Guild Wars 2: Any Takers? by HKCavalier

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Guild Wars 2: Any Takers?

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POSTED BY: HKCAVALIER
UPDATED: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 12:55
SHORT URL: http://bit.ly/NUyDQw
VIEWED: 4619
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Saturday, August 25, 2012 5:11 PM

HKCAVALIER

Hey all,

Just wonderin' if anyone's playing this. Been playing here on the "head start" weekend. It's kinda phenomenal so far. It never stops. Instead of quests, people just run up to you and tell you their business and a note shows up in the upper right corner of the screen and off ya go. You finish one thing and there are half a dozen other things for you to do. It can be overwhelming at first but it's lots of fun. I think--I can't be sure yet. It kinda grabbed hold of me today and I woke up a few hours later when someone walked in the door. That hasn't happened to me in years.

I'm on Ehmry Bay. Main character so far is a Norn Warrior named Chillaxe.

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Saturday, August 25, 2012 6:03 PM

FREMDFIRMA

I dunno...

I am still pissed off at the original Guild Wars - I purchased it on their assertion that one could play solo, an assertion I tested with their trial at the time, and then after money changes hands comes that whole scorching thing and dun-dun-dunnn, PARTY REQUIRED - that you can fill it with (mostly useless) AI drones makes it no less a party REQUIRED environment, and I hated it for that, and threw it out the window.

Not particularly interested cause of this, and I firmly feel that any forced-party system leads to exploitation, drama, and bitterness which makes a game completely unenjoyable, FFXI is kind of the poster child for this, and I really *HATE* being locked into someone elses schedule, or having to impose my schedule upon them - if I am playing a game, entertainment, and I want to go do something else, make a sandwich or whatever, then I like having the option of doing so without leaving other people swinging in the breeze, right ?

-F

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Saturday, August 25, 2012 9:16 PM

HKCAVALIER

Um...far be it from me to interfere with your grudge, but...this game absolutely does not require grouping. It's all WAR style "public quests." You "group" with whomever is on hand automatically.

And of course, GW1 and GW2 are nothing alike.

Also, you can play with anyone of any level, because if you're too high for an area your level scales down. Also, though it ain't implemented just yet, they will have "guesting" which allows you to play with anyone regardless of server. It's all super user friendly and it gets rid of the "holy trinity" and well, y'know, etc.

Just sayin'.

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

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Sunday, August 26, 2012 12:17 PM

BYTEMITE

I didn't like the first Guild Wars because parties eventually were mandatory, and because later in the game it seemed to just become a PVP grief fest.

Not really excited about GW2.

Quote:
It's all WAR style "public quests." You "group" with whomever is on hand automatically.

I can think of a dozen ways off the top of my head this would go wrong and someone can either leech or grief. And knowing gamers and the internet, that'll pretty much become the majority of what goes on.

Swtor goes free to play this fall, I've still got characters even though it's a pretty typical MMORPG. And I've still been playing Diablo 3 despite all the outcry, it's good for stress relief even while the click fest keeps you on your toes.

Anthony might play with you, he usually seems pretty game to try anything.

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Sunday, August 26, 2012 2:10 PM

HKCAVALIER

Hey,

Thanks for chiming in Byte. Nice to see you in print. :)

I don't know what to do with you guys and your grudges. What does your grudge have to do with me? "I'm sorry, I'm so hung up on how bad a 10 year old game was that I won't consider any game from that company for the rest of my life." And you can think of how this game you've never played could turn into a grief fest. What the hell is that? Seriously, what possible upside is there to making such an extreme snap (pre)judgement?

I'm not trying to convince you of anything. Just don't understand.

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

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Sunday, August 26, 2012 3:50 PM

BYTEMITE

I didn't like the first guild wars, true, and I tend to buy games in a series based on whether I liked the previous ones. But my objection to the automatic groups is quite a bit simpler than that.

Are you familiar with the horror that, in other game fandoms, is called the "pick-up group?" Imagine that you are suddenly and automatically roped into a pick up group for some number of quests, maybe a lot, maybe only a few, but that your progress is dependent upon your successfully cooperating with strangers. They may or may not have the right complement of in game or real life skill for the challenge you are attempting. And that's the best case scenario, without malice factored in.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PickUpGroup

Failure is the only option.

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Sunday, August 26, 2012 4:59 PM

FARFLY

I've played Guild Wars for a little over four years now. I have yet to do any PVP or arena battles, and only played in a group with my daughter a few times. My first character finished the Tyrian campaign using only henchmen, no heroes. There were a few times I went out trying to gather some drops for various quests and found I got better results without having henchmen along.

In most of the missions if you try to start with less than the recommended party size it gives a warning but does not prevent you from trying. My daughter and her friends were heavy into the 55 or 600 monk questing, which is really solo.

I'm currently also playing a lot of Aion and the latest version of that has a fast-track server for players level 50 and lower that eliminates the possibility of getting ganked by opposing race players while you're working on leveling your character. They used to just have defensive buffs to protect you but when geared level 45 players ambush level 20 players who can't run away or fight them, the fun is gone.

Also with Aion, there are some areas that require a group for entry but once in the door you can solo. It's not that hard to get a quick group invite and as long as they know, you can quit the group once you're in the instance.

I haven't seen Guild Wars 2 yet but hope to play it solo as well.

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Monday, August 27, 2012 5:11 AM

HKCAVALIER

Hey Byte,

Yes, I am familiar with pick-up groups (they worked pretty well in Lich King--pretty great for a short while, didn't work at all in Cataclysm). GW2 doesn't have that. It doesn't work like WoW. What they seem to have done is make a long list of all the things that don't work in MMO's and seriously got rid of them. That's what they said they was agonna do and, holy crap, they seem to have actually done it!

I'm very curious what never-before-seen problems they've come up with, but so far I ain't found 'em. Oh, one thing: voice acting in the cut scenes is kinda terrible from time to time. SWTOR had great cut scenes but the gameplay was a snore--I'm happy to trade the cool mini-movies for a game that actually looks good and plays this well.

Anyway.

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

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Monday, August 27, 2012 7:51 AM

BYTEMITE

Quote:
they worked pretty well in Lich King

They really didn't. If anything, the Death Knights made things even worse - people had to know how to play their classes, and usually didn't. And then on the off chance your group doesn't wipe five times on a relatively simple encounter, there's the customary loot argument and rage quit.

The basics of a pickup group.

Sounds like Guild Wars 2 has given people individual loot to avoid that, so no loot ninjas, but you're still going to have the other problems that arise whenever cooperating with strangers.

Don't like required partying. Give me a game where you can solo everything, but if a friend joins in, everything scales up in strength accordingly.

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Monday, August 27, 2012 8:02 AM

HKCAVALIER

Byte,

You've had some bad luck and I've had some good luck. Why tell me that a game I played for 5 years didn't work when it worked for me? And so far I have not been forced to group with anyone in GW2. You can level to max from crafting alone. You are terribly misinformed about this game. Why do you insist on having opinions about what it's like to play a game you've never played? Does that seem right to you? This isn't even RWED. lol

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

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Monday, August 27, 2012 11:07 AM

BYTEMITE

All I've said is that I don't really want to play it, and that I have doubts it can deliver on the promises you're saying it's making. If it works for you, great, have fun, I'm still not going to play it.

I have never been adverse to having an opinion about something without ever having tried it. For example, I'm not really partial to the Twilight series of books. In this case, my not wanting to play GW2 is amplified by having not liked the first game. Side note, my account on WoW is still active (yet I don't really play, kinda burned out on the same ol' MMORPG leveling format), and I've never done a pick up group there either. My comments stem from the experiences that my friends would complain about, and it turned me off from doing any sort of raiding or instances in WoW ever. My gear is terrible. And I don't really care that it is.

This is fairly typical for conversations people have with me. I measure my unpleasantness in units of fire ants.

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Tuesday, September 11, 2012 11:28 AM

HKCAVALIER

Hey Frem,

I'm gonna try nudging you toward this game. I mean, I think it's amazingly fun and beautiful and engrossing and all, but the interesting thing--interesting to you and me, that is--is how the game rewards cooperation. No need to group--in fact, the only reason I'm seeing to join a group is to keep track of each other's little dots on the mini-map and to have a private chat channel--because you and everyone else in the world are just in the same boat. Cooperation makes everything easier and makes major challenges possible sooner. This is the only MMO I've played where seeing another player going after the same boss/node/objective as you is actually a completely welcome event. All the resource nodes are attuned to each player, so everyone can get at them without competition. And everyone gets credit for every kill as long as they do some damage to the baddie before it goes down. With bosses and major events there's a Gold/Silver/Bronze level of award, meted out according to your contribution. Gone are the days when you work your way through a ton of mobs to get to the rich silver vein only to have some dwarf riding a dragon steal it from you and /laugh.

The other thing that brings the community together is the game's "downed state" mechanic. When you lose all your health you enter a "downed state." At that point you can throw rocks or attempt to bandage yourself if no one is actively trying to slit your throat, or use a set of class specific skills like a thief's smoke bomb to evade attackers briefly or a guardian's pulse of light energy to knock enemies down. It's great to whittle an enemy down to next to nothing and go down and still be able to beat 'em. I've been in fights with a crowd of mole men, say, and gone down repeatedly only to rise again and again as one or another of my foes falls. It can really feel like an epic brawl that way.

But the great part about the downed state is that other players, anyone around, can revive you if they can just have a few seconds without getting killed. So with a big boss fight there's a rhythm that sets in with folks regularly stepping out of the brawl to revive fallen comrades.

The whole process of interdependence works so smoothly and is so intuitive that you can practically feel the goodwill coming from your monitor (okay, maybe not you, but I can lol). GW2 removes all the competition (in PvE, o' course, plenty of competition--but it's competition in a group on group context and the PvE everyone's been playing has strengthened your bond with your team mates) and what's left is a lot of happy folks playing a game just because it's fun.

I used to think that Blizzard were the masters of psychology, but ANet have utterly trumped 'em with this game.

Anyway, that's my schpiel. Take it for what's it worth. Granted, this is such a great game it really begs to be enjoyed with friends and I'm parenthetically desperate to get some 4 or so of my nearest and dearest to play with me--so far all my friends but one have been throwing no end of excuses at me and he got himself a new gf so we've played once--half of 'em are still paying monthly fees on other games that they feel the need to "get their money's worth" before their subscriptions run out, poor bastards.

So, there y'have it. I'll be on the Ehmery Bay server going by the name of Chillaxe.

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

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Tuesday, September 11, 2012 12:55 PM

BYTEMITE

I'll admit the Charr seem interesting and I'm amused by your name (possibly a Charr yourself?). But, another MMORPG... They're all so SIMILAR at the basic level. Some have more features than others, but they distill down to a general sameness.

I suppose if I weren't burned out on MMORPGS, I might play Guild Wars 2.

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