Guild Wars 2: Pre-Release Discussion

[Meko]

w/TERA not being released until 2012... and who knows when that will be (might be pushed back again for all anybody knows), I've been looking forward to GW2 more and more. After seeing all the new stuff, and playing it at Comic Con (btw - TERA wasn't even at CC this year, but they were last), this is my #1 game I'm looking forward to

Until Blizzard mentions and shows a video of 'Titan' at Blizzcon!

[Katlan]

Until Blizzard mentions and shows a video of 'Titan' at Blizzcon!

I have 0 interest in a FPS MMO. Just not my thing

[Meko]

Oh, is it supposed to be FPS? I didn't know that anything was leaked about it. If that is the case, I'm out too.

[Zerocool]

Last I heard of Titan was that it was going to be a casual MMO. That coming from the people who made WoW. But yeah, GW2 has shot up to the top of my list over the last few months. Because more than anything else, it looks like it's just going to be really fun. And that's the most important thing. Doesn't matter what features X game has, if it's not fun then who cares. I think a lot of people forget why some of them started playing MMOs in the first place, and that's to play online with a bunch of other people and have fun together. And GW2 seems to be focusing on that aspect and it's the main reason I'm excited for it.

Somewhere along the way MMOs became this solo grind to cap and then gear grind raids until your eyes bleed. I mean, obviously you're going to need something to keep players playing once they reach cap. I think in GW2, WvW PvP and end game dynamic events is what will keep people playing the game. If you've seen The Shatterer videos, that's only a level 40 dragon. They said it would be nothing compared to the level 80 dragons at end game. Honestly, I just hope that the game having a level cap of 80 means people won't be at cap in two weeks like every other MMO that comes out these days.

[Dantrag]

Ha, wow... that's only a level 40 dragon o.0?

[Katlan]

I just hope that the game having a level cap of 80 means people won't be at cap in two weeks like every other MMO that comes out these days.

that will always happen. group events are the main focus of GW2 since thats what they are doing different from the standard crop, but you can also solo to cap if you wanted to. there will always be that race to be the first handful of ppl to cap, don't think that can be avoided in any mmo

[Takiwaki]

Ha, wow... that's only a level 40 dragon o.0?

Level 50 actually, in the demo the players were 45+

[Meko]

I love dragons but to me, that looks like just a giant Warhammer style 'dynamic' boss. It's cool and all but I really prefer group play more than anything. I'm not sure that 'open quests' allow for a lot of social interaction. If anything, it might allow for more blind invites/grouping/silence/disbanding. Nothing is more disappointing in WoW than joining a random group and saying "Hey" or whatever and having nobody respond. People are just tunnel vision/racing to the end. Sucks all the fun out of it.

[Takiwaki]

I love dragons but to me, that looks like just a giant Warhammer style 'dynamic' boss. It's cool and all but I really prefer group play more than anything. I'm not sure that 'open quests' allow for a lot of social interaction. If anything, it might allow for more blind invites/grouping/silence/disbanding.

Here is another way of thinking about it also . In open world events there is no need to group. since you don't have to be in a party to cure or raise or buff anyone, you group with who you want just for the simple fact of being social. You can look at it another way in that Open Quests will allow you to be more social as its not forcing you to group with people you dont want to, No blind invites no rage quit leavers, no kill stealing, no loot stealing. Dungeons however is a 5 man group thing, which you will want to play with people you do know since its a more challenging affair.

On another note there is an entire game play mechanic built on interaction between classes. This by itself will lend to the social aspect. the simple fact that any class can raise, heal, buff, or your fire walls make my arrows fire arrows for example, I think making friends will be much easier.

Everyone taking part in an event is part of your "group".

[vrumpt]

This game has some pretty amazing potential. There isn't really a lot that i've read about GW2 where things just sound wrong; everything that GW2 is doing they seem to be doing right which is a sharp contrast to TERA and even SWTOR. After reading up more on it, i'll say WvWvW PvP sounds pretty epic. Constructable and captureable castles and fortresses is a specific feature that i've been wanting in MMOs for a long time, and i'm pretty excited that they're doing this.

To me GW2 is actually reminding me a lot of FFXI. You have 5 different races, non faction specific (thank god for no red vs blue BS) in a strong group focused PvE specific game with gigantic Elder Wyrms waiting for you at endgame. Very excited.

[Isiolia]

You can look at it another way in that Open Quests will allow you to be more social as its not forcing you to group with people you dont want to, No blind invites no rage quit leavers, no kill stealing, no loot stealing. Dungeons however is a 5 man group thing, which you will want to play with people you do know since its a more challenging affair.

I think one of the things they mentioned, for PvP at least, is that the open system allows for people to learn to play well within a lower pressure environment. If you're jumping into a 5 on 5 tournament style match, the last thing you want to be is the weak link that causes your team to fail. Having a huge WvWvW match where the more you have the better, it's not as intimidating to join in.
Same with PvE if you think about it. As a new player you happen across a dynamic event like that, you can join in. Get some practice. See how the more experienced players handle it. Maybe happen to combo some skills.

It's a natural tutorial, if nothing else.

[Zerocool]

I wouldn't say they were focusing more on PvE than PvP. In fact, WvW is actually supposed to have a pretty big impact on the server status to get bonus rewards like increased loot drop rates or increased exp for the whole server. So it's going to take the whole server to work together to try to dominate objectives so that your server receives the bonuses. I can't express how brilliant setting up world pvp in this way is. Instead of dividing a single servers population and pitting them against each other, you bring them all together to fight against other servers. I think it will go a long way in helping build solid communities on each server.

As for the social aspect, I can't say that I can see a lot of socializing going on during dynamic events with the way combat is structured. You're going to have to be pretty active in combat, so you probably won't see a lot of people stopping to type all the time. Where I can see a lot of socializing going on though is at the minigames they'll have in towns.

Quote on one of the minigames here, which is a "bar brawl":

The experienced, described on the ArenaNet blog, to be had in a bar brawl sounds pretty interesting and fun. You are able to drink different types of ale, each which have a different effect on you, an example they made being that it can make you burp a toxic gas. The more ale you drink, the more intoxicated you become, and the higher chance you have for landing a critical hit, at the expense of your accuracy.

[Takiwaki]

Yep its almost like they gave options for every kind of player out there.

[vrumpt]

I never played DaoC, but all i hear about it was how epic the 3 faction pvp was. WvWvW is an ingenious way to emulate that without actually having to create 3 different factions.

[Insanecyclone]

[Takiwaki]

^ Was posted on the last page lol

[Dantrag]

Would be so fun to do the WvWvW stuff. Let two of them go at it and then sweep up :D. If that's possible. Depends how large the area you get to fight over is. Will be epic if you can plan ambushes and what not. Take some actual strategies to these fights like actual battles.

[Zerocool]

Well it will take place across 4 zones. There will be the "main" zone in the middle, and then 3 other zones connected to that zone. You have to go through the center zone to get to the other zones, so you'll be crossing paths with the other servers regularly. They said it will play out like a huge strategy game. You have different objectives to complete for all different party sizes. You'll have the huge castle sieges, and then you'll have the small man escort quests. So for example an escort quest will work like: one server will get an escort quest to escort a caravan of supplies to town, and the other servers will get quests to stop that server from escorting them. If the server succeeds, it will unlock siege weapons they'll be able to use. If not, well no siege weapons for them. That's just an example of the type of stuff they're planning though.

[vrumpt]

Well it will take place across 4 zones. There will be the "main" zone in the middle, and then 3 other zones connected to that zone. You have to go through the center zone to get to the other zones, so you'll be crossing paths with the other servers regularly. They said it will play out like a huge strategy game. You have different objectives to complete for all different party sizes. You'll have the huge castle sieges, and then you'll have the small man escort quests. So for example an escort quest will work like: one server will get an escort quest to escort a caravan of supplies to town, and the other servers will get quests to stop that server from escorting them. If the server succeeds, it will unlock siege weapons they'll be able to use. If not, well no siege weapons for them. That's just an example of the type of stuff they're planning though.

I want to say stuff like this has been done before and didn't work as planned, but i can't remember where so i'm not sure if it ever was. Owait, that was FFXI campaign. Really that escort example reminds me of escort campaign ops. I really hope this stuff turns out better than what SE put out.

In the end its all gonna boil down to a number game unless they cap the number of players in the zone from each server, and i hope they don't.

[Katlan]

Until stuff smooths out and ppl have a chance to get out of the noob area and levels disperse a bit between players.. the entire starting area's are gonna be giant zerg fests trying to fight to even tag mobs. I don't see a way around this unless they do (what I hope they dont) and break zones down in the same was as Aion did. Actually, doing that method for just the noob zone may be a good idea. But the launch of the game won't see any of the real mechanics of this dynamic content until the population spreads out amongst the player base