I love the removal of choice being used as how this game has a "living, breathing world". Would WoW have a "living, breathing world" if they removed Tier 14 raids when Tier 15 came out? That's not a "living, breathing world", that's forcing you down the rail they've chosen with no chance to go back.
in wow if they remove lower tier raids it would be impossible to do the new one becouse you need the previous tier gear or you are not welcome in raid party becouse your dps, healing suck or cant tank
thats how the WoW works
adding new raid is not a content for me, just pointless gear grind till they add new raid
i play games to have fun, at the moment WvWvW and tournies give me that fun
I have to agree with many here. All this temp content is stupid and wasted development time. Changing the world is good and all but what about expanding it?? and why on earth isn't there awesome endgame maps like the underworld from GW1 in the game yet? What's going on?
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
These updates are great and all, but it still leaves a glaring flaw.
If a player has left GW2 somewhere in the past few months and somehow gets wind of this aggressive new update schedule and decides to come back. They are screwed. depending on when they broke from GW2 and when they return with regaurd to the patch sequence, the only thing they will get is confusion. They'll pick up in the middle of some story line that has no meaning, no starting point and no development for them. They can't go back and go through it from start to finish.
With the exception of the current patch, the vast majority of "All that content" is now and forever, unavailable.
The Living Story system does not appear to be the best way to lure old players who stopped playing back in. And that's a significant amount of people I'd say.
Pretty much have to agree with this. I left the game around Christmas, tried to come back in the middle of one of these living story things. Couldn't figure out what the heck I was supposed to be doing. Inevitably wound up quitting a short time later.
Agreed here too. I find it difficult to care about new living story content, when I've already missed a big part of it. Strange design philosophy, IMO.
People are clamoring for a living, breathing world. In the world much is transient, so that is what they are trying to do with GW2 - not that hard to understand really.
PLAYERS make that kind of content with gameplay systems, IMO. Making transient story content while simultaneously alienating both potential new players, and players who stopped playing a while, is not the same thing.
Here's another question for ya. What about re-rolls? Do you know that a lot of people re-roll to experience content from different perspectives? What happens when large part of that content "expires"?
In my opinion, one of the things WoW got right as a themepark, was accumulating massive amounts of content over many years. Themeparks offer little else but story content, so what's the point of putting all that effort into make it transient?
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
Originally posted by Vannor I have to agree with many here. All this temp content is stupid and wasted development time. Changing the world is good and all but what about expanding it?? and why on earth isn't there awesome endgame maps like the underworld from GW1 in the game yet? What's going on?
Because why put forth that effort when they know the ANet fans will just lap up whatever scraps they throw to them? This fanboi sycophant zealotry is part of what ruins this genre. It ruined WoW. It's slowly ruining Rift. It REALLY tanked the original Everquest, who ended up throwing out xpacs almost twice a year near the end of its hayday. These people are so sold on anything a specific developer puts out, that they will take it without ever voicing any concerns or constructive criticism. They are literally slaves to the developer.
I have yet to pay another cent to ANet since I bought GW2. I will continue to vote with my dollars until they actually put something out worth paying for.
I love how these threads always erupt in haters screaming that temporary content "doesn't count". All MMO content is temporary. The main difference, love it or hate it, between GW2 and those other games is that there is not an artifical progression grind through gear in order to keep the content relevant. If you boiled it down to just "doing" the content, GW2 wins by a country mile. These updates have alot of temporary content and usually give you 2-4 weeks to complete which is the same amount of time it takes to complete (most of the time it takes less time) content added in any other MMO. I would rather have content that does not stay, which makes it slightly more "special" for the guys who actually play the game, then content I do a few times and never do again. The only reason you do content over and over in those other games is for stats. GW2 does not have that, so if you don't like that; don't play it. It is not the game for you. You want a power progression game go play one of the 10+ generic dungeon finder/raid MMOs.
On a more positive note:
This update has me more excited then any other update the game has had to date. I don't know, I almost think they set the bar too high on this one. If they come out with content of this calibur every 2 weeks I won't be able to keep up!
I love how these threads always erupt in haters screaming that temporary content "doesn't count". All MMO content is temporary. The main difference, love it or hate it, between GW2 and those other games is that there is not an artifical progression grind through gear in order to keep the content relevant. If you boiled it down to just "doing" the content, GW2 wins by a country mile. These updates have alot of temporary content and usually give you 2-4 weeks to complete which is the same amount of time it takes to complete (most of the time it takes less time) content added in any other MMO. I would rather have content that does not stay, which makes it slightly more "special" for the guys who actually play the game, then content I do a few times and never do again. The only reason you do content over and over in those other games is for stats. GW2 does not have that, so if you don't like that; don't play it. It is not the game for you. You want a power progression game go play one of the 10+ generic dungeon finder/raid MMOs.
On a more positive note:
This update has me more excited then any other update the game has had to date. I don't know, I almost think they set the bar too high on this one. If they come out with content of this calibur every 2 weeks I won't be able to keep up!
I love how you think your opinion is the only valid one.
On a business note, creating story content for only your current player base is ludicrous if it alienates potential new players as well as returning players. I'm glad you like your content to be special for you, but that doesn't make this a good idea.
We'll have to see in the long run. Sounds to me like a lot of interesting games are coming down the road, so we'll find out how great and successful an idea this is soon enough.
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
I love how these threads always erupt in haters screaming that temporary content "doesn't count". All MMO content is temporary. The main difference, love it or hate it, between GW2 and those other games is that there is not an artifical progression grind through gear in order to keep the content relevant. If you boiled it down to just "doing" the content, GW2 wins by a country mile. These updates have alot of temporary content and usually give you 2-4 weeks to complete which is the same amount of time it takes to complete (most of the time it takes less time) content added in any other MMO. I would rather have content that does not stay, which makes it slightly more "special" for the guys who actually play the game, then content I do a few times and never do again. The only reason you do content over and over in those other games is for stats. GW2 does not have that, so if you don't like that; don't play it. It is not the game for you. You want a power progression game go play one of the 10+ generic dungeon finder/raid MMOs.
On a more positive note:
This update has me more excited then any other update the game has had to date. I don't know, I almost think they set the bar too high on this one. If they come out with content of this calibur every 2 weeks I won't be able to keep up!
I love how you think your opinion is the only valid one.
On a business note, creating ongoing story content for only your current player base is ludicrous if it alienates potential new players as well as returning players. I'm glad you like your content to be special for you, but that doesn't make this a good idea.
Agreed, one of the worst design decisions I ve seen, and honestly lol worthy decisions any company has done. It s stupid to segregate anyone in a business, and honestly it doesn t create a living world in the least. Unless it s a constant stream of changing things in the world. It s hokey, and a joke IMO, and people that are still playing lap it up. I ve heard more people say they won t ever go back to GW2 because of this idea, more then ever, and honestly, the game deserves it, with all those BS pre release claims.
I am just not a fan of the direction ANET is taking the game. As far as a living evolving world.....It's not. All it is:
The game at last November's patch plus current patch.
Next month, it will be.....
The game at last November's patch plus current patch.
Two weeks from then it will be:
The game at last November's patch plus current patch.
6 months from now it will be:
The game at last November's patch plus current patch.
Yes, I admit, it's an oversimplified statement, but I am trying to paint a picture of how the living story actually fails at the very thing it's trying to accomplish. ANET really needs to do a fully paid expansion and some major work.
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.
Agreed, one of the worst design decisions I ve seen, and honestly lol worthy decisions any company has done. It s stupid to segregate anyone in a business, and honestly it doesn t create a living world in the least. Unless it s a constant stream of changing things in the world. It s hokey, and a joke IMO, and people that are still playing lap it up. I ve heard more people say they won t ever go back to GW2 because of this idea, more then ever, and honestly, the game deserves it, with all those BS pre release claims.
Raiding and other gear treadmills segregated me and other like minded individuals from most of the other theme parks becuase we simply didn't want to do them. Are we to not have a game that caters a little more to us than the 100's of other theme parks?
It really boggles my mind that some people want every MMO to be just like the ones before it. You know, the ones that have mostly gone F2P. So many of you have already said GW2 isn't innovative and that it's ideas are fail and other future MMOs won't follow ANet's trend. So what are you all so worried about? Why does this ONE game get under your skin and make you lose sleep? It's O...K.... I hear Wildstar and FF## (whatever number they are up to) will cater to exactly your needs.
These updates are great and all, but it still leaves a glaring flaw.
If a player has left GW2 somewhere in the past few months and somehow gets wind of this aggressive new update schedule and decides to come back. They are screwed. depending on when they broke from GW2 and when they return with regaurd to the patch sequence, the only thing they will get is confusion. They'll pick up in the middle of some story line that has no meaning, no starting point and no development for them. They can't go back and go through it from start to finish.
With the exception of the current patch, the vast majority of "All that content" is now and forever, unavailable.
The Living Story system does not appear to be the best way to lure old players who stopped playing back in. And that's a significant amount of people I'd say.
I don't know about that. Every story sequence is really its own independent thing. Players will never be behind from missing the previous story. For example, a player who returned during the Secrets of Southsun wouldn't have been confused about what was going on in that story because he missed the Flame and Frost story. They're separate. Furthermore, no matter what point of the Secrets of Southsun story that player returned during, he would be able to play through the entire thing from beginning to end. Logging on during day 1 of the patch is the same as logging on during day 27, with the exception that the person logging on on day 27 would have the entire patch's content available to him. Maybe that can be a little overwhelming; maybe it's a little disorienting because most of his fellow players have moved on past the first parts of the content patch, but it's still all entirely available to the newcomer.
As far as having permanently missed out on old story sequences, you really can't miss what you didn't know was there in the first place. Every player currently finds him or herself in the exact same position, which is to play the current content available. In that regard, it's really like any other themepark MMO, except on a much less massive scale. Anyone who joins WoW post-Cataclysm, for example, will never get to experience any of the old world quests and zones. Anyone who joins WoW during any expansions that wasn't vanilla, will never get to (really) experience any of the previous expansion's end game dungeons or raids. The game's current content has moved on, and so must all of its players. (Now I happen to think this WoW example is a major flaw with that game, so perhaps it's a bad example, but I don't think GW2's Living Story bits suffer from the lost content syndrome quite on the scale of WoW or any other dungeon/raid tiered style MMO. I also don't think temporary content as GW2 is attempting to execute it is without its merits that make up for its inadequacies, which I've detailed in this thread and elsewhere.)
I suppose it is a matter of perspective. But right now, The Living Story seems to be the major area where development for GW2 is happeing. I know there are other plans in the works, and probably some systems that players have been waiting for are also in the future. But for right now. All there is, is the Living Story.
When I started playing GW2 seriously, I loved the leveling aspect. I loved how the classes played and felt (for the most part) Combat took some adjusting to, but with that, I really enjoyed it. Playing other games, I've caught myself double tapping. When I got snuck up on. But having gotten to 80 and played through the dungeons, having done the fractals, I went back and leveled an alt. And again and again. I now have 6 level 80s each with multiple sets of full exotics and ascended gear. I'd play the new LS content when it came out and then go back to leveling my alts. Well, the last one was a Necro. But now that it was time to level an Ele, I started it and idunno, somewhere around level 5 in the starter zone, I just had this overwhelming sense of "I just can't do this again."
I am now taking a break from GW2, but when I think about the content patches that I will experience when I get back, I am left wondering about the one that I already missed, the current one that will end soon etc etc. They don't matter to me. They never will. No matter how good they are. The closure of Flame and Frost was really good. That was one of the most fun dungeons GW2 has done. What a shame really.
So in the end, the only thing that matters or ever will matter is the one single content patch that is in release on the day I log into the game. So what's the point of content every 2 weeks? With every other MMO, you can always come back and experience content at any time. Even in WoW there are always players looking to do legacy raids.
I'll can certainly get on board with that perspective. I've taken a break from GW2 myself from early december to about mid february, for much the same reasons. Leveling was great, the best I've ever experienced in an MMO. I quickly leveled three 80s within the first month and a half, which is somewhat unheard of from me in an MMO. I got 100% world completion, dungeon master, and master crafter within the next few months. Then got tired with most of the "end game" and was a little burnt out on leveling another character, so I took my break.
I've obviously been playing again for the past 5 months though, and I've been having a good, relaxing time. I found a good guild where I run guild missions, dungeons, WvW, Spvp, and other random events quite frequently. I've since leveled up two more characters, and I continue to think GW2's open world and leveling experience is the best ever. Other than that, I've just enjoyed the super immersive world that is Tyria and taken ever update as they've come. I've found this to be more than enough to keep me around for the time being.
* * *
Now, for a while now, I've argued that an MMO's ability to retain players for a significant time is a function of two primary components: the leveling process and "end game" content, whatever that entails. Both of these aspects must possess a balance between three vital qualities; they must be fun, compelling, and lengthy. Fun leveling or end game content has gameplay that is enjoyable or entertaining in its own right; every part of the game should be desirable to play as a standalone component. Compelling leveling or end game content involves many avenues for progression, from rewards, to levels, to unlocking new gameplay modes or access to dungeons; this provides the drive behind everything players do in the game. Lengthy leveling or end game is, well, content that takes a long time to get through; content that is breezed through too quickly leaves players looking for something else to do. This is the trickiest to balance, in my opinion, without making any one part of the game feel grindy, or repetitive to the point where it gets boring and no longer feels fun. Grindiness is directly at odds with fun.
The typical model for an MMO involves a player leveling a "main" character, which usually takes quite some time at release, and then participate in end game, which can also preoccupy players for months or even years. When I look at games like vanilla WoW or Aion, there was really no time before the first expansions for me to even think about leveling a 2nd character to max level. I may have dappled with an alt here or there when I got a little bored, but I certainly couldn't commit to the entire arduous leveling process.
Then we have GW2. I think GW2 does the fun thing amazingly well, particularly for the leveling process. There's a lot of variety of gameplay, and all of it is fun throughout.
The compelling factor is a bit more iffy, but not terrible. Map completion, world completion, and general exploration were strong driving forces throughout leveling. Building my character and unlocking new traits felt good. There wasn't much in the way of end game progression, however, although the cosmetic advancement was the best I've ever experienced. You can obtain cooler and more defining looks in GW2 than any other MMO. But for the large part, I feel achievements (at least until tomorrow), titles, gear and any other symbols are largely, and unfortunately, meaningless from a compelling progression goal standpoint.
But the big area where GW2 suffers is in the length department. Leveling is extraordinarily quick compared to any other MMO I've ever played at release. Then, at max level, meeting all of your end game goals for a particular character can also be achieved really quickly as well. This leads players to resort to leveling more alts to continue to enjoy the game, which, mind you, is a ton of fun in GW2. But I've also never seen another game where so many players have so many alts so quickly. The big question we have to ask is once players bored with end game run out of alts to level, what's going to keep their interest?
GW2's experimental answer to that seems to be the constant Living Story updates, which keeps players logging in at least a few times biweekly to check out brand new stuff to do. Anet seems like they have been refining the process through which they create these bits of content, and it sounds like they're really beginning to hit their stride. I really think these next 4 months are going to tell the story of how sustainable this type of evolving game can be in the "permanent short term", if that makes any sense. Then, of course, it remains to be seen if they can eventually pump out a true, huge, traditional expansion on top of these updates at some point to keep things interesting for the future in the long run.
I'm conflicted with GW2. I like so much about the game from the charr to the games world and leveling but then I think about what I have to do at 80 and it just pushes me away. I go on my level 80 characters and there is nothing for me do to on them outside the living story stuff that takes me an hour to do and after that I am left with the same stuff I had at release almost a year ago will seemingly no feeling of progression. I just can't really get into the 'end game' of GW2 and need something to really strive for or something really new that can be repeated like a new zone or dungeon.
Agreed, one of the worst design decisions I ve seen, and honestly lol worthy decisions any company has done. It s stupid to segregate anyone in a business, and honestly it doesn t create a living world in the least. Unless it s a constant stream of changing things in the world. It s hokey, and a joke IMO, and people that are still playing lap it up. I ve heard more people say they won t ever go back to GW2 because of this idea, more then ever, and honestly, the game deserves it, with all those BS pre release claims.
Raiding and other gear treadmills segregated me and other like minded individuals from most of the other theme parks becuase we simply didn't want to do them. Are we to not have a game that caters a little more to us than the 100's of other theme parks?
It really boggles my mind that some people want every MMO to be just like the ones before it. You know, the ones that have mostly gone F2P. So many of you have already said GW2 isn't innovative and that it's ideas are fail and other future MMOs won't follow ANet's trend. So what are you all so worried about? Why does this ONE game get under your skin and make you lose sleep? It's O...K.... I hear Wildstar and FF## (whatever number they are up to) will cater to exactly your needs.
Never once were you segregated from that content in raiding or gear treadmill games. You chose not to do it. I m not a raider and knew full well what I was getting into playing those games, but guess what, I could do that content if I so chose to. This stupid idea you CANT. SEE THE DIFFERENCE. So to summarize, not once did those games segregate anyone, period.
Agreed, one of the worst design decisions I ve seen, and honestly lol worthy decisions any company has done. It s stupid to segregate anyone in a business, and honestly it doesn t create a living world in the least. Unless it s a constant stream of changing things in the world. It s hokey, and a joke IMO, and people that are still playing lap it up. I ve heard more people say they won t ever go back to GW2 because of this idea, more then ever, and honestly, the game deserves it, with all those BS pre release claims.
Raiding and other gear treadmills segregated me and other like minded individuals from most of the other theme parks becuase we simply didn't want to do them. Are we to not have a game that caters a little more to us than the 100's of other theme parks?
It really boggles my mind that some people want every MMO to be just like the ones before it. You know, the ones that have mostly gone F2P. So many of you have already said GW2 isn't innovative and that it's ideas are fail and other future MMOs won't follow ANet's trend. So what are you all so worried about? Why does this ONE game get under your skin and make you lose sleep? It's O...K.... I hear Wildstar and FF## (whatever number they are up to) will cater to exactly your needs.
Never once were you segregated from that content in raiding or gear treadmill games. You chose not to do it. I m not a raider and knew full well what I was getting into playing those games, but guess what, I could do that content if I so chose to. This stupid idea you CANT. SEE THE DIFFERENCE. So to summarize, not once did those games segregate anyone, period.
And? MMO design is not set in stone, you know. Do they have to add everything for every player type? Go ahead and name all the MMOs that do that. I'll wait. Then I'll give you an example of players that those games don't appeal to. YOU can't see the difference that not everyone considers raids "mandatory".
And by the way, games like WoW actually do segregate people. Unlike GW2, if you don't buy the expansions, you can't do the new content with your friends. So yeah. What was that about segregation?
Agreed, one of the worst design decisions I ve seen, and honestly lol worthy decisions any company has done. It s stupid to segregate anyone in a business, and honestly it doesn t create a living world in the least. Unless it s a constant stream of changing things in the world. It s hokey, and a joke IMO, and people that are still playing lap it up. I ve heard more people say they won t ever go back to GW2 because of this idea, more then ever, and honestly, the game deserves it, with all those BS pre release claims.
Raiding and other gear treadmills segregated me and other like minded individuals from most of the other theme parks becuase we simply didn't want to do them. Are we to not have a game that caters a little more to us than the 100's of other theme parks?
It really boggles my mind that some people want every MMO to be just like the ones before it. You know, the ones that have mostly gone F2P. So many of you have already said GW2 isn't innovative and that it's ideas are fail and other future MMOs won't follow ANet's trend. So what are you all so worried about? Why does this ONE game get under your skin and make you lose sleep? It's O...K.... I hear Wildstar and FF## (whatever number they are up to) will cater to exactly your needs.
Never once were you segregated from that content in raiding or gear treadmill games. You chose not to do it. I m not a raider and knew full well what I was getting into playing those games, but guess what, I could do that content if I so chose to. This stupid idea you CANT. SEE THE DIFFERENCE. So to summarize, not once did those games segregate anyone, period.
Games likes WoW when I played put a lot of content in the form of raids. Areas that their dev team spent a lot of time working on so the raiders had a carrot on the stick to chase. I couldn't go to these areas becuase I never could get into a raid due to various time restraints or having to be able to jump from my comp at a moments notice. Not to mention I really hate the mechanics and idea behind raiding like you probably hate the mechanics of most everything of GW2. That's your choice as it is mine.
Besides, of course you knew what you were going into playing those games as a non-raider. What other game could you play that didn't pivot on raiding as a carrot? I was in the same boat. So I played those games too becuase their were no other options and tried to last as long as I could at max level at what bones they would feed us pure PvP'ers. I tried raiding a few times but I just couldn't stomach it. Then GW2 comes around and it's the right game for someone like me. I don't know what game you want/play as a non-raider (I don't know if you PvP), but for me it's GW2. I'm curious what it is you play, and obviously redoing the content over and over if it's not raiding. Do you just do dailies, craft, BG's or something, and you are good with that? Just curious.
I don't understand why people get so defensive when anyone says anything bad about GW2. Most people on this thread are simply commenting why temporary content works(or doesn't) for them.
For me personally, the *idea* of a living world sounds nice, but I'm not a fan of the way they are delivering it. I'm very much a completionist. So it's extremely frustrating for me that I look at this long list of achievements, neat mini pets, and skins, knowing that I will never be able to get them. That's why the living story doesn't work for me. In my mind, I really thought ANet was going to evolve the zones and change events to make the world seem living. Like how many more time do we need to drive the bandits (or giant worm) out of the Queensdale farm. There should be another threat for the poor little farm OR maybe the bandits won and the house could be burned to the ground for a while and we get to help the farmers rebuild. That's just a tiny example of course.
Agreed, one of the worst design decisions I ve seen, and honestly lol worthy decisions any company has done. It s stupid to segregate anyone in a business, and honestly it doesn t create a living world in the least. Unless it s a constant stream of changing things in the world. It s hokey, and a joke IMO, and people that are still playing lap it up. I ve heard more people say they won t ever go back to GW2 because of this idea, more then ever, and honestly, the game deserves it, with all those BS pre release claims.
Raiding and other gear treadmills segregated me and other like minded individuals from most of the other theme parks becuase we simply didn't want to do them. Are we to not have a game that caters a little more to us than the 100's of other theme parks?
It really boggles my mind that some people want every MMO to be just like the ones before it. You know, the ones that have mostly gone F2P. So many of you have already said GW2 isn't innovative and that it's ideas are fail and other future MMOs won't follow ANet's trend. So what are you all so worried about? Why does this ONE game get under your skin and make you lose sleep? It's O...K.... I hear Wildstar and FF## (whatever number they are up to) will cater to exactly your needs.
Never once were you segregated from that content in raiding or gear treadmill games. You chose not to do it. I m not a raider and knew full well what I was getting into playing those games, but guess what, I could do that content if I so chose to. This stupid idea you CANT. SEE THE DIFFERENCE. So to summarize, not once did those games segregate anyone, period.
Games likes WoW when I played put a lot of content in the form of raids. Areas that their dev team spent a lot of time working on so the raiders had a carrot on the stick to chase. I couldn't go to these areas becuase I never could get into a raid due to various time restraints or having to be able to jump from my comp at a moments notice. Not to mention I really hate the mechanics and idea behind raiding like you probably hate the mechanics of most everything of GW2. That's your choice as it is mine.
Besides, of course you knew what you were going into playing those games as a non-raider. What other game could you play that didn't pivot on raiding as a carrot? I was in the same boat. So I played those games too becuase their were no other options and tried to last as long as I could at max level at what bones they would feed us pure PvP'ers. I tried raiding a few times but I just couldn't stomach it. Then GW2 comes around and it's the right game for someone like me. I don't know what game you want/play as a non-raider (I don't know if you PvP), but for me it's GW2. I'm curious what it is you play, and obviously redoing the content over and over if it's not raiding. Do you just do dailies, craft, BG's or something, and you are good with that? Just curious.
I play EQ2 with the wife, and mercs, can play 90% of the game that way.DAOC we have a sub to still and actually play it for only weekend rvr with our guild. PS2 for some fun, WOW with LFR is great as with time constraints, I can actually raid now. Companies are realizing theres a lot of people like me, so they re giving more options, but I could have always done the content, it wasn t taken away from me forever. I m not saying GW2 isn t good for some people, I just see at as a step backwards in MMOs. Some of their decisions seem way to out of the norm, it s going to detrement them in the long run.
Originally posted by Siphaed As interesting as your previews are with their own little sketched one-panel comics, it's still disheartening that Massively.com has video previews http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/08/massivelys-video-preview-of-guild-wars-2s-bazaar-of-the-four-w/ and your site just has written boring ones. The video ones give far more information in the same time as it takes to read your article (maybe faster).
i will get info about the game when i cant play the game, so having to read during a break at the work is far easier than having to listen ...
I play EQ2 with the wife, and mercs, can play 90% of the game that way.DAOC we have a sub to still and actually play it for only weekend rvr with our guild. PS2 for some fun, WOW with LFR is great as with time constraints, I can actually raid now. Companies are realizing theres a lot of people like me, so they re giving more options, but I could have always done the content, it wasn t taken away from me forever. I m not saying GW2 isn t good for some people, I just see at as a step backwards in MMOs. Some of their decisions seem way to out of the norm, it s going to detrement them in the long run.
It is really not something new, City of heroes had actually similar things before.
Some temporary content can be really fun, a one time thing like taking down that big crab in the lost shore were fun (minus lag and people getting booted out) but I agree that too much like this isn't good. Each update should add something permanent to the game.
Living story is not a bad idea but it isn't new and ANET is putting too much work into it and too little in adding new zones and new DEs to old zones.
All that said: This one looks really good and I will surely play it.
PLAYERS make that kind of content with gameplay systems, IMO. Making transient story content while simultaneously alienating both potential new players, and players who stopped playing a while, is not the same thing.
Here's another question for ya. What about re-rolls? Do you know that a lot of people re-roll to experience content from different perspectives? What happens when large part of that content "expires"?
In my opinion, one of the things WoW got right as a themepark, was accumulating massive amounts of content over many years. Themeparks offer little else but story content, so what's the point of putting all that effort into make it transient?
Rerolls? Hell, I missed the whole 1950's and the birth of Rock and Roll. Should I be outraged? My kids have missed the 1900's in their entirety, how can they possibly be enjoying life now? Rerolls are new characters. Their experiences in time begin when they do. You remember the past you experienced, hear tales of the past you didn't, and live for the future.
Comments
in wow if they remove lower tier raids it would be impossible to do the new one becouse you need the previous tier gear or you are not welcome in raid party becouse your dps, healing suck or cant tank
thats how the WoW works
adding new raid is not a content for me, just pointless gear grind till they add new raid
i play games to have fun, at the moment WvWvW and tournies give me that fun
PLAYERS make that kind of content with gameplay systems, IMO. Making transient story content while simultaneously alienating both potential new players, and players who stopped playing a while, is not the same thing.
Here's another question for ya. What about re-rolls? Do you know that a lot of people re-roll to experience content from different perspectives? What happens when large part of that content "expires"?
In my opinion, one of the things WoW got right as a themepark, was accumulating massive amounts of content over many years. Themeparks offer little else but story content, so what's the point of putting all that effort into make it transient?
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
Because why put forth that effort when they know the ANet fans will just lap up whatever scraps they throw to them? This fanboi sycophant zealotry is part of what ruins this genre. It ruined WoW. It's slowly ruining Rift. It REALLY tanked the original Everquest, who ended up throwing out xpacs almost twice a year near the end of its hayday. These people are so sold on anything a specific developer puts out, that they will take it without ever voicing any concerns or constructive criticism. They are literally slaves to the developer.
I have yet to pay another cent to ANet since I bought GW2. I will continue to vote with my dollars until they actually put something out worth paying for.
I love how these threads always erupt in haters screaming that temporary content "doesn't count". All MMO content is temporary. The main difference, love it or hate it, between GW2 and those other games is that there is not an artifical progression grind through gear in order to keep the content relevant. If you boiled it down to just "doing" the content, GW2 wins by a country mile. These updates have alot of temporary content and usually give you 2-4 weeks to complete which is the same amount of time it takes to complete (most of the time it takes less time) content added in any other MMO. I would rather have content that does not stay, which makes it slightly more "special" for the guys who actually play the game, then content I do a few times and never do again. The only reason you do content over and over in those other games is for stats. GW2 does not have that, so if you don't like that; don't play it. It is not the game for you. You want a power progression game go play one of the 10+ generic dungeon finder/raid MMOs.
On a more positive note:
This update has me more excited then any other update the game has had to date. I don't know, I almost think they set the bar too high on this one. If they come out with content of this calibur every 2 weeks I won't be able to keep up!
I love how you think your opinion is the only valid one.
On a business note, creating story content for only your current player base is ludicrous if it alienates potential new players as well as returning players. I'm glad you like your content to be special for you, but that doesn't make this a good idea.
We'll have to see in the long run. Sounds to me like a lot of interesting games are coming down the road, so we'll find out how great and successful an idea this is soon enough.
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
Agreed, one of the worst design decisions I ve seen, and honestly lol worthy decisions any company has done. It s stupid to segregate anyone in a business, and honestly it doesn t create a living world in the least. Unless it s a constant stream of changing things in the world. It s hokey, and a joke IMO, and people that are still playing lap it up. I ve heard more people say they won t ever go back to GW2 because of this idea, more then ever, and honestly, the game deserves it, with all those BS pre release claims.
I am just not a fan of the direction ANET is taking the game. As far as a living evolving world.....It's not. All it is:
The game at last November's patch plus current patch.
Next month, it will be.....
The game at last November's patch plus current patch.
Two weeks from then it will be:
The game at last November's patch plus current patch.
6 months from now it will be:
The game at last November's patch plus current patch.
Yes, I admit, it's an oversimplified statement, but I am trying to paint a picture of how the living story actually fails at the very thing it's trying to accomplish. ANET really needs to do a fully paid expansion and some major work.
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.
Raiding and other gear treadmills segregated me and other like minded individuals from most of the other theme parks becuase we simply didn't want to do them. Are we to not have a game that caters a little more to us than the 100's of other theme parks?
It really boggles my mind that some people want every MMO to be just like the ones before it. You know, the ones that have mostly gone F2P. So many of you have already said GW2 isn't innovative and that it's ideas are fail and other future MMOs won't follow ANet's trend. So what are you all so worried about? Why does this ONE game get under your skin and make you lose sleep? It's O...K.... I hear Wildstar and FF## (whatever number they are up to) will cater to exactly your needs.
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
I'll can certainly get on board with that perspective. I've taken a break from GW2 myself from early december to about mid february, for much the same reasons. Leveling was great, the best I've ever experienced in an MMO. I quickly leveled three 80s within the first month and a half, which is somewhat unheard of from me in an MMO. I got 100% world completion, dungeon master, and master crafter within the next few months. Then got tired with most of the "end game" and was a little burnt out on leveling another character, so I took my break.
I've obviously been playing again for the past 5 months though, and I've been having a good, relaxing time. I found a good guild where I run guild missions, dungeons, WvW, Spvp, and other random events quite frequently. I've since leveled up two more characters, and I continue to think GW2's open world and leveling experience is the best ever. Other than that, I've just enjoyed the super immersive world that is Tyria and taken ever update as they've come. I've found this to be more than enough to keep me around for the time being.
* * *
Now, for a while now, I've argued that an MMO's ability to retain players for a significant time is a function of two primary components: the leveling process and "end game" content, whatever that entails. Both of these aspects must possess a balance between three vital qualities; they must be fun, compelling, and lengthy. Fun leveling or end game content has gameplay that is enjoyable or entertaining in its own right; every part of the game should be desirable to play as a standalone component. Compelling leveling or end game content involves many avenues for progression, from rewards, to levels, to unlocking new gameplay modes or access to dungeons; this provides the drive behind everything players do in the game. Lengthy leveling or end game is, well, content that takes a long time to get through; content that is breezed through too quickly leaves players looking for something else to do. This is the trickiest to balance, in my opinion, without making any one part of the game feel grindy, or repetitive to the point where it gets boring and no longer feels fun. Grindiness is directly at odds with fun.
The typical model for an MMO involves a player leveling a "main" character, which usually takes quite some time at release, and then participate in end game, which can also preoccupy players for months or even years. When I look at games like vanilla WoW or Aion, there was really no time before the first expansions for me to even think about leveling a 2nd character to max level. I may have dappled with an alt here or there when I got a little bored, but I certainly couldn't commit to the entire arduous leveling process.
Then we have GW2. I think GW2 does the fun thing amazingly well, particularly for the leveling process. There's a lot of variety of gameplay, and all of it is fun throughout.
The compelling factor is a bit more iffy, but not terrible. Map completion, world completion, and general exploration were strong driving forces throughout leveling. Building my character and unlocking new traits felt good. There wasn't much in the way of end game progression, however, although the cosmetic advancement was the best I've ever experienced. You can obtain cooler and more defining looks in GW2 than any other MMO. But for the large part, I feel achievements (at least until tomorrow), titles, gear and any other symbols are largely, and unfortunately, meaningless from a compelling progression goal standpoint.
But the big area where GW2 suffers is in the length department. Leveling is extraordinarily quick compared to any other MMO I've ever played at release. Then, at max level, meeting all of your end game goals for a particular character can also be achieved really quickly as well. This leads players to resort to leveling more alts to continue to enjoy the game, which, mind you, is a ton of fun in GW2. But I've also never seen another game where so many players have so many alts so quickly. The big question we have to ask is once players bored with end game run out of alts to level, what's going to keep their interest?
GW2's experimental answer to that seems to be the constant Living Story updates, which keeps players logging in at least a few times biweekly to check out brand new stuff to do. Anet seems like they have been refining the process through which they create these bits of content, and it sounds like they're really beginning to hit their stride. I really think these next 4 months are going to tell the story of how sustainable this type of evolving game can be in the "permanent short term", if that makes any sense. Then, of course, it remains to be seen if they can eventually pump out a true, huge, traditional expansion on top of these updates at some point to keep things interesting for the future in the long run.
Never once were you segregated from that content in raiding or gear treadmill games. You chose not to do it. I m not a raider and knew full well what I was getting into playing those games, but guess what, I could do that content if I so chose to. This stupid idea you CANT. SEE THE DIFFERENCE. So to summarize, not once did those games segregate anyone, period.
And? MMO design is not set in stone, you know. Do they have to add everything for every player type? Go ahead and name all the MMOs that do that. I'll wait. Then I'll give you an example of players that those games don't appeal to. YOU can't see the difference that not everyone considers raids "mandatory".
And by the way, games like WoW actually do segregate people. Unlike GW2, if you don't buy the expansions, you can't do the new content with your friends. So yeah. What was that about segregation?
Games likes WoW when I played put a lot of content in the form of raids. Areas that their dev team spent a lot of time working on so the raiders had a carrot on the stick to chase. I couldn't go to these areas becuase I never could get into a raid due to various time restraints or having to be able to jump from my comp at a moments notice. Not to mention I really hate the mechanics and idea behind raiding like you probably hate the mechanics of most everything of GW2. That's your choice as it is mine.
Besides, of course you knew what you were going into playing those games as a non-raider. What other game could you play that didn't pivot on raiding as a carrot? I was in the same boat. So I played those games too becuase their were no other options and tried to last as long as I could at max level at what bones they would feed us pure PvP'ers. I tried raiding a few times but I just couldn't stomach it. Then GW2 comes around and it's the right game for someone like me. I don't know what game you want/play as a non-raider (I don't know if you PvP), but for me it's GW2. I'm curious what it is you play, and obviously redoing the content over and over if it's not raiding. Do you just do dailies, craft, BG's or something, and you are good with that? Just curious.
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
I don't understand why people get so defensive when anyone says anything bad about GW2. Most people on this thread are simply commenting why temporary content works(or doesn't) for them.
For me personally, the *idea* of a living world sounds nice, but I'm not a fan of the way they are delivering it. I'm very much a completionist. So it's extremely frustrating for me that I look at this long list of achievements, neat mini pets, and skins, knowing that I will never be able to get them. That's why the living story doesn't work for me. In my mind, I really thought ANet was going to evolve the zones and change events to make the world seem living. Like how many more time do we need to drive the bandits (or giant worm) out of the Queensdale farm. There should be another threat for the poor little farm OR maybe the bandits won and the house could be burned to the ground for a while and we get to help the farmers rebuild. That's just a tiny example of course.
I play EQ2 with the wife, and mercs, can play 90% of the game that way.DAOC we have a sub to still and actually play it for only weekend rvr with our guild. PS2 for some fun, WOW with LFR is great as with time constraints, I can actually raid now. Companies are realizing theres a lot of people like me, so they re giving more options, but I could have always done the content, it wasn t taken away from me forever. I m not saying GW2 isn t good for some people, I just see at as a step backwards in MMOs. Some of their decisions seem way to out of the norm, it s going to detrement them in the long run.
Any world vs world stuff? That's what I want to know.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
i will get info about the game when i cant play the game, so having to read during a break at the work is far easier than having to listen ...
"Once the skin is chosen, a player can make as many of the skin as they want, on any character, no matter what armor class."
that is what i needed to hear!
It is really not something new, City of heroes had actually similar things before.
Some temporary content can be really fun, a one time thing like taking down that big crab in the lost shore were fun (minus lag and people getting booted out) but I agree that too much like this isn't good. Each update should add something permanent to the game.
Living story is not a bad idea but it isn't new and ANET is putting too much work into it and too little in adding new zones and new DEs to old zones.
All that said: This one looks really good and I will surely play it.
Rerolls? Hell, I missed the whole 1950's and the birth of Rock and Roll. Should I be outraged? My kids have missed the 1900's in their entirety, how can they possibly be enjoying life now? Rerolls are new characters. Their experiences in time begin when they do. You remember the past you experienced, hear tales of the past you didn't, and live for the future.
Oderint, dum metuant.