The Guild Wars 2 Thread

[Shannow]

snip

They were successful enough with "sell stand-alone campaign at normal AAA game prices every year with some cosmetic MT in the end" and I don't see why they should change that. In the past they released new regions for free. If they changed that to MTs I'd be fucking pissed and a lost customer. Just sayin'.

 

[Mangoose]

Pst, Annie, we miss you.

 

[Angthoron]

snip

They were successful enough with "sell stand-alone campaign at normal AAA game prices every year with some cosmetic MT in the end" and I don't see why they should change that. In the past they released new regions for free. If they changed that to MTs I'd be fucking pissed and a lost customer. Just sayin'.

Budget differences and production time will require a different sort of ROI. In fact, would be interesting to know what sort of investments have been made into GW2, and by what companies, besides NCSoft. I doubt NCS is funding this alone for as long as it is, and the game is clearly of the AAA production/marketing value. Anybody know anything on this?

And hey, I'm all for the major game expacs, and for cosmetic-only sales. Just sayin' that if they pick the "sell smaller, but well-crafted content packs for low amounts of buxx between major expacs" route, I'm probably not going to mind.

 

[Excidium]

I'm going to mind, a lot. I hate the idea of DLCs in MMO, everyone should have access to the same content.

 

[Black]

http://www.arena.net/blog/kristen-perry ... he-sylvari

Here's your new salad people design.

I don't particularly like it but then again I always had codexian feelings towards non-human races.

 

[Excidium]

That's better, the older model looked like it came out of an anime. Still, it's a p. gay race.

This is how they should look like:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/f/f0/SidheMale.jpg

http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/c/c8/SidheFemale.jpg

 

[Mangoose]

Seems like Asura lately have been looking less "cutesy" and more like the GW1 ones. At least I thought I saw one of those ugly rat things in a recent video.

 

[Darth Roxor]

This is how they should look like:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/f/f0/SidheMale.jpg

Yes, this would be very codexian. Especially since the pronunciation of Sidhe is 'She'

 

[Shannow]

This is how they should look like:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/f/f0/SidheMale.jpg

Yes, this would be very codexian. Especially since the pronunciation of Sidhe is 'She'

Actually it's "Shae"

Faggy elf-plant as necro *g*

 

[Darth Roxor]

This is how they should look like:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/f/f0/SidheMale.jpg

Yes, this would be very codexian. Especially since the pronunciation of Sidhe is 'She'

Actually it's "Shae"

Except not

Either Shii or Shiie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidhe -> The aos sí (Irish pronunciation: [iːs ˈʃiː], older form aes sídhe [eːs ˈʃiːə])

 

[made]

Micro-payments may well kill this game (for me). I dunno what it's like in GW1 but that game is old. Devs were still hesitant about the MP business back then. These days they know they can go as far as they want and people will lap it up. If I have to pay up for stuff I took for granted in WoW (mounts or unique-looking gear come to mind) I'll be pissed.

 

[SuicideBunny]

i hope they put in some supox references...

 

[Black]

Micro-payments may well kill this game (for me). I dunno what it's like in GW1 but that game is old. Devs were still hesitant about the MP business back then. These days they know they can go as far as they want and people will lap it up. If I have to pay up for stuff I took for granted in WoW (mounts or unique-looking gear come to mind) I'll be pissed.

It was a bunch of cosmetic shit, don't know why it would be different in GW2.

 

[made]

Cause it's 2011

 

[Tycn]

Micro-payments may well kill this game (for me). I dunno what it's like in GW1 but that game is old. Devs were still hesitant about the MP business back then. These days they know they can go as far as they want and people will lap it up. If I have to pay up for stuff I took for granted in WoW (mounts or unique-looking gear come to mind) I'll be pissed.

It was a bunch of cosmetic shit, don't know why it would be different in GW2.

What isn't?

 

[Angthoron]

Micro-payments may well kill this game (for me). I dunno what it's like in GW1 but that game is old. Devs were still hesitant about the MP business back then. These days they know they can go as far as they want and people will lap it up. If I have to pay up for stuff I took for granted in WoW (mounts or unique-looking gear come to mind) I'll be pissed.

To be honest, I don't quite entirely get this point of view. Yes, badly implemented purchase system will kill the game for me as well, but I'm not talking about bad purchase systems. I'm not talking LotRO bullshit, for instance, which is possibly the worst F2P model that I've seen to this date and which disgusts me to no end, where the devs squeeze out every penny from every sort of bullshit while providing minimal amount of new content and charging for core content on top of everything.

The model I am talking is actually something that I've not personally seen implemented well much so far - basically, the main content is always free (or part of a major expac), so the 5-mans (or whatever size group), the world, the base PvP, story mode, everything that EVERYONE would like to play, is free as long as you have bought the main package.

Specialization would come for people that actually want to have new content all the bloody time (like myself). Making new & quality content costs money, and there is a finite number of players that can join the game (even if all WoW migrates, it's still finite, and one-time, as opposed to WoW's constant money stream), so, either players are stuck with a game world that updates once in a blue moon, or, players shell out five bucks every three months to get a new raid, or a new PvP bracket with new PvP maps.

Yes, this is DLC model, and no, I'm not a fan. I like my major expacs and my free content, thank you very much. However, if it's cheap for the client, and good in quality (and amount of content), I rather take this than either sub-based, or low update. I think EQ had a mini-expac model of this sort? Not sure.

But anyway, this is speculation stuff, and it's currently based on just about nothing, maybe they'll get UN to subsidize the development for all we know.

 

[Tycn]

Successful PvP is dependent on a large playerbase and making chunks of it pay to play would be a pretty bad move. I mean even in GW:

When I played Guild Battles a few years ago during Oceanic times it typically took anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours to find a match, and then because it had become peak hour for the Korean gaming ubermenschen.
Team Arenas was mostly dead for the last few years and the Codex Arena that was its replacement died immediately after being introduced.
Heroes Ascent in recent years is inactive to the point that any team with a vague idea of how to play will hold halls for hours, and when they do leave it's probably because there's no one else to play them.
Random Arenas, Alliance Battles and competitive missions were slightly less inactive since they take little or no organisation but there are still long waiting times for the latter two.

Admittedly it was already beyond its prime when I played, but I'd hate to see how long that prime would last with microtransactions especially since most players seem to be PvE occasionally dipping their toes in the good shit.

 

[Angthoron]

Successful PvP is dependent on a large playerbase and making chunks of it pay to play would be a pretty bad move. I mean even in GW:

When I played Guild Battles a few years ago during Oceanic times it typically took anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours to find a match, and then because it had become peak hour for the Korean gaming ubermenschen.
Team Arenas was mostly dead for the last few years and the Codex Arena that was its replacement died immediately after being introduced.
Heroes Ascent in recent years is inactive to the point that any team with a vague idea of how to play will hold halls for hours, and when they do leave it's probably because there's no one else to play them.
Random Arenas, Alliance Battles and competitive missions were slightly less inactive since they take little or no organisation but there are still long waiting times for the latter two.

Admittedly it was already beyond its prime when I played, but I'd hate to see how long that prime would last with microtransactions especially since most players seem to be PvE occasionally dipping their toes in the good shit.

Ah, now this is an excellent point that I might have not given enough thought about, the PvP chunk that is fuelled by casual gamers, especially if PvP is there for PvP's sake and not for free epics. Yeah, I see that better now. Thanks bro.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Micro-payments may well kill this game (for me). I dunno what it's like in GW1 but that game is old. Devs were still hesitant about the MP business back then. These days they know they can go as far as they want and people will lap it up. If I have to pay up for stuff I took for granted in WoW (mounts or unique-looking gear come to mind) I'll be pissed.

stuff you can buy through micro transactions in gw1:

• skill/item unlocks for pvp, because you are too lazy to unlock them yourself via pve or pvp
• pvp editions of the campaigns for less than ncsoft/anet charge for a campaign but more than you'd pay on amazon
• getting a pack of premade max stat items. pretty useless unless you want a max stat weapon in pre-sear bad enough
• pet unlocks for common ranger pets (can't unlock special ones like the rainbow phoenix)
• additional character slots
• additional tabs for the xunlai chest (=account bank)
• additional mercenary slots (mercenaries are your own max level characters made into heroes, so your other characters can use them as pve companions) don't remember if you get any merc slots for free, but you get a fuckton of normal heroes anyhow
• costumes. fugly compared to most elite armors, only useful if you are a low starter who wants to look slightly better than he can afford to ingame, or if you are making pvp chars to register as mercs and want to diversify their looks
• name change/gender switch/makeover
• one mission pack with four solo missions you can play that explain some backstory. you play in a disguise with set skills, completion nets you a book you can exchange for some fugly to neat looking equipment otherwise unobtainable, but you can get much better looking items in the game.

things so far confirmed as buyable in gw2:

• transmutation stones, used to combine two items to get the stats you need with the look you want. they can be also bought ingame with karma, which is what you get for doing events. items you get via the hall of monuments rewards from gw1 will be transmutable/upgradeable for free.

there are no mounts in gw2, and they would have little use anyhoo since you have instant map travel to any waypoint you unlocked on a map and instantaneous asura gates between big cities.

there prolly will be some unique looking buyable stuff eventually, but you can bet that more unique and better looking stuff will be obtainable in-game.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Which reminds me...

GW2 better not come out too soon, I have a HoM to max

 

[Angthoron]

Do HoM bonuses apply only before GW2 launch, or after, as well?

 

[Shannow]

stuff you can buy through micro transactions in gw1:

• skill/item unlocks for pvp, because you are too lazy to unlock them yourself via pve or pvp
• pvp editions of the campaigns for less than ncsoft/anet charge for a campaign but more than you'd pay on amazon
• getting a pack of premade max stat items. pretty useless unless you want a max stat weapon in pre-sear bad enough
• pet unlocks for common ranger pets (can't unlock special ones like the rainbow phoenix)
• additional character slots
• additional tabs for the xunlai chest (=account bank)
• additional mercenary slots (mercenaries are your own max level characters made into heroes, so your other characters can use them as pve companions) don't remember if you get any merc slots for free, but you get a fuckton of normal heroes anyhow
• costumes. fugly compared to most elite armors, only useful if you are a low starter who wants to look slightly better than he can afford to ingame, or if you are making pvp chars to register as mercs and want to diversify their looks
• name change/gender switch/makeover
• one mission pack with four solo missions you can play that explain some backstory. you play in a disguise with set skills, completion nets you a book you can exchange for some fugly to neat looking equipment otherwise unobtainable, but you can get much better looking items in the game.

Which is pretty much everything that I'm ok with in MT. I hated the missions/quests where you played as a different char with fixed skills, but it's about principle and content shouldn't be purchasable via MT (sry, Ang).
Unless it doesn't unbalance the game I'm also ok with purchasable items that give xp buffs for a few minutes or something.

Do HoM bonuses apply only before GW2 launch, or after, as well?

No idea. I guess you'd keep them and still be able to add new points even after launch and connecting the accs. Have you looked into a faq?
I've gotten to 16 bonus points and that was already pretty grindy... I'll probably get another drive a few weeks before launch, but it's probably not worth to go for more than one would get anyway by normal playing...

 

[SuicideBunny]

you can link accounts and earn hom rewards any time you want.
getting to 30 which is the last bonus item reward is pretty easy but can take some time. only difficult thing can be getting legendary guardian with how fucked up vizunah square and eternal grove can be or getting cartographer if you don't use texmod.

 

[Angthoron]

Which is pretty much everything that I'm ok with in MT. I hated the missions/quests where you played as a different char with fixed skills, but it's about principle and content shouldn't be purchasable via MT (sry, Ang).

Mhm, well. I see your point better now bros, and I think that from a general point of view, it works better that way indeed. I was going in on the speed of someone that has dumped tons of sub money on pretty disappointing amounts of new content, and basically I'd almost be HAPPY to pay extra so I wouldn't have to grind same shit and goddamned dailies over and over ad nauseum at this point. For people that haven't been subjected to such fun long enough (and mind you, I do enjoy many aspects of current MMOs), a burning desire to pay for "moar content" might be a tad alien, and in the end, disrupting to community and dividing people too much.

Yeah, from general perspective, and from the point of view of wholeness of the community, it is indeed better if most of the package is identical for all (save for expacks of course), and the purchaseable stuff would be either minor conveniences or pointless gimmicks like noncombat pets and maybe some totally gimmicky retardo minigame for Farmvillers. XP buffs and the likes are fine too, as they're just minor conveniences, and some people really do NOT like levelling, while others really DO. Those that don't could pay a bit for an express road to happylands.

I've gotten to 16 bonus points and that was already pretty grindy... I'll probably get another drive a few weeks before launch, but it's probably not worth to go for more than one would get anyway by normal playing...

Haven't looked at the FAQ yet, it just crossed my mind when it was mentioned, and I'm at work, so, can't really browse much. Not sure I feel like grinding though, been doing enough of that in other games already.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Not sure I feel like grinding though, been doing enough of that in other games already.

here's a guide to make the most efficient use of your time when hunting for hom levels:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guide_to ... ts_rewards

dunno how efficient it is since i've done my 30 levels without it, but it sounds about right.
works best with 3h sab-/discordway +2h rit midline +2h me midline, all of which are builds on pvx that make everything pve pretty darn easy.