Monthly Archives: July 2012

Recap: 50 reasons to be excited about GW2 – still?

Guild Wars 2 is coming. Only, not nearly soon enough! We’ll be counting down the days of this blasted August and never did we wish more for summer to already be over, so we can lean deep into our chairs all snuggled up in pillows and blankets (with pizza), completely not feeling guilty for letting the sunny evenings pass, somewhere out there while we are immersed, hopefully, in Tyria. And I remember what I said about Vorfreude, but….scratch that, I wanna play GW2 already!!!

Headstart FTW!

I actually feel with the non-believers too; those of you out there who still don’t feel it, who can’t join in the hype or at least the shared excitement and anticipation. There’s a GW2 blogstorm at our doorsteps and it sucks to feel somehow left out, to not feel part of the “movement” whatever that even is. That feeling will pass, but then I’ll say in all honesty that I don’t know what other MMO I’d likely play any time soon, after GW2….what is there, anyway? There’s no knowing that now, but one thing is for certain: we want GW2 to succeed. We need GW2 to succeed….!

Anyway, what better moment in time to review our initial sentiments about this MMO? Three public beta weekends later and one month to go, I am asking myself the same question – what is it that excites me about this upcoming title? And now that I know better, did things change in any particular way?

50 reasons to be excited about GW2 – or not?

For direct comparison, I will go with the list of 50 reasons I presented this April 2012 with no first-hand gameplay experience whatsoever. I expect to see few changes but not to get ahead of myself, let’s rather examine each point once more. Formatting goes as follows: things I didn’t actually experience or notice much, things I enjoyed / loved, things that disappointed or bothered me.

  1. The side-kicking feature
  2. Flat leveling curve
  3. Lots of dyes!
  4. Personal character story and personality
  5. Extensive character customization
  6. No holy trinity
  7. No potions
  8. Small UI / minimal actionbar
  9. The downed state
  10. Dynamic/scaling events and quests
  11. Massive WvWvW battles
  12. PvP from level 1
  13. Gear equalization for group PvP
  14. The home instance / player housing
  15. Linked home cities
  16. Mini-games (bar brawls! snow balls!)
  17. Audio dialogue
  18. Flat highlvl gear progression
  19. Cosmetic items
  20. The Mesmer, the Engineer and pretty much all classes
  21. Large scale maps
  22. No flying mounts
  23. Original soundtrack by Jeremy Soule
  24. Beautiful 2D background artworks
  25. The Norn, Asura and Charr
  26. Underwater combat
  27. The weapon/-skill system
  28. Cross-profession combos
  29. Small HP bar
  30. More area spells and effects
  31. Dedicated self-utility / self-healing
  32. 5man content all the way
  33. No raids
  34. Individual trait lines
  35. Inclusive crafting system
  36. Multi-guild system
  37. Adventure modes for dungeons
  38. Outdoor bosses
  39. Easy server switching
  40. Transmutation stone for gear
  41. No abilities directly target allies
  42. Active combat; dodge, block
  43. Interactive environment
  44. Mostly universal attributes system
  45. Most abilities and skills usable while moving
  46. No language/coop barrier between factions
  47. Over-flow server while in queue
  48. Public FFA events and quests with scaling loot
  49. More frequent day/night-cycle (non-realtime)
  50. Guild halls announced for later

The first thing I notice after reviewing is that there are plenty of aspects of GW2 I haven’t even brushed yet: I didn’t PvP or experience an actual WvW in progress, mostly due to technical hiccups. I didn’t look into crafting. I haven’t run dungeons in any mode. I didn’t follow my personal story much or transmute my gear. I didn’t play any mini-games, join a guild or experience the home instance feature. So from that point of view, I feel there’s plenty to do and see in GW2, for a long while to come. That doesn’t yet include the time I will spend purely exploring or questing!

What I enjoyed the most and felt most confirmed in, is the overall feel of the game: the atmosphere, the large scale world, the music and art, and of course the classes and races which I find, for the most part (humans), very accomplished and fun to play. I love the design of GW2 and being me that is a core argument. I need to be able to explore a world that feels alive and looks brilliant, with a character I can relate to. I’m also happy about the questing and events, more active combat and automated cooperation. That said, I have yet to experience group combat and there are definitely concerns that need looking into, such as the balance between melee and ranged combat, overall controls or traits viability. These are longterm concerns to work on though, just as content longevity or depth are.

Few things I admit didn’t blow me away in retrospective: while my waypoint worries proved to be needless, I do not care at all for the repair system or the downed state. Frankly, I find the downed state boring or annoyingly superfluous. Maybe I’m doing it wrong, but it added nothing to my gameplay experience, certainly no thrill because half of the time I couldn’t actually contribute much to preventing my death. Oh well. 

I whined about the overflow servers before although to be fair that was partly fixed. Another thing that left me wanting after the beta were cross-profession combos. I believe I spotted two that I initiated myself, but they were hard to keep track of and even harder to actively coordinate. That said, my final verdict here must wait until I actually run 5mans.

…I could nag about a few more details, instead I will leave it at that. In general my attitude and expectations for GW2 haven’t changed and they’re certainly very the positive still. And so I wonder about other players out there – did the beta weekends disappoint you in any particular way or are you more excited to play this upcoming AAA+ MMO than ever?

[GW2] Sylvari: Not so new, not that bad

I haven’t made a secret of my disinterest in GW2’s Sylvari on this blog and it seems overall I am in good company. I never liked the nightelves much in WoW either – the ethereal and detached thing they got going on, praying to Elune and generally living in pink forests. It’s not even that I dislike elves or any variation thereof per default; there are some awesome, badass elves and drows in fantasy literature, from complex and grim fighters to more merry and flamboyant characters. Much rather, it’s an issue of how elves are represented in many MMOs as these peace-loving, self-indulgent hippies who care more about their flower garden than the rest of the world. That is a general concern for all so-called friendly and pacifist MMO races: how am I supposed to choose any of them for a competent errr….fighter? Like it or not, you’re killing stuff in MMOs and lots of it. You are also quite meddlesome.

So, already from that point of view the Sylvari aren’t very appealing. As an aside, I didn’t particularly like their starting area either – it is pink and lush Teldrassil all over, just with a lot more shine.
What I will say in their defense though, after having played one for maybe 30 minutes this past beta weekend, is that ANet achieved a little more than just copying the MMO elf archetype. For one thing, there is the whole plant people concept; Sylvari ARE plants (sorta) which creates all kinds of interesting implications that have been discussed elsewhere. And although I wonder why they still need to hide all their “sensitive parts” in the character creation, the race design and customization achieves to transmit a genuinely unique and alien feel for this race. Their hair is straw, leaves or gnarly twigs, the shape of their limbs and body texture consequently fulfill the botanic premise.

What sets them apart from your staple elves too is that they aren’t ancient but in fact the youngest of all Tyrian races (I believe 25 years old). This “freshness” is even reflected in their looks, the way they move or stand still and their facial expression; it’s as if they beheld everything around them for the very first time. The Sylvari are noobs.

Alas, none of that will entice me to play one, but I feel ANet deserves that much: they’ve put some thought into their last race (which got completely re-designed very late into development) and the thematic coherence in design. Not that the plant people idea was actually so new either – in fact I’d bet my little finger that there was at least one lead designer among ANet’s “Sylvari camp” who happens to have enjoyed a very old RPG by Capcom!

Enter Spar – The plant creature

Once upon a time there was a very classic JRPG on Super NES called Breath of Fire. I remember this with fond nostalgia because its sequel, Breath of Fire 2 was the very first RPG I ever bought with my own money and played through. That was endless painful hours of grinding levels, excruciating random encounters and praying for a save-point….and oh, did I love it! It was also a time when I didn’t have English classes yet in school and so I ended up playing the game with a dictionary in my lap. Yes, here in Europe we actually often had to deal with imports (or else stare at ugly PAL bars on our TV screens). Breath of Fire 2 opened the world of RPGs to me – the rest is history.

It so happens that one of the most awesome characters you can recruit for your party in BoF2 is Spar, the plant creature. You meet him (/her) the first time at a traveling circus where he is actually up for display. Later on, he sends you on a quest to wake the Wise Tree (figures) from an unending nightmare, which is when you recruit him. Spar is generally indifferent and devoid of emotions. He has grown from a sapling and looks forward to becoming a tree himself one day. He’s a weak fighter, his best abilities revolving around support and use of environment; his Nature spell will actually grow a flower bed or sprout cactuses depending on where you are. Then, there are his shamanistic alter egos: the onion sprout, the leafy drake…..and a girl wearing a mushroom cap.

….Sound familiar enough? Well, Spar also looks like this:

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/1/18585/958874-bof2_spar_super.jpg

If this is not the direct Sylvari inspiration, I don’t know what is (I c wut u did thar, ANet)!

[GW2] Tired of Trinity Whining. Or: As if!

So, the third and final GW2 beta weekend has ended and we could all be talking about how wonderfully achieved a race the Asura are, how Metrica Province or Rata Sum rock as zones or alternatively, how the Sylvari despite many initial misgivings, succeed at being a little more than just another translation of elf. I know – I was shocked too.

….Or we could do none of that. Instead, we could go on and whine about the missing roles and damned trinity in Guild Wars 2. Yeah we could keep bringing that up, again and again and again, like an obnoxious guest asking for burgers in an Italian restaurant. Some days I honestly feel with game designers and it’s not like I haven’t been an ardent critic of MMOs myself over the years. Three public betas past, I keep reading the same ignorant moping and fallacies by a vocal crowd of circus clowns on ANet’s official forums. The fact that many of them are drawing comparisons to WoW of all games, makes the whole thing all the more amusing, complete eyeroll that it is otherwise!

So, just for shits and giggles and because I feel like whining about whiners today, let’s have a look at some of the most missing-the-point, lalala-pink-pokémon-glasses and I-just-like-to-complain-about-something arguments! Here’s what the broken pro-trinity record has to say about GW2’s gameplay, roughly summarized:

a) No holy trinity means there is no cooperation anymore! *GASP*
b) No holy trinity means people do not coordinate / communicate in groups!
c) No holy trinity means zerg-mode and needing no strategy!
d) No holy trinity means there can’t be difficult combat!

pic

There’s variations of the above, but it’s what whiners basically claim while glorifying WoW and prophesying the doom of GW2…already. Of course the holy trinity in itself has no direct bearing on any of the criticized points, however to realize that one needs to have a hard look at WoW – which is what I will do since people insist on bringing it up as role model. Note too, the big majority of whiny commenters refer to overall combat/cooperation in GW2, meaning questing and the FFA dynamic events. Precious few can currently claim group play experience beyond that or more in-depth knowledge about coordination in dungeons (especially exploration mode) or organized PvP. Here’s my reply to the popular arguments, since “wait and see?” didn’t really go far these previous betas –

As IF!

First off, as IF people communicated or cooperated much during questing in WoW! Where have you been the past 8 years? You can’t be referring to the WoW I have played. Some well-known, honest facts:

  • 95% of all WoW players either solo quests or take their friends/guildies along. You don’t need any type of “strategy” to beat quests together, joining up is more about the social factor. There aren’t even many elite outdoor quests anymore or bosses that would require a group to beat. People don’t need to communicate and there’s nothing to coordinate when everyone already knows what their role is. Oh, and people don’t coordinate, let alone communicate in most LFG 5man runs either – but then you knew that already.
  • If “actively creating the party”, which usually comes down to clicking an invite button and waiting for the other side to accept it, equals good communication among strangers…well, you’re an easy one to satisfy!
  • You can progress with ease in WoW pushing the same 3-4 buttons, just in case anyone feels like bringing this up against GW2. Not that the “amount of buttons” is a great or very telling argument for or against anything, really…
  • If “zerging” equals “rushing into combat without the need for communication or coordination”, then zerging is what’s constantly being done in WoW, during questing and even 5man runs. Just because tanks tank, healers heal and DPS deal damage, doesn’t mean people are actively cooperating (or need wait on the tank for example) – rather, I would call it playing side by side, each role knowing their motions. There are synergies and there’s timing, both exist in GW2 as well. The holy trinity sees to that; it creates a basic order so players won’t have to think about assigning jobs or tactics much (outside raids) themselves. That’s hardly active cooperation or communication though – it’s a script! In fact the opposite, a free and versatile setup, requires strangers to coordinate and talk more if at all!

But hey, I’ll give you that – due to the lack of pre-defined roles, the combat in GW2 feels more chaotic, certainly is for quests and events. But errr…so what? Already I cooperate more in GW2 than I ever did in WoW: thanks to the FFA, auto-join events I have joined and helped out more strangers than I ever did while questing in WoW. I’ve had a chat with a few who shared a quest spot with me and several whom I rezzed or rezzed me in return (fat chance on that in WoW). I don’t claim any of this was particularly coordinated or difficult (maybe the events aren’t supposed to be particularly difficult, anyone?), but at least it’s a change from the usual silent, solo routine I used to have in WoW. Plus, where more people group up there’s always an unpredictable element. It’s a little cynical to criticize auto-join grouping or lack of roles when the opposite did nothing at all to improve matters in the past. As for kill stealing, mob camping and loot rolling – needless to say I haven’t missed them one second! That’s when having less communication is actually a good thing (/ninja /doom /ragequit).

The real strategic and demanding encounters aren’t out there in quests or trivial group content – not in WoW and not in GW2. Quests and events are simply not very hard right now and things like cooperation and coordination live and grow under duress. I would claim that GW2 requires teamwork and strategy where it matters, just like WoW does too; in harder/heroic dungeon modes and in big scale raids or PvP/WvW. If you think it’s all a zerg there you are mistaken. You need strategy and communication to bring the trophy home, to win against opposing teams or survive tough encounters. Teamwork is very much alive even if it works differently in GW2. Plus, the game adds other tactical components, such as the whole dodge/positioning mechanics and making use of the environment. I’ve beat several tougher challenges myself only because of active movement and tactical positioning which is rather great considering I play a caster in GW2 (typical feet-of-stone classes in other MMOs).

Getting facts and questions straight

Now, this post is no attempt to discourage any well-founded critique in favor of the holy trinity (ya rly); in fact, there are a few very interesting questions one could ask about GW2 in this context. For example how different group mechanics will truly be in a well-organized party, during a difficult run that requires a lot of communication. Once players assign roles/tasks in order to succeed and hence end up specializing, would we have to admit to a “soft trinity” in GW2? And where are the differences then to let’s say WoW or Rift? I can see a few but it’s definitely a valid overall question. So would be the question about how well control mechanics are realized in the game and if they make for enough encounter variety, in lieu of things like classic threat and mitigation mechanics.

Then, there’s simply those players who love to tank or heal and I certainly empathize with that – after all I used to love to heal myself! If you miss the holy trinity on that note, I have neither reproach nor consolation to offer because GW2 is a different game. And just like the F2P vs. subscription horse can be kicked to death, what it really comes down to here is preferences and target audience.

If you were however, like the individuals I addressed further up, to move the holy trinity on a pedestal for all the wrong, uninformed reasons, drawing faulty comparisons and even faultier conclusions about GW’s and MMO combat in general, then you have me for a very impatient and frankly ill-tempered commenter these days. I am really sick and tired of half-assed, destructive discourse that is so easy to refute it’s an intellectual insult. My biggest, returning gripe is mixing up role restrictions with things like encounter difficulty or pacing. Or in other words: if role restrictions are the one thing that makes your fights “hard” (likely because you already can’t find the right group composition…/sarcasm) that is sad news indeed!

The holy trinity creates no more or less demanding encounters than a non-trinity model would; all it does is enable patterns and offer mechanics to utilize in (boss-)encounters. And it tells players what their role is right away (hence the often referred to “crutch”). You can like that or not, that’s your prerogative – but the trinity does absolutely not just magically create better, active cooperation, coordination or communication…or alternatively other random words that start with “C”. And where one player sees ordered combat thanks to the trinity, I see boring same-ish strategies and synchronized swimming! Preferences – pros and cons, ya feel me?

To close, and so I can return to more pleasant topics tomorrow (with pictures!), let’s say it once more with feeling: The holy trinity does not a cooperation make. The holy trinity does not a communication make. The holy trinity does not a coordination make. The holy trinity does not an encounter’s difficulty make. If ever in doubt – go play World of Warcraft. Thanks!

To BWE or not to BWE

Much to my personal surprise, Anet announced the release of the last two Guild Wars 2 races for this upcoming and final beta weekend of July 20th. Yeah that was last Monday, I am somewhat behind on commenting – that said, the new job is exciting and things will go back to a more relaxed schedule once I got the hang out of all my new tasks. Did I mention there are free cookies here?

So…Asura and Sylvari. I guess it makes sense for this third beta weekend, fans were clamoring to see them and you want things to end on a high note and give players a reason to log on once more. Truthfully, I was toying with the idea of skipping this beta – like Zubon I feel rather satiated of GW2 testing and eager to play the real deal with a character I am likely to keep. How much is too much beta playing? I am careful not to burn myself out on the starting areas and spoil too much before end of August. I was very relieved to hear there won’t be any more BWEs after this one, although I am all for polish and releasing when things are truly ready.

I guess now I do have a reason to log on this weekend after all, even if just to take a peek….I don’t expect to ever warm towards the Sylvari (is there anyone who intends to play one??) but I will definitely check out that Asura CC for myself and see how different they truly feel to your staple MMO shorties. And until then? Well, Paeroka has some suggestions on what to do until this BWE. Or you could always start planning for launch, as some particularly dedicated individuals do, get your guild forums ready, plan your spec and rosters, pick a server….or scratch all that and play The Secret World instead. I think I would, after all!