The week of in-depth articles has begun with the Guild Wars 2 Design Manifesto. It’s so hard not to shake your head. The game sounds too good. It sounds like there are too many things I have thought about for “my MMO.” Like partying without partying (Public Quests 2.0) or player synergy:
And like the original GW, in GW2 the creativity doesn’t end with your own character. When you play with others, you’ll find that your abilities can complement theirs, and that you can discover new skill combos and strategies between professions. So if you’re playing an Elementalist, try casting a fire wall, and then see what happens when your friends shoot projectiles through it.
The systems sound great, with the first specific article on the combat systems by Eric Flannum (whose coming was foretold with the great Sacrifice). It is not all donuts and jelly. There is one thing that bothers this ol’ MMO player. “Each time you play through the game, you can experience a different storyline.” So not only are they going toe-to-toe with the storytelling masters BioWare, but they too might be making a storytelling system where players can miss things. I truly hope that they make it closer to Guild Wars Nightfall where players could decide a few paths, but could always go back and pick up the actual benefits from the path not taken. I am going to be sad if they make the story system where it’s better to read ahead and figure out which rewards (i.e., path) I want ahead of time.
I don’t want to end on a bad note though because the whole article sounds great. Environmental weapons (throwing boulders back at Elementals), dynamic world, and the basic design philosophy of a game which is not about “preparing to have fun” sound like a bunch of ingredients I want in an MMO. It’s going to be an exciting next few months, and I hope they don’t slow down the pace until launch.
–Ravious
the unreal is more powerful than the real