An Impression of Guild Wars 2

Introduction

This is a "sort-of" review of Guild Wars 2, based on my beta weekend participation.  Originally written as an email for friends of mine as part of ongoing discussions we've had over the years regarding our MMO experiences as well as our programming backgrounds, I am posting it as reference and notifying a broader set of friends of its existence.  


There are a lot of comprehensive reviews of GW2 on the net now, and this is not one of them.  This is just a highlight of points of interest to myself and hopefully, my friends.  Please read other's reviews and, if you find any that are especially negative in a meaningful way, please let me know about them.


If you are not at all familiar with GW2 but have played other MMOs, then it is probably best to read this article before proceeding.  Alternatively, there is this video.





It may be beneficial for the reader to understand that my friends and I have become generally bored with MMOs in their current form and have discussed many of the things that have lead to that boredom.  My interest in GW2 stems from article and video linked above, which is presented as a manifesto that recognizes many (not all) of the problems we had already observed.  My feeling has been that if the GW2 implementation could be faithful to that manifesto, then it may be able to garner renewed interest from me and my friends, and perhaps be an MMO worth playing.  


It is too early to tell if GW2 has achieved enough to devote serious free time resources to, and my own observation (not declared below) is that there is still a pallor of the old MMOs in GW2. But some of that may be due to the jaded lenses through which I am viewing.  Still, on the whole, my impression of GW2--for now--is positive as I do see significant and fundamental changes and I outline some of those below.  
[RA]

Launch Date

The launch date for GW2 is August 28th with a three day head-start for pre-purchase.  One more beta weekend will begin July 20.

For those that are jaded and think this isn't the MMO you want to play or the one you'd like to create, I am still going to recommend it, not because I disagree, but because you need to experience what is fundamentally different about this MMO.  It is a game changer for MMOs, having fundamentally reversed (in a good way) the game playing etiquette and social norms found in other MMOs.  While I can conceive of better-still MMOs to come out one day, I cannot conceive of ever going back to any MMO written before GW2 (except for the sake of nostalgia).  In that sense, GW2 sets a new benchmark--for me at least--for all future MMOs.  So, if you think you might one day want to design your own MMO and you haven't played an MMO like GW2, you will be designing blindly.  Ignore it at your peril.

There is another aspect of GW2 that I only suspect is going to be much better than expected: PvP.  I have yet to do any PvP, mostly because I've shied away from a PvP focus in other MMOs in the past.  I had little faith that those MMOs could deliver a balanced and well-nuanced system, consequently, there hasn't been a PvP itch that I needed GW2 to scratch.  But GW2 might be different.  I will have more to say about PvP potential after I make some observations below.

Combat and Targeting

There was a brief stress test yesterday and that gave me a chance to check on targeting, since it was brought up at lunch.  I didn't do strict analysis, but the bottom line is that the system appears to try to be better than traditional targeting.  Here are some observations on targeting and other interesting aspects of combat.  As a general disclaimer, I'll note that all my inferences could prove incorrect with greater scrutiny (faking it is a has a great tradition among programmers, after all), but here is what seemed to be the case.

• As mentioned before, you can move and attack at the same time.  
• Line-of-sight matters, so trees, buildings, etc add potential for cover, especially important when fleeing.  Possible exception is some AoEs--not rigorously tested by me.  More on AoE's below.
• Mob AI has been observed to possibly calculate a lead when using ranged, but I have not experimented to determine if it is really doing this or cheating via traditional "locked" targeting, yet. At least the animation was correct for a calculated lead.
• You can dodge-roll out of the path of a mob that is about to hit you (melee) via double tapping movement keys (Q and E, actually, for L-R rolling).  This uses about half of a small reserve of burst energy, so you can't spam it.  It allows for combining kiting and dodging on slower mobs to an extent.  
• Many (all?) mob AoEs provide a clue before it hits by showing a circle on the ground, thus giving you opportunity to move before the hit.  I am guessing this is true for PvP, too, as this would seem to provide balance between melee types and ranged AoE spell casters; otherwise, AoE's win.
• With many attack types, you can attack without targeting, and I did this a lot at first before I realized I could TAB to target.   Run up and start swinging or start shooting.  You can TAB-target, still, but range matters, of course, but may launch an attack even when the target is out of range (or no target selected).  
• I haven't picked up on any "range exceeded" before initiating a ranged attack (ranged AoE's are the exception to that) but once the missile/bullet hits something, you see some text at the impact point saying "out of range".  This raises the possibility of firing at an out- of-range target as it approaches you and having it take damage if it arrives at the impact point or moves into line-of-fire at the right time.  I am thinking of a "wall of arrows" fired at a charging line of mobs or players, for instance.  
• Selecting a ranged AoEs show you a targeting disc on the ground that you place with your mouse before activating.  Since activation isn't typically instantaneous, you may need to lead the mobs by some amount.  
• Attacks are possible from above/below.  There are constructs and terrain details that seem to beg you to find clever ways to fight, taking advantage of terrain.  Unlike what we found in WoW, where finding a way to get above the enemy and bring attacks from above was considered an exploit and so you were banned, GW2's combat system developers seems to understand that creativity doesn't have to be constrained to only what the game designers first imagined, and all combat outcome must be constrained to a 2D, spreadsheet formulated system.  I might have been skeptical of this notion in GW2 if this were any of the other MMOs, but, as pointed out in the article below, there is a reason why this potential of the unforeseen solution might exist.

Death

Death isn't immediate or certain.  When you run out of hit points, you go down with some amount of health left (most of the time).  The mode is very much like going down in L4D.  At that point, there are four actions you can perform with various cooldowns that can help you hang on or even rally and get back up on your own.  (Or, if you really die, you can wait at your position for a player to res you or you can teleport to a gate.)  As mentioned many times, there is no healer class anyone near enough can provide healing to you while you are down.  If you succeed in rallying or are revived, you typically have 30-50% HP.  My heal cooldown is often done so I've been able to withdraw a little and restore HP before jumping back into the fray.  

I've been in the "down" mode fighting for survival for probably as long as 4 minutes before, and it was nearly as exciting as being on your feet.  When you are being revived, it can get interesting since mobs will attack your reviver and if they don't interrupt themselves and react, they can go down as well. More than one can join in on reviving and you will revive faster.  But they will be vulnerable to attack as well.   It reminds me of the caution I've heard in lifeguard training: only go in the water as a last resort, to avoid being a victim, too.  I've witnessed four other people go down in succession as a result of someone trying to revive me.  And I've been part of those folks (not grouped, just playing) that rush in and revive enough people to turn the tide against a boss.  

I've only experienced such intense, interesting, and non-predictable outcomes during the raids in EQII. In GW2, the potential for these kinds of battles is right around the corner.  Unlike EQII, such fun doesn't require eight players from your guild to all be online between the hours of 8:30 and 10:30 on a Tuesday and with the right make-up of character classes.  In GW2, if you see a mass of players attacking a boss, run to help.  It will be fun, you will get XP, maybe some loot, and you will not spoil anyone else's fun.  The casual gamer and casual gaming lifestyle should be very comfortable in GW2.

If I had to sum up the targeting and overall combat, I'd say it provides a kind of "wriggle room" that makes outcomes a little less certain than what we have experienced in other MMOs.  Dodge, LOS, range, terrain, targeting, death.  These are all factors that beg for something more than simple button mashing, though that is mostly what I've done.  The bad training of older MMOs has limited my thinking and GW2 occasionally reminds me of this.  Maybe there isn't more to it than what I've experienced, and I suppose that wouldn't surprise me, but it feels like there is a lot more to it.  If its an illusion, then it is a satisfying illusion.

Crafting

I did some crafting in a previous beta weekend.  While I've never been a big fan of crafting, it was decent enough that I did not leave it alone after a first taste and eventually found myself wondering where to get some needed ingredients.  The crafted items that I could make following explicit recipes were at least as good as most of the drops. There is some experimental modes that enabled me to make slightly better versions of the typical drop loot, and as I pondered all the various equipment I had, I realized that the cumulative effect of crafting all my equipment could make a reasonable difference, so I started paying more attention to the crafting-type drop loot.  Also, from what I've read, you gain general XP while crafting, so if that is your thing, then you won't necessarily fall behind if you concentrate on crafting over adventure.

Store

The store is straight forward and I've only explored it long enough to buy some leather for crafting.  I have read decent things about it.  You can activate it just about anyone while adventuring so there is a convenience to it that many are appreciative of.  Not sure you can do everything from that interface (like pick up goods you bought) but at least you can see what is for sale, maybe even put things up for sale.

Levels and Zones 

There is some sort of normalizing taking place even when you, as a higher level character, enter a "newbie" zone and do combat. I read about this as I would not have really been aware of it without paying careful attention.  This meant that when I went back to some newbie content I had missed and completed quests, it didn't feel like it was a complete cakewalk (although it was easier).  The content didn't go grey on me.  This appears to be a side-effect or necessity of the "community events" where anyone can join in at any time.  It also makes for some nice seamless game play.  A nice consequent is that newbie zones don't have to be inert barriers you are forced to run through. 

Mob AI 

I haven't seen any mob behavior that made me take note.  I wasn't expecting anything new here and I my expectations have been met.  There are plenty of incongruous behaviors worthy of a snort.  Similarly, there are non sequiturs regarding dialogue vs action.  (e.g., you save an NPC that then joins you in battle, but you hit 'F' to have dialog with it and its salutation is a sneering "Whaddya want?")

Stability and Completeness

Very stable, but, of course, this has only been beta level of users.  I think they had over 450,000 pre-purchases, but I haven't seen what level of participation has been taking place.  The first beta weekend showed some overburdened servers, but they added more servers to compensate and after that it has been pretty darn good.  The two different stress tests I've been in caused minor hiccups (only two disconnects) and we were told to expect them as they were (presumably) inducing loads. An interesting thing observed on the first beta weekend were that they had some kind of "overflow" system set up that allowed you to move into a clone of the zone you were trying to get to if there was an overburdened situation.  I think if I had been grouped in a party and had elected to to zone into an overflow area, I might have been separated from my group on another server.  When the overload passes, you are prompted to see if you want to join the "real" server.  Since I was solo, this made no difference to me.

We have discussed business model vs "the grind" in MMOs before, and so it is nice to see the following from this article:

"When your game systems are designed to achieve the prime motivation of a subscription-based MMO, you run the risk of sacrificing quality to get as much content in as possible to fill that time. You get leveling systems that take insane amounts of grind to gain a level, loot drop systems that require doing a dungeon with a tiny chance the item you want can drop at the end, raid systems that need huge numbers of people online simultaneously to organize and play, thousands of wash/repeat item-collection or kill-mob quests or dailies with flavor text support, the best stat gear requiring crazy amounts of time to earn, etc.

But what if your business model isn’t based on a subscription? What if your content-design motivations aren’t driven by the need to create mechanics that keep people playing as long as possible? When looking at content design for Guild Wars 2, we’ve tried to ask the question: What if the development of the game was based on…wait for it…fun?"

Worth a read if I haven't completely bored you by now.

PvP 

The "wriggle room" I mentioned would seem to make PvP potentially more interesting and robust.  Nothing seems to be reduced down to simple stats.  Maybe it is 90-95% stats in PvE, but when you enter PvP, you character is set to max level and you go to a special zone/server.  Stats and equipment are not so relevant, so what is left?  Player intelligence, player wisdom, player experience.  Some people won't like that but given that PvP experience is separated from the rest of the game, the point is to be having fun.  There won't be any major, lasting consequent to the outcome.  I'd like to hope the PvP environment will fill a niche similar to the L4D experience in vs mode.   There are world vs world vs world battles in this zone and siege weapons to work that are not available in PvE.  I've not touched any of that, but I've only read good things about it so far.  

I saw today the Diablo III was completed in Hardcore Inferno mode.  Watched the end on youtube.  Time for something new.  :D

--RA