Dear Anet, Please dont kill the new intensity of PvE

Personally i have loved coming up with new PvE warrior builds to solo certain areas,

because what you will find is when you have a fantastic build it will work almost everywhere in factions, simply because of mixed mobs.

this seemed alot harder in tyria that it is in cantha. (to take on mixed mobs.)

i love the challenge and am enjoying it, and i have started tampering with things i wasnt bothering with in tria also.

in this respect factions is fantastic, and pose's new challenges for players who like to level all char's and learn about all classes.

but the main problem has always been there Emphasis on it being a stand alone game, The problem with this being that Factions has the base of a stand alone title, but with the content (story line and size.) of a expansion. i wouldnt of cared if they charged the same as the game for it as long as there is no bullshit when it comes down to it.

and Anet's marketing of factions was a little misleading.

Never the less i am enjoying it and think there is far mode good than bad to come from Factions.

Assumption of facts not in evidence. I do not see why someone would enter an explorable area just to play Missile Command or Asteroids. Smaller area might help with server space, which means sacrifice for expansion based on affordability. I do not know. But smaller areas also mean more cramped tactical options and less time between encounters. Thus the new rushing from combat to combat, being swarmed by 3-6 mobs at a time, and some kind of belief that such is intended intensity. It appears some continue to make the assumption that casual play means lazy play rather than relaxed and enjoyed play. That assumption is an error.

I will admit I cannot afford the best weapons, mods, off-hand items, etc. I do not consider playing mob after mob after mob of 24th level afflicted and 60 DP to be a challenge (Chalice of Corruption). (Kill one, die, return.) PvE now feels like a chore.

Again you focus on outcomes rather than processes. If the journey is so important why promote shortening it so that it cannot be observed? Rushed efficiency lacks grace.

It isn't about choosing sides and taking a stand. I have taken a stand that handing control of my time to play over to others customers is wrong. If we both by a house, and I win the chili cook-off, should I have a right to deny you indefinately the use of your bothrooms? That is what Favor and Faction are about. This is a real issue. Faction should only affect NPC reactions, not grant players control over other peoples real lives.

This is also true in Prophecies. GW is not an RPG and choices in conduct and behavior do not matter.

I have never known a time when grind was not a part of Guild Wars, in over 1,500 hours of play. For the first time ANet seems to have taken steps to eliminate some of the grind by improving drops.

Faction is necessary grind to access what you paid for, and even that is not enough.
You forget that virtual reality is a conceptual medium. Appearence is the concept for which a player strives as there is nothing in story content to offer anything else. (We cannot choose to be evil and promote Shiro or the Lich, or even supplant them.) We have the false impression that every jerk and berk results in noble endings regardless of their intentions or decisions.

1) I refuse to PvP as other than a waste of time because it:
a. Has no value to me if I create a character capable of both (a non-PvP specific character).
b. It promotes oppositional, immature, and disrespectful behaviors by failing to require respect between contestants.
2) I do quest and explore with friends and to support friends.
3) I do not consider hammering on a key board and rushing from combatant to combatant to be a challenge more than the mindless routine of managing energy and/or adrenaline; especially when this is coupled with inseparable mobs of 12-16 (ie. the Dragon's Throat).

The problem of advancement has many faces. First, rapid advancement does not allow you time to familiarise yourself with the skills you get. Second, skills available most often have nothing to do with the enemy available to practice against or which provides the most immediate threat pressence on the field. Lastly, skills do not quickly become available in complete builds thru either the quest achievement system of Prophecies, nor the purchase system of Factions.

Many players promote Assassin play based on skills not available to the assassin (escape skills such as Recall). Ascalon is the home of Air Elementalists in the game, but one cannot build an Air Elementalist with the anything available there.

I have no care for quests and missions designed to keep characters at 60 DP. I do not consider this more of a challenge, I consider it bad presentation.

Fitz

I cant actually think of a single area for grind in factions, i mean half of factions you can almost walk to get to new cities/towns/outposts. And i will tell you somthing that i hate, the armour problem as mentioned. Im luxen, so i get denied the possibilty to get "Kurzick faction", and i have to pay for amber....
Actually, thinking about it the only grind area is echovald (or whatever) forest, where there is masses of degen and alot of dead hencheis

You can't "be" Luxon in the game, you can only help them out for a while. If you want amber but don't want to pay for it, go do Kurzick quests.

Are you sure you understand what is meant by "grind?"

Indeed.

Oh you mean the guys who sit outside the gateways to towns and try to PK you when you come inside to sell your loot? ^^;

Guild Wars Factions has very little influence from Lineage 2

If you could get IN the gate with all the dwarven bazzars stting in the gateway......ah the good old days

Well, I took my time and finished factions with my warrior, and I have to say that the ending does SUCK in factions. I won't spoil the ending for you, but it's obvious that you will have a final battle with Shiro. I beat him with a random PUG in less than 30 seconds, This was a huge disappointment to me. How stupid does Anet think we are? I just think it should have been harder

Now the silly thing is, that after the game ends, we go on fighting against each other as Luxon and Kurzicks. Wasn't the whole point to join together to defeat Shiro in the first place, lmao. Can't we just get along!

Deleted due to lack of reason to respond.

Fitz

Haven't read the rest of your crap but this really caught my ire.

So at first they sucked in all the MMORPG fans by going around sprouting "Free play! Free online play!" For the record perhaps I should only stress at this point that the only online games that charges on a subscription basis are pretty much MMORPGs, and weird exceptions like Gunbound, but those are purely optional.

Then when people realised what a piss poor offering GW is as a MMO they changed tack and said, "Onoes! GW is a new kind of game! CORPG!" Personally I'd just call it a COP OUT, but hey, that's me.

Today you are telling me outright that GW is not even a RPG? On what capacity do you make that statement? Who are you to tell us, what and what not GW should be?

Might as well just take the next logical step and say GW is a fantasy FPS shooter "with spells!" Yeah, I'd buy that.

OK, back on topic, please. In the future, use the report button.

Thank you.

Where I have disagreed with the Op is in the principle of how to define what is a casual player. Being a casual player, I play for relaxation and social interaction with friends. I do not play with the expectation that I must grind as a 55 monk, or any other class, to complete all aspects of the game with the appearence and concept that I develop in play. I do not play with the concept that repeatedly defeating and denigrating fellow players for ego-inflation is a goal (an unfortunate group of persons in PvP). I know decent PvP players, but none of them are casual players. They work at their play just as if it were a full or part time job. That is not casual play.


Generik, please consider -

The Massive Multi-player Online and Game parts are functional. GW is not RP or role-playing. Simply skinning your pong-paddle with different shapes and changing the way the ball looks when it is tossed at the other paddle does not ammount to making a role-play game. Adding a linear undeviating plot between rounds does not ammount to role-play.

Role-playing involves the assumption of options which affect character destiny. These options are clothed in various ways from the super hero (one that never does wrong and never fails), the hero (one that does the best possible of a normal human), the flawed hero (one that does right inspite of deep character defects such as addiction, obsession, or sin), to the anti-hero (one who achieves a non-conclusive outcome). The main function of role-playing is to grasp character development and behavior which one would otherwise not personally experience or deal with.

Character development is not the accumulation of points in some bean-counters paradise. Character development is the development of personality in response to events. Is this persiona driven by the path of humanity or the path of power? Do they make altruistic choices or selfish ones? Are they personally disorganized and seek to have all things regulated or are they personally disciplined and see no reason for regulatory interference?

Another example of role play from the movie The Breakfast Club:
1) Emilio Estevez (Andrew 'Andy' Clark) - Jock
2) Anthony Michael Hall (Brian Ralph Johnson) - Brain
3) Judd Nelson (John Bender) - Criminal
4) Molly Ringwald (Claire Standish) - Princess
5) Ally Sheedy (Allison Reynolds) - Basketcase

Each reflects a role in Robert K. Merton's pundit square of behavioral types:
1) Accepts societies means and goals - Conformist/Jock.
2) Accepts societies goals thru other means - Innovator/Brain.
3) Actively rejects societies means and goals - Rebel/Criminal.
4) Accepts societies means but not inspired by goals - Ritualist/Princess.
5) Passively rejects societies means and goals - Retreatist/Basketcase.

These are expressed roles who begin a journey in character development whose affects on their life and behavior are notable by the end of the story. Another story for contrast is Braveheart. Mel Gibson portrays a non-developing or static character. He is super-heroic and stagnant. Angus Macfadyen playes a dynamic and developing charcter, Robert the Bruce, who overcomes obstacles to personal growth to become an ethical choosing individual no longer ruled by his father or clan and power politics. Instead he becomes the imposer of vision ruling them. Without character change, crucibles of character change, and options for changing the wrong way there is no character development - hence no role-play.

There are currently no successful role-playing games on-line which are not pen and paper based chat room events. It is for this reason that GW is a Massive Multi-player Online Game, or MMOG. It contains stroy line elements, excellent graphics, PvP opportunities, and explorable content.

Fitz

I suppose many, if not most Dungeon and Dragon games (including PnP) are not role playing then?

If you take that high a bar for anything to role playing then I don't really see how you can play video games period. I could count the number of games since around 1993 that meet your requirements on one hand and have quite a few fingers left over.

I could claim that because I think "massive online games" can not be instanced, nor even zoned, that all the games out there today are just little tiny online video games. Of course, me not being God I can't force that opinion on others, nor do I get angry if someone else has a different opinion of what makes it one.

I, for one, think this is an RPG. I don't see branching the story as a prerequisite. The rest of your checkpoints are done in your mind - it's not my fault you are apparently incapable of assuming another role and having your character play it. It seems to me many many many people are perfectly able to progress thier character, even having something of RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOs/strippers, frauds, charities, parties, pretty much anything they can think of in this game. Sounds like "role playing" to me, but then I'm not God of Role Playing able to inform all of us unwashed masses as to The Way It Is.

Fitz is actually technically correct--there is little to no roleplaying in Guild Wars--but then, there really doesn't have to be. It's a fun game anyway.

To clarify, the game defines so many things for you--you have a couple choices as to appearance, but that's it. Does your character have a backstory, a personality? Sure you could invent one, but who cares other than you? The game certainly doesn't request one--you have a defined agenda, a defined goal, and who cares if you want to do something else? You don't get that choice.

i believe one of the only true games that attempted an RPG, as to Fitz's choice of wording is the game is Fable and that was a miserable disappointment. -.o

i dont know about you guys, but i enjoyed the scenery and the feeling that theres somthing i havnt seen yet in the game, my warrior has 86% of tyria explored.., honestly the biggest factor that got me hooked on prophecies pve was the fact on how the terrain changed, we had,

happy land > deathly ruins > snowy mountains > jungle > plateau > a lonelier jungle > desert > frozen wasteland > burned wasteland

in factions

cityscape with the same textures used over and over > plains > forest/cystalized sea.

passing a part of the game, like the northern shiverpeaks was an accomplishment in its self, in factions we go back to places weve already been too and clear places weve already cleared, and thats not that fun,

then again, this is all in a pve perspective, ill admit prophecies could of used more challenging mobs, but factions could of used a more varying terrain,

but one things for certain, faction's pvp kicks ass, and thats the reason i love it.

pve should not be a challenge. tone things down, god damn it. ~

In fact there are no computer games which are rpg's in that sense. Not a one. And I've played hundreds over the last 25 years.

Arguably most of the pen-and-paper rpg's I've played weren't either. For those curious what a classical pen-and-paper role-playing experience was like, just get the computer game Temple of Elemental Evil, it is an extremely faithful adaptation of oldskool pen-and-paper dungeons-and-dragons rpg'ing the way it was actually played way back when.
I know, because I was there.

Basically the whole "<insert computer rpg here> is not an rpg" is a bullshit argument, not only on the level that it's equally true of any and all computer rpg's ever made, including fantastically good games like Planescape: Torment or Fallout, but also on the level that YOU do the role-playing.
There is nothing keeping you from playing your assassin the way you feel a Canthan assassin would act, e.g. avoiding silly quests like "luxury goods". Roleplaying isn't something the game forces on you, it's what you bring to the game; people saying that GW isn't an rpg simply show that they have no clue what role-playing is.

Another time-honored bullshit argument bandied around in this thread is that GW has poor PvE. It doesn't. It's got equal quality PvE to most single-player cRPG's (and infinitely better than shite like Neverwinter Nights or Dungeon Siege), and massively MORE of it than any single-player rpg I've ever seen or heard about, totally leaving games like e.g. Morrowind or KOTOR in the dust wrt the size of the world.
Even compared to other MMORPGs it doesn't totally fail. I've only played Everquest 2 of the big-ticket MMORPGs, but GW at least totally destroys that one. Let me restate that: the PvE of EQ2 *sucks* compared to GW: Prophecies, but is about on par with that of GW: Factions.

IMO, what it all boils down to is that GW is free-to-play, and people therefore think it must be worse than, say, EQ2 or WoW. I mean, it's commons sense you must be getting something extra for those $15 per month, right?

Right?

just a bit bored a work... just some of my thoughts on a few comments... and my 2 cents

ya me to mixed feeling w/ the OP but like Draxx said

coming from D2 and D2LOD you always had to solo or freaking people leave when your doing a misson. Glad GW fixed the PK or didn't even offer it. I hope GW fixes/does something about AFK'ers in misson.


I know how u feel on the PvP bro. I agree w/ you on both your points! But I can honestly say after doing "Fort Aspenwood" Kurzick side. I don't mind doing a little PvE. Ya I get people that user there emote or dance when i die at there feet, but most of them have a monk healing them or they run back to get healed or also towards the turtle w/ 8 hammer warriors. I know the true/good players don't do crap like show rank when it's 8 on 1 and say i powned you..... if you do u SUCK!. Give it a try! It's like PvP w/ a point(misson).

holy cow that 60 DP is annoying!!!! ya i know just kill some stuff and your back to 0. Don't know how PvP is on this but PvE i (IMO) find it annoying. oh well it seems to work i guess(balance)

I find both equal. I'm still doing stuff in Prophecies. But i enjoy the soloing in Catha more -)

Ya man! I agree! FTW

i don't know what to say to that. PvE is fine IMO like the OP.

This is truth. I didn't know it was under contention.

GW isn't roleplaying. It isn't. There simply is no argument to the contrary. The engine, the limited character creation, the very game itself discourages and squashes roleplaying.

This doesn't mean, however, that this is a bad thing. In fact, in this particular case, this is a GOOD thing. I didn't buy GW to roleplay, I bought it because it seemed to be an interesting multiplayer game--and that's exactly what I got, and I could not be happier.

If you want to roleplay, go find yourself a MUD, go get on IRC. That's roleplaying. GW isn't. This is not opinion, it's not mocking GW or lowering it in any way--it is a statement of simple fact.

I'd just like to note that the duplicate skills have nothing at all to do with PR, and are in no way a sham. Look at the number of the new skills advertised. Then look at the number of new skills not counting duplicates. The duplicates were not advertised, and no one ever claimed they were new or a feature. They were thrown in as a bonus, allowing certain non core skills (IE skills that won't be in chapter 3) to be available to players who only have factions, and allowing players with both chapters to bring two of the same skill without echoing it in certain specific cases. Personally, I don't complain about unadvertised bonus features being tossed in on top of everything else, even when they are fairly inconsequential, but that's just me.

As to the original topic, I enjoy Factions PvE areas FAR more than Prophecies for the most part. Instead of walking down a long winding trail sleeping through the same stupidly easy fights for 40 minutes, I actually have to pay attention and fight my way through 20 minutes of nearly constant combat against groups that actually do things like focus fire and bring skills that combo well on occation. Every once in a while, I actually feel like I might possibly be in danger. Oh, and they actually sometimes include enemies that make bringing a Mesmer worthwhile, which makes me happy.

Numa Pompilius,

I was there also. Got my first copies of Chainmail, Engarde, and Eldritch Wizardry with construction paper covers and in zip-lock bags when I was about 8 to 10. I was programming D&D shells in ASCII on my Atari 400 at 10, to make DMing easier. While my firends and I do exchange certain attitudes, or even refuse to use certain skills, because it fits our character biographies, there is no support for this in the game. A character has no charted behavior comparing their actions in quest decision against the moral path which they are on (using the White Wolf term). For example, my monastery raised warrior/monk (sacred knight) would never have supported and performed the quest bribing the guards for the Krytan Ambassador. (I didn't read it very carefully because there has never been a requisite to role play.) One only has to click on the guy with the idea sign, follow the green stars, kill in between, and click on the next guy with the idea sign. No comprehension, deliberation, etc. need ever occur.

Kakumei,

I agree. GW has much to recommend it. Especially as a social outlet. I have a few friends that play who are more than casual gaming partners. We have shared things about our lives. I would like to not have to sever these connections in response to ANet implementations.

Chessyang,



Fitz

I'm 32, been a geek for all of that time, I'm familiar with it too. Basically why I said what I did.

Absolutely 100% correct. I know of no system that enforces role playing, only a few that make it the easiest method. You have to have a good dungeon master *and* players who choose to do the right thing. If you have that, then any game can be a RPG, heck I even role played in games like Warhammer and such (I could even argue when I took on the role of the Russian Premier to rule the world in Risk it was role playing).

Name another game where this isn't true? If you are force fed one then that doesn't fit your other definitions, if you make it up no one but you will care. Plus why do options on your looks matter so much if you want force fed from a list of possible back stories? I would guess that being a strict RP'er it would be, you know, more about the story.

Not to mention I get to do a lot else. I can be a farmer, merchant, play the markets, build a guild, head a fairly large alliance, be a peon, conduct wars and game fame (I don't mean the fame system - but fame like some of the top guilds have) - I have many many many choices. I don't even have to play the story given (especially in prophecies) - I can skip missions, explore, and skip any part of the story telling (though you still have to beat the individual mission, you can skip the cinematics/story). Basically, like any of the other offering out there I can do mostly what I like, though factions cuts off the ability to skip missions, there is something of a point there.

You requirements are mutually exclusive.

Then how did you succesfully do it if there is no mechanism for it, seems not doing it means you don't do it? Very little is forced on you.

Is forcing you down a path really role playing? What if my chaotic evil character who kills everything sees a little girl on the side of the road and decides that he wants to save her? Under your system, can't do it - yea, that's role playing. I see no reason why forcing me down one of ten branches is role playing yet forcing me down one isn't - both are being forced down a path.

Umm, that's true in pretty much any game - you can even play PnP games that way. It's not the games fault if you choose not to, you know, role play. This seems to be typical of the people who fuss about GW story or RP'ing options - never even seemed to make the attempt.

Are you certain you know what Role Playing has been for decades? So far it seems you want to be able to choose cookie cutter back stories that everyone else gets to choose from, play a highly scripted game (but with some branches) that will not allow you to deviate from what they consider your role to be. Typically, role playing is using your imagination in an open ended system - things like alignment and stuff reflect what you do, not force you to do something (for example, as a holy paladan you can choose to randomly kill the whole villiage - but after that you can't be a paladan or holy, that classification changes).

Though in CRPG's that's really tough to do, there has to be finite paths you can follow (or no paths at all). Usually the definition is more along the lines of character development (stats/skills) and story development - both of which GW meets (and exceedes) the standard defintion for a CRPG. You, of course, have the ability to choose what ever definition you want, but don't be shocked when you and about two other people share that view.

I think the overall PvE difficulty as it is right now is just about right. Challenging enough to be fun, but no more than that. It should not be made any easier.

My ranger and my rit henched the majority of the quests, the missions on the other hand were done with my guild or a pug with as few henchies as possible.

I can't. There isn't one. That's the point. There hasn't been a computer or console game released in the past however-many years I've been playing games that allows you to truly roleplay. Some have come somewhat close (Elder Scrolls does deserve a mention) but none have really done it.

I don't know how you can say you can really roleplay in GW. Sure, you can get a couple friends together, make up some backstories and go from there, but you're so incredibly limited by what the engine can and cannot do, by the choices the game gives you.

Wait what? How is choosing from scripts and preset backstories roleplaying at all?

If you're roleplaying, you're making up your OWN backstory, your OWN script. You control your path, you make your own character, you play her how you want, you control what YOU want YOUR CHARACTER to do. You're not given a list of choices, you do what your character would do. That's roleplaying.

Currently, no computer or console game allows infinite freedom--and I have a feeling that it'll be quite some time before one is released.

to OP
I find the PvE areas pretty intense also. However, I have found, in my personal exploration of Factions, that the Luxon side of the map is 10 times easier than the Kurzik side.

I was in an area in the deep south of Kurzik territory on my way to Unwaking Waters, I think the area is called Morstrav Trail....HOLY CRIPES!! LOL This area could be an elite mission area! There are Warders everywhere. Then you got groups of Blood Drinkers roaming around (ok they aren't so tuff) and then you got the dreaded Dredge mobs by the hundreds. Then to top it off, I tried to aggro/pull a small group of Warders and BAM! Oni pop up everywhere.(or even hidden bands of Warders drop out of the trees) Ok this could get interesting...I got more groups to fight than I originally planned.....wait...what the hell?....Where did that Dredge group come from...Pwnd. rez. retry. LOL Intense. Borderline unfair? *shurgs* I finally made it to the next outpost but it took a looooong time.

On the Luxon side...hmm there are a few intense moments, but nothing compared to Kurzik side.

They have cellphones, must have, they show up from nowhere, you clear an area and start on the last mob and there they are 2 Dreadg mob's that comes out of thin air. you turn to reatreat and wham right in to a group off Wardens mixed with Luxon Sin's. Best area in factions, you have to plan and go slow. Love it. More areas like that plz

lol, I'm Kurzick not luxon and I've been Kurzick since trying them during the beta event - and I swear the areas were much harder back then. I mean you no offense but it seems that your problem is that your trying to rush instead of clearing a few patrols and getting smashed... I (mesmer) did that area with my guildy (monk) and the rest were henchies and we did fine, capped two or 3 elites aswell. The only times the intensity of the game smacks me down is when I get impatient and try to get to a new area, or get something done within 10minutes.. I end up skipping patrols and get gangbanged a little bit down the track...

My first time through playing Factions was pretty exciting untill I realized I was nearing the end of the storyline missions and started to get dissapointed.

A few days later I ran through the game again (doing both Kurzick and Luxon missions) and it was a joke, either I got lucky with PuG's but I beat every mission without a failure with just PuG's getting 3 blades on several of them.

Basically Im dissapointed at the lack of content and things to do. Since factions did change the gameplay, it just feels more artifical. I really felt like a janitor removing all those damn spammed spirits in the kurzick areas... Brambles brambles brambles... The mobs are pretty boring, 3 or 4 explorable maps just filled with Dredge and Wardens which aren't any different from eachoter.

The graphics are quite amazing though. I've stopped playing Guild Wars as it gets harder to find things to do, now it's just a faction grind.

I'd like for there to be some real boss battles also.. Not just +leveled regular mobs that hit for extra damage. I've been playing GW since the E34E and thought it was the most amazing game when I first played it but it hasen't really taken off much from then, a few steps forward, a few steps back, and alot of sidesteps.

Im not preordering Chapter 3, thats for sure. I'll wait to hear how good it is first


Oh, the first time doing the Vizunah square was pretty fun because there was nothing liek that in factions. But after my 3rd time doing it it was a bore, I could just zone out and spam skills on mobs and kill. No need to be as effecient when theres so much going on and your actions are so miniscuile in the scope of the entire match.

Just because a guy has 7 henchies in Vizunah doesn't mean you're going to automatically lose, it would either be because its his first time in the mission (inexperience) or he just sucks at playing GW...I did that mission with my assassin and 7 henchies and the Tyrian warrior had 7 henchies and we survived just fine (monk secondary helped a lot on that mission, I attacked less and spent most of the time avoiding any melee monster while healing togo and mhenlo).

That said, I myself don't agree with the set up as it leaves too much room for griefers and retards that will purposely screw your side up for their own twisted sense of fun.

I mentioned this flaw waaaaay back when the announcement for Factions came out but everyone said, "no, don't be a retard, the game's not even released, how can you criticise it?"

Well, I wasn't too far from the truth. All it really needs is a way to let either side select the other team.

Onto the OP, no, I'm not liking Factions because of the nature of grind in the combat. Combat in GW is actually one of its strengths, but the problem is that ANet decided that since GW's combat is so good (and it is), they decided to just throw more of it to the point it actually feels like boring grind just to do a few quests.

The first few fights are interesting, after that it's a case of, "Oh not again!" going in my head.

I still think less fights overall in factions be the way to go. The size of each group of mobs is about right, but can we have the number of groups reduced by about 30-40%?

I like what Fitz said about the "intensity" of the combat in Factions:

So please, constant grind of mobs again and again is not fun. Try reducing the number of groups. It's really a chore to play this game nowadays (I haven't touched Factions content for more than 3 weeks).

While I like the idea of tougher battles, I agree with everyone who thinks that battling mob after mob after mob incessantly is really annoying and frustrating - especially when they come at you out of nowhere just as you're about to finish off the mob you were working on.

The other big flaw with the tougher PvE content is the henchies. While they made your foes stronger, they didn't make henchies any stronger. In Prophecies, the only 2 things I couldn't manage with a henchie group and my Mesmer are beating Willa the Unpleasant and Undead Rurick. With factions, I feel damn lucky if I get through a mission with them, although the quests are fairly manageable.

The other thing that sucks big-time about henchies is the absolute random, non-sensical choices you have from one town to the next. In some places you'll have a dozen or more to choose from, in others (like Boreas Seabed) you only have 8 to chose from. And forget about keeping a henchie party together when trying to run all those factions quests, almost every time you enter a town, you lose half of your group. Just another feature of Factions that makes playing it annoying as hell.

There are only two principle master plots upon which all other plots fall. Crime of force and crime of fraud cover all negative instances which a hero corrects. Because of these limitations in story telling one can not assume the storyline is force-fed. Nor does knowledge of that limitation have anything to do with why appearance matters. ''Looks'' matter so much because they form the conceptual person. The knight in shining armor is not the same if the armor does not shine. The former is a hero, the latter is a flawed hero. The person who does not wear the right colthes will not be accepted for the job.

Else besides what? Role-play? The list of things one can do, in skirmishes between Guilds no longer at war, repeatedly killing mergoyles and mahgo hydra, repeatedly playing IWAY does not result in keeping available anything I have played for.

Who said it was successful? I have seen my friends eliminate characters to remake the same class combo with a different skill set/build, in order to change the name, get new clothes, and be a different persona. I change builds on my characters, but not everyone does. I learned rather quickly that the PvP provided titles were total and complete misrepresentations of the roles they perported to represent, and that in fact they were useless to a PvE player or Role Player. Further, how little is forced on me is not relevant if the value of what is forced/prevented exceeds the quantity of what is not.


This is complete and utter hogwash on the alignment system of the game referenced. Lawful alignment equals a lack of self discipline and reliance upon social or mob discipline (extraverted behavior). Chaotic alignment represents a lack of social affiliation and reliance upon rugged individualism or self-discipline. Good equals altruism and evil equals ethical egoism. The Chaotic-evil persona exerts energy for self-gain and detests/mistrusts reliance upon others. While they have no compulsion against killing ''a little girl on the side of the road'' they also have no reason to do so unless it promotes their agenda. The way the game has been screwed up since First Edtition, is one of the reasons I moved to other games.


I am aware there are a lot of bad role-players.

Yes, I am.

This would be 100% inaccurate.

A paladin who fails to save the princess from the dragon, or fails to die trying, equally loses their standing as a paladin - not merely because of alignment. But their alignment of lawful good means they are socially compelled to a certain behavior and lose their social standing if they fail that expectation.

So, I may choose a story-line that keeps me at Adelbern's side and promtes my ascension through a different set of events. I may choose to fight for the Mursaat alongside Markis and try to protect the world from the release of the Titans. I may choose to re-establish the Kingdom of the Forgotten Ones, or that of Elona. I may take different behavioral paths to either. I may even choose to be Stefan's rival and steal away the wonderful, talented, and beautiful Alesia's affection. I missed all those dialogue boxes.

The majority of people think they go to the store and buy science ficiton instead of science fantasy. Their lack of knowledge of what they are actually doing does not change the reality of it.

The mobs issue is one of the reasons I may quit playing. While they are necessary to get those extremely rare crafting materials, they are riduculously large. The fighting system is only really adequate for dealing with foes of similar quantity to the party, yet we are cosntantly facing mobs of 12+ Afflicted, Am Fah, Scarlet what-evers, and Jade which-a-ma-whos. Since they come in groups of 12+ and do not separate into groups as small as 4-8 it becomes a kill one, rez, kill 1 rez, kill 1 rez, kill 1 rez, kind of thing. A mob of 12 ancient turtles is ridiculous, right after 4 mobs of 12 afflicted. (Cup of Corruption quest.)

Fitz