Will Guild Wars 2 have endgame?

Written by: (Twitter @gamebreakertv - ) | January 6, 2012 8:09 am
242 Comments

The rumors you’ve heard are true. According to resident Guild Wars 2 fangirl Rubi Bayer, our most anticipated MMO of next year will have no endgame raiding. What does that mean? Rubi says that ArenaNet, the game developer, tells her that the whole game is endgame. Huge bosses and world-changing group events start no more than ten minutes outside of character creation, but it doesn’t end there. As you gain levels, your character and the other players he interacts with have an actual impact on the world. The really good content starts right out of the gate, not just at max level. Many gamers follow the sentiments of our host Gary Gannon when he asks, “What am I going to do when I get [to max level]? Am I just going to be standing around?” Shawn Schuster, editor-in-chief at Massively, describes it as a sandbox of themeparks. However, ArenaNet remains quite vague on the details.

GuildCast covers everything you want to know about the next most-anticipated MMO Guild Wars 2. Gary Gannon snatched up two of the leading GW2 experts in gaming media — Shawn Schuster and Rubi Bayer from Massively — to answer your questions and give you the latest news from this MMO that hopes to change the face of the genre forever. If you love Guild Wars 2 or cannot wait to find out more about the game, then each and every week, you have to watch GuildCast!

~ Larry “Shaddoe” Everett | t | f | g+

Catch all the latest Guild Wars 2 and other MMO news from GAMEBREAKER:
Twitter –> http://twitter.com/gamebreakertv
Facebook –> http://facebook.com/gamebreakertv
YouTube –>http://youtube.com/gamebreakertv2

Also follow the hosts here:
Gary Gannon’s twitter –> http://twitter.com/garygannon
Rubi Bayer’s Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 column –> http://massively.joystiq.com/category/flameseeker-chronicles/
Shawn Shuster on Massively –> http://massively.joystiq.com/editor/shawn-schuster

Will Guild Wars 2 have endgame?
  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Trey-Price/1612301107 Trey Price

    Hey, so as far as questing goes, there is a system that explains which direction you need to go for the next quests via a little heart on the overlaying map. When you complete the quests for that “heart” or hub area it becomes filled completely. There are little hearts where each quest hub is in a zone. This is what I gathered from PAX11 demos.

    In my question, I was referring to how the quests are always changing as far as stages go similar to a persistent working world instead of mobs that sit around and wait to be killed. Do you think that the more completionist and achieving players will wait around for each of these chains to reset?

    • Senatic

      There are no side quests. The hearts you saw was for a main quest where you where directed to help out the people on the outskirts of sheamor by doing dynamic events in the general area, and you only saw them because a player used the scout system which you don’t have to do. You could walk out blind and discover things as you go along without any problems, that is part of the appeal of the system in terms of exploration.

    • JJGlyph

      Not many GW2 fans will take your comments seriously when you refer to events as quests. There really are no quests in the game. There are events.

      The difference is you don’t have a log controlling what you will do next. Whatever is happening in the area you are in is the event. If you leave the area, it will not remain in a log it will be gone and you’ll have new events in this area.

      Traditional quests are anti-multiplayer because people have to be on the same step of the same one in order to play together. Since events happen in an area you will always have the same objectives as the players nearby.

      Now if you were to say personal story is kind of like quests, I would disagree less. I would still disagree, but less. Personal story is kind of like having an ongoing instance that acts as a compass for which parts of the world you should visit. And you will stumble into events as you progress through your story.

      The main difference between this and quests is you will only have one at a time. You will never feel like you have a quest log full of crap you don’t care about. And like I said, they are usually instanced (and highly scripted).

      • Thomas Aktor

        Saying that events are not quest is simply putting a blindfold on. They may not be quests given and completed in the same maners as usual, but they are still involve a lot of quest mechanics. You still have an objective/reward relationship. The quests change with the state of the world and are triggered in mysterious ways, but they are still quests. Also an event might involve different objectives, so you might view them as a collection of quests, more than as a single one. *Deep breath*. What I am trying to say, is that most of the differences you list aren’t differences at all. A quest is when you get an objective, you do the objective and you get a reward (maybe only after a series of different objectives). Calling them “events” is just branding. They are quests, given, the quests works in wonderous ways with more of an mmo feel to them but hey they are still quests. Eggs are still eggs even if a duck lays them.

        • JVJunior

          In the Batman games you receive a call that gives you an objective. This objective usually involves travelling to a specific area to clear out enemy NPC’s. Once cleared, you are sometimes rewarded with some sort of item upgrade and another objective to complete; 

          Collect Quest – Defeat “mobs” (Complete Objective) – Collect reward – Progress

          Are you saying Arkham City is the same as WoW?

          No.

          Games are distinguished not just by what they do but how they do it. If you wanted to, you could reduce almost every game in existence to “kill bad guy to progress”.

          Guild Wars 2′s event system is frankly light years ahead of most MMO’s static world quests. To reduce them down and equate them to the “same old, same old” is disingenuous at best.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Trey-Price/1612301107 Trey Price

    Hey, so as far as questing goes, there is a system that explains which direction you need to go for the next quests via a little heart on the overlaying map. When you complete the quests for that “heart” or hub area it becomes filled completely. There are little hearts where each quest hub is in a zone. This is what I gathered from PAX11 demos.

    In my question, I was referring to how the quests are always changing as far as stages go similar to a persistent working world instead of mobs that sit around and wait to be killed. Do you think that the more completionist and achieving players will wait around for each of these chains to reset?

    • Anonymous

      There are no side quests. The hearts you saw was for a main quest where you where directed to help out the people on the outskirts of sheamor by doing dynamic events in the general area, and you only saw them because a player used the scout system which you don’t have to do. You could walk out blind and discover things as you go along without any problems, that is part of the appeal of the system in terms of exploration.

    • Anonymous

      Not many GW2 fans will take your comments seriously when you refer to events as quests. There really are no quests in the game. There are events.

      The difference is you don’t have a log controlling what you will do next. Whatever is happening in the area you are in is the event. If you leave the area, it will not remain in a log it will be gone and you’ll have new events in this area.

      Traditional quests are anti-multiplayer because people have to be on the same step of the same one in order to play together. Since events happen in an area you will always have the same objectives as the players nearby.

      Now if you were to say personal story is kind of like quests, I would disagree less. I would still disagree, but less. Personal story is kind of like having an ongoing instance that acts as a compass for which parts of the world you should visit. And you will stumble into events as you progress through your story.

      The main difference between this and quests is you will only have one at a time. You will never feel like you have a quest log full of crap you don’t care about. And like I said, they are usually instanced (and highly scripted).

      • Thomas Aktor

        Saying that events are not quest is simply putting a blindfold on. They may not be quests given and completed in the same maners as usual, but they are still involve a lot of quest mechanics. You still have an objective/reward relationship. The quests change with the state of the world and are triggered in mysterious ways, but they are still quests. Also an event might involve different objectives, so you might view them as a collection of quests, more than as a single one. *Deep breath*. What I am trying to say, is that most of the differences you list aren’t differences at all. A quest is when you get an objective, you do the objective and you get a reward (maybe only after a series of different objectives). Calling them “events” is just branding. They are quests, given, the quests works in wonderous ways with more of an mmo feel to them but hey they are still quests. Eggs are still eggs even if a duck lays them.

        • Anonymous

          In the Batman games you receive a call that gives you an objective. This objective usually involves travelling to a specific area to clear out enemy NPC’s. Once cleared, you are sometimes rewarded with some sort of item upgrade and another objective to complete; 

          Collect Quest – Defeat “mobs” (Complete Objective) – Collect reward – Progress

          Are you saying Arkham City is the same as WoW?

          No.

          Games are distinguished not just by what they do but how they do it. If you wanted to, you could reduce almost every game in existence to “kill bad guy to progress”.

          Guild Wars 2′s event system is frankly light years ahead of most MMO’s static world quests. To reduce them down and equate them to the “same old, same old” is disingenuous at best.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001090031316 Callum Craig

    I want to look ridonkulous, like my gimp suit in WoW :D

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001090031316 Callum Craig

    I want to look ridonkulous, like my gimp suit in WoW :D

  • http://twitter.com/MaZt12 MaZt

    Garry asks since Public Quest and Rifts have failed what makes Dynamic Events any better. The answer lays to the overall game mechanics and philosophy behind GW2. The philosophy of GW2 is that in an MMORPG game people should play together and not beside each other and that leads to the lack of the holy trinity which then leads to the success of Dynamic Events. In a Dynamic Event you just need people to participate in order to fulfill them and they scale in order of participation which means the more player participating the harder it will get and high level players will kicked down to that specific zone level. That’s why all those previous games failed if I was doing a Rift in order to complete it I would still need DPS, Tank and Healer. GW2 has thought about everything in order to make people play together and embrace their philosophy. It’s sad cause all those games(WoW,Rift,Warhammer,SWTOR) they call themselves MMORPG and some don’t have the RPG aspect and other don’t have neither aspect.    

  • http://twitter.com/MaZt12 MaZt

    Garry asks since Public Quest and Rifts have failed what makes Dynamic Events any better. The answer lays to the overall game mechanics and philosophy behind GW2. The philosophy of GW2 is that in an MMORPG game people should play together and not beside each other and that leads to the lack of the holy trinity which then leads to the success of Dynamic Events. In a Dynamic Event you just need people to participate in order to fulfill them and they scale in order of participation which means the more player participating the harder it will get and high level players will kicked down to that specific zone level. That’s why all those previous games failed if I was doing a Rift in order to complete it I would still need DPS, Tank and Healer. GW2 has thought about everything in order to make people play together and embrace their philosophy. It’s sad cause all those games(WoW,Rift,Warhammer,SWTOR) they call themselves MMORPG and some don’t have the RPG aspect and other don’t have neither aspect.    

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Boendorf-Lauridsen/100002591976468 Daniel Boendorf Lauridsen

    Most of the claims below are from late 2011 and can change (might have already)

    Dungeons: First of all, story mode is the easier first part of all dungoens. This mode focuses on the story more than the difficulty of downing the bosses. You should be able to complete this mode with a PUG. Once this mode is compelted you unlock explorable mode. This would be the normal hardcore mode of the dungeon. However, in line with their “our game is the endgame” the explorable mode isn’t maxlevel only. It’s just harder. Now you might say, but then I’ll just come back 10 level from now and that feature is useless. You are forgetting the side-kick system. All dungoens have a level range (and I assume zones too) If you do not fit in this range, you was either be kicked up or down in stats. Let’s say it a 20-25 level dungoen. You are level 50, but your friends are all level 22. You will not be able to just burn them through the dungoen, instead you can actually play it with them. You will be a slighty more powerful than a regular level 25, but you can’t just faceroll everything. So unlike SWToR eg. the hardcore mode isn’t exlusive to maxlevel so the “endgame” already starts at the first dungoen, PvE-wise, maybe even before through dynamic events.

    As Rubi mentioned, explorable mode has several routes you can follow, which changes the dungoen and it’s bosses. Think Scarlet Monastary from WoW, just more sophisticated. Say there is a ton to do if your into smal group and dungoen crawling.

    Epic Dynamic Events: Rubi touched upon this with the Tequatl the sunless fight. These are dynamic events where a minimum of 10 players is recommended. Less can do it if cordinated effectively. These events are said to scale to up to 100 players. I would call these events the “raids” of GW2.

    Skills: Please, then you talk about skills, don’t state that you have 10 skills, of which 5 is weapon skills. 5 are weapon skills alright, but you have loads of utility, heal and epic skills to chose from, so you have to decide hat goes on your bar, what suits your playstyle. Another thing you didn’t mention when it comes to “speccing” your toon is the trait system. Now, we don’t a lot about this system another it’s been revised a couple of times. What we do know however, is that it’s a way to alter your skills in one fashion or another. I think I remember Jon Peters saying, that there would be 1000′s of combinations, so there should enough to change from.

    Done in a bit of a hurry, hope I didn’t miss too much :) Love the show, love the game. Cheers.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Boendorf-Lauridsen/100002591976468 Daniel Boendorf Lauridsen

    Most of the claims below are from late 2011 and can change (might have already)

    Dungeons: First of all, story mode is the easier first part of all dungoens. This mode focuses on the story more than the difficulty of downing the bosses. You should be able to complete this mode with a PUG. Once this mode is compelted you unlock explorable mode. This would be the normal hardcore mode of the dungeon. However, in line with their “our game is the endgame” the explorable mode isn’t maxlevel only. It’s just harder. Now you might say, but then I’ll just come back 10 level from now and that feature is useless. You are forgetting the side-kick system. All dungoens have a level range (and I assume zones too) If you do not fit in this range, you was either be kicked up or down in stats. Let’s say it a 20-25 level dungoen. You are level 50, but your friends are all level 22. You will not be able to just burn them through the dungoen, instead you can actually play it with them. You will be a slighty more powerful than a regular level 25, but you can’t just faceroll everything. So unlike SWToR eg. the hardcore mode isn’t exlusive to maxlevel so the “endgame” already starts at the first dungoen, PvE-wise, maybe even before through dynamic events.

    As Rubi mentioned, explorable mode has several routes you can follow, which changes the dungoen and it’s bosses. Think Scarlet Monastary from WoW, just more sophisticated. Say there is a ton to do if your into smal group and dungoen crawling.

    Epic Dynamic Events: Rubi touched upon this with the Tequatl the sunless fight. These are dynamic events where a minimum of 10 players is recommended. Less can do it if cordinated effectively. These events are said to scale to up to 100 players. I would call these events the “raids” of GW2.

    Skills: Please, then you talk about skills, don’t state that you have 10 skills, of which 5 is weapon skills. 5 are weapon skills alright, but you have loads of utility, heal and epic skills to chose from, so you have to decide hat goes on your bar, what suits your playstyle. Another thing you didn’t mention when it comes to “speccing” your toon is the trait system. Now, we don’t a lot about this system another it’s been revised a couple of times. What we do know however, is that it’s a way to alter your skills in one fashion or another. I think I remember Jon Peters saying, that there would be 1000′s of combinations, so there should enough to change from.

    Done in a bit of a hurry, hope I didn’t miss too much :) Love the show, love the game. Cheers.

  • http://twitter.com/WadeDMcGinnis Wade D McGinnis

    While I personally am looking forward to this game, I wonder about end game raiders. From what Rubi is saying, basically this game does not tailor to them. By removing that raiding mentality, your asking the raider to change what they enjoy.

    On top of that, when you think about how raiders will now have to go searching for raids, will this be a turn off for them? Then you have to think about, if random players come into the fight, will they get ignored or yelled at for “distrupting their fight”?

    The thing about removing or allowing a more flexible trinity of tank/healer/dps, is how will this impact gamers trying to group up to do these massive events? Are we to assume everyone will use that healing ability  when someone is about to bit it or just worry over those “leet” dps numbers? We have seen in other MMO’s when a player has a class that can go healing but they themselves do not enjoy healing but are forced to because another player is now refusing to heal, makes the game a hassle more then a enjoyment. Won’t we see this occur in the majority of groups forming? And won’t this draw out a group from forming or even dissuade players from grouping? 

    The game is not out yet so there is plenty of time for Arenanet to answer these questions and others. The  game has shown a great appeal to many players trying to branch out and find another game to play, but with so little info coming through the pipeline, it is hard to really gauge where this game will stand. Here’s hoping for the best.

    Sidenote: If a town burns down and it is gone. If you miss out on a raiding event, does that mean the content is destroying itself if your not fast enough or are we looking at respawns once a week?

    • JJGlyph

      It will not have raids. I’m not even going to try to convince you that open-world bosses are raids. 5-man dungeons aren’t raids either. They will not be in the game. If raiding is the only thing you find in life that is fun then you either need to change or not play this game.

      And to answer your sidenote, events don’t work on timers. Each event has its own trigger conditions. For example, when it rains lightning will start spawning lightning elementals & when a player flips a “do not touch” switch an event kicks off. I’m sure there will be some that are based on time, but there is supposed to be a random or player controlled factor to each event. At least that is what we were promised.

      • JJGlyph

        I will add though that events may be a good alternative to raids for you. They are not the same thing but overall may be more fun. With raids you typically have to level & gear grind for hundreds of hours before seeing any fun. With events the fun starts right away. It’s not as coordinated but overall I can see the appeal for raiders.

    • http://www.facebook.com/ruben.laureys Ruben Laureys

      Healing doesn’t really work like a thing 1 person is doing, everyone is kinda responsible for keeping themselves alive as the “heal” skill is usually a self heal. So if more random raiders join in a fight that a raid group is doing they will die cuz they suck. Or provide a real help to the group doing the fight.

      • http://twitter.com/WadeDMcGinnis Wade D McGinnis

        Healing abilities only apply to yourself, not even at later levels or is this the only information about healing atm?

        • http://www.facebook.com/ruben.laureys Ruben Laureys

          I’m talking about the number 6 skill, and it differs greatly from class to class what that exact skill does, like a necromancer sacrifices a minion for health or a thief goes invisible and heals a bit. Its very likely that the 3 utility slots or the elite slot is in some cases healing skills for healing the party. But from what I understand the focus is more on keeping yourself alive by dodging and using your heal skill and not on certain partymembers taking a healer roll as in other mmo’s would be the case. 

          • http://twitter.com/Salamolign Salamol

            My concern with this, as you mentioned earlier… if a player dies it’s their own fault in this situation. If a fight has scaled to 20 people, and 10 are bad and die, will the “survivors” then suffer because they’re consistently fighting against events that are scaled for twice as many people?

            Also, if player A doesn’t use the area heal to help keep up the team because he’s “busy dpsing”, player B is going to have to focus on his healing skills more because player B is slacking. Now if players C,D and E all do the same as A… B has to fulltime heal or they all die which will be through no fault of player B.

          • http://www.facebook.com/ruben.laureys Ruben Laureys

            Dynamic events scale according to people that are actively participating in the event rather then how many people standing around in the event. So the event will most likely recognize someone who spends 50% of his time dead and stop counting him and lower the reward.

            About healing skills i have yet to see a pure healing skill. All healing skills i have seen so far have an additional effect like damage or a buff or a debuff to enemy’s. So healing other people will be part of something you’ll wanna be doing anyways.

          • JVJunior

            There is no dedicated healer. Every player has to focus on keeping himself alive at all times, it’s not the “job” of another player, or I could put it like this, it’s everyone’s job to keep themselves and everyone else alive. This is not a contradiction. :p

  • http://twitter.com/WadeDMcGinnis Wade D McGinnis

    While I personally am looking forward to this game, I wonder about end game raiders. From what Rubi is saying, basically this game does not tailor to them. By removing that raiding mentality, your asking the raider to change what they enjoy.

    On top of that, when you think about how raiders will now have to go searching for raids, will this be a turn off for them? Then you have to think about, if random players come into the fight, will they get ignored or yelled at for “distrupting their fight”?

    The thing about removing or allowing a more flexible trinity of tank/healer/dps, is how will this impact gamers trying to group up to do these massive events? Are we to assume everyone will use that healing ability  when someone is about to bit it or just worry over those “leet” dps numbers? We have seen in other MMO’s when a player has a class that can go healing but they themselves do not enjoy healing but are forced to because another player is now refusing to heal, makes the game a hassle more then a enjoyment. Won’t we see this occur in the majority of groups forming? And won’t this draw out a group from forming or even dissuade players from grouping? 

    The game is not out yet so there is plenty of time for Arenanet to answer these questions and others. The  game has shown a great appeal to many players trying to branch out and find another game to play, but with so little info coming through the pipeline, it is hard to really gauge where this game will stand. Here’s hoping for the best.

    Sidenote: If a town burns down and it is gone. If you miss out on a raiding event, does that mean the content is destroying itself if your not fast enough or are we looking at respawns once a week?

    • Anonymous

      It will not have raids. I’m not even going to try to convince you that open-world bosses are raids. 5-man dungeons aren’t raids either. They will not be in the game. If raiding is the only thing you find in life that is fun then you either need to change or not play this game.

      • Anonymous

        I will add though that events may be a good alternative to raids for you. They are not the same thing but overall may be more fun. With raids you typically have to level & gear grind for hundreds of hours before seeing any fun. With events the fun starts right away. It’s not as coordinated but overall I can see the appeal for raiders.

    • http://www.facebook.com/ruben.laureys Ruben Laureys

      Healing doesn’t really work like a thing 1 person is doing, everyone is kinda responsible for keeping themselves alive as the “heal” skill is usually a self heal. So if more random raiders join in a fight that a raid group is doing they will die cuz they suck. Or provide a real help to the group doing the fight.

      • http://twitter.com/WadeDMcGinnis Wade D McGinnis

        Healing abilities only apply to yourself, not even at later levels or is this the only information about healing atm?

        • http://www.facebook.com/ruben.laureys Ruben Laureys

          I’m talking about the number 6 skill, and it differs greatly from class to class what that exact skill does, like a necromancer sacrifices a minion for health or a thief goes invisible and heals a bit. Its very likely that the 3 utility slots or the elite slot is in some cases healing skills for healing the party. But from what I understand the focus is more on keeping yourself alive by dodging and using your heal skill and not on certain partymembers taking a healer roll as in other mmo’s would be the case. 

          • http://twitter.com/Salamolign Salamol

            My concern with this, as you mentioned earlier… if a player dies it’s their own fault in this situation. If a fight has scaled to 20 people, and 10 are bad and die, will the “survivors” then suffer because they’re consistently fighting against events that are scaled for twice as many people?

            Also, if player A doesn’t use the area heal to help keep up the team because he’s “busy dpsing”, player B is going to have to focus on his healing skills more because player B is slacking. Now if players C,D and E all do the same as A… B has to fulltime heal or they all die which will be through no fault of player B.

          • http://www.facebook.com/ruben.laureys Ruben Laureys

            Dynamic events scale according to people that are actively participating in the event rather then how many people standing around in the event. So the event will most likely recognize someone who spends 50% of his time dead and stop counting him and lower the reward.

            About healing skills i have yet to see a pure healing skill. All healing skills i have seen so far have an additional effect like damage or a buff or a debuff to enemy’s. So healing other people will be part of something you’ll wanna be doing anyways.

          • Anonymous

            There is no dedicated healer. Every player has to focus on keeping himself alive at all times, it’s not the “job” of another player, or I could put it like this, it’s everyone’s job to keep themselves and everyone else alive. This is not a contradiction. :p

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_INQT3ECUZH4FHFNOLFGHOFYNNA K

    I’m so glad to see a GuildCast show.  I’ve been wanting one for awhile, but I understand you need actual news to talk about. =)

    As for the comments in this show:

    Scout System:
    The system Trey mentions is the “scout” system, which ANet said they put into the game because of this very reason.  Some players, without direction, didn’t know what to do or where to go, so they added scouts near some of the towns to help point out some potential areas of interest to the players.

    Dynamic Events:
    The problem with WarHammer and Rift is that the Public Quests were laid on top of a traditional questing system.  In Rift I felt that sometimes the Rifts themselves were nothing but an annoyance.  I was doing the quest hub quests, trying to return them, get the next batch, and so on, and sometimes a Rift would pop up in my way, or over my questing area, and I was stuck since I tend to adventure alone.

    Another way the Rifts differ is that they’re a static circle on the ground where waves of mobs spawn.  Nothing like a dynamic event.  The invasions are a little closer to GW2′s dynamic events, but are still very simplistic.  My understanding is that if you do nothing about a Rift or Invasion then a timer counts down and it all goes away eventually.  Not so with Dynamic Events.  If the pirates take over a city, that city is theirs now until players do something about it.  And the Pirates will slowly build up defenses at that city to make it harder to take back… and they’ll also send out raiding parties to other nearby locations and cause havoc there too, all because the players failed that initial event of the pirates attacking the city in the first place.  The Dynamic Events spawn off of each other, and chain into logical stages, where Rifts and public quests never really did.

    End Game:
    In terms of things to do at end game.  I didn’t hear anyone bring up the continent of Orr.  I understand that is going to be a high level, high difficulty, open world region full of tough Dynamic Events.  If I recall correctly the first event is trying to do a D-Day style landing on the shore of Orr.  If you manage that the following event is establishing a beach head, after that you have to press into the region.  That’s several events already and that’s just getting there.  I’d like to think the continent itself will be teaming with lots of dangerous events that only the highest level players can hope to succeed at.

    Carebear Game:
    I’ve heard lots of speculation that the Dynamic Events will all have to be super-easy-mode because all you can assume is a random pick up group of players will be there attempting to defeat the event, versus something like a tough raid where only a guild of players all working together on Vent can win.

    It sounds logical, but the difference here is that ANet has followup events in the chain for both success and failure.  There is no reason an event has to be winnable by the lowest common denominator.  Whether the players succeed or fail the next event in the chain spawns off and the game continues.  So it is my hope that Orr is full of events a PuG could hope to succeed at maybe 10% of the time, and a coordinated “raid” could succeed at 60% plus.

    • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

      All must read, because K speaketh the truth. Especially regarding Dynamic Events, because I’ve played Rift for 5 months, so I know full well how rifts differ from dynamic events.

    • ArcherAvatar

      An excellent description of dynamic events here… a shorter version describing the difference between Rifts and DEs would be;

      Rifts are “single events” without long term persistent world consequences.
      Dynamic Events are “multiple, chained events” wherein each “link” in the chain differs from the previous link and the following link. 

      Dynamic Events are chains of events that tell stories.  Rifts are just a single event that spawn some mobs that drop loot.

      Rifts = shallow end.  DEs = deep end of the pool.

      • http://twitter.com/Salamolign Salamol

        In one of the earlier videos released by Trion, which I think was shown and discussed on one of the early Sanctums, invasions would take over towns changing the buildings, the sky, and wiping out all NPCs. They’d then stay there, getting stronger, until someone came to wipe them out. The planes of fire and death would open up and do battle, woe betide those caught in the middle! It looked amazing! 

        People complained though, for some players it was too difficult to ask others for help in the chat channels, or find another place to quest so it got nerfed, and has gone through a number of changes since then.

        While I’d love for the GW2 DEs to be amazing, I can’t shake the sinking feeling that I’m going to run past the same house that burns down every day, through the zone with the same “freak snowstorm” they get every week, have to rescue the same drowning kitten that for some reason never freakin’ learns to stay out of the water!

        I’m honestly intrigued, and looking forward to it AND willing to be shown the proverbial light on release… but I do wonder how long the events will keep people playing for. But does that matter? If it’s fun for a month, ANet has my money, and will put it towards the next installment, which will give me another month of fun next year. And that’s my worst case scenario :D

        • ArcherAvatar

          The differences becoming even more glaring in light of some of the points in your comment…

          Even if the RIFT invasions were the earlier versions you describe they would still be monotone in terms of the story they are telling, and the number of beats in that story.  No matter how many rifts a player explored, or how many invasions they encountered, it would still be one beat, one story – invading mobs attack local countryside and kill NPCs if not countered by players, but only up to a certain point/distance, and only for a certain amount of time.

          There are DEs in GW2 that have 5, 6, 7 or more different links in the chain of their story – with each of those links in the chain having the potential for both a “failed” or “success” outcome state depending on whether or not players are present and in sufficient numbers to accomplish the “success” outcome.  Just to be clear here… that’s a “fail” at link #1 leads to a different link #2 than a “success” and continues to spiral down until players in the area achieve a “success.” 

          These chains of events are often only triggered by the actions of players in the vicinity, but some run continuously whether players are present or not, AND every one of these DEs is telling a separate and distinct story.  Although most of these stories will have something to do with “conflict” they are certainly much more varied in nature than “rift opens and extra-planar creatures invade local vicinity” again and again and again.

          Another glaring difference brought out in your reply has to do with the social nature of the two games… the “need” in RIFT to try to form a group, and the difficulty of that on several different levels.  You have to navigate the chat UI, and not only find “x” number of other players, but they must also be willing to play various souls to fulfill the various roles within the group of Tank, Healer, and DPS… and this most likely must be accomplished prior to becoming involved in the conflict in order to be effective.

          In GW2 you just need to “show up.”  There will be other players there (the vast majority of the time) and you will be able to “work together” whether you’re in group or not.  The local chat channel (/say) will be used more regularly in GW2 than in any other MMO I can think of.  However, because of the design decisions made by ArenaNet, to assist players in actually looking at the *game* instead of the UI (making the effects of skills much more visually obvious for all to see and interact with and giving players responsibility for THEIR OWN resiliency, healing, and damage dealing so they aren’t constantly staring at “red bars” instead of watching what is actually happening around them) players are going to be able to work effectively with each other in a much more intuitive fashion.  I suspect that the majority of conversation will be during conflict and after combat is resolved, instead of before as is the case in many other games.

          With respect to the possibility of “running past the same burning house” multiple times; I can’t say that won’t be a possibility… as you pointed out, we simply won’t know until the game released and we are actually playing it.  However, the size and scope of this game (GW2) is significant and impressive.  Just what we’ve seen so far in the demos at various conventions has altered my expectations of the scale we will be dealing with.  I suspect a player will be able to wander far and wide, across varied and interesting countryside and beneath the waves, and if you’re running past the same burning house repeatedly that will most likely be due to your own failure to get out and explore the vast areas of the game world.

          For those who would sarcastically say, “Sure fanboy, and GW2 will cure cancer, fix the US and world economy, protect and heal the environment, create an endless supply of clean energy, and save humanity from the rise of the machines!”  I reply, “Yes, true… but what’s your point?”

          Quite simply, I was waiting for this game before I even knew this game was under development.

          • http://www.facebook.com/ruben.laureys Ruben Laureys

            I believe I read somewhere they’re not afraid to put in DE’s that are 1 time so that will always give us a feeling there might be something in the world we might be missing. Also i’d rather see the same house burn 1 time every day then see it burn all day as in other MMO’s

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_INQT3ECUZH4FHFNOLFGHOFYNNA K

    I’m so glad to see a GuildCast show.  I’ve been wanting one for awhile, but I understand you need actual news to talk about. =)

    As for the comments in this show:

    Scout System:
    The system Trey mentions is the “scout” system, which ANet said they put into the game because of this very reason.  Some players, without direction, didn’t know what to do or where to go, so they added scouts near some of the towns to help point out some potential areas of interest to the players.

    Dynamic Events:
    The problem with WarHammer and Rift is that the Public Quests were laid on top of a traditional questing system.  In Rift I felt that sometimes the Rifts themselves were nothing but an annoyance.  I was doing the quest hub quests, trying to return them, get the next batch, and so on, and sometimes a Rift would pop up in my way, or over my questing area, and I was stuck since I tend to adventure alone.

    Another way the Rifts differ is that they’re a static circle on the ground where waves of mobs spawn.  Nothing like a dynamic event.  The invasions are a little closer to GW2′s dynamic events, but are still very simplistic.  My understanding is that if you do nothing about a Rift or Invasion then a timer counts down and it all goes away eventually.  Not so with Dynamic Events.  If the pirates take over a city, that city is theirs now until players do something about it.  And the Pirates will slowly build up defenses at that city to make it harder to take back… and they’ll also send out raiding parties to other nearby locations and cause havoc there too, all because the players failed that initial event of the pirates attacking the city in the first place.  The Dynamic Events spawn off of each other, and chain into logical stages, where Rifts and public quests never really did.

    End Game:
    In terms of things to do at end game.  I didn’t hear anyone bring up the continent of Orr.  I understand that is going to be a high level, high difficulty, open world region full of tough Dynamic Events.  If I recall correctly the first event is trying to do a D-Day style landing on the shore of Orr.  If you manage that the following event is establishing a beach head, after that you have to press into the region.  That’s several events already and that’s just getting there.  I’d like to think the continent itself will be teaming with lots of dangerous events that only the highest level players can hope to succeed at.

    Carebear Game:
    I’ve heard lots of speculation that the Dynamic Events will all have to be super-easy-mode because all you can assume is a random pick up group of players will be there attempting to defeat the event, versus something like a tough raid where only a guild of players all working together on Vent can win.

    It sounds logical, but the difference here is that ANet has followup events in the chain for both success and failure.  There is no reason an event has to be winnable by the lowest common denominator.  Whether the players succeed or fail the next event in the chain spawns off and the game continues.  So it is my hope that Orr is full of events a PuG could hope to succeed at maybe 10% of the time, and a coordinated “raid” could succeed at 60% plus.

    • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

      All must read, because K speaketh the truth. Especially regarding Dynamic Events, because I’ve played Rift for 5 months, so I know full well how rifts differ from dynamic events.

    • Anonymous

      An excellent description of dynamic events here… a shorter version describing the difference between Rifts and DEs would be;

      Rifts are “single events” without long term persistent world consequences.
      Dynamic Events are “multiple, chained events” wherein each “link” in the chain differs from the previous link and the following link. 

      Dynamic Events are chains of events that tell stories.  Rifts are just a single event that spawn some mobs that drop loot.

      Rifts = shallow end.  DEs = deep end of the pool.

      • http://twitter.com/Salamolign Salamol

        In one of the earlier videos released by Trion, which I think was shown and discussed on one of the early Sanctums, invasions would take over towns changing the buildings, the sky, and wiping out all NPCs. They’d then stay there, getting stronger, until someone came to wipe them out. The planes of fire and death would open up and do battle, woe betide those caught in the middle! It looked amazing! 

        People complained though, for some players it was too difficult to ask others for help in the chat channels, or find another place to quest so it got nerfed, and has gone through a number of changes since then.

        While I’d love for the GW2 DEs to be amazing, I can’t shake the sinking feeling that I’m going to run past the same house that burns down every day, through the zone with the same “freak snowstorm” they get every week, have to rescue the same drowning kitten that for some reason never freakin’ learns to stay out of the water!

        I’m honestly intrigued, and looking forward to it AND willing to be shown the proverbial light on release… but I do wonder how long the events will keep people playing for. But does that matter? If it’s fun for a month, ANet has my money, and will put it towards the next installment, which will give me another month of fun next year. And that’s my worst case scenario :D

        • Anonymous

          The differences becoming even more glaring in light of some of the points in your comment…

          Even if the RIFT invasions were the earlier versions you describe they would still be monotone in terms of the story they are telling, and the number of beats in that story.  No matter how many rifts a player explored, or how many invasions they encountered, it would still be one beat, one story – invading mobs attack local countryside and kill NPCs if not countered by players, but only up to a certain point/distance, and only for a certain amount of time.

          There are DEs in GW2 that have 5, 6, 7 or more different links in the chain of their story – with each of those links in the chain having the potential for both a “failed” or “success” outcome state depending on whether or not players are present and in sufficient numbers to accomplish the “success” outcome.  Just to be clear here… that’s a “fail” at link #1 leads to a different link #2 than a “success” and continues to spiral down until players in the area achieve a “success.” 

          These chains of events are often only triggered by the actions of players in the vicinity, but some run continuously whether players are present or not, AND every one of these DEs is telling a separate and distinct story.  Although most of these stories will have something to do with “conflict” they are certainly much more varied in nature than “rift opens and extra-planar creatures invade local vicinity” again and again and again.

          Another glaring difference brought out in your reply has to do with the social nature of the two games… the “need” in RIFT to try to form a group, and the difficulty of that on several different levels.  You have to navigate the chat UI, and not only find “x” number of other players, but they must also be willing to play various souls to fulfill the various roles within the group of Tank, Healer, and DPS… and this most likely must be accomplished prior to becoming involved in the conflict in order to be effective.

          In GW2 you just need to “show up.”  There will be other players there (the vast majority of the time) and you will be able to “work together” whether you’re in group or not.  The local chat channel (/say) will be used more regularly in GW2 than in any other MMO I can think of.  However, because of the design decisions made by ArenaNet, to assist players in actually looking at the *game* instead of the UI (making the effects of skills much more visually obvious for all to see and interact with and giving players responsibility for THEIR OWN resiliency, healing, and damage dealing so they aren’t constantly staring at “red bars” instead of watching what is actually happening around them) players are going to be able to work effectively with each other in a much more intuitive fashion.  I suspect that the majority of conversation will be during conflict and after combat is resolved, instead of before as is the case in many other games.

          With respect to the possibility of “running past the same burning house” multiple times; I can’t say that won’t be a possibility… as you pointed out, we simply won’t know until the game released and we are actually playing it.  However, the size and scope of this game (GW2) is significant and impressive.  Just what we’ve seen so far in the demos at various conventions has altered my expectations of the scale we will be dealing with.  I suspect a player will be able to wander far and wide, across varied and interesting countryside and beneath the waves, and if you’re running past the same burning house repeatedly that will most likely be due to your own failure to get out and explore the vast areas of the game world.

          For those who would sarcastically say, “Sure fanboy, and GW2 will cure cancer, fix the US and world economy, protect and heal the environment, create an endless supply of clean energy, and save humanity from the rise of the machines!”  I reply, “Yes, true… but what’s your point?”

          Quite simply, I was waiting for this game before I even knew this game was under development.

          • http://www.facebook.com/ruben.laureys Ruben Laureys

            I believe I read somewhere they’re not afraid to put in DE’s that are 1 time so that will always give us a feeling there might be something in the world we might be missing. Also i’d rather see the same house burn 1 time every day then see it burn all day as in other MMO’s

  • http://twitter.com/Tatlreach Michael Salata

    I think having some one on the show that has played SWTOR or Rift more extensively could answer Garry’s devils advocate questions better.  Especially Lore since he’s all into the game design and stuff.   GW2 “specs” sound very much like a skill based system to where you level your “specs” or skill in a weapon to be able to have those abilities.  What concerns me is leveling to max level then wanting to change skill sets. Will I have go back to low level areas because I have a very bad skill set and repeat the whole process?

    • http://twitter.com/WadeDMcGinnis Wade D McGinnis

      I would hope that as you level the game expands some of the basic attacks for each weapon. So you level up, get basic abilities, you level a weapon and get more specific abilities etc.

      • JJGlyph

        There are two ways to obtain skills Wade.

        1. Weapon skills – these get unlocked very quickly as you use each weapon type.

        2. Non-weapon skills – you acquire these through in-game challenges as you play the game. The challenges give you skill points & you spend the points to unlock skills. It’s convenient because you never have to visit a skills trainer. You can spend the points at any time on your skills window.

        Weapon skills cannot be moved around but they can be adjusted by traits. Non-weapon skills can be slotted just like any other MMO.

    • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

      You could not be anymore wrong on the matter of skills in GW2. Here’s how it works. You start off with 2 skills (1 weapon & 1 heal). Everytime you kill X amount of mobs with a weapon you unlock a new skill and by the end of the tutorial you can easily have 3 out of your 5 weapon skills. As for your other skills (heal, utility & elite), you must complete skill challenges that are in every zone. Completing them will get you X amount of skill points and you use those to acquire the rest of your skills.

    • JJGlyph

      The way you are envisioning it is wrong. There are videos from conventions of people unlocking an entire weapon within the 40 minute demo, then moving on to the next weapon and getting started. It’s not like the LOTRO weapon leveling system that is a horrible grind.

      The “speccing” comes in with traits & the right 5 skills (changeable out of combat) and hot-swappable weapons (in-combat). There are also a few classes that can swap skills in combat with other game mechanics (engineer kits, elemental attunements, thief stealing, etc).

      Also, the entire game has level scaling, so going back to lower level areas at level 80 doesn’t mean you will be one-shotting things. This is one of the reasons ArenaNet says their whole game is end-game. The world changes due to the events system & it will always remain challenging for the player, regardless of level.

  • http://twitter.com/Tatlreach Mike S

    I think having some one on the show that has played SWTOR or Rift more extensively could answer Garry’s devils advocate questions better.  Especially Lore since he’s all into the game design and stuff.   GW2 “specs” sound very much like a skill based system to where you level your “specs” or skill in a weapon to be able to have those abilities.  What concerns me is leveling to max level then wanting to change skill sets. Will I have go back to low level areas because I have a very bad skill set and repeat the whole process?

    • http://twitter.com/WadeDMcGinnis Wade D McGinnis

      I would hope that as you level the game expands some of the basic attacks for each weapon. So you level up, get basic abilities, you level a weapon and get more specific abilities etc.

      • Anonymous

        There are two ways to obtain skills Wade.

        1. Weapon skills – these get unlocked very quickly as you use each weapon type.

        2. Non-weapon skills – you acquire these through in-game challenges as you play the game

        Weapon skills cannot be moved around but they can be adjusted by traits. Non-weapon skills can be slotted just like any other MMO. 

    • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

      You could not be anymore wrong on the matter of skills in GW2. Here’s how it works. You start off with 2 skills (1 weapon & 1 heal). Everytime you kill X amount of mobs with a weapon you unlock a new skill and by the end of the tutorial you can easily have 3 out of your 5 weapon skills. As for your other skills (heal, utility & elite), you must complete skill challenges that are in every zone. Completing them will get you X amount of skill points and you use those to acquire the rest of your skills.

    • Anonymous

      The way you are envisioning it is wrong. There are videos from conventions of people unlocking an entire weapon within the 40 minute demo, then moving on to the next weapon and getting started. It’s not like the LOTRO weapon leveling system that is a horrible grind.

      The “speccing” comes in with traits & the right 5 skills (changeable out of combat) and hot-swappable weapons (in-combat). There are also a few classes that can swap skills in combat with other game mechanics (engineer kits, elemental attunements, thief stealing, etc).

      Also, the entire game scales in difficulty so going back to lower level areas at level 80 doesn’t mean you will be one-shotting everything.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_INQT3ECUZH4FHFNOLFGHOFYNNA K

    @Wade

    GW2 is a lot more “other player friendly” than other MMOs.  What I mean by that is there is no kill stealing, if everyone is attacking a mob everyone gets XP and loot from that mob.  This is to encourage a general feeling of “good, more players showed up to help”, instead of “Oh no, those players are going to tag our mobs, steal our kills for this quest, or otherwise mess up what we’re trying to do”.  There shouldn’t be a way for other players to mess something like that up for others. 

    I think adjusting to everyone being a healer, dps, and control person will take some time and experience.  If you just picture a WoW raid except everyone is a hybrid then I think you’d have the wrong image of how GW2 is going to play.  No one is going to be “the tank” or “the healer” everyone will just be reacting to the situation at hand and using the best skills they have to handle that situation.  But it’s not out yet and we can’t really say for sure.

    Groups should be a lot easier to form too, since the Dungeons only allow 5 players, and ANet has said any group of 5 classes, (5 guardians, 5 mesmers, etc…) can complete the dungeon, so you won’t be waiting around spamming “Looking for Healer” for 30 minutes.

    Also, if a town burns down, then the current dynamic event at that town would be to gather supplies and help rebuild it.  Until players do that nothing will change.  There will never be a “respawn” or “reset”, the dynamic events chains are continuous and you simply advance the current stage one step up or down a chain, or up or down a branch if the event has multiple branching options and not a simple line of events.

    • http://twitter.com/WadeDMcGinnis Wade D McGinnis

      My statement was directed to the idea of a raiding guild decides to do a dynamic event but along comes other players, will we see that raiding guild getting upset over the fact the dynamic event has scaled up but the skill didn’t? But someone has already answer that with they are carebear events lol.

      The grouping is another thing to point out, just because you have the ability to heal, how many gamers do you know that would heal? I have my friends that I know who would pop a heal if it was effective but if you look at a random player coming into the game, that defining difference of you now “have to” use more then you damage abilities, has the potential to place stress on a group.

      I am curious/excited that you are given the option to rebuild because honestly I would do that all day lol.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_INQT3ECUZH4FHFNOLFGHOFYNNA K

    GW2 is a lot more “other player friendly” than other MMOs.  What I mean by that is there is no kill stealing, if everyone is attacking a mob everyone gets XP and loot from that mob.  This is to encourage a general feeling of “good, more players showed up to help”, instead of “Oh no, those players are going to tag our mobs, steal our kills for this quest, or otherwise mess up what we’re trying to do”.  There shouldn’t be a way for other players to mess something like that up for others. 

    I think adjusting to everyone being a healer, dps, and control person will take some time and experience.  If you just picture a WoW raid except everyone is a hybrid then I think you’d have the wrong image of how GW2 is going to play.  No one is going to be “the tank” or “the healer” everyone will just be reacting to the situation at hand and using the best skills they have to handle that situation.  But it’s not out yet and we can’t really say for sure.

    Groups should be a lot easier to form too, since the Dungeons only allow 5 players, and ANet has said any group of 5 classes, (5 guardians, 5 mesmers, etc…) can complete the dungeon, so you won’t be waiting around spamming “Looking for Healer” for 30 minutes.

    Also, if a town burns down, then the current dynamic event at that town would be to gather supplies and help rebuild it.  Until players do that nothing will change.  There will never be a “respawn” or “reset”, the dynamic events chains are continuous and you simply advance the current stage one step up or down a chain, or up or down a branch if the event has multiple branching options and not a simple line of events.

    • http://twitter.com/WadeDMcGinnis Wade D McGinnis

      My statement was directed to the idea of a raiding guild decides to do a dynamic event but along comes other players, will we see that raiding guild getting upset over the fact the dynamic event has scaled up but the skill didn’t? But someone has already answer that with they are carebear events lol.

      The grouping is another thing to point out, just because you have the ability to heal, how many gamers do you know that would heal? I have my friends that I know who would pop a heal if it was effective but if you look at a random player coming into the game, that defining difference of you now “have to” use more then you damage abilities, has the potential to place stress on a group.

      I am curious/excited that you are given the option to rebuild because honestly I would do that all day lol.

  • http://www.facebook.com/mrderouen Anthony DeRouen

    GW2 feels more and more like a niche game. Fine for me, I’ll still play it, but IMO it’s not going to achieve the mass appeal like Star Wars.

    • http://twitter.com/WadeDMcGinnis Wade D McGinnis

      While having a IP like Star Wars will bring in the truck loads of gamers of all walks of life, GW2 is still too early to see what might happen. Never know, this thing might explode and be the new “thing” for gamers/anyone. A la app games we see today.

      • JJGlyph

        GW is dear to my heart but I doubt it will do as well sales wise. I’m just counting on it to be more fun than SWTOR, no matter how many copies it sells.

        • http://twitter.com/MarcusPeake Marcus Peake

          meh. im still having fun on SWTOR :-)

          excpt for the maintenance ofc

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dante-Arkanthos/100001686523908 Dante Arkanthos

        I don’t think the IP is so massively important, look at Warhammer or better Lord of the Rings online. If the game is enjoyable people will play it, also it has to be marketed properly.

    • Senatic

      well you already have like 7 million people who might be interested in it from it’s predecessor, if even half of those people buy it you can hardly call it a niche. Then considering the huge attention this game has gotten before they have even started trying to market it. No GW2 will not be a niche game at all, it might not be your type of game and that’s fine, but niche would imply it’s something only a small amount of “outsiders” like to play who don’t play other MMO’s and that’s simply not gonna be the case.

      • JJGlyph

        I own 5 copies of GW1. Even though there are 7 million copies sold I doubt there are nearly that many people who have played it. Since it’s not a subscription game people often buy multiple copies to speed up earning money. All of my friends in-game do it. Especially since the game is so cheap now days.

        • Senatic

          That’s true, a lot of people have done this. And the 7 million box sales are ofc from 4 different champaigns, I didn’t mean to suggest 7 million people had bought guild wars 1 (even though that’s what I did, my bad Too much typing leads to not thinking about what you’re saying.), only that if even half the people who did buy it where to buy GW2 it wouldn’t really be considered a niche game at that point.

          In either case the amount of players to me is irrelevant, as long as there is enough players to group with and Anet makes a profit I’m all good, ofc I’d love to see it become hugely successful but it is not required for me to enjoy the game. 

          Anyway, the point I was trying to make was that I don’t think there’s any chance GW2 will really be considered a niche game, maybe I just have a odd assumption of what that means – when someone says that I kinda imagine an MMO with around 100 000 total players, although most of them more hardcore then your general MMO game crowd, and I don’t think that’ll be the case with GW2.

          • JJGlyph

            Agreed. It’s definitely not niche anymore. I was in the beta ~7 years ago and it definitely felt niche then. But those days are long gone.

            ArenaNet made so much money off of their no-sub fee model that they were able to convince NCSoft to help fund a massive triple-A title as their second game.

            I sometimes forget that GW1 was ArenaNets first game.

  • http://www.facebook.com/mrderouen Anthony DeRouen

    GW2 feels more and more like a niche game. Fine for me, I’ll still play it, but IMO it’s not going to achieve the mass appeal like Star Wars.

    • http://twitter.com/WadeDMcGinnis Wade D McGinnis

      While having a IP like Star Wars will bring in the truck loads of gamers of all walks of life, GW2 is still too early to see what might happen. Never know, this thing might explode and be the new “thing” for gamers/anyone. A la app games we see today.

      • Anonymous

        GW is dear to my heart but I doubt it will do as well sales wise. I’m just counting on it to be more fun than SWTOR, no matter how many copies it sells.

        • http://twitter.com/MarcusPeake Marcus Peake

          meh. im still having fun on SWTOR :-)

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dante-Arkanthos/100001686523908 Dante Arkanthos

        I don’t think the IP is so massively important, look at Warhammer or better Lord of the Rings online. If the game is enjoyable people will play it, also it has to be marketed properly.

    • Anonymous

      well you already have like 7 million people who might be interested in it from it’s predecessor, if even half of those people buy it you can hardly call it a niche. Then considering the huge attention this game has gotten before they have even started trying to market it. No GW2 will not be a niche game at all, it might not be your type of game and that’s fine, but niche would imply it’s something only a small amount of “outsiders” like to play who don’t play other MMO’s and that’s simply not gonna be the case.

      • Anonymous

        I own 5 copies of GW1. Even though there are 7 million copies sold I doubt there are nearly that many people who have played it. Since it’s not a subscription game people often buy multiple copies to speed up earning money. All of my friends in-game do it. Especially since the game is so cheap now days.

        • Anonymous

          That’s true, a lot of people have done this. And the 7 million box sales are ofc from 4 different champaigns, I wasn’t suggesting 7 million people had bought guild wars 1, only that if even half the people who did buy it where to buy GW2 it wouldn’t really be considered a niche game at that point.

          In either case the amount of players to me is irrelevant, as long as there is enough players to group with and Anet makes a profit I’m all good, ofc I’d love to see it become hugely successful but it is not required for me to enjoy the game. 

          Anyway, the point I was trying to make was that I don’t think there’s any chance GW2 will really be considered a niche game, maybe I just have a odd assumption of what that means – when someone says that I kinda imagine an MMO with 100 000-200 000 total players and I don’t think that’ll be the case with GW2.

          • Anonymous

            Agreed. It’s definitely not niche anymore. I was in the beta ~7 years ago and it definitely felt niche then. But those days are long gone.

            ArenaNet made so much money off of their no-sub fee model that they were able to convince NCSoft to help fund a massive triple-A title as their second game.

            I sometimes forget that GW1 was ArenaNets first game.

  • http://www.facebook.com/mrderouen Anthony DeRouen

    Simple answer is no. I hope they retain the original point system that allowed you to change your weapons and attributes in any town before you venture out.

    • http://twitter.com/dndhatcher David Hatcher

      Its better than that, you can change your “build” (weapon sets, traits, utility skills) any time you are out of combat.  You dont even have to go back to town.

  • http://www.facebook.com/mrderouen Anthony DeRouen

    Simple answer is no. I hope they retain the original point system that allowed you to change your weapons and attributes in any town before you venture out.

    • http://twitter.com/dndhatcher David Hatcher

      Its better than that, you can change your “build” (weapon sets, traits, utility skills) any time you are out of combat.  You dont even have to go back to town.

  • Nedfest

    Knowing the fact that each weapon gives you a set of skills and that you unlock skills as you use it. Do you think all the weapons of one type, say all daggers, would have the same skills available? Or would there be say a “Fiery Dagger of Shelter” that would have a special abilities compared to the other daggers 
    I would imagine that all weapon types would have the same skills available, just the stats of that weapon would be different. Also to add say fire damage to it you would make a modification to the weapon with upgrades.

    • Senatic

      All weapon types have the same abilities within the same class. So a Theif with a sword will always have the same sword skills no matter what sword it is, but a warrior with a sword will have different sword skills. 

      There are however a trait system that let you equip traits which changes how certain skills work, for example one trait might might a dagger attack apply a bleeding condition, while another trait might make the same skill cripple your opponent and another trait might make it have a % of armor penetration. Exactly how this system will work is unclear as ArenaNet are remaking it, but it will have a significant impact on how you play and will help differentiate 2 Theifs using the same weapon type.

  • Anonymous

    Knowing the fact that each weapon gives you a set of skills and that you unlock skills as you use it. Do you think all the weapons of one type, say all daggers, would have the same skills available? Or would there be say a “Fiery Dagger of Shelter” that would have a special abilities compared to the other daggers 
    I would imagine that all weapon types would have the same skills available, just the stats of that weapon would be different. Also to add say fire damage to it you would make a modification to the weapon with upgrades.

    • Anonymous

      All weapon types have the same abilities within the same class. So a Theif with a sword will always have the same sword skills no matter what sword it is, but a warrior with a sword will have different sword skills. 

      There are however a trait system that let you equip traits which changes how certain skills work, for example one trait might might a dagger attack apply a bleeding condition, while another trait might make the same skill cripple your opponent and another trait might make it have a % of armor penetration. Exactly how this system will work is unclear as ArenaNet are remaking it, but it will have a significant impact on how you play and will help differentiate 2 Theifs using the same weapon type.

  • Senatic

    Lets clear a few things up. 

    1. The title of this episode is extremely misleading, and some what of a sensationalistic headline. The whole game being end game, does not equal no end game. Your title suggests when you hit max level, or reach the end of the story, there is nothing more to do. Which is so wrong I don’t even know where to start. The idea is that the core game should be fun enough that you don’t stop doing it at some arbitrary point. The problem with games like WoW is that honestly doing the same thing as you do while leveling forever isn’t very appealing, because truth be told the core game mechanics of the game are not that interesting past a certain amount of playtime, so you need secondary systems like raids to spice things up beyond doing side quests in order to make it fun. But imagine if just playing the game and doing side quests was enjoyable and diverse enough that you didn’t need raids, imagine the core experience of the game being so good that’s all you wanna do. That’s what ArenaNet is trying to do with Guild Wars 2. The Dynamic Event system is created to be interesting, always changing, living, breathing, and diverse so that there is no need to do something else. One of the key things being diversity, with enough diversity you won’t feel like you’re doing the same thing over and over. I’ll continue with that in the next section.

    2. One of the viewers asked what makes Dynamic Events different then for example public quests in Warhammer, or “Rifts” in.. well Rift.

    The HUGE difference here is in how advanced these systems are. Lets take Rift as an example. While Rift(In my humble opinion) is at least a decent game, its “public quests” are not very diverse. Generally you see a Rift, you run to it, you fight off X amount of waves and then face a boss. Now don’t get me wrong, this was a step forward and I’m not saying this is a terrible system. But it is kinda limited in what it can do. In Guild Wars 2 Dynamic Events are so much more then this rigid concept of that it works in “this way” all the time. A rift is always gonna be a rift, but a dynamic event can be anything from helping a farmer water his crops or repairing a catapult to a zone wide event like an evil lich for some reason rose up in a swamp and started building an army, they then killed all the wild life and the area started becoming corrupted. Second stage they march on a nearby outpost, set up siege catapults and attack the city. If players don’t stop them they actually take over the city and start attacking nearby caravans, players and even other outposts. If players stopped them from taking the first outpost the invasion force would be defeated and you would go fight the lich boss. If you beat him wild life would return to the area and corruption went away.

    Again the key here is diversity, basically a Dynamic Event can be anything you can imagine AND they affect the world around you in a persistent way, which means you as a player affect the world by being involved in these events.

    Basically, Dynamic Events are Rifts on steroids and ecstasy x10. The very basic concept is the same, Dynamic Events are just so much more advanced. It is also the primary type of side content besides the main story, it’s not a diversion from side quests like in Rift. DE’s are literally everywhere, you’re not going out to do something else and happen upon them, you are going out to see what’s out there and to see what’s going on in the world right now, and what is going on is always changing.

    3. Raiding will not exist in Guild Wars 2, nor does it have to. This is a different game then other MMO’s, and MMO players have to stop being such stubborn donkey’s (I use the phrase with love <3) about what an MMO is "supposed to be", honestly it only hurts and restricts the genre. 

    The thing is you don't go into Skyrim and complain there isn't Mass Effect/Dragon Age style choices and dialoge because that is not what skyrim is about. All these three games are RPG's, but we expect different things from them. In the same way Guild Wars 2 is a different game then other MMO's, if you don't like what this game has to offer instead of raiding then honestly this game might not be aimed at you. IF you're worried you won't have things to do after hitting max cap or finishing your story you don't need to be. Guild Wars 2 will have some of the most competitive PvP you have ever seen in an MMO, as well as World VS World VS World PvP, and if PvP is not your cup of tea you have 7 dungeons which each have a story mode, and explorable mode that has 3 different paths to take which greatly changes what you experience in the dungeon. These dungeons also contain dynamic events that will further change your experience as well as be extremely challenging. If you think this game isn't gonna have extremely hard content you have not played GW1. Besides all of this there are Dynamic Events, which the devs have promised to keep adding FOR FREE past launch, which will also come in ELITE mode which will require a coordinated team and can be played by more players then you can fit on your screen. If this is not enough to entertain you, you need to get a life and that is coming from a person who games 20-40 hours a week. By the time you have gotten tired of the dungeons, the PvP, the dynamic events (the small and the huge) and enjoyed exploring the world and probably rolled an alt or two there will be an expansion out. So put your worries to rest, no raiding does not mean lack of things to do.

    4. Gannon, I can't believe I have to type this to a MMO show host but. THERE ARE NO SIDE QUESTS IN GW2, so there isn't a quest log for "side quests", there is a quest log for the main quest and the main quest will be what drives you trough the world. If you don't wanna do the main quest you can just explore randomly, but ArenaNet realizes some players want direction and by following the main quest you will be a little more handheld and lead trough the world, it will take you to different zones (although not all zones most likely). Now Gannon, no more silly mistakes like that :D <3

    5. The trinity, my gosh explaining this to people is getting old. First of all there's no such thing as "a tanking class", There's a "tanky role" that can be performed by pretty much anyone, but tanking like you do in WoW or other games doesn't work because the system is built on movement and dodging and active combat so standing in one place and taking hits is counter productive. You won't be able to aggro, hold aggro and soak damage in the way you are thinking of when you say "tanking". Besides that, yes the Guardian have some good support stuff, but so does every other class as well. 

    Every class, can do every role ALL the time. And when everyone can do all the things everyone else can do ALL the time, it becomes less about who's playing what roles and more about who's playing what they have well. I hope you guys get your hands on this game soon because this shouldn't be this hard for you to get your heads around. I can't imagine you guys playing skyrim and go "OH DAMN I GOTTA SWITCH TO MY DPS", if you do you seriously need to let go of all these pre conceptions.

    6. You will be able to respec attributes but there is no point in respeccing skills as they are all always available to you either trough changing utility skills whenever not in combat or changing weapon. Traits will also play into how your skills work which will greatly change how one warrior with sword and shield play to another warrior.

    There was a few more things you got wrong but this has already turned into a page long post so I will leave it at that, this is a good show but you guys need to get on top of the information we have better because you are kinda misleading people and half the time you're talking I just wanna jump in and tell you how it really works according to ArenaNet. Never the less looking forward to next week's guild cast as I do enjoy hearing you guys talk about it, it's just a shame you're not up to speed on the info. Still as I said, keep it up guys, I don't mean to beat on you cus you guys do this for free for us so I'm not trying to be ungrateful, I wanna make it clear I do enjoy this show – I just think it would be even better if you guys were a little bit more informed.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Trey-Price/1612301107 Trey Price

      I’m kind of disappointed in the very little research the cast have done on the game to be talking about it like this. I mean I love the show and will continue to watch it frequently, but it just seems like they have no clue and it can be obvious a lot of the time. 

      • JJGlyph

        Amen.

      • http://twitter.com/dndhatcher David Hatcher

        Rubi has some hands on time with the game, which is more than most of these people that claim to “know” about GW2 have.  Even her experience is with trade show versions that are now outdated. Be fair and acknowledge that very little is actually known and everything we do currently “know” is subject to change.  Energy/Potions removed, classes re-worked, cutscene animations vastly improved,  a couple of the classes have be substantially changed, we just heard the combat animations went through a major overhaul, etc.  So many features have not been seen or are now different than we have seen in the demos. 

        Much of what people claim to “know” about the game is actually just their interpretation of a one or two sentence answer from an interview somewhere.  The context is not always clear and some of the innovations Anet is making (a living persistent world full of events and nothing else, active combat, character class not dictating role, level scaling, access to endgame PvP content within minutes of logging in, instanced dungeon caliber content from level 1) are not trivial to try to explain to people with only WoW-like MMOs as a reference. 

        They are answering these questions off the top of their head. We posting responses have had the luxury of time to think about and perhaps research, whereas they did not.

        That said, there are often questions I would prefer they shelve until next week so they can research properly. Then start the next show with the “answers from last week” segment to give continuity and a reason for people want to follow the show from week to week.

        • Senatic

          You would be right, if we were talking about interpretations of something. But we’re not, we’re talking about cold hard facts layed down to us directly from ArenaNet. Like the fact that respecs makes no sense what so ever cus you can basically respec whenever you’re not in combat just by changing your utillity skills/weapon. That is a factual error not subject to interpretation and it’s indicative of poor knowledge of the game mechanics else it would not have been brought up.

          Gannon talking about, accidentally or otherwise, side quests and if they’re in the “quest log” is another example of just a factual error that is not up for debate. There are no side quests, plain and simple.

          Another example was saying the level cap was 50. Although that was a mistake that was corrected by Rubi quickly, thanks for that, is another example of a factual error.

          There certainly are some things that ARE up for interpretation and we definitely don’t care about if they see those things differently then us, but a lot of what they got wrong are just pure and simply factual mistakes. Which in and of itself would be fine if there was someone there to set the record straight afterwards. So sorry, but you’re wrong. 

          The point is it’s okay for them to make these mistakes, if there’s someone who knows what is really going on on the show, but there isn’t so these simple misconceptions go unanswered.

          Besides, there is not “very little we do know”, quite the opposite – In general we know ALOT, if you want official information I suggest the GW2 wiki.

          • http://twitter.com/dndhatcher David Hatcher

            There are currently no “cold-hard facts” from Anet that dont come with the “subject to change” disclaimer.  All of the hundreds of hours of trade show footage we have seen is outdated.  Energy is gone; animations are being polished, mob aggro AI was almost non-exist in the demos, Pet AI is currently being upgraded. etc. etc.

            The GW2 wiki is not official information. I can get on there and edit something to to create confusion if you need proof. Its a fansite, Anet is not who put all that information out there. Fortunately it is pretty well vetted and sourced by multiple people, but it still is subject to being incorrect simply because the game is still being changed.

            The respeccing question was handled poorly, as was the skill question.  Its a multi-layer question and their initial reaction was only considering the top layer.  The problem is the spontaneous response format of the show.  They are not given time to review the question and think through a good presentation.  It would have been better to not answer the question directly but instead give an explanation of how the entire skill and attribute systems works as we know it right now.

          • Dave R

            How does the fact that things may be altered during development change anything? Until ArenaNet tells us they’ve changed we can work under the assumption that they remain as explained.

            The fact is Rubi is being presented as an “expert” when she simply doesn’t know enough about the game to be called one.
            She shouldn’t need lots of time to answer these questions or give mechanic explanations if a direct answer is not available.

            Overall, I’m very disappointed with the show. If the information was not available then I would give them some leeway, but the fact is that this information is readily available. I know for a fact that many members of the GW2guru community would do a much better job with these questions.

            To Gary Gannon: You are a smart guy and often come up with very good questions, but you need to get informed about the game you are hosting a show about.

            To Rubi: Stop pretending you are an expert simply because you’ve had some hand on with the game; hit the wiki and at least try to be ready to answer/expand on the questions thrown at you.

          • Senatic

            Wrong, as Dave said – until such time that ArenaNet tells us they’ve decided to change something they have already announced, everything they have announced is considered final.

            Since you are a Guru member from what I’ve gathered, you know as well as I do that they don’t reveal anything unless they are happy with how it works. All we can do is talk about the facts that are true right now and keep reminding people that ArenaNet like to iterate and whilst what is being said is absolutely true and correct right now it can change before the game is complete.

            Besides, even if things come with a disclaimer of “we like to iterate and everything is subject to change” it doesn’t mean we can’t be fairly sure certain things won’t change. For example they won’t willy nilly remove dynamic events from the game or say “well now we’re gonna have a trinity”. That just isn’t gonna happen at this point. You are vastly over exaggerating the amount of things we are unsure of within what they have announced. 

            The point is too many mistakes, too many misconceptions. Now I don’t wanna keep repeating this as I feel like I’m being disrespectful, I only intended to point it out once and not to have a big flame war in the comment section so once again to Gary, Rubi and Shawn I mean no offense to either of you and I hope you won’t feel less enthusiastic about making this show from the comments made here, we only want to see the best come out of the show and I hope all you guys are on next episode! 

        • JJGlyph

          There are literally thousands of hours of gameplay on YouTube + direct comments from developers. We’re not assuming anything.

          And like Senatic says, use the wiki. The GW1 & GW2 community have amazing wikis that are well policed. I’ve found very few factual errors on them.

        • JVJunior

          The thing is, Rubi should be able to give answers to many of these questions, she is, after all, the panels Guild Wars fangirl – the shows description even says “two of the leading Guild Wars 2 experts in gaming media”. This looks bad for both them and the game when they give a confused look to the camera and dispense a fudged explanation or simply say “we are not too sure/we don’t know”.

          I am assuming you are the same D Hatcher from GW2Guru? If so, you know as well as I do that while there are many game features that cannot be given a definitive answer, there is certainly enough information to give a reasonable explanation or description of what ArenaNet are intending.

          When asked the question “How many skills will there be?” I was chanting to myself under my breath; don’t say ten, don’t say ten, don’t say t…
          Rubi: “Ten”
          AAarghh. This answer is indicative of how the information they give, while technically not incorrect ( yes, I think that is an appropriate use of a double negative), is certainly misleading. While you or I, or anyone following the game more closely, understand why she said it, to a complete outsider this could imply the combat lacks depth or variety; I know I felt that way when I first saw  the ten slot skill bar, until I was made aware of exactly how the combat works. Yes she explained in a (very)little more detail as she continued to speak, but that’s the problem – it’s not always the information, but how that information is presented.

          I appreciate what they are trying to do, and would like for the Guildcast to be an informative, successful and long running show. I hope I don’t come across as a bit of a dickhead when I suggest that maybe compiling some well written answers to common questions about the game could help the informative component.

          • http://twitter.com/dndhatcher David Hatcher

            I think you are expecting too much for the format of the show.  Taking often not-well formulated (like how many skills will there be) or not terribly relevant questions (like re-speccing) and answering them on the fly in a few seconds is very different from having well researched and thought out responses.  

            I think it would make a lot of sense to make the question a few hours in advance and give the participants time to research and formulate a better presentation to avoid the “ten skills” kind of responses.  You might lose some of the spontaneity, though.

        • http://twitter.com/Forgara Jordan

          Sure Rubi has had some hands on time, but I never even played Guild Wars and only just started looking into the game at the start of fall and it feels like I know more than she does on Guild Wars 2. I’ve watched recordings of convention panels, watched/listened/read through interviews, and looked around at other information we have at our disposal and then I come to check this show out and it’s just an extended period of time I sit bored and hoping I’ll get something of substance or use from it.

          I was hoping for a GW2 show on here for several weeks but now I’m not sure… Sure there may not be a nice trickle of new information, but there are things that can be covered.

          Considering the frequency of Gary reminding the fellow cast that some viewers may be new to the Guild Wars franchise or many who aren’t new simple don’t have the time to look into much of this, perhaps they should fill in some space with caching everyone up to speed. There are videos from panels, posts, etc. where information can be taken regarding the current state of things in the game and discuss bits one at a time. Something as simple as perks you can see with the games UI, like re-sizable menus or the actual layout of the Hero panel, skills panel, etc. It just feels like all this important information that a newcomer may want to know about to entice them to this game is being skipped over – as though they began the show without any clear direction when they may have been better off starting at the basics.

          I’ll still be keeping my eyes on Gamebreaker, but I hope this show gets itself in a bit better shape so good luck to the crew and I hope people keep watching as well and encouraging the show forward and upwards.

          For what it’s worth.

      • michael fontenot

        my thoughts exactly; some of the topics they discussed were not relevations but things that anyone who has been following GW2 has known for months.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Marcelo-Linhares/100000041974498 Marcelo Linhares

      Someone invite Senatic to the show!

    • marcin gaber

      Hi Senatic,
      About question number 3,raiding question and end game content.

      Ive seen an intervievs with devs on some gaming expo in 2011.
      And someone asked the same question about endgame raiding.
      Few facts that i remember devs have mentioned:

      - You will have dynamic events,which some of them are going to be so huge that you will need around 50 well coordinated people to finish them.

      -Dynamic events will scale up to 100 people so they arent going to be easier if 80 ppl participates,you will need over 100 to make the event easier.

      -Some dynamic events will just pop on your screen and you are going to be able to fast travel to them,not like you will have to stumble upon them,we are talking about end game events ofc.

      WORLD BOSSES

      -There are going to be end game world bosses,i mean huge mofo’s,very difficult to kill basically you will need a guild of geared coordinated people to kill them.

      -They are going to be in areas surrounded by dangerous mobs,so no walking upto a world boss just to have a look at him.

      -Some of them will scale some wont.

      Thats all i remember about this topic,ive tryed to find the video on you tube but it was a long time ago since ive seen it.

      I know that what i ame talking about its not the end-game that we are used to from the other MMO’s but its the nearest we can get too.

      Apologes for bad english,im not an english speaker.

      • Senatic

        1. You are wrong in a few things. Your first statement is somewhat accurate, except the arbitrary number of 50 people. The general statement has been that there are Elite events that will require more then 10 or so people to complete, but that a really skillfull group might be able to do it with even less.

        2. You have misunderstood what “scales up to a 100 people means”, it means the event will be as “hard” with 20 people as it will with 80 people. It scales itself up to match the difficulty according to how many players are actively participating. It does not mean, as you said, that an event will need a 100 players. It only means it scales up to a 100 players in order to provide challenging content for all the participants.

        3. Fast traveling directly to a Elite Event – You will not be able to do this in the real game, this was a feature created for the demos only. In the final game you won’t get a pop up box saying “elite event, press to fast travel” or whatever. You will only get the notification if you’re in the area and you will then have to run or map travel as normal. There is a Guild skill though that allows you to summon your guildies and they can then fast travel to your location.

        4. Yes there will be huge end game bosses, but I have never heard any official statement saying you will need a guild of “geared people” to kill them? As Guild Wars 2 has a power plateau and you will get the best gear as soon as you hit level 80 basically I don’t see what point gear would have in this encounter. Guild Wars 2 is about player skill, gear will be a factor but only a very small one.

        5. All of them will scale as far as we know.

  • Anonymous

    Lets clear a few things up. 

    1. The title of this episode is extremely misleading, and some what of a sensational headline. The whole game being end game, does not equal no end game. Your title suggests when you hit max level, or reach the end of the story, there is nothing more to do. Which is so wrong I don’t even know where to start. The idea is that the core game should be fun enough that you don’t stop doing it at some arbitrary point. The problem with games like WoW is that honestly doing the same thing as you do while leveling forever isn’t very appealing, because truth be told the core game mechanics of the game are not that interesting past a certain amount of playtime, so you need secondary systems like raids to spice things up beyond doing side quests in order to make it fun. But imagine if just playing the game and doing side quests was enjoyable and diverse enough that you didn’t need raids, imagine the core experience of the game being so good that’s all you wanna do. That’s what ArenaNet is trying to do with Guild Wars 2. The Dynamic Event system is created to be interesting, always changing, living, breathing, and diverse so that there is no need to do something else. One of the key things being diversity, with enough diversity you won’t feel like you’re doing the same thing over and over. I’ll continue with that in the next section.

    2. One of the viewers asked what makes Dynamic Events different then for example public quests in Warhammer, or “Rifts” in.. well Rift.

    The HUGE difference here is in how advanced these systems are. Lets take Rift as an example. While Rift(In my humble opinion) is at least a decent game, its “public quests” are not very diverse. Generally you see a Rift, you run to it, you fight off X amount of waves and then face a boss. Now don’t get me wrong, this was a step forward and I’m not saying this is a terrible system. But it is kinda limited in what it can do. In Guild Wars 2 Dynamic Events are so much more then this rigid concept of that it works in “this way” all the time. A rift is always gonna be a rift, but a dynamic event can be anything from helping a farmer water his crops or repairing a catapult to a zone wide event like an evil lich for some reason rose up in a swamp and started building an army, they then killed all the wild life and the area started becoming corrupted. Second stage they march on a nearby outpost, set up siege catapults and attack the city. If players don’t stop them they actually take over the city and start attacking nearby caravans, players and even other outposts. If players stopped them from taking the first outpost the invasion force would be defeated and you would go fight the lich boss. If you beat him wild life would return to the area and corruption went away.

    Again the key here is diversity, basically a Dynamic Event can be anything you can imagine AND they affect the world around you in a persistent way, which means you as a player affect the world by being involved in these events.

    Basically, Dynamic Events are Rifts on steroids and ecstasy x10. The very basic concept is the same, Dynamic Events are just so much more advanced.

    3. Raiding will not exist in Guild Wars 2, nor does it have to. This is a different game then other MMO’s, and MMO players have to stop being such stubborn donkey’s (I use the phrase with love <3) about what an MMO is "supposed to be", honestly it only hurts and restricts the genre. 

    The thing is you don't go into Skyrim and complain there isn't Mass Effect/Dragon Age style choices and dialoge because that is not what skyrim is about. All these three games are RPG's, but we expect different things from them. In the same way Guild Wars 2 is a different game then other MMO's, if you don't like what this game has to offer instead of raiding then honestly this game might not be aimed at you. IF you're worried you won't have things to do after hitting max cap or finishing your story you don't need to be. Guild Wars 2 will have some of the most competitive PvP you have ever seen in an MMO, as well as World VS World VS World PvP, and if PvP is not your cup of tea you have 7 dungeons which each have a story mode, and explorable mode that has 3 different paths to take which greatly changes what you experience in the dungeon. These dungeons also contain dynamic events that will further change your experience as well as be extremely challenging. If you think this game isn't gonna have extremely hard content you have not played GW1. Besides all of this there are Dynamic Events, which the devs have promised to keep adding FOR FREE past launch, which will also come in ELITE mode which will require a coordinated team and can be played by more players then you can fit on your screen. If this is not enough to entertain you, you need to get a life and that is coming from a person who games 20-40 hours a week. By the time you have gotten tired of the dungeons, the PvP, the dynamic events (the small and the huge) and enjoyed exploring the world and probably rolled an alt or two there will be an expansion out. So put your worries to rest, no raiding does not mean lack of things to do.

    4. Gannon, I can't believe I have to type this to a MMO show host but. THERE ARE NO SIDE QUESTS IN GW2, so there isn't a quest log for "side quests", there is a quest log for the main quest and the main quest will be what drives you trough the world. If you don't wanna do the main quest you can just explore randomly, but ArenaNet realizes some players want direction and by following the main quest you will be a little more handheld and lead trough the world, it will take you to different zones (although not all zones most likely). Now Gannon, no more silly mistakes like that :D <3

    5. The trinity, my gosh explaining this to people is getting old. First of all there's no such thing as "a tanking class", There's a "tanky role" that can be performed by pretty much anyone, but tanking like you do in WoW or other games doesn't work because the system is built on movement and dodging and active combat so standing in one place and taking hits is counter productive. You won't be able to aggro, hold aggro and soak damage in the way you are thinking of when you say "tanking". Besides that, yes the Guardian have some good support stuff, but so does every other class as well. 

    Every class, can do every role ALL the time. And when everyone can do all the things everyone else can do ALL the time, it becomes less about who's playing what roles and more about who's playing what they have well. I hope you guys get your hands on this game soon because this shouldn't be this hard for you to get your heads around. I can't imagine you guys playing skyrim and go "OH DAMN I GOTTA SWITCH TO MY DPS", if you do you seriously need to let go of all these pre conceptions.

    There was a few more things you got wrong but this has already turned into a page long post so I will leave it at that, this is a good show but you guys need to get on top of the information we have better because you are kinda misleading people and half the time you're talking I just wanna jump in and tell you how it really works according to ArenaNet. Never the less looking forward to next week's guild cast.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Trey-Price/1612301107 Trey Price

      I’m kind of disappointed in the very little research the cast have done on the game to be talking about it like this. I mean I love the show and will continue to watch it frequently, but it just seems like they have no clue and it can be obvious a lot of the time. 

      • Anonymous

        Amen.

      • http://twitter.com/dndhatcher David Hatcher

        Rubi has some hands on time with the game, which is more than most of these people that claim to “know” about GW2 have.  Even her experience is with trade show versions that are now outdated. Be fair and acknowledge that very little is actually known and everything we do currently “know” is subject to change.  Energy/Potions removed, classes re-worked, cutscene animations vastly improved,  a couple of the classes have be substantially changed, we just heard the combat animations went through a major overhaul, etc.  So many features have not been seen or are now different than we have seen in the demos. 

        Much of what people claim to “know” about the game is actually just their interpretation of a one or two sentence answer from an interview somewhere.  The context is not always clear and some of the innovations Anet is making (a living persistent world full of events and nothing else, active combat, character class not dictating role, level scaling, access to endgame PvP content within minutes of logging in, instanced dungeon caliber content from level 1) are not trivial to try to explain to people with only WoW-like MMOs as a reference. 

        They are answering these questions off the top of their head. We posting responses have had the luxury of time to think about and perhaps research, whereas they did not.

        • Anonymous

          You would be right, if we were talking about interpretations of something. But we’re not, we’re talking about cold hard facts layed down to us directly from ArenaNet. Like the fact that respecs makes no sense what so ever cus you can basically respec whenever you’re not in combat just by changing your utillity skills/weapon. That is a factual error not subject to interpretation and it’s indicative of poor knowledge of the game mechanics else it would not have been brought up.

          Gannon talking about, accidentally or otherwise, side quests and if they’re in the “quest log” is another example of just a factual error that is not up for debate. There are no side quests, plain and simple.

          Another example was saying the level cap was 50. Although that was a mistake that was corrected by Rubi quickly, thanks for that, is another example of a factual error.

          There certainly are some things that ARE up for interpretation and we definitely don’t care about if they see those things differently then us, but a lot of what they got wrong are just pure and simply factual mistakes. Which in and of itself would be fine if there was someone there to set the record straight afterwards. So sorry, but you’re wrong.

          • http://twitter.com/dndhatcher David Hatcher

            There are currently no “cold-hard facts” from Anet that dont come with the “subject to change” disclaimer.  All of the hundreds of hours of trade show footage we have seen is outdated.  Energy is gone; animations are being polished, mob aggro AI was almost non-exist in the demos, Pet AI is currently being upgraded. etc. etc.

            The GW2 wiki is not official information. I can get on there and edit something to to create confusion if you need proof. Its a fansite, Anet is not who put all that information out there. Fortunately it is pretty well vetted and sourced by multiple people, but it still is subject to being incorrect simply because the game is still being changed.

            The respeccing question was handled poorly, as was the skill question.  Its a multi-layer question and their initial reaction was only considering the top layer.  The problem is the spontaneous response format of the show.  They are not given time to review the question and think through a good presentation.  It would have been better to not answer the question directly but instead give an explanation of how the entire skill and attribute systems works as we know it right now.

          • Dave R

            How does the fact that things may be altered during development change anything? Until ArenaNet tells us they’ve changed we can work under the assumption that they remain as explained.

            The fact is Rubi is being presented as an “expert” when she simply doesn’t know enough about the game to be called one.
            She shouldn’t need lots of time to answer these questions or give mechanic explanations if a direct answer is not available.

            Overall, I’m very disappointed with the show. If the information was not available then I would give them some leeway, but the fact is that this information is readily available. I know for a fact that many members of the GW2guru community would do a much better job with these questions.

            To Gary Gannon: You are a smart guy and often come up with very good questions, but you need to get informed about the game you are hosting a show about.

            To Rubi: Stop pretending you are an expert simply because you’ve had some hand on with the game; hit the wiki and at least try to be ready to answer/expand on the questions thrown at you.

          • Anonymous

            Wrong, as Dave said – until such time that ArenaNet tells us they’ve decided to change something they have already announced, everything they have announced is considered final.

            Since you are a Guru member from what I’ve gathered, you know as well as I do that they don’t reveal anything unless they are happy with how it works. All we can do is talk about the facts that are true right now and keep reminding people that ArenaNet like to iterate and whilst what is being said is absolutely true and correct right now it can change before the game is complete.

            Besides, even if things come with a disclaimer of “we like to iterate and everything is subject to change” it doesn’t mean we can’t be fairly sure certain things won’t change. For example they won’t willy nilly remove dynamic events from the game or say “well now we’re gonna have a trinity”. That just isn’t gonna happen at this point. You are vastly over exaggerating the amount of things we are unsure of within what they have announced. 

            The point is too many mistakes, too many misconceptions. Now I don’t wanna keep repeating this as I feel like I’m being disrespectful, I only intended to point it out once and not to have a big flame war in the comment section so once again to Gary, Rubi and Shawn I mean no offense to either of you and I hope you won’t feel less enthusiastic about making this show from the comments made here, we only want to see the best come out of the show and I hope all you guys are on next episode! 

        • Anonymous

          There are literally thousands of hours of gameplay on YouTube + direct comments from developers. We’re not assuming anything.

        • Anonymous

          The thing is, Rubi should be able to give answers to many of these questions, she is, after all, the panels Guild Wars fangirl – the shows description even says “two of the leading Guild Wars 2 experts in gaming media”. This looks bad for both them and the game when they give a confused look to the camera and dispense a fudged explanation or simply say “we are not too sure/we don’t know”.I am assuming you are the same D Hatcher from GW2Guru? If so, you know as well as I do that while there are many game features that cannot be given a definitive answer, there is certainly enough information to give a reasonable explanation or description of what ArenaNet are intending.When asked the question “How many skills will there be?” I was chanting to myself under my breath; don’t say ten, don’t say ten, don’t say t…Rubi: “Ten”AAarghh. This answer is indicative of how the information they give, while technically not incorrect ( yes, I think that is an appropriate use of a double negative), is certainly misleading. While you or I, or anyone following the game more closely, understand why she said it, to a complete outsider this could imply the combat lacks depth or variety; I know I felt that way when I first saw  the ten slot skill bar, until I was made aware of exactly how the combat works. Yes she explained in a (very)little more detail as she continued to speak, but that’s the problem – it’s not always the information, but how that information is presented.

          I appreciate what they are trying to do, and would like for the Guildcast to be an informative, successful and long running show. I hope I don’t come across as a bit of a dickhead when I suggest that maybe compiling some well written answers to common questions about the game could help the informative component.

          • http://twitter.com/dndhatcher David Hatcher

            I think you are expecting too much for the format of the show.  Taking often not-well formulated (like how many skills will there be) or not terribly relevant questions (like re-speccing) and answering them on the fly in a few seconds is very different from having well researched and thought out responses.  

            I think it would make a lot of sense to make the question a few hours in advance and give the participants time to research and formulate a better presentation to avoid the “ten skills” kind of responses.  You might lose some of the spontaneity, though.

        • http://twitter.com/Forgara Jordan

          Sure Rubi has had some hands on time, but I never even played Guild Wars and only just started looking into the game at the start of fall and it feels like I know more than she does on Guild Wars 2. I’ve watched recordings of convention panels, watched/listened/read through interviews, and looked around at other information we have at our disposal and then I come to check this show out and it’s just an extended period of time I sit bored and hoping I’ll get something of substance or use from it.

          I was hoping for a GW2 show on here for several weeks but now I’m not sure… Sure there may not be a nice trickle of new information, but there are things that can be covered.

          Considering the frequency of Gary reminding the fellow cast that some viewers may be new to the Guild Wars franchise or many who aren’t new simple don’t have the time to look into much of this, perhaps they should fill in some space with caching everyone up to speed. There are videos from panels, posts, etc. where information can be taken regarding the current state of things in the game and discuss bits one at a time. Something as simple as perks you can see with the games UI, like re-sizable menus or the actual layout of the Hero panel, skills panel, etc. It just feels like all this important information that a newcomer may want to know about to entice them to this game is being skipped over – as though they began the show without any clear direction when they may have been better off starting at the basics.

          I’ll still be keeping my eyes on Gamebreaker, but I hope this show gets itself in a bit better shape so good luck to the crew and I hope people keep watching as well and encouraging the show forward and upwards.

          For what it’s worth.

      • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

        Yeah, it’s getting pretty tiresome how they keep bringing up these same
        old topics and still fall into the same old pitfalls of misinformation
        or lack of information, which shouldn’t be possible because there is an
        abundance of information. Heck, anyone who has a question about one of
        the core features can check the answers the devs gave in the AMA.

         - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KQZ5m2OHpahxbhB5yIG9b8NZNlBWi8HJbDnboofAm4Y/edit?pli=1

      • michael fontenot

        my thoughts exactly; some of the topics they discussed were not relevations but things that anyone who has been following GW2 has known for months.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Marcelo-Linhares/100000041974498 Marcelo Linhares

      Someone invite Senatic to the show!

    • marcin gaber

      Hi Senatic,
      About question number 3,raiding question and end game content.

      Ive seen an intervievs with devs on some gaming expo in 2011.
      And someone asked the same question about endgame raiding.
      Few facts that i remember devs have mentioned:

      - You will have dynamic events,which some of them are going to be so huge that you will need around 50 well coordinated people to finish them.

      -Dynamic events will scale up to 100 people so they arent going to be easier if 80 ppl participates,you will need over 100 to make the event easier.

      -Some dynamic events will just pop on your screen and you are going to be able to fast travel to them,not like you will have to stumble upon them,we are talking about end game events ofc.

      WORLD BOSSES

      -There are going to be end game world bosses,i mean huge mofo’s,very difficult to kill basically you will need a guild of geared coordinated people to kill them.

      -They are going to be in areas surrounded by dangerous mobs,so no walking upto a world boss just to have a look at him.

      -Some of them will scale some wont.

      Thats all i remember about this topic,ive tryed to find the video on you tube but it was a long time ago since ive seen it.

      I know that what i ame talking about its not the end-game that we are used to from the other MMO’s but its the nearest we can get too.

      Apologes for bad english,im not an english speaker.

      • Anonymous

        1. You are wrong in a few things. Your first statement is somewhat accurate, except the arbitrary number of 50 people. The general statement has been that there are Elite events that will require more then 10 or so people to complete, but that a really skillfull group might be able to do it with even less.

        2. You have misunderstood what “scales up to a 100 people means”, it means the event will be as “hard” with 20 people as it will with 80 people. It scales itself up to match the difficulty according to how many players are actively participating. It does not mean, as you said, that an event will need a 100 players. It only means it scales up to a 100 players in order to provide challenging content for all the participants.

        3. Fast traveling directly to a Elite Event – You will not be able to do this in the real game, this was a feature created for the demos only. In the final game you won’t get a pop up box saying “elite event, press to fast travel” or whatever. You will only get the notification if you’re in the area and you will then have to run or map travel as normal. There is a Guild skill though that allows you to summon your guildies and they can then fast travel to your location.

        4. Yes there will be huge end game bosses, but I have never heard any official statement saying you will need a guild of “geared people” to kill them? As Guild Wars 2 has a power plateau and you will get the best gear as soon as you hit level 80 basically I don’t see what point gear would have in this encounter. Guild Wars 2 is about player skill, gear will be a factor but only a very small one.

        5. All of them will scale as far as we know.

  • JJGlyph

    *sigh* still giving incomplete/misinformation.

    i give up.

    • JJGlyph

      I mean no disrespect to the cast for this show. Rubi has a lot of passion for this game & I’m glad she’s on the show. But there needs to be a “know-it-all” like the Darth Hater guys on your SWTOR show. When things go uncorrected it makes us cringe <3

      • Senatic

        Agree, it’s fine that there is some speculation and weird assumptions made, if at the end of it there is a person who steps in and can say “this is how it is”. And currently that is missing from this show.

  • Anonymous

    *sigh* still giving incomplete/misinformation.

    i give up.

    • Anonymous

      I mean no disrespect to the cast for this show. Rubi has a lot of passion for this game & I’m glad she’s on the show. But there needs to be a “know-it-all” like the Darth Hater guys on your SWTOR show. When things go uncorrected it makes us cringe <3

      • Anonymous

        Agree, it’s fine that there is some speculation and weird assumptions made, if at the end of it there is a person who steps in and can say “this is how it is”. And currently that is missing from this show.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Steve-Lazarowitz/100000420795554 Steve Lazarowitz

    About the end game, how come no one thought to bring up explorable mode dungeons, which is what the Anet devs themselves compare with raids.
    Each dungeon has a story mode, which is easier and then a very difficult explorable mode, that will require real coordination and skill. Because there’s no trinity, you have to learn to play your class. You can’t just depend on a tank and healer. Everyone will have to do their part.

    Without being able to have one guy tanking and taking all the aggro..there’s no way to hold aggro in GW 2..so five man dungeons will be a lot harder than people are used to..and a lot faster paced. More “real”. 
    Because if you can’t get attacked, cause you have a good tank…what’s the real danger in a raid? Memorizing a pattern?  

    End game doesn’t exist, per se, but for raiders, you’re looking at the 5 man dungeons in explorable mode.

    • http://twitter.com/Salamolign Salamol

      It’s the teamwork and co-ordination that people enjoy while raiding. It’s more challenging to do this on a larger scale and therefore keeps people interested for longer. Successful raiding requires players to know their class and strategy to meet dps checks and avoid deadly mechanics, so this “no trinity” thing isn’t going to make that any harder.

      Raids in other games have a weeklong lockout, and can take months to finally clear. Smaller 5 man dungeons (I’m talking mainly Rift here) are done every day and are generally easier to learn in terms of mechanics and can be figured out in a day (there are 25 iterations of 5 mans in Rift, so it would still be a lot to memorise :P – this is before taking any raid content into consideration). With that in the back of my mind, I’m not sure how those explorable dungeons will keep people occupied for an MMORPG length of time.

      • JVJunior

        “It’s more challenging to do this on a larger scale…” …If you’re using standard MMORPG combat mechanics. You’re basing your assumption’s on what you know of other games. People who have actually played the dungeon’s have testified to their  difficulty. They have also given excellent example’s of how the teamwork plays out (fantastically well, apparently) and of it’s importance if you want to be successful.

        Your point about lockouts, they are used simply to make the customer keep playing and paying. They certainly have nothing to do with enjoying your time in the game.

        • http://twitter.com/Salamolign Salamol

          I’m sorry to play devils advocate here, and I appreciate your response =)

          Whenever you have a larger group of people, it’s more difficult (or challenging) to organise, whatever you are doing. The feeling you get when achieving your goal is greater the harder you worked for it. Those that have tried the dungeons would be expected to find them difficult, as would anyone trying anything new. Teamwork (I’m sure) will be important but (and here’s why I mentioned the lockout timers) will the challenge really be as difficult typical “raid” content that can take weeks to master?

          I’ve never really viewed lockouts/resets as a way to extent subs, moreso that they’re an added challenge to “See how far you can get” in x-number of days. Of course that changes when you’re regularly clearing content, but at that stage people are looking to move into the next tier of raiding anyway.

          I AM looking at things through traditional “MMO-tinted-glasses” unfortunately, but until I can actually dive in and actually try it for myself I can’t quite understand how it’s going to steal away all my gaming time like I’ve wanted it to :P

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Steve-Lazarowitz/100000420795554 Steve Lazarowitz

    About the end game, how come no one thought to bring up explorable mode dungeons, which is what the Anet devs themselves compare with raids.
    Each dungeon has a story mode, which is easier and then a very difficult explorable mode, that will require real coordination and skill. Because there’s no trinity, you have to learn to play your class. You can’t just depend on a tank and healer. Everyone will have to do their part.

    Without being able to have one guy tanking and taking all the aggro..there’s no way to hold aggro in GW 2..so five man dungeons will be a lot harder than people are used to..and a lot faster paced. More “real”. 
    Because if you can’t get attacked, cause you have a good tank…what’s the real danger in a raid? Memorizing a pattern?  

    End game doesn’t exist, per se, but for raiders, you’re looking at the 5 man dungeons in explorable mode.

    • http://twitter.com/Salamolign Salamol

      It’s the teamwork and co-ordination that people enjoy while raiding. It’s more challenging to do this on a larger scale and therefore keeps people interested for longer. Successful raiding requires players to know their class and strategy to meet dps checks and avoid deadly mechanics, so this “no trinity” thing isn’t going to make that any harder.

      Raids in other games have a weeklong lockout, and can take months to finally clear. Smaller 5 man dungeons (I’m talking mainly Rift here) are done every day and are generally easier to learn in terms of mechanics and can be figured out in a day (there are 25 iterations of 5 mans in Rift, so it would still be a lot to memorise :P – this is before taking any raid content into consideration). With that in the back of my mind, I’m not sure how those explorable dungeons will keep people occupied for an MMORPG length of time.

      • Anonymous

        “It’s more challenging to do this on a larger scale…” …If you’re using standard MMORPG combat mechanics. You’re basing your assumption’s on what you know of other games. People who have actually played the dungeon’s have testified to their  difficulty. They have also given excellent example’s of how the teamwork plays out (fantastically well, apparently) and of it’s importance if you want to be successful.

        Your point about lockouts, they are used simply to make the customer keep playing and paying. They certainly have nothing to do with enjoying your time in the game.

        • http://twitter.com/Salamolign Salamol

          I’m sorry to play devils advocate here, and I appreciate your response =)

          Whenever you have a larger group of people, it’s more difficult (or challenging) to organise, whatever you are doing. The feeling you get when achieving your goal is greater the harder you worked for it. Those that have tried the dungeons would be expected to find them difficult, as would anyone trying anything new. Teamwork (I’m sure) will be important but (and here’s why I mentioned the lockout timers) will the challenge really be as difficult typical “raid” content that can take weeks to master?

          I’ve never really viewed lockouts/resets as a way to extent subs, moreso that they’re an added challenge to “See how far you can get” in x-number of days. Of course that changes when you’re regularly clearing content, but at that stage people are looking to move into the next tier of raiding anyway.

          I AM looking at things through traditional “MMO-tinted-glasses” unfortunately, but until I can actually dive in and actually try it for myself I can’t quite understand how it’s going to steal away all my gaming time like I’ve wanted it to :P

  • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

    The thing I don’t get about this whole “No Endgame” thing is that when
    did Raiding become the only form of PvE Endgame in MMOs. Why do all
    themeparks have to follow the same old tried and true method of; large
    group encounters, in an instance, with super hard bosses dropping phat
    lootz.

    There are already a ton of themepark MMORPGs following that formula, so why
    can’t a game like Guild Wars 2 do something different, where the
    5-mans become their super hard PvE content and the loot isn’t so phat. People scream for innovation in the genre, yet they hate change (-_-).
    But seriously, even if ArenaNet backpedaled and decided to add “raid”
    content to the game, not that many would do it, because who would go
    through all the trouble of doing a raid not to get the best loot in the
    game.

    If I want to play an MMORPG that is centered around Endgame raiding then I would play Rift, because no one game is designed to please everyone.

  • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

    The thing I don’t get about this whole “No Endgame” thing is that when
    did Raiding become the only form of PvE Endgame in MMOs. Why do all
    themeparks have to follow the same old tried and true method of; large
    group encounters, in an instance, with super hard bosses dropping phat
    lootz.

    There are already a ton of themepark MMORPGs following that formula, so why
    can’t a game like Guild Wars 2 do something different, where the
    5-mans become their super hard PvE content and the loot isn’t so phat. People scream for innovation in the genre, yet they hate change (-_-).
    But seriously, even if ArenaNet backpedaled and decided to add “raid”
    content to the game, not that many would do it, because who would go
    through all the trouble of doing a raid not to get the best loot in the
    game.

    If I want to play an MMORPG that is centered around Endgame raiding then I would play Rift, because no one game is designed to please everyone.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Steve-Lazarowitz/100000420795554 Steve Lazarowitz

    In Rift, dyamic events, such as invasions evaporate after a certain amount of time. In Guild Wars 2, events are persistent until players change them. A taken town remains in enemy control, theoretically forever. 

    In addition, events are chained, not stand alone. One event leads to another which leads to another. This doesn’t happen in any other game.
    If you lose a town to centaurs, they don’t just stay there. They start cutting down trees and building siege weapons. Then start destroying bridges and raiding. Until this is stopped, it keeps going. This is completely different from Rift. I played Rift for six months and the invasions were eventually jokes. Do nothing and they vanish in an hour. It wasn’t like that in beta, but Trion changed it, much to my annoyance.
    I understand why though. In Rift you have people who couldn’t get to quest hubs, because they were taken by enemies and it was frustrating. Guild Wars 2 HAS NO quest hubs, so it’s not going to be a problem. You can go anywhere.

    • JJGlyph

      Yep, and to add to yours: Rift has events added as an afterthought. The main portion of the game is still quest grinding.

      When I bought Rift I was so damn excited to play through the first few Rifts. It felt great. Then I played more… and more… and more…. and I realized they weren’t going to change. It’s the same thing over and over.

      In Guild Wars 2, the entire game is events. It’s not one scenario its over 1000 scenarios. This is why GW2 is different. This is why I think it’ll be a blast.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Aces-Fool/100002883412881 Aces Fool

      I’m not bashing GW2. I plan to play it. But if the occupations can last until someone does something about it, but there’s nothing to prevent you from doing whatever is you want to do anyway, then why will you want to clear it? I simply don’t see it. And if they do prevent players from accomplishing something I can guarantee you people will complain endlessly until they’re made to despawn after awhile.

      I don’t know. It seems everyone is fixated on the idea that a new game has to be mind blowing or it’s considered a failure. To say Rift failed is just plain silly. Is it the best, most awesome game to ever be released? No. But it’s a good, solid game. A lot of people are enjoying it. That hardly sounds like failure to me.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dante-Arkanthos/100001686523908 Dante Arkanthos

        Since it a event someone will do it heck i would since i would get karma, if you need something from the town, well reoccupy the town and  get the reward + the npc’s you need. I have not played Rift but events in Guild Wars 2 are scalable, so you can solo them or if you have more players participating they get harder (except the big events like Tequatl which require at least 10 players to start)

      • http://twitter.com/Salamolign Salamol

        I agree with you, and am a Rift fan, but also a huge GW1 fan :D

        I understand that these events are “dynamic chains” but at the end of the day, the town will be back again, to get invaded by the same centaurs tomorrow. And the day after that. The entire game is going to have these, even if there are 1000 scenarios. Each loaction will probably have 15 or so of these optional scenarios (half of these will never or rarely ever be seen) but it’s still circular because it’s a multiplayer game.

        I also wonder if people are going to will a “scenario” to fail so that they are able to see “option 2″ and get different items/titles/achievement points.

        • JVJunior

          One, ArenaNet have claimed that at the moment there are over 1500 events of varying size and difficulty.
          Two. You seem to be intentionally trying to see the worst by making poor arguments.  Quote –  ” I understand that these events are “dynamic chains” but at the end of the day, the town will be back again, to get invaded by the same centaurs tomorrow. And the day after that. ” Let’s apply that logic to Rift, where no matter how many bad guy’s you kill nothing ever changes and the house that’s on fire never burns down.

          In GW2, the only time you would see the same thing is if you stand in the same place for hours on end doing nothing, had some strange loss and win ratio that causes the event to tug-o-war to the same points, or happen to pass when an event is at the same stage you have seen before. In all of these cases the area would still change around you due to ally or npc interactions.

          If you play for long enough, yes it’s highly probable you will see the same event more than once. So?  It’s still leagues ahead of what we currently have in most MMO’s, and to criticise the game for it seems utterly ridiculous.

          P.s I played Rift beta and retail for a couple of months.

          • http://twitter.com/Salamolign Salamol

            I’m just voicing my honest concerns. People are going to be in the same places over and over if they are to play it anywhere near as much as any other open world game. Not just MMOs either, I must have been to Windhelm a hundred times in Skyrim, or, to make this Guild Wars related, ran around Lions Arch chatting to guildies/alliance for days of playtime, just because it was a central place.

            If, for example, every time I run out of my new favourite place, the same farm is on fire, I’m going to eventually ignore it because if I DO stop and put the fire out, the farmer is just going to ask me to water his crops like I did the day before, and I’d rather be off milking cows at the farm down the road today.

            There’s no sense applying my logic to Rift, as folks keep saying that GW2 is not like a traditional MMO, somebody else mentioned (it may have been you in a different post) that rifts/invasions are just a distraction, that’s OK though, because there’s a solid “tradional” questing system to fall back on. If people start seeing these DE’s in the same way, GW2 is a bit stuffed.

             I accept that it’s something new (and looks too good to be true, if I’m honest :P ), but until we’ve all tried it and played for a couple of months, it’s going to be difficult to tell if it turns out to be a huge step forward in the genre, or simply a sidestep that doesn’t really work out.

          • JVJunior

            Fair point. I guess because the developer’s appear to be genuinely trying to do something different and, according to the people that have played it, it’s working incredibly well,  I’m more inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. 

            By the way, I seem to have been unintentionally stalking your posts. Sorry about that.

          • http://twitter.com/Salamolign Salamol

            Haha it’s OK, there arn’t many people conversing on here… I was a HUGE GW1 fan and really want the game to succeed, it’s just they’re changing SO much! One of my biggest gripes is the changes to PvP which I felt was some of the best PvP I’ve ever had, so they should still have HoH and GvG!

          • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

            2 words… “Content Updates”. There’s no way in hell that GW2 will have “Conquest PvP” and only that mode, throughout it’s entire lifetime. I Think they just want to release with a solid and fun mode, with lots of variations, balance the PvP as well as they can and when people start getting bored of Conquest, they’ll release more modes.

      • JJGlyph

        I fear you may be a victim of MMO drone syndrome. The point of doing them is to have fun with your friends. They give rewards also, so I’m not seeing why there is no point.

        They also have story injected into them. It isn’t cutscene story (although there are those too) it is live action story. NPCs have dialogue as the events unfold & instead of a guy standing still next to a campfire, NPCs will run up to you and tell you something is about to go down.

        Events can affect each other & weather can as well (ex. lightning storms spawn lightning elementals). I just find the system incredibly interesting. My opinion.

        TL;DR I’m a Guild Wars nerd.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Steve-Lazarowitz/100000420795554 Steve Lazarowitz

    In Rift, dyamic events, such as invasions evaporate after a certain amount of time. In Guild Wars 2, events are persistent until players change them. A taken town remains in enemy control, theoretically forever. 

    In addition, events are chained, not stand alone. One event leads to another which leads to another. This doesn’t happen in any other game.
    If you lose a town to centaurs, they don’t just stay there. They start cutting down trees and building siege weapons. Then start destroying bridges and raiding. Until this is stopped, it keeps going. This is completely different from Rift. I played Rift for six months and the invasions were eventually jokes. Do nothing and they vanish in an hour. It wasn’t like that in beta, but Trion changed it, much to my annoyance.
    I understand why though. In Rift you have people who couldn’t get to quest hubs, because they were taken by enemies and it was frustrating. Guild Wars 2 HAS NO quest hubs, so it’s not going to be a problem. You can go anywhere.

    • Anonymous

      Yep, and to add to yours: Rift has events added as an afterthought. The main portion of the game is still quest grinding.

      When I bought Rift I was so damn excited to play through the first few Rifts. It felt great. Then I played more… and more… and more…. and I realized they weren’t going to change. It’s the same thing over and over.

      In Guild Wars 2, the entire game is events. It’s not one scenario its over 1000 scenarios. This is why GW2 is different. This is why I think it’ll be a blast.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Aces-Fool/100002883412881 Aces Fool

      I’m not bashing GW2. I plan to play it. But if the occupations can last until someone does something about it, but there’s nothing to prevent you from doing whatever is you want to do anyway, then why will you want to clear it? I simply don’t see it. And if they do prevent players from accomplishing something I can guarantee you people will complain endlessly until they’re made to despawn after awhile.

      I don’t know. It seems everyone is fixated on the idea that a new game has to be mind blowing or it’s considered a failure. To say Rift failed is just plain silly. Is it the best, most awesome game to ever be released? No. But it’s a good, solid game. A lot of people are enjoying it. That hardly sounds like failure to me.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dante-Arkanthos/100001686523908 Dante Arkanthos

        Since it a event someone will do it heck i would since i would get karma, if you need something from the town, well reoccupy the town and  get the reward + the npc’s you need. I have not played Rift but events in Guild Wars 2 are scalable, so you can solo them or if you have more players participating they get harder (except the big events like Tequatl which require at least 10 players to start)

      • http://twitter.com/Salamolign Salamol

        I agree with you, and am a Rift fan, but also a huge GW1 fan :D

        I understand that these events are “dynamic chains” but at the end of the day, the town will be back again, to get invaded by the same centaurs tomorrow. And the day after that. The entire game is going to have these, even if there are 1000 scenarios. Each loaction will probably have 15 or so of these optional scenarios (half of these will never or rarely ever be seen) but it’s still circular because it’s a multiplayer game.

        I also wonder if people are going to will a “scenario” to fail so that they are able to see “option 2″ and get different items/titles/achievement points.

        • Anonymous

          One, ArenaNet have claimed that at the moment there are over 1500 events of varying size and difficulty.
          Two. You seem to be intentionally trying to see the worst by making poor arguments.  Quote –  ” I understand that these events are “dynamic chains” but at the end of the day, the town will be back again, to get invaded by the same centaurs tomorrow. And the day after that. ” Let’s apply that logic to Rift, where no matter how many bad guy’s you kill nothing ever changes and the house that’s on fire never burns down.

          In GW2, the only time you would see the same thing is if you stand in the same place for hours on end doing nothing, had some strange loss and win ratio that causes the event to tug-o-war to the same points, or happen to pass when an event is at the same stage you have seen before. In all of these cases the area would still change around you due to ally or npc interactions.

          If you play for long enough, yes it’s highly probable you will see the same event more than once. So?  It’s still leagues ahead of what we currently have in most MMO’s, and to criticise the game for it seems utterly ridiculous.

          P.s I played Rift beta and retail for a couple of months.

          • http://twitter.com/Salamolign Salamol

            I’m just voicing my honest concerns. People are going to be in the same places over and over if they are to play it anywhere near as much as any other open world game. Not just MMOs either, I must have been to Windhelm a hundred times in Skyrim, or, to make this Guild Wars related, ran around Lions Arch chatting to guildies/alliance for days of playtime, just because it was a central place.

            If, for example, every time I run out of my new favourite place, the same farm is on fire, I’m going to eventually ignore it because if I DO stop and put the fire out, the farmer is just going to ask me to water his crops like I did the day before, and I’d rather be off milking cows at the farm down the road today.

            There’s no sense applying my logic to Rift, as folks keep saying that GW2 is not like a traditional MMO, somebody else mentioned (it may have been you in a different post) that rifts/invasions are just a distraction, that’s OK though, because there’s a solid “tradional” questing system to fall back on. If people start seeing these DE’s in the same way, GW2 is a bit stuffed.

             I accept that it’s something new (and looks too good to be true, if I’m honest :P ), but until we’ve all tried it and played for a couple of months, it’s going to be difficult to tell if it turns out to be a huge step forward in the genre, or simply a sidestep that doesn’t really work out.

          • Anonymous

            Fair point. I guess because the developer’s appear to be genuinely trying to do something different and, according to the people that have played it, it’s working incredibly well,  I’m more inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. 

            By the way, I seem to have been unintentionally stalking your posts. Sorry about that.

          • http://twitter.com/Salamolign Salamol

            Haha it’s OK, there arn’t many people conversing on here… I was a HUGE GW1 fan and really want the game to succeed, it’s just they’re changing SO much! One of my biggest gripes is the changes to PvP which I felt was some of the best PvP I’ve ever had, so they should still have HoH and GvG!

          • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

            2 words… “Content Updates”. There’s no way in hell that GW2 will have “Conquest PvP” and only that mode, throughout it’s entire lifetime. I Think they just want to release with a solid and fun mode, with lots of variations, balance the PvP as well as they can and when people start getting bored of Conquest, they’ll release more modes.

      • Anonymous

        I fear you are a victim of MMO drone syndrome. The point of doing them is to have fun with your friends. They give rewards also, so I’m not seeing why there is no point.

        They also have story injected into them. It isn’t cutscene story it is live action story. NPCs run up to you, brief you on the situation, request help and then run off. Events can affect each other & weather can as well (ex. lightning storms spawn lightning elementals). I just find the system incredibly interesting. My opinion.

        TL;DR I’m a Guild Wars nerd.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Aces-Fool/100002883412881 Aces Fool

    I’m confused. When exactly did Rift fail?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Aces-Fool/100002883412881 Aces Fool

    I’m confused. When exactly did Rift fail?

  • Zokudu

    I’m getting kind of flustered with this show to be honest. I understand there is not a lot of information coming out but come on. I feel like theres just a little bit something wrong with how this show ends up playing out each week. I feel like it ends up with Rubi trying to defend whatever is being talked about against devils advocate opposition and it’s not really flattering for the game at this point in time.

    Nothing against Rubi or Shawn but I think they’re missing information or don’t think on their feet or something because they get asked things that would seemingly be easily answered but they just beat around the bush while Gary looks bored. I love the look of GW2 and am excited for its release but I don’t know how much longer I can watch this show.

  • Anonymous

    I’m getting kind of flustered with this show to be honest. I understand there is not a lot of information coming out but come on. I feel like theres just a little bit something wrong with how this show ends up playing out each week. I feel like it ends up with Rubi trying to defend whatever is being talked about against devils advocate opposition and it’s not really flattering for the game at this point in time.

    Nothing against Rubi or Shawn but I think they’re missing information or don’t think on their feet or something because they get asked things that would seemingly be easily answered but they just beat around the bush while Gary looks bored. I love the look of GW2 and am excited for its release but I don’t know how much longer I can watch this show.

  • Krister Holmberg

    The game is called Guild Wars. It is a pvp game. It does not and will not have any pve endgame raiding. 

    • JJGlyph

      Nice attempt troll… nice attempt.

      • Krister Holmberg

        So the game is NOT called Guild Wars ? I can NOT create a max level character and bypass the PVE leveling content as I could in GW1 to start endgame PVP ? The game has endgame raids because GW1 sure did not ?

        What is wrong about what I said ?

        • Senatic

          The game was not named Guild Wars because of it’s PvP aspects.

          “The Guild Wars are the series of at least three wars among different guilds in the three human kingdoms of Ascalon, Kryta, and Orr. The wars ended only because the charr invasion from the north meant an even bigger threat to the three kingdoms.

          The second Guild War was memorialized by the construction of Surmia in 1020 AE. Ascalon was the kingdom victorious of this war according to the Historical Monument of Surmia. It is unlikely that the war ended during 1020 AE, however, due to the length of the latest Guild War.

          The most recent Guild War lasted for 57 years (from 1013 AE until 1070 AE). The war caused much suffering and hatred between the people of the three kingdoms. These old wounds can be seen in the present day in the form of the mistrust King Adelbern holds towards the efforts of Kryta to help Ascalon recover from the charr invasion, particularly towards Ambassador Zain. During this war, King Adelbern was a war hero which led to his eventual crowning as a king instead of Barradin becoming king.

          While there have been many Guild Wars prior to this one, when characters in the game refer to the Guild War, they mean the last one which ended with the Searing. While initially confined to a conflict between guilds, when open combat erupted in the streets of Arah, Orr responded to protect its holy city. The military action against Krytan and Ascalonian guilds spurred the other nations into responding, leading to open conflict between the three nations.”

          This is why it was named Guild Wars. And no you can’t create a PvP character as you actually PvP with the same character you PvE, though you’ll be sidekicked to max level so you can PvP right out of the gate. 

    • Brett Gibson

      thats funny, except Guild refers to the Guilds of the lore, not player made guilds. Epic fail.

  • Krister Holmberg

    The game is called Guild Wars. It is a pvp game. It does not and will not have any pve endgame raiding. 

    • Anonymous

      Nice attempt troll… nice attempt.

      • Krister Holmberg

        So the game is NOT called Guild Wars ? I can NOT create a max level character and bypass the PVE leveling content as I could in GW1 to start endgame PVP ? The game has endgame raids because GW1 sure did not ?

        What is wrong about what I said ?

        • Anonymous

          The game was not named Guild Wars because of it’s PvP aspects.

          “The Guild Wars are the series of at least three wars among different guilds in the three human kingdoms of Ascalon, Kryta, and Orr. The wars ended only because the charr invasion from the north meant an even bigger threat to the three kingdoms.

          The second Guild War was memorialized by the construction of Surmia in 1020 AE. Ascalon was the kingdom victorious of this war according to the Historical Monument of Surmia. It is unlikely that the war ended during 1020 AE, however, due to the length of the latest Guild War.

          The most recent Guild War lasted for 57 years (from 1013 AE until 1070 AE). The war caused much suffering and hatred between the people of the three kingdoms. These old wounds can be seen in the present day in the form of the mistrust King Adelbern holds towards the efforts of Kryta to help Ascalon recover from the charr invasion, particularly towards Ambassador Zain. During this war, King Adelbern was a war hero which led to his eventual crowning as a king instead of Barradin becoming king.

          While there have been many Guild Wars prior to this one, when characters in the game refer to the Guild War, they mean the last one which ended with the Searing. While initially confined to a conflict between guilds, when open combat erupted in the streets of Arah, Orr responded to protect its holy city. The military action against Krytan and Ascalonian guilds spurred the other nations into responding, leading to open conflict between the three nations.”

          This is why it was named Guild Wars. And no you can’t create a PvP character as you actually PvP with the same character you PvE, though you’ll be sidekicked to max level so you can PvP right out of the gate. 

    • Brett Gibson

      thats funny, except Guild refers to the Guilds of the lore, not player made guilds. Epic fail.

    • Senatic

      As Brett and JJHlyph said you are obviously unaware of the origins of the title. 

      http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Guild_Wars

  • http://twitter.com/dndhatcher David Hatcher

    Here is the answer to the Guardian question:

    I am a Guardian.

    I protect my friends, but I am not a tank.

    I can bind you in ghostly chains so you cant attack
    I can create force barriers to block or reflect your attacks
    I can create force barriers to block your movement
    I can create a force bubble that knocks you away
    I have a ghostly hammer “pet” that can knock you down
    I can Aegis shield my friends to block your next attack
    With my hammer I can knock you down or knock you away
    With my sword I can blind you or block your ranged attacks
    With my mace I can stun you
    With my shield I can knock you back
    Better yet, many of my abilities also buff or heal nearby allies

    While I remain standing, you will not have a chance to hurt my friends.

    I am a Guardian.

  • http://twitter.com/dndhatcher David Hatcher

    Here is the answer to the Guardian question:

    I am a Guardian.

    I protect my friends, but I am not a tank.

    I can bind you in ghostly chains so you cant attack
    I can create force barriers to block or reflect your attacks
    I can create force barriers to block your movement
    I can create a force bubble that knocks you away
    I have a ghostly hammer “pet” that can knock you down
    I can Aegis shield my friends to block your next attack
    With my hammer I can knock you down or knock you away
    With my sword I can blind you or block your ranged attacks
    With my mace I can stun you
    With my shield I can knock you back
    Better yet, many of my abilities also buff or heal nearby allies

    While I remain standing, you will not have a chance to hurt my friends.

    I am a Guardian.

  • H S

    I’m not concerned about the endgame not having “raids”. Maybe it’s a good thing not to have a crutch (ie the standard MMO model) to lean on to find a better solutions to the end game. Here’s an idea, how bout no end game at all, just a game that starts as is and remains that way. What a concept!

    • http://twitter.com/WadeDMcGinnis Wade D McGinnis

      Secret World??

    • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

      And that’s exactly what people can expect from GW2. The fact that you can do max level PvP 10 mins after character creation and enjoy the most challenging PvE content fairly early on is testament to that ideal, of this supposed “no endgame”.

  • H S

    I’m not concerned about the endgame not having “raids”. Maybe it’s a good thing not to have a crutch (ie the standard MMO model) to lean on to find a better solutions to the end game. Here’s an idea, how bout no end game at all, just a game that starts as is and remains that way. What a concept!

    • http://twitter.com/WadeDMcGinnis Wade D McGinnis

      Secret World??

    • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

      And that’s exactly what people can expect from GW2. The fact that you can do max level PvP 10 mins after character creation and enjoy the most challenging PvE content fairly early on is testament to that ideal, of this supposed “no endgame”.

  • Eggers

    Not having end raids will be and issue.  GW2 will be like EQ if leveling if as difficult, and there is a death pen on exp I would love that?  If leveling is the I would like it but there does need to be a carrot on the stick for PvE players. 

    • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

      GW2 would be nothing like EQ, because whilst leveling, there may be a lot of challenging content, there will be no annoying death penalty. All you’ll have to worry about is having to spend a bit of coin every time you die and aren’t able to get back up.

      Also the carrot on the stick in GW2 would be about getting the kind of gear you want, not getting X gear because it is vastly better than Y gear, like in most MMORPGs.

  • Anonymous

    Not having end raids will be and issue.  GW2 will be like EQ if leveling if as difficult, and there is a death pen on exp I would love that?  If leveling is the I would like it but there does need to be a carrot on the stick for PvE players. 

    • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

      GW2 would be nothing like EQ, because whilst leveling, there may be a lot of challenging content, there will be no annoying death penalty. All you’ll have to worry about is having to spend a bit of coin every time you die and aren’t able to get back up.

      Also the carrot on the stick in GW2 would be about getting the kind of gear you want, not getting X gear because it is vastly better than Y gear, like in most MMORPGs.

  • Christopher Lawrence

    There is a discussion with a similar concern here on the Guild Wars 2 Guru forums. You can skim through some of the discussions here. 
    http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/how-do-we-progress-in-t25508.html

  • Kristian Madsen

    just a quick thing i’d like to add to remove any doubts on that somethings that there seemed to be unsure of
    the game (according to the developers) can be completed single handed wit the exception  of the greater bosses where one needs to be at least 10 ppl BUT events scale so the difficulty and amount of loot increases the events scale up to 100 ppl which would sate gamers need for large scale battles. 

  • Kristian Madsen

    just a quick thing i’d like to add to remove any doubts on that somethings that there seemed to be unsure of
    the game (according to the developers) can be completed single handed wit the exception  of the greater bosses where one needs to be at least 10 ppl BUT events scale so the difficulty and amount of loot increases the events scale up to 100 ppl which would sate gamers need for large scale battles. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Hans-Cornelis/100000284073837 Hans Cornelis

    Ignorant people talking in the show, i know tons of people able to give better answers 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Hans-Cornelis/100000284073837 Hans Cornelis

    Ignorant people talking in the show, i know tons of people able to give better answers 

  • XanonymX

    what you said about Rift was kinda “wrong” to me. The invasions didnt work in Rift because there was no where around it! You could be at lvl 15 and the only guy in your zone, if you play late at night or something. And the mobs could come and take over all your quest bases, and you wouldnt be able to turn in your quests or get around the invasion in any way since in Rift there was like 1 zone where you could lvl. In GW2 the invasions will take over towns, and maybe you cant solo retake it. But you can just go somewhere else instead if you cant do it by yourself, instead of being stuck and having no way to turn in your quests. 

  • Anonymous

    what you said about Rift was kinda “wrong” to me. The invasions didnt work in Rift because there was no where around it! You could be at lvl 15 and the only guy in your zone, if you play late at night or something. And the mobs could come and take over all your quest bases, and you wouldnt be able to turn in your quests or get around the invasion in any way since in Rift there was like 1 zone where you could lvl. In GW2 the invasions will take over towns, and maybe you cant solo retake it. But you can just go somewhere else instead if you cant do it by yourself, instead of being stuck and having no way to turn in your quests. 

  • http://twitter.com/DaPhoolz Rp TheFoolz

    Wow! This show is Hot! Great show!

  • http://twitter.com/DaPhoolz Rp TheFoolz

    Wow! This show is Hot! Great show!

  • Mark Hailes

    The endgame question would be better phrased as “is their PvE content that is more challenging than the average dynamic event (which of necessity must be doable by the majority of players) and when do you meet it in the game”. Currently we know that there will be 5 man dungeons, that have been said to be very challenging in explorable mode, scattered throughout the levels. Further we know that there will be large scale dynamic events that will require many people to cooperate in order to complete them. But, it’s not yet clear how much challenging content will be in the game from launch. Colin has also mentioned that you can create your own challenges by doing content pitched above your level – that’s another advantage of not having quests on rails, which usually cause you to overlevel.       

  • Mark Hailes

    The endgame question would be better phrased as “is their PvE content that is more challenging than the average dynamic event (which of necessity must be doable by the majority of players) and when do you meet it in the game”. Currently we know that there will be 5 man dungeons, that have been said to be very challenging in explorable mode, scattered throughout the levels. Further we know that there will be large scale dynamic events that will require many people to cooperate in order to complete them. But, it’s not yet clear how much challenging content will be in the game from launch. Colin has also mentioned that you can create your own challenges by doing content pitched above your level – that’s another advantage of not having quests on rails, which usually cause you to overlevel.       

  • Nut Bunnie

    The meat of the show could stand to improve with a steady voice for the PvP crowd, considering it’s very centric to the game.

  • Nut Bunnie

    The meat of the show could stand to improve with a steady voice for the PvP crowd, considering it’s very centric to the game.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003099533977 Derrick Sturgill

    I don’t think Garry “gets” GW2, and is only thinking of it as a traditional MMO style kinda game.

    • Zokudu

      I think he gets it but he has to play devil advocate because if it was the three of them sitting around talking about mechanics that they understand and your average viewer doesn’t no one would watch it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003099533977 Derrick Sturgill

    I don’t think Garry “gets” GW2, and is only thinking of it as a traditional MMO style kinda game.

    • Anonymous

      I think he gets it but he has to play devil advocate because if it was the three of them sitting around talking about mechanics that they understand and your average viewer doesn’t no one would watch it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=645839358 William Sizemore

    Ok. For the “tanking” every profession has a way to tank or hold aggro. the closest to the target is what he will aim for. So aggro is based on whoever is closest. This doesn’t mean that a mob wont have an ability to switch and use a ranged attack on a random other from time to time but its focus is the closest character. Every profession uses different ways of avoiding damage. Thieves use evasion, mesmers use clones, rangers use pets and heavy armor wearers use armor and shields.

    For those looking for endgame content. You will have a story you follow and make choices in. Once you’re done with your story you have the rest of the world to explore and see. Or make a new character and play a different game with different choices and events. If you only want one toon then there are many mini games and world vs world vs world pvp. Also they plan to add new events often so you can “beat” the game and new events will be added you an go do.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=645839358 William Sizemore

    Ok. For the “tanking” every profession has a way to tank or hold aggro. the closest to the target is what he will aim for. So aggro is based on whoever is closest. This doesn’t mean that a mob wont have an ability to switch and use a ranged attack on a random other from time to time but its focus is the closest character. Every profession uses different ways of avoiding damage. Thieves use evasion, mesmers use clones, rangers use pets and heavy armor wearers use armor and shields.

    For those looking for endgame content. You will have a story you follow and make choices in. Once you’re done with your story you have the rest of the world to explore and see. Or make a new character and play a different game with different choices and events. If you only want one toon then there are many mini games and world vs world vs world pvp. Also they plan to add new events often so you can “beat” the game and new events will be added you an go do.

  • http://www.facebook.com/rik.carmo88 Ricardo Do Carmo

    I think its kinda strange, even in GW2 u have a LVL cap of 80, so whats the point of having a lvlrange??

    If its just world events and World Raids, for what are the Lvling?

    I just think that even World stuff who has Bosses and Events will be controled by the lvl 80 Guys and the lowlvl guys wont have any influence on the current world.

    Thats what i think…

    • Senatic

      ArenaNets answer to this question is that leveling is a way of indicating how much you have progressed in the world, both in the main story and general. Besides, Leveling serves a purpose because it gives you attributes which helps you more distinctly define your own role.

  • http://www.facebook.com/rik.carmo88 Ricardo Do Carmo

    I think its kinda strange, even in GW2 u have a LVL cap of 80, so whats the point of having a lvlrange??

    If its just world events and World Raids, for what are the Lvling?

    I just think that even World stuff who has Bosses and Events will be controled by the lvl 80 Guys and the lowlvl guys wont have any influence on the current world.

    Thats what i think…

    • Anonymous

      ArenaNets answer to this question is that leveling is a way of indicating how much you have progressed in the world, both in the main story and general. Besides, Leveling serves a purpose because it gives you attributes which helps you more distinctly define your own role.

  • Bluecewe

    Guild Wars 2 is certainly not the only upcoming MMO featuring a dynamic events system. Firefall, an upcoming MMOFPS, is also planning to make dynamic events the primary mechanic of it’s open world component with dynamically generated missions and player hub sieges.

    The funny thing is that this idea of “dynamic events” sort of stemmed from APB; where a player loads into an open world envrionment (i.e. a city), flags himself as “ready” and is thrown into a completely player-driven combat experience. I feel that while developers are clearly trying to implement this further into a more open world experience, thus far they appear to be somewhat failing to implement it correctly for whatever reason. It will be interesting to see whether GW2 or FF successfully build upon the ideas which Realtime Worlds set out several years ago.

  • Anonymous

    Guild Wars 2 is certainly not the only upcoming MMO featuring a dynamic events system. Firefall, an upcoming MMOFPS, is also planning to make dynamic events the primary mechanic of it’s open world component with dynamically generated missions and player hub sieges.

    The funny thing is that this idea of “dynamic events” sort of stemmed from APB; where a player loads into an open world envrionment (i.e. a city), flags himself as “ready” and is thrown into a completely player-driven combat experience. I feel that while developers are clearly trying to implement this further into a more open world experience, thus far they appear to be somewhat failing to implement it correctly for whatever reason. It will be interesting to see whether GW2 or FF successfully build upon the ideas which Realtime Worlds set out several years ago.

  • Timothy Fletcher

    I’m of two minds about this.

    On the one hand, I think the show is okay. 
    Gannon does his job well, he’s a good host, he’s enthusiastic, legible and he does well to try introduce concepts to new listeners that most of us have been familiar with for a long time. That’s his job. Yea, he makes mistakes, but he’s a busy guy. 
    I imagine his job is much like trying to remember the words to many different songs all of which have the same tune. You’re gunna mix some lines up. GW2 is something he’s just getting into now, you can hear his expertise growing in each new cast and if he thought himself an expert, they likely wouldn’t have brought Shawn and Rubi in in the first place.

    On the other hand, I find the resident experts to be seriously lacking in their GW2 knowledge. 
    Last episode I found myself thinking a number of times ‘have these people not read the reddit AmA? The answers are right there, no need for speculation’. They don’t even speculate particularly well.

    I would welcome a more factual GW2 cast to the few that currently exist…but the problem here is that it’d be a bit sketchy with current information and the like. You’d have to stretch the things we know pretty far and in the end, you’d be mixing in some heavy speculation…so it’s probably a project best left until nearer launch.

    As for the inflammatory title…well…that’s how you get listeners. It’s a line that gets thrown around a lot, too, so I don’t really see it as instigating as much as simply addressing a concern. And while it may be clear to us that ‘endgame’ isn’t going to be a problem…we actually don’t *know* that. It’s worth a discussion and a episode title.

    I do agree that they should have done their homework in order to tackle it fairly, though. Yes, they’re answering off the top of their heads but are you suggesting one can’t google or wiki something while the other is talking? Of course they can. Merely being able to cite a source is golden. Gary keeps up the convo while keeping stock of his programme, Rubi and Shawn have free time to burn. We’re not asking them to knock up a phD thesis on the matter. They know what the show is about beforehand, they’re a google search and an F3 away from something pertinent to say. Spend 30mins beforehand making notes! Again, they don’t have to make it a full time job…just act like you give a damn, that’s all.

    Whatever. I like the show. I like Rubi and Shawn. But I wouldn’t mind it if they brushed up on their facts or, alternately, a more fact-oriented GW2 podcast emerging. If that’s simply not the serious edge that they want to put forward, then fine. It’s their show. Guildcast has always been casual and that’s working okay.

  • Timothy Fletcher

    I’m of two minds about this.

    On the one hand, I think the show is okay. 
    Gannon does his job well, he’s a good host, he’s enthusiastic, legible and he does well to try introduce concepts to new listeners that most of us have been familiar with for a long time. That’s his job. Yea, he makes mistakes, but he’s a busy guy. 
    I imagine his job is much like trying to remember the words to many different songs all of which have the same tune. You’re gunna mix some lines up. GW2 is something he’s just getting into now, you can hear his expertise growing in each new cast and if he thought himself an expert, they likely wouldn’t have brought Shawn and Rubi in in the first place.

    On the other hand, I find the resident experts to be seriously lacking in their GW2 knowledge. 
    Last episode I found myself thinking a number of times ‘have these people not read the reddit AmA? The answers are right there, no need for speculation’. They don’t even speculate particularly well.

    I would welcome a more factual GW2 cast to the few that currently exist…but the problem here is that it’d be a bit sketchy with current information and the like. You’d have to stretch the things we know pretty far and in the end, you’d be mixing in some heavy speculation…so it’s probably a project best left until nearer launch.

    As for the inflammatory title…well…that’s how you get listeners. It’s a line that gets thrown around a lot, too, so I don’t really see it as instigating as much as simply addressing a concern. And while it may be clear to us that ‘endgame’ isn’t going to be a problem…we actually don’t *know* that. It’s worth a discussion and a episode title.

    I do agree that they should have done their homework in order to tackle it fairly, though. Yes, they’re answering off the top of their heads but are you suggesting one can’t google or wiki something while the other is talking? Of course they can. Merely being able to cite a source is golden. Gary keeps up the convo while keeping stock of his programme, Rubi and Shawn have free time to burn. We’re not asking them to knock up a phD thesis on the matter. They know what the show is about beforehand, they’re a google search and an F3 away from something pertinent to say. Spend 30mins beforehand making notes! Again, they don’t have to make it a full time job…just act like you give a damn, that’s all.

    Whatever. I like the show. I like Rubi and Shawn. But I wouldn’t mind it if they brushed up on their facts or, alternately, a more fact-oriented GW2 podcast emerging. If that’s simply not the serious edge that they want to put forward, then fine. It’s their show. Guildcast has always been casual and that’s working okay.

  • Jason carter

    Lol @ the fanboy below. I did my own research on this game and I’m not impressed. Swtor is failing due to a lack of enough EG content. Now Gw2 has none and they have the nerve to say its EG from the gate lmao. This sounds very FF14ish and smells of fail.
    No side qst just a main qst per class is very fail just like how FF14 was. So there is only one main story qst per class that others can help you with. So this means 2 things one your going to have to beg people you help  you with your main qst so you can progress.  I say beg because it goes by the leaders qst line so it sounds like the other players helping won’t get rewards or credit for the qst. Idk doesn’t sound promising. Also if you can do raid instances and bosses at lets say lv20 and do the same ones at lv70 what the incentive to lv up? lol lv cap is 80…seriously who wants to grind 80 lvs gtfo. This game reeks with nothing but fail. I can’t be the only one seeing this or maybe its just fanboys that are watching this and commenting. This game isn’t going to last 3 months probably fail worst than FF14. I say worst than 14 because based on the info devs are giving already it sound terrible and most smart people will stay far away. Maybe this is just supposed to be a pvp game. The pve stuff sounds lame and fail sauce imo.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1012891904 Daniel Drake

      The problem with your response is that you are taking the ideas of Areanet and applying them to the games you are already familiar with, rather than examining the assumptions of  those games that prevent those mechanics from being fun or interesting.  

    • Anonymous

      trollers gonna troll.

  • Jason carter

    Lol @ all the fanboy’s below. I did my own research on this game and I’m not impressed. Swtor is failing due to a lack of enough EG content. Now Gw2 has none and they have the nerve to say its EG from the gate lmao. This sounds very FF14ish and smells of fail.
    No side qst just a main qst per class is very fail just like how FF14 was. So there is only one main story qst per class that others can help you with. So this means 2 things one your going to have to beg people you help  you with your main qst so you can progress.  I say beg because it goes by the leaders qst line so it sounds like the other players helping won’t get rewards or credit for the qst. Idk doesn’t sound promising. Also if you can do raid instances and bosses at lets say lv20 and do the same ones at lv70 what the incentive to lv up? lol lv cap is 80…seriously who wants to grind 80 lvs gtfo. This game reeks with nothing but fail. I can’t be the only one seeing this or maybe its just fanboys that are watching this and commenting. This game isn’t going to last 3 months probably fail worst than FF14. I say worst than 14 because based on the info devs are giving already it sound terrible and most smart people will stay far away. Maybe this is just supposed to be a pvp game. The pve stuff sounds lame and fail sauce imo.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1012891904 Daniel Drake

      The problem with your response is that you are taking the ideas of Areanet and applying them to the games you are already familiar with, rather than examining the assumptions of  those games that prevent those mechanics from being fun or interesting.  

    • Senatic

      trollers gonna troll.

  • http://www.facebook.com/karlmagnus.karlsson Karl-Magnus Karlsson

    Am just getting into the idea of GW2 (and will consider buying it) but I can’t help but feel the fans are dreaming pretty high. How much is actually confirmed? How in the blazez will they afford all this content, add so much more (as people claim they will) and do the necessary bughunting (this game will not be the exception to that rule)?

    Everyone is talking of this game as if it could not faulter in any aspect. As if it is (unreleased) perfection. Just want to know if the hype is dreamy or sturdy. I have only glazed through what the devs have said, but I feel like the fans are building a castle just like some did with TOR. Be careful so you don’t get burned. And oh, if I get this bad boy, I’m defenitly rolling a mesmer^^ 

    • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

      The thing about GW2 is that the hype isn’t unfounded. Everything feature that the fans are excited about has already been shown to be in the game and working as intended. 1,000s of people have already played a bit of the game’s PvE and PvP and get a good feel of all aspects of the game (except Dungeons & WvWvW). Also you talk as if this game can’t make any money, yet GW1 made enough money for them to fund the costly production of GW2, with well over 200 devs working at ArenaNet.

      The reason I can say all this is because ArenaNet have been incredibly transparent with the production of the game, telling fans everything that goes into making it. I suggest you go read their blogs to understand just how open ArenaNet is been.

  • http://www.facebook.com/karlmagnus.karlsson Karl-Magnus Karlsson

    Am just getting into the idea of GW2 (and will consider buying it) but I can’t help but feel the fans are dreaming pretty high. How much is actually confirmed? How in the blazez will they afford all this content, add so much more (as people claim they will) and do the necessary bughunting (this game will not be the exception to that rule)?

    Everyone is talking of this game as if it could not faulter in any aspect. As if it is (unreleased) perfection. Just want to know if the hype is dreamy or sturdy. I have only glazed through what the devs have said, but I feel like the fans are building a castle just like some did with TOR. Be careful so you don’t get burned. And oh, if I get this bad boy, I’m defenitly rolling a mesmer^^ 

    • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

      The thing about GW2 is that the hype isn’t unfounded. Everything feature that the fans are excited about has already been shown to be in the game and working as intended. 1,000s of people have already played a bit of the game’s PvE and PvP and get a good feel of all aspects of the game (except Dungeons & WvWvW). Also you talk as if this game can’t make any money, yet GW1 made enough money for them to fund the costly production of GW2, with well over 200 devs working at ArenaNet.

      The reason I can say all this is because ArenaNet have been incredibly transparent with the production of the game, telling fans everything that goes into making it. I suggest you go read their blogs to understand just how open ArenaNet is been.

  • http://www.facebook.com/karlmagnus.karlsson Karl-Magnus Karlsson

    Without a sub I might add :P . I expect the creators of this game would like to pay bills and eat and so on.

  • http://www.facebook.com/karlmagnus.karlsson Karl-Magnus Karlsson

    Without a sub I might add :P . I expect the creators of this game would like to pay bills and eat and so on.

  • Elusive Fox

    the thing about this “holy trinity” not being dissolved with this game, it sounds great but I honestly don’t see it.  The reason the holy trinity came about to begin with has to to with making it easier for players.  It is a lot easier to keep everyone alive if you know ahead of time that most of the damage is going to go towards person X (your tank), also the idea of getting rid of healers by giving everyone healing abilities forces people to split their attention between heals and damage, and possibly some fight mechanic.  

    I think the whole idea of it is great for solo/dual situations, and even better in pvp.  However for pve even know I would love to see it, I think that this whole ridding of the trinity idea risks will either end up trivializing pve(never fun).  or cause a lot of problems/frustration for less skilled players/groups since some people have a difficulty focusing on just being a tank/healer/dps and avoiding environment mechanics at the same time, when you expect them to do all 3 proficiently at the same time or even two of the three,

    That being said I have a lot of hope for the dynamic quest system I liked the rift system in Rift though there did become a point where the reward for doing made them obsolete/meh, and even the raid rifts weren’t challenging.  I am hoping the dynamic system gets that time/risk/reward level right so people will continue to do the events past the first few months!

    I do disagree with the poster below me though.  GW2 not having raids makes me sad even smaller raids 10-15 playerish.. I have always felt that raid style dungeons to be some of the most fun in any MMO.  Having something my entire guild can go out and kill that takes a couple weeks of trying different strategies learning boss mechanics and really playing our classes to the best of our abilities to finally get through a challenging raid is so much more fun than killing that random goblin boss in 10 seconds flat for the 10millionth time.

    • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

      If you find it so hard to visualize non-trinity play as a challenge then why don’t you play some good co-op games to understand. Heck, even Magika is a decent example of this and that game provides challenging PvE content.

      The holy trinity system trivializes content and I know this because I’ve played all the roles of the trinity in Rift and did a ton of raiding. All it came down to is: knowing the boss mechanics, knowing what each role was responsible for and then executing your task, with little to no real need for actual communication. Also the issue I’ve had with raiding is that as the number of players increase, the easier it becomes for 1 person to wipe the raid do to contrived mechanics (Rift had a lot of these).

      So I can understand why ArenaNet are doing what they are doing with GW2′s Dungeons. Especially when there are tons of MMOs out there to appeal to the hardcore raiders but none to appeal for those that want something like GW2. If you want to Raid so bad, then play Rift, WoW or SW:TOR cause GW2 won’t be the game for that demographic.

  • Elusive Fox

    the thing about this “holy trinity” not being dissolved with this game, it sounds great but I honestly don’t see it.  The reason the holy trinity came about to begin with has to to with making it easier for players.  It is a lot easier to keep everyone alive if you know ahead of time that most of the damage is going to go towards person X (your tank), also the idea of getting rid of healers by giving everyone healing abilities forces people to split their attention between heals and damage, and possibly some fight mechanic.  

    I think the whole idea of it is great for solo/dual situations, and even better in pvp.  However for pve even know I would love to see it, I think that this whole ridding of the trinity idea risks will either end up trivializing pve(never fun).  or cause a lot of problems/frustration for less skilled players/groups since some people have a difficulty focusing on just being a tank/healer/dps and avoiding environment mechanics at the same time, when you expect them to do all 3 proficiently at the same time or even two of the three,

    That being said I have a lot of hope for the dynamic quest system I liked the rift system in Rift though there did become a point where the reward for doing made them obsolete/meh, and even the raid rifts weren’t challenging.  I am hoping the dynamic system gets that time/risk/reward level right so people will continue to do the events past the first few months!

    I do disagree with the poster below me though.  GW2 not having raids makes me sad even smaller raids 10-15 playerish.. I have always felt that raid style dungeons to be some of the most fun in any MMO.  Having something my entire guild can go out and kill that takes a couple weeks of trying different strategies learning boss mechanics and really playing our classes to the best of our abilities to finally get through a challenging raid is so much more fun than killing that random goblin boss in 10 seconds flat for the 10millionth time.

    • http://twitter.com/Master10K Master10K

      If you find it so hard to visualize non-trinity play as a challenge then why don’t you play some good co-op games to understand. Heck, even Magika is a decent example of this and that game provides challenging PvE content.

      The holy trinity system trivializes content and I know this because I’ve played all the roles of the trinity in Rift and did a ton of raiding. All it came down to is: knowing the boss mechanics, knowing what each role was responsible for and then executing your task, with little to no real need for actual communication. Also the issue I’ve had with raiding is that as the number of players increase, the easier it becomes for 1 person to wipe the raid do to contrived mechanics (Rift had a lot of these).

      So I can understand why ArenaNet are doing what they are doing with GW2′s Dungeons. Especially when there are tons of MMOs out there to appeal to the hardcore raiders but none to appeal for those that want something like GW2. If you want to Raid so bad, then play Rift, WoW or SW:TOR cause GW2 won’t be the game for that demographic.

  • Anonymous

    Accuracy of information here was not… good.

    Perhaps Gamebreaker should be a little more rigorous. Last week’s show also had some inaccuracies…

  • Laborday

    Accuracy of information here was not… good.

    Perhaps Gamebreaker should be a little more rigorous. Last week’s show also had some inaccuracies…

  • http://twitter.com/Xbuster231 Justin

    i think people are obssessed with raiding and even worse people are obssessed with the 1% vocal minority who talk about nothing but raiding, most players dont raid at top level or even casual level and are perfectly fine with 5 man dungeon crawls, pvp, and dynamic events for their entire gaming experience, i for one am in this category and even without any announcment of raids im more excited for GW2 than any other game that had the” holy grail raids”

  • http://twitter.com/Xbuster231 Justin

    i think people are obssessed with raiding and even worse people are obssessed with the 1% vocal minority who talk about nothing but raiding, most players dont raid at top level or even casual level and are perfectly fine with 5 man dungeon crawls, pvp, and dynamic events for their entire gaming experience, i for one am in this category and even without any announcment of raids im more excited for GW2 than any other game that had the” holy grail raids”

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=602301633 Eric Hanson

    I’m very excited by the Dungeons being 5 man content instead of larger content.  I’m the type of player who is pretty skilled being fairly highly ranked in multiple competitive games and traditional large group MMO raids don’t appeal to me all that much anymore.  Mainly because the hard part about that content is group coordination and not individual skill.  In WoW I always felt like half the raid was carrying the other half.  Being dragged down by people who can’t play well, aren’t prepared, etc isn’t fun for me.

    I also play MMOs mainly to have a game to play with my friends and family.  We only really enjoy playing with each other.  So having difficult content for only 5 people is ideal for us.  As getting a group  any larger than that together can be very difficult considering our real lives.

    There is also the issue of different leveling speeds.  For instance in SWTOR I hit 50 when my friends were hitting around lvl 25.  So now I am currently doing nothing in that game while I wait for them to level up.  In GW2 from what I’ve heard you will scale according to content.  So even if I am higher level I can go into a dungeon with my friends and it will scale me appropriately.  So we get a legitimate dungeon experience rather than me just running them through it.

    I also don’t understand the idea of large groups equaling a better experience.  How is putting up with a bunch of people I don’t know more fun than hanging with my friends in a small group?  The content is less difficult on an individual basis the larger the group.  Starcraft is the most difficult and competitive game on the planet and it is 1v1.

    You want a traditional MMO WoW and SWTOR are there for you.  If you want something that appeals to something other than large group raid content where the game starts at lvl 1 then GW2 may be for you.  There’s no sub fee so there’s no reason not to get you large group fix from one of those other games while playing GW2.

    I suspect that GW2 will be a game much more fitting to people like Gary as well who do not get into end game raiding.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=602301633 Eric Hanson

    I’m very excited by the Dungeons being 5 man content instead of larger content.  I’m the type of player who is pretty skilled being fairly highly ranked in multiple competitive games and traditional large group MMO raids don’t appeal to me all that much anymore.  Mainly because the hard part about that content is group coordination and not individual skill.  In WoW I always felt like half the raid was carrying the other half.  Being dragged down by people who can’t play well, aren’t prepared, etc isn’t fun for me.

    I also play MMOs mainly to have a game to play with my friends and family.  We only really enjoy playing with each other.  So having difficult content for only 5 people is ideal for us.  As getting a group  any larger than that together can be very difficult considering our real lives.

    There is also the issue of different leveling speeds.  For instance in SWTOR I hit 50 when my friends were hitting around lvl 25.  So now I am currently doing nothing in that game while I wait for them to level up.  In GW2 from what I’ve heard you will scale according to content.  So even if I am higher level I can go into a dungeon with my friends and it will scale me appropriately.  So we get a legitimate dungeon experience rather than me just running them through it.

    I also don’t understand the idea of large groups equaling a better experience.  How is putting up with a bunch of people I don’t know more fun than hanging with my friends in a small group?  The content is less difficult on an individual basis the larger the group.  Starcraft is the most difficult and competitive game on the planet and it is 1v1.

    You want a traditional MMO WoW and SWTOR are there for you.  If you want something that appeals to something other than large group raid content where the game starts at lvl 1 then GW2 may be for you.  There’s no sub fee so there’s no reason not to get your large group fix from one of those other games while playing GW2.

    I suspect that GW2 will be a game much more fitting to people like Gary as well who do not get into end game raiding.

  • Anonymous

    To me the big difference which did not really get covered in the podcast is that all the game content becomes relevant due to sidekicking up and down.  This, as opposed to how games like SWTOR and RIFT work.

    I will use my current experience in SWTOR as an example.  I have been doing a fair bit of PvP along with space combat and generally find that I have out leveled not only my class quests but certainly all the side quests and flashpoints for this level.  As such, I find myself skipping a lot of content simply because it is not challenging and ends up feeling like its just consuming time.  After all, I need to get to endgame PvE and PvP.   Regretably I don’t see much waiting for me there in SWTOR … but that is another story.

    Anyway, the ability to go back and do content and still have it be fun and challenging seems like a pretty big deal. 

    Someone else here pointed out that the dynamic content in RIFT failed because lower level toons often found themselves standing alone trying to get through an event.  Same problem in Warhammer Public Events.  Well , in RIFT, there wasn’t any reason to go back 30 levels and do a low level event.  It was no fun for the high level player due to lack of challenge, nor was it fun for the low level players having a high level come in and one shot everything while screwing up XP gains.

    In GW2, the leveling both up and down as players go to higher or lower level zones seems like a pretty big deal.  Not only does this allow higher level players to go back and check out lower level content while still making it a bit challenging, I think it also promotes more opportunities for people to play together.  This has always bugged me in games like SWTOR and RIFT.  Basically once we folks get a few levels apart it is not much fun playing together for either party.  I think GW2 changes that.

    As far as endgame raiding goes … I could care less.  Usually when I level cap, I start an alt and avoid the PvP and PvE endgame grind machines anyway …..

  • Cosian

    To me the big difference which did not really get covered in the podcast is that all the game content becomes relevant due to sidekicking up and down.  This, as opposed to how games like SWTOR and RIFT work.

    I will use my current experience in SWTOR as an example.  I have been doing a fair bit of PvP along with space combat and generally find that I have out leveled not only my class quests but certainly all the side quests and flashpoints for this level.  As such, I find myself skipping a lot of content simply because it is not challenging and ends up feeling like its just consuming time.  After all, I need to get to endgame PvE and PvP.   Regretably I don’t see much waiting for me there in SWTOR … but that is another story.

    Anyway, the ability to go back and do content and still have it be fun and challenging seems like a pretty big deal. 

    Someone else here pointed out that the dynamic content in RIFT failed because lower level toons often found themselves standing alone trying to get through an event.  Same problem in Warhammer Public Events.  Well , in RIFT, there wasn’t any reason to go back 30 levels and do a low level event.  It was no fun for the high level player due to lack of challenge, nor was it fun for the low level players having a high level come in and one shot everything while screwing up XP gains.

    In GW2, the leveling both up and down as players go to higher or lower level zones seems like a pretty big deal.  Not only does this allow higher level players to go back and check out lower level content while still making it a bit challenging, I think it also promotes more opportunities for people to play together.  This has always bugged me in games like SWTOR and RIFT.  Basically once we folks get a few levels apart it is not much fun playing together for either party.  I think GW2 changes that.

    As far as endgame raiding goes … I could care less.  Usually when I level cap, I start an alt and avoid the PvP and PvE endgame grind machines anyway …..

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sand-Wraith/100002247858589 Sand Wraith

    Guild Wars is an awesome mmorpg. I played it 3 years ago with WoW. But
    now, WoW will die on GW2 release. Can’t wait to play it!! BTW, check out
    http://guildwars2beta.org for open beta keys.

  • http://ijstyles.com ijstyles

    Guild Wars is an awesome mmorpg. I played it 3 years ago with WoW. But now, WoW will die on GW2 release. Can’t wait to play it!! BTW, check out http://guildwars2beta.org for open beta keys.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Radu-Vasile/100000396153603 Radu Vasile

    :) )) i bet all the players that say bad things about raiding were in not that great guilds !!!! The idea of raiding is not the individual and the skill of that person but how can they act as a team and ofc the skill of leading of the raid leader !!! All the games that have raids have smaller dungeon if u want more individual stuff , and tbh skill comes into play only for min/max dps/hps and in PvP . I know is the hype and all , and all casual players want to act like they are some awesome gamers but the hard truth is GW2 is an casual PvE with some nice story and dynamic events (after u did it once belive me nothing is dynamic anymore :P ) and some awesome PvP content with e-sports which is why i will buy the game . So basicly for me i will keep raiding in Rift or maybe The secret world (can`t wait for that) and PvP in GW2 . 

    If u like casual site seeing and getting owe by beautiful landscapes while u lvl slowly and reading all the lore , and exploring everything (which for me is very very very boring ) this is the game for you . If u like competitive PvP again this is the game for you . If you are into end game hard competitive team based content this will prolly not be for you . GW2 is (or will be) a good game but you just have to know what you want from a game and not say well it has no Raid is bad , or it has no PvP is bad . I for one am a hardcore raider and PvPer i knew how gw2 will be and i`m not that disapointed but on the other hand i can play just PvP so i am happy with it . 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Radu-Vasile/100000396153603 Radu Vasile

    :) )) i bet all the players that say bad things about raiding were in not that great guilds !!!! The idea of raiding is not the individual and the skill of that person but how can they act as a team and ofc the skill of leading of the raid leader !!! All the games that have raids have smaller dungeon if u want more individual stuff , and tbh skill comes into play only for min/max dps/hps and in PvP . I know is the hype and all , and all casual players want to act like they are some awesome gamers but the hard truth is GW2 is an casual PvE with some nice story and dynamic events (after u did it once belive me nothing is dynamic anymore :P ) and some awesome PvP content with e-sports which is why i will buy the game . So basicly for me i will keep raiding in Rift or maybe The secret world (can`t wait for that) and PvP in GW2 . 

    If u like casual site seeing and getting owe by beautiful landscapes while u lvl slowly and reading all the lore , and exploring everything (which for me is very very very boring ) this is the game for you . If u like competitive PvP again this is the game for you . If you are into end game hard competitive team based content this will prolly not be for you . GW2 is (or will be) a good game but you just have to know what you want from a game and not say well it has no Raid is bad , or it has no PvP is bad . I for one am a hardcore raider and PvPer i knew how gw2 will be and i`m not that disapointed but on the other hand i can play just PvP so i am happy with it . 

  • http://twitter.com/SolidTx Chris Harding

    totally worried about what Gary is talking about. We have 300 ppl in SWTOR that are totally bored with the game and we are coming as a guild to GW2. We like dynamic events but we want to do things WITH specific people. We are a GUILD. This is GUILD wars. What content is there for people in Guilds to do together, at level 80. Sounds like this game may be another disappointment

  • http://www.facebook.com/bob.daniels.9212 Bob Daniels

    Dynamic events aren’t dynamic at all. The same quests happen repeatedly but with a random time between each start. If you stand in one area all day you will encounter the exact same “dynamic” event dozens of times.

    • Pudsley

      They are dynamic, I’ve hung around zones for hours doing nothing but wander about and yes I’ve seen many of the events repeat themselves, then again I’ve seen events that many people didn’t even know existed, they certainly aren’t static. 

      Are they dynamic enough? Well that’s a different question altogether. Personally I think we need to be realistic, you can’t spend hours, days or weeks designing , creating and tweaking an event for it to happen once, ten people experience it and the other few thousand miss it. That just isn’t practical.If you hang around an area you are likely to see many dynamic events you haven’t seen before, and probably quite a few you have. They plan to add many more dynamic events to the zones post launch, the more they add the less frequent the events have to repeat.At the end of the day it’s all about expectations, to me the dynamic event system in GW2 is a breath of fresh air from the normal style of questing, it’s an evolutionary step but it’s probably not the revolution many people hoped it will be. 

Giveaway

gbtv_ios_app
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
Monday
6 pst

The Republic

Star Wars The Old Republic

Tuesday
n/a

Monty's Minute

Have Questions? He Has Answers

9 pst

After Dark

Live Call In Show

Wednesday
6 pst

Guildcast

Guild Wars 2

Thursday
7 pst

Conspiracy Craft

World of WarCraft Lore

8 pst

Legendary

World of WarCraft

Friday
3 pst

TWIMMO

This Week In MMO

4 pst

Derpy Dragon

Free to Play Show



TOP GAMES
Guild Wars 2 MMO News
Guild Wars 2
Genre: MMORPG Fantasy
Developer: Arenanet
Metacritic Score: 90
The Elder Scrolls Online MMORPG News
The Elder Scrolls Online
Genre: MMORPG Fantasy
Developer: Zenimax
Metacritic Score: n/a
World of Warcraft MMO News
World of Warcraft
Genre: MMORPG Fantasy
Developer: Blizzard
Metacritic Score: 82
SWTOR MMO News
Star Wars the Old Republic
Genre: MMORPG SciFi
Developer: Bioware
Metacritic Score: 85
League of Legends News
League of Legends
Genre: MOBA
Developer: Riot
Metacritic Score: 78