ToddMcF2002
SasqWatch
Thoughts on Guild Wars 2 vs. Established MMOs
Having hit level 32 last night in Guild Wars 2 I figured now was a good time to give some balanced impressions of the game. It’s unavoidable that I’ll be comparing the game to Lotro, but my comments should be generally applicable to any MMO that follows the traditional model of strong socialization with a strong solo option and role based group combat. By role based group combat I mean the traditional roles of DPS (damage per second), Tank and Healer that cross cut MMO classes. When I say 'should be generally applicable to any MMO' I do mean 'should' as I only have experience with Lotro. As Lotro mimics WoW in core design I'm going to assume comparison is relevant until someone says I'm full of it.
For starters, Guild Wars 2 whatever its ambitions around taking on the established MMO market has certainly broken its conventions. It does it brazenly in fact. It discards the exclusively stat based, largely stationary combat focus for almost a blur of mobility. It does away with group combat roles for the most part. It introduces a very dynamic system of map “Events” that occur in regions to give the impression of a living, breathing world. It discards backtracking for NPC quests. It discards NPC quest assignments as well, meaning proximity to the NPC gives you the assignment. In fact, it dispenses with a quest log entirely. It allows auction house and crafting access remotely from inventory. It eliminates station crafting time sinks – meaning your 2AM crafting session won’t have you passing out at your keyboard. So… is this all for the better?
I’ll attempt to cover this in order of change magnitude:
Action and Core Gameplay:
Boy is there action. I’ve posted a few vids of the highly mobile gameplay including a 7 minute survival sequence for my Engineer. Not much needs to be said here other than GW2 has incorporated a level of skill based action unique in the established MMO market. It endeavors to keep combat fun, frantic and challenging. Sometimes it is hard as hell, at least for my Engineer. Judging by how often I see others die that appears to be the case across classes. Not too hard mind you, but you’ll find yourself quite dead if you are not on your toes. GW2 appears to have this fundamental design goal in mind for core gameplay combat:
a. At all times the action shall be mobile
b. At all times it shall be challenging
c. Whether solo or group in the public game world a+b shall apply
If there is an area that GW2 excels it is in adhering to those principles. Let’s be clear: part “c” above is in fact a monumental dilemma. Consider the problem of keeping all content in the public game world. There are multitude of level banded (aka level appropriate) zones, unpredictable player grouping behavior and wide mixture of player levels. How do you balance the game given those variables? Traditional MMO’s throw up their hands on this 'public world' problem and turn to level specific instances for a set number of players. The problem with that approach is that instanced gameplay contributes to social isolation of groups and an overall breakdown of continuity for the social system. In short, the public game world is where everything should happen, but easier said than done. So how does GW2 address the challenges?
Events
What are Events? Every region has multiple events that occur on a fairly regular basis. Examples include: Defend the farm from a Centaur attack. Defend a camp against bandits. Escort the wagon as a “mobile” Event. Sometimes Events are triggered by a player / NPC interactions but in all cases once they initiate anyone can join in simply by showing up. The Event system was designed for multiple purposes. First, they keep the game world feeling dynamic as “things” are going on you can participate in regionally. More critically however, they keep both group and solo content firmly rooted in the public game world.
There are a host of balance issues with taking this approach, which GW2 addresses by adding mobs dynamically. For example: If you wander into an Event area alone *and* there is no group content boss(es) you will likely be able to solo it successfully. This works because GW2 knows you are alone in the event radius. If others join the event so will more enemies. If lots of people join all hell breaks loose. It is a very effective system. What is hilarious is when players abandon the event while it is still running. The monsters don’t leave and you can be left holding the bag! Outside of the notable Skirmish system Lotro has no equivalent dynamic balancing. Consider this: if 90% of your time is spent in a public game world dominated by solo content, grouping will fundamentally destroy core gameplay challenge. Making matters worse for Lotro and other MMO’s, instances generally do nothing to address the issue of player level divergence.
Player Scaling
Recently I returned to the GW2 starting zone to advance my woefully neglected crafting progression. Inevitable, I get caught up in random mob combat and Events. It’s really hard to pass up Events, particularly the big boss bashes as the loot drops are worth it and its fun! But what is this? My health is only 30% of normal? What gives? When a player exceeds a region level band GW2 scales your stats downward to just above the max level for that region. At first this may sound like an awful idea but quite the contrary. Bear in mind you are never completely nerfed, as your abilities are intact. While GW2 deprives you of regional god-mode a nerfed rocket is still a rocket that you wouldn’t normally have available in that region. The idea is to ensure high level players cannot swoop in to spoil the game for dramatically lower level players. I always hated it in Lotro when some level 80 joker would rampage through the Troll Shaws dropping my targets like tenpins. That won’t happen in GW2. As an artifact I suppose, what I like about this system is that I can run multiple regions with the same level band concurrently and maintain a combat challenge without having to choose. As an example of effectiveness: I’m in a 20-25 region at 32 with stats scaled downward to 26. I ran with a group last night of similarly nerfed toons and we were dying repeatedly in the group content. Lotro of course does nothing in this regard and god-mode is the norm. Even in group focused instances combat challenge breaks down if you run a pug (pick up group) that has highly mixed levels as proper roles will be irreparably broken. Of course, in the public game world of traditional MMO’s offering static solo content grouping only dilutes challenge. Bravo to Guild Wars 2.
Guild Wars 2 Questing – A Bridge Too Far?
I have to admit I’m strange. I read the quests in MMO’s. I like to have a purpose and to review my log to plan my day. GW2 designers decided nobody reads what the NPC’s have to say (largely true) and therefore players only need to know minimally about their immediate task in the immediate area. NPC’s in GW2 apparently must spam text messages because when you get in proximity (a few hundred virtual yards) you get a quest assignment. Naturally, there are problems with this approach. If generally speaking MMO's offer quality quest every 1 in 10 now its closer to 1 in 20, because GW quests have to be essentially one liners. The format doesn’t leave a lot of room for depth. Quest log? What log? There is no real planning if there is no real log. Via the overworld map you can tell an area is incomplete but not why, unless you happen to remember those generic quest details and well… good luck with that. Of course you can talk to quest giving NPCs and you will, because after you complete the requisite number of quests the reward barter option opens. However the whole thing just feels a bit hollow. Again, no quest log. Early on before you might fully grasp the system you may find yourself at a complete loss of what to do. Less adventurous players may end up standing next to a tree waiting for an Event. I see this happening for console players in particular. In the end I found this streamlining simply unnecessary, and contributory to what can only be described and ADHD Gaming in GW2 (more on that one in a bit). Thankfully, the main story arc is well done and fully voice acted. No complaints there.
ADHD Gaming and Flocking vs. Social
Last night just after midnight a strange thing happened. A text box popped up after completing an Event that said something like: “Join Lady AH R in a party. Yes No”. My mouse fell off my laptop pad and hit the floor. GW2 has actual grouping!? I literally had no idea. I’m level 32 and this was my first and only group request. I was so excited I accepted and asked for a minute to empty my bags with the vendor. She asked twice “where next?” and I said “hang on” and then she mapped out. I made and lost my first GW2 friend in the span of 30 seconds. 50 some odd hours in and I had a 30 second virtual friendship. GW2 is an MMO. How sad is that and how is that possible? This to me is a core deficiency of GW2. Somehow, after all that planning for a world that should encourage social interactions like no MMO ever has before it has fallen woefully short. Why?
GW2 is so fluid and Events so dynamic that the biggest source of communication is the Map channel covering the virtual square miles of your current zone. This is an example of the wash/rinse/repeat dialog you’ll see all day, every day: “Any Events Up?”…“Troll is up, farm waypoint” or “boar is up, hunter lodge waypoint” and then bam 20 players map to the boss. They kill it, collect the loot and then map out or run off back to whatever they were doing. Nowhere is this behavior more obvious then when 2 big Events are on frequent schedules and near each other. For example, In one area there is a periodic bridge defense Event with group level bosses relatively close to a fort raid with group level bosses. A literal herd of players will gather for one event and then before the last boss hits the ground dead the mob will bolt like a flock of birds to the next event without uttering a sound. This “flocking” behavior is somewhat eerie to behold. In fact its quite disturbing. Flock behavior is not desirable grouping. It is group mind think and a perverse miscalculation for a designer hoping to promote the ultimate platform for social interactions. The reason I lost my brief virtual friendship? I spoke.
Compounding the issue is the role free group combat design. If there are no distinct roles than basic communication is not required. Tactics take a back seat to pure DPS. To be fair, there is healing. I’m yet to see a player left dead on the battlefield, as anyone can heal and there are always folks including myself perfectly willing to take the time to rez (resurrect). This will usually result in time taken to say ‘ty’ followed by ‘np’ or ‘yw’.
GW2 needs better drivers for Socialization.
Things I glossed Over
I glossed over quite a few things: Vending, auction house, crafting, skills and stats etc. I did this because they aren’t significantly different compared to what I’ve seen. Streamlined in some cases, but not really that much different or innovative.
Summary
So which is better? New or the old? Best answer is neither. GW2 has made serious advancement in the public game world. Content is indeed fully rooted and well balanced without arbitrary or artificial restrictions. In this effort however, the Guild Wars 2 designers have made design decisions that have led to minimizing socialization probably less by design than by consequence. As I said there aren't any solid drivers for socialization other than a common goal. Without a need to develop tactics via communication you get flocking. If I were to cater GW2 to my liking I’d revert to the “classic established MMO questing system including a log. That might give people something to coordinate for and talk about. On the flip side I’d also change Lotro to include Events and/or at least area scaling to add additional mobs based on player proximity. I do believe solo design should accommodate the multiplayer population. Personally, I like the down scaling of the player because I hate god-mode and its implications for lower level players who find enjoyment in a challenge. Player scaling in GW also gives players far more mileage for the content. In the end I will not give up Lotro entirely for GW2. I just wish I could blend them together.
Having hit level 32 last night in Guild Wars 2 I figured now was a good time to give some balanced impressions of the game. It’s unavoidable that I’ll be comparing the game to Lotro, but my comments should be generally applicable to any MMO that follows the traditional model of strong socialization with a strong solo option and role based group combat. By role based group combat I mean the traditional roles of DPS (damage per second), Tank and Healer that cross cut MMO classes. When I say 'should be generally applicable to any MMO' I do mean 'should' as I only have experience with Lotro. As Lotro mimics WoW in core design I'm going to assume comparison is relevant until someone says I'm full of it.
For starters, Guild Wars 2 whatever its ambitions around taking on the established MMO market has certainly broken its conventions. It does it brazenly in fact. It discards the exclusively stat based, largely stationary combat focus for almost a blur of mobility. It does away with group combat roles for the most part. It introduces a very dynamic system of map “Events” that occur in regions to give the impression of a living, breathing world. It discards backtracking for NPC quests. It discards NPC quest assignments as well, meaning proximity to the NPC gives you the assignment. In fact, it dispenses with a quest log entirely. It allows auction house and crafting access remotely from inventory. It eliminates station crafting time sinks – meaning your 2AM crafting session won’t have you passing out at your keyboard. So… is this all for the better?
I’ll attempt to cover this in order of change magnitude:
Action and Core Gameplay:
Boy is there action. I’ve posted a few vids of the highly mobile gameplay including a 7 minute survival sequence for my Engineer. Not much needs to be said here other than GW2 has incorporated a level of skill based action unique in the established MMO market. It endeavors to keep combat fun, frantic and challenging. Sometimes it is hard as hell, at least for my Engineer. Judging by how often I see others die that appears to be the case across classes. Not too hard mind you, but you’ll find yourself quite dead if you are not on your toes. GW2 appears to have this fundamental design goal in mind for core gameplay combat:
a. At all times the action shall be mobile
b. At all times it shall be challenging
c. Whether solo or group in the public game world a+b shall apply
If there is an area that GW2 excels it is in adhering to those principles. Let’s be clear: part “c” above is in fact a monumental dilemma. Consider the problem of keeping all content in the public game world. There are multitude of level banded (aka level appropriate) zones, unpredictable player grouping behavior and wide mixture of player levels. How do you balance the game given those variables? Traditional MMO’s throw up their hands on this 'public world' problem and turn to level specific instances for a set number of players. The problem with that approach is that instanced gameplay contributes to social isolation of groups and an overall breakdown of continuity for the social system. In short, the public game world is where everything should happen, but easier said than done. So how does GW2 address the challenges?
Events
What are Events? Every region has multiple events that occur on a fairly regular basis. Examples include: Defend the farm from a Centaur attack. Defend a camp against bandits. Escort the wagon as a “mobile” Event. Sometimes Events are triggered by a player / NPC interactions but in all cases once they initiate anyone can join in simply by showing up. The Event system was designed for multiple purposes. First, they keep the game world feeling dynamic as “things” are going on you can participate in regionally. More critically however, they keep both group and solo content firmly rooted in the public game world.
There are a host of balance issues with taking this approach, which GW2 addresses by adding mobs dynamically. For example: If you wander into an Event area alone *and* there is no group content boss(es) you will likely be able to solo it successfully. This works because GW2 knows you are alone in the event radius. If others join the event so will more enemies. If lots of people join all hell breaks loose. It is a very effective system. What is hilarious is when players abandon the event while it is still running. The monsters don’t leave and you can be left holding the bag! Outside of the notable Skirmish system Lotro has no equivalent dynamic balancing. Consider this: if 90% of your time is spent in a public game world dominated by solo content, grouping will fundamentally destroy core gameplay challenge. Making matters worse for Lotro and other MMO’s, instances generally do nothing to address the issue of player level divergence.
Player Scaling
Recently I returned to the GW2 starting zone to advance my woefully neglected crafting progression. Inevitable, I get caught up in random mob combat and Events. It’s really hard to pass up Events, particularly the big boss bashes as the loot drops are worth it and its fun! But what is this? My health is only 30% of normal? What gives? When a player exceeds a region level band GW2 scales your stats downward to just above the max level for that region. At first this may sound like an awful idea but quite the contrary. Bear in mind you are never completely nerfed, as your abilities are intact. While GW2 deprives you of regional god-mode a nerfed rocket is still a rocket that you wouldn’t normally have available in that region. The idea is to ensure high level players cannot swoop in to spoil the game for dramatically lower level players. I always hated it in Lotro when some level 80 joker would rampage through the Troll Shaws dropping my targets like tenpins. That won’t happen in GW2. As an artifact I suppose, what I like about this system is that I can run multiple regions with the same level band concurrently and maintain a combat challenge without having to choose. As an example of effectiveness: I’m in a 20-25 region at 32 with stats scaled downward to 26. I ran with a group last night of similarly nerfed toons and we were dying repeatedly in the group content. Lotro of course does nothing in this regard and god-mode is the norm. Even in group focused instances combat challenge breaks down if you run a pug (pick up group) that has highly mixed levels as proper roles will be irreparably broken. Of course, in the public game world of traditional MMO’s offering static solo content grouping only dilutes challenge. Bravo to Guild Wars 2.
Guild Wars 2 Questing – A Bridge Too Far?
I have to admit I’m strange. I read the quests in MMO’s. I like to have a purpose and to review my log to plan my day. GW2 designers decided nobody reads what the NPC’s have to say (largely true) and therefore players only need to know minimally about their immediate task in the immediate area. NPC’s in GW2 apparently must spam text messages because when you get in proximity (a few hundred virtual yards) you get a quest assignment. Naturally, there are problems with this approach. If generally speaking MMO's offer quality quest every 1 in 10 now its closer to 1 in 20, because GW quests have to be essentially one liners. The format doesn’t leave a lot of room for depth. Quest log? What log? There is no real planning if there is no real log. Via the overworld map you can tell an area is incomplete but not why, unless you happen to remember those generic quest details and well… good luck with that. Of course you can talk to quest giving NPCs and you will, because after you complete the requisite number of quests the reward barter option opens. However the whole thing just feels a bit hollow. Again, no quest log. Early on before you might fully grasp the system you may find yourself at a complete loss of what to do. Less adventurous players may end up standing next to a tree waiting for an Event. I see this happening for console players in particular. In the end I found this streamlining simply unnecessary, and contributory to what can only be described and ADHD Gaming in GW2 (more on that one in a bit). Thankfully, the main story arc is well done and fully voice acted. No complaints there.
ADHD Gaming and Flocking vs. Social
Last night just after midnight a strange thing happened. A text box popped up after completing an Event that said something like: “Join Lady AH R in a party. Yes No”. My mouse fell off my laptop pad and hit the floor. GW2 has actual grouping!? I literally had no idea. I’m level 32 and this was my first and only group request. I was so excited I accepted and asked for a minute to empty my bags with the vendor. She asked twice “where next?” and I said “hang on” and then she mapped out. I made and lost my first GW2 friend in the span of 30 seconds. 50 some odd hours in and I had a 30 second virtual friendship. GW2 is an MMO. How sad is that and how is that possible? This to me is a core deficiency of GW2. Somehow, after all that planning for a world that should encourage social interactions like no MMO ever has before it has fallen woefully short. Why?
GW2 is so fluid and Events so dynamic that the biggest source of communication is the Map channel covering the virtual square miles of your current zone. This is an example of the wash/rinse/repeat dialog you’ll see all day, every day: “Any Events Up?”…“Troll is up, farm waypoint” or “boar is up, hunter lodge waypoint” and then bam 20 players map to the boss. They kill it, collect the loot and then map out or run off back to whatever they were doing. Nowhere is this behavior more obvious then when 2 big Events are on frequent schedules and near each other. For example, In one area there is a periodic bridge defense Event with group level bosses relatively close to a fort raid with group level bosses. A literal herd of players will gather for one event and then before the last boss hits the ground dead the mob will bolt like a flock of birds to the next event without uttering a sound. This “flocking” behavior is somewhat eerie to behold. In fact its quite disturbing. Flock behavior is not desirable grouping. It is group mind think and a perverse miscalculation for a designer hoping to promote the ultimate platform for social interactions. The reason I lost my brief virtual friendship? I spoke.
Compounding the issue is the role free group combat design. If there are no distinct roles than basic communication is not required. Tactics take a back seat to pure DPS. To be fair, there is healing. I’m yet to see a player left dead on the battlefield, as anyone can heal and there are always folks including myself perfectly willing to take the time to rez (resurrect). This will usually result in time taken to say ‘ty’ followed by ‘np’ or ‘yw’.
GW2 needs better drivers for Socialization.
Things I glossed Over
I glossed over quite a few things: Vending, auction house, crafting, skills and stats etc. I did this because they aren’t significantly different compared to what I’ve seen. Streamlined in some cases, but not really that much different or innovative.
Summary
So which is better? New or the old? Best answer is neither. GW2 has made serious advancement in the public game world. Content is indeed fully rooted and well balanced without arbitrary or artificial restrictions. In this effort however, the Guild Wars 2 designers have made design decisions that have led to minimizing socialization probably less by design than by consequence. As I said there aren't any solid drivers for socialization other than a common goal. Without a need to develop tactics via communication you get flocking. If I were to cater GW2 to my liking I’d revert to the “classic established MMO questing system including a log. That might give people something to coordinate for and talk about. On the flip side I’d also change Lotro to include Events and/or at least area scaling to add additional mobs based on player proximity. I do believe solo design should accommodate the multiplayer population. Personally, I like the down scaling of the player because I hate god-mode and its implications for lower level players who find enjoyment in a challenge. Player scaling in GW also gives players far more mileage for the content. In the end I will not give up Lotro entirely for GW2. I just wish I could blend them together.
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