The Rapture of Gaming

[Zavon]

Its almost upon us.

I'm not one to jump on a bandwagon. Even games I'm excited about-- I always maintain a healthy dose of skepticism. I do my best to ignore the chatter about games, and form my own opinion by actually playing them.

That being said: The WoW killer hath finally come. Whether by intent or circumstance of age, Guild Wars 2 will be what breaks WoW's grip on the gaming industry.

It has exceeded all my expectations. It has completely redefined what an mmo is and what an mmo should be.

It has irrevocably broken the trinity. This is huge! No matter what game you play, whether it be TSW or Swtor or Warhammer online; a game with a trinity will be too familiar. This, in my humble opinion, is why so many have failed to topple WoW. The gameplay of guild wars 2 is so unfamiliar, so different from the trinity, that you can NOT burn out in mere days. The experience is simply too different.

Further, they have done something even more genius than I expect any of us gave them credit for... They philosophically reproached what PvE means (and how best to keep it from PvP). In GW2 there is ONLY cooperative pve! You can't steal a kill. You can't steal a node. You can only really *help* someone. I hope, that this approach, will result in a far better community.

With the way pvp is set up, I can't imagine that it, wouldn't. The server pride days of daoc, will return.

Thoughts ?

[Alex Mars]

Isn't GW2 heavily twitch? That alone will keep some people from playing it.

[Marou]

Isn't GW2 heavily twitch? That alone will keep some people from playing it.

It's certainly gives more player control than standard formula stuff, but it's not as twitch as an FPS, or action MMO's like Vindictus, C9, etc.

[Zavon]

No, its not really twitch at all You can dodge like maybe twice in 10 seconds, then once every 8 seconds or something like that.

[Marou]

No, its not really twitch at all You can dodge like maybe twice in 10 seconds, then once every 8 seconds or something like that.

Yerg, it's about as "twitch" as DDO is "twitch". Which is to say, constant attention and good player control are needed, but it's not like there is location based damage, or the ability to do things as quickly as your mouse and computer setup will allow.

[VKhaun]

Active dodge done the same as TSW?

What do you mean 'can't steal a node'?
Crafting nodes are timered per person or something?

[Andile™]

I've been thinking about getting it, even though I don't get much play time for anything these days. Still, the feedback has been too good from all I can remember?

Can you expand though on the "there is only co-op pve" comment? As someone who may only be able to play in 30-minute bursts at a time, it worries me that I may need to run around and find groups to do anything.

[Zavon]

Active dodge done the same as TSW?

What do you mean 'can't steal a node'?
Crafting nodes are timered per person or something?

Yes there is active dodge like in TSW. Only its more fluid, you can do it more often, and you are completely invulnerable to damage in the middle of a dodge.

A lot of persistent worlds include boss camping, node poaching, and loot stealing. How does Guild Wars 2 address this?

Loot and event rewards are determined entirely by individual participation. Anyone contributing significantly to foe deaths or events will receive the same benefits whether in a group or solo.
Every resource node in the game is instanced for each player. If one player mines a Copper Ore node, it will be mined out for only that player. The node will still exist for any player, who has not yet mined it.
Loot is assigned to each individual character, it cannot be stolen or seen by others.
The philosophy of Guild Wars 2 is that players should be excited to see someone running up to them... not be afraid that the other player will steal loot, experience or make the game-play unpleasant.

@Andile:

You should get it. You don't even really have the need to group with anyone unless you plan on running a dungeon. There aren't even quests in the game. The way it works is that there are places all over the map where stuff is happening. You just run up and help complete events with whoever is in that area. There are "designated" heart areas which you want to try to do all of in a map. Then there are spontaneous ones, which are located all over the place (sometimes even in hidden areas you've discovered).

This game has tried very hard to make a "world". You basically roam around in whatever direction you desire, doing whatever tasks you want to do. With only 30 minutes of game play you could still feel like you've done a lot. In fact, I only played the stress test for 1 hour last night, and it was glorious.

[Boxy Brown]

Its almost upon us.

I'm not one to jump on a bandwagon. Even games I'm excited about-- I always maintain a healthy dose of skepticism. I do my best to ignore the chatter about games, and form my own opinion by actually playing them.

That being said: The WoW killer hath finally come. Whether by intent or circumstance of age, Guild Wars 2 will be what breaks WoW's grip on the gaming industry.

It has exceeded all my expectations. It has completely redefined what an mmo is and what an mmo should be.

It has broken the irrevocably broken the trinity. This is huge! No matter what game you play, whether it be TSW or Swtor or Warhammer online; a game with a trinity will be too familiar. This, in my humble opinion, is why so many have failed to topple WoW. The gameplay of guild wars 2 is so unfamiliar, so different from the trinity, that you can NOT burn out in mere days. The experience is simply to diverse.

Further, they have done something even more genius than I expect any of us gave them credit for... They philosophically reproached what PvE means (and how best to keep it from PvP). In GW2 there is ONLY cooperative pve! You can't steal a kill. You can't steal a node. You can only really *help* someone. I hope, that this approach, will result in a far better community.

With the way pvp is set up, I can't imagine that it, wouldn't. The server pride days of daoc, will return.

Thoughts ?

The way you describe it makes me wet with anticipation. I wasn't going to get the game until I read this. I'm sold.

Not being able to Mordred people is kind of a buzzkill but I'll sacrifice that in a heartbeat for a good community, server pride and enemy notoriety.

[Zavon]

Yeah well the pvp is absolutely perfect too. At level two, once you leave the starting intro phase (about 6 minutes into the game) you can go to the pvp area. Its sort of a lobby. While in the lobby, you have complete access to all skills and abilities. There is a vendor that gives you whatever PVP weapons and stats you want. You can pick whatever trait or spec you desire. Then you can either go to sPvP (Structured pvp which is like a battle ground in WoW) or just go over to the WvWvW area. There you can just roam around a massive zone and gank as you see fit. Everyone is on equal footing. No one gets an advantage from PVE. If your realm is doing well in WvWvW, then you will get awesome bonuses in PvE.

Imo, this is the most perfect PVP system we have ever seen.



Here is the map of the WvWvW area. From what I understand those little camps outside the keeps give your server resources. You can then use the resources to build siege or defense equipment. So, if you don't like to do the massive zerg a keep thing, then you can just harass the other servers by stealing the resource camps. Small team WvWvW.

[Boxy Brown]

God I'm sweating this so hard right now dude. Do you guys know what servers you're going to set up on? I'd love to get a catacombs guild going and stick with it. If this game is as ownage as it's starting to look than I'll be playing it for a good long time.

[Zavon]

No, I'm not sure about what server to play on yet. BUT! Here is something else that's sweet: You can be in multiple guilds. In fact, Taloas was on a different server as me, and so was Zoobi, and we were all in a catacombs guild.

[Boxy Brown]

So how does that work for WvWvW? Is it guild over server or server over guild? I mean for example, if your server gets pitted up against the server of the other guild you're in, what happens?

[Zoobi]

So how does that work for WvWvW? Is it guild over server or server over guild? I mean for example, if your server gets pitted up against the server of the other guild you're in, what happens?

You can do PVE stuff together iirc, but not WvWvW.

[Graveworm]

Do you guys know what servers you're going to set up on?

Related:

[VKhaun]

WvWvW is it's on PvP type though, right?
What about cross-W regular PvP arenas?

[Zavon]

WvWvW is it's on PvP type though, right?
What about cross-W regular PvP arenas?

Yeah, there are two types of pvp. There is WvWvW, which is just a big area you roam around in taking keeps, camps, or defending them. In that area you will be fighting against the two other servers. Or, you can just go to sPvP-- which is just like an arena/battleground.



There is a video of some guys nailing down their strategy for the structured pvp (sPvP).

[Graveworm]

Worth noting is that sPvP is cross-server, unlike WvW*, and you are also given free max-stat gear and all of your traits and abilities are unlocked so that the playing field is perfectly level for everyone.

* - When I say WvW is not cross-sever, I mean you are stuck playing for your server with other people on your server. Obviously you play against two other servers at any given time. sPvP let's you play with your buddies on any server.

[Taolas]

Keg Brawl mini-game!


I need to find out if they plan to have cross server play at launch. Then we can pick our servers... if there's a problem with it, I would be more inclined to try and get us all on the same server.

Some classes constantly require a lot of quick skill decisions in the proper locations, it's really fun. Other classes feel more focused and I get a bit bored... they have some finesse about them, but meh. If they have another stress test that isn't too laggy I'll make an engi video.

[Zavon]

Now that you mention it Taolas, my one biggest complaint is that I can't decide which class I want to play.

[VKhaun]

That duel vid was a bit corny, but the combat looked nice.

As I said in the TSW thread, the end of that game is showing a real drop in quality. Now that I'm going back and doing raids, I'm finding them buggy and frustrating. I'm still not liking anything I'm reading on the state of PvP... I think I'll jump ship and do the GW2 thing after all. :/

[Garal]

Everything I've heard about GW2 (admittedly, not a lot) has gotten me really excited. But I don't know if I want to drop $60 on another game after D3. GW2 is subscription free though, right?

[Zavon]

Everything I've heard about GW2 (admittedly, not a lot) has gotten me really excited. But I don't know if I want to drop $60 on another game after D3. GW2 is subscription free though, right?

Yep. And, I've played GW2 for the last three beta weekends (I also played D3). D3 was a massive disappointment. Guild Wars 2, though, is magic. They lived up to the hype.

[Taolas]

Stress test tomorrow at 11am-12 noon for those who purchased.

Have you narrowed it down at all? I'm really torn between elementalist or engineer first, but can always flip between the two, maybe using crafting as an excuse. If you're really PvE oriented, figuring out what race might have complimentary skills to a certain class also helps. Asura engi doesn't want more utility skills, which is good because I don't like the Asura utilities. Engi is a bit lax on elite skills and the Asura ones are awesome. Charr have what felt like an OP power buff, which combos crazy with the Warrior one. I heard power buffs were changed to give condition damage too, so maybe doing a Charr mesmer for the extra utility buff.

For those that haven't played, most buffs last like 3-15 seconds max. Some of the skills have a recharge that's less than half as long as the buff.

Admittedly there's been no public test of the higher GW2 areas and almost all of the dungeons. They could be buggy for all we know.

[Graveworm]

I'm rolling an elementalist main. The engineer is fun but I really like the way that the elementalist can adapt on the fly using different attunements, and that there are two very different WvW and sPvP builds I like using for variety. There is no reason to have a crafting alt in GW2 because you can level all of the crafts on one character. Sure, you can only have two active at once, but you can switch for a small fee (and never lose your progress) and I don't think avoiding that small fee is worth missing out on BoP items.