Category: Guild Wars 2

How are your server’s WvW match-ups? Ours have been dramatically one-sided, with one server wiping the floor with the other two. This week, we are the victors; last week, a different server held 75% of the map consistently.

I am told that one of our competing servers had an exodus last weekend, with a major guild or seven leaving Eredon Terrace. (There are stories about what happened, but never trust Us when they tell you what is wrong with Them.) Numbers disparities are hard to overcome, and once your server is losing that badly, people stop trying. You cannot build the momentum to get past your own gates, while people flock to the winning team. The winning server has a long queue for WvW and your WvW team is half-full at best.

Bandwagons are a problem that will continue as long as free transfers are available (to more populous servers). People generally want to be on the winning team. Without server transfers, this just means that people are more likely to hit B and join WvW if they are ahead. With server transfers, people leave losing servers and join winning servers. Any swings are exaggerated by immigration. Continue reading [GW2] Unbalanced

Funny moment in Guild Wars 2 but maybe you had to be there:

My son and I were hunting in a level 30ish area when we came upon a champion. It was a long fight and several others joined in during the battle to make it a success. I started to run off and look at my loot but he tells me to hold on as he wants to grab a souvenir. I turn around to look and here he comes running carrying a huge bomb! I just did not expect that. He then ran over and dropped it by a cute white bunny and next thing I know he had earned an achievement for master of overkill with over 10,000 damage. For the rest of the evening, he was looking for souvenirs. Even if it was a rake or a hoe, he just had to grab something on the way out of a battle. It became a running joke for us all night.

Like I said, you probably had to be there but it still makes me smile.

– Ethic

(This is my final post of the Double Down series following Part 1 and Part 2.)

While ArenaNet was shifting towards Guild Wars 2 production, they created a new rewards system based on re-using content. Obviously they were aware that any Live Team would not have the resources of a new zone, or the like, and so the Zaishen content was created bringing new life to old content. For Guild Wars 1, this was possibly the only option.

Guild Wars 2 is different because the studio is entirely focused on Guild Wars 2. There are resources for new zones, dungeons, etc., and new things are exciting and shiny. The biggest question is still whether to press onward or iterate on what is available. For instance, exploring the Henge of Denravi in Guild Wars 2 was huge, in my opinion. A lot of mystery still surrounds the druids of Guild Wars 1, and with the current conflict surrounding the Henge, I felt the actual content was a tad underwhelming. For me the area downplayed my memory instead of ramping it up, like it did with Sorrow’s Embrance. A team at ArenaNet could decide to push a lot more focus on this out-of-the-way area, but is that worth it? Continue reading [GW2] Sunk Costs (Double Down III)

I open those blue bottles filled with a rainbow assortment of dyes. The unidentified dyes are slowly coming down in price as more people are getting the colors they want, but the rarest dyes are still worth quite a bit. I open my bottles because it’s a fun gamble. It’s like earning a scratcher’s ticket. Sure, I could sell it off for a few silver, but where’s the fun in that. Plus, I like filling out my dyes.

Anyway, last night I open a Celestial Dye (whitest). Hey, here’s 3 gold! That’s quite a bit of money for me since I’ve been floating around 1-3 gold for awhile now. Continue reading [GW2] Lottery Win

The middle zones always seem to be the red-headed step child of MMO content. Is it a function of population distribution extremes? Is it that in the case of Guild Wars 2 there are so many leveling paths to take? Is it that veteran players simply have no reason to be there except for friendship or exploration points?

This is the hardest puzzler. Nothing is wrong, per se, any more than… yes, clearly, as in all MMOs, the middle zones have lighter population distributions. The content in the middle zones, with a few noticeable patches, does seem pretty solid, especially with regard to renown content. It hasn’t felt like a chore to get through the zones on my way to 100% exploration. It still feels different, and I wonder how or if ArenaNet is going to draw more attention to these zones.

Continue reading [GW2] Fair to Middling (Double Down II)

The jumping puzzles immediately appeal to metagaming instincts, like when the puzzle game gives you a fixed number of pieces so you know your solution will incorporate all of them. Once you realize you have found a jumping puzzle (whether one with an achievement or one that just leads to a chest), you start looking for the next perch. You stop thinking about the terrain as a game rather than a world, and you put on your designer’s hat to think of how you would design the next step.

“Hmm, there is an achievement named “Urmaug’s Secret. There is an NPC named Urmaug in Lion’s Arch. Let’s give that area a second look. Aha! Now how do I get up there…”

People in games and stories like to design games and puzzles for the heroes, and they are usually fair ones that they can solve. If I am protecting myself and my stuff, I am not playing fair with whoever is trying to kill me. Also, I am probably not going to design a home with one path through it, in which I must pass through every room in the house to reach my bedroom.

: Zubon

ArenaNet’s first hints at the big Guild Wars 2 celebration have dropped out. I hope we get a few more blog posts or interviews next week, but there’s a decent amount of information in the teaser. Things I found most interesting:

Permanent Features

As if simply having a rockin’ tale of Halloween told in “four acts” isn’t enough, ArenaNet appears to be adding permanent features to the game during the Shadow of the Mad King event. PvP players will be happy to know that paid tournaments are going to be added, which gives PvP players a sort of ante-prize pool system to fight over. ArenaNet is also adding new content across a variety of maps in the form of “new events, jumping puzzles, bosses, mini-dungeons, and achievements”. Continue reading [GW2] Halloween!

I want guesting to work.

I am on one of the high population servers, always at “high” or “full” when I check. I want to visit friends on other servers, but I am worried about being able to get back in any reasonable time frame. A guildmate claimed to have needed more than a week to get back to Isle of Janthir. I presume you can get anywhere during off-hours, but it would be nice if the advertised feature existed.

You can switch servers freely 1/day, which is great if you have friends on only a few servers and never want to go back and forth in the same day. I understand the WvW abuses that led to needing the limitation, but it would be nice if the advertised feature existed. Guesting would not have the WvW issue, and you need not be limited per day.

: Zubon

(This is going to be one of at least three posts. I am splitting up a draft called Double Down into more digestible sections.)

With certainty, ArenaNet is working on more content and updates. Halloween is sure to have lots of holiday fun, but it isn’t clear what permanent offerings ArenaNet is considering. There are two clear routes to take: (1) create wholly new content such dungeons or zones, or (2) double down with the content already in place.

Now that people have had plenty of time to play Guild Wars 2, it is becoming very clear where there are holes in content and gaps in fun. Is it worthwhile to go back and patch these, or is it better to press ever onward? Continue reading [GW2] Uptown Views (Double Down I)

I think I’ve played Guild Wars 2 long enough to review it with pretty good depth. I don’t feel that is necessary. The blogosphere and real journalist reviews seem to resoundingly agree that for $60 and no subscription fee Guild Wars 2 is a great buy. People unused to Guild Wars 1 festivals are going to be in for a treat this Halloween, which only adds to the value. There are flaws, like any game. Some might be fixed (LFG), and some might not (FOV). Regardless, it is a great MMO. I plan on playing it for a long time.

I think there is a single point to take away from Guild Wars 2 that I hope worms its way in to all future MMOs. Okay, there are actually tons of good things, but for me, this is the one that matters most.

To be blunt and crude, I am going to call this point “F-yeah, let’s do this”. Continue reading [GW2] The Single Point