Greetings,
(I apologize for the darker tone of this post, but I just couldn't stay silent about these issues any longer)
Before I get into analysing what I took from the interview, there is something I would like to point out. You all
do realize that larger game review outlets like GameSpy are naturally inclined to give a good review to games whos' companies send advertising dollars their way? If the game doesn't receive a good review, there is less dollars that come their way for the next issue/quarter/what-have-you. The game has to
really suck to receive a bad review. As the saying goes "Follow the money". This is why I have an instinctive mistrust about any game review that tries to tell me what is good or what is not. I read reviews to get a sneak-peek at games not yet released, not to be influenced into what I should buy.
Now, as for the article itself.
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The prospect of a subscriptionless online RPG that would stream most of its content instead of using traditional patches was hardly a sure thing
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Umm, then what is that grey box that I keep getting when I start the game that tells me files are being downloaded and decompressed? Surely, it's not a patch, since there are no patches, right? I thought the little lightning bolt we saw in the upper right corner was the streaming update. Silly me.
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That said, several big updates have made their way into the game, a couple of which were by no means below the radar. The most significant of these by far is the Observer Mode that was implemented last December.
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Observer mode was the most significant update? How about the trader reset that lasted 3 or 4 hours that enabled a lot of people with no morales to abuse such a bug, and then lord their ill-gotten wealth over others? How about the update error that caused the only rollback that Guild Wars experienced? Neither of these were significant? Hmm...
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There really is no loot grind to speak of in Guild Wars. Shortly after they reach the level cap, players gain access to the best weapons in the game; anything else they decide to farm will simply provide aesthetic benefits.
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No loot grind? Best weapons?
Okay, let me calm down here a minute.
...
Okay, first, about the weapons. Sure, we
might get a max
damage weapon around the time we hit the level cap, but it's more than likely to be a white weapon with overly-high requirements (10+). If we want a max-damage weapon, with at least a 15^50 mod (the simplest I can think of), that also doesn't have a requirement in the nose-bleed area, then we
have to farm for it.
Kaining center weapon crafters you might say? First of all, they are 5 plat each to craft. Then material costs anywhere from 500g-1k for the base materials, plus a secondary material cost of 200g-1.5k range. What this means is that we either: 1. grind for a decent weapon, or 2. grind for the materials/gold to buy a decent weapon. Keep in mind, as well, that you have the costs of armor (1.5 per piece + materials, minimum 7.5k in gold alone for a full set), and the costs of skills that you have to save up for as well.
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Which brings us to PvP. There really is nothing like brutal war to bring people of disparate cultures together, and Guild Wars might just be the finest example of a game that unites players around the world by means of this common practice.
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Actually, even a cursory analysis shows this to be off-base. What is really brought together is,
generally, a bunch of immature players spouting off racist, sexist, and homophobic speech. Players who feel the need to tear down others to make them feel better about themselves.
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That said, no online world is perfect: Many players seem to feel that the game's PvE elements aren't as compelling as they could be, which leaves many players who aren't hardcore PvPers feeling like they don't have much to do.
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Hmm. At least on this point, the article and I agree. I guess there is still a chance of finding a diamond in the rough.
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...but Strain is concerned that if the designers aren't careful, players might get overwhelmed very soon: "You're looking at well over 1,000 skills in the (Nightfall campaign). If we're not careful, we're going to wind up just blowing people's minds. That's a lot of skills to understand."
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If they follow Faction's footsteps, then not really. A good portion of the skills were just simply Prophesies skills given a new name (penetrating blow to penetrating strike, tiger's fury to bestial fury, heal area to karei's healing circle, and so on). Overwhelmed by the same skills, yes. Too hard to understand, no.
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When asked about the feeling of exclusion expressed by casual players in regards to much of the content in Guild Wars: Factions, co-founder Mike O'Brien was quick to assure us that "(ArenaNet) didn't do it with an intent to alienate casual players." In his mind, the disconnect occurred when players had specific pieces of content blocked to them. "In Factions, (the process of acquiring unique armors) wasn't fundamentally different from Prophecies. The perception that the way you got those armors was through certain content that you couldn't play unless you were in an elite guild is what created a lot of problems for casual players."
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I think I will just echo previous posters in this thread by saying "Huh?".
Well, there's my analysis on GameSpot's "State of the Game". Take it or leave it as you wish. As for me, personally, I will be looking for more "State of the Game" posts done by the players on forums such as this one.
Merry meet, merry met, merry meet again,
Wyldchild777
