GW2 Beta Weekend Event Impressions

Guild Wars 2 is not the messiah of the MMO genre, at least based on my experience this past weekend, but it is an extremely fun game, and sometimes, that's enough. I figure we should start by saying that, especially with all the hype the title has received. It's strange, looking back on some of my notes, on Friday night I was impressed by a few things, but generally felt a "meh" attitude towards the game. On Saturday I was struggling with the combat dismayed by the poor performance (yes, I know it was beta, and the client was not optimized, but it was hard not to pay attention to the performance) and Sunday morning it was like everything finally came together and fell in place and I was enjoying myself, wishing that the beta was not going to end. I think part of it was the culmination of all the little things that were "right" about the title, and the other part was finally getting a handle on the combat system which coming from traditional MMO's felt alien to me on Friday.

I started off rolling a human Thief, and jumped right into the mix, staying in the tutorial area a little bit longer than most people just so I could try to wrap my head around the combat system, and wanting to unlock some of my skills and understand them. Once I did that, I wrapped up the tutorial area, and followed the herd of players out into the world, and where I started experiencing mixed emotions. If you have ever done a beta event, or jumped into an MMO at launch you'll know what I mean, where there are 3,000 people right where you are, and everything feels crazy. I was blown away by how good the game itself looked. I'm not talking Age of Conan type of detail, it was like moving around in a painting. I cannot stress how good things looked, but my appreciation was muted as I ran towards the first "heart" I saw on the map, wanting to experience what questing was like. Try an imagine what seemed to be hundreds of people all trying to do the exact same thing, in addition to a slide show experience it was a struggle to do anything, mobs died incredibly quick, before most people could even attack. Even knowing what to expect, it did make it a little bit harder to enjoy what I was doing. 

After a little adventuring, I decided to escape the masses and head off for some PvP. I did several structured PvP maps to wrap my head around my boosted to level 80 toon, and had mixed results. I felt that melee was at a distinct disadvantage to ranged, and since I was not level 7, I had not unlocked the ability to swap weapons. At about this time I decided to jump into WvWvW PvP and it was there that the game started to click for me. I wont say that it was a drop in of Warhammer RvR PvP, but it did remind me of it in many ways. I had a level of familiarity with it, what to do, and how to do it. Darkhaven was a day 1 monster, and we had several small bands grabbing just about everything on the map, and it was fun. That night I rolled out a second toon, a ranger with my wife and we had a chance to do the starting areas with people more spread out, and I had another "click" with the game, and was enjoying it.

Without too much detail, I got into crafting on Saturday and found a system that I really enjoyed, I died a lot in PvE and PvP, but I found that I was starting to understand the combat system, and how to attack, dodge and stay alive, and slowly I was starting to enjoy the combat. By Sunday evening, I felt I had the combat system down, I'd done a ton of exploring, I ventured back to instanced PvP, and was cutting thru casters like a hot knife thru butter and feeling very good indeed about the game.

So let's talk more about some of the good, the little things, and some of the bad, because there are definitely a few issues I have with the game as it stands.

The Good:

ArenaNet got cities and music down perfectly, and they got them so right that I cant think of another MMO that has done it as well. Divinity's Reach had NPC's all over the place, and not just standing still, but moving around, engaging in conversations with each other, from the obvious wealthy areas to the slumbs, from the circus to crafting areas, the atmosphere felt hand crafted. Many doors were open, and you could go into bar's, and inn's, explore buildings and halls. This was absolutely a masterpiece, and I'd suggest anyone who wants to see an example of a great MMO city should visit for that reason alone.


Questing tends to make the game feel like a more directed themepark. Instead of hub to hub, players open their map, see which hearts are not filled, and then go off to do them. This isnt a bad thing, and it gave me reason to run all over, but it is a very directed experience. Most of these are located off main roads, so you do have a reason to go cross country, and it made a world of difference.

Underwater combat was novel, and I did spend a fair amount of time in the WvWvW area swimming around, and found several underwater entry points to keeps. It made me smile, and I know it may not happen often, but I can tell you now the first underwater assault on a keep I take part in will immediately set the WvWvW apart from other MMO's.

If I had written this on Friday, combat may have gone into the bad column, thankfully I took some time and learned it. One might think that only having 5 skills means shallow combat, and button mashing, and that's probably what I did early on, and it got me killed more often than not. With weapon swap at level 7, I was constantly trying to find which pairings worked well together, was it two pistols with two daggers? Pistol main hand and dagger offhand? Sword main hand and pistol offhand? When I finally found what worked for me, and I was dodging, combat felt good. This is, I think, the single biggest bridge for traditional MMO fans to adapt to, as combat almost played more like a hack and slash RPG. That isnt a great comparisson, but it's about as good as I can find. It'll take time for people to adapt, if they stick with it, there is definitely a reward.

Crafting is exactly what I'm looking for. Star Wars: The Old Republic took too much away from players letting companions do all the work, and Vanguard originally was too big a time sink (8 hours to gather materials and craft a small ship.) Nothing has ever equalled Star Wars: Galaxies crafting, but for where I am today as a gamer, GW2 does it right. I enjoyed gathering materials, the ability to craft granted recipe's, and the chance to randomly pull materials into the bench and see if I could discover a recipe. I'm sure that within weeks of launch websites will have all that info up for people to find, but it doesnt change the fact it exists in-game.

Despite my tearing apart some casters last night, I still believe that ranged has an easier go of things in PvP than a melee character. Part of my success was, if you are familiar with the map, around the Henge in Nifhel Forest, where I was able to line of sight casters and essentially force them to come closer to me.  All games will have imbalance, and I expect that, and most games it feels that ranged is better off than melee, so we'll have to see how this plays out.

Both instanced maps were fun, but I'd like to see more variety. The WvWvW area was a blast, and this early on it felt often like it was a zerg fest, but that's the same mentality I'd seen in other MMO's because it is the path of least resistance. Good leaders end up emerging, and you end up doing more with less people. I get the feeling I'll be spending serious time here, as it is the experience I've wanted in an MMO since Dark Age of Camelot, and to a lesser extent Warhammer Online.


I almost forgot to add how much I like the Auction House. Being able to list items while adventuring was great. I enjoyed being able to search by item, see what and how many of a certain item was available, and to set my own price that I wanted to buy an item at. After SW:TOR which has a horrid interface for the Auction House, I was blown away here by what I could do. Granted this isnt a make it or break it type feature in a game, but it is a convenience that is noteworthy and deserves mention.

The Bad:

I'm going to start with what I feel is an obvious one. The chat system is pure garbage, and it definitely has an impact on the community. For some reason the /local chat does not cover the entire zone, rather it covers in what other MMO's might be a /yell area. As an example, while I was at the front gate of Divinity's Reach I had conversations popping up that my wife did not see while she was at the crafting stations, a mere 10-15 second run from where I was. One of the common themes I saw was that people felt the game and the servers were "quiet". Apologists suggest that it is because people were too busy to be chatting, bull excrement. I've never been a part of game where chat wasnt fairly lively, even during a short beta. There are almost always people talking, asking questions, or being obnoxious. How on earth could ArenaNet build a city that feels alive and vibrant not have a chat channel that extends a zone? It's a social game. I'm not asking for server wide chat, but simple zone wide chat would make a world of difference.

The personal story. The hideous cut scenes, and yes SW:TOR spoiled me, and voice overs actually made me realize how good Bioware was at telling a story. I had a barely clothed NPC who appeared to be very young voiced as if she was in her 80's. This was a recurring theme, and it just made me wish that ArenaNet at least had an appropriate voice for the NPC.  Yes this is a step up from standard text quests, but it felt off, with a distinct lack of depth. I guess it's bad when you compare it to SW:TOR, and that might still be good enough to make it the 2nd best offering out there now, even despite the Final Fantasy-esque 1998 style cutscenes.

The instances. Again, apologists say that the only instances are for your personal story, and that is simply bull excrement. Being honest about it, overflow areas are, in fact, instances. It's the same technique used in Everquest 2, where for example Antonica fills up the game creates "Antonica 2" and people who zone in go to Antonica 2. I dont have any problem with this system when there is a way to shift instances to be in the same place as a groupmate. GW2 lacks that, and Saturday night I spent close to 20 minutes trying to get into the same overflow area as the person I was grouped with, it was a troubling experience. We could be next to each other in Divinity's Reach, and head out and we'd be in different overflow areas. Very simply overflow areas ARE instances, just not personal instances. I dont know how big a problem this is for times other than launch, but not having a way to join a groupmate is just plain stupid. Likely this takes care of itself, but add a mechanic to be in the same overflow instance as people you are grouped with.

Having to queue for WvWvW PvP. Take a step back, read that again, and think about what I'm saying. On both Saturday night and Sunday night I had to queue up for WORLD PvP. I understand there are cap limits, and I wonder if it is a total number or you are limited to a certain number of people per side, but it was a strangely frustrating experience to think that I had to queue up for instanced world PvP. Nature of the beast, but I do hope eventually ArenaNet can eliminate the cap for this area.

Summary:

I dont know if I'll spend a lot of time in future beta weekend events, simply because I am 100% confident that I'll be picking this title up and enjoying it when it releases. The items I singled out as being "bad" arent dealbreakers, and they arent horrid, but when you compare the polish of the rest of the game, they really do stand out. Granted ArenaNet has some polish and optimization work to do, but this game should release very well, and I did appreciate how ArenaNet addressed (lack of communication though) early login and network errors, which seemed nearly eliminated by Sunday.

This is a good looking, very enjoyable game. When I started the weekend I thought it was a bastard hybrid of Rift and Warhammer Online, at least in many concepts, but that would be doing it an injustice because it is so much more. I want to see some dungeons, and find out how they work, and how enjoyable they are, and despite the ArenaNet claim that endgame begins at level 1, I wonder where the staying power for me will be at level 80 beyond the WvWvW area. While PvP can extend a game because it is essentially player created content, I'm not sure where the PvE content will be, and if it will compare to the traditional MMO-esque grind experience of raiding and gearing.

Those questions however I dont think I can answer for myself until I hit level 80, and since this is a no subscription game, I wont have any problem enjoying the ride to 80 and experiencing for myself. No, this isnt the messiah of MMO's that some folks thought, but the bottom line for me is that I liked it quite a bit. We'll see where it's spot in the Pantheon of great MMO's ultimately will be, but hands down one of the better MMO's that I've experienced in quite a long time.

Beyond The Old Republic

I've spent 5 months playing Star Wars: The Old Republic and with 5 level 50's, multiple raids done, a character who is a battlemaster, I'm finally at a crossroads with the game. Dont misunderstand me, the game is pretty much exactly what I thought it would be, so I'm not suggesting Bioware did something wrong. (They did, but that's a long post for another day.) I am suggesting that the low population server that I happen to play on convinced me to sit down and examine what really matters to me in an MMO. SWTOR sold me on both story, and IP, but it turns out, there are other things that actually matter more to me, and if my choice to to find a game that has those things, or to continue to play a game with a declining population that prevents me from doing things that I'd like to do, then just maybe it's time for me to stop, and take a look around.

1) Meaningful World PvP:

Nobody did this better than Dark Age of Camelot, and to a lesser extent Warhammer Online. My personal definition of meaningful, which I realize is open to debate, is World PvP that has a tangible impact on the world, or the gameplay. I loved the Tarren Mill versus Southshore PvP in World of Warcraft as much as anyone, but ultimately winning or losing was determined by who left last, there was no lasting impact on the game world. Games like DAoC and WHO had reasons to world PvP, capturing keeps, turning a zone. It isnt a permanent impact, but it is a short term impact, and you do notice it.

Above and beyond what I've already said, meaningful world PvP is largely player created content. Think about that for a second. Look at all the things that can impact it, from class balance to class nerfs, from server population to player skill. It's players who are determining what is happen in given zones. This is content that developers dont have to create, and dont have to worry about players out leveling. Meaningful world PvP is a sandbox element that fits into most games, gives players something to enjoy, and is ongoing content that developers dont have to invest countless hours into building.

Gordon Walton who worked on titles like UO:Renissance, SWTOR, and Star Wars Galaxies gave a speech at GDC Austin in 2007 where he talked about the lessons people should learn building MMO's in a post World of Warcraft environment. One of the things he said that stuck, is that "Content sucks. Content takes people to build." I take that to mean that people eat up content faster than developers can create it. Taking that to the next step, meaningful world PvP is content that changes daily, and its a system that players build content. I'm a little amazed he is the one who said that, and was involved with SWTOR which is clearly a PvE content driven title.

Gordon Walton 2007 GDC Speech, coverage by Gamastura


2) Instanced PvP:

Yes, I like instanced PvP as well as world PvP, in fact I like most types of PvP with the exception of Arena PvP, but that too is a whole 'nother blog. Back in the mid 90's, I enjoyed FPS games, and I do today as well. The difference between the two experiences is that I'm now 38 years old, and there are 13 year olds who have reflexes on a different level than I do. Back then I would be all over a leaderboard, these days it's a fight every single game I play to break even. MMO's to me, havent been about just reflexes, they are about knowing not only your class, but knowing your opponents class as well. Sure, being quick is great, but I can combat some of that reflex loss with savvy, smarts, and skill. That's a big reason I enjoy instanced PvP as well, more outlets to test myself and compete with other people is content that doesnt have an endpoint.


3) Public Quests:

Warhammer Online was my first real exposure to public quests as a form of content. Sure, other games had small events, but Warhammer  presented it so multiple people could come participate, group, and win rewards somewhat loosely based on contribution. Rift took it a step further and polished the idea, and now Guild Wars 2 is selling it as the main offering to it's PvE.

I think only a fool believes that the results really change the game world. Guild Wars is saying that depending on what happens the path can go "up" or "down", and different things will happen until the tide is stopped and the players overcome, or dont. Here's the catch, overcome or dont, eventually, that is going to reset back to neutral and start all over again. In fact, I saw some people saying that in Guild Wars 2 beta the event was re-setting so often it was like it had never been stopped at all.

Granted GW2 is in beta, and they are tuning it, and that there is a fine line between having events often enough so people can do them (is it fair to make someone wait an hour after one ends to see it start again? What is the right balance?) but they seem to have the right idea.

Game worlds should be part of the experience, not just a setting to tell a story. Having some kind of public quests that makes me care, or gets me involved makes me experience the world in a different way.

4) Punishment:

This is pretty simple, dont do it.

There are all kinds of punishment in MMO's, from looting to death penalties, with massive time sinks and grinds in the middle. Look, I dont mind a certain amount of grinding, but when it's excessive then I've got an issue. Back when I was 20 odd years old, I could invest more time, so I cared far less, but at 38, with a job, a wife, a daughter, and other events in my life, I just dont have the time, or effort to sink untold hours for a reward. Here's the catch, if the reward is something I want, I have less objections to my time being spent. Developers beware, and find the optimum balance.

I know there are fans of full loot in PvP. I'll say it this way, I did it years ago in UO, and I know what losing everything felt like. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, and guess what? I outgrew it. Dont get me wrong, if someone likes it, more power to 'em, but its a niche gaming playstyle and I have no interest in it.

5) Sidekicking:

Eq2, CoH, and GW2 all advertise it, and I like it. One of the big negatives in SWTOR for me, was that my wife took about 4 months to hit level 50, and in this title when we were both playing I rarely played with her during the time she was leveling. Same thing with my best friend, and I just dont like it. I play MMO's to enjoy with friends, dont make it more challenging for me to do that. I'm fine with de-leveling myself to play with a friend. 

6) Exploring:

The awe I felt in UO exploring a virtual world was exceeded in only one game: Star Wars Galaxies. I loved taking safari's to planets with friends, and exploring them, seeing what was there. There felt like danger could be lurking around the next corner. I'll never forget my first safari to Endor with friends, or one to Talus searching for a rare pet for a friend to tame.

Exploring is something that never lasts because eventually you are comfortable going anywhere and everywhere, but some of my strongest memories of the genre are thru exploration, so dont underestimate it's power.

7) Housing:

Housing is an easy catch-all for what I'm driving at. I want to stake an claim on this virtual world. I want to be emotionally tied to the game above and beyond simple PvE and PvP. Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, and Everquest 2 all did a great job or tying me into the world. (Lord of the Rings Online never gave me quite the same tie.) This is something that can be instanced, but that extra reason to play other than PvE and PvP is well worth the developer investment.


8) Crafting:

There is good and bad. I want worthwile crafting, crafting that has a meaning. I dont want to make items 3 levels below me with level appropriate materials, I dont want to spend 8 hours making a single ship (Thank you very much Vanguard at release) I dont want to hit max level crafting and realize that nobody will buy my items since they can get better via dungeons and raids. I dont want the only crafting profession to be worth a damn to be a cooking, or alchemy whichever type makes the useable buff items,


So it's a long list, and I could probably add more to it if I really wanted. I'm a few days away from trying out the Guild Wars 2 weekend beta event, but for the first time in a long time, I'm ready to have an objective experience. I'm ready to look for things that I find fun, and judge the game based on what it offers, not based on who made it, or what the IP is.

No you are not going to see me list things like graphics, animations and combat here. There are a few items that would utterly dissuade me from a game, but even a game like Mount & Blade can look horrible but be extremely fun to play because of the concepts behind it.  What it boils down to, are that these things are going to be about style, and personal preference, but arent going to be core items to determine a game that I'll enjoy.

I'll never recapture great moments from my MMO past, and I will always look back fondly on some titles, but it's time to find the game that will build the next set of great memories, and I'm going to start by finding a game that meets as many of these 8 items as I can, and go from there.