Guild Wars is a high quality online game with a no-monthly-pay concept that lured me, a complete newbie, into online gaming. It’s the only one of its genre that I’ve been playing for nearly two years now, with some ‘relaxed’ pauses in between, and experiencing its growth, evolution and player expectations. There is much that Arenanet has been offering and doing, but there has been a limit when it comes to expectations in development that goes beyond what’s possible from such a client-friendly concept. After all, it’s still a business in need of juggling income and costs. Implementing all the neat and highly sought improvements into a new game is a compromise between a better non-bloated experience and feasible income. Too bad about the waiting time though…
But still, there are enhancements into a game such as Guild Wars that would require intensive maintenance and there’s also the issue of a deep-rooted notion that really good online games are only worthwhile if you pay regularly for them. I also think that GW online store lacks in offer and doesn’t get much use.
Taking that into consideration I thought (I think too much sometimes
) about an option to purchase ‘credits’ to be used for in-game enhancements. They would be a matter of choice that couldn’t CONFLICT with basic free gameplay. Basic features would still be in place such as the reconnection option in case of a network problem. 1. Ability to SAVE in instanced areas
- For example, a group playing in an elite area that takes a lot of hours to vanquish; it would allow for a needed break and resume at another time.
- Select option to save game. Everybody agrees to meet at another time. Some credits are taken from the total amount you have to spend.
- Proactive for player’s management of time: a growing concern with online games in particular is player addiction. People have been dying because of extreme play time. Sooner or later companies will have to come up with more active processes. “But if I stop playing I can’t get that awesome weapon! I would have to start all over again!!!”… Particularly helpful for areas of the World that already don’t allow minors to play more than a certain amount of hours.
- A nominal maintenance in credits would be a welcome and reasonable feature so that this option could become available.
CONFLICT? There’s no such option right now. Players can always come back and try another day.
2. Ability to SAVE player’s location in persistent areas (GW2)
- I’m exploring an area, it’s getting too late and I need to go to work/school in the morning. Leaving would mean having to spend hours to get to that place again.
- Select option to save player’s location. I would be able to return another time. Some credits are taken from the total amount to spend.
- When returning, there could be a warning broadcasted in the vicinity: “A portal is opening, <Character Name> is entering the area.” – might even be an opportunity to team-up with other players.
- You could do that only once in an area, over a certain amount of time (in order to avoid farming exploits).
CONFLICT? Just leave the town/outpost and go forth and explore again.
3. Change Character’s Name
- If you really want to do it, you can. But that’s going to take some credits.
- This shouldn’t be an arbitrary action. There is a consequence.
CONFLICT? A player could change the character’s name once for free; other than that, two more times by spending credits.
4. Personalize and Customize Guild Hall
- Allow Guilds to personalize overall decoration, even change weather and time of day.
- Ability to make their own battle scenarios within their Guild or ultimate ‘death chamber’ for guild members to practice their skills, even offering prizes for winning members.
- Guilds would be able to unlock design and decoration features by credits.
- Within a week/month, modifying the placement of structures or setting up a pre-made design could be made any number of times.
CONFLICT? Guilds would have the basic Guild infrastructure until a ‘customize’ option would be unlocked by credits. After all, it would take a LOT of work for the dev team to pull this one and add more features in the future.
5. Tradable credits
- To keep the free-game concept in good health, emphasizing the ‘optional’ credit acquisition (from online store) and because some players don’t have a credit card to buy online. They could trade in-game money for credits, in a controlled manner.
- There’s this unrestrained allure of players buying gold for real money that in turn damages the economy. Why not turn the problem into another pioneering initiative? There could be a limit for monthly/weekly tradable credits per player.
CONFLICT? There’s already a lot of money sinks in place that help control the economy and to handle the periodic ‘newly rich’ players.
6. Other possibilities?
In Conclusion
Any player would take whatever time they want to spend their credits or not use them at all. Casual players or others with limited time wouldn’t have so much of a déjà vu ‘grinding’ feeling to get to a particular place or do a particular long mission. Dedicated players would have more options available to whatever in-game buffs Arenanet could think of. The online store would have clients more regularly.
That’s it. Thanks for reading.
