Immergence: How Deep You Wanna Go?

I have enjoyed GW since the Feb Beta Event Weekend and appreciated the artwork and variety/quality of everything from weapons and armor to mobs and environments...The music is well-implimented, the background sounds of the environments, footsteps changing as the surface being walked on changes and even water running from streams and fountains has added to the depth of the game for me. Who recalls the first trip to The Shiverpeaks and marvelled at the snowfall...or even the rain in Wizard's Folly?

I've played a metric buttload of MMOs and RPGs and, of course, MMORPGs and similar. Some have been sadly lacking in immersive detail, and some have gone over-the-top (not always bad: Morrowind series). Now, I typically hate speculation threads, so let's not discuss what you think they will do in GW2, but more what you enjoy in game immersion and you might like to see in GW2 -OR- what you appreciate in games in general.

I have my own opinions, but I'm going to keep them to myself for now, as I really would rather see unjaded opinions from you all. Here are a few examples of some of the things commonly used to add depth and can be done well or add to grind:

Armor/Weapons:

Material mining and refining skills
Blacksmithing/repair skills...character as well as NPC
Degeneration over time/abuse (arrow/bolt usage + bonuses)
Customization and Light/Mid/Heavy ratings (mix & match)
Encuberance
Skill Trees for armor types
Cross-class armors (i.e. Warriors and Rangers both wearing mid-range, but only Warriors in heavy and only rangers in light).

Skills/Spells:

Skill trees
Points advancing with usage (jump alot? get agility xp)
Generalized skill points: Wisdom, Constitution, Agility, Strength...etc
Potions & Scrolls (health, mana, damage, defense...not to mention the crafting and mixing!)
Class vs. Profession vs. Secondary/Support skills...Class = Warrior/Fighter, Profession = Barbarian/Paladin, Support = Armorer/Blacksmith

Trade:

yeah-yeah Auction Houses/market areas

These are just a few examples. There are quite a few other things some of us might appreciate or loathe.

There are also environmental effects like a day/night cycle and complex weather: fog, rain, snow, etc. Sounds and music levels, combat sounds...all kinds of things that make the game deeper. Lore, mounts, custom homes, territories marked by specific guilds/alliances, pets, gems, hundreds of crafting materials, clothes in addition to armor, jewelry, tatoos, destructible environment....so many things!

So, what do you like in a game to draw you in to the world? What gets you deep into it and keeps you there? What is too much and just adds to the grind?

i say morrowind was bang on for me...that had the perfect blend of character customization...now throw those elements into a primarily persistent world and you got yourself a winner.

- Sorry but that's just aesthetics, which in my opinion is quite different from depth. If the environmental effects would affect your gameplay somehow, you know, not just being there for pretty screensaver value while you hack and slash monsters, then it would be depth. It's not that difficult to add depth in game either. Sometimes it would be night and rendering distance for graphics would be reduced, giving the impression of limited vision. Walking through a waist-deep bog would slow down character animation and walking speed. Things like that.

But the biggest drawback is that characters can do grand total of three things: move, attack and cast spells.

- Those are some good suggestions, but it would be important to balance properly.

i prefer balance and a competitive environment over in depth role playing any day

- Why aren't you playing chess?

i like the gameplay in this game

morrowind was awesome, and oblivion was even better. The ideas taht really drew me to the game was freedom, but i guess that would be pretty hard to implement in gw2 without adding a lot of areas and quests and everything. i love the idea of being able to mix armor. I would LOVE to see more customization options. thats it i think

- hate crafting
- skill trees don't belong in games that are meant to be fun

Want to see Guild Wars 2 kept largely the same as Guild Wars 1, sadly not happening, though I still post my opinion here in an empty hope that ArenaNet might change their mind and remember that Guild Wars was not meant to be World of Warcraft.

Personally I would like to see weather, day/night cycles, clothing, jewelry...

Basically all the immersive stuff that makes it seem like you're in a world, not just a medium for you to slash or burn ugly monsters.

No Elite fansites pls.

Auction House is a must.

The way it is now is a complete mess...

no to all the other stuffs, yes to auction house.

Heros mining for materials?

The proper term the title should have is Immersion.

immergence isn't a word.

Someone has been playing a bit too much Elder Scrolls. But I agree with you about day/night, environmental effects etc: definite improvement imo.

I like the idea of day/night and weather cycles. Maybe big seasonal changes - affecting mobility through certain areas and what critters are likely to be out and about.

I'd like real freedom to wander, too. If there are places that are intended to hold new characters back, they should be along the lines of the droks run - just hard (comparatively), no gates, even if that does mean some people will pay for others to get them through. That's a worthwhile sacrifice, in the interests of a less rigid, less linear game.

If allegiance ranks are still present, I'd like to see them more mutually exclusive, so one group won't necessarily take you on, while you're a member of another. Make us commit and not just grind every rank for the sake of it.

Oh and I do want to see race differences - sod balance, I'm a PvE'er.

GW is defined by not having the boring "realism" of other MMOs (repair, encumberance, trade skills), let's not go down that path and stick with things that actually augment gameplay. The whole "skill with use" think fails badly with the customizeable skill bars too.

I was combining emergence with immersion I guess...I fixed it just for you. BTW it is a word, just rarely used, not in English and I used it wrong...so there!

Edit: aw crap...only changes it in the thread, not in the Riverside title...oh, well...not the first time I look like a doofus...certainly not the last...did I mention I'm a teacher?

Nah, we just assumed it

Day / Night Cycle would be great, especially if it would have an impact on your Quests or your Enemies you encounter, i.e. you may only enter this or that portal at a specific time etc.

Day/night and enviromental conditions could also affect the aggro radius, allowing for stealthy moving around at night, but maybe at the cost of more dangerous predators coming out to play.

It would be cool if terrain affected the aggro radius, too. I often find myself gravitating towards the various gullys that exist in places like Marga Coast, even though they don't actually provide any real cover. It would be nice if they did.

not matter how they do it char customizing and depth are a must really all this hitting max in under 8-10 hours being able to finish the story line in a day or 2 is just so annoying
come on what wrong with all ways learning new stuff making your char better as you play

I would have to say Guild wars is the best so far of all the games of this type I have played, although it is weak in some areas.

First impressions
The Elder scrolls series like morrowind score high in some areas, Skills generally where very good as was the experience gained by skill use.
Visit any town however to see the same dozen characters doing exactly the same thing day or night rain or shine.
Also characters that appeared in areas to start quests remained in that spot for the whole game that's a big turn off.
Gothic improved a little by adding a timeline where the Ai did different "but predictable" things depending on the time of day.

I don't seem as affected by this in GW because in the towns there are so many players wandering around each visit is slightly different.
Outside the ai predictability is more apparent the friendlies are totally predictable the hostiles are generally predictable as in where you find them though not totally.

Damage to armour and weapons due to usage, this is a difficult one as almost all of them are magical, just how often did Arthur have Excalibur resharpened.
The more you add damage the more realistic the game becomes and the less magical.

Weather effects and day night cycle
Since the game treats Weather as purely cosmetic it,s more or less irrelevant.
To be truly immersive both would have to be realistic.
First at least 2 seasons would be set up and a day night cycle that lasted a specific time although you could vary daylight to season like our world.
In some areas weather would be predictable ie always sunny in the desert always cold in the northern shiverpeaks etc.
Snow and rainfall would vary with season so it wouldn't always be falling from month to month.

Day Night cycle is the hardest to do right, maybe its impossible to implement.
Make a day last an hour like most such games and its silly in the extreme, make it last 8 hours and you have to allow players to set their own game time zone otherwise some would always be playing in the dark.

reality additions I would like to see.
Drops from creatures, it would be nice for a bow wielding enemy to drop a bow not a scythe so such drops broken or not should be correct for creature type/class.

Walk as well as run and for health energy recovery rates to vary depending on standing walking running.

Any class to be able to use any weapon or armour however the skill boosts to such weapons and armour to remain with the classes.

A working economy
Now I don't care if its driven by players but its important it isn't easily broken by players.
The Ai traders should have the ability to balance out the players actions, they should be able to flood the market or hoard their stockpiles as needed.

Lore
It would be good if there was a workable lore to the game perhaps this could lead players to abilities not normally done by players.
A beast lore could give you tracking information or which creature will drop what.
Trap Chest Weapon Scroll and many others could be interesting to follow as could strange and arcane lore's.

Each class should be the master in one specific area and this should be based on their prime ability.
While not making them essential to a specific task it should make them the preferred choice.