Okay, this was posted as a response in a different forum. It was however buried deep within a thread and I think it deserves to be read.
Suggestions for improving the PVE/RPG experience in Guild Wars, without straying from the Guild Wars concept:
1. Better in-game communication. It is difficult/nearly impossible to have conversations in towns, mostly because of all the trade spamming. They should do a few things to fix this.
a. An in-game auction house/or player shops/anything. Even if it doesn't meet the GW mold that the devs initially envisioned, it is absolutely needed now - if only to make the towns an okay place to hang out in/encourage communication.
b. A better way to talk. I really can't come up with any ideas here. It just needs to be easier to talk to a group, without talking to the whole town.
c. As small as this sounds, targetted emotes, as well as more options for emotes would go a long way and still fit with Guild Wars. Also, the emote text should display at the bottom, ala "John Doe waves as Gaile Grey". The way it is now, emotes are pointless... No one notices them and no one knows if they're directed at them.
d. This is a biggie. I think we should be able to set our preferred district.
As it is now, the world is so large that it is nearly impossible to randomly run into others. This would add a lot to the game, believe it or not... Met a new friend in District 1? Well you probably had District 1 set as your preferred district and so did he. You'd be more likely to run into them... They wouldn't fall off the face of the earth if you ran into them every so often. And this system would still allow you to go to any district when you want to party with other friends. You would just end up in your preferred district ONLY if you didn't specify another. If grouped, the party leader's preferred district would override. This would make the in-game universe smaller, while still retaining the options for grouping with others anywhere.
2.We desperately need more individuality. We all look the same. RPGers/PVEers form a bond with their character, and work to improve them as if improving themselves. Its the main facet of this type of gaming experience. We need to feel like individuals. I understand more chapters will bring more armor, etc. But that's really not enough. Here's some ideas:
a. A couple new races would help to really mix up things. They SHOULD NOT have any different stats for balancing reasons. They should just look different. If creating character meshes for different races for all the different types of armor is a problem, ANET could just add certain new professions that are race specific, i.e. a Tengu race that are hand-to-hand fighters and wizards.
b. More armor, town clothes, and more head pieces especially - as many people pick the same faces over and over again. Thats a big reason why I love the Tengu mask so much - it SO different.
3. Fleshing out the PVE experience is also helpful. We need more bars... Places to go inside, maybe sit down. I love that the NPCs now have some more character. We need more stuff like this!
4. Also, we need a better way to track our friends. I have 10 friends now, and I don't know/remember who 8 of them were.
5. Also, I understand that as they don't charge monthly fees, we can't have in game GMs or anything. But, maybe ANET could hire just one person to jump around the servers and reprimand those who are misbehaving. I've seen alot more bad behavior lately, and frankly it does ruin the game to some degree. The reporting process isn't user-friendly enough to use.
To sum all this up, honestly, it all boils down to the fact that the PVE experience doesn't feel fleshed out. The world feels cold (alittle better now in Factions). And most players seem to think of this game as a hack-n-slash to rush through... maybe to get better 'skins'. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE this game. And I want it to last a long time.
We need to stay competitive. And I feel they've pretty well established the PVP side... But we need to bring over more of that RPG/PVE audience, because as it stands, they are being turned off right now to some degree. And if ANET really wishes to grow this game as much as possible, we should appeal more to the WOW audience, while still retaining everything we love about GW.
Anyway, I do see progress as of late. And I trust Arena Net. Everything they do, they seem to do right. Just wanted to add my two cents.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
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