photics

♥♥♥♥ Not everyone is a big lore fan,
♥♥♥♥ so participation is completely optional

Heh, I find this part funny... but maybe ArenaNet is getting it... OPTIONAL... that's very important with MMORPG development. That's why EverQuest was such a compelling game. It gave players a level of freedom that wasn't experienced before... including languages.

I liked how you could team up with one of the other races and learn their language. It basically involved spamming text, but it was fun. It encouraged interaction. It covered three of the four basic types of MMORPG players -- achievers, explorers and socializers.

I still see this as a double-edged sword for Guild Wars 2. They're focusing a lot on the lore... the story... that means if you don't like the story, are you left out? For example, I didn't see Avatar because I didn't find the story (and the political overtones) compelling. It's the same with Lord of the Rings. If you like the story... you'll enjoy the trilogy. If you don't like that fantasy setting, watching the movie becomes less about enjoyment and more about an endurance run.

I was first interested in Guild Wars for technical reasons... no monthly fees, 50 vs 50 pvp, good fansite program, no tedious game play elements. Guild Wars 2 is promoted on content... artwork, lore and now even language... but is it going to be fun?

For players into this language stuff, this is probably very compelling to them... but for the majority of players, it probably means a visit to the Guild Wars wiki for a quick cheat around this content. It would have been nice to figure out the War in Kryta riddles, but the strength of an entire community figured out the puzzle before I even knew a riddle existed.

Ha! I complained about the repetitive voice acting last time. I figured that more and more people would agree with me once the hype wore off.

I posted a suggestion on my site...
http://guildwars.us/arenanet-introduces-the-guild-wars-2-warrior/

I think it's the voice acting. For example, I was playing Halo last night. For some reason, I don't seem to tire of the announcer saying, "double kill", "triple kill", "killing spree" and "running riot".

(The same with Warcraft... "What", "Yes", "What do you want" ...that voice acting, even though repetitive, worked.)

When you look at the words, "Time to bust some heads" ...it sounds tough. But when I watch and listen to the video, it doesn't fit. I think if it was done by different actors, it might sound cool. These are cheesy one-liners, so why not get actors from 1980's movies... a generation defined by cheesy one-liners.

Steven Segal, Sylvester Stallone and Hulk Hogan. Tell Mr. T to put down his Mohawk grenade and get to work on a next generation MMORPG.

I can picture it, "time to bust some heads" ...it sounds better when Mr. T says it.

Sure, the Warrior uses a bow...
...but maybe the Ranger uses guns.

Ranger is a staple profession/class of MMORPGs. Plus, the Ranger is a Guild Wars pet class. It seems like they'd have to rewrite a lot of stuff to eliminate the Ranger... Troll Unguent, Charm Animal, lots of Rangers in the original.

There are eight professions, so I'm thinking that the lesser ones are on the way out... Dervish, Ritualist, Paragon. Eliminating the Necromancer could increase performance for larger battles. Eliminating the Monk could make the battles quicker and more exciting.

Elementalist
Warrior
Ranger
Assassin (bottom left one kinda looks like an Assassin and what about Naruto fans?! HA HA!)

Maybe the rest get eliminated for new professions. I don't know. But if I was the one picking four professions to keep, I'm thinking it would be those four.

♥♥♥♥ Your looking at every single
♥♥♥♥ little feature and saying it's
♥♥♥♥ not a big deal or how
♥♥♥♥ unimpressed you are, but
♥♥♥♥ at the same time, what
♥♥♥♥ other company is trying
♥♥♥♥ to push this bland, stagnant
♥♥♥♥ genre forward?

Heh, so you think with some quests here and some tweaks there, presto - we'll have new life in a tired genre? No... and that's my point. I'm not picking at every feature, only the ones people seem to be going nuts about... for no really good reason.

There are things I like about Guild Wars 2... no monthly fees, the graphics are OK, skill balance seems to be going in the right direction, self-healing, guns, persistent world, jumping/swimming, and world PvP sounds a lot better.

But what have they shown you? Really?! What have they shown you that's so impressive? A few screen shots... and "Here come the flames" elementalist videos? Most of what they're showing is lore related and I think that's the weakest part of Guild Wars.

♥♥♥♥ If they can properly implement the
♥♥♥♥ dynamic event system, it's going
♥♥♥♥ to be huge. I liked Warhammers
♥♥♥♥ public quests, but they got boring
♥♥♥♥ because it was the same thing
♥♥♥♥ over and over, it didn't feel dynamic.

Ha ha... you mentioned Warhammer, and you wonder why I'm skeptical. I had the common sense to avoid that game... and Tabula Rasa... and Vanguard... and other big talk MMORPGs.

To me, this is just more big talk. ArenaNet wasn't about that in the beginning. They were more willing to show you the action. Here's the alpha... here's the beta... check out the graphics. Being part of development process added to the excitement of the game itself. These press release type articles makes ArenaNet seem cold and corporate to me. It's eye candy, but I don't see the true substance.

♥♥♥♥ ArenaNet is changing this, by creating
♥♥♥♥ these public events that actually change
♥♥♥♥ the game world. Personal stories are
♥♥♥♥ just another aspect of this.

Ha, that's not how I interpreted this feature. I'm thinking that you're in for disappointment if you think events are going to be that dynamic. I think this way because I can still hear Jeff Strain talking up the dynamic aspects of the original. Oh sure, it was cool to make the avalanche on the Borlis Pass mission, but that is far from the way I imagined it would be.

Have none of you learned from history?

I remember in EverQuest, being able to attack guards from enemy cities. Is Guild Wars 2 going to give players that level of dynamic game play? Am I going to be able to wage war against the Black Citadel? Am I going to be able to raze it to the ground? Are the environments destructible for the whole world to see?

Am I going to be able to rally hundreds of players as we engage in a multi-day siege? (Dark Age of Camelot, relic raid, the second best gaming experience of my life.)

If it's just some peasants running around about their village on fire, that's a cool dynamic quest... but limited. It doesn't seem epic to me.

♥♥♥♥ Photics, I know you loved
♥♥♥♥ the original Guild Wars,
♥♥♥♥ your site was listed as one
♥♥♥♥ of the top fan sites on the
♥♥♥♥ Guild Wars website.

My site http://guildwars.us is still listed.
http://www.guildwars.com/community/fansites/

Leading a 1000+ player alliance to absolute victory was the best video game experience of my life. I enjoyed the game, but I've never been a blind Guild Wars fanboy. You can read issue #8 and you can see I've been pointing out flaws for years.

http://guildwars.us/photics-guild-wars-edition-issue-8/

That's what makes the game stronger, because ArenaNet does actually go back and fix things.

I think ArenaNet has some fixing to do with the lore and mass appeal. And what's been my complaint for many years, putting the "Guild" in Guild Wars. However, I don't think ArenaNet is going to be changing their lore to accommodate players like me.

I'm not sure what to do with my fansite. It's hard to rally people. It's not like it was in the early days. Most people I know have a bad impression of Guild Wars... and that seems to have influenced me. At some point I started wondering, why don't any of my friends play this game... even if I gave them a free copy?

That's just astonishing to me... if I had a brand new copy of Guild Wars 2... right now... and I handed it to my friends... many would say, "No thanks!"

(Heh, and the way I feel about the lore, I might have the same response.)

ArenaNet build up a fine villain with the Charr, but GW2 & GW:EN ruins that.
...and what was ArenaNet thinking with Rurik?!

♥♥♥♥ Your telling me that you enjoyed
♥♥♥♥ playing the same storyline in
♥♥♥♥ Guild Wars over and over? I
♥♥♥♥ enjoyed it the first few times, but
♥♥♥♥ after a while it's just not fun
♥♥♥♥ anymore. With this system,
♥♥♥♥ when I want to make a alt, I can
♥♥♥♥ enjoy a completely different story.

I think that's a high expectation. Dark Age of Camelot and World of Warcraft had entire realms to explore. It didn't mean much to me because I picked my favorite realm first. I had little to no interest in playing in the other realms. Alts were fun for a while, but the journey wasn't as fun the second time around.

(Well... except maybe for EverQuest. I had a lot of fun with a Rogue. The different classes generally had a very unique feel.)

The reason it's not as fun for me is because it's boring game-play. You press a button and you watch your character do something. It detaches me from the action. It's not twitch combat like Halo. It's not skill like Super Mario jumping. Combat is nowhere near as intense as Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix.

I don't doubt the replay value of the sequel, but I don't think that makes the game revolutionary. People still play the original. Replay value does not equal fun.

Perhaps that's what ruins the MMORPG genre. Players expect so much... hours, days, even years of fulfilling gameplay... but many of my favorite games can be cleared in a few hours.

If this is a matter of content, wouldn't ArenaNet have been better off by making two good small games (on-time) rather than one delayed game?

♥♥♥♥ I'd rather wait 3 extra years for a game
♥♥♥♥ that is going to be great and polished
♥♥♥♥ with very little bugs rather than another
♥♥♥♥ Age of Conan, Warhammer, or Aion
♥♥♥♥ which see a significant spike in
♥♥♥♥ population when the game launches
♥♥♥♥ but quickly goes down due to stupid
♥♥♥♥ bugs and crappy performance that
♥♥♥♥ should of been fixed before release.

My problem isn't the delay. I suspected that it was coming. It's the level of communication with the community. For years they said next to nothing. Now, seemingly out of nowhere and without reason, ArenaNet is flooding the airwaves with information. There's still no news of beta, just these little teases into the sequel. That doesn't impress me.

I reviewed this new information, searching for signs of optimism, but it's just not there for me. I see a good game being made. But so far, it doesn't look like the game for me.

♥♥♥♥ First of all you gotta realize
♥♥♥♥ that you don't start out with
♥♥♥♥ a guild, and while some
♥♥♥♥ people might be bringing full
♥♥♥♥ guilds from GW the vast
♥♥♥♥ majority of players will not

I'm not so sure about this. I think it depends. Some players might be using the sequel as an opportunity to escape from their guilds. Heh, a popular question in Guild Wars... "How do I leave my guild?" Sometimes, players feel indebted to their guild because they've been so helpful.

Ever look around towns and outposts for players without a guild? It's not easy to find someone. Have you ever been guildless in Guild Wars? You'll get bombarded with invites. Lots of players will try to recruit you. I don't think the vast majority of players are guildless. Maybe the connections aren't strong as they should be, but they are there.

Why do entire alliances have to be lost in the sequel? Why not give them their own legacy?

♥♥♥♥ The main character gets
♥♥♥♥ good help from strangers
♥♥♥♥ and the strangers get
♥♥♥♥ good rewards.

What's in it for me - that's probably going to be on the minds of players. While there are some altruistic players, most are consumed by loot greed. So, for personal quests to have meaning to the community overall, there has to be a reason for others to get involved. Maybe players will have similar goals and they'll team up. Yet, how would such a system not be exploitable? If inviting others into your quest yields large bonuses, will players be buying alternate accounts to maximize rewards? (If so, why should ArenaNet care if extra copies are sold to the same person?)

It just seems a bit too theoretical. to me. That's why I'm staying skeptical. It's hard for me to believe that they've completely reinvented the genre. I've heard it before. For example, Dark Age of Camelot resolved many of the issues from EverQuest, but then they introduced their own.

It does seem like they've put a lot of work into it. Hopefully they remember to create for their audience, not just what amuses them. For example, lots of work goes into the storylines of daytimes Soap Operas, but I generally do not watch them. It's pretty clear in video game land... the games that appeal to wider audiences sell better.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games

Well that's interesting... content. That seems to the reason for the delay. It's also the same reason why MMORPGs fail - a lack of content. So, it's hard to fault ArenaNet for that.

Yet, that means the lore really has to draw people in. And unfortunately, that doesn't work for me. That part seems too rigid for me. I think it would be cool if players could create their own starting city, as people have large guilds now, and let them create their own base lore.

Why can't your Guild be your starting point?
It is Guild Wars, put that at the center!

A large focus seems to be around lineage. Even the custom personal story part depends on your family's history. So, why not go larger with that? Give entire guilds a reason to get involved with the sequel. Let them build their own domain in this new world. Let them choose their guild's story...

Good/ Evil or Friendly/power hungry
Race affiliations (All, one, some)
Profession affiliations (all, one, none)
Guild "religion"

If players with like minds have the ability to customize the game a little more to their liking, it becomes more engaging and more entertaining.

The problem that I see with the personal stories is that it seems to be focused on the individual and the original series shows the problem with that. Heroes / Henchmen basically turned PvE into a single-player game. In a game called Guild Wars, can you really have "What's your story" without being able to create a story for your Guild?

If you have a really good friend, they might join your instance and follow your story, but what's going to compel strangers to work together? I don't think that's going to happen as much as it should.

THE GUILD is what could increase player interactions.

I don't insult the people who post positively about this game. I see no need. It's interesting to me that you feel the need to do so. What is it about Guild Wars 2 that is so special? I'm also amazed at how people are so impressed by so little information.

What's so alluring about the kindness attribute?

Generic NPC: "Oh, you look like a tough guy, would you like to buy some scrolls?

Same Generic NPC: "Oh, hi my friend! Would you like to buy some scrolls?"

If the mutli-year delay is the result of some database dialogue changes, I'm not impressed. Why is this so exciting to this community? Is it really going to make Tyria more inviting, or is it a better excuse to roll an alt... and keep players chasing that imaginary cheese?

The way I originally understood how the sequel would work... there might be no level cap or it if would be really high. If that is still the case, a feature like this is a distraction. There's plenty of extra stuff in World of Warcraft that I didn't see, simply because I didn't play horde. So... if this is one of the primary reasons of the delay, then I'm not impressed.

NPC reactions and quests based on Faction are not new... so how are a few choices at the beginning of the game really that different? I read this article and the one on ArenaNet's site. I liked the comic... which pretty much captures the overall sentiment that I think players will have.

It sounds like an impressive feature, but I'm not quite sure that's the character customization that I was looking for. If my character hasa rich background or if I'm a kind person doesn't change the overall story arc... which means my character would still be subject to the elements of the lore that I dislike.

It just sounds like more quests and a lot of NPC dialogue... and a home instance that will be similar to the hall of monuments, that I don't use all that often right now.

Too bad, I was almost excited about the sequel again.

♥♥♥ um, that went in
♥♥♥ the wrong place,
♥♥♥ it should be below
♥♥♥ the whole thing.

Ha ha, that's right... my posts are down the page, where I'm fighting for the light-gray team.

♥♥♥ So you would rather Arenanet
♥♥♥ just relaunch GW with prettier
♥♥♥ graphics and more PvE focus
♥♥♥ rather than attempt to make
♥♥♥ huge innovations in the MMO
♥♥♥ genre?

I don't see the huge improvement here. To me, a huge improvement would be twitch-based gaming in MMORPGs. Also, "What's your story" could also be a huge improvement. It's a Role-Playing Game... being able to define your own role, if you have the desire to do so, could give players a greater attachment to their character. It's the difference between buying a car and building a car. You might like your car, but you'd probably like it more if you made it yourself.

Customization is important in video games. So OK, you don't have a problem with the Charr. To me, that's cool. Yet, for players that don't feel that way, why should they have to group with them? Where's the choice? Where's the sandbox?

Also, I'm not against grouping with the Charr for religious reasons. It's consistency in the lore. Why build up a character for players to hate, only to make them friends? Would Transformers still be Transformers if the Decepticons and the Autobots teamed up? In World of Warcraft, there's a definitive line... Alliance and Horde. It's a very simple concept and I think it works well.

The religious issue that I have with the game is the inclusion of the Guild Wars gods. I think it's a bit creepy to have players kneel at status for bonuses. If players don't mind... hey, made in America - we have freedom of religion here. Yet, for players that do have religious objections to this, why force players to follow that path? It only leads to lost customers.

Ever been to Costco? It's amazing... lots of great stuff there... tasty food in bulk! Although, some of the food there is not for me. I'm not Jewish, so the Kosher section really isn't that important to me. Yet, I'm cool with it being there. I think, "Hey, cool! They can be happy too!"

I don't feel Guild Wars works this way. Just look at their response to crafting. It was something like, "Blah blah blah... we think the design should be this way... blah blah blah."

ArenaNet is building a community. Is it going to be for a minority of gamers or will it be more inviting? I'm thinking they're going for the minority and that's why I find these articles frustrating.