Two Tyrias: What John Edwards Would Say About Guild Wars

The following is based on John Edwards' "Two Americas" stump speech, just incase you were wondering. (Okay, I know it's a bit late for this because the election was over about 8 months ago but it still provide sa convenient format for voicing concerns about Guild Wars.)

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Two Tyrias

Today, under the ArenaNet development team, there are two Tyrias, not one: One Tyria that does the grinding, another Tyria that takes the credit for holding the Hall of Heroes. One Tyria that pays through the nose for high-quality 15K armor, another Tyria that gets equivalent armor for free. One Tyria that plays for dozens of hours just to get to level 20, another Tyria whose characters are already level 20 right from the start. One Tyria – PvE Tyria – whose needs ArenaNet has long forgotten, another Tyria – PvP Tyria – who’s every wish is ArenaNet’s command. One Tyria that is struggling to finish the Thunderhead Keep mission, another Tyria that can get anything it wants, even a nifty faction-point reward system.

That’s wrong. It’s wrong for a PvP character who has been waiting for half an hour to find a group in the Tombs to pay less for equipment than the Warrior who can’t find a group at all or the Monk that’s getting invitations from two groups at the same time.

What’s more, by dividing us into two Tyrias, ArenaNet is hurting our rune and sigil economies, cheating us out of our expansion packs, and undermining our very game. The engine of our economy is not that guy sitting in the Tombs waiting for a group. It is thousands of guys and gals in the Underworld, the Fissure of Woe, and explorable areas across Tyria who grind every day trying to unlock those elusive weapon upgrades. When we invest in those Tyrians, our characters get better equipment, and the whole game gets better. That is the simple truth that ArenaNet will never understand.

Just look at what has happened to drop rates over the last few weeks of ArenaNet’s updates. PvE characters have gone from being able to save for a Celestial Sigil or buy 15K armor, to now teetering on the edge of not having enough money to use their skill points to buy skills. These aren’t low-level characters, they’re the working level 20’s. And they are terrified that if something goes wrong – a misspent skill point or getting ripped off on a trade – they’re just one bad break away from giving up and creating a new character.

Next month, ArenaNet will roll out yet another set of upgrades for PvP, to be paid for down the road by PvE characters buying expansion packs so they can get access to more quests. After almost three months, we know what ArenaNet means by a game where “reward is based on skill, not hours played” – a game where those who grind the most get the most, while those who just complete the quests earn less than anyone else.

I have a plan to make Guild Wars work for all of us. First, we’ll give struggling PvE characters who can’t find groups a chance to realize their dream of completing the game, by improving henchperson A.I. so they’re actually remotely useful and players won’t have to stand around in the staging area spamming “LFG” on the local channel for hours on end.

Second, I want to make skill points affordable with my Skill Points for Everyone plan. For those people who don’t want to grind 10 hours a week just so they can unlock skills for their PvP characters – you can get all skills unlocked for your first profession. And I will increase quest rewards so you can earn more skill points for the rest of your professions.

Finally, we need to reward grouping. We can start by giving players a 2,500 experience point bonus credit for participating in exercises designed to teach grouping skills. This will give new characters some leveling help so they can spend time doing the quests in pre-searing to gain valuable experience. This benefit would help more than 12,000 players who currently can’t find groups that don’t have at least one idiot that quits two minutes after starting the mission, goes off in the wrong direction and aggroes three groups of mobs, or claims to be the best Monk in the game but actually can’t heal worth diddlysquat.

I have been fighting this fight since the Beta Weekend Events. For over six months, I have been posting in the message forums. I have been an advocate for players and their characters against armies of developers, and I have won most of those battles. I fought to bring down healing-spell energy costs for every profession, fighting against big Monk guilds. I fought to do something about annoying pop-up advertising on Guild Wars fan sites when others weren’t willing to do it.

I believe in a Tyria where every Warrior, Monk, Elementalist, Mesmer, Ranger, and Necromancer can reach his or her Ascension potential. I believe in a Tyria where the profession you’re born into and the color of your armor should never control your destiny. Rather than have two Tyrias, one for the PvE characters and one for the PvP characters, we need to form together and create one Tyria, where we can all be united in our fight against the evil computer-controlled nonhuman monsters! (Oh, and each other, too.)

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Actually.. I would very much wish to see 2 tyrias.

Right now, those in the high rungs of PvP are rich... extremely rich. On the other hand, regular PvPers are still getting by getting "gold" drops like fire staffs that give +1 to water magic 10% of the time, woohoo!

I fail to see why PvPers who choose to go down that route should be entitled to rare weapon drops and sigils that are usable in the PVE world. In fact, nevermind that, how about just making all drops in the HoH customised and hence unsellable?

I reckon a lot more inflation is happening in HoH everyday than whatever issues "farming" creates, mind you, never once have I soloed any mob before, I play this game as it is meant to be played, but in some areas drops are out right PATHETIC for lack of a better word.

I'm not entirely sure if you wrote this to keep in more in lines with the speech than the game because there are some serious flaws #1. The folks winning HoH are part of the Tyria that does the grinding #2. If they didn't have PvP only's the PvP in this game would be dry, dull, and probably dead. #3. I don't think ANet really forgot the PvEers or the PvPers, they just forgot how to correctly solve problems.

That’s wrong. It’s wrong for a PvP character who has been waiting for half an hour to find a group in the Tombs to pay less for equipment than the Warrior who can’t find a group at all or the Monk that’s getting invitations from two groups at the same time.

This is perfect proof of #3 listed above. They screwed up a lot of stuff with the 'fixes' Ironically these nerfs probaby hit casual folks just as hard as farmers. Even more ironically, they nerfed all the drops just after power gamers were through getting rich.

Indeed, you got my vote

yep the two tyrias where people have that awful thing known as FREE WILL

Oh, please. Give me a break.