User:Shard/GW2
In some recent articles on guildwars2.com, some developers make a few comments that bother me quite a bit.
"Traditional quest systems involve walking up to a character who usually has an exclamation point or question mark hovering over their head and talking to them. From here, you get a massive wall of text hardly anyone reads that describes a horrible or totally mundane thing going on in the world that you need to help with."
I certainly can't speak for everybody, but this is not how I play games with "Traditional quest systems." Among the RPGs I play heaviest are Diablo 2, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, and Planescape: Torment (yes, most of them are made by black isle/bioware, and all of them are like 8+ years old). These games do not use "Walls of text nobody reads." I can tell you why:
- These games do not create a giant green arrow or star on your minimap to tell you where to go. You actually have to read the text (which usually isn't a wall) in order to know what to do. Often, the journal contains a copy of the conversation you had with some highlights, but it never tells you "Go to (32.5, 99.6) and talk to Bob."
- These games use voice acting. If you aren't big on reading text, luckily, you can listen to it instead. Because these games aren't Factions, the voice acting is actually interesting, and sometimes humorous. I sometimes find myself ignoring text completely and just listening to the characters banter.
- These games have well-written dialogue. Not garbage like this. Not only is it well written, they proofread it too.
"Traditional quest systems rely on these blocks of quest text to tell you what is happening in the world; this is just an outdated form of storytelling."
I guess it's just MMOs that do this now. Real RPGs don't have quest systems this stale.
"Traditional MMO quest systems will send multiple players off to kill a boss. One player kills the boss and gets the loot. The rest of the players have to stand around and wait their turn for the boss to re-spawn so they can kill it and get credit for it."
I don't know what game he invented that has this flaw, but I've never played or even heard of it. I'm sure there's some really old, bad korean MMO nobody plays that had this crutch, but MMOs for at least the past 5 years have solved this by using different shards, districts, lobbies, or one of the any other names for multiple copies of the same instance. Most people in MMOs are nice, and would gladly help you kill these bosses/enemies if you need them. If not, simply migrate to another version of the instance.
Also, one player doesn't get all the loot. Every MMO I've played has a loot system where players are either given items randomly or some other way to make it more fair.
"To reinforce the importance of movement in the game, we want your character's position in combat to really matter. You'll see a lot of attacks in Guild Wars 2 that encourage and reward tactical player movement and positioning."
That's what you said about GW1, right before you introduced Shadow Stepping.
"The first five skills on the skill bar are not slotted directly by the player; instead they are determined by the player's choice of weapon and profession. Because of this, we can ensure that each weapon is balanced with a fun combination of skills."
So, GW2 will be costume brawl with sideboards? What about character specialization? Nah, let all elementalists have the same bar. It's good for that balance thing we keep hearing about.
Jeff strain says about pve: "Equipment is a lot more important in Guild Wars 2. You will be able find a lot of cool items that will help with character development. Why that was different in Guild Wars 1 is because we designed PvP to be focused on player skill. Nobody should have an advantage just because they played longer than others."
So yeah in our last game skill mattered, but it won't be like that in GW2. GW2 will have no learning curve and a low mastery threshold, because we want it to be like The Sims.
A game where farming gear > being smart makes for a pretty boring game, especially for newer players who don't have leet gear like everyone else.
