The Guild Wars 2 Thread

[Black]

Been out of the gw2 loop for some time, how bad is it? Has damage control begun? I see there already are some characters with max level.

 

[Ulminati]

Black
It's nothing revolutionary. People are split into 2 camps atm: Those who are runnign around having fun and enjoying it for what it is, and a bunch of jealous wow kiddies who yell insults at the sidelines while secretly wishing pandas could be as cool as Charr. Brewfest has nothing on Meatoberfest.

 

[Menckenstein]

Black take Ulminati opinion with a bucket of salt as he is known to have laid pipe to some GW2 devbroadz.

But you'll need to buy a key to unlock further information.

 

[Ulminati]

Menckenstein -- shouldn't you be raging about TF2 instead. I mean, the crates there actually give you weapons that can impact the game. GW2 just gives you silly tonics that transform you into an animal for a few minutes outside combat.

 

[Menckenstein]

Menckenstein -- shouldn't you be raging about TF2 instead. I mean, the crates there actually give you weapons that can impact the game. GW2 just gives you silly tonics that transform you into an animal for a few minutes outside combat.

But TF2 has already taken its lashings from Codex. It's GW2's turn. Besides it's a lot more than silly animal transformation tonics in the chests.

ArenaNet have distilled the power of Korean MMO Kekeke blackmajic, truly.

 

[DakaSha]

im fucking bored

 

[Kane]

Been out of the gw2 loop for some time, how bad is it? Has damage control begun? I see there already are some characters with max level.

No damage control needed. GW2 is exactly what a.net said it would be. It's a pretty conservative MMORPG. The PvE in GW2 is simply a bigger and better version of GW1 PvE. The PvP is there, if it holds up to GW1 standards is a little early to tell. Overall, Guild Wars 2 is ... *drumroll* ... Guild Wars.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Besides it's a lot more than silly animal transformation tonics in the chests.

yeah but it's not like you actually have to buy keys to open the chests. they are damn easy to get, not to mention that achievement chests also give cash shop items.
if it wasn't for gw1, this would be the user friendliest mmorpg with a chash shop ever.

 

[Menckenstein]

More casual than a Friday at Google HQ?

They know their audience at least.

 

[SuicideBunny]

More casual than a Friday at Google HQ?

you have been conditioned too much by shitty grind jrpgs and mmos if you equate user friendly with casual.

 

[Menckenstein]

More casual than a Friday at Google HQ?

you have been conditioned too much by shitty grind jrpgs and mmos if you equate user friendly with casual.

Probably. The last MMO I put any real time into was EQ w/ scars of velious.

But the gameplay of GW2 just looks dead simple. Maybe it's just the player.

There doesn't seem to be a sweet spot in MMO between grindy and sunday stroll.

 

[Whisper]

Its Teen (T) game and it shows for its target audience. Or grown-ups who stuck at development for various reasons in teen age.

Be it "streamlined" cutscenes, "user-friendly" storyline and setting, "relaxing" gameplay.

I carefully avoided words: primitive, dumbed down, lowest common denominator, hyped - so i hope noone gets aggro on me.

p.s.

But you'll need to buy a key to unlock further information.

/breifist

 

[Zed]

Some comments after reaching 47 yesterday.

PvE:
I was running the lvl 30 dungeon yesterday and it was one of the most challenging 5-man thingy I've done in any game. The 40 one was easy though. The bosses had simple mechanics but punished people who weren't on their toes. And that was the supposedly "casual" story run of the dungeon.
It's definitely not "relaxing".
If you mess up you get punished. It's unusual to see that in an game.

The anti-levelscaling is great. It means I can return to zones and do them later on.

PvP:
I don't do sPvP but the WvW is fun. If you die you need to run for several minutes back from a waypoint. So if you go herp and derp you won't get much done.


The $-shop only has boosters and shit that I've found a lot of in-game already, and besides that only RP-gear with no real value. Besides you can trade your in-game gold for those shop gems anyway.

It isn't saying too much, but this is the best MMORPG on the market now.

Whisper and Menckenstein since the game is released now, maybe you two could provide some more substantial critique? Videos, SSs, experience etc. Bash the game all you want, I don't care, but don't troll the thread.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Its Teen (T) game and it shows for its target audience. Or grown-ups who stuck at development for various reasons in teen age.

chess and go are rated everyone unless somebody forcefully fucks them up. how about an actual argument, because correlation of rating with quality in a game about gameplay is fucking retarded. this isn't tor where the main focus is story instead of gameplay, and therefor the rating actually contains a hint of what to expect.

Be it "streamlined" cutscenes, "user-friendly" storyline and setting, "relaxing" gameplay.

streamlined cutscenes would be a good thing, since that would be the next best thing to no cutscenes at all.
user friendly storyline and setting would be a good thing too, since that would mean that they are interactive and not simply static. last but not least, there's nothing wrong with relaxing gameplay, but gw2's really ain't most of the time. it is only relaxing in the sense that it is devoid of the bad kind of frustration, like having to spend watching a griffon's ass for half an hour so you can meet up with some friends to spend 15 minutes with them.

I carefully avoided words: primitive, dumbed down, lowest common denominator, hyped - so i hope noone gets aggro on me.

you carefully avoided making sense or bringing up concrete points of critique as well.

let's see... primitive cutscenes? wouldn't be a bad thing. the main problem with the current ones is that they aren't. primitive setting or storyline? unheard of in the realm of fantasy, and nobody cares, since there's enough subtle difference with the hint of steam- and magipunk and nobody plays this kind of game for setting and plot (just look at how badly tsw failed). primitive gameplay? it isn't. positioning plays a big role depending on what skills you use, the trait lines and trait slots are a better and more deep attribute system than simple linear scaling with gear/levels in modern games. crafting is also far from being primitive due to large number of components and freeform experimentation.

dumbed down.. redundant, already contained in primitive.

lowest common denominator? uh, wat? that would imply a more restrictive rating than teen due to lots of tits and ass and a game purely for carebears and their raids, instead of a strong structured pvp and wvwvw focus.

tl;dr: bring up some concrete points that make sense or shut the fuck up.

 

[DakaSha]

I'm not even having much fun and whisper still sounds like a tryhard

 

[SuicideBunny]

you're not? hmm, have you tried turning it on and off agai.. err i mean a different class or going to an area 2 levels above your actual, or pvpv, for that matter?

 

[Whisper]

streamlined cutscenes would be a good thing, since that would be the next best thing to no cutscenes at all.

Stopped reading after this line.

Would be better to have no cutscenes at all, than those in GW2.

They are just so bad in both quality of art/implementation and creativity of texts muches worse of those in jrpg genre (10 years old probably can tell better story for quest than those designed).


You would say cutscenes and stories behind quests do not matter at all. I myself skipped most of quest introes/didnt read texts in MMO. Quite surprising in Secret world devs show that they can do good enough stories and texts good enough to be read. Maybe i shouldnt play SW before GW2. Comparing beautiful text descriptions from SW to typical and bland fantasies of 10 year olds, who probably were writers for GW2 cutscenes, get boring fast.

 

[DakaSha]

you're not? hmm, have you tried turning it on and off agai.. err i mean a different class or going to an area 2 levels above your actual, or pvpv, for that matter?

Play multiple classes, almost always in harder areas, started both pvp types today... Just not that impressed. Havent given up on it yet but i was hoping for more tbh.
To be fair ive never enjoyed a mmo for long. I was just hoping this was different. Doesnt seem to be. It may get more interesting though... Guess ill find out or fall asleep trying

 

[SuicideBunny]

if you want a different experience than most mmos, either try gw1, or try something entirely more different like a tale in the desert... but yeah, gw2 isn't it, it's just the ideas behind theme park mmos refined into something that isn't a theme park mmo anymore but still feels similar.

Would be better to have no cutscenes at all, than those in GW2.

no shit sherlock:

since that would be the next best thing to no cutscenes at all.

Quite surprising in Secret world devs show that they can do good enough stories and texts good enough to be read.

maybe i'm alone in this, but to me the most important aspect of an mmo is interaction with others and the second most important one is expression of character or self. any static story structure imposed on an mmo runs counter to its strengths and goals, which is why the qualitative epitome of mmorpgs is something sandboxy like ultima and why gameplay in mmos is way more important than any form of story, unlike single player games.
so, no matter how awesome the setting and story of tsw are, or who wrote them, since they fucked up gameplay, character expression and exploration (holy shit a game about conspiracies made to be a classic theme park mmo is just wasted potential and a huge missed opportunity) while doing all this in the framework of an mmo, they fucked up the game really badly. it would prolly make a good movie, though.
kinda like mass effect 2 is a really shitty rpg and a really shitty shooter but somewhat enjoyable as an interactive hollywood action flick.

 

[Whisper]

More on gameplay.

Since you do admit that GW2 setting and texts are shitty (though i dont understand your opinion that good gameplay should be paired with shitty texts and setting, why do you think it is not possible to make good gameplay and good texts and setting?) - how exactly you came to conclusion that GW2 have good gameplay and SW had bad one? Is it "bla bla bla I have opinion.. OPINION" or something more to it?

 

[Whisper]

Please notice i dont lead crusade versus GW2. Its one of those monthly "stars" that horde of awesome-seeking consumers move from one to another. In this context crusading vs GW2 doesnt make sense. It would be replaced by another "omg super awersome" bland and generic, dumbed down for accessibility for most average consumer, full of cliche, computer product.
Such products is what i dont understand why grown-up people are supporting with their money. You kinda pay devs to make more of this 'superawesome' titles.

(yes, you - buying Diablo3 and GW2 and next FOTM products is reason why we get dozens of ME3/DA2/D3/GW2/insert name remakes/clones/follow-ups in future, while original, fresh games for thinking people will be abandoned since they dont bring that much money)

Ever wondered why 'awesome games' are dozens each year but games like Planescape Torment are so few?

 

[Zed]

Whisper
What about the game is dumbed down? Be exact please.

PvE dungeons are more challenging. Combat (including PvP) has more to it than most other games. Leveling isn't just following directions, but actually getting out in the world and doing stuff. The story and dialogue might be cheesy, but it has qualities in that you sometimes have to make (permanent) choices and side with different people and strategies that opens up different paths and quests.

I understand disliking big (franchise) titles. Who doesn't. You've made your point about that. Any specific reason why you are still writing about it in this thread?

 

[SuicideBunny]

how exactly you came to conclusion that GW2 have good gameplay and SW had bad one?

i liked the way trait lines affect primary attributes and in turn have secondary effects and enable slots for traits which in turn alter the synergy of skills strongly, as well as the fact that you have a lot of different flavors of defense/movement/condition skills that have to be utilized properly for best effect, and that your best hitter is often the basic attack while spamming basic attack on most harder enemies is a sure way to get fried. but mostly i like the fact that past a certain point you do have to dodge and even basic attacks have areas of effect, even if you cannot see them, which in turn makes positioning properly rather important in group fights and against veterans/bosses.
it's one of the better twitch-based combat systems i've seen so far, while tsw's combat didn't leave much of an impression on me, other than use build up, release strongest attack, repeat, but i didn't get to try it properly because it was lagging badly making positioning moot and the interface annoyed the shit out of me, coloring my entire perception of the game.

Is it "bla bla bla I have opinion.. OPINION" or something more to it?

...heh, funny seeing you type that sentence.

though i dont understand your opinion that good gameplay should be paired with shitty texts and setting, why do you think it is not possible to make good gameplay and good texts and setting?

because gameplay is more important than story in an mmo and good gameplay facilitates replays/alts while good story does not, unless you pour even more resources into it and make it properly branching, which given the fact that due to player number and expected world size mmo stories tend to be on the epic scope, is an endless well you can keep pouring money into without seeing much of an improvement.
so i'd rather have no story but excellent gameplay.

 

[Whisper]

2 "SuicideBunny "while tsw's combat didn't leave much of an impression on me, other than use build up, release strongest attack, repeat

What is strongest attack?
Name this ability. If you bad with names, i can link SW ability list.

Because when i last checked there are no stronger attacks, it all totally depends on situation/build/mobs/location/etc. And your strongest attack at this time, can be much worse few minutes later.


About GW2 flexibility, there are still fixed classes, right? Which are limited to certain spells and skills and items, while SW gives you totall freedom how to combine and use any of its 525 abilities and passives.

 

[Whisper]

What about the game is dumbed down? Be exact please.

Setting, storyline, text dialogs and NPC interaction in general, gameplay (which is copy of WoW despite "revolutionary" removing need to talk to NPC to get quest. Though its still quests, you just get them automatically).

PvE dungeons are more challenging.

More challenging than what game? I've played Aion, Warhammer online, Secret world. They all had much more complex dungeons.

Leveling isn't just following directions, but actually getting out in the world and doing stuff.

Directions are just a convenience. You can turn them all in most modern MMO.
If you talk about removing need to talk to NPC, see above.

The story and dialogue might be cheesy, but it has qualities in that you sometimes have to make (permanent) choices and side with different people and strategies that opens up different paths and quests.

Story and dialogue are Justin Bieber of singing. Not sure why they would bother making it for adults. Only reason why they are such is they targeted game to pre-teen aged players?


p.s.

About "dynamic events": - prepare to be surprised! - they are same as "public quests" in WAR.
Yes, its just a rip-off from Warhammer online.

Boom, only "original" idea appears to be shamelessly copy-pasted from another game.

p.p.s.

http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/dynamic-quests-waterworld/

I’ve played both [RIFT and Warhammer Online] and while participating in rifts and public quests, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was in constant competition with the other players to make sure I got my share of XP or pushed out enough DPS to make sure I got better rewards than them.(c)

Looks like its dumbed-down rip-off from Warhammer online and Rift. Main difference is that there is no competition, everyone gets shinies even if they afk it through.