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[GW2] Server Transfer Wars

Looking ahead to WvW season one, my server of IoJ is going to be in silver league, getting absolutely crushed every week with no chance at all. Our larger WvW guilds transferred away, but that is not factored into what league we will be in. The running debate is whether we will be in last place or next-to-last, which will probably be determined by whether the last few WvW guilds leave. I don’t see anyone transferring TO the bottom servers in each league. As is said of the server competing with us for last place:

They need much more firepower to compete in this league, and being at the bottom of Silver League makes it unlikely their PvE players will be very interested in stepping their toes into WvW.

This is probably true in all leagues, so a system designed to encourage WvW will probably discourage ot in about 1/3 of the servers. And not necessarily the least populated servers: IoJ still has plenty of bodies, but the ones that spent their time primarily in WvW mostly just left, so you get a downward spiral as fewer people find it worthwhile/fun to visit the Mists.

I am not sure how I would design server vs. server competition with the possibility of server transfers without encouraging this sort of thing, but it seems immensely corrosive. I’m deciding whether I want to be the last rat on a sinking ship.

Updating with a golden quote from that thread I linked: “I figured I would start the discussion of what this crapfest of a league will look like. I honestly feel bad for the other servers in Silver league” There will be a few competitive servers and 6-7 victim servers.

: Zubon

[GW2] Return of the Mad King’s Memories

Guild Wars 2 is experiencing the first nostalgic event. After the game’s launch just before September ’12, Shadow of the Mad King was the first big update that happened in October ’12. Of course, that update already had strong roots and expectations from Guild Wars 1, where the Halloween festival was considered one of the best. The Shadow of the Mad King was a great hit, and before the launch of Blood and Madness, people were getting excited about the return of the Halloween festival.

It is even more notable because this is the first update where ArenaNet had built up their foundation so as to push resources towards the other updates such as the previous Twilight Assault or whatever is coming next (possibly even some skunkworks). This isn’t totally true since The Secret of Southsun and Last Stand at Southsun both built on The Lost Shores, but in that case ArenaNet was not really building on a fan favorite. I’m not sure anybody knows what to do with Southsun Cove, but if it got dev resources I would love for it to become the preeminent champion farming zone. Continue reading [GW2] Return of the Mad King’s Memories

[GW2] Creep Count Crowdsource

Readers, many of you play Guild Wars 2, so I come to you with the question: in what ways have exotic-rarity items become easier to acquire since launch? The ones that immediately come to mind for me are:

  • exotic drops added to more drop tables
  • guaranteed rare or better drops from some classes of events
  • increased champion and boss rewards
  • increased karma rewards, particulalry from daily/monthly achievements
  • increased WvW badge rewards, particularly from achievement chests
  • anything that increases rare-rarity items, because you salvage them for materials to craft exotics
  • anything that increases ascended-rarity items, because that frees your resources to pursue exotics

Others? In the vaguely ongoing debate about the perceived need for ascended-rarity items, I noted the argument “exotics are too easy to get.” One of the things that struck me after my return to Guild Wars 2 was that I had multiple level 80 characters fully outfitted in exotics about as quickly as taking them to a tailor to be fitted. I was tempted to say that ascended items only became “necessary” because the difficulty of acquiring exotics had been lowered so much, but that is the wrong order of events. I left town as ascended items were introduced, and fully outfitting characters in exotics was not exactly trivial at that time. I imagine the following dialogue:

Dev: We need ascended items because becoming fully geared in exotics is far faster and easier than we had intended.
Player: It’s not all that quick or easy.
Dev: Really? Give me a minute here. [UPDATE] Okay, now getting exotics is far faster and easier than we had intended, so we need the ascended items.

: Zubon

[TSW] The Secret Waypoint

I am sure this is painfully obvious to most players of The Secret World, but it was a new and refreshing mechanic for me. Basically there is a “waypoint” system in The Secret World, but it doesn’t seem like it was really intended to be used that way.

To do so when out of combat type /reset in the console. This will kill you. Then choose the location you want to resurrect to from the map. Like most fast-travel systems you can only go to locations you’ve found. Anyway, at the resurrection point, hit your action button, and choose to resurrect there. This will eat up 10 durability per item, I think, which in a way isn’t much different than paying a waypoint or fast-travel cost in any other MMO. This has saved me so much marathon running along roads or through the much-hated Ak’hab buggies. Continue reading [TSW] The Secret Waypoint

Dungeons, Dragons, and Dagons

I’ve been enjoying the lessened impact of the Guild Wars 2 dungeon week by spreading more game time around. I dipped my toes a little bit back in to Lord of the Rings Online, played through a God of War game, and tromped through Magic’s Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014. Those have been my small bites surrounded by three following larger courses.

Dungeons (13th Age)

One of my non-MMO passions is table-top roleplaying (e.g., Dungeons and Dragons). My gaming group has gotten a bit lazy on the GM end, so we’ve been defaulting to Magic: the Gathering many nights, but we’re mostly a roleplaying group. I was the last active GM, and I learned a new system FATE to run Spirit of the Century with a vast helping of magic (more in the vein of World of Darkness). The campaign is pulp action set in 1933. Continue reading Dungeons, Dragons, and Dagons

Queuing and Cash Shops

One thing Disney does really well is queuing. The theme parks manage lines well and almost all have a “pre-ride experience,” something to do/see while waiting. For example, if you are waiting for The Little Mermaid ride, the line winds through a structure that looks like a rocky cove, children are encouraged to point out items for digital crabs to take to Scuttle, and later Scuttle is holding court with an extended routine about the items crabs are bringing him. The Haunted Mansion has a graveyard with humorous epitaphs, an area to take pictures with some sculptures, interactive musical and water-shooting mausoleums, cast members in-character as household staff of the doomed, and then several tiers of queues as there is an outside line, a room where riders are collected, a next room where the walls grow (copied from Disneyland, where an elevator was needed for space reasons, I am told), and then a final queue before the actual ride. You are still waiting, but it feels like there is something to do, and when the lines are very short it sometimes feels like you are missing something if you skip that content.

Disney is also starting to use a Fastpass system whereby you can schedule a time to come back and skip towards the front of the line. You are queuing virtually and can do other things, which moderates the lines at the most popular attractions.

Across town, Universal has some pre-ride experiences, but is instead trying to monetize their lines. They have an express pass system, whereby you can pay more to skip to the front of lines at popular attractions. The marketing for this is delicate, as they are explicitly advertising long lines as a reason to give them more money. As an MMO player, you are familiar with “pay us to skip the built-in hassles.” Of course, that same marketing encourages everyone to think of the park as having long lines, annoys the people paying the normal amount because of P2Win, and then they cannot even celebrate the express passes as being popular because skipping to the front just becomes another line if too many people are paying for the privilege.

: Zubon

[GW2] The Aetherpath

I ran the new path in the Twlight Arbor dungeon last night successfully with more or less a pick-up-group. I say more or less because Mrs. Ravious and a friend who plays Guild Wars 2 casually came along with two completely random strangers. Mrs. Ravious does not spend much time at all in dungeons, and my friend who has some dungeon experience exclaimed that this was possibly the hardest dungeon experience he’s ever had. Our winning combination was a necromancer (me), a ranger, an engineer, a guardian, and a thief.

The Coordinated 80

The first thing to note about the Aetherpath is that it is level 80 content. Twilight Arbor is a level 50 story dungeon with two other explorable paths at level 55. The Aetherpath is much more difficult at least in part because it does require a decently geared level 80. I am not talking ascended, but players that intend to hit the Aetherpath should have a “build” complete with prefixes, runes, and jewels.

The other piece of the difficulty is in coordination. Almost every bit of the dungeon requires some coordination especially with the boss fights. It is not enough that players understand the mechanics because there are still roles involved. It is doable with a random group, but that group has to be prepared to face content requiring a specific plan of attack. Somehow my group gelled last night, but I am honestly not sure how. Continue reading [GW2] The Aetherpath

[GW2] Twilight Assault Preview Thoughts

The limited preview a few fansites and press had last week for Guild Wars 2 was run by Leif Chappelle. He was part of the team that designed the new path to Twilight Arbor, but the team had already cut its teeth on the Aetherblade Retreat dungeon. Chappelle’s dungeon design experience stemmed from the Molten Alliance dungeon. This was a pretty good start to creating a team that would make the level 80 dungeon path for Twilight Arbor.

For some fans the decision to make another path would come at too great a cost because the new path replaced the much reviled forward/up path. Of course now to some the lovingly named TAFU (Twilight Arbor Forward Up) was the best dungeon path in the game. Chappelle already addresses these concerns with diplomatic aplomb on the official forums; although he acknowledges that some fans will not be happy regardless. Continue reading [GW2] Twilight Assault Preview Thoughts

[GW2] Tequila, Twilight Bitters, and an 8-bit Garnish

I am pretty excited about tomorrow’s update bringing a new path to the Twilight Arbor dungeon. Once Leif Chappelle broke radio silence on the official forums I knew that this update would be top notch.  Chappelle worked on the really fun Molten Facility dungeon and he joined forces with the krewe of Aetherblade Retreat, which was also really well done. These folks, in my opinion, understand what should be a dungeon in Guild Wars 2.

However, this is a level 80 dungeon. I noticed between school starting and a vacation right after school started (I believe corpocratic discussions amidst Disney-beings is more worthwhile for my daughters’ futures than grammar and recess)… where was I, yes… I had stopped writing the New Players Guides. Believe you me, this was not a conscious decision. Thankfully some part of my gray matter had seen the pattern before I did. ArenaNet has been mixing their drinks lately for end game players. Continue reading [GW2] Tequila, Twilight Bitters, and an 8-bit Garnish

[GW2] Tea Time with Tequatl – Dragon Hour Two

Jeromai comments on the lessening population concerned with Tequatl’s incursion on some south beach. Basically the Living World event focus is starting to blur. It’s to be expected since ArenaNet seems publicly aware that during the second week of something new player activity starts to diminish.

On the other hand, I am enjoying beating that rotten face every night around server reset. It all depends on community and personal focus. The people are there; it’s just a matter of finding them. Continue reading [GW2] Tea Time with Tequatl – Dragon Hour Two