Guild Wars 2. The name itself seems to lend itself to this idea: GUILD WARS.
Now as you may know by now I have strong feelings about Ultima Online as it being my first Online MMO. And god was it engaging. Now this not saying Guild Wars 2 is NOT engaging. Actually when I first got my hands on GW2 I wrote this artcile: Guild Wars 2: The Ultima Online of 2012
But I want to point out something in that article which I disagree with now full heartedly:
So I have been thinking and I wanted desperately to figure out what could help Guild Wars 2 give you that feeling of “Pride”.
The Dynamic events while awesome when you first start playing, once you figure them out, and sites make countdown timers for when they pop up. What you end up is a sea of nameless faces mashing buttons just to get a hit in on the mob before it dies to claim their loot and go back to Lions Arch to either run their daily circles around the fountain or sell on the Auction House.
People have stopped, for the most part, thanking you for a res in battle, because it is now just second nature to pick up a downed comrade or "know better" and use a spawn point. This makes the open world PvE very impersonal.
So to counter this we form Guilds. Guilds are meant to be the glue that trumps these “meaningless encounters”.
Problem is, because of the multi guild system, the lack of needing to be on the same server as another to be in their guild, and the lack of "guild progress", you get a tag over your head as the only reminder that you are online with your friends. The guild system itself and the lack of tools to display Message of the Day when logging in, lack of tools to see when a player last logged in, and the like are all problems that aid in this feeling that you are not TRULY part of a greater whole.
Now Guild Missions have been introduced and this is a GREAT step in the right direction to get guilds to come together on the PvE front. However, these are something you can only do a few times a week if that. So what do you do with the time in between?
What about giving those of us who want to FIGHT for glory a system as well? WvW? sPvP? Dungeons? Sure these are all viable but you are still just a name in a seas of other names. You may be leading a zerg from keep to keep, topping the charts in an arena, or explaining bosses to a PUG, but you are still not making the bonds you would expect from an MMO, because you don't feel the NEED to stay any longer than you "have to" in these cases.
So after that long winded intro what do I suggest?
The idea is simple. Those random encounters in UO, WoW, and other games where there is open world PvP really brought out people as individuals. People would setup duels on the public forums, people would fear others when they saw their name over the horizon. In turn this would make you want to join these people. Choosing, essentially, a side to fight for!
Without factions such as WoW had Guild Wars 2 has done a beautiful job at making it fun to be in any zone. You get sidekicked to the proper level and never feel as though you are "too good" to go to a certain zone.
This at first seemed like the reason why you couldn't have open world PvP in my mind. But after thinking about it more I have realized these implementations are the exact reasons why open world PvP could be soo much fun!
Now I am NOT proposing factions or world pvp that is not consented to. That alone would defeat the purpose of all Guild Wars 2 has built to make leveling a group event. What I am suggesting is letting Guilds engage in consensual WARS.
Ultima Online had this really cool feature, you could go to your guild stone and declare war on another guild. If the other guild accepted you could engage in battle in any part of the world with them. Now this simple idea fits the lore of Guild Wars 2 as well as the mechanics built into the core of the game.
With a common enemy your own group becomes more proud, eager to work together, and anxious to get better. No one wants to lose to the enemy. A PvE monster can only give you so much in terms of the feeling of accomplishment. You know you can lose to it and simply res to try again. If you are on a battlefield with your guild and you are wiped out, you literally have been defeated or you will continue to battle until your enemy retreats.
I dunno if anyone remembers SouthShore?
So let me break it down or TLDR:
Now as you may know by now I have strong feelings about Ultima Online as it being my first Online MMO. And god was it engaging. Now this not saying Guild Wars 2 is NOT engaging. Actually when I first got my hands on GW2 I wrote this artcile: Guild Wars 2: The Ultima Online of 2012
But I want to point out something in that article which I disagree with now full heartedly:
So I have been thinking and I wanted desperately to figure out what could help Guild Wars 2 give you that feeling of “Pride”.
The Dynamic events while awesome when you first start playing, once you figure them out, and sites make countdown timers for when they pop up. What you end up is a sea of nameless faces mashing buttons just to get a hit in on the mob before it dies to claim their loot and go back to Lions Arch to either run their daily circles around the fountain or sell on the Auction House.
People have stopped, for the most part, thanking you for a res in battle, because it is now just second nature to pick up a downed comrade or "know better" and use a spawn point. This makes the open world PvE very impersonal.
So to counter this we form Guilds. Guilds are meant to be the glue that trumps these “meaningless encounters”.
Problem is, because of the multi guild system, the lack of needing to be on the same server as another to be in their guild, and the lack of "guild progress", you get a tag over your head as the only reminder that you are online with your friends. The guild system itself and the lack of tools to display Message of the Day when logging in, lack of tools to see when a player last logged in, and the like are all problems that aid in this feeling that you are not TRULY part of a greater whole.
Now Guild Missions have been introduced and this is a GREAT step in the right direction to get guilds to come together on the PvE front. However, these are something you can only do a few times a week if that. So what do you do with the time in between?
What about giving those of us who want to FIGHT for glory a system as well? WvW? sPvP? Dungeons? Sure these are all viable but you are still just a name in a seas of other names. You may be leading a zerg from keep to keep, topping the charts in an arena, or explaining bosses to a PUG, but you are still not making the bonds you would expect from an MMO, because you don't feel the NEED to stay any longer than you "have to" in these cases.
So after that long winded intro what do I suggest?
Guild Wars.
The idea is simple. Those random encounters in UO, WoW, and other games where there is open world PvP really brought out people as individuals. People would setup duels on the public forums, people would fear others when they saw their name over the horizon. In turn this would make you want to join these people. Choosing, essentially, a side to fight for!
Without factions such as WoW had Guild Wars 2 has done a beautiful job at making it fun to be in any zone. You get sidekicked to the proper level and never feel as though you are "too good" to go to a certain zone.
This at first seemed like the reason why you couldn't have open world PvP in my mind. But after thinking about it more I have realized these implementations are the exact reasons why open world PvP could be soo much fun!
Now I am NOT proposing factions or world pvp that is not consented to. That alone would defeat the purpose of all Guild Wars 2 has built to make leveling a group event. What I am suggesting is letting Guilds engage in consensual WARS.
Ultima Online had this really cool feature, you could go to your guild stone and declare war on another guild. If the other guild accepted you could engage in battle in any part of the world with them. Now this simple idea fits the lore of Guild Wars 2 as well as the mechanics built into the core of the game.
With a common enemy your own group becomes more proud, eager to work together, and anxious to get better. No one wants to lose to the enemy. A PvE monster can only give you so much in terms of the feeling of accomplishment. You know you can lose to it and simply res to try again. If you are on a battlefield with your guild and you are wiped out, you literally have been defeated or you will continue to battle until your enemy retreats.
I dunno if anyone remembers SouthShore?
So let me break it down or TLDR:
- Guilds able to declare war on one another.
- For guilds engaged in wars putting in a place a time limit for switching which guild you represent. This not only builds a sense of community but really puts emphasis on what guilds you join and why.
- These guilds can then engage in battle ANYWHERE in the world
- This could be limited to 30+ zones to keep the new player experience intact if you join a guild currently engaged in war. It also makes it so your player has unlocked most if not all of their skill slots.
- This system works well with the Side-Kicking feature, because like WvW you will all be the same level, and gear will still play a small factor, but it will be skills based as well.
- If engaged in a war you cannot be ressed by anyone that is not in your guild. This adds a sort of "hardcore" mode for you while leveling as well, giving death a bigger sacrifice.
- It promotes players to go to other zones and actually use the beautiful landscape and buildings created as strategic battle points. Just take a look at this lower level zone that could be used for epic scale battles! I mean I only go there once in awhile without reason, but if you guild mate is under attack, you can bet 50 of us will be in those fields painting them red!(and we would hope they would retaliate as well)
- And of course with any open world system like this there should be rewards like the WvW tokens that can be given to players for killing one another and giving them incentive to come defend their guild members. I am not asking for objectives in the open world, we saw how badly that ended up for The Plaguelands in WoW. People enjoy the random encounters more than the forced areas. A system that still allows for that random encounter and objectives is a "Capture the Flag" type system where you have to bring an item from say ONE CITY to ANOTHER by foot. There is a happy middle ground here. Perhaps certain towns in the world could be triggered as waypoints for the "flag" and you have to hold up there for a certain amount of time before bringing it on to the next destination, allowing the other team to surround you and forcing some really epic battles.(this used to happen to us in paintball skirmishes IRL. Lots of fun! Walls are a true equalizer against #'s.)
- To expand on that even more, if said "flag" was Faction based: Sylvari, Norn, Human, Charr, Asuran... the starting point could be one of the capitals. This would be a great way to get people back into those cities as well. As it is, because of Lion's Arch being so easily accessible the most amazing cities in this game go uninhabited. I remember in WoW having so much pride in Orgrimarr and defending it with my last dying breath from an Alliance attack, and the same for attacking Iron Forge or Stormwind. I.E a Relic must be delivered safely from one town to the other, but whoever brings it there gets the glory.
- And of course with any open world system like this there should be rewards like the WvW tokens that can be given to players for killing one another and giving them incentive to come defend their guild members. I am not asking for objectives in the open world, we saw how badly that ended up for The Plaguelands in WoW. People enjoy the random encounters more than the forced areas. A system that still allows for that random encounter and objectives is a "Capture the Flag" type system where you have to bring an item from say ONE CITY to ANOTHER by foot. There is a happy middle ground here. Perhaps certain towns in the world could be triggered as waypoints for the "flag" and you have to hold up there for a certain amount of time before bringing it on to the next destination, allowing the other team to surround you and forcing some really epic battles.(this used to happen to us in paintball skirmishes IRL. Lots of fun! Walls are a true equalizer against #'s.)
So while PvP is not for everyone this allows an extra layer for those who love it, those who want to battle for more than just the WvW Zerg. This gives you a purpose in the world. I would even go as far as perhaps allowing attacking in towns like Lions Arch, but that may be my hardcore side coming out, but hey WAR IS WAR!
I feel as though this falls in line with everything GW2 has implemented adding that sense of unease while leveling an alt or just the sense of having a common enemy that isn't just a Red Blue or Green color, but has a name and guild tag over their head. Something to aspire to join or defeat! Something to inspire friendly competition. A reason to have "unique" names in the game; standing out on the battlefield.
Plus the game is called: "GUILD WARS" 2.
