Should GW2 to go back to its roots?

[Milo.3840]

TL;DR: Overall vibe and fantasy of the game then and now. Lately, there is a heavy lack of suspension of disbelief in the game in my opinion.

 

Open world needs to make a comeback and I wish somehow someway it could feel similar to real end game content like people feel raids/strikes are end game content. GW2 excelled at being different from other MMOs in that regard, but now it's starting to feel the same. I hate that Open World gets sorted into the "doesn't really matter endgame" category. Maybe a blend between how Straits of Devastation, Malchor's Leap, and Cursed Shore maps progress (unlocked vendors and map completion etc), Drizzlewood Coast's reward track and amazing map progression, and the difficulty of Dragon's End would do it.

 

Lately, I've been seriously having a good time doing core Tyria map comp on all of my characters. The level scaling (save for gear and general power creep) makes it all still feel relevant. It's an awesome way to farm spirit shards, gather mats, and you generally always have something you can do in core Tyria.

 

This is all my opinion and I'm honestly just wondering if anyone feels the same way. GW2 is by far and large my most favorite video game to date (save for maybe Halo or  Ratchet and Clank) and I sincerely care about it. It's hard for me to portray precisely why I feel the Core Tyria maps (and PoF as well to be honest) are GW2's best developed for the game but I will try:

 

• The number of renown hearts to complete: Ever since Living World came about, the renown hearts became abysmally small, and I suppose they tried to compensate by making them take much longer to complete and having them available to complete each day for rewards. I believe a healthy blend could be accomplished by increasing the number of renown hearts available per map, while reducing the time to complete each heart and reducing the rewards per vendor. Overall it would take the same time and give the same rewards, but would encourage much more engaging map exploration and less "go to these three or 4 areas each day and to a long grueling task". Not only that, but the many, many events that already take place all over the map could contribute to heart completion as well.
• The events that change the map state: As far as I know, there isn't really anything to do anymore like Core Tyria's "do these events to unlock this vendor" type things. I've really been needing obsidian shards lately and I actually enjoy how Straits of Devastation has an awesome event chain to unlock Tactician Deathstrider to purchase Obsidian for Karma. Not only that, but the Hero Points are sometimes locked behind capturing a shrine. The Harathi events are amazing as well because capturing a camp actually captures it from the centaurs and allows you to purchase Centaur weapon skins (it's just very frustrating how long allied forces hold the camps and prevent renown heart completion with ease). Those types of things could be fleshed out much more with cool Jade Tech Brotherhood skins, or Speaker skins, where the unlocked vendors sell unique exotic items with Dragon's or Ritualist stats (for a hefty fee of map currency that you could maybe possibly gain by renown hearts and event completion.. if only there were something like "writs" in the game that we could exchange...)
• The Fantasy Vibe and suspension of disbelief: There's tons of lore to be found and more importantly, the ambient dialogue fits the game's fantasy waaaaay more than EoD's "Earth Social Dynamics" vibe they've for some reason decided to adapt; I'm not saying they don't belong in the game at all, but when you constantly vomit affirmative action with subtelty all over the place, it really kills the fantasy vibe in my opinion. It's really difficult for me to accurtely describe the general feel of the game in core Tyria vs EoD.. maybe it's just that EoD feels more attached to "rainbow dragon magic, friendship, and love conquers all" overbearing theme, I'm not sure.. but core Tyria really gets you immersed in the story's universe as you play the maps.. but that's not what the post is mainly about, as I don't want to be grouped into the anti-affirmative action crowd that I feel will immediately discredit my argument; I just want more of the game's universe and heavier down-scaling on "Earth World Problems" and "as long as we have each other" vibe. "Ear
• Choices that sort of matter but not really (and personal story in general): No longer do personality traits do anything. Sure it's a nuance, but it was a neat feature for players to have akin to titles. There isn't anything like "choose this path to experience the story this way, but lead to the same end game". It was so cool to decide which route to take in our affiliation with the Pact and really felt immersive. To top on all of that, I might be in the minority of people who preferred the old style of cutscenes and dialogue where it showed your character talking to story characters rather than speech bubbles over a walkie-talkie and rendered cinematics.

 

I was just wondering if anyone feels the same way or not. Lately it feels that GW2 has been leaning more towards instanced content being their focus for devlopment of end game, and I feel that really does the game a disservice. I don't understand why that open world should be the default easy mode of the game. In my opinion, it could be an understood concept that the further you progress linearly on the map, the more difficult it becomes, where again I'd reference to Orr.

 

I'm so sorry if I couldn't accurately portray why I feel Core Tyria is where GW2 shines the most, but maybe if you feel the same you could elaborate. To me I could really just sum it up as that's where you can really feel where the devs poured their heart and soul into developing something artistically amazing. The cultural armor tiers, the research they did for the accuracy of map geography and vocabulary, the little things like when you kill a racoon or rabbit with an ice damage weapon (it's hilarious if you haven't seen it yet) [list continues]. All of that must have taken a serious amount of innovation, time, and dedication with confidence, whereas lately it feels that the devs are afraid of taking such devoted risks like they did with the initial development of the game.

[Randulf.7614]

I agree with the spirit of your argument, if not the specifics. It absolutely isn’t focused more on instances these days. That’s a heavily neglected area area of the game. A few weak strikes do not make up for the vastly superior and accessible iterations of the original fractals—which like raids, are abandoned.

But, yes a return to core ideals would be welcomed, but I’ve prob harped on about this in the other threads enough this week. It ultimately comes down to a new team, with different ideas, catering to a wider audience—many of which have no long term ties to the beloved early days many vets hold dear

Edited February 8, 2023 by Randulf.7614

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

I once tried to do all the events on each core map. Every time I think back to that moment or see events popping up, I really want to try it again. More or less, each event is related to the main story or tells a bit of history related to the map or the race that dominates the area.

whenever I'm in EoD, I couldn't care less about events or map exploration or anything at all =:/

[Milo.3840]

35 minutes ago, Arianth Moonlight.6453 said:

I once tried to do all the events on each core map. Every time I think back to that moment or see events popping up, I really want to try it again. More or less, each event is related to the main story or tells a bit of history related to the map or the race that dominates the area.

whenever I'm in EoD, I couldn't care less about events or map exploration or anything at all =:/

Exactly... like one of the things in Drowned Kaineng is just to uncover a vault that talks about to people in love?? There's mayyybe a few in Echovald Wilds that are decent like the Forever Tree and Ignis.. but Ignis just ends up feeling like "here's a big bad spooky tree man".

 

48 minutes ago, Randulf.7614 said:

I agree with the spirit of your argument, if not the specifics. It absolutely isn’t focused more on instances these days. That’s a heavily neglected area area of the game. A few weak strikes do not make up for the vastly superior and accessible iterations of the original fractals—which like raids, are abandoned.

But, yes a return to core ideals would be welcomed, but I’ve prob harped on about this in the other threads enough this week. It ultimately comes down to a new team, with different ideas, catering to a wider audience—many of which have no long term ties to the beloved early days many vets hold dear

 I was probably too hasty not fleshing out what I meant by "instanced content". What I meant by it was that it seems now that player concern has shifted heavily into DPS numbers etc for instances. I mean I know of course those types of things will always be of concern in the MMO scene, but it's (to me) at a point like WoW now where trivial amounts of numbers are the key concern of development. Again it's difficult to describe. I'm whole heartedly for things like dungeons and fractals as they are in great quantity and really flesh out the game's story; gameplay for fractals is incredible thanks to the different mechanics that change around. I just wish things like fractals and dungeons had some sort of matchmaking system so that more players like me with anxiety about discord etc could get involved, but that sounds a bit selfish on my end so I didnt want to put it in the post

Edited February 8, 2023 by Milo.3840

[Vayne.8563]

While I can understand where the OP is coming from, the truth is, the game is focused on open world content and story content and always has been since day one.  Let's take the newest form of instanced content, strike missions.

 

Since the release of EoD we've had 4 challenge mode strike missions and 1 new one, or one every two months.  That's about it. No new fractals, no new raids, no new dungeons at all.  Those instances are end game content to people who like that, and those people are loud, but they're not that numerous.

You're conflating loudness with quantity, and they're different things. As for EoD, the achievements give you stories the way events used to, and none of those are instanced content. There are plenty of achievements that lead you through events that tell longer story, almost like quests in other games.  It's still open world content though.

[Obtena.7952]

I have always felt the main 'feel' of OW has shifted. Core maps tend to have a few main events and numerous smaller ones (like hearts) while LS maps transitioned to a progression of one or two massive events.

Aside from that shift, the obvious difference is the power creep. I definitely do not feel challenged in core maps and as a veteran, I'm disappointed that the scaling, which I understand was supposed to make it 'fun' for well-equipped players in these core areas ... simply doesn't keep up with the power creep. It's trivial and it actually poses a problem when well equipped players are in core fighting alongside low level players in those areas. 

I also don't get the author's sentiment that it should feel more like 'real' end game content like the instanced content they refer to. I think it already does feel that way. It's evident to me that most of the LS maps have this 'real' feel for endgame content in most of their meta events. If you are lucky enough to get a map where some non-zerg number of people attempt a meta event, many of  these events have a very 'instanced' content vibe. You definitely need to bring your best game to succeed at most meta events with just 10-15 people. 

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Obtena.7952

[cyberzombie.7348]

1 hour ago, Milo.3840 said:

Choices that sort of matter but not really (and personal story in general): No longer do personality traits do anything. Sure it's a nuance, but it was a neat feature for players to have akin to titles. There isn't anything like "choose this path to experience the story this way, but lead to the same end game". It was so cool to decide which route to take in our affiliation with the Pact and really felt immersive. To top on all of that, I might be in the minority of people who preferred the old style of cutscenes and dialogue where it showed your character talking to story characters rather than speech bubbles over a walkie-talkie and rendered cinematics.

This is something that was missing since HoT. That fell under the radar since it well made up for it's in exploration and 24/7 metas. PoF had somewhat of that deciding between Sunspear, Joko, and neutral for Amnoon. Plus it affected the dialogue within the city and told the nuances of your decision as you pass by. EoD however is just pure on-rails aside of being able to choose whether to talk your way out of Minister Li's questioning or just fight. Which would be awesome to implement choices like that more often.

 

p.s. I always hoped that the elements from Caudecus's Manor dungeon spelt over to later chapters. Where each class had something specific to bring to the table to ease through certain situations. Like lockpicking if you had a thief, rangers taming guard dogs, and engineers disabling machines/turrets. Then the game would feel much more like an MMORPG rather than an action MMO.

[Khisanth.2948]

If roots means more hearts then we should be scrambling to the tree tops. Hearts are one of the worst parts of the game and they haven't made any improvements from launch to EoD.

[soul.9651]

19 minutes ago, Khisanth.2948 said:

If roots means more hearts then we should be scrambling to the tree tops. Hearts are one of the worst parts of the game and they haven't made any improvements from launch to EoD.

Well he meant way more than that, its you who got fixated on "more hearts"

[Sobx.1758]

On 2/8/2023 at 1:55 AM, Milo.3840 said:

Lately, I've been seriously having a good time doing core Tyria map comp on all of my characters. The level scaling (save for gear and general power creep) makes it all still feel relevant. It's an awesome way to farm spirit shards, gather mats, and you generally always have something you can do in core Tyria.

The scaling for core isn't remotely enough to combat the power creep in order to make it anywhere near as "relevant" as it is for newer players. And that's fine, since core should be directed more at the new players grasping the basics of the game.

On 2/8/2023 at 1:55 AM, Milo.3840 said:

The events that change the map state: As far as I know, there isn't really anything to do anymore like Core Tyria's "do these events to unlock this vendor" type things. I've really been needing obsidian shards lately and I actually enjoy how Straits of Devastation has an awesome event chain to unlock Tactician Deathstrider to purchase Obsidian for Karma. Not only that, but the Hero Points are sometimes locked behind capturing a shrine. The Harathi events are amazing as well because capturing a camp actually captures it from the centaurs and allows you to purchase Centaur weapon skins (it's just very frustrating how long allied forces hold the camps and prevent renown heart completion with ease). Those types of things could be fleshed out much more with cool Jade Tech Brotherhood skins, or Speaker skins, where the unlocked vendors sell unique exotic items with Dragon's or Ritualist stats (for a hefty fee of map currency that you could maybe possibly gain by renown hearts and event completion.. if only there were something like "writs" in the game that we could exchange...)

There are map specific currencies with vendors (incluiding heart-vendors) selling skins (and other items/components) for them. If your idea is to make pretty much everything acquirable through the heart vendors then I disagree that should be a thing. Some things sure should be -and are- but trying to cram everything into that is a bad idea imo. Playing more content for more rewards is the state of the game that makes sense to me and which I prefer.

Tbh I'm not sure if the core maps were indeed seeing as much -and frequent- event-related change as you say they did when compared to the later releasaes. To be clear, I'm not saying I'm against it -I'm saying that I think it was more-or-less occasional in core and is more-or-less occasional now ("now" meaning expansions and lws).

On 2/8/2023 at 1:55 AM, Milo.3840 said:

The number of renown hearts to complete: Ever since Living World came about, the renown hearts became abysmally small, and I suppose they tried to compensate by making them take much longer to complete and having them available to complete each day for rewards. I believe a healthy blend could be accomplished by increasing the number of renown hearts available per map, while reducing the time to complete each heart and reducing the rewards per vendor. Overall it would take the same time and give the same rewards, but would encourage much more engaging map exploration and less "go to these three or 4 areas each day and to a long grueling task". Not only that, but the many, many events that already take place all over the map could contribute to heart completion as well.

As for the hearts, I like the current version more than the -lets call it- "core heart spam". I see next to no good reason to "increase number of hearts while decreasing required participation". But not only that, I think you might be kind of torn about the whole "hearts" thing too, seeing how at the end of this quote you've already neatly tried fitting in a "work-around" in the form of "nearby events contributing to them". Considering events contributing to hearts and the attempt to "lower the needed contribution to complete them", I can't help but think it might be an attempt to have some sort of "easy double dip" for doing any event. If it's still not clear how: do any event -> with increased number of hearts chances are you're contributing to one of them -> with lowered needed participation for completion, you're either getting hugely substantial % or even completely finish them -> get rewards for event AND the heart.

Meanwhile in the current form, the nearby events are also contributing, but it's not some default "do any event, complete another heart". Hearts are fine at giving some shape and direction of the maps they're in, but the further I went into the game, the less I felt the need for those hearts to be everywhere I turn, so glad they lowered their number.

Edited February 10, 2023 by Sobx.1758

[Cyninja.2954]

Some of the issues raised are simply a matter of the game growing and being 10 years old, others are based around design concepts which did not pan out or where reworked.

To name a few things:

1. Instanced content

The game is not more instanced content focused. That's simply the content which is receiving the most/only media attention. Reason is simple: no one cares about someone running through an easy open world which one can mirror themselves. Instanced content which on occasion is more challenging is more fun to watch. From a delivery perspective, there is barely any instanced content delivered (not counting story instances) the last few years.

2. Renown Hearts

Universally disliked. The reception to renown hearts was lukewarm at best and their non repetitive nature made them a huge workload sink in core Tyria. This was somewhat remedied with later content, making them repeatable. I personally feel 3 hearts are fine per map as they did in EoD, and even that has some players complain. Main issue here is: at some point it's the same old stuff over and over again.

3. Events/Eventchains

Still present in the game. EoD has a ton of minor event chains which are not even tied to the meta events. The status changing events as in Orr where a problem for players during off hours or if a map fell out of favor. As such those were not reintroduced in later maps

4. Metaevents

The new "go-to" open world content. After 10 years, many players are only concerned with 1 thing: how do I get the most reward in the least amount of time possible. Meta events have taken over this aspect of world design and honestly, it's very hard to go back from here. The majority of players are not in the mood of randomly running around and "immersing" themselves when running through a map. Everyone is busy and got kitten to do. On the positive side, meta events are good at focusing player numbers towards a specific task, which can be useful to insinuate an active open world.

5. Story choices that "matter"

Very simple to summarize: just not enough resources to pull this off.

6. Fantasy vibe/story direction

Subjective obviously. It's very hard to stick with only 1 tone (or art theme) over many years. There is only so many "medieval armor" type skins you can make before they become derivatives of each other. The same goes for story and narrative. Usually it's just easier to move to a new setting and incorporate that setting into your world/lore. There is no right or wrong here, some players will like it, other will not. The execution is what matters in the end for a positive reception.

TL;DR:

Some of the issues raised are the result of just age, others of necessity to adapt or rework content design.

Edited February 8, 2023 by Cyninja.2954

[Gehenna.3625]

9 hours ago, Milo.3840 said:

• The number of renown hearts to complete: Ever since Living World came about, the renown hearts became abysmally small, and I suppose they tried to compensate by making them take much longer to complete and having them available to complete each day for rewards. I believe a healthy blend could be accomplished by increasing the number of renown hearts available per map, while reducing the time to complete each heart and reducing the rewards per vendor. Overall it would take the same time and give the same rewards, but would encourage much more engaging map exploration and less "go to these three or 4 areas each day and to a long grueling task". Not only that, but the many, many events that already take place all over the map could contribute to heart completion as well.

Not all of the newer hears take much longer, but many people complained about the number of hearts in core Tyria. People tend to see them as a chore. And I agree with that in part. Some of them are indeed very much a chore, but it's also about the number of hearts per map. There are maps with 13+ hearts and that just feels like too much.

9 hours ago, Milo.3840 said:

• The events that change the map state: As far as I know, there isn't really anything to do anymore like Core Tyria's "do these events to unlock this vendor" type things. I've really been needing obsidian shards lately and I actually enjoy how Straits of Devastation has an awesome event chain to unlock Tactician Deathstrider to purchase Obsidian for Karma. Not only that, but the Hero Points are sometimes locked behind capturing a shrine. The Harathi events are amazing as well because capturing a camp actually captures it from the centaurs and allows you to purchase Centaur weapon skins (it's just very frustrating how long allied forces hold the camps and prevent renown heart completion with ease). Those types of things could be fleshed out much more with cool Jade Tech Brotherhood skins, or Speaker skins, where the unlocked vendors sell unique exotic items with Dragon's or Ritualist stats (for a hefty fee of map currency that you could maybe possibly gain by renown hearts and event completion.. if only there were something like "writs" in the game that we could exchange...)

What you find amazing, others might find dull or annoying. Especially when you have to do group events to unlock a vendor and to make it worse some of these events are bugged. I think that Anet found that people just do the metas mostly, so that's what they made.

9 hours ago, Milo.3840 said:

• The Fantasy Vibe and suspension of disbelief: There's tons of lore to be found and more importantly, the ambient dialogue fits the game's fantasy waaaaay more than EoD's "Earth Social Dynamics" vibe they've for some reason decided to adapt; I'm not saying they don't belong in the game at all, but when you constantly vomit affirmative action with subtelty all over the place, it really kills the fantasy vibe in my opinion. It's really difficult for me to accurtely describe the general feel of the game in core Tyria vs EoD.. maybe it's just that EoD feels more attached to "rainbow dragon magic, friendship, and love conquers all" overbearing theme, I'm not sure.. but core Tyria really gets you immersed in the story's universe as you play the maps.. but that's not what the post is mainly about, as I don't want to be grouped into the anti-affirmative action crowd that I feel will immediately discredit my argument; I just want more of the game's universe and heavier down-scaling on "Earth World Problems" and "as long as we have each other" vibe. "Ear

I don't really care about lore nor do I really pay attention to the ambient conversations. There are many more things that break the vibe of "Fantasy" like the Fashion victims out there. Besides, the Dreamer came out with the first gen of legendaries. I also hated the vanilla story, particularly the human one. I turned off the sound and skipped through the convos as much as I could because of how terribad the story and voice acting is. So perhaps your experience isn't necessarily representative.

9 hours ago, Milo.3840 said:

• Choices that sort of matter but not really (and personal story in general): No longer do personality traits do anything. Sure it's a nuance, but it was a neat feature for players to have akin to titles. There isn't anything like "choose this path to experience the story this way, but lead to the same end game". It was so cool to decide which route to take in our affiliation with the Pact and really felt immersive. To top on all of that, I might be in the minority of people who preferred the old style of cutscenes and dialogue where it showed your character talking to story characters rather than speech bubbles over a walkie-talkie and rendered cinematics.

Choice matters is a marketing slogan, nothing more. I played the game from day 1 and I quit after a couple of months because the leveling was boring and the story as well. That's my view. That hasn't changed but nowadays I have birthday thingies that can boost a new character instantly to level 20-60 and the rest I fill out with tomes of knowledge. I do the main story line on one character and skip it on everybody else. For context, I have 19 characters, all level 80 of course.

So I think that you found a (new) way to enjoy the game for yourself, but I'm not sure it warrants going back to how it was. 

[costepj.5120]

8 hours ago, Vayne.8563 said:

There are plenty of achievements that lead you through events that tell longer story, almost like quests in other games.

One unfortunate design decision was locking a bunch of these behind Arborstone masteries i.e. you can't unlock the chain until you reach a certain level in Arborsone Revitalisation. Many of my guildies have been slow to progress that track or just haven't bothered. I ended up doing most of those quests on my own.

[AliamRationem.5172]

12 hours ago, Milo.3840 said:

TL;DR: Overall vibe and fantasy of the game then and now. Lately, there is a heavy lack of suspension of disbelief in the game in my opinion.

 

Open world needs to make a comeback and I wish somehow someway it could feel similar to real end game content like people feel raids/strikes are end game content. GW2 excelled at being different from other MMOs in that regard, but now it's starting to feel the same. I hate that Open World gets sorted into the "doesn't really matter endgame" category. Maybe a blend between how Straits of Devastation, Malchor's Leap, and Cursed Shore maps progress (unlocked vendors and map completion etc), Drizzlewood Coast's reward track and amazing map progression, and the difficulty of Dragon's End would do it.

 

Lately, I've been seriously having a good time doing core Tyria map comp on all of my characters. The level scaling (save for gear and general power creep) makes it all still feel relevant. It's an awesome way to farm spirit shards, gather mats, and you generally always have something you can do in core Tyria.

 

This is all my opinion and I'm honestly just wondering if anyone feels the same way. GW2 is by far and large my most favorite video game to date (save for maybe Halo or  Ratchet and Clank) and I sincerely care about it. It's hard for me to portray precisely why I feel the Core Tyria maps (and PoF as well to be honest) are GW2's best developed for the game but I will try:

 

• The number of renown hearts to complete: Ever since Living World came about, the renown hearts became abysmally small, and I suppose they tried to compensate by making them take much longer to complete and having them available to complete each day for rewards. I believe a healthy blend could be accomplished by increasing the number of renown hearts available per map, while reducing the time to complete each heart and reducing the rewards per vendor. Overall it would take the same time and give the same rewards, but would encourage much more engaging map exploration and less "go to these three or 4 areas each day and to a long grueling task". Not only that, but the many, many events that already take place all over the map could contribute to heart completion as well.
• The events that change the map state: As far as I know, there isn't really anything to do anymore like Core Tyria's "do these events to unlock this vendor" type things. I've really been needing obsidian shards lately and I actually enjoy how Straits of Devastation has an awesome event chain to unlock Tactician Deathstrider to purchase Obsidian for Karma. Not only that, but the Hero Points are sometimes locked behind capturing a shrine. The Harathi events are amazing as well because capturing a camp actually captures it from the centaurs and allows you to purchase Centaur weapon skins (it's just very frustrating how long allied forces hold the camps and prevent renown heart completion with ease). Those types of things could be fleshed out much more with cool Jade Tech Brotherhood skins, or Speaker skins, where the unlocked vendors sell unique exotic items with Dragon's or Ritualist stats (for a hefty fee of map currency that you could maybe possibly gain by renown hearts and event completion.. if only there were something like "writs" in the game that we could exchange...)
• The Fantasy Vibe and suspension of disbelief: There's tons of lore to be found and more importantly, the ambient dialogue fits the game's fantasy waaaaay more than EoD's "Earth Social Dynamics" vibe they've for some reason decided to adapt; I'm not saying they don't belong in the game at all, but when you constantly vomit affirmative action with subtelty all over the place, it really kills the fantasy vibe in my opinion. It's really difficult for me to accurtely describe the general feel of the game in core Tyria vs EoD.. maybe it's just that EoD feels more attached to "rainbow dragon magic, friendship, and love conquers all" overbearing theme, I'm not sure.. but core Tyria really gets you immersed in the story's universe as you play the maps.. but that's not what the post is mainly about, as I don't want to be grouped into the anti-affirmative action crowd that I feel will immediately discredit my argument; I just want more of the game's universe and heavier down-scaling on "Earth World Problems" and "as long as we have each other" vibe. "Ear
• Choices that sort of matter but not really (and personal story in general): No longer do personality traits do anything. Sure it's a nuance, but it was a neat feature for players to have akin to titles. There isn't anything like "choose this path to experience the story this way, but lead to the same end game". It was so cool to decide which route to take in our affiliation with the Pact and really felt immersive. To top on all of that, I might be in the minority of people who preferred the old style of cutscenes and dialogue where it showed your character talking to story characters rather than speech bubbles over a walkie-talkie and rendered cinematics.

 

I was just wondering if anyone feels the same way or not. Lately it feels that GW2 has been leaning more towards instanced content being their focus for devlopment of end game, and I feel that really does the game a disservice. I don't understand why that open world should be the default easy mode of the game. In my opinion, it could be an understood concept that the further you progress linearly on the map, the more difficult it becomes, where again I'd reference to Orr.

 

I'm so sorry if I couldn't accurately portray why I feel Core Tyria is where GW2 shines the most, but maybe if you feel the same you could elaborate. To me I could really just sum it up as that's where you can really feel where the devs poured their heart and soul into developing something artistically amazing. The cultural armor tiers, the research they did for the accuracy of map geography and vocabulary, the little things like when you kill a racoon or rabbit with an ice damage weapon (it's hilarious if you haven't seen it yet) [list continues]. All of that must have taken a serious amount of innovation, time, and dedication with confidence, whereas lately it feels that the devs are afraid of taking such devoted risks like they did with the initial development of the game.

In my opinion, the core game feels very bland and aimless.  The argument could be made that it presents a more believable world, where not everything revolves around our characters and the central conflict of the story.  While I think that's true, it doesn't produce the most compelling gameplay.  Why am I helping farmers fend off spiders, escorting merchants between towns, and having snowball fights with children?  No reason other than that they exist regardless of whatever latest calamity drives the story arc.

Beginning with HoT (which in my opinion is where GW2 did its best work with regard to open world), the open world was closely integrated with the story.  Each map was a progression toward the end goal of the story, each area of those maps and the local events part of a cycle that culminates in a map-wide event that furthers that goal and ties directly into the story.

At the beginning of HoT we're introduced to the jungle via a cinematic detailing what happened to the pact fleet's assault on Mordremoth.  Then we set foot into Verdant Brink and see the aftermath of that.  Everywhere we go the events tell the story of what happens next as the pact attempts to regroup, form defensible positions, forge alliances with the locals, and ultimately mount a counter-offensive.  Meanwhile, the story mirrors these events as we search for our lost companions and attempt to discover a means of fighting back against Mordremoth. 

That along with the mastery system creating a form of progression in exploration made HoT feel much more interesting and alive to me.  I was pleased to see how they streamlined the mastery system in PoF, yet retained its purpose.  However, I was disappointed to see the return to the core style event structure.

[Vayne.8563]

11 hours ago, costepj.5120 said:

One unfortunate design decision was locking a bunch of these behind Arborstone masteries i.e. you can't unlock the chain until you reach a certain level in Arborsone Revitalisation. Many of my guildies have been slow to progress that track or just haven't bothered. I ended up doing most of those quests on my own.

Yep I agree that was a bad design choice.