Please fix this great game. Open it up

I keep playing the first half because it's more fun. What gets me the most about this game is the way you cut up the landscape nothing but a bunch of wormholes and canyons to circle around then back out.

At least in the first part before you assend of whatever you call it you have some freedom to roam.

Who ever it is in upper management who pushes for this get rid of them. Move them to shipping or accounting.

I was a huge fan of the might and magic series and watched each game get progressively worse because they cut it up and cut it up and made you run through a maze more and more with each game.

This is more exciting than Morrowind but it won't come close to the freedom of the Elderscrolls series.

Whether you cut this up to manage data, create length or just have a bunch of designers who think it's cool to make something that's a pain in the butt all you are going to do is in time bore your fan. You got fifty bucks out of me but you won't get one cent a month out of me for what I see if you think you might start charging.

I haven't had this game a week and have restarted it five times have three players at 10 had that deleted one today, one at nine on the way to ten and might just start another game.

Some of the fighting is outstanding but I don't like that all the time. I like to roam and explore and you don't seem to want anyone to do that. This thing looked huge but it isn't please open it up.

moved to sanitarium

The game wasn't designed to be opened up, movement from place to place is via exploration missions which funnel people to proper areas faster, missions require a bit of linear movement in order to progress a person to where they need to go, and these areas with removed mobility are actually tactical advantages, gathering enemies for AoE damage, as well as allowing further attacks on purely melee characters, plus height advantages over cliffs for higher bow damage.

This game was not designed to roam necessarily as you may want it, but all of the areas are quite expansive with numerous exploration zones, just because you are bound by cliffs and holes doesn't mean much. I actually see this style as being better, the area itself is actually designed and has many purposes for quests and battles, Elder Scrolls, especially Morrowind, was a bunch of useless terrain which I spent time drudging through with boots of blinding speed, 100 run and 100 jump, even if I could make it from one side to the other in less than three minutes.

you won't get lost as much if you use the map.. or even the U key along with the compass.

id like to see a happy medium. I think the very narrow movement lanes in GW are way to confining and only please the kiddy hack 'n slash diablo fans who want/need instant gratification and constant stimulus to keep them interested. having such uber restricted movement totally takes away any sense of "exploration." Let me have more, maybe not total, but more freedom to roam and actually feel like im exploring.

there has to be some happy middle ground between these narrow Diablo-lanes we have now, and total freeedom of movemn.

Narrow Diablo Lanes? I played Diablo II and there was ALOT of flat out roaming that didn't direct you in the right way unless it was in the jungle or the hell zones, even then you still have to maneuver your way around.

Personally I think its a bad idea to try and turn GW into something that has already been done before, because it isn't something thats been done before, its new. Comparing is ok, but transforming it into other games is a no no. I like the way GW is set up map wise. There is alot of figuring your way around the map, not quite sure I understand what you mean exactly about the narrow diablo lanes, but I prefer this over roaming huge flat areas like in Morrowind just seeking that next batch of enemies or next town. Morrowind is almost TOO big, but then again, this is about GW, not Morrowind...

Guild Wars isn't really designed as an "exploration" game, despite having many explorable areas to the sides of the main mission line.

I would be pissed at GW's gameplay in regards to having to fight to get anywhere if you couldn't insta-travel to any 'waypoint' location at will. But since you can, most of the time travelling places isn't a problem - but you have to fight to get there, since it was never designed as an exploration game.

I think the main reason they decided not to make it an exploration game is because that innately means you have to have a ridiculous amount of travel time, which is a huge waste of time to people who want to play the game instead of watch their characters' run animation for hours and hours of wasted gameplay.

GW's PVE is a step in a brilliant direction for the MMORPG genre - scripted missions have the potential to be insanely more interactive than the mindless fields of stupid monsters found in other MMORPGs. It's far from perfect but it's a step towards a more realistic, immersive game. Unfortunately, that first step happened to need the crutch of severely limited chokepoints in order to work well.

if all you have found is that you havent even gotten out of the seared area of the game

have you looked at the mountains,seashore or jungle areas yet?

Loviatar: all areas are a maze of corridors, with a few somewhat larger "rooms" thrown in.

I think the game is designed this way so you wont be able to sneak past mobs, you have to fight your way through.

i was refering to his complaint thar there was nothing to see but the seared ugly canyons (other post)

he has only gotten to level 10 before stopping to go back to *THE OTHER HALF OF THE GAME*

i am sorry if i am incorrect but if he only reaches level 10 before starting over AND equates the training area as half the game i have to conclude that he hasnt seen the other areas that people seem to think are very nice in and of themselves.

From what I've seen, the entire area west of the Shiverpeaks is mostly open terrain, with paths to show you the way, but you can easily go off 'the beaten path' and explore. canyons are only there to direct you where to go. Not to mention the Deserts. Jeez man, there's plenty of open area outside of Seared Ascalon, and scenery is just amazing.

You can 'walk' to the entire map except the Desert, Fire Island, and Thunderhead Keep (and the Grotto off its area). You can walk through the Ascalon Foothills into the Northern Shiverpeaks. Then you can continue you walk west into the jungle or south through Lomar's to the Southern Shiverpeaks.

So...

To get to the Desert you would have to do the Sanctum Cay mission.
To get to the Thunderhead Keep area you need to do Iron Mines of Moladune mission.
To get to Fire Island you need to do Thunderhead Keep.

So...

To unlock this "linear" "restricted" world you have to do a whopping 3 missions. Just because you haven't found the way to walk all over yet doesn't mean you can't do it.

Well, the only area that's accessed through missions is Thunderhead Keep, Dragon's Lair, Ring of Fire and the whole Desert.
And Kryta and the Desert is plenty of open landscape.

_Zexion

Hmm, funny I walked to thunderhead keep from Iron Mines of Moladune.

If you have only seen the Ascalon area of the game, man are you missing out. Do all the co-op missions, then try the exploring, there is a lot out there. Towns that you cant warp to. Skills to find. etc

I dont see why you are complaining about there not being enough freedom in second half, surely there is more freedom? for no monthly charge i think what weve got is amazing, its a lot bigger than i thought it would be. The places are huge and sometimes i find myself getting lost in these canyons and mountains, i love the way you can travel from the top of shiverpeaks to the bottom.

I have to concur with Loviatar. Someone hasn't even bothered trying to see the frozen shiverpeak mountains, the jungles of kryta, the beaches, the druid groves or any of the other areas of terrain I haven't even gotten to.


Firemountain, give it another chance and this Time try to play out the missions. It sounds like you haven't even scratched the surface of the depth of available scenery or gameplay.

The game is wonderful... but i keep having problems with the people that join quests .. the monk is expected by them to do it all and with 6 people to all be healed some are going to die if they don't try to heal themselves. I have just taken to getting the hirelings an play alone... some guys are just jerks.. they rally think they are the best and... gee they are the ones that died. sorry i just needed to vent...

The Original Poster has a point...

Now don't get me wrong, Guild wars is a fine game but it is a bit linear..

Yes....I understand the rationale behind this tactic but the same things can be accomplished with multiple paths..

Comming from games like EQ, EQ2 AC2, DAOC COH WOW..etc It takes a bit of getting used to.

I must say though..except for COH, Guid Wars is the only MMO I'm still playing.

This is one of Guild Wars FEW flaws..

A major good point about this game is that it is FREE. Sure WoW was very open, but it wasn't free (monthly costs).

I'd love to see some more room to explore, including areas that are there for no other purpose than to check them out. My guild (aptly named the Tyrian Explorer's League) has a blast doing just that- we've explored Dragon's Gullet, the ToA-Fisherman's passage, and the ToA-Druid's Overlook passage through Majesty's Rest (the area that makes most people ask "Where the heck is THAT?") just for the heck of it, and we plan to fight from Camp Rankor to Beacon's Perch sometime just to get that entire stretch explored.

But yeah- other than those four areas, and a few other things like some of the more out-of-the-way corners of the desert, there isn't really much to explore. I like how this is a goal-orientated game where going to specific places is how you advance (i.e. missions), but there should just be some pointless areas for those of us who like that sort of thing. Here's to hoping that they add more of those in Chapter 2.

imo,
The Wilds feels very constricted.
The Crystal Desert feels too broad.
Kryta feels just about right.

Im getting used to it. I can "understand" and except it for the type of gameplay GWs is.

For PvE, its obvious to everyone that over time, the landscape will be transversed and exhasted.
If we want to play GWs PvE forever we just need Chapter 2 and then Chapter 3 and so on.
My complant, more so than open or new landscapes would be less redunancy in them.

Excluding missions and areas like UW, FoW and SF, it would be nice if all areas had a random, (and fair) varity of mobs. So moving from point A to B is different as many times as I feel neccessary to move from place to place.

Repeat with me:
Guild Wars is NOT a MMORPG.
Guild Wars is NOT a MMORPG.
Guild Wars is NOT a MMORPG.

Okay? Gameplay is in fact closer to Diablo 2, except with very very graphic lobbies.

I agree with the OP on this, some areas of the game feel unnaturally maze like (particularly southern shiverpeaks) which really kills the sense of exploration in the game and forces you through a funnel of never ending enemies.

I love exploring, and have uncovered almost all the map just because I like to see new areas. Having more open broad areas that aren't full of mobs running around nose-to-tail makes exploration much more possible, and much more fun. Also, i'd love to see more areas like the Ascalon Settlement, which are towns out of town if you see what I mean. Finally, more out of the way areas like ice tooth cave and maguuma stade, which are nice rewards for those willing to leave the beaten track would be great.

ArenaNet said they are trying to avoid the linear nature in chapter 2. (words to that effect).