Guild Wars 2: Revolutionary? - Page 6

Gamers should also be happy to know that they shouldn't expect a post-level cap bait-and-switch with Guild Wars 2, either. Not only will Guild Wars 2 feature a relatively flat leveling curve, but item progression has also been treated in a similar fashion. A post-level cap dungeon-grind won't be waiting for you to make up for the ease of leveling. If there is a dungeon with an item you want in it, you'll only have to do that dungeon a pre-determined finite amount of times to get what you want out of it. You won't spend three days hitting the level cap and then five years gearing up (figures used for sake of argument). Of course, this all based on what ArenaNet is saying, so whether you believe all this or not entirely rests on how much stock you put in their word.

As ANet’s Isaiah Cartwright pointed out in the blog update, “Anyone can increase the length of an experience bar and call it content”, and that practice is something that’s been a peeve of mine for some time. At the same time, many of us, including myself, understand the necessary evil that is the leveling treadmill; it keeps people playing, but ultimately it’s pretty arbitrary. My biggest peeve has always been the games that force players to tread through a serious amount of levels yet don’t build their content around this fact. Games like Aion, Age of Conan, and I’m sure countless others went into release forcing players to grind after becoming used to a certain rhythm of leveling that consistent content provides players. It’s jarring when you hit a certain level range and suddenly all the quests dry up. If you know your game doesn’t have the content for it, re-evaluate things and adjust the level cap or XP rates accordingly.

So, how does ArenaNet get away with it? The same way they got away with it the first time around! The lack of subscription fees offers the developers the freedom to create a content-driven world and not worry about retention as much (though there is still the mystery on how they plan to fund the continued development of new content for the game, as the scope of Guild Wars 2 is certainly greater than its predecessor).

On August 13 2010 04:51 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Wow James Phinney and 3 others have left ArenaNet to join Jeff Strain's new company Undead Labs....

For seven years, I headed up game design at ArenaNet, working with a family of friends to create the Guild Wars games. I am tremendously proud of the work we did together and of the world that millions of players have lived in and enjoyed.

Still, when the opportunity came to join Jeff at Undead Labs, I didn’t hesitate. I knew I could do so safely. Guild Wars 2 is well in hand. Eric Flannum has been at the helm as lead designer for more than a year now, taking the concepts we developed at the start of the project and bringing them to life. He and I are long-time friends and partners-in-crime, working together on Warcraft II, Diablo, Starcraft, Sacrifice, and every Guild Wars release to date. I have complete confidence in the game that he and the team will make.

I am ready for a new challenge, and this is the perfect opportunity to do something groundbreaking and amazing. Console zombie-survival MMO. If your heart doesn’t race a little at the possibilities, check to make sure you’ve got a pulse at all.

On August 13 2010 04:51 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Wow James Phinney and 3 others have left ArenaNet to join Jeff Strain's new company Undead Labs....

On August 13 2010 04:51 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Wow James Phinney and 3 others have left ArenaNet to join Jeff Strain's new company Undead Labs....

On August 18 2010 21:39 TonyL2 wrote:
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/30947

Saw this clip just now, it's looking pretty cool and silky

On August 18 2010 21:39 TonyL2 wrote:
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/30947

Saw this clip just now, it's looking pretty cool and silky

On August 19 2010 05:10 floor exercise wrote:

Is it bad that the first thing I noticed was that no one jumped

On August 19 2010 05:26 Kraz.Del wrote:
I saw a recent youtube video of GW: 2; wasn't impressed. Sure, the world and art style is different, but they seem to be a year behind of WoW mechanics wise.