User:ClanYumemiru/Thoughts

This is my thoughts page. For my User Page click here

My thoughts on Guild Wars

I'm moving my criticism/opinion (and that's all this is - nothing more, and certainly nothing less) about on the game's rather sad, broken and battered state off my main page primarily because as much as I may complain about it, I still do see the potential of the game, and I do still like & play it - albeit a hell of a lot more reluctantly than before.

The realization has sunk in

GW1 is dying because it suits NCSoft. GW(oW)2 is being set up as it is to not be a threat to NCSoft's own offerings. It all makes sense now. NC is scared shitless about GW1 because they can see how it's going to upset their monthly game tax apple cart of FatBucks(tm) they hope to pull in with their other offerings. So they'll just use either game as a way to sell the NC experience and to please migrate to something they make more money off (like the hugely overhyped, overpromised and underdelivering Aion) whilst creating the illusion of "life" with crap updates and a minimum of game support (like monthly buildnerfs and maintenance updates)

GW(oW)2 isn't set up to be a successor to GW1. It's set up as a direct competitor to Blizzard's WoW - and it will fail (if you want a good analog, look how no other card game has managed to gain traction/inertia after M:tG - apart form artificially life-supported titles preying on gullible kids) I wager that's why Jeff Strain parted from NCWest as well ...

Oh well, the NC shareholders deserve all the return on investment/increased value the company can offer /squeeze out; even if that means a truly innovative product/franchise has to be ritually sacrificed every now and then.

Oh wow, it's a GW(oW)2 trailer

So yes, I watched the trailer. Apart from the voice-over dramatic bullshit how the world went all to hell, and the paper-slide concept art crap it was quite good - renders (if produced by the game engine) look good. Too bad the game will suck as a game; not to mention it will fail as Guild Wars - but hey, it'll make great desktop backgrounds and "look at what I play for free lols" movies.

A quick rundown of GW2's much-hyped features:

• Persistent world: Not only does this make the game differentiate itself less' from the other MMO's, it also introduces the option for griefing and ganking on a scale that's just nauseating. All the problems that plague MMO's out there are basically being introduced as a feature.
• World PvP: It does'nt take rocket science to work out what this will inflict on the game. One or two high-end ultra zones will be constantly at the top of the list at the expense of all others. And since it directly affects PvE gameplay, (by manipulating drops) it effectively divides the player population into haves and have-nots.
• Sidekick system as a team replacement: I'd like to point out GW is a rarity. Why ? Because the NPC AI is actually quite passable and usable. And it gives a player the option to specialize in something, rather than be a jack of all trades (as the new system will force people to be, even with the sidekick) and be good at something.

Overall: the entire design smacks of trying to make GW(ow)2 less of a threat to the other NCSoft games (like the hugely hyped Aion, which I'll get back to in a bit) and mroe a lame, half-assed attempt to steal customers from Blizzard instead -- nevermind they're throwing away their current player population in the attempt. GW1 is not "just another MMO" - to my knowledge it's the first succesful online tactical team game that combines players with AI-controlled NPC's in one blend. A shame it will all go away in the pursuit of an impossible goal.

As for Aion - the promo code for the wings emote is just a cheap snipe. It's a lame attempt by NCSoft to boost their sales over the back of the GW1 population; who are slowly being forced out of the game anyway by the lack of new content (and no, the "OMFG HUEG UPDATE BY LIVE TEAM" was not new content, it was at best a lame patch, at worst (and cynical) an attempt to placate a small group of powergamers - remember that of the 3 promises GW launched with, (no fees, no grind, new content every 12 months) only the "no fees" one still stands, and I wonder for how much longer.

As for the announcement at PAX - I heard through the grapevine it won't be GW2, and that A.net is standing in the NCsoft stand which has been described to me as "having Aion come out of every orifice plus some extra apertures to prevent explosion" so I dread what's coming.

Oh, prediction: GW(ow)2 beta H2 2010, release Q2 2011, shutdown due to lack of players/disdandment of A.net Q4 2011.

Next Live Team attempt due soon

Why does looking at the calendar fill me with dread ? Oh yes, it's nearly August, 4 months after one of the most bletcherous updates ever to enter existence in Guild Wars - and we may be due another.

So here's some thoughts on What Might Have Been But Will Never Be - after all, all hail GWoW2, never mind the vapor and the Duke's laughing in the distance.

IDEA 1:

Elona, the land of the Golden Sun.

Nightfall has come - and gone; yet once again, there is a call for heroes to come to her aid. In the far eastern reaches of Kourna, trouble is brewing in the wild frontier, north of the Barbarious Shore, east of the cultivated lands of the Dejarin Estate. Darkness has infiltrated the lands of the Corsairs, and as it spreads, it might overwhelm them and spread out over the seas to other lands ...

Basic premise: The Corsairs have come under threat from something that escaped the Sunspears' war against Abaddon and they need heroes to help them.

Size: single explorable, situated north of Barbarous Shore (hey, the gate's already there), with maybe a small dungeon(like) "lair" for the boss at the end; ideally a small trading outpost in a corner (also a good place to give out quests, cash rewards and maybe put in some bonus goodies like a special armor/weapon set)

IDEA 2:

22nd Changhai of the year 1588(CC), somewhere on the Jade Sea: Our expedition has found new deposits of good quality Jade, west of the Pits, but east of the Quarry. We will start excavation of a defensible outpost immediately, so that neither the hated Kurzicks nor the other Clans can contest us this resource.

5th of Nongkam, Wavecrest Station: Strange that our ancestral enemies have not even approached this area. The Jade here is of phenomenal quality, and our first shipment should be ready soon.

22nd of Saita, somewhere north of Wavecrest Station: May the gods help us. They're all dead. We were following a rich vein of jade when we found something encased in it - but unlike everything else, it was somehow -alive-. It turned our workers into ... I don't know what, but they overwhelmed the rest of the camp, dragging those that couldn't escape in time down the mine. I fear their fate is worse than death. A few of us managed to escape and seal the quarry's exit, trapping these monsters inside, but we can hear them trying to get out. We must find help, somewhere, somehow. -- Excerpt from Rixonon's Diary.

Basic premise: explorable and dungeon, located in the empty gap between Jade Quarry and Leviathan Pits, possibly with entrances from both sides (Kurzick and Luxon). Trapped workers, sly raiders and something horrible that turns humans into bloodthirsty killers that lurks in the deep.

And I have so much more ideas for content on this scale. Ah well, dream on, I guess.

So, woot, we got new content - did we really ? (Or - when a major content update isn't)

Since blatant criticism in open pages is not that appreciated (understandably, as admiration is good and pointing fingers is bad) I'm reposting the "translation" (or rather, I'm stripping away the niceties, the bullshit and the request/demand for adulation) of what the new content means to you, as longtime, loyal player here:

- We, gracious overlords of ArenaNet, have implemented more storage. However, although a pane of storage that gives you 20 slots, it costs as much as a character slot which can give you up to 45 storage slots; but we fully expect this to be useful for people who have maxed out their character slots and are still QQing that they can't manage their inventories full of crap we put in the game without realizing its effects. GWGuru loudmouths made us do it. Everyone else (mostly the casual players who wanted an MMO without any vastly overblown hype or in search of a decent PvE experience) should STFU and put their nose to the grindstone to get GWAMM so they are ready for GW2, which will be released on the same day as Duke Nukem Forever. Or maybe later, we haven't decided but we've already apologized in the smarmiest manner possible for any delay here

- We've implemented a pet zoo for people with separation anxiety from their beloved prestige pets so they have yet another status symbol to show off.

- We've further encouraged mindless grind by implementing another way to make you replay the same boring old missions you have enough play data for by now to get a bot that can take all contingencies for stupid rewards, therefore further devaluating all the effort you wasted on a 'roleplay character', rather than taking our time and thinking of some new stories to add to the game. After all, status is far more important than gameplay

When Sorrow's Furnace came out it held a massive promise of smaller-than-campaign/expansion content. DoA/BMP both reinforced that promise, showing that it is feasible to do such projects. But by programming themselves into the corner on EotN (title lockdown on exploration/completion, hasty implementation of character succession without a clue how it's going to work, pushing back said succession title to the point of wisps of vapor becoming associated with its mere mention) any option of such expansion has gone out the window. What a horrible waste of an otherwise decent game.

Live Team, if this is the best you can do for Guild Wars, go back to working on GWoW2. Seriously.

In conclusion - I am pissed. Pissed at the [morons] who kiss ass for every minor update the developers implement. Pissed at the increasing self-delusion from those developers about GW2, pissed that it took a player delving into NCsoft's earnings statement to learn WTF is going on only to have it "resolved" by a letter that comes down to "sit tight and grind titles kthnx, we'll make it worth your while, rly" without addressing the issues affecting their current game. I'm pissed that the game is essentially allowed to strangle itself in an ever increasing spiral of ridiculous status-chasing whereby the only thing that counts is what you can hoard for yourself and where possible at the expense of someone else - often helped by the haphazard implementations of "new features" by development (How many Z keys did YOU use before some dev-twit realized "hey cool, let's tie a title to this as well ?" - never mind the unelegant method of Faction addition after the much belated changes to THAT system.

The love affair with this game is pretty much over; it'll be a reluctant goodbye, because for all I've said, I do still admire a lot of gameplay and usability concepts that it has brought to the table - as much as I resent it for what it has become, mostly through a combination of unintended consequences, poor reponse (remember that a.net NEVER came clean about the big dupe exploit and its results) and haphazard "quickfix" implementations.