First up this week is a Reddit link from my good friend Nikaro. As part of Semper Dius he has compiled all our Youtube links to tournament matches from the last stress test so that you can see each professions perspectives. We seem to have had a really good reaction from the Reddit community, so we'll definitely be doing more of this but posting it onto Hub first!
Over at GuildMag, Age of Deceit is still in progress. Have you read this yet? If not you really should.
Divinity's Reach really deserves some serious attention and much more than it receives. There has been excellent post, after excellent post over the last week. The first is How to (Really) Choose A Profession which can only be described as hilarious. The Guardian in particular had me roaring with laughter. The second is Tin Foil Hat Edition which warrants its own attention here just because of its post title.
From Hunters Insight, this is a post that brought a smile to my face. In it they detail all the little things in Guild Wars 2 that really make it something special. I remember the first time when my character actually moved her leg when I stepped on uneven terrain, I had to re-do it several times just to make sure it was intentional. Brilliant.
Over at Guild Wars Insider they've a lovely little article discussing building your Warrior against ranged professions. What it did get me thinking about, was is this type of character building entirely necessary? There are so many skills and functionalities in the professions on offer in Guild Wars 2 that the flexibility afforded is endless. I'm not really sure whether I'd recommend anyone to pigeon-hole a build in this way, but then again I do always ensure I have a stun break and condition remover, which tends to cover all bases.
I've read several reaction-reports about Guild Wars 2 from various websites that have covered it very little. In this instance, Examiner.com takes a look at it in a very brief way. What I found most surprising is their use of the word renovation over revolution. This irritated me for several reasons, but the first being: If Guild Wars 2 isn't a revolution, what in the genre is?
The removal of the trinity, the sheer abundance of content; dynamic events, world versus world, no server queues, no server down time...This list is absolutely endless. There hasn't been a single MMOG since World of Warcraft that has launched with such a degree of content, polish and originality and yet here is an article that falls far short of the mark in its understanding of the genre or the mechanics in place. Perhaps I'll appear bias, but when you've played as many MMOG's as I have you begin to realize that games of this type rarely come along.
Aly over at Mistress of Illusions has posted an article discussing her favourite armours in Guild Wars 2. I had originally set out to play Asura from day 1, but after seeing the Snap Dragon Sylvari armour I just have to have it. So much so, I now plan on playing only Sylvari!
Lastly, have you seen Charrs' Day?
Comments
I watched all the Reddit videos from the thief's perspective. Great entertainment for sure. I found it interesting that the PuG group gave you all the most trouble. Great teamwork, and thanks for the videos.
I love the armors, thanks for the images.
I would agree that alot of the mechanics in GW2 seem (and i say seem since i havent been in the betas and only skulking sites like this one. which is awesome i might add ^_^) to be taken from other MMOs and put through a renovation. More specifically:
- Dynamic events: I first encountered this in Warhammer and later on in Rift.
- No server downtime: i dont know what you mean by this, is this some sort of guarantee from arenanet? Do you mean in regards to patching perhaps? I am intrigued :)
- WvW: Granted ive only read about it, but it just sounds like objective/NPC-killing oriented pvp, such as RvR in Warhammer or that 40v40 map in WoW (dont remeber the name, thank god all the wow knowledge fell out of my head at some point!).
- sPvP: i dont think ive seen other MMOs leveling the playing field by bumping people to the same level, but i feel the concept is similar to Bloodline Champions and the like, in a way.
All in all i feel that GW2 draws alot of inspiration from Rift and Warhammer (others to ofc, but also in effect since those games also drew from other titles). Thats not really a problem though, its standard practice for MMOs. And more importantly, its honing in on what the different MMO crowds want.
Naturally GW2 has some of its own fresh ideas, like the dynamic level adjustment and personal story. Dynamic level adjustment is probably bigger then most would consider, and hopefully it will bring much more activity to all zones - instead of the desolate zones you always encounter in other games (end game excluded). Personal story is a nice touch to bring the actual RPG part back to MMOs, which is something ive missed in most other recent games. I like the way cutscenes are reintroduced aswell.
This turned out to be much longer then expected but *plink*, my 2 cents :)
edit: oh right, the removal of triforce is pretty rad, its putting me in all kinds of trouble in regards to what to profession to choose :)
actually, I'd say thatr WvW is essentially a build off of Dark Age of Camelot. I have never played DAoC, but I have heard tell it is the same, seige oriented combat style.
The other things mentioned I do think are pretty fair analogies, but there is more to GW2 than these simple mechanics. Its more about the fact that all of these mechanics have been brought together and meshed in the way they have with a few other factors.
The death of the trinity is an important element. True, it is replaced with another trinity, but that is also an important point. Mixing the move or die combat style with a combat system that emphasized control, damage and support rather than tank, dps and heal makes for a much more cooperative environment. All classes can fill the different roles, they just do it in different ways and with varying degrees of success, but since the combat is actually shared equally by all members of your team, a 5 man group with no profession that excells in one of the three modes is fine because you still have 5 players, all of who will be doing at least some of that mode. The benefit, in this case, is from the numbers, rather than just what the numbers do.
Another important inovation, one that meshes with the above, is the design philosophy. Everything about the game is based around the idea of cooperation. The only difference between a "Group" and a "group" is the official branding of the one by joining it. The truth is, GW2 doesn't care about Groups. It is built to working with groups, just players who happen to be in the same space at the same time and work on killing the same mobs. It allows them work together without actually making them say they are working together, making it a far more social game than any other I have ever seen.
Of course, all of this has been said a thousand times in a thousand ways....just thought it was worth pointing out once more.
Oh, and I loved the post about how to choose a character. It was hysterical and true, at least on a base level. I was totally perfect :)
Galen
I will agree that I felt the review at Examiner came off .....stiff, I guess would be the word, but at the same time he did seem to have a few points. That said, I took the time to read the comments and the in them the author mentioned that he usually rights for sports and he explains his rating as well.
With all this in mind, I think it's pretty impressive that he took the time to write.
Ultimately, I think whether one believes it is a revolution, evolution or renovation is going be subjective based on ones previous experiences. I understand your irritation though, and while I know you haven't gone to flame him, I hope the rest of the community will be wise in it's wording should it share any with the writer.
Thank you for the links today.
Much of what is in GW 2 is an iteration of systems already present in GW1 - GW just never hit mainstream and so a lot of people don't know. Also, DAoC is a fair comparison - the major difference is in that in GW2 it is "World vs. World vs World(server)" not "Faction vs. Faction vs. Faction" They took the siege based combat of DAoC and moved the scale up to a server vs. server level as opposed to factions beating each other up on the same server. DAoC was a great game in it's day. I played a free trial a while back and the combat feels so clunky now it's terrible. But the systems and gameworld itself still hold up today. Heck the pvp dungeon in GW2 is obviously a direct lift from the Darkness Falls dungeon in DAoC.