OK so I was playing some Saints Row and some of the missions end with a decision between two alternate completions. I decided that I would go about running through the missions twice to complete the objectives both ways. This got me thinking about how things might work out in GW2.
Lets say that centaurs are attacking the villiage, and so players being all noble and such, jump in to save the day. Hooray, the villiage is saved and the centaurs are pushed back. Now I know that there is going to be another alternative set of objectives if the villiage does not manage to get saved. After a period of time, the centaurs attack the villiage again and I choose to let it burn instead. However, there are all sorts of noble newbs that want to save the villiage, and even though I stand around doing nothing, they are successful.
I can't fight with the centaurs and attack my fellow players. So how often is it going to become an issue between players because they want other players to act accordingly to their wishes so they can push the dynamic events to progress the way that they want?
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I am looking forward to GW2 , and want to play it now just like many however I do have fears. This topic is to name your top fears. Not something you hate or dislike just something that worries you. Here is my top three.
1. Not having different races in pvp. When in WoW, Warhammer, DAOC, and even RIFT you knew the face of your enemy
because they looked different then you. Not saying that you wont recognize the enemy but it will have a different feel.
2. Mounts. some of us sad because no mounts.For me it has to do with more the freedom to move quickly where ever I want to explore. They have teleports ,but what about underwater?
3.Action Bars. I think action bars allow for more customization. My fear is that with limited action bars will limit actions which looks like the thing they didnt want namely "I swing a sword"
1. You and your enemies' team are colour coded, so are your spell/skill effect. Look up a PvP video and you can see the red and blue team.
2. Agree, for a game that promotes freedom, mounts is a choice that should be left to the players themselves. But I thin you can teleport to underwater cities/areas
3. Limited action bars make the UI much much MUCH cleaner and easier to navigate. As for limited actions, its all about skill design, in your average MMO, you have a 5 separate skills that does similar things, but are on cooldown, so you have to use all 5 of them to maximise damage. But GW2, you have lower cooldown, but all skill does different thing. Essentially, you still have the same if not more variety in skills and utility, but also a much cleaner UI.
Limited action bars also reflect on the idea of customisation. A lot of players think customisaon is all about options options options, but choice is also very important in customisation. It is becauseof different choices each player make, that makes each player unique to each other. If two rogue requires to use the same 100% of the skills, then the two rogue are no different to each other.
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW? As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.
Racials, because they could be that one wrong choice as a new player that could impact my end-game in certain situations. I might not be bothered by this if the racials can't be used every fight like we can use them in WoW.
World PvP, because we might not be able to fight against people on our own realms. I like making both enemies and friends who aren't so anonymous. Rivalry can spice things up a little. This World vs. World vs. World system will really help bond our realms, but it might not let us roughhouse to make enemies amongst ourselves.
This World vs. World vs. World system will really help bond our realms, but it might not let us roughhouse to make enemies amongst ourselves.
hahaha roughhouse
I get what you mean, a community is bound by its friends and also enemies, but then it goes against ANet's design ideals. Hopefully they have areas of open world battlegrounds, or even just instanced, for PvPers like you to develope community.
But I won't encourage Open World PvP, because some people, not all, will try to be a d*ck no matter what.
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW? As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.
Really not likeing the no mounts thing, and all this teleporting around. Make the world seem smaller. And if the zones are supposedly so big, am I going to have to walk a gazillion miles. I hope there is a speed buff of some sort.
Really not likeing the no mounts thing, and all this teleporting around. Make the world seem smaller. And if the zones are supposedly so big, am I going to have to walk a gazillion miles. I hope there is a speed buff of some sort.
Really not likeing the no mounts thing, and all this teleporting around. Make the world seem smaller. And if the zones are supposedly so big, am I going to have to walk a gazillion miles. I hope there is a speed buff of some sort.
Did u try skyrim?
On top of that timesinks is really getting to people as of late.
I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.
I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.
P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)
Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.
Really not likeing the no mounts thing, and all this teleporting around. Make the world seem smaller. And if the zones are supposedly so big, am I going to have to walk a gazillion miles. I hope there is a speed buff of some sort.
Let's deconstruct this a bit. You want to know whether you'll have to walk a gazillion miles. From where to where? Under what circumstances will you literally need to walk from Divinity's Reach to Ebonhawke (which might fill the requirement of "a gazillion miles" or at least represent a journey that might conceivably take a couple of hours to achieve)?
If you're talking about walking from Shaemoor to Divinity's Reach (and ignoring all waypoints for teleportation purposes), well, that's not a gazillion miles and might take 5 or so minutes. My point is, if you are being specific, you can isolate what travel distances exactly you feel could be rectified by mounts. And what about mounts exactly would mitigate having to walk a gazillion miles anyway? Even going double-time doesn't make a 45-minute journey any less onerous.
Also, there is indeed a speed buff in GW2: sheathing your weapon.
My biggest fear is that they don't manage to implement WvWvW, I suspect that's what they are working on right now along with class balance and perhaps a few endgame bosses.
We have little to no info on WvWvW and I really hope they can pull it off because it sounds like some really fun PvP.
My single biggest fear would be that GW2 goes the way of every other MMO that has come out the past 5-6 years to now.. It looks like this big shining star on the horizon,but when its finally here and is in our grasp it fizzles into a big goopy pile of letdown.
People have already played the game and seen for what it is. Maybe you should do so aswell. Some things are worth the money if you want clarification.
Yeah,as with just about every MMO that has come before,doesnt mean GW2 is a solid lock.
My big fear is the difficulty. The game looks so easy. By making it largely skill based, you have the chance of of ending up with a game where a skilled player has no chance of dying in PvE unless he's being completely stupid. Adding to this is the whole downed state before dying, allowing you to actively resurrect yourself if you manage to kill something. None of the videos I've seen show any difficult gameplay. Even the giant dragons that they were 25 manning, the guy is basically hopping from left to right not taking any damage. In the rare occasion you see him get hit, he takes 20% damage which is instantly negated by a heal.
It seems very casualfriendly which leaves concerns difficulty wise for me. But we'll see.
That, and dynamic events that don't fire. Some require 10+ players as stated by the devs, while most scale. Either way, showing up to an event alone just isn't fun.
My big fear is the difficulty. The game looks so easy. By making it largely skill based, you have the chance of of ending up with a game where a skilled player has no chance of dying in PvE unless he's being completely stupid. Adding to this is the whole downed state before dying, allowing you to actively resurrect yourself if you manage to kill something. None of the videos I've seen show any difficult gameplay. Even the giant dragons that they were 25 manning, the guy is basically hopping from left to right not taking any damage. In the rare occasion you see him get hit, he takes 20% damage which is instantly negated by a heal.
It seems very casualfriendly which leaves concerns difficulty wise for me. But we'll see.
That, and dynamic events that don't fire. Some require 10+ players as stated by the devs, while most scale. Either way, showing up to an event alone just isn't fun.
Hmm, I wonder...if they scaled down the difficulty for demo sake...ah it appears so.
I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.
I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.
P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)
Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.
My big fear is the difficulty. The game looks so easy. By making it largely skill based, you have the chance of of ending up with a game where a skilled player has no chance of dying in PvE unless he's being completely stupid. Adding to this is the whole downed state before dying, allowing you to actively resurrect yourself if you manage to kill something. None of the videos I've seen show any difficult gameplay. Even the giant dragons that they were 25 manning, the guy is basically hopping from left to right not taking any damage. In the rare occasion you see him get hit, he takes 20% damage which is instantly negated by a heal.
It seems very casualfriendly which leaves concerns difficulty wise for me. But we'll see.
That, and dynamic events that don't fire. Some require 10+ players as stated by the devs, while most scale. Either way, showing up to an event alone just isn't fun.
The open world does seem pretty easy so far. I've heard conflicting rumors that either they did tone down the difficulty or they didn't. Either way, it's something that could be looked at as a balancing issue in beta.
There are some things which give me hope. For one, there's this thief getting splattered. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx0QnKgQ1CI&feature=player_detailpage#t=103s It appears that the DE level range in the corner might be in red (though I can't read what it says) which would indicate it's a higher level event.
I haven't seen evidence so far that DEs aren't going to fire. From what we know, normal DEs will scale from 1-10 people. Boss fights are doable from 10-100 people. There's video of TotalBiscuit and one other guy at Tequatl the Sunless making no progress whatsoever until other people show up. It's still running though and presumably will end in failure after a certain amount of time if players don't manage to kill him.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it."-Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
Now that I'm bored with SWTOR, GW2 seems like the next thing to hope will have lasting value. Here are my worst fears for the game so far.
1. Animations not getting fixed before the game is out. For example see the very unnatural-looking running animations in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqwbS4sMgoY
2. Heavy zoning with load screens interrupting immersion and making the game world feel fragmented and not like a believable game world.
3. Static game world outside of dynamic events. NPCs and wildlife seem to stand rooted on the spot, with only an occasional mob moving around. I think WoW for its flaws did a decent job at adding some life to the environments with wolves hunting rabbits, herds of gazelles roaming the Barrens etc.
4. The setting being a bit too weird. There are a lot of eastern/manga-like influences which put me off as I prefer more traditional Western fantasy settings. It's not nearly as prevalent as Aion, but it's definitely there.
5. WvWvW battles feeling too artificial rather than truly feeling like they're taking place in your game world.
3. Static game world outside of dynamic events. NPCs and wildlife seem to stand rooted on the spot, with only an occasional mob moving around. I think WoW for its flaws did a decent job at adding some life to the environments with wolves hunting rabbits, herds of gazelles roaming the Barrens etc..
In the video you linked there are npcs walking around the streets, which is already an improvement over SW:TOR
"It has potential" -Second most used phrase on existence "It sucks" -Most used phrase on existence
1. Animations not getting fixed before the game is out. For example see the very unnatural-looking running animations in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqwbS4sMgoY
It's a little hard to tell but I think they've been tweaked. The video you link is from October 2010, so first I looked at the August 2011 demo, but it kind of looks the same. I then looked at the g-star demo and it looks better I think. Where it was kind of lumbering before, now it almost looks too leggy to me, like her legs are too long or something, especially going backwards.
In general though, don't these kinds of things usually get tweaked late in the process?
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it."-Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
1) theres too much goodness to have a "just fair" box price. I hope they dont go crazy on that topic.
2) although i like the skill system, i hope they give us at least a second skillbar for more skills of our own. Only 5 skills slots is too limited and tahts what i hated the most from GW1.
3) the teleportation points on the map. I will try to use them on emergency only situations because they brake immersion and exploration. I hope they consider either mounts or a speed button to run faster or something.
Other than that, im dying here waiting for release date
I'm very new to the GW2 forums (never played GW1), and I don't know a great deal about the game at this point. I have read bits on the wiki, the game site and every single post in this thread, though
I have 2 concerns:
1. Dynamic Events - these seem to be the core of the gameplay (outside of PVP). I gather that these events scale to the player level, but how does this work when there are players of different levels all attacking mobs in 1 event ? Do the individual mobs only "fix" their stats depending on which player attacks them ? How does the event scale as random players (with possibly widely different levels) join the event over time ?
2. Hype - Here the fans are the main culprits. Everywhere you turn in the MMORPG forums these days, you find someone suggesting that GW2 is the answer to all modern MMO problems. When enough people start thinking that way, the whole thing goes nuclear, and then there's the inevitable backlash come launch day...
I know many people have played GW2 demos at conventions and the like, and I'm by no means going to try and invalidate what they experienced. By all accounts, gameplay is extremely solid and works well. But is 30 mins of hands-on play really representative of playing on a server with perhaps 200 or 300 other people ? And will everything still be as awesome and shiny after 30 or 60 or 90 hours ?
I'm very new to the GW2 forums (never played GW1), and I don't know a great deal about the game at this point. I have read bits on the wiki, the game site and every single post in this thread, though
I have 2 concerns:
1. Dynamic Events - these seem to be the core of the gameplay (outside of PVP). I gather that these events scale to the player level, but how does this work when there are players of different levels all attacking mobs in 1 event ? Do the individual mobs only "fix" their stats depending on which player attacks them ? How does the event scale as random players (with possibly widely different levels) join the event over time ?
2. Hype - Here the fans are the main culprits. Everywhere you turn in the MMORPG forums these days, you find someone suggesting that GW2 is the answer to all modern MMO problems. When enough people start thinking that way, the whole thing goes nuclear, and then there's the inevitable backlash come launch day...
I know many people have played GW2 demos at conventions and the like, and I'm by no means going to try and invalidate what they experienced. By all accounts, gameplay is extremely solid and works well. But is 30 mins of hands-on play really representative of playing on a server with perhaps 200 or 300 other people ? And will everything still be as awesome and shiny after 30 or 60 or 90 hours ?
1. Actually, events scale based on the number of people currently participating and not their level. However, a high level character trying to participate in low level content, will have his level brought down to something appropriate for the zone. He'll be still a little bit more powerful, but won't be one-shotting stuff. So basically it's the players having their stats fixed to the mobs and not the other way around. About mobs scaling based on the number of players - that seems to depend on the event, in some events there are just more mobs being spawned, in others, the mobs unlock additional skills, which help them to deal with more players at the same time. For example there's a drake miniboss in the starting areas that starts using a really cool tail swipe that throws players away, when a certain number of participants is reached.
2. I can't really comment much on this. Just make sure you read and understand well everything Arenanet are talking about. GW2 is not some kind of a holy grail, just a game making steps in the right direction and fixing some problems of the genre that should've been fixed ages ago. It's not going to be a game for everyone, by any means.
3. There are tons of things that may go wrong with the game that we can't forsee at the moment. Hopefully, Arenanet and the closed beta testers would find those issues and have them fixed.
Making sure you get into the open beta (whenever that is) before purchasing the game seems to be the best chance you have for making up your own mind. I don't know about you, but I can get a pretty good estimate of whether I'll enjoy a game based on my impressions during a beta/preview. GW2's B2P though, so I'm perfectly sure I'd at least get my money's worth with whatever we've seen so far.
1. Dynamic Events - these seem to be the core of the gameplay (outside of PVP). I gather that these events scale to the player level, but how does this work when there are players of different levels all attacking mobs in 1 event ? Do the individual mobs only "fix" their stats depending on which player attacks them ? How does the event scale as random players (with possibly widely different levels) join the event over time ?
Dynamic Events do not scale to player level. Player level scales to the area and dynamic events scale to player number. The event continues to scale depending on the amount of players actively participating. So if someone leaves midway through the event, it will scale down.
Comments
OK so I was playing some Saints Row and some of the missions end with a decision between two alternate completions. I decided that I would go about running through the missions twice to complete the objectives both ways. This got me thinking about how things might work out in GW2.
Lets say that centaurs are attacking the villiage, and so players being all noble and such, jump in to save the day. Hooray, the villiage is saved and the centaurs are pushed back. Now I know that there is going to be another alternative set of objectives if the villiage does not manage to get saved. After a period of time, the centaurs attack the villiage again and I choose to let it burn instead. However, there are all sorts of noble newbs that want to save the villiage, and even though I stand around doing nothing, they are successful.
I can't fight with the centaurs and attack my fellow players. So how often is it going to become an issue between players because they want other players to act accordingly to their wishes so they can push the dynamic events to progress the way that they want?
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
I worry that a few months after release most people will feel finished with pve and mostly only care about pvp.
1. You and your enemies' team are colour coded, so are your spell/skill effect. Look up a PvP video and you can see the red and blue team.
2. Agree, for a game that promotes freedom, mounts is a choice that should be left to the players themselves. But I thin you can teleport to underwater cities/areas
3. Limited action bars make the UI much much MUCH cleaner and easier to navigate. As for limited actions, its all about skill design, in your average MMO, you have a 5 separate skills that does similar things, but are on cooldown, so you have to use all 5 of them to maximise damage. But GW2, you have lower cooldown, but all skill does different thing. Essentially, you still have the same if not more variety in skills and utility, but also a much cleaner UI.
Limited action bars also reflect on the idea of customisation. A lot of players think customisaon is all about options options options, but choice is also very important in customisation. It is becauseof different choices each player make, that makes each player unique to each other. If two rogue requires to use the same 100% of the skills, then the two rogue are no different to each other.
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW?
As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.
As a PvPer, I've only got two concerns.
Racials.
World PvP.
Racials, because they could be that one wrong choice as a new player that could impact my end-game in certain situations. I might not be bothered by this if the racials can't be used every fight like we can use them in WoW.
World PvP, because we might not be able to fight against people on our own realms. I like making both enemies and friends who aren't so anonymous. Rivalry can spice things up a little. This World vs. World vs. World system will really help bond our realms, but it might not let us roughhouse to make enemies amongst ourselves.
hahaha roughhouse
I get what you mean, a community is bound by its friends and also enemies, but then it goes against ANet's design ideals. Hopefully they have areas of open world battlegrounds, or even just instanced, for PvPers like you to develope community.
But I won't encourage Open World PvP, because some people, not all, will try to be a d*ck no matter what.
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW?
As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.
If private pvp servers (player created servers hosted by ANet) allow passwords, you can have all the rivalry and gvgs in the world.
Really not likeing the no mounts thing, and all this teleporting around. Make the world seem smaller. And if the zones are supposedly so big, am I going to have to walk a gazillion miles. I hope there is a speed buff of some sort.
Did u try skyrim?
"I am not a robot. I am a unicorn."
On top of that timesinks is really getting to people as of late.
I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.
I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.
P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)
Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.
Let's deconstruct this a bit. You want to know whether you'll have to walk a gazillion miles. From where to where? Under what circumstances will you literally need to walk from Divinity's Reach to Ebonhawke (which might fill the requirement of "a gazillion miles" or at least represent a journey that might conceivably take a couple of hours to achieve)?
If you're talking about walking from Shaemoor to Divinity's Reach (and ignoring all waypoints for teleportation purposes), well, that's not a gazillion miles and might take 5 or so minutes. My point is, if you are being specific, you can isolate what travel distances exactly you feel could be rectified by mounts. And what about mounts exactly would mitigate having to walk a gazillion miles anyway? Even going double-time doesn't make a 45-minute journey any less onerous.
Also, there is indeed a speed buff in GW2: sheathing your weapon.
My single biggest fear would be that GW2 goes the way of every other MMO that has come out the past 5-6 years to now..
It looks like this big shining star on the horizon,but when its finally here and is in our grasp it fizzles into a big goopy pile of letdown.
People have already played the game and seen for what it is. Maybe you should do so aswell. Some things are worth the money if you want clarification.
My biggest fear is that they don't manage to implement WvWvW, I suspect that's what they are working on right now along with class balance and perhaps a few endgame bosses.
We have little to no info on WvWvW and I really hope they can pull it off because it sounds like some really fun PvP.
People have already played the game and seen for what it is. Maybe you should do so aswell. Some things are worth the money if you want clarification.
Yeah,as with just about every MMO that has come before,doesnt mean GW2 is a solid lock.My big fear is the difficulty. The game looks so easy. By making it largely skill based, you have the chance of of ending up with a game where a skilled player has no chance of dying in PvE unless he's being completely stupid. Adding to this is the whole downed state before dying, allowing you to actively resurrect yourself if you manage to kill something. None of the videos I've seen show any difficult gameplay. Even the giant dragons that they were 25 manning, the guy is basically hopping from left to right not taking any damage. In the rare occasion you see him get hit, he takes 20% damage which is instantly negated by a heal.
It seems very casualfriendly which leaves concerns difficulty wise for me. But we'll see.
That, and dynamic events that don't fire. Some require 10+ players as stated by the devs, while most scale. Either way, showing up to an event alone just isn't fun.
Hmm, I wonder...if they scaled down the difficulty for demo sake...ah it appears so.
I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.
I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.
P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)
Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.
The open world does seem pretty easy so far. I've heard conflicting rumors that either they did tone down the difficulty or they didn't. Either way, it's something that could be looked at as a balancing issue in beta.
There are some things which give me hope. For one, there's this thief getting splattered. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx0QnKgQ1CI&feature=player_detailpage#t=103s It appears that the DE level range in the corner might be in red (though I can't read what it says) which would indicate it's a higher level event.
This is definitely a higher level event and this player gets beaten down 3 times. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=vsUcGBL56Ng#t=66s
The explorable mode dungeons are said to be very hard. Here's a description from a guy who completed it. http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/showpost.php?p=774927&postcount=45
I haven't seen evidence so far that DEs aren't going to fire. From what we know, normal DEs will scale from 1-10 people. Boss fights are doable from 10-100 people. There's video of TotalBiscuit and one other guy at Tequatl the Sunless making no progress whatsoever until other people show up. It's still running though and presumably will end in failure after a certain amount of time if players don't manage to kill him.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." -Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
Now that I'm bored with SWTOR, GW2 seems like the next thing to hope will have lasting value. Here are my worst fears for the game so far.
1. Animations not getting fixed before the game is out. For example see the very unnatural-looking running animations in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqwbS4sMgoY
2. Heavy zoning with load screens interrupting immersion and making the game world feel fragmented and not like a believable game world.
3. Static game world outside of dynamic events. NPCs and wildlife seem to stand rooted on the spot, with only an occasional mob moving around. I think WoW for its flaws did a decent job at adding some life to the environments with wolves hunting rabbits, herds of gazelles roaming the Barrens etc.
4. The setting being a bit too weird. There are a lot of eastern/manga-like influences which put me off as I prefer more traditional Western fantasy settings. It's not nearly as prevalent as Aion, but it's definitely there.
5. WvWvW battles feeling too artificial rather than truly feeling like they're taking place in your game world.
my fear is more about longevity than things already shown
@Post before this one
3. Static game world outside of dynamic events. NPCs and wildlife seem to stand rooted on the spot, with only an occasional mob moving around. I think WoW for its flaws did a decent job at adding some life to the environments with wolves hunting rabbits, herds of gazelles roaming the Barrens etc..
In the video you linked there are npcs walking around the streets, which is already an improvement over SW:TOR
"It has potential"
-Second most used phrase on existence
"It sucks"
-Most used phrase on existence
It's a little hard to tell but I think they've been tweaked. The video you link is from October 2010, so first I looked at the August 2011 demo, but it kind of looks the same. I then looked at the g-star demo and it looks better I think. Where it was kind of lumbering before, now it almost looks too leggy to me, like her legs are too long or something, especially going backwards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daQ_DLvMFgw&feature=player_detailpage#t=56s
In general though, don't these kinds of things usually get tweaked late in the process?
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." -Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
i only have 3 fears with GW2:
1) theres too much goodness to have a "just fair" box price. I hope they dont go crazy on that topic.
2) although i like the skill system, i hope they give us at least a second skillbar for more skills of our own. Only 5 skills slots is too limited and tahts what i hated the most from GW1.
3) the teleportation points on the map. I will try to use them on emergency only situations because they brake immersion and exploration. I hope they consider either mounts or a speed button to run faster or something.
Other than that, im dying here waiting for release date
I'm very new to the GW2 forums (never played GW1), and I don't know a great deal about the game at this point. I have read bits on the wiki, the game site and every single post in this thread, though
I have 2 concerns:
1. Dynamic Events - these seem to be the core of the gameplay (outside of PVP). I gather that these events scale to the player level, but how does this work when there are players of different levels all attacking mobs in 1 event ? Do the individual mobs only "fix" their stats depending on which player attacks them ? How does the event scale as random players (with possibly widely different levels) join the event over time ?
2. Hype - Here the fans are the main culprits. Everywhere you turn in the MMORPG forums these days, you find someone suggesting that GW2 is the answer to all modern MMO problems. When enough people start thinking that way, the whole thing goes nuclear, and then there's the inevitable backlash come launch day...
I know many people have played GW2 demos at conventions and the like, and I'm by no means going to try and invalidate what they experienced. By all accounts, gameplay is extremely solid and works well. But is 30 mins of hands-on play really representative of playing on a server with perhaps 200 or 300 other people ? And will everything still be as awesome and shiny after 30 or 60 or 90 hours ?
My fear:
People having fears before the game is even released
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW?
As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.
1. Actually, events scale based on the number of people currently participating and not their level. However, a high level character trying to participate in low level content, will have his level brought down to something appropriate for the zone. He'll be still a little bit more powerful, but won't be one-shotting stuff. So basically it's the players having their stats fixed to the mobs and not the other way around. About mobs scaling based on the number of players - that seems to depend on the event, in some events there are just more mobs being spawned, in others, the mobs unlock additional skills, which help them to deal with more players at the same time. For example there's a drake miniboss in the starting areas that starts using a really cool tail swipe that throws players away, when a certain number of participants is reached.
2. I can't really comment much on this. Just make sure you read and understand well everything Arenanet are talking about. GW2 is not some kind of a holy grail, just a game making steps in the right direction and fixing some problems of the genre that should've been fixed ages ago. It's not going to be a game for everyone, by any means.
3. There are tons of things that may go wrong with the game that we can't forsee at the moment. Hopefully, Arenanet and the closed beta testers would find those issues and have them fixed.
Making sure you get into the open beta (whenever that is) before purchasing the game seems to be the best chance you have for making up your own mind. I don't know about you, but I can get a pretty good estimate of whether I'll enjoy a game based on my impressions during a beta/preview. GW2's B2P though, so I'm perfectly sure I'd at least get my money's worth with whatever we've seen so far.
Dynamic Events do not scale to player level. Player level scales to the area and dynamic events scale to player number. The event continues to scale depending on the amount of players actively participating. So if someone leaves midway through the event, it will scale down.