Colin Johanson (whose name I can barely spell, and I apparently can’t stop talking about) released the much anticipated official blog post about plans for early 2013. The post is a whopping 2500+ words with some good information, some vague teasers, and focus on direction. Â It’s still pretty high level, as ArenaNet really does not like talking about things that aren’t nailed, stapled, and Gorilla-glued to the floor. Still there is quite a bit of meat to discuss.
The interesting thing is that Mr. Game Director starts with some pretty ethereal concepts of creating a community-driven experience. I guess being a bit jaded myself, he could have just started with ‘we has daily tokens with rewards!’ Instead he talks about how “with varying degrees of success” Halloween, Lost Shores, and Wintersday were part of the plan to do this as a Living Story. However, like I mentioned yesterday the base, persistent events also need improving, and Johanson writes:
to complement this concept of RegulAr world eVents with strong storIes and themes, we alsO need to bUild on and Strengthen our existing open world and Its persiStent content. the more persistent events we can proviDe in a spEcific areA, the less often each of the events in that area neeDs to occur, which in turn adds to the sense of an ever-evolving open world.
There is good reason for improving the persistent content because they are adding all sorts of achievement goodies for completing specific parts of the game. Dailies seem to be getting the most treatment because players will receive 1 crown per day (10 per monthly) to buy some stuff, like Chauncey von Snuffles, the Third of His Name, a miniature of great import, or 10 unidentified dyes. Ascended gear is also on the list. The best part of this, in my opinion, is that daily achievements will be different each day of the week, and “later” players will get to make up their own daily 4 out of believably 5+ achievements. Just play, indeed.
Things get more nebulous as we move along, but there are some nice key concepts. Guild missions. Guild rewards. WvW progression. Guestingability. Custom PvP arenas. Visibility in PvP. Leaderboards. Fractals improvements. And finally, “Looking for Group” tool. Lots of good words, but 2013 is a long year. The only imminent-ish stuff feels like the achievements/ crowns since ArenaNet is most open about that.
The January release is a relatively small one. It seems like it will have some Fractals improvements since nothing about that was recanted. Some of it will also be setting the stage for the story in February and March. I am hoping that a good chunk of the achievements and/or crowns makes it in. Those seem like a good addition to the core, and will be worthy of further examination here.
–Ravious
They’ve now twice mentioned guesting in conjunction with WvW and paid server transfers, so I’m somewhat hopeful that guesting will make an appearance in or soon after the much-teased February patch. Mike Ferguson also mentioned it in this thread a couple of days ago: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/Tier-8-Points-Extremely-Scewed/first#post1190119
Ok I’ll bite. What’s with the “Ravious is Dead” subliminal message?
Oh noes! Subliminal messages from Colin!
You are the Walrus.
Koo koo kachoo
What is this? The Secret World?
Have I missed Player Housing? Sigh …
That is a …. everything mentioned is bolstering the core. Player Housing, and the Home Instance, I feel are cherries. Big, big cherries like city activities (keg brawl). I have a feeling that like RIFT, we will not get ultra-cool player housing until an expansion.
Big cherries not on the table.
Really surprised they have not expedited player housing. It’s a big draw for social gamers and guilds. Every MMO that added player housing has been richer for it.
AMEN. We need player housing. Some free and others in the shop. I KNOW the shop versions of homes sell in EQ2. Take a look at the housing visiting system and there are as many of the paid for homes out there, as the free ones, if not more of them!
Sure, I’m desperate for good housing myself so it’s a selfish wish but they are leaving money on the floor with this feature missing.
Please LFG soon. It’s getting harder to get into groups for story modes on instances now that people are parked at max level on multiple chars. :-( To be specific, I hope to see a looking for dungeon tool ala WOW.
Ah, persistence. I really enjoyed the first chapter as a human. I had visions that my “home instance” would be a place that reflected what I’d done, people I’d rescued, friends I had made, and that I would return to again and again.
Instead, I save the queen, and am then shoved off into the big wide world with a few brief words of farewell, becoming once again a little fish in a bigger pond, but this time without a home to return to.
(And what the heck happened to my sister? I finally rescue her, and then she vanishes again as if she never existed. No-one seems to have even heard of her.)
Well, at least if they decide to do something more with the home instance later, they can always have everyone be like “geez, where have you been? You get famous and just forget about us little people, and now finally you think to come back and visit!” :P
That comment made me laugh :D. Thank You.
I’ve always kind of thought, hey, maybe they’ve been having trouble getting the postage through to Orr. It would sorta explain where all those freaking Risen Eagles are coming from.
The only change I ever noticed was the presence of your “racial sympathy” group in your home instance. Quaggan in the fountain, skritt in the alley, etc. Even the orphanage/hospital was eventually rebuilt good as new. The lack of a “home base” — your instance, a guild hall, or even the HQ of your Order — has been a disappointment.
I was also hoping for some mention, or even a hint, of the return of alliances in the discussion of strengthening guilds and guild activities. I think this would be of more benefit to more players than anything else they could do to strengthen guilds. I’d be willing to bet that most players, particularly casuals, are in smaller guilds, and the new guild activities would be more feasible for them if they could be tackled by an alliance.
My PC bored me to tears somewhere in the 50s so I bailed on it. When I started new ones, I noticed the story was almost exactly the same based on race (preference for human). Uhg. Knowing where that was going I decided to skip PC going forward. I know there are choices later that change the type of quests you received. However, the overall quality and entertainment factor was so low in general that I can’t be bothered.