Guild Wars 2: Good Game, No Substance

Yeah, it's been more than a month since Guild Wars 2 released, but as it is with any MMO, the true test of quality is longevity. I am sad to say that I can't even remember the last time I logged into the game itself. Maybe last week to check something quickly, but definitely not any significant amount of time to get anything done. I clocked more hours playing Diablo 3 than Guild Wars 2 and it has taken me a very long time to find out why.

Guild Wars 2 is a good game. A great game, in fact. Combat is fluid, environments are amazing, and I have had some good fun dealing with the dynamic events. I thoroughly enjoyed the leveling process as I moved from zone to zone, story to story and, before I knew it, I was at max level doing the hardest content in the game. I loved the fact that I could help friends who were lower level and there would still be a challenge. I was less impressed with World vs World PvP and didn't really care much for structured PvP, which is arguably the best content the game has to offer, and this is most likely why I am no longer putting time into the game.

I'm really a PvE player. In terms of player vs game, there really isn't much of it in Guild Wars 2. Like every MMO, there is a grind to obtain more currency for buying items, and like every MMO, there is a carrot on the stick. However, the carrot on the stick in Guild Wars 2 is cosmetic items - to make your character look good. But what happens if I already like how my character looks? That's right, there's no more incentive to do the grind.

I have checked every other piece of gear available, and they don't look as nice as what I just crafted for myself. Sure, there are a few pieces here and there like weapons, but that's really it. In some cases, I just use a low level item model because I just happen to like how that looks. Nothing so far has compelled me to run the same dungeon 60+ times to get enough currency to buy an entire set of armour. It doesn't help that there's no group finder in the game. I loved the leveling so much in the game that I didn't bother doing dungeons at level and, frankly, I completely forgot they even existed at one point.

Dynamic events are better overall to rerun, but the options for the karma currency are quite limited - and some are also quite ugly. There is also little variety to dynamic events. They do happen frequently enough, but that has been detrimental to the overall experience. It no longer really is dynamic when you can wait for the event to just happen and when everything in the event is expected and by-the-numbers.

Sure there are still things to do, like finish off quests and world completion, but I've never been a completionist. In addition, since the game has a monthly subscription fee of $0, I can take my time to do all that and not feel like any money is wasted. At this point in time, there is just no reason for me to log back into the game.

In terms of the PvP aspect, yes, I do not live in the World vs World maps. Perhaps I am missing out by not doing structured or tournament PvP, but that is just not the kind of player I am. I do enjoy sprinklings of PvP as I move around the world. Moments when fights erupt between factions and escalate to a full blown war are some of my fondest memories in MMOs. Yes, I suck at them, but it is fun in it's own merit because it feels like it matters; it makes a game world feel more organic and I will punish the other side for whatever atrocity they have commited to ignite this war - no matter how petty or if it is my side that started it. Sadly, this can never happen in Guild Wars 2. All PvP is limited to the designated instances and, ultimately, it leaves the main game world quite stale and sterile. Dynamic events cannot really make up for spontaneous player activity.

I will not argue that PvP is where Guild Wars 2 is strongest at. World vs World standings exist and tournament PvP appeals to all those who just loves competetion for the sake of competetion - and winning. But, as an MMO, that just can't be where this game can stand on.

Probably my biggest issue is that, with all the posturing ArenaNet has been doing by saying it has eliminated the grind, that all there is in the game. There is no better definition of irony than this. Yes, you do not need this gear to do any content, but grinding for the gear is all that is left to do. And since I have already achieved the gear-related goal of finding armour I liked, then my character's progress is done. Level 80 and looking good.

Do I regret buying Guild Wars 2? Not at all. At the very least, it is what I would have paid for a single player game and I certainly have put quite a number of hours into it. I have not uninstalled the game, as I would like to revisit the world of Tyria again...but right now, there is just no reason to do so. Despite my pre-launch misgivings, I really wanted to love the game, but it didn't help that all my criticisms were realized in the end.

Guild Wars 2: Arah - WTF!?! (SPOILERS!)

TLDR Version: WTF!?!

OK. This is a rant, plain and simple. Probably with my tone, it's clear how I feel about this dungeon/story and there will be massive spoilers (SPOILERS!). Proceed at your own risk or just stop now and call me a whiner.

The city of Arah is Guild War 2's level 80 storymode dungeon. Yes, others have exploration modes that require level 80, but I'll steer clear of those for now .... because that's another rant altogether.

The dungeon is also the culmination of both your character's personal story as well as the story of Destiny's Edge, this world's team of legendary heroes. My own personal gripes regarding the story's presentation aside, this dungeon story is supposed to be the epic climax to what was building up for 80 levels of gameplay. To fight Zaitan - one of the Elder Dragons - beings of ridiculous power that merely waking up caused massive damage to the world.

As flat as the story has been presented so far, I can't help but get somewhat excited. I was prepared for a flat presentation of sacrifice, friendship, and victory over an unbeatable foe - and the knowledge that there are 3-4 others we will need to deal with eventually. I braced myself for a fight that will require utmost group coordination and cooperation to beat.

I got none of that.

Instead, the dungeon was on par with all others - trash monsters and bosses were actually quite easy to deal with. There is a lot of friendship in the story, but the sacrifice I thought was done ended in a cop out last minute (and off-screen) save. My own character was relegated to chump in the story. In fact, considering it was through your character's efforts (albiet as a backup role) that managed to get this far, not spearheading the assault on Zaitan just felt a bit off.

And the fight with Zaitan?

Rarely in any game have I gotten so upset about a boss fight, but this one barely even qualifies as a fight. The most you get to do is kill trash that attempts to board the ship. Then you shoot Zaitan with cannons. For ~4 minutes. Maybe more, I wasn't counting. There also really isn't much to the cannons as Zaitan and the ship are stationary. You just aim it at his general direction and press the fire button. For several minutes. Then it's over.

When what should be an epic boss battle can be won by subbing in a drinking bird novelty toy, then something is just seriously wrong. Yes, I understand that epic doesn't necessarily mean we have to beat bosses ourselves, but it needs to be challenging and, most importantly, fun. The Zaitan encounter was neither.  

I have played World of Warcraft for several years. I have played other MMOs like RIFT, SWTOR, Age of Conan, DCUO, etc. and I have never seen such a badly designed encounter. I've seen bugged encounters, fights that take long to beat simply because of very small margins for error, but never one so deliberately bad. It is very unambiguous that this fight was meant to be the way it is. And it isn't even the slightest bit difficult.

It certainly didn't help that the story was also very bland and played it safe. There was some effort to make Logan's reappearance meaningful. But that's the thing, the new airship would have been there no matter what and Logan's appearace wasn't even necessary. I don't know, but perhaps Logan's legacy would have been helped by being part of the cost of beating Zaitan.

Maybe this was ArenaNet's idea of an epic encounter? I can't really see how. Perhaps they were running out of time when developing this dungeon? Now that's just cynical. Whatever the reason, this encounter has really soured my gaming experience. It's a shame because, despite several gripes, I have had a lot of fun with the game itself.

Now excuse me, since I have friends that have yet to kill Zaitan, I have to invest in a drinking bird so I can help them out. 

Highlights 

• Ever the optimist. Zaitan does have a very unique model. ArenaNet's artists have really gotten down the whole "primeval dragon of death" thing. Though I thought he would have been bigger.

On Disliking the MMO "Holy Trinity"

To make sure proper context is provided, the "holy trinity" of MMOs means having the core roles of tank, healer, and damage dealing in a group to deal with player vs. environment (PvE) encounters. A good majority of MMOs make use of this group setup and the responsibilities of each member of the group are pretty straight-forward - most of the time.

ArenaNet has been using the lack of this group setup as a major part of their hype machine for Guild Wars 2. While this certainly ramped up talk about how people are discontented about the "traditional" MMO group design, this discussion has been around for a very long time.

Group cooperation is never really an issue. No matter how a game is designed, having proper communication and planning will always be superior to just getting 4-5 random people together and just hope everyone knows what to do.

No, a lot of the talk revolves around damage dealers having trouble finding groups - because few people decide to take on the tank and healer roles.

Being a tank or healer in a group is about taking on a lot of responsibility. The tank usually ends up controlling the flow of the encounters while the healer ensures the right people stay alive long enough to finish the fight. Both roles have to make decisions on the fly and mistakes by either are the most visible and so blame easily falls on one of the two...or even both. I have personally seen the extra responsibility take it's toll on players and it often leads to tanks and healers to play a different role, refuse to run random groups, or just stop playing altogether.

So damage dealers can't find groups because of few tanks and healers. Tanks and healers get burned out easily and stop playing their characters. It's a vicious cycle, and it won't stop until people just wake up and realize they need something that is sadly lacking with the human race in general:

Personal Responsibility.

So my little gaming article now has become a social commentary piece? Online gaming has always been a social hub, whether one likes it or not. There is no doubt the worst of people can show up in an online game, but also can the best of people. You can tout all you want on how good or terrible an MMO is; terrible graphics, great game mechanics, balanced classes, etc, but the social aspect are online gaming's true heart.

The lack of personal resposibility means that the dislike of the "holy trinity" boils down to a social problem rather than a game design issue. In the past few years, games like World of Warcraft and RIFT have been putting more emphasis on personal resposibility. Concepts such as avoidable damage in encounters puts part of the resposibility of staying alive on each individual. The encounter Ultraxion in World of Warcraft is a good example as it becomes very obvious who failed to activate the ability to avoid the instant death attack. Encounters such as these are always the hardest in the game, not because the fight is designed to be hard, but because individual failures can cause the whole group to fail.

And that, in my most humble opinion, is exactly how it should always be.

Removing the "holy trinity", such as in Guild Wars 2, does the exact same thing other MMOs have been working towards for a while now.  Granted, not having a dedicated tank or healer, it becomes even more important for individuals in GW2 to make sure they do their part in controlling the encounter and staying alive. It has to be clear though, that repeated failure to do so is not about being stuck in the "holy trinity" mindset, but about not able to, or not willing to, go the extra steps to ensure the group is a success.

I suppose the question is whether I dislike the "holy trinity" myself. No. Neither will it's absence bother me. No matter how a game is designed, it will always be the player that makes a group a success of failure. Always.

Guild Wars 2 Novel: Ghosts of Ascalon

TLDR Version: A fairly entertaining by-the-numbers fantasy that is very effective in introducing the world of Guild Wars 2.

As a firm believer of "exposition through experience" when it comes to video games, I have been largly avoiding reading any video game novels. I would rather have that important lore is in the game rather than needing to go out and find the information elsewhere. Granted, it gives writers, publishers, and artists work, I still find it less than ideal.

Ghosts of Ascalon was recommended to me by a friend and seeing that I am jumping into Guild Wars 2 without having any knowledge whatsoever of the franchise, I decided to give it a go. At the very least, it will help me understand the world I will be playing in, and hopefully a better understanding of the different races.

I am happy to say that the book did meet my expectations and provided me with good entertainment for most of it.

I like how the authors didn't take a particular racial trait of one character and beat the reader's head with it. Characters are nicely defined and, more importantly, relatable. Sylvari are probably the race that is most different than what humans are, but Forbeck and Grubb bring's out the character of Killeen nicely and comes out as alien in a way we can understand and appreciate. In fact, all the characters in the book behave in ways that real people in our world can relate to. The band of characters do bond and grow as they march toward impossible odds. In the end, we get to care about the characters and what happens to them and that is what makes a novel good.

Lore exposition has been also nicely handled in the book. From the timeline provided at the beginning to the fireside conversations, the flow of the narrative is very natural and it is very effective in understanding the characters, what they are after, and what their world is like. And everything stays on track with no diverging tales of other heroes. Yes, Logan Thackaray's legend and importance were mentioned, but his character never overshadowed the book's protagonist.

The tone of the book was also mostly excellent. Despite the grim quest the characters are taking, as well as what the main character has gone through, the book never bludgeons the reader with it. The grim tones are nicely balanced with light hearted moments by characters that move forward rather than dwelling in their angst.  

My biggest problem with the book is actually in the last few. Everything near the end feels rather rushed. It's actually a good thing to want to book to go on for several more chapters, but the ending just felt too abrupt. Perhaps it was meant to be that way, but it was certainly out of place with the even pacing found in the rest of the book.

All in all, Ghosts of Ascalon is a remarkable book, even if it doesn't compare to the likes of the original Dragonlance series (though it probably wasn't meant to be). I would recommend it to those who like good fantasy tales. For those who play Guild Wars 2 and have yet to buy it, it is a nice way to ease into the game. I have no idea when the story happens in relation to the game though, but it would be cool to encounter these characters while questing in Tyria.

Guild Wars 2: The Last Beta Weekend

TLDR Version: A great game but certainly not revolutionary. Has some really fun moments, but quite a number of boring ones as well. Still, hard to tell if it will keep my attention long enough that I will want to spend money in their Gem Store.

So with a month left before release, Arenanet came out with the last Guild Wars 2 beta weekend for everyone with keys or who have pre-purchased the game. This time, it came with all races available as well as additional world content and a PvP battleground.

It's no secret I do not have any real love for Guild Wars 2 but I don't really have any hate for it, or their developers, either. The biggest turnoff I have with GW2 is not the game itself, but with it's fanbase. Ironically, the extreme hype does dull my own excitement for the game and, in turn, lowers my own expectations.

But I digress, the reason for my pre-purchase was to see everything for myself in the beta weekends, and I am pleased to say that, overall, I did enjoy myself. And besides, you cannot go wrong with a free to play MMO, even if the box is being sold at standard market prices.

A lot of the fun came in the form of group activities, particularly PvP. Unfortunately, because there really wasn't much time to get to a high enough level (for me, at least), my PvE testing was fairly limited. Whether it is me being slow or there just isn't that many opportunities for leveling through questing, I'm not sure. As it stands, sometimes I end up being way underpowered to continue my character's story while other times, I end up outleveling content in the starter area after a bout of wanderlust.

There is something fairly monotonous about the PvE areas of Tyria and people really looking for things to do will need to mix things up between area quests, personal story, and events even if the game itself does not overtly encourage it.

Dynamic events in the last beta do effectively break up the monotony, however. I am not sure if they changed the event frequency or whether I was better at being at the right place at the right time this time around. I am glad that, with the early level zones, enough of the dynamic events would help push leveling enough to be able to do the next area. Granted, with friends, you can probably skip a lot of early level content anyway, and it is my preferable mode of playing. A small band taking on a challenge that a single player cannot is pretty much the heart of any multiplayer game.

I appreciate ArenaNet's efforts in making leveling an organic experience. At times when I get stumped, I have to go over whats available to me and figure out what is missing. While nothing is wrong with directed leveling, it is refreshing to just be able to challenge yourself and find your own way rather than have 100 different signs pointing you to where you should go.

I suppose this is the time I talk about PvP and really, Guild Wars 2 no longer deserves points for this. To say the game offers great PvP is like saying water is wet. The last beta test, however, showed just how lopsided World vs. World PvP can be. In my server's battle group, one server in particular just simply dominated all 4 WvW maps. It is no surprise that it was also one of the first servers that became full on day 1. With sufficient manpower and time, they were able to fortify locations to be near impregnable and, as with the nature of random groups, opponents would just die repeatedly trying to get a few kills or close enough to lob some shots at the wall.

Its like hobos with knives trying to storm a military outpost through the front door in broad daylight.

There were some moments where getting to the wall was possible, but no resources were available to build the required siege weapons. As we learned, hacking at keep walls don't really do much. This is where having organized groups really matter the most. With proper direction and planning, WvW battles can get pretty exciting. Outside that, the only hope of getting any kind of win is through sheer numbers.

This is also where it pays to be on a server where the population stays relatively high at all times of the day. The servers that fill up early would definitely have a clear advantage at the start but, as the game matures, things would very likely even out.

Guild Wars 2 has every right to be called a AAA MMO and, despite my cynicism, I can easily imagine this game as one of the best in the current market. Sadly, even after 3 beta weekends and participating in stress tests, I cannot fully give the game two thumbs up. An MMO relies purely on longevity and some replay factor, and I cannot vouch for either. I have barely scratched the surface of PvE content and, while I have tried a lot of PvP, I cannot play that for too long before I really tire of it.

Highlights:

• Points of Interest. A very nice way of handling puzzle content. I have already delayed, and have been delayed, by just taking a detour and trying to find how to reach the glowing map. Some are easy, while others are just one step close to death.
• Set main skills. I like unlocking abilities based on weapon type, but I found myself wishing that were not the case after unlocking all weapons at an early level. Outside learning the secondary skills, the sense of progression is somewhat lacking.
• Nerfed siege weapons. Definitely not a bad thing. It makes placement so much more important than previous builds and allows attacking players a chance to take them out.
• Playing as a group. Nothing really beats taking out level 10 content at a group average level of 5. Now that's what MMOs are all about.
• Crafting. I'm on the fence about this one. I like how involved it is, but it is also quite expensive to be a full time crafter. Perhaps if there is a good market for items, this will not be a problem at all. Definitely something to consider doing at launch.

Guild Wars 2 : Second Beta Weekend

I have the unfortunate situation of needing to be at work during the second Guild Wars 2 beta weekend event. Granted, the first event didn't quite get me anxious to play again, I did want to try as hard as I can to really like the game. I wanted to see what all those who are hyping up the game are seeing.

But for the hour or so I was playing, only one thing came to mind: I wanted to go back and do something else. Specifically, I wanted to play more Diablo 3.

Guild Wars 2 has yet to show itself as THE game to play. While I do not have any buyers remorse for pre-purchasing the game, I do want to try to find out why I am not raving about the game. ArenaNet seems to just have everything done right. Graphics and visuals are just amazing. The cities feel alive and vibrant and are large enough to actually be cities. Motion and combat is fluid and the ability system is pretty interesting.

But something just feels....generic....about the whole thing. Not a whole lot of the game feels new and refreshing. Certainly not how RIFT was at launch. SWTOR's game universe also had a freshness to it despite relatively archaic game design. The world of Guild Wars 2 feels like the run of the mill medieval fantasy world that I've seen many times over.

I guess a huge part of the letdown is the story. Particularly the dialogue cutscenes. If they just removed those and replaced it all with quest text, it may actually feel more immersive than it is now. The awkward animations really, really detract from any attempt to lose myself in the story. There is also something creepy about how characters barely move and stare in just that one way in all those cutscenes. It has been rather painful to watch.

There are also some disconnects with the story. In the human lands, there does not seem to be much connection between the prologue and the story after it. An invasion of centaurs leads to some huge bone hands....and they are never mentioned again. At least the centaurs re-appear, but the bone hands and elementals; their involvement is not touched upon. Perhaps it will later in the game, but by then, the event would probably have been forgotten. You would think that something able to summon such a montrosity would be looked into by authorities and would require a hero to help figure deal with a larger, overarching threat.

Dynamic events have been a huge part of driving the hype of the game, but it too is not quite as good as I was led to believe. The problem is that the dynamic event feels less dynamic if you can wait for it to happen. Granted, there does not appear to be set times for events to happen, but they do happen fairly often. Unlike RIFT's titular rifts, GW2's events are strictly local to just a small area and so they are far more predictable. Some of the events are also very boring.

As alive and as dynamic as ArenaNet wants the world to feel, ironically there isn't really all that much to do. Yes, exploration is supposed to be a major activity, but exploration can only go so far. I go into a new area and see wheat fields. Yay. But also nothing happening at the time so it's several minutes of nothing really happening except for me walking across large farmland. After dealing with an area's quest, you don't really get an option to do it again.

All this said, everything is in beta. Even if some complaints are about things that will likely not change, there's still time for ArenaNet to put some more meat into the game. As it is, I don't look forward to the game as I normally do for big releases. Its come to the point where I won't mind only being able to play a week after release if timing does not line up right with my schedule.

Highlights:

• Yes, even after an entire article saying how I dislike the game, there are still highlights. Lets not say I'm not an impartial reviewer
• They have Asura models in the world now and one gives an activated event. I haven't tried repeating it though. The novelty of herding little Moas into a pen really wears out quickly.
• Yes, the Asura are really cute. I am now 100% sure I won't be playing one.
• Abilities seem to have been buffed. I don't remember dealing quite as much damage as I do now with some guardian abilities.
• Speaking of which, purchasable abilities have been streamlined to weed out the weird or weak ones. Skill point costs are also lower.
• Skills are now tiered. No more getting some more advanced skills until you get enough of the lower tier skills.
• Some UI enhancements. Mostly minor, but definitely makes sense.

Guild Wars 2: Signed Up But Sighing

I admit it, this article's title is probably one of the dumbest I've ever come up with, but I'm leaving it there. Besides, it is fairly accurate about my attitute towards Guild Wars 2. It's a sigh of indifference.

I've seen nothing but praise for the game after the media's beta event, which really is more like a demo - something I will touch upon at a later date. And from the publicly available videos, the game does look absolutely fantastic. Everything does appear very fluid and the level of polish makes it appear that the game is ready for launch. So after all this great hype, why am I indifferent about the game?

I have to remember another great game I really liked but was indifferent before I tried it - RIFT. I knew nothing about the game or the developers and the screenshots, as high-res as they were, looked like they were from an asian or free to play game. Turns out I was wrong and enjoyed my beta experience enough to sub for a few months.

That is the exact same feeling with Guild Wars 2. I never played Guild Wars so I don't know anything about the game or the developers. I listen to or watch videos of podcasts and I cannot deny the enthusiasm of those that have played the first Guild Wars but I could not understand it. This will probably all change once I get my hands on the game, whether it be the beta of getting a copy at launch.