Feedback:User/Ouatis/The Ability to Change Your Class
The Ability to Change Your Class | |
|---|---|
| User | Ouatis |
| Categories | Mechanics |
There is only one thing missing in GW2 for me. The ability to change class with the same character.
In an MMO, you are part of a community, and you're usually called by your character's name. Your friends know you by this name. But when you wish to play your spellcaster instead of your melee warrior, you have to log out, change your character, and end up under a different name. You'll tell your friends, "I'm just gonna log over to my Elementalist". Then you'll realize you haven't completed as many quests or missions, you don't have access to all the same areas, and there are a bunch of things you need to do all over again. You don't have the same achievements. In fact, it is very much like having to play this vast, infinite game two times over, even though you'll never technically "finish it" once. And that is just for two characters. Of course most players will want to play a little of each of the awesome classes, right?
Naturally, it's fun to create a new character; maybe you want a Charr Engineer, rather than an Asuran Engineer. Maybe you want your Warrior character to be big and bulky, while your Thief is agile and skinny. But must you really be forced to start all over under a new name to play a different class if you don't want to?
Of course, I'm not suggesting the ability to hop around seemlessly between professions mid-combat like an all-powerful hybrid. What I'm suggesting is the ability to go back to your character's home area, and swap main class there; you will not retain your level, as each class will be at its own level, just like if you were to change character. However, you'll retain your name, your progress, your many achievements, and your well-earned gear. Of course, you're still able to make new characters if that is what you prefer. But being able to, essentially, change character under the same name, race and appearance, and still retain your progress so that you don't necessarily have to progress through a pretty much infinite game several times over and thus not accumulate your total in one place, would be absolutely great.
There is one game that allowed this, and that is where I am taking my suggestion from, with several years of positive experience with it. The game is Final Fantasy XI. It was one of the most positive things in that particular MMO. Sure, I've played the (current) MMO giant, World of Warcraft. And sure, it was enjoyable in its own way. But just as I have described, each time I wished to play a different class, I had to tell my friends I'd be changing character, I had to log out and onto the new one, and then send them all an individual message saying "This is me", under the different name and appearance. All my accomplishments and all my keys to certain areas were gone, and everything would have to be done all over again. Desirable sometimes, but not always.
Being able to place your gear in a character-wide bank, so long as the item isn't bound to one of your characters, is not the same thing; even if it were to include keys to areas you need to gain access to. You'll still go from "somebody" to "nobody", or at the very least "somebody else" upon switching characters; and you'll never get that same progress playing two or more classes you enjoy, that people who only wish to play one class achieve.
Being a writer has its drawbacks; you always end up with alot of text, and you always try to be as descriptive as possible. I can only hope you were willing to get this far, and that my plea was understood properly.
Whether or not this is (ever) implemented into Guild Wars 2, I will be looking forward to it immensely; I have no doubt it will be the new MMO giant before long. And this would be the only reason for me to ever sigh while playing it, if it were not implemented.
