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[GW2] The Insulated Second Game

Zubon quite correctly pointed out in discussing some of Guild Wars 2 endgame progression that structured PvP remains insulated. It’s a small nod or jab at what I feel is a rather large problem. Guild Wars 2 is two separate games.

The first game is the one I mostly write about. It is the one most Guild Wars 2 bloggers seem to be playing. Except for gear-based arena-like PvP and player dueling, it is mostly a complete MMO. It has PvE, dungeons, and server-based PvP (WvW). This first game is what gets media attention, player attention, and probably generates the most income for ArenaNet. A PAX Prime interview by Massively has one anonymous ArenaNet dev stating with regard to that second game that ‘most people who play Guild Wars 2 only play PvE’.

The second game is structured PvP where when entered all that hard work done in the first game vanishes. All skills and equipments are unlocked. Builds can be changed without any gold cost. And players fight in about a fair manner as can be expected in an MMO. The second game has its own currency (Glory) uncaring about any of the dozen currencies in the first game (and vice versa). Continue reading [GW2] The Insulated Second Game

[GW2] Slow Creep

Last year, Guild Wars 2 was perceived as experiencing three-monther doldrums and had calls for increasing character advancement options. Lost Shores included the first Ascended items and Fractals of the Mists, a dungeon where rewards increased at deeper levels and an “agony” mechanic demanded item-based progression. Developers promised more character advancement, a higher level cap, and more tiers of loot. I flipped out and stormed off. I read that as the death of the horizontal endgame I signed up for. Respect for Ravious’s ongoing enjoyment was the main thing that kept me from posting daily screeds.

Fast forward six or eight months, and I became willing to give trust another chance. Now about half the slots have Ascended items, with many options and several ways to get them. The level cap has not increased. The endgame is still mostly horizontal, with expanded Achiever content through achievements, appropriately enough. I do not feel obliged to delve thirty layers into Fractals to have a worthwhile character in PvE or WvW. sPvP remains insulated.

I am still expecting more character advancement. Long before the latest update, a guildmate described anticipated crafting changes as a precursor to Ascended armor; we happened to get weapons first. I still think Ascended gear is a design mistake, but since the tier is here, sure, complete it. The slow pace implies that we will not be seeing a new tier several times a year, which is comforting. Several proposed changes are expanding character options, not creating a new layer of them. Again, comforting — “more options” is what I signed up for.

I do not know if I overreacted or if ArenaNet changed plans. I certainly heard “more progression” and “we never promised a horizontal endgame.” I saw the worst advancement schemes from WoW (item-based progression), LotRO (gloom), and DAoC (Trials of Atlantis) being planned all at once. If that change is coming at this pace, I can deal with it; that could actually feel like “progression” rather than “churn.”

I may still flip out and storm off again if character advancement pressures accelerate. I am already concerned about how they are affecting alt-friendliness.

In the long run, trying to retain players through planned obsolescence is just prolonging a death spiral. The further the endgame is from the start, the less attractive your game is to new players, and every time you have a gear reset to bring the new endgame back closer, you upset your existing players who can see the treadmill more clearly.

: Zubon

Good Title

To quote the developer:

I just finished a new [game], and it’s an introspective take on a personal life experience I once had that I think leaves me emotionally vulnerable, while encouraging the player to think about their own feelings and how they’re perceived by the people around them.

It’s called Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar.

You may be able to guess what the game is about.

: Zubon

The Treachery of Images

Regular readers know that I rarely include pictures in my posts. I am not a visual person. My mental world is verbal and quantitative, and embellishment usually strikes me as willful distraction preluding deception. I write about mechanics and gameplay and seem to be made suspicious by great graphics because what are you trying to hide?

I am unusual in this respect. I have poor vision and am somewhere in the bottom ten percent for mental imagery. Those with better sensory gifts may instead see that “embellishment” as the whole point, with the game mechanics there as a framework for the aesthetic experience.
Continue reading The Treachery of Images

[GW2] Tribulation Matrix

Tribulation Mode in Super Adventure Box was made for specific niche of gamer. I personally love games and mechanics that require very specific action sequences. Super Meat Boy comes to mind as one of the last ones requiring intense and correct actions. Anyway, many gamers outside the niche just fail to see any fun in this type of gameplay; so I made a short video to provide, perhaps, a bit of explanation. Enjoy!


–Ravious

[GW2] School of Hard Knocks and Impressions

I think this two-week period in Guild Wars 2 is good. A lot of people are returning to school, and honestly a break is a good thing. Whether intended or not, I think ArenaNet has given many the break with the return of Super Adventure Box. There’s still plenty for the casual hardcore to do in the way of working on ascended weaponry, but there’s no push to keep beating back invasions.

Ascended Offense

Ascended weaponry is a good point between exotics and legendaries. It requires a substantial commitment, but nowhere on the order of chasing a legendary. The time-gating is rather light compared to getting that daily laurel for ascended trinkets. However, it is a commitment. It takes a commitment to get to crafting level 450, but players need to salvage exotics anyway for the Glob of Dark Matter (account bound exotic “glob”). It takes commitment to mine or chop a couple hundred tier 5 nodes (or buy from the trading post). And, the biggest hurdle I see, is it takes commitment to do more Guild Wars 2 content, specifically those that give empyreal fragments. Continue reading [GW2] School of Hard Knocks and Impressions

[GW2] Super Adventure Preview: School Loops

There is nothing that I can write that can compare with some other sites’ fundamental previews of today’s Super Adventure Box update for Guild Wars 2; so I want to head in another direction: What I got from Josh Foreman who guided the preview tour of Super Adventure Box: Back to School.

In one sense it’s “more of the same”. There’s a cute, Notchian world filled with harsh jumps and old school mechanics. The setting is different with World 2, Zone 1 having been previewed last Super Adventure Box, and World 2, Zone 2 being high in the clouds with the school of assassins. It is a nice change from the dark, canopy covered swamp of the later part of World 1. Still, World 2 is part of the Super Adventure Box as a whole. Players know approximately what they are going to get. Continue reading [GW2] Super Adventure Preview: School Loops

Rivalry

Economists classify goods on a public-private spectrum based on the extent to which they are rivalrous and exclusive. Exclusivity is based on how easily one can be prevented from enjoying a good, and rivalry is based on whether my enjoyment of the good prevents you from enjoying it. National defense is a classic public good: any number of citizens can benefit from it at once, and there is no way to keep someone from enjoying the benefits. Food is a classic private good: we cannot both eat the same bite of food, and there are a variety of ways for me to keep you from eating my food.

Different MMOs place their mobs at different points on the public-private spectrum. In the early days, mobs tended to be rivalrous but not exclusive: whoever got the last hit got the prize, no matter who dealt the most damage, tanked, etc. The reigning solution to the problem was tapping so that you could claim property rights on an enemy, but claiming a camp was a matter of social convention rather than game mechanics. If you tapped the mobs out from under someone, they were yours. Instanced enemies are exclusive. Guild Wars 2 took the unusual step of making mobs mostly non-rivalrous: until the enemy runs out of hp, we can all get all the benefit from it. There is still some rivalrousness in the race to tag enemies or get to the event boss before it falls, but everyone in the fight shares in the fight. [Update: commenters have noted that other MMOs have followed suit to varying extents.]

: Zubon

[GW2] Guild Recruitment

In case you are not taking advantage of the “guild” part of Guild Wars 2, my guild is recruiting. We could use some new blood to rejuvenate the nightly events and fill out the guild missions on the weekends. Events are scheduled, so if you are just interested in guesting for them, that works.

The guild is Assured Mutual Destruction [ICBM] of Isle of Janthir. Rather than repeat the link, you can see our advertising copy there. You can apply online or in-game with a message to Leohan.

If you are not participating in a guild, you are missing pieces of the game. Some content is exclusive to guild missions, and I recommend guild commendations for acquiring ascended accessories. And let me level with you: with two more people consistently attending, we can start completing Guild Challenges, and with a dozen more even the hardest guild missions would become manageable.

: Zubon