The Guild Wars 2 Thread

[Angthoron]

I'm only playing about an hour a day since the band I'm trying to organize is an unweildy mess.

I hate crafting in all forms in all games. Can I ignore it in GW2 and just buy or find decent loot? I'm only level 7 across my 4 characters (lol) and feel like my gear is terribly generic.

Yeah, you can. Generally gear is fairly cheap, too, unless 1-5 silver is a horrible dent in your budget. After some playing last night, I got a cool 1g, in like a space of 3 hours (at L55 - though I did complete a zone), which is a pretty good amount of cash really. Crafting's good from the point of view of gaining easy and safe XP - I was ahead of GF by 5 level, now it's just by 2, because she went on a crafting spree and gained 3 levels as a result. Gear does feel a bit generic in the beginning though, can't do much about that even with crafting. You do start to get unique-looking gear after you hit 2nd tiers of crafting but not before then.

 

[shihonage]

This game has more respect for the Player's time and intelligence than WoW ever did. I don't think they see us as cretins who should be shamelessly milked for money.

I'm really impressed with how their vision came together. All these reviews that say "Guild Wars 2 isn't a revolution but a step toward one", are written by the mentally nearsighted, the tragically asleep, who couldn't see "revolutionary" if it crashed on top of them in a ball of flames.

 

[Angthoron]

Myeah, in the age where one-shot death in WMMOs has become pretty much a taboo at the casual level, where "puzzle" quests involve answering questions like "Is blood red? Is sky blue? Do dogs bark?" this certainly feels like a breath of fresh air. Granted, it's not necessarily made for super-geniuses and, as thread indicates, not for all fans of the original, but at least I don't feel treated as though I were a moron. Some insta-deaths, some callbacks to old platformer games, some new mechanics - it's not a gameplay revolution per se, but it is a definite great change for the MMO landscape, and I do suspect it'll influence more games in the years to come.

Also, since I bought Collector's edition, I have the Making Of book that talks about their vision. Pretty good read.

 

[shihonage]

The issue I take with the comment "not a gameplay revolution per se" is that it's an easy-to-make statement which requires no burden of proof.


Yeah, GW2 has you kill stuff. With swords and spells. And you have inventory. And you level. Upward.

Yet when you see a painting scribbled by a child, and something drawn by Picasso, is the latter "not revolutionary" in comparison, simply because it hasn't transcended the idea of a painting, still residing in a frame, still consisting of a canvas on which the paint is laid?

GW2 has subtly reshuffled a whole shitton of standard MMO conventions, FOR THE BETTER, conventions which even behemoths like SW:KOTOR failed to sway away from - which raises the question about the "change threshold" required to call something revolutionary.

I believe, if you look around carefully, you will find that GW2 has just about passed it.

 

[Angthoron]

Well, what I mean is, it's not a gameplay revolution for gaming. For MMOs though? Yes.

 

[DakaSha]

As long as we agree that revolutions arent always "better" then the prior status quo then yes ill say that gw2 is a revolution

 

[shihonage]

 

[LeStryfe79]

Even if GW2 deviates enough from the status quo to actually transcend conventional MMOs, it can only be considered revolutionary if it changes the genre itself. It will take some time to tell if this is truly the case.

 

[Angthoron]

^ That.

 

[SuicideBunny]

it can only be considered revolutionary if it changes the genre itself. It will take some time to tell if this is truly the case.

i disagree. a revolution is still a revolution even if it failes to change anything, like, say, ultima online. as long as there still are some occasional revolutions, regardless of their success or failure, all hope is not lost for the mmorpg genre.

 

[LeStryfe79]

Those might be uprisings, but if they fail to take root and history forgets them, it won't be considered a revolution in hindsight. Anyway, we're talking about a game that's 2 weeks old. We should give it some breathing room and see how things pan out in a few months.

 

[shihonage]

The big part of the revolution is that GW2 is basically a premium quality MMO that has no monthly fee, not because it "tried and didn't succeed", but because it simply doesn't have one out of principle. All designs in the game point toward respecting player's time and intellect - it's not a shamelessly boring timesink like WoW, it doesn't waste your time watching "flying animations" or separating points of interest by large distances, and its world doesn't consist of crudely severed story threads of throwaway programmer writing.

This attitude alone has changed the landscape forever. After GW2, Blizzard's Titan (WoW #2) team will be scrambling to copy its innovations in mechanics (such as auto-activating quests that reward you for doing "contextually appropriate things in the area"), but they'll still never get over the monthly subscription (Kotick's greed), and that's where it will fall, because after GW2 people simply won't pay.

GW2 is a humble design, designed to serve, rather than annoy and stall, the player. That's something that will be very hard to copy by its competitors, but the players can instantly appreciate.

 

[SuicideBunny]

eh, people still paid after gw1, people will still be paying after gw2.

 

[abija]

innovations in mechanics (such as auto-activating quests that reward you for doing "contextually appropriate things in the area")

You've got to be trolling... that mechanic was already used in WoW and SW:ToR.

 

[Angthoron]

It seems GW2 is available for online purchase once again. The website is somewhat overloaded though.

 

[SuicideBunny]

It seems GW2 is available for online purchase once again. The website is somewhat overloaded though.

that would explain the lagspikes i've been getting all of a sudden....

 

[Berekän]

Looks like something arranged in a few days.

 

[Angthoron]

I, um... I understand that promo videos are a necessary evil but...

Um. Why.

 

[Berekän]

My favourite part is the girl with the mask and graffiti, I mean, wtf? This might've been decent for The Secret World, but GW2?

 

[Angthoron]

I thought you linked to a new viral ad of DEHR addon or something, at first.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

I'm ashed for arena.net for making that video. And yeah, I rechecked the title because I thought I had opened old TSW launch video or something.

 

[Angthoron]

I guess that explains their Twitter feed today.

 

[Condiments]

Oh my....

Wha....just what? That trailer is beyond terrible. 3/4s of the video is just totally unconnected random shit going on.


"Acclaimed Director James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) was brought on board to lend his revolutionary zeal and craftsman's eye to the launch trailer. Guild Wars 2's tagline "Our Time Is Now" is vividly brought to life as seekers in our world take the fight for change in Tyria."

 

[DakaSha]

Pretty sure shin is trolling (and im pretty sure he hinted at it pretty obviously lol)
The moment he was that positive about it, it was fairly obvious

decent job: 7/10 would be confused again

 

[LeStryfe79]

Yeah, saying GW2 devs are humble is an obvious troll or a legitimate dumbass. Those fucks spend about 90% of the time talking about how revolutionary and humble they are. That shit facade was a huge red flag for me. Too bad they got Annie to sell out in the process. A good codexer was lost that day.

Also, possibly the worst trailer ever...