PC Gamer May 2007 Information - "Guild Wars Reborn"

Obviously, higher levels are something you want. But I don't understand why it would surprise or upset you that there are people playing a level 20 capped RPG who don't want them.

To answer your question: the people I know who thought up the idea that high level=grind was...every MMO player I've ever played with. Since RPGs started, "grind" has been a word used to describe the progression through a slow leveling treadmill. Even people who LOVE high level games admit that and use the word to describe the action.

Obviously level is more than just a number. Else you wouldn't feel so strongly on the subject...or I too.

I'm not a fan of high levels. Numbers or not, it tends to take a much longer time to get to those high levels and start doing the "fun stuff". I've played MMOs that did have high levels, and raiding and stuff was quite fun with my clan. But the process of getting there was a road I felt ill-rewarded. It took too darn long to mac out, and then the devs come along and increase the level cap to force grind--I'll call it grind; spending all my time PuGing in a forest killing mobs is grind--before I could get back to that fun stuff in the end game.

Not so for GW. The designers seemed to understand that max level is the preferred level for a PuG or team. "Life begins at level 20" here, and it doesn't take you months to start living it. It takes weeks at most.

I liked that. You obviously don't. I would have been nicer than you and Mr Barnett seem to be on the subject where our places reversed. And I guess its a good thing Anet listens to their players instead of telling them something like that. tbh, if Gaile or another dev said that to me after all the time and money I have spent in GW1, I would be truly insulted and saddened. If that is how he feels on the subject of player feedback to things they dislike then I will certainly stay away from Warhammer online. Just doesn't sound like he wants my business or anyone else's.

Sry I ran on there

Anyways, GGs

SWOT - STRENGTHS
So looking at a few years of GuildWars, what has the company achieved? They have produced a game that appeals to many people. Ingenious concepts like:

• PvP to start playing against other players right away.
• PvE for players who would like to have a less aggressive and more growing type of experience.
• Cap of 8 skills instead of unlimited skills, which makes the game more intelligent – almost like some card games.
• Excellent graphics engine.
• A play for free concept that appeals to many, many players.
• A large community of players that identify themselves with the characters they have created in the game – thus willing to progress to future versions
• A large community of players that have social structures inside the game.
• “Everything is an instance” has positive effects on crucial parts of the PvE game play.
• The game does not reward players who are online a lot in crucial parts of the game. Yes, they may look better, but they have the same strength as other players. This ensures people with less time are not de-motivated to continue with the game while players who have lots of time find ways of improving their looks.
• You don’t have to live a “second life” in the game – logging in in the morning to do your “business”, at noon to do “business” and at night to do “business”. WoW for example, you feel strongly you *have* to do things, not because they are fun, but because the game demands it. This frustrates people.
• Map travel saves players from doing something they are forced to do by the game although they don’t like it.

All of these items are strong assets that ArenaNet can build on for the future. It has proven to make life very difficult for their competitors to keep their players.

SWOT – WEAKNESSES
Many players coming from other games have found GuildWars great, but lacking some features that are crucial to the future. Also, with Prophecies/Factions/Night Fall, GW as a game became bigger and bigger. The most important weaknesses:

• Economics of the game is bad – it is difficult to sell items amongst players.
• Product Management seems to be badly thought through. It looks like Product Management is not planning further than the next version. It makes me feel that the current situation we are in happened “by accident” and not by planning.
• It becomes more and more complex for new players to enter the game.
• The “Everything is an instance” has negative effects on how the game feels as an environment where your characters “live” and interact with other players.
• It is *very* difficult to set up and maintain guilds – although that is what the game should be about.
• The sense of improving your character is limited – other games have a much rewarding experience when a character levels.
• The game feels artificial, because merchants etc seem to just stand around. No real virtual reality feeling.
• Players seem to easily get into some form of GW-tiredness, because all aspects of the game can be explored relatively easily.

SWOT – OPPORTUNITIES
Some developments going on right now mean real opportunities for the company behind GuildWars:

• Large existing base that identifies themselves with the game and who are willing to upgrade.
• DirectX 10 and new graphics technologies.
• Stalling competitors, who do not dramatically change their gameplay (law of the decelerating advantage).
• A new game version could mean adding features/game play that might pose a renewed threat to competitors.
• Many features are still not implemented, which could offer a path for new versions.
• There is an active user community with good ideas on how to progress the game.

SWOT – THREADS
Some future developments might pose a threat to the company:

• Many players feel like they have already reached the max experience of the game – GW tiredness.
• Yet another new set of professions does not appeal to the players.
• New areas with only new missions/quests/monsters would not appeal to existing players.
• Current path taken to provide upgrades therefore seem to have ended. Of course this poses a danger to revenue streams.
• A dramatic change in the game might prompt players to reconsider if GW is the right game for them – competitors are ready to play a role in such decisions.
• Need to keep the entry-barier for new players low to make it attractive.
• I'm not sure however, if ArenaNet takes all of the assets into account when creating the new game. I’m afraid it is a development-driven company without strong product / business development.
• Are hard-core developers listening to hard-core players? To win this game of buy-the-game-and-play-for-free, you should not focus on hard-core players, but focus on the masses.
• Do ArenaNet realize how strong an asset player identification with the characters in the game is for them? It looks like this is not the case right now. And this is a dangerous path, because it brings them almost back to the time where they just started GW.
• Many people will be disillusioned by the idea that their current characters will die with GW2. Even now, I don’t feel it is fun to play GW1, because of that!!! They might lose customer interest in GW1 even before GW2 is beta!!!

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE FUTURE
Keeping all of the above positives while avoiding the negatives is a very delicate task. I won’t criticize the current plans, as there is just not enough known yet. Later on I will bring some examples of how these requirements can be met in my opinion. Here are the requirements IMHO:

• Leverage the existing installed base for the future.
• Maintain the economy of the game: Buy game / play for free.
• Break with the current tradition of chapters with new professions/areas.
• Put more effort in the economics inside the game – make trading easier.
• Put more effort in the guild aspect inside the game – make guild management easier.
• Leverage the large installed base, by making sure the characters/armor/items, with which people identify themselves with, can be carried over to the future versions in a way they can be played in the new version.
• Keep instant PvP playing concept, while keeping the growing-inside-PvE concept as well.
• Allow better identification with the world.
• Keep the concept where hard-core players have *no* advantage in critical game aspects.
• Introduce a new strategy to sell upgrades in the future, which is different from the current one.
• Increase the number of in-game features while not overwhelming new players.
• Introduce a way to close the existing chapters down, while allowing players to keep their “emotional” investments.
• Introduce improvements in graphics technology while also allowing older technology- at least for a while.
• Offer a new sensation of growing a character from the ground on – while allowing people to continue to play with their current characters (but perhaps not in the old continents?).
• Make it more difficult to reach max levels of a character, but avoid that it becomes a drag - that you feel *have* to level although it doesn’t feel like fun anymore (WoW problem).
• Give a more rewarding sense/experience when leveling.

IDEAS / CONCEPTS
Apart from the requirements above, while looking at the SWOT analysis above and while considering the mentioned requirements, I would like to offer the following ideas:

• New versions could unlock additional functionality, for example, after a saga on a new continent (or even in existing continents), a city might be available with an auction house for example. Or merchants that allow your guild hall to be changed. Extra bank slots, etc, etc.. There are a zillion of improvements that the community is asking for. Partitioning these into new versions might secure a couple of versions at least.
• Make existing characters available in future versions with the same look and feel. Same armour/weapons etc.. But they could be as strong as new characters that someone sets up in future versions. In that way, existing characters would become look&feel “templates” for characters in the new game. That would give players a sense of continuity.
• Still allow old characters to travel to Prophecies/Factions/Night Fall, even though they have started to play in GW2.
• Create a new and limited size staging area that could be made available for free to all players. Then announce End-Of-Life for Prophecies, Factions, Night Fall etc.. When the date of closing down a chapter has arrived, all players that only own that chapter will be moved to that staging area. From there they could move on to Factions, Night Fall or subsequent chapters/versions.
• Introduce the concept of skill trainers. Currently not only attributes improve the effect of a skill. But with skill trainers players could learn an improved rank of a skill. This makes leveling a more rewarding experience. The psychology of this: someone else is giving you a reward for leveling instead of you just doing something with yourself.
• Introduce more persistent areas in the game where you can meet other players – not only in cities, while keeping the instance technology for game-critical parts like bosses.
• The idea for global events where the entire population has to react is cool. This could also be attacks by other races – thus blending PvP and PvE. For example, cities could be protected by NPCs and other cities could be protected by real players. Both could be attached by other races, but only cities protected by real players could “fall”. Like in the real world where larger empires have more difficulties protecting their boundaries, one could think of taxes one has to play to belong to a faction.
• I would be careful of making the race concept equal to the faction concept. I think it would be better to allow people to change the alliance they are in – for example, because the existing alliance becomes too expensive. If you allow players to dynamically change sides, you avoid situations where 1 faction is small and remains small. In WoW terminology: I would not mind having a couple of Hordes fight for the Alliance if they choose to do so. In GW terminology, a mix of Humans and Charr could fight with each other and against each other to acquire might.
• Improve the guild aspect by allowing guilds of guilds – bringing bulletin boards – bringing officer professions – bringing guilds to be transferred/merged into other guilds – bringing persistent guild chat channels – having multiple guild leaders – have a voting system for decisions – allow loot to be left in the hall for other members to take, etc etc..
• Old GW1 characters that people create could be heroes in the GW2 game that can be used by the player.

I am unsure about all the fuss, to be honest; It's well over a year away, and in the mean time I have every confidence that ANet will continue to hone gameplay in our current GW universe - they do want us around to buy GW2.

The only real concern I have will be the ability to go back to GW months, or even years after I've last played the game. I, for one, still love pulling out my Baldur's Gate games, or dare I say it, Dune, and enjoying classic gameplay. Unfortunately, with GW, we must have a server to play - I don't want to lose the flexibility of picking up GW at a point and time down the road. And yes, I know that they've said they will keep the servers up, but at what point does it become a money losing enterprise? They are a business and I really don't expect them to keep taking the shaft for months and months after GW2 comes out.

Oh, and please dear heavens, don't go with cartoonish characters. For the love of all that's holy, don't disrespect the current game by creating a world of cartoons. If I wanted cartoons, I'd go play WoW.

Really, ppl should just chill out and wait till GW:EotN is out at least to comment on how races will blend in GW universe.

GW:EotN will introduces those races. So,then it will be better and we will actually have a better visual of how those stuffs blend in the GW universe. Commenting on an artwork where we have not even seen them move or what they are going to add to GW is really pointless.

As for me, i can;t say i am really bothered about races, and to say that because they are going to be there, it's going to ruin my whole GW experience is just far-fetched. It all comes down to preferences. I dun;t really care whether the npc or the character i will be playing will be human, a centaur or what-not. I care only about gameplay. In the end, GW is an imaginary and a fictional world where the GW lore and mythology has yet to be finalised. To say that Anet is selling out to other MMO because they are adding those new races to GW lore is stupid and baseless. Charrs, Centaurs , etc are as real as Norns, Asuras, etc... Asuras look as much as a rip off of Lilo and Stitch as Charrs is a rip off of Kilrathi in Wing Commander.

And a Kilrathi in an fantasy world sounds as stupid as Lilo in a Fantasy world. But, no one did complain about that, did they? why? because they did not have the leisure to judge it on an brief 30 word description. Until you actually see their environment and story behind them, it is too premature to comment on them and even doubt their credibility in an IMAGINARY world.

Does those ppl who are complaining that they will quit because they can't bring their character over, realise that GW2 will allow you to keep your character name exclusive to you. In other words, you can re-make your character in GW2... They will have the same name ...now whether you want him/her to reborn with the same physical features or race would be up to u...

As for titles and weapons/armors, we barely even know whether those titles or items or skills will still be in GW2...let alone transfer the items from GW1 to GW2...

Wow.... as an anime fan and video game freak, i like this idea. But the more i read this the more it sounds like 'The World' from .hack//sign

Now all we need are headsets and Anet to rename themselves CC corp.
-_-

"The Twilight is approaching, be prepared."

Holy cow. Quadruple posts. Half page long rants. You are clearly overreacting.

And to that person who said that the pro GW2 posts are coming from GW personnel. I have this to say: I wish! I only wish that I were on the ANET staff. And really, if you think that it's some conspiracy by the ANET staff, you're clearly out of your mind.

The strength of your other posts are weakened by this opening. I suggest deleting it or modifying it.

In particular, calling those of use excited about GW2 "employees of Anet" is pretty low. I've been accused of this before, namely in the infamous "More free character slots!" thread when Factions was released with (Horrors!) only 2 new slots for existing accounts.

How Anet handled illustrates the prime motivation of the company: Keep players happy, but make a profit too. And you really can't argue with those two goals!

Guild Wars 2 is designed to make more money than Guild Wars. It is also designed to appeal to more players. Of course, as a side effect, some people feel "betrayed". I suspect compromises will be made, much like in the character slots solution, that will appeal to the majority of players.

I make no apologies for liking Guild Wars and defending Anet when I feel they've been unfairly slighted. I also make no apologies when I see a problem that needs to be fixed.

Right now, Guild Wars 2 looks to fix many "problems" with the Guild Wars setup. Instead of having to "re-invent" the game with every Chapter, and the constant battle between balancing PvP and PvE, they can now (finally!) separate the two into distinct different games.

The big question: Will each Guild War 2 expansion offer enough content to attract enough customers to continue to supply the needed revenue?

Anet has learned a lot about their audience these last 2 years, they now the source of their money, and I supect they would not shoot that source in the foot!

I dun't think that she (ChiaraDonovan) is over-reacting. Her posts are ones of the most balanced out there in this thread. She gives a good description of what she thinks about GW2. She does hit some valid points but i have to agree that her statement about conspiracy is far-fetched.

Sorry but her opening line about the conspiracy theory made my eye glaze over when trying to read the other multi-posts she made.

Hm, so much to think about.

No level cap? How would that affect pve gameplay... I wonder. Statistically speaking, what WOULD that do. You would have to go up to a certain point where growth goes up quickly I imagine - like getting to lv 20 today. But after that, the growth gets incrementally smaller and smaller. Kurz & Lux faction decays in alliances and guilds. Is it possible high levels in GW2 will do the same? To a point, of course. The more you play the more you build up. That might induce a lot of botting, however.

I really like hearing that I can keep my titles and achievements, etc. And armor? Especially FoW armor? That would be wonderful to keep. But possibly unbalancing. Maybe you could GET the armor, but wouldn't be able to use it as effectively, and would have to get to a special npc in the course of the game to rework the armor into something new, that fits and suits your character.


OH, and ANOTHER THING I would so DIRELY love to see, is FULL character model control. Control over aspects of the face, the size of the nose, the shape, brow, chin, jaw, and let's not just stop there. Weight on the body, height, leanness, proportions, etc.

I'd also -personally- like to see an option to change your primary profession. Of course, since that's a very dynamic change, that would probably include something like reworking your level and experience. Like, you may have the health and experience of your previous class you already experienced, but lack the skills and level of adeptness in a different primary class. So there'd be a "Catch-up" exp gap to fill until that primary class "caught up" with your other(s) primary class(es). This would also require that the character models be dynamic enough to be easily differentiated, and that everyone would start with the same blank model (or a set of blanks to pick from). And, of course, that armor and weapons be scaled and fit to the model itself.

OMFG U MEEN I CAENT TOOK MY ASCENDED WAMMO W/ FOW ARMUR INTO GW2??!?!?! WTF OMFGBBQSOZ!!!!

/BOYCOT GW2

+1
Sheer materialism.

They're all missing the point, its the journey that matters, not the destination. If you have a maxed char from the get go, you've just thrown nearly all your money away. You've missed out on building a new character in the new game. Yes you spent all those hours with your old toon. Get over it! You're not going to port him/her over. Yet somehow life goes on.

Theres not enough information to judge about the increased level cap. Ditto for instances.

I'm skimming most of the posts in this thread but before I start typing what i want to I have to say... "WTH? Why would you even start to think of anet starting a conspiracy. I mean we ,the players, are this games life and blood and we've contributed so much to this game so much to make it a huge sucess. I don't think anet would be pushing the 'likeness' of GW:EN OR GW 2. People will always have opinions but anet and NCsoft will continue to make their games so that they become success' on their own.

Anywho, I'm pretty hyped up about GW:EN. I mean I camped out on my computer waitng for the day someone would post the info from PC Gamer. When the info was released I was definently liking the stuff I was hearing and I think a majority of the GW population was too. Then came the info for GW 2...

With this there we're mixed feelings. I couldn't care less about transferring all my cash/items/characters to the 'new' world but other people are dieng about losing their high status and acheivements. I'm all for a restart cuz I'm not scared of starting over. I remember the good ol days of 2005 when there weren't any 'builds' or 'hot spots to 'farm', sure fire ways to make money. It was definently a new adventure being lost in the beginning but still eventually finding my way. I'm not afraid to do it again.

The whole races ordeel is kinda disappointing. I for one have never played WoW but I've seen how their toons look in some video clips of GW v.s. WoW dance offs. I don't want GW 2 to be full of those cartoony things...I like my people as humans and I don't want to have to look at anything thats not human... I wonder if that'll make me an online racist...

In conclusion... the two new games can't be released fast enough.

As long as the following stay, I'll be all over GW2 like flies on... Well, you get the point.

1. No subscription fees!
2. Realistic graphics.
3. Nice clean interface.
4. Only one "server".
5. 8 skills at a time.

GW2 looks like it'll be awesome. Really looking forward to it!

I love how SOOO many people are absolutly FREAKING OUT about a game thats more then a year off, and somthing that we for the most part know NOTHING about. Its still in development, the issue about the game was placed out to spark intrest and get people discussing about the game, not completly FREAK out and try and say that somthing in the game wont work or that they wont like it. Its a long way away from where everyone thinkks it is. Maybe everyones getting confused on the arrival times with GWEN coming out. Just stop freaking out, talk about the game what you might see or be able to do. Remember the technology now that we are using is going to be CRAP when this game comes out. It takes place 500 years form prohpecies. who wants a wrinkley old grandpa warrior who cant even heft a sword let alone armor for their character?

People read the post about misconceptions then READ the article. stop freakin out. its sad tyo see every thread about somthign thats not even out yet.

Tell me how the log tells them to drop the level cap and turn this into grindwars?

They said they have logs of players that have spend thousands of hours playing. That says to me the level cap didn't bother them one bit.

It was a business decision, and they turned their back on the people that made them successful to sell out to become clone XXXX online game. They thought they could make more money becoming clone XXXX. No prob, don't fault them for it.

I do fault them for starting out the original GW saying they were trying to be different. Basicly all that they said back then is a bunch of BS with the changes coming to GW2 by what it appears so far.

I only got into GW because it had no fees. The level cap was actually a bit of a letdown for me, since i'm a diablo fan.

Still, it may be good what Anet is doing. They stopped making new chapters before the review scores dropped under 80% average. Wich was inevitable should they have continued.

Let's keep this real. The posters that are rooting for GW2's release are honestly just trying to brown nose to Gaile Gray and ArenaNet just to merit on their good side regardles if deep down what's to become of GW2 is just bad,unless they are one of those players who started GW1 so late that they feel left behind and to have absolutely no character migration in GW2 would give them somewhere to actually start. It is absolutely the equivelent to the Celebrity feud between Rosie O'Donnel and the Donald Trump: Where Rosie gets bashed for telling the truth about Donald by a public-band wagon, yet behind the scenes they agree with everyword she says, but is afraid to admit it in hopes the Donald would slip them a check. Although, I wouldn't mind getting a piece of that check. Shoot atleast you are getting quite some cash to kiss booty. However, Arenanet isn't giving us a tangible benefit.

And of course the ones keeping it real are the ones booing GW2's release for swiping out the appeals about GW1: The non-overwhelm of grinding to level 50 to 100. Thank goodness there is still no subscription fees, but GW1 does have a flexibility for the real life-busy consumer that have a job (not all having to deal with Computer games.)

Gaile, honestly how many people's opinions did you really get when you decided to "mingle" with the players? 2, 3? 6, right before you decided, "Ok I've given my shine and got my praise, I can go now."? I'm not trying to dog you, but GW2 is really seemng to be the WOW/Everquest-knock off. I mean you don't want to use the term "grinding" since its not the convenient term, but it does turn off a lot of the real consumers. GW did seem to target a lot of players, especially the ones with a life. (No a 16 year old Nerd working for the Yearbook staff isn't a life LOL), but our just now taking the target only to the consumers who have nothing to do in their real life but gain massive weight, eat cheese curls and play GW2 and every Online RPG they can get their hands on.

GW1 is a really good game. You can really accomplish enough to just rest it aside and come back later on such little spare time and do anything, but with GW2 I can imagine most of the consumers appearing on the Tyra Banks show, titled episode, "I my name is _______ and I have a RPG addiction." or the MTV Diary: The Lifeless RPGer. - Oh wait they already showed that episode. I really hope GW2 really steps up to the plate, for Arenanet's sake.

nope.

my stance is either transfer everything, or now I'm more towards transferring nothing (except veteran reward mini-pets and gold cape trim). that is the only way it is fair to everyone. And for Lyssa's sake, make the mini-pets so they cannot be traded!

yeah, I still wanna know more about these supposed logs that somehow told them the exact features to add.... people playing a lot, people using jump anim, people too stupid to realize you can't swim... people being racist, so lets add races? ... people use the /dance emote a lot, so why don't you add an entertainer profession? might as well rip off ideas from one more source... at least star wars galaxies is a bit more relevant than.... lilo and stitch

I guess my main concern is that GW 2 will end up being another Star Wars Galaxies... I really liked that game until they decided to lose their uniqueness and copy WoW in almost every aspect. I love GW 1 as it is right now, and I hope they don't change it much at all.

Logs? Chat logs. Surely by that you would be able to tell what people are complaining about the most. I seriously doubt it has anything to do with how long people are playing and what emotes they use the most. Geesh, sometimes the easiest explanation is the best.

are you kidding? the only ones that are "keeping it real" are the ones telling everybody to wait and see, and not freak out or get excited about guild wars 2. even when we read the article we still don't have enough information but you'll have some understanding why they are going for guild wars 2. so wait out for more information and try out the BETA which is a year away and the official release is supposely 2 years away! no point to get all upset and excited right now!

and why do you always end up thinking that IF we end up having a lvl 100 cap its going to be a massive grind? getting to lvl 100 could end up being fast same as we do now taking 2-3 days. but we still don't know since its in EARLY DEVELOPMENT. so wait and see before you jump the gun and quit being rude.

Oh please tell me you're joking. Such an ignorant response can't be real... So the people who's oppinion differs from yours are apparently just mindless Anet fanboys and -girls or just don't know what they're talking about? I hope I don't have to mention all the ways in which such a statement just sounds awfully wrong.

OMG YA!!! I M WNTING 2 PLY GW2 ND I HAV DA UBAR ROON OV LEET KIZSAZZ ON MAI PROSTHETIK LIPZ OV ASKIS IT GIVZ +100 2 ASKIZZ SKILLZ ND ADZ EPEEN LONGNESS LAWLZ@!!!

Honestly, enough generalisations and stereotypes. Please. They aren't dumping GW1, they just aren't going to expand it any more. I'm looking forward to GW2, why? Because it sounds like a good game. Shock horror!

I'll keep playing GW1, as will a lot of people on these forums, but GW2 will be a nice refreshing change too. There are plenty of people that play MMOs with high level caps that have lives as well.

Let me show you the way to the troll cave so you can join your brethren. Just northwest out of Droks, turn left at the tengu, follow the path and you're there! Enjoy!

hm not played this Wing Commander... but the only good pic i could find, Kilrathi looks more like a mountain lion people... charr seem to look more like hiyenas than anything else normal...

you see, there is a difference between taking inspiration from sources (like roman mythology, chinese ancestry, etc) and completely copying a COPYRIGHTED creature... aka Stitch. The appearance, the mindset, the hidden ferocity within a cute cuddly front.... advanced technology.... shall I continue with the similarities? (oh and if charr really are more like Kilrathi than I know, that game was from Origin... isn't like half of the origin games staff working for ncsoft? its not really stealing if you created it to begin with)

Of course it would be weighed more toward people that hate the changes. Two reasons:

1) People hate changes. Before this released info about GW2, there was a lot of people talking about what this game should have, including higher levels, playable races, mounts, etc. All very popular things many people want. Thing is, most of these people will probably agree that these things can't just be added in because of how GW is already. They are discussing how things could have been, ya know, if GW started out with these ideas.

As it is, no, people don't want GW to change that drastically. They think that when people say "Hey, they're thinking about raising the level cap to like 100+" in-game, that angers a lot of people who don't know the whole story and think the world as they know it will crumble around them. They fail to realise that this info changes nothing about the game they love so much. Guild Wars is not changing at all, this is a new game being discussed, which leads me to my second point:

2) People don't know the whole story! I would venture to say that most of the people hating these ideas have not read the PC Gamer article and are basing their judgements solely on summaries and opinions. Even if you have read the article, it doesn't fully describe what the higher levels mean, nor does it go into exhausting detail about instancing and various other qualms people are having.

Also, keep in mind that this is a couple of years away, and many, many things will change from now till then. If there's one thing you can count on, it's the fact that Anet wants to make money. They are not going to release a game that no one will like. What they will do is make sure they please as many people as possible, veteran GW players and newbies alike.


You can't just put up a poll asking something like "What do you think about a higher level cap?" without a rather large qualifier explaining that it's not in this game, but rather a different game entirely, and that there are plans to have as little grind as possible remain, etc. These things are in the article, and even though they are summarized by posters who have the mag, are not carrying over to well, nor understood that well and thus taken out of context. So all most people get is "OMG, raising the level cap? No way, bad move, Anet!" over and over.

Voting only really works when the voters are well-informed. In this case, nobody is really informed, and the best approach is of course, "wait and see".

I did read the article and must say I'm pretty disappointed, maybe it will wear off over time, maybe not.

They offer a way to take you GW1 achievements into GW2 by a 'Hall of Monuments', WOW (sarcastic). I love to have my own monument.

As to the no subscription fee: I've paid about 150€ over the period of one year, and they are expecting me to buy yet another one. Lot's of games exist that don't require you to buy it and they do have a subscribtion fee less than 10€/month.

As for the larger instances: lag kills me now alread. Every weekend the game get's unpleasant because of massive lag. I didn't see the celestial pig because of lag. And that was with only 100 players in the same instance and they want to make it 800?

And if I were to decide to buy and play GW2 will it be as good as GW1? Let's assume all my dreams come true in GW2, what's to stop Anet from starting GW3 after yet another year?

Kilrathi also are a copyright in case you don't know. They are from an already existing game. If you can;t find a picture, then you are in a bad place to comment on them. But, i played most of the Wing commander series and i do know them. They have a lot in common with charrs in terms of physical appearance. Moreover, they were the only bad guys in a world where Human were the heroes. Does that ring a bell here? Oh, and Kilrathi piloted ships and used guns too. So, maybe i should assume they use guns and piloted ships in GW like from their the original Wing commander game from which they were ripped off. Just like you are assuming tha Asuras are suddenly going to use advanced tech because asuras are ripped off from Lilo and stitch

Do you like to work for free? Unless you are already rich, its probably no. You work to get what you want. What you want wont matter in a few years. Having fun and working in GW is intertwined, it separates the boys from men(....or you might see it as average guy from geek with no life). I dont really call doing UW runs 200 times to get ectos "fun", showing off FoW armor is though.

Right, so because the people who are actually looking forward to something that you obviously aren't are brown-nosers. Simply because they have a different opinion to you. Because you're obviously the centre of the universe, and everything that you think is completely correct. Am I keeping it real now?

Don't be an idiot. Do you honestly believe what you just said? Because if you're that self-obsessed maybe you should get professional help. I'm not saying that because I'm trying to insult you, I'm honestly thinking you need it. Prove me wrong.

I agree with Dalmascan Princess. We don't know anything about what GW2 will be like. It's not "keeping it real" to whine about something that is 2 years or more from being released. If you have something that you don't like about the game, there are two things you should do:

a) calmly state what you don't like about GW2, making your post legible and intelligent.
b) wait for the Beta test, or some more concrete info, and you'll actually find out whether any of your worries actually came into fruition.

Do you like to work for free, you ask. I could easily ay "Well, if the work is fun, of course", since, you know, the "you must be rich if you say so" part breaks your "GW = working for a dream house" metaphor: There is no "being rich" outside this little economy that matters. (Ah, I don't know how to explain this more clearly. Anyway, moving on to the next point.) That point is that "do you like to work for free" isn't really a question that works: You aren't paid for playing a game that's supposed to be fun, or, if that sounds better, you are paid with the fun you have. And if you have fun building that home, that's all you could ask for, no?

However - you also said that "ecto runs" (your "work") isn't fun, but that having the fissure armour ("dream house"). In your original example, you also talked of dying in 2.5 years, so the house/armour isn't worth anything anymore. Would you agree that if you didn't die but got an additional life in addition to the one you already have (so your "dream house" is still there, still valid, if you so want), that nothing you have, nothing you're working for is lost?
Because that's what i think happens, unless you completely abandon GW for GW2 as soon as that's out, even though you'd still like to play GW. Just keep playing it (maybe in addition to GW2) and be happy. No need to stop, no?

I do see where you are coming from, but yuo also touched on my point within your post. yes, it will be weighted more towards people that hate the changes now, because this is all new to a lot of people. before, the people who liked the game as is were quiet while the people that would rather have it more WoW-like were vocal for change. But now that there is the changes, the people who wanted them have the home field, and theres no reason for them to talk about them anymore. ok they get their changes and play em. but now the people who were happy with the game want it changed back, so now thats where the vocal bunch lies.

one big problem is that guild wars 1 IS changing. Its' not in such an obvious way as the changes that are going into guild wars 2, but it is change. first of all, the new chapters, which in all actuality were a key feature of the guild wars game style, are being stopped. no more new chapters anymore. Next, the amount of people available to play with is going to go down as people try out guild wars 2. large guilds will feel obligated to move, even if not all the members are. so now you have broken guilds and emptier outposts. Finally, you have the guild wars servers themselves. No, they're not going to suddenly disappear when gw2 is released, but you can be damned sure theyre not going to support them nearly as well as they have for the past two years, since they will have gw2 to look after, and it will only get worse as time goes on until they just decide to scrap the gw1 servers when something malfunctions.

ok two things wrong here.

1. charr are far from the only bad guys in tyria. hell compared to the lich and the mursaat and the titans, they are NOTHING.

2. One of the magazine quotes mentioned asura having advanced technology, I'm not just assuming that from it being a rip off of stitch; rather, that is one of the points of why it is a ripoff.

So, you are going to gnaw at every tid bits ... is that it? Tell me what is it that you want? to prove that you are right coz you hate losing? or are you really genuinely worried about GW2?

Of course, that Charrs are not the only bad guys in GW. But , does that prove that Charrs are not a rip off of Kilrathi? Does the fact that Cantha does not look EXACTLY like Asia and Hong Kong mean that they were not ripped from there? Does the fact that Nighfall has similarities with Egypt cultures but at same time, has some differences mean that NF was not inspires from Egypt?

The magazine says "advanced technology". In nowhere else, did it say technology like in Lilo and Stictch. Advanced technology in Guild wars is as open and vague a term. Advanced Technology may even refer to catapults or even wooden high tech infracstructures like the Giant Crab Base in the Luxon territory. Because, in a world where people are still using wooden carts, advanced technology can mean a lot of things.

the point was that they would have higher technology than what humans have...

but anyways.

its not that I want to be right. its not that I think GW2 is going to be horrible, I'm sure it will be a good game for those who like the features. My problem is that they are stopping support on guildwars1 to make something very different from the game we are playing. If they had set up a second team and had the first team continue with gw1 chapters while the new team makes a new game loosely based on guild wars, that would be fine. but to completely trash the guild wars 1 update style and eventually its servers, in favor of a new game that will be fundamentally different from what we are playing (though significantly more similar to OTHER MMO games).... but anyways, the Stitch thing was a completely other subject I suppose. just something I noticed and others caught on, and it became more and more apparent.

They are not stopping further chapters on GW1 in favor of working on a new game. They are stopping further chapters on GW1 because they feel it's getting "bloated", which is something a lot of people have been complaining about, too. The more and more outposts/towns, missions, explorables, etc. there are, the fewer the people there will be in each of them, because they are diluted.

Each time a new chapter was released, there were always a lot of threads claiming GW is dying, with references to more and more desolated outposts. This was obviously not due to the playerbase leaving, but more to do with it being thinned out because of more and more areas they could be in. This is detrimental to the game as a whole.

Eye of the North addresses this by being an "expansion", and not an entirely new continent. Even still, there are three full-sized continents and that's just too much for the style of play GW has. They felt like they had to add heroes to make up for the thinned out parties in Nightfall, while not really addressing the real problem of an ever-expanding game.

True. I am as sad as you that GW1 will be left behind. And i do share your fears ... and I apologise if i may have seem bold but i hate baseless thrash-talk.

But the reason Anet wants to make a GW2 is that their plans for the game can't be accomplished on their current engine, or at least that it would be easier to make a new engine then try and get the things to work on the old one. It has nothing to do with Anet wanting to "trash" their old game.

And on a side note, Anet can under no circumstance be sued for copyright infringement for the Asura or any other creature in the game. It's not copyright infringement to get ideas from another source. How do you think there are so many books being published? They aren't all completely unique, they just have their own unique twist to ideas that someone else has had. It'll be the same with the Asura and with GW2.

And also, the Asura may be based more on nocturnal and cave-dwelling creatures from reality than it is from any fictional creature. It has all the features of, say, a bilby or a bat, (huge ears, eyes that are used to see in the dark, pale skin), however it has human characteristics, as if it is simply a race evolved from one of those cave-dwelling creatures.