go about it. I finally broke the ice with the person and he turned out to be very nice and we had a 3 year long friendship, if i hadn't needed him in a dungeon or group content and i could have simply healed the party or revived everyone..that never would have happened.
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.
EDIT: IDK why the quotes stopped working on here, but someone asked about a comment on how GW1 blew it.
I think he's talking about adding professions in expansions. It became exponentially harder to balance with each, because there was secondary professions in GW1. That is why it drives me crazy when people say they shouldn't add professions in future GW2 expansions. It just isn't the same. Stop being stupid.
My advice would be to keep the cash shop for simple aesthetic items only. Even xp boosters starts to push it.
Kill the teleporting- saw this sort of thing in FF14, made the community dang near silent. If you don't want to kill the teleporting at least make it so some classes can teleport you ala a EQ1 druid or wizard could.
With teleporting you mean the waypoint system? Because they cost money and you have to discover them first before being able to use them.
Make more areas where you want to communicate and interact with each other beyond simply using spells inconjuction with each other. Right now i see (what is the majority of the game) the DE as such, you walk into an area, kill some mobs pick up some items and complete the quest (PQ DE whatever still a quest really) then everyone walks away. I know many fans have said but they chain so people will form relations...i still haven't seen this happen in the many times i've done PQ in both War and Rift, so i don't hold high hopes for it to happen here.
Do PQs in War and Rift chain?
Kill the you can switch crafting skills and come back to the original at the same level. Make people choose one or two skills with crafting so they have to rely on others to get the items they want, at least a little bit. I still think you should be able to change crafting skills whenever you want, just make them lose the progress on the old one.
Why?
Make swiming important: put the breath meter back in, give people ways of extending that breath meter and get rid of that breathing apartus.
Why?
My advice so far. Basically it all ties back to make it so you can't just put your hand up at the community and play by yourself way too much IMO of that in this game, swiming can be done alone, crafting can be done alone, DE can for the most part be done alone and for all part never talk to anyone, PvP can be done alone as well or in a psuedo group that never talks to each other just follows the leader, really only the dungeons which seem to be a small part of the game do you need to rely on the community.
Outside of Dungeons and Structured PvP, Anet is aiming for ad-hoc grouping instead of forced grouping. Meaning that you will formally not be in the same party as other people but it will still not affect you negatively if those other people are around. Whether it works or not remains to be seen.
Seeing as how GW2 is breaking alot of MMO trends and looking insanely smooth I don't really see myself in a position to give advice to a competent developer such as Anet. Possibly this: stay true to your goal and ideal with the game and don't listen too much to the players, this has damaged too many games already.
Kill the teleporting- saw this sort of thing in FF14, made the community dang near silent. If you don't want to kill the teleporting at least make it so some classes can teleport you ala a EQ1 druid or wizard could.
With teleporting you mean the waypoint system? Because they cost money and you have to discover them first before being able to use them.
Yeah it's just like in GW1 where people do quick run throughs of opening areas for money but then you can basically go everywhere and never need anyone again to get anywhere.
Make more areas where you want to communicate and interact with each other beyond simply using spells inconjuction with each other. Right now i see (what is the majority of the game) the DE as such, you walk into an area, kill some mobs pick up some items and complete the quest (PQ DE whatever still a quest really) then everyone walks away. I know many fans have said but they chain so people will form relations...i still haven't seen this happen in the many times i've done PQ in both War and Rift, so i don't hold high hopes for it to happen here.
Do PQs in War and Rift chain?
Wasn't the point if they chain or not, just that the events themselves didn't promote any kind of coordination as far as i could see, i was basically saying the reasoning that they chain doesn't do it for me. Because in Rift i (and this is several times so it's not just a one off incident) i've gone several times from when the mobs are wandering around to attacking the portal to closing the portal (the chain) and never so much as speaking to anyone. Which can effectively be done here as well as the tool tip in the (upper right corner?) tells you a list of things you need to do. So you just basically do that.
Kill the you can switch crafting skills and come back to the original at the same level. Make people choose one or two skills with crafting so they have to rely on others to get the items they want, at least a little bit. I still think you should be able to change crafting skills whenever you want, just make them lose the progress on the old one.
Why?
So it promote community interaction instead of doing it by yourself. thats the general theme around this post, requiring to interact with the community and not being able to do it by yourself.
Make swiming important: put the breath meter back in, give people ways of extending that breath meter and get rid of that breathing apartus.
Why?
Same as the above why.
My advice so far. Basically it all ties back to make it so you can't just put your hand up at the community and play by yourself way too much IMO of that in this game, swiming can be done alone, crafting can be done alone, DE can for the most part be done alone and for all part never talk to anyone, PvP can be done alone as well or in a psuedo group that never talks to each other just follows the leader, really only the dungeons which seem to be a small part of the game do you need to rely on the community.
Outside of Dungeons and Structured PvP, Anet is aiming for ad-hoc grouping instead of forced grouping. Meaning that you will formally not be in the same party as other people but it will still not affect you negatively if those other people are around. Whether it works or not remains to be seen.
Your right though we have to wait to see how it works out, just that to me it seems this doesn't promote interacting with the community and instead seems to promote more soloing or not talking to each other then it should...for me.
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.
Last Profession to be something other then the Mesmer Profession.
New content every 4 to 6 months, not yearly ( which were really just expansions)
That's what they already plan on doing. You should watch any of the PAX Panels they've held.
Next expansion or future patches, include some sort of simple mount option, if it has to be purchased from the Store, that would be fine.
Other ways of transportation other then Waypoints.
Are the large ships going to be used as transportation? or are those for Dynamic Events...
Boat transportation
Bloodyhell... 4 points and they all said the same thing... "I WANT MOUNTS"
2 minute timer on Resurrecting a fallen person.
OK... That's just never gonna happen. I doubt they would unnecessarily inconvience the player in such a way and it would make ressing someone entirely pointless, when they could just run from the closest waypoint.
Regarding the new content, I know they mentioned that at PAX, they are going to have two teams, to make this happen. LOL, I guess what I want from them is to keep there promise, which I'm sure they will.
Mounts are a big possiblity in the next expansion, since they really do listen to there gamers, I'm sure this will happen in the future. I'm not very found of waypoints in any game, I personally don't like them as transportation, I just don't like them as shortcuts to your location. Mounts, Boats, Trains, Sling Shot from a Tree Branch, Riding the back of a Golem, I just want other ways to get to the place I want to get to.
If people know they can be rezzed over and over again with no wait time, they will feel that dying is just fine. Since there is no death penalty, I guess I want the person who dies to understand, maybe thinking more of their actions next time. =-P
I'm very excited from what they've done with this game over GW's and this is like a MMO dream coming true to me. A gamer can still have his wishes and concerns, even if mine are very minor.
Wildstar (2013) & Elder Scroll Online (2013)
Playing: Diablo 3, WOW, Far Cry 3 & X-Com.
Enjoyed: WOW 5 1/2 yrs, LOTRO 3yrs, GW 1/2yr, DFO 1yr, EVE Online 3yrs, and Huxley (Beta).
Failed to impress: GW2 3months, Tera Online 6 months (best combat system in any MMO I've played) STO 1/4yr, Aion 1/2yr, AoC 1yr, CO, Fallen Earth, DDO, EQ2 1/2yr, WAR 1/2yr, Lineage 2 and FF XI 1/2yr, FF XIV.
Kill the teleporting- saw this sort of thing in FF14, made the community dang near silent. If you don't want to kill the teleporting at least make it so some classes can teleport you ala a EQ1 druid or wizard could.
Make more areas where you want to communicate and interact with each other beyond simply using spells inconjuction with each other. Right now i see (what is the majority of the game) the DE as such, you walk into an area, kill some mobs pick up some items and complete the quest (PQ DE whatever still a quest really) then everyone walks away. I know many fans have said but they chain so people will form relations...i still haven't seen this happen in the many times i've done PQ in both War and Rift, so i don't hold high hopes for it to happen here.
Kill the you can switch crafting skills and come back to the original at the same level. Make people choose one or two skills with crafting so they have to rely on others to get the items they want, at least a little bit. I still think you should be able to change crafting skills whenever you want, just make them lose the progress on the old one.
Make swiming important: put the breath meter back in, give people ways of extending that breath meter and get rid of that breathing apartus.
My advice so far. Basically it all ties back to make it so you can't just put your hand up at the community and play by yourself way too much IMO of that in this game, swiming can be done alone, crafting can be done alone, DE can for the most part be done alone and for all part never talk to anyone, PvP can be done alone as well or in a psuedo group that never talks to each other just follows the leader, really only the dungeons which seem to be a small part of the game do you need to rely on the community.
I'm not saying start putting raids in, you can but thats not what i'm saying, just make it where the community wants to talk more, make it more co-dependant on each other.
Note: I'm not saying that it will be entirely silent, just that this system sems to be promoting being by yourself and staying silent rather then breaking the ice and playing with other people. The most fun i had is when i needed a particular cleric in EQ and i wasn't sure how to go about it. I finally broke the ice with the person and he turned out to be very nice and we had a 3 year long friendship, if i hadn't needed him in a dungeon or group content and i could have simply healed the party or revived everyone..that never would have happened.
I think you best stick with TOR, because you've begun disassembling GW2. I, by the way, LIKE all the things you apparently DON'T like. Maybe GW2 just isn't going to be the game for you. I know SWTOR isn't the game for me, that's for sure.
If I had something to say to ArenaNet it would simply be, "Keep up the good work. Keep making a game that encourages socializing but doesn't force it." Co-dependency is a sickness, ask any psychologist.. Inter-dependency is, I think, what you meant to encourage. But I don't really agree with that either, for the game. I should be able to log in and enjoy my time playing whether I'm with a group or not. Both modes of play should be fun, but different. I enjoy grouping for a lot of things, but it's not appropriate ALL the time. That's just silly, in my opinion.
Only advice I can give would be. " DON'T LISTEN TO THE PLAYERS !!!!..AND THAT MEANS THE GUILDS EITHER !!!" Or you'll have a piece of crap within a few months. See ala SWG:EQ 1 & 2 and many other MMO's
Jymm Byuu Playing : Blood Bowl. Waiting for 2. Holding breath for Archeage and EQN.
Kill the teleporting- saw this sort of thing in FF14, made the community dang near silent. If you don't want to kill the teleporting at least make it so some classes can teleport you ala a EQ1 druid or wizard could.
Being able to teleport gets you to the content you want to be at where the people who are playing the game are. Standing around doesn't do anything or promote any conversation other than LF Teleport and How Much.
Make more areas where you want to communicate and interact with each other beyond simply using spells inconjuction with each other. Right now i see (what is the majority of the game) the DE as such, you walk into an area, kill some mobs pick up some items and complete the quest (PQ DE whatever still a quest really) then everyone walks away. I know many fans have said but they chain so people will form relations...i still haven't seen this happen in the many times i've done PQ in both War and Rift, so i don't hold high hopes for it to happen here.
You haven't seen it in those games because those events don't chain. Nor a game where it's been designed from the ground up to make you want to see other people. More people means more chaotic and fun encounters. Everybody gets xp and loot for helping kill, meaning you level faster around other people. Cross profession combos to work off each other. Having people around to rez you or save you.
Kill the you can switch crafting skills and come back to the original at the same level. Make people choose one or two skills with crafting so they have to rely on others to get the items they want, at least a little bit. I still think you should be able to change crafting skills whenever you want, just make them lose the progress on the old one.
It costs money, perhaps a serious amount of money to switch back to a previous profession. We don't know all the details yet, but it's possible this system lets people choose the profession they like or not feel like they need to be totally committed to something that may not pan out, but still have to rely on other people since switching won't be trivial.
Make swiming important: put the breath meter back in, give people ways of extending that breath meter and get rid of that breathing apartus.
The whole point of the breathing apparatus is that it allows for worry free underwater exploration. I'd argue that underwater races, towns, DEs, changing skills/weapons and playing with the Z axis are all a direct consequence of the breathing apparatus. I don't know how having to worry about your breath making the game anything but less fun.
My advice so far. Basically it all ties back to make it so you can't just put your hand up at the community and play by yourself way too much IMO of that in this game, swiming can be done alone, crafting can be done alone, DE can for the most part be done alone and for all part never talk to anyone, PvP can be done alone as well or in a psuedo group that never talks to each other just follows the leader, really only the dungeons which seem to be a small part of the game do you need to rely on the community.
These things can be done alone, but the game gives you absolutely no reason to not be social. You want to see other players. Other players can't possibly grief you. They're with you for extended periods of time because of chaining. In addition, mobs in DEs can hurt you, which will give plenty of opportunities for players to work together to take them down. Socializing is encouraged, but not forced.
I'm not saying start putting raids in, you can but thats not what i'm saying, just make it where the community wants to talk more, make it more co-dependant on each other.
Dungeons require discussing tactics, but without the hassle of dealing with raids. The idea in general though is that people are playing an MMO, they want to be around other people even if they're not explicitly social. But what they've found is that people just get drawn into conversations, even when they only intended to solo. Or they notice people following them around and start talking. I bet it's a huge difference not having to worry if that guy is going to KS you or is only following you to steal nodes after you do the work.
Note: I'm not saying that it will be entirely silent, just that this system sems to be promoting being by yourself and staying silent rather then breaking the ice and playing with other people. The most fun i had is when i needed a particular cleric in EQ and i wasn't sure how to go about it. I finally broke the ice with the person and he turned out to be very nice and we had a 3 year long friendship, if i hadn't needed him in a dungeon or group content and i could have simply healed the party or revived everyone..that never would have happened.
One person can't heal the party or revive everyone. What GW2 does is allow any 5 people to do a dungeon if they're skilled enough. So rather than have to wait for a particular class to show up, you can just grab anyone and go. Maybe that person is friendly. Maybe they're skilled. Maybe they're the thief you can have a 3 year friendship with who you never would have met at all had you needed a cleric.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it."-Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
Kill the teleporting- saw this sort of thing in FF14, made the community dang near silent. If you don't want to kill the teleporting at least make it so some classes can teleport you ala a EQ1 druid or wizard could.
Make more areas where you want to communicate and interact with each other beyond simply using spells inconjuction with each other. Right now i see (what is the majority of the game) the DE as such, you walk into an area, kill some mobs pick up some items and complete the quest (PQ DE whatever still a quest really) then everyone walks away. I know many fans have said but they chain so people will form relations...i still haven't seen this happen in the many times i've done PQ in both War and Rift, so i don't hold high hopes for it to happen here.
Kill the you can switch crafting skills and come back to the original at the same level. Make people choose one or two skills with crafting so they have to rely on others to get the items they want, at least a little bit. I still think you should be able to change crafting skills whenever you want, just make them lose the progress on the old one.
Make swiming important: put the breath meter back in, give people ways of extending that breath meter and get rid of that breathing apartus.
My advice so far. Basically it all ties back to make it so you can't just put your hand up at the community and play by yourself way too much IMO of that in this game, swiming can be done alone, crafting can be done alone, DE can for the most part be done alone and for all part never talk to anyone, PvP can be done alone as well or in a psuedo group that never talks to each other just follows the leader, really only the dungeons which seem to be a small part of the game do you need to rely on the community.
I'm not saying start putting raids in, you can but thats not what i'm saying, just make it where the community wants to talk more, make it more co-dependant on each other.
Note: I'm not saying that it will be entirely silent, just that this system sems to be promoting being by yourself and staying silent rather then breaking the ice and playing with other people. The most fun i had is when i needed a particular cleric in EQ and i wasn't sure how to go about it. I finally broke the ice with the person and he turned out to be very nice and we had a 3 year long friendship, if i hadn't needed him in a dungeon or group content and i could have simply healed the party or revived everyone..that never would have happened.
I think you best stick with TOR, because you've begun disassembling GW2. I, by the way, LIKE all the things you apparently DON'T like. Maybe GW2 just isn't going to be the game for you. I know SWTOR isn't the game for me, that's for sure.
Your right thats why i'm sticking with TOR but as i'm mildly interested in this game i gave my advice for wanting to interact with others.
If I had something to say to ArenaNet it would simply be, "Keep up the good work. Keep making a game that encourages socializing but doesn't force it." Co-dependency is a sickness, ask any psychologist.. Inter-dependency is, I think, what you meant to encourage. But I don't really agree with that either, for the game. I should be able to log in and enjoy my time playing whether I'm with a group or not. Both modes of play should be fun, but different. I enjoy grouping for a lot of things, but it's not appropriate ALL the time. That's just silly, in my opinion.
Missuse of words i did mean interdependancy, still I feel in an MMO the community should be something you want to and need to interact with to play...to me the community is a part of the game much like the jump button in super mario or skills in an RPG are. This is just me though and i was asked my advice, i think games that require the community will last a lot longer then ones that do not.
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.
Kill the teleporting- saw this sort of thing in FF14, made the community dang near silent. If you don't want to kill the teleporting at least make it so some classes can teleport you ala a EQ1 druid or wizard could.
With teleporting you mean the waypoint system? Because they cost money and you have to discover them first before being able to use them.
Yeah it's just like in GW1 where people do quick run throughs of opening areas for money but then you can basically go everywhere and never need anyone again to get anywhere.
Except people can not be run anymore.
Make more areas where you want to communicate and interact with each other beyond simply using spells inconjuction with each other. Right now i see (what is the majority of the game) the DE as such, you walk into an area, kill some mobs pick up some items and complete the quest (PQ DE whatever still a quest really) then everyone walks away. I know many fans have said but they chain so people will form relations...i still haven't seen this happen in the many times i've done PQ in both War and Rift, so i don't hold high hopes for it to happen here.
Do PQs in War and Rift chain?
Wasn't the point if they chain or not, just that the events themselves didn't promote any kind of coordination as far as i could see, i was basically saying the reasoning that they chain doesn't do it for me. Because in Rift i (and this is several times so it's not just a one off incident) i've gone several times from when the mobs are wandering around to attacking the portal to closing the portal (the chain) and never so much as speaking to anyone. Which can effectively be done here as well as the tool tip in the (upper right corner?) tells you a list of things you need to do. So you just basically do that.
Hmm, yea, well, this is basically covered in the last point.
Kill the you can switch crafting skills and come back to the original at the same level. Make people choose one or two skills with crafting so they have to rely on others to get the items they want, at least a little bit. I still think you should be able to change crafting skills whenever you want, just make them lose the progress on the old one.
Why?
So it promote community interaction instead of doing it by yourself. thats the general theme around this post, requiring to interact with the community and not being able to do it by yourself.
I'm assuming it takes quite some time to level all crafting disciplines so there is some interdependence. Besides, I don't think crafting should be the most important part of the game where community is created.
Make swiming important: put the breath meter back in, give people ways of extending that breath meter and get rid of that breathing apartus.
Why?
Same as the above why.
How does this require interaction with the community?
My advice so far. Basically it all ties back to make it so you can't just put your hand up at the community and play by yourself way too much IMO of that in this game, swiming can be done alone, crafting can be done alone, DE can for the most part be done alone and for all part never talk to anyone, PvP can be done alone as well or in a psuedo group that never talks to each other just follows the leader, really only the dungeons which seem to be a small part of the game do you need to rely on the community.
Outside of Dungeons and Structured PvP, Anet is aiming for ad-hoc grouping instead of forced grouping. Meaning that you will formally not be in the same party as other people but it will still not affect you negatively if those other people are around. Whether it works or not remains to be seen.
Your right though we have to wait to see how it works out, just that to me it seems this doesn't promote interacting with the community and instead seems to promote more soloing or not talking to each other then it should...for me.
There are at least some elite events such as Tequalt and the Shatterer and an entire zone that's supposedly difficult content (Orr). Other then that, stick to dungeons and structured pvp?
Kill the teleporting- saw this sort of thing in FF14, made the community dang near silent. If you don't want to kill the teleporting at least make it so some classes can teleport you ala a EQ1 druid or wizard could.
Being able to teleport gets you to the content you want to be at where the people who are playing the game are. Standing around doesn't do anything or promote any conversation other than LF Teleport and How Much.
If you run to an area then the teleport is open to you, thus once you ran to every teleport location for a fee then you can teleport to whatever your choice event is until you get bored of it. Unless that teleport cost a lot (source?) then people will choose teleport over someone else.
Make more areas where you want to communicate and interact with each other beyond simply using spells inconjuction with each other. Right now i see (what is the majority of the game) the DE as such, you walk into an area, kill some mobs pick up some items and complete the quest (PQ DE whatever still a quest really) then everyone walks away. I know many fans have said but they chain so people will form relations...i still haven't seen this happen in the many times i've done PQ in both War and Rift, so i don't hold high hopes for it to happen here.
You haven't seen it in those games because those events don't chain. Nor a game where it's been designed from the ground up to make you want to see other people. More people means more chaotic and fun encounters. Everybody gets xp and loot for helping kill, meaning you level faster around other people. Cross profession combos to work off each other. Having people around to rez you or save you.
You'd hope that this was the case but even with the events they still as far as i can tell happen in the same area and run (as TB said) in a line so they aren't as...chaotic as some would have you believe. Granted the rez thing is nice and requires other people, but i still don't think it's enough of one. More people increase the challenage and give better rewards but then that just introduces zerging (getting the most people) to get the best reward, doesn't promote communicating mind as well be NPCs the way i see it.
Kill the you can switch crafting skills and come back to the original at the same level. Make people choose one or two skills with crafting so they have to rely on others to get the items they want, at least a little bit. I still think you should be able to change crafting skills whenever you want, just make them lose the progress on the old one.
It costs money, perhaps a serious amount of money to switch back to a previous profession. We don't know all the details yet, but it's possible this system lets people choose the profession they like or not feel like they need to be totally committed to something that may not pan out, but still have to rely on other people since switching won't be trivial.
Perphas a serious amount...if thats the case then good but it needs to be a lot, either that or stick with being able to max out one crafting skill. I'll grant you we need to wait to see more but if it costs a huge to make ti worth it, then switching is completely discouraged and then it would have been better just to stay with the one you had. If it's easy enough to correct your mistake then everyone will be everything..because people like to be able to do everything.
Make swiming important: put the breath meter back in, give people ways of extending that breath meter and get rid of that breathing apartus.
The whole point of the breathing apparatus is that it allows for worry free underwater exploration. I'd argue that underwater races, towns, DEs, changing skills/weapons and playing with the Z axis are all a direct consequence of the breathing apparatus. I don't know how having to worry about your breath making the game anything but less fun.
Granted fun is subjectable but again it's basically allows you to alienate the community if you so wish. I don't personally feel this is a good idea.
My advice so far. Basically it all ties back to make it so you can't just put your hand up at the community and play by yourself way too much IMO of that in this game, swiming can be done alone, crafting can be done alone, DE can for the most part be done alone and for all part never talk to anyone, PvP can be done alone as well or in a psuedo group that never talks to each other just follows the leader, really only the dungeons which seem to be a small part of the game do you need to rely on the community.
These things can be done alone, but the game gives you absolutely no reason to not be social. You want to see other players. Other players can't possibly grief you. They're with you for extended periods of time because of chaining. In addition, mobs in DEs can hurt you, which will give plenty of opportunities for players to work together to take them down. Socializing is encouraged, but not forced.
Again this is hoping it will be the case, which from what i've seen in previous games is not the case, generally if people don't need to interact or socialize they won't.
I'm not saying start putting raids in, you can but thats not what i'm saying, just make it where the community wants to talk more, make it more co-dependant on each other.
Dungeons require discussing tactics, but without the hassle of dealing with raids. The idea in general though is that people are playing an MMO, they want to be around other people even if they're not explicitly social. But what they've found is that people just get drawn into conversations, even when they only intended to solo. Or they notice people following them around and start talking. I bet it's a huge difference not having to worry if that guy is going to KS you or is only following you to steal nodes after you do the work.
The not being able to KS each other is nice and a good step, wasn't what i was refering to so not sure why you went there. People will form relations but the game in general does nothing to encourage this. I hate doing this because i know the hostile situation this tends to cause but i'm going to bring TOR in just for a moment for an example. You can complete the quest by yourself and do well, but if you are grouped in that same quest not only do you get the quest done and easier, but also you get social points that reward you for grouping. Thats to reward you for grouping with others but not forcing you if you don't want to. Right now 50 people could be in a DE and blast the event to heck and back and get the best reward and leave, somehow i don't see the a pack of centaurs becoming stronger then the shattering because a bunch of people jump in..maybe i'm wrong but then that would seem weird of itself, seems like theres some kind of celling for these events and you can be sure, people will find it. If one exists which i'm almost sure it does, then people will just zerg the events and still...not community interaction just a bunch of people wiping out the events one after the other. If thats what you like be my guest, me? i perfer the rewards come with having to take on tough content with a few people like the example above
Note: I'm not saying that it will be entirely silent, just that this system sems to be promoting being by yourself and staying silent rather then breaking the ice and playing with other people. The most fun i had is when i needed a particular cleric in EQ and i wasn't sure how to go about it. I finally broke the ice with the person and he turned out to be very nice and we had a 3 year long friendship, if i hadn't needed him in a dungeon or group content and i could have simply healed the party or revived everyone..that never would have happened.
One person can't heal the party or revive everyone. What GW2 does is allow any 5 people to do a dungeon if they're skilled enough. So rather than have to wait for a particular class to show up, you can just grab anyone and go. Maybe that person is friendly. Maybe they're skilled. Maybe they're the thief you can have a 3 year friendship with who you never would have met at all had you needed a cleric.
Actually the way i understand it, if you get enough time you can rez everyone, unless the info i got was wrong (source?) as for healing the party, techanically if you put a banner down then you can heal everyone, kind of like LOTRO system for the camp fire. I will grant you on the rogue but then if i never needed to talk to that theif because someone else could fill that role nearly as well i wouldn't have developed any kind of relationship with him either.
My basic advice was to provide more oppertunties where interacting, communicating and requiring the commmunity are the best way to go about things.
Anet can design their game anyway they want. But i just don't see community interaction that high on their scale, what with the crafting everything, requring noone to swim, the nodes being seperated from everyone, DE scale (albeit to a point so thats good) teleporation that you'll basically be able to get to really quickly if you get one person to run you to all of them. Maybe i'm wrong and all this requires others...I've just yet to see it from the fans, movies or info i've gotten so far.
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.
My basic advice was to provide more oppertunties where interacting, communicating and requiring the commmunity are the best way to go about things.
Anet can design their game anyway they want. But i just don't see community interaction that high on their scale, what with the crafting everything, requring noone to swim, the nodes being seperated from everyone, DE scale (albeit to a point so thats good) teleporation that you'll basically be able to get to really quickly if you get one person to run you to all of them. Maybe i'm wrong and all this requires others...I've just yet to see it from the fans, movies or info i've gotten so far.
Agree with alot of the points you made, however i dont think this is a community that is going to be worth a damn interacting with, being B2P and all it will attract more kids than your average mmo.
As far as my advice to Anet, add contested mobs or really rare / near impossible to defeat encounters into your open world. Most fun ive had in any video game to date was downing contested mobs infront of 2 or 3 other guilds in eq1 and eq2. This imo is the only way to actually have competetive fun PVE. Sure not everyone gets to experiance the fun but thats the point, were more organized and better players than you and are rewarded as so.
My advice is, since you already have amazing Dynamic events and everything else to keep the player constantly having fun with no standing around or long travel times just to get to another quest hub...
Raise the bar just a little bit by including GM Events.
They are extremely fun for those that get to participate and if you do them semi-frequently but not you know... weekly or whatever, they become a sort of rallying point.
People think it's fun to pretend your a monster. Me I spend my life pretending I'm not. - Dexter Morgan
My advice is, since you already have amazing Dynamic events and everything else to keep the player constantly having fun with no standing around or long travel times just to get to another quest hub...
Raise the bar just a little bit by including GM Events.
They are extremely fun for those that get to participate and if you do them semi-frequently but not you know... weekly or whatever, they become a sort of rallying point.
If you played Guild Wars 1 and wanted to give ANet some constructive criticism, what would it be?
I find it funny people are ignoring this part of the OP; I would be willing to bet half the people posting here have not done all the dungeons in GW1.
Originally posted by whilan
If you run to an area then the teleport is open to you, thus once you ran to every teleport location for a fee then you can teleport to whatever your choice event is until you get bored of it. Unless that teleport cost a lot (source?) then people will choose teleport over someone else.
Ok then let me ask you a question because the alternative that most people suggest over having waypoints in game is mounts. How do mounts cause more socialization than waypoints please explain that! Because what is to stop people from just hoping on their mounts and riding off and ignoring people? So what exactly is the point here you do not like waypoints? Unless you can prove people riding around on mounts ignoring each other will never happen you are just blowing smoke! Because then people will be choosing mounts over someone else, wow look we are back to where we started!
(Just for the recorded I am not against mounts, I just think they should be only available for level 80, so people that do not want to use them will not be forced to purchase mounts. )
You'd hope that this was the case but even with the events they still as far as i can tell happen in the same area and run (as TB said) in a line so they aren't as...chaotic as some would have you believe. Granted the rez thing is nice and requires other people, but i still don't think it's enough of one. More people increase the challenage and give better rewards but then that just introduces zerging (getting the most people) to get the best reward, doesn't promote communicating mind as well be NPCs the way i see it.
Yeah and guess what all those DEs you saw TB do ANet has already said will be slowed down and added to after release, so again what is your point? Because when it comes down to design DEs are more non-linear than quests, but that does not mean they are chaotic. Watch the PAX east panel from 2010 where they design a DE with fans you can see how non-linear DEs are compared to quests. Also to say they are just quests or PQ or Rifts shows a complete lack of understand of the design of DEs. Because no quest, PQ, or Rift I have ever seen has everything that a DE has. Now if you want to link me a video that shows a quest or PQ or Rift doing everything the DEs can do by design in GW2 then we can talk! Until then stop comparing apples to oranges and saying see they are the same!
Also having more people around does not make the reward better, you will either get a gold, silver, or bronze reward by your effort and the reward does not scale. Unless you can provide a link saying 10 people in a DE will make people get a better gold reward that is just wild and untrue speculation. The only thing having more people around does is making the event scale up so it is always fun and not just a walk through the park that you can zerg through. So it does not introduce zerging to get the best reward, please watch the videos with the fans making a DE because you clearly still do not understand how DEs work!
Perphas a serious amount...if thats the case then good but it needs to be a lot, either that or stick with being able to max out one crafting skill. I'll grant you we need to wait to see more but if it costs a huge to make ti worth it, then switching is completely discouraged and then it would have been better just to stay with the one you had. If it's easy enough to correct your mistake then everyone will be everything..because people like to be able to do everything.
Again let me ask you a question, how is ANet design any different than any theme park MMO out right now. In all those games I can level up alts and get a different crafting maxed on them so I do not have to rely on the community. For the people willing to do that in a MMO nothing has changes, for those out there that are not willing to do that nothing has changed. The only way you could force community involvement is by limiting how many crafting professions you can pick up per account. No themepark on the market does this (at least that I know of) so why are you guys up in arms that ANet is doing this? Guess what guys I can level up alts in TOR and know every single crafting profession and never talk to another crafter. So my real question is why are you guys not up in arms against all themeparks MMOs since none of them requiring socializing in their crafting?
Granted fun is subjectable but again it's basically allows you to alienate the community if you so wish. I don't personally feel this is a good idea.
And how does having a consumable for breathing water require socializing with the community. I can just make them myself or buy them from a real life friend and never talk to anyone else in the game. Because guess what as a gamer I can make anything alienate the community in a MMO! In DAOC when I had a bad day at work and I did not want to talk I did not talk to anyone in game. Oh my god what a shock if people do not want to talk you cannot make them, and if people want to talk to others they will! Again nothing anyone can suggest for replacing the no breath bar will make it so people will socialize if they do not want too!
Again this is hoping it will be the case, which from what i've seen in previous games is not the case, generally if people don't need to interact or socialize they won't.
And again nothing you can do or the developer does can make someone talk to another person when they do not want to. To say you can is beyond idiotic; in no way shape or form can you force me to want to be friends with someone else in a game. If I want to talk to them I will, if I do not want to talk to them guess what I won’t. And there is nothing a developer or anyone else on this planet can do to change that! Like I previously stated I spent hours in DAOC and did not say a word to a single soul in the game, and that game encouraged community involvement. If people want to talk they will but why try to force it on people if they do not want it!
The not being able to KS each other is nice and a good step, wasn't what i was refering to so not sure why you went there. People will form relations but the game in general does nothing to encourage this. I hate doing this because i know the hostile situation this tends to cause but i'm going to bring TOR in just for a moment for an example. You can complete the quest by yourself and do well, but if you are grouped in that same quest not only do you get the quest done and easier, but also you get social points that reward you for grouping. Thats to reward you for grouping with others but not forcing you if you don't want to. Right now 50 people could be in a DE and blast the event to heck and back and get the best reward and leave, somehow i don't see the a pack of centaurs becoming stronger then the shattering because a bunch of people jump in..maybe i'm wrong but then that would seem weird of itself, seems like theres some kind of celling for these events and you can be sure, people will find it. If one exists which i'm almost sure it does, then people will just zerg the events and still...not community interaction just a bunch of people wiping out the events one after the other. If thats what you like be my guest, me? i perfer the rewards come with having to take on tough content with a few people like the example above
Again the Gold, silver, bronze rewards do not scale please watch the video so you understand how DEs work! To answer your question about DE scaling; right now the max a DE scales up to is 10 because that is what they have found is usually the range when everyone at ANet is playing. Of course they said that number can change depending on what they see happening with the game (that is for most of the DEs not the large fights those can go up to 100 I believe).
As for your Star Wars example I would say who the hell really freaking cares! Guess what if I do not feel like socializing no little social points I can get in a MMO is going to make me want too. Where the hell do people get this idea they can force people to socialize? If people want to socialize they will if they do not want to socialize you cannot force them too! I personally like meeting new people in MMOs but that does not mean everyone else does, in fact one of my friends never talks to anyone besides his real life friends in game. Guess what that is his choice developers do not need to try and develop their game so he is social, because it won’t matter one bit to him. So please people stop saying that if you give rewards everyone will be social and all of gaming will be merry and happy!
Actually the way i understand it, if you get enough time you can rez everyone, unless the info i got was wrong (source?) as for healing the party, techanically if you put a banner down then you can heal everyone, kind of like LOTRO system for the camp fire. I will grant you on the rogue but then if i never needed to talk to that theif because someone else could fill that role nearly as well i wouldn't have developed any kind of relationship with him either.
Yep that makes total sense because all gamers are antisocial and will only talk to people when they are forced too. Honestly why cannot people understand that if someone wants to talk to people they will no matter what the game design is, and if people do not want to talk no matter how the game is design you cannot force them to be social and develop friends.
Like I said previously there were days in DAOC that I did not talk to one person and that game is designed for community involvement. Then on other days I talked to everyone I ran into that would talk back in more than one syllable words. The game design had nothing to do with me talking or not; it was completely based on if I wanted to talk. I can get the same social interaction in LOTRO, DAOC, UO, TOR, GW2, GW1, and DDO because I create the atmosphere for the interaction to begin with the people in the game. And there is never going to be a game design that is going to do that for me, in fact for all I care the developers can just stop trying. Because if I do not want to talk on any given day to people in a MMO there is nothing they are ever going to be able to do to make me talk!
My best advice for them might be to go easy on the cash shop. In my experience people seem to have no problem buying swaths of content at a time. Like an expansion for instance.
But the minute you start flooding the shop with small, single use items people start to get aggitated. And while this might seem like a good way to make easy money, you might end up loosing a few grumbling players too. So you might end up having less return than otherwise.
So basically? Have a cash shop. Put some stuff in there. Id advise that most of it should still be attainable in game. And meanwhile? Release content packs or expansions. People will buy those and not complain as long as they are significant, of good quality, and worth the money.
My basic advice was to provide more oppertunties where interacting, communicating and requiring the commmunity are the best way to go about things.
Anet can design their game anyway they want. But i just don't see community interaction that high on their scale, what with the crafting everything, requring noone to swim, the nodes being seperated from everyone, DE scale (albeit to a point so thats good) teleporation that you'll basically be able to get to really quickly if you get one person to run you to all of them. Maybe i'm wrong and all this requires others...I've just yet to see it from the fans, movies or info i've gotten so far.
Agree with alot of the points you made, however i dont think this is a community that is going to be worth a damn interacting with, being B2P and all it will attract more kids than your average mmo.
Because WoW's community is mature and GW1's community is immature right? Oh wait, it's the other way around!
I wish you could see that practically the entire point of GW2 is to encourage community. Not require it, but to encourage it.
You speak of SWTOR giving you social points for grouping, but that's a bandaid on a system that is inherently isolating.
If you're grouping for a solo quest, it's trivial because it doesn't scale up in difficulty. Or you have to be on exactly the same part of the quest chain to group with your friend. If he wants to take a break for the night or even just to stop and craft for a bit, you need to stop too or you're going to get ahead of him. You have to be suspicious of other people tagging mobs or looting ground spawns, or you have to invite them and make the content even more trivial. I could go on and on.
GW2 is designed from the ground up to get rid of all these things that keep people from playing with one another.
Your friend wants to play? If one of you is standing in a spot the other has been to before, you're instantly together. Why encourage socialization with the wizard you need to teleport you or with your mount instead?
There's no competition in the PVE world. You see a guy, you don't have to worry is he going to KS you or steal your nodes.
While we're on the subject, want to know the reason that everybody has every gathering profession in GW2 automatically and nodes allow everyone to hit them? It's so people who are grouped don't have to feel like they're inconveniencing someone else or waiting on someone else. You see a node, the whole group instinctively wants to fight towards it.
Unlike quests, events run on cycles. The game scales you down in power when going to a lower level zone/DE. You've got a friend who is 20 levels below you in a zone you've already done? No problem, you can group with that guy at an appropriate power level, and earn useful rewards. In a quest based game, delete that guy from your friends list and maybe you'll see him again at cap.
In GW2, there's no fixed quest chains. Your friend can take a break and you don't have to. You can meet up later, go anywhere in the world that's at or below your levels and just find events and just start doing them.
Unlike solo questing, where you pretty much ignore one another, or even traditional combat systems where you can't tell how good someone is by the way you're all plowing through mobs, GW2 gives you a real opportunity to see how other people play. Are they good at dodging? Do they set up cross profession combos for you or use the ones you set up for them? Do they rez you or protect you in the first place? Do they thank you when you rez them? All these things let you see whether someone might be a person you even want to talk to.
Any 5 people can do a dungeon, so you can grab your friends and go, and not turn a friend away because they aren't the right class. Or you can friend that skilled guy from the DE and bring them along.
In their playtesting they find that as soon as two people stumble across one another in the world, they start going together. The content gets more fun, they gain protection, and level faster, with no downside. Why not. A third person sees them and comes along as well. They just start forming these ad hoc mobs of 5-10 players who just start doing these chains together, and maybe start talking if they feel like it, or not if they don't.
This is what GW2 is about. I'm sorry I can't convey it without writing a book.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it."-Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
Adding an open game world to the GW legacy and pumping it full with dynamic events was the best thing they ever decided but it seems they were hesitant to go the whole way in ditching the lobby-esque, artificial aspects from GW1 and make the whole open world experience truly immersive and realistic.
Zip-zapping around from points all over the map (once you discovered them) instead of using realistic ingame transportation (player controlled or not) is really a shame in my eyes. (As well as the no pvp allowed in that gameworld but that's another matter).
Comments
Oh great, you broke logic.
My advice:
Kill the teleporting- saw this sort of thing in FF14, made the community dang near silent. If you don't want to kill the teleporting at least make it so some classes can teleport you ala a EQ1 druid or wizard could.
Make more areas where you want to communicate and interact with each other beyond simply using spells inconjuction with each other. Right now i see (what is the majority of the game) the DE as such, you walk into an area, kill some mobs pick up some items and complete the quest (PQ DE whatever still a quest really) then everyone walks away. I know many fans have said but they chain so people will form relations...i still haven't seen this happen in the many times i've done PQ in both War and Rift, so i don't hold high hopes for it to happen here.
Kill the you can switch crafting skills and come back to the original at the same level. Make people choose one or two skills with crafting so they have to rely on others to get the items they want, at least a little bit. I still think you should be able to change crafting skills whenever you want, just make them lose the progress on the old one.
Make swiming important: put the breath meter back in, give people ways of extending that breath meter and get rid of that breathing apartus.
My advice so far. Basically it all ties back to make it so you can't just put your hand up at the community and play by yourself way too much IMO of that in this game, swiming can be done alone, crafting can be done alone, DE can for the most part be done alone and for all part never talk to anyone, PvP can be done alone as well or in a psuedo group that never talks to each other just follows the leader, really only the dungeons which seem to be a small part of the game do you need to rely on the community.
I'm not saying start putting raids in, you can but thats not what i'm saying, just make it where the community wants to talk more, make it more co-dependant on each other.
Note: I'm not saying that it will be entirely silent, just that this system sems to be promoting being by yourself and staying silent rather then breaking the ice and playing with other people. The most fun i had is when i needed a particular cleric in EQ and i wasn't sure how to go about it. I finally broke the ice with the person and he turned out to be very nice and we had a 3 year long friendship, if i hadn't needed him in a dungeon or group content and i could have simply healed the party or revived everyone..that never would have happened.
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.
EDIT: IDK why the quotes stopped working on here, but someone asked about a comment on how GW1 blew it.
I think he's talking about adding professions in expansions. It became exponentially harder to balance with each, because there was secondary professions in GW1. That is why it drives me crazy when people say they shouldn't add professions in future GW2 expansions. It just isn't the same. Stop being stupid.
My advice would be to keep the cash shop for simple aesthetic items only. Even xp boosters starts to push it.
Guild Wars 2!
Seeing as how GW2 is breaking alot of MMO trends and looking insanely smooth I don't really see myself in a position to give advice to a competent developer such as Anet. Possibly this: stay true to your goal and ideal with the game and don't listen too much to the players, this has damaged too many games already.
Your right though we have to wait to see how it works out, just that to me it seems this doesn't promote interacting with the community and instead seems to promote more soloing or not talking to each other then it should...for me.
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.
Regarding the new content, I know they mentioned that at PAX, they are going to have two teams, to make this happen. LOL, I guess what I want from them is to keep there promise, which I'm sure they will.
Mounts are a big possiblity in the next expansion, since they really do listen to there gamers, I'm sure this will happen in the future. I'm not very found of waypoints in any game, I personally don't like them as transportation, I just don't like them as shortcuts to your location. Mounts, Boats, Trains, Sling Shot from a Tree Branch, Riding the back of a Golem, I just want other ways to get to the place I want to get to.
If people know they can be rezzed over and over again with no wait time, they will feel that dying is just fine. Since there is no death penalty, I guess I want the person who dies to understand, maybe thinking more of their actions next time. =-P
I'm very excited from what they've done with this game over GW's and this is like a MMO dream coming true to me. A gamer can still have his wishes and concerns, even if mine are very minor.
Wildstar (2013) & Elder Scroll Online (2013)
Playing: Diablo 3, WOW, Far Cry 3 & X-Com.
Enjoyed: WOW 5 1/2 yrs, LOTRO 3yrs, GW 1/2yr, DFO 1yr, EVE Online 3yrs, and Huxley (Beta).
Failed to impress: GW2 3months, Tera Online 6 months (best combat system in any MMO I've played) STO 1/4yr, Aion 1/2yr, AoC 1yr, CO, Fallen Earth, DDO, EQ2 1/2yr, WAR 1/2yr, Lineage 2 and FF XI 1/2yr, FF XIV.
Don't poop in the cereal.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
My advice would be simple.
Start a worldwide closed beta as soon as possible.
I think you best stick with TOR, because you've begun disassembling GW2. I, by the way, LIKE all the things you apparently DON'T like. Maybe GW2 just isn't going to be the game for you. I know SWTOR isn't the game for me, that's for sure.
If I had something to say to ArenaNet it would simply be, "Keep up the good work. Keep making a game that encourages socializing but doesn't force it." Co-dependency is a sickness, ask any psychologist.. Inter-dependency is, I think, what you meant to encourage. But I don't really agree with that either, for the game. I should be able to log in and enjoy my time playing whether I'm with a group or not. Both modes of play should be fun, but different. I enjoy grouping for a lot of things, but it's not appropriate ALL the time. That's just silly, in my opinion.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Only advice I can give would be. " DON'T LISTEN TO THE PLAYERS !!!!..AND THAT MEANS THE GUILDS EITHER !!!" Or you'll have a piece of crap within a few months. See ala SWG:EQ 1 & 2 and many other MMO's
Jymm Byuu
Playing : Blood Bowl. Waiting for 2. Holding breath for Archeage and EQN.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." -Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
Copy or make something very simlar to http://camelot.allakhazam.com/db/search.html?cmzone=62
http://realhistoryww.com/world_history/ancient/Misc/Jesus/Jesus.htm
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.
There are at least some elite events such as Tequalt and the Shatterer and an entire zone that's supposedly difficult content (Orr). Other then that, stick to dungeons and structured pvp?
My basic advice was to provide more oppertunties where interacting, communicating and requiring the commmunity are the best way to go about things.
Anet can design their game anyway they want. But i just don't see community interaction that high on their scale, what with the crafting everything, requring noone to swim, the nodes being seperated from everyone, DE scale (albeit to a point so thats good) teleporation that you'll basically be able to get to really quickly if you get one person to run you to all of them. Maybe i'm wrong and all this requires others...I've just yet to see it from the fans, movies or info i've gotten so far.
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.
Agree with alot of the points you made, however i dont think this is a community that is going to be worth a damn interacting with, being B2P and all it will attract more kids than your average mmo.
As far as my advice to Anet, add contested mobs or really rare / near impossible to defeat encounters into your open world. Most fun ive had in any video game to date was downing contested mobs infront of 2 or 3 other guilds in eq1 and eq2. This imo is the only way to actually have competetive fun PVE. Sure not everyone gets to experiance the fun but thats the point, were more organized and better players than you and are rewarded as so.
C
My advice is, since you already have amazing Dynamic events and everything else to keep the player constantly having fun with no standing around or long travel times just to get to another quest hub...
Raise the bar just a little bit by including GM Events.
They are extremely fun for those that get to participate and if you do them semi-frequently but not you know... weekly or whatever, they become a sort of rallying point.
People think it's fun to pretend your a monster. Me I spend my life pretending I'm not. - Dexter Morgan
I definitely agree with THIS.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Dont make the game too easy and focus on PvP.
My best advice for them might be to go easy on the cash shop. In my experience people seem to have no problem buying swaths of content at a time. Like an expansion for instance.
But the minute you start flooding the shop with small, single use items people start to get aggitated. And while this might seem like a good way to make easy money, you might end up loosing a few grumbling players too. So you might end up having less return than otherwise.
So basically? Have a cash shop. Put some stuff in there. Id advise that most of it should still be attainable in game. And meanwhile? Release content packs or expansions. People will buy those and not complain as long as they are significant, of good quality, and worth the money.
Because WoW's community is mature and GW1's community is immature right? Oh wait, it's the other way around!
@ Whilan
I wish you could see that practically the entire point of GW2 is to encourage community. Not require it, but to encourage it.
You speak of SWTOR giving you social points for grouping, but that's a bandaid on a system that is inherently isolating.
If you're grouping for a solo quest, it's trivial because it doesn't scale up in difficulty. Or you have to be on exactly the same part of the quest chain to group with your friend. If he wants to take a break for the night or even just to stop and craft for a bit, you need to stop too or you're going to get ahead of him. You have to be suspicious of other people tagging mobs or looting ground spawns, or you have to invite them and make the content even more trivial. I could go on and on.
GW2 is designed from the ground up to get rid of all these things that keep people from playing with one another.
Your friend wants to play? If one of you is standing in a spot the other has been to before, you're instantly together. Why encourage socialization with the wizard you need to teleport you or with your mount instead?
There's no competition in the PVE world. You see a guy, you don't have to worry is he going to KS you or steal your nodes.
While we're on the subject, want to know the reason that everybody has every gathering profession in GW2 automatically and nodes allow everyone to hit them? It's so people who are grouped don't have to feel like they're inconveniencing someone else or waiting on someone else. You see a node, the whole group instinctively wants to fight towards it.
Unlike quests, events run on cycles. The game scales you down in power when going to a lower level zone/DE. You've got a friend who is 20 levels below you in a zone you've already done? No problem, you can group with that guy at an appropriate power level, and earn useful rewards. In a quest based game, delete that guy from your friends list and maybe you'll see him again at cap.
In GW2, there's no fixed quest chains. Your friend can take a break and you don't have to. You can meet up later, go anywhere in the world that's at or below your levels and just find events and just start doing them.
Unlike solo questing, where you pretty much ignore one another, or even traditional combat systems where you can't tell how good someone is by the way you're all plowing through mobs, GW2 gives you a real opportunity to see how other people play. Are they good at dodging? Do they set up cross profession combos for you or use the ones you set up for them? Do they rez you or protect you in the first place? Do they thank you when you rez them? All these things let you see whether someone might be a person you even want to talk to.
Any 5 people can do a dungeon, so you can grab your friends and go, and not turn a friend away because they aren't the right class. Or you can friend that skilled guy from the DE and bring them along.
In their playtesting they find that as soon as two people stumble across one another in the world, they start going together. The content gets more fun, they gain protection, and level faster, with no downside. Why not. A third person sees them and comes along as well. They just start forming these ad hoc mobs of 5-10 players who just start doing these chains together, and maybe start talking if they feel like it, or not if they don't.
This is what GW2 is about. I'm sorry I can't convey it without writing a book.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." -Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
Agree with Whilan: Kill the teleporting.
Adding an open game world to the GW legacy and pumping it full with dynamic events was the best thing they ever decided but it seems they were hesitant to go the whole way in ditching the lobby-esque, artificial aspects from GW1 and make the whole open world experience truly immersive and realistic.
Zip-zapping around from points all over the map (once you discovered them) instead of using realistic ingame transportation (player controlled or not) is really a shame in my eyes. (As well as the no pvp allowed in that gameworld but that's another matter).
My brand new bloggity blog.