Life After Guild Wars 2

Behold my eightyness

Ding 80 in Guild Wars 2 and I was met with an almighty ‘now what?’. Over at GuildWars2Hub there is this list of 80 things to do when you reach level 80 in GW2. Some of them don’t really interest me (Fill every collection slot in the bank with at least one item? I think not). Others, such as finishing my personal story, are obvious choices. I am very tempted to start a new character (something which is also on the list), but I have not grown tired of the Warrior class yet. Levels are not so meaningful in GW2 anyways, at least not as much as they are in other MMOs. Focusing on the World Vs World Vs World aspect of the game is also something I have been meaning to do. Plus: I have yet to get into a dungeon. I feel it is quite a daunting task to be trying that with complete strangers. This game seems to require more coordination than most due to the lack of specific role each party member has. From what I have read about instances in Guild Wars 2 they can be brutally hard. However I am quite sure I can get enough real life friends to set up a decent party.

Dynamic Events: A Game Changer?

Fear me and my Pink Underwear of Eternal Torment™.

Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 2. GUILD WARS 2!

It’s on everyone’s mouth right now and possibly on most people’s hard disks. The kind of people who love playing MMOs anyways. This game created such a positive buzz in the MMO community since… …well possibly since World of Warcraft. It is refreshing not just because its new but because it does things in a new way. On second thought that is not exactly true. Guild Wars 2 took the aging (and some would say stagnating) MMO genre, broke it apart, and then rebuilt it to craft an experience which feels in equal parts familiar and fresh much like Blizzard did all those years ago. The original Guild Wars also did things in a new way but its biggest feature was by and large the payment method. Most other features were a step back to me. Ideas which felt half finished. Given ArenaNet’s budget at the time I cannot blame them. However Guild Wars 2 is a different kettle of fish.

I am not here to wax lyrical about GW2 (but I probably will). I won’t hide the fact that right now I am loving the game and got my Warrior to a comfortable level 71. Quite possibly this will be the fastest I have ever reached level cap in an MMO. My lack of contributions to the blog are testament to how engrossed I have become with Tyria. ArenaNet did plenty of things extremely well, other things less so. The merits/faults of some decisions need to be scrutinised further and mulled over the long haul for me to judge accurately since they pertain to the fabled ‘end-game’. There are big question marks regarding my interest in the game once I hit 80 although by now I have learnt not to doubt ArenaNet’s ability to deliver (it sometimes pays off to be skeptical mind you). For certain the game has an extremely solid and very promising foundation and it will be interesting to see where ArenaNet decides to take it.

Guild Wars 2: Initial Impressions

I am digging the Jesus Christ Superstar helmet

Ok internet. I take it back. In one of my previous posts, which stirred much controversy, I criticized ArenaNet for claiming to have abolished the holy trinity while allowing players to spec for healing and tanking. While I am not going to claim having delved deep enough to know the intricacies of the grouping system (something I will do when I eventually get into some instances) I can safely say that I was wrong and whoever called me on this was right. With that out of the way here are my initial Guild Wars 2 impressions.

Anyone who read my previous posts related to GW2 will know that I quite disliked the beta weekends experience and did not have very high hopes for the game. Not that I was doubting it would be a good game. The player buzz, developer talk, and youtube videos all indicated that ArenaNet was onto something here. However you sometimes fail to connect with a game in spite of its many virtues. I feared that would be the case for me and I wouldn’t be able to join the launch buzz leaving me with 55€ worth of data on my hard disk just waiting for an uninstall. After leveling a Warrior to 20 over the past 5 days I can say that I shouldn’t have worried. Guild Wars 2 is a great game and I am loving it.

Guild Wars 2 (Almost) Here. In Other News….

Forums are down, but at least some information is trickling through Twitter

Update (26/8/12): Yesterday, before going to work, I managed to log into the game and play for a couple of minutes. Just enough to make me regret not taking the night shift off. However I did book a week leave off work so that I can enjoy the new MMO rush as best as I can. Will try and post my initial thoughts of the game as soon as I have formed an opinion. In the meantime see you in Tyria!

(Original Post): Early access for Guild Wars 2 started today and I still don’t feel extremely excited about it. Don’t get me wrong. I want the game to succeed and I am dying to fall in love with it. Its been a while since I enjoyed an MMO at launch and I long for that experience. So, why am I writing this blog post instead of enjoying the game right now? For the simple reason that the GW2 login server won’t let me log in. Wouldn’t it be funny if I got a dialogue box saying Error 37 after each failed login? No it wouldn’t. Thankfully Arena.net know about the issue and are working on it but I will have to play the waiting game. And here I was hoping for a smooth launch. So, while I wait for a chance to get into the game I will share my thoughts on some relatively recent MMO news.

Revering the Holy Trinity

In MMO terms Holy Trinity refers to a Tank, Healer and Damage Dealer

ArenaNet are being very bold with their claim that their upcoming title, Guild Wars 2, will not rely on the Holy Trinity (HT), a game mechanic which the genre has relied on since the beginning of time. They claim that to succeed you will not need a tank and a healer in a group. This has got me thinking: Can any developer actually claim that they did away with such an old MMO trope?

Here is a video showing five dps specced characters running Ascalonian Catacombs and ‘progressing’. The video was not actually shot by ArenaNet but it is being circulated on Google+ through the ArenaNet channel, which I take to mean that they agree with the content. I came away from the video feeling totally unconvinced for three reasons:

1) The run cannot be called smooth by any stretch of the imagination. The narrator dies a whole lot and, although he does not give any indication of how long it took them, I am guessing it was quite a slog.

2) Ascalonian Catacombs is not a high level dungeon. To really test whether a system is required or can be ignored you have to test the most difficult parts. Easier parts inherently allow more leeway for experimentation.

3) In the video, the dungeon was not completed. From what I see they just barely managed to kill the last boss shown, but apparently the last boss shown is not the final boss of the instance.

Guild Wars 2: Is It Getting Beta?

I don’t like Guild Wars 2.

This may or may not make it into the game

Allow me to elaborate on that before I am branded an internet troll, dragged to the gallows and publicly ridiculed in front of a rabid MMO community.

Guild Wars 2 seems to be the darling of the industry right now and anyone who played the beta (and even a good chunk of people who never stepped into Tyria 2.0) cannot stop waxing lyrical about its many graces and how it will be the one game to rule them all. On paper it all sounds great. A modern action oriented MMO with a huge overworld to explore, beautiful art direction, interesting combat mechanics and a strong PvP component. Equally important: it will have no monthly fees. What’s not to love? I pre-purchased quite a while ago and couldn’t wait to play it.