ivi-gw2

[ivi-gw2]

Gemstore wishlisting and some other convenience ideas (position switch, rebirth...)~

Hello! I had some ideas and decided to share them with you guys! I know that some ideas aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I wanted to share them with you here.

Wishlist~

Wishlist and being notified when a wishlisted item is on sale would be really convenient!

I made some graphics for how the wishlist could appear in the gemstore:

Oh look! A new tab! A star with some notification next to it! Guess that some items I wishlisted are on sale~

When opening that tab we can see our wishlist:

Each item has a star next to it. That's how items would be added to the wishlist. Deselecting the star removes the item from the wishlist. Highlighted item with the notification is the item on sale. Friend's wishlists can also be viewed by choosing them in drop-down menu~

Signature attachment~

Sometimes I forgot to attach my signature and before that I didn't even know it doesn't get attached. This little tick-box could save us the trouble! It would just add a sentence "This item is a gift from _PLAYERNAME_." at the end of gemstore mail message. Otherwise: "This item is a gift from anonymous player." No confusion anymore!

Also a bonus in the gifting UI - we can see what friend has the selected item wishlisted! How convenient~

Position switch~

I don't have an image for this one... but it goes like this: buyable, one-time usable item that switches positions of two characters in game. Can also drop as repair canister! Double click, choose other character (UI the same as when choosing who to teleport with teleport to friend), get loading screen and then you're in the same map, but with other character! And you could guess where the first character went... Would be super convenient.

Rebirth stone~

Double click on item while on character for whom you decided it is time. You accept all the warnings and the contract is set. Loading screen, you get into new character creation screen. Finish customizing new race character and you see you can't choose the name at the end, old one is already set... You start and find yourself in starting instance on level one with new character - but the soul is here! The name stayed the same along with some other items, but the body is new and fresh and with no map completion and story done!

* Starts from lvl 1, like fresh character * Everything in inventory gets deleted, storage bags, too - player has to move everything to bank if they don’t want to lose that stuff (unlimited gathering tools, too) * Name stays the same (can’t be changed in create a character process) * Birthday date and age stay the same (old one) * Inventory bag expansion, unlocked build slots, unlocked equipment slots stay - all the gemstore unlocked items for selected character stay * Soulbound items in bank still bound to rebirthed character * Map not unlocked, missing map completion - start anew * Story resets * Can be sold bundled with identity repair packet for new name and even fresher face * If character creation is left, character stays with rebirth tag over it - selecting it starts character creation again.

Now I can get new Gifts of Exploration on my main character! I finally can see Forgal story and can play other class! My main is now finally a Norn - the best there is! I haven't lost my age so I'll get next birthday present! Feels good~

Outfit... armor ticket~

An item that unlocks armor pieces of certain weight from a certain unlocked outfit, usable once. I know this one is a lot of work, but all of outfits are already rigged for all races and have color slots done, so... I think it would be less work than doing brand new armors. Not all outfits would have all 6 pieces - I guess many would have just 4. Other bad things I see would be: that it even more dismisses armor weights and their identity - this would be fixed with each outfit being just one weight type; and there would be more armor in gemstore than available trough playing - for this I agree, but I'd like more armor variety. And some parts are really nice!

Suggestions for armor weights (super personal opinion):

Light: Ancestral, Arcane, Astral Scholar, Bloody prince’s, Cherry blossom, Common clothing, Crystal savant, Daydreamer’s finery, Dwayna’s, Elonian elementalist, Eve’s prophecies, Exemplar, Fancy Winter, First follower Desmina, Frostfire, Gem aura, Ghostly, Hexed, Imperial, Kasmeer’s regal, Lyssa’s regalia, Mage knight, Magical, Marjory’s shrouded, Monk’s, Nature’s oath, Noble count, Noble courier, Ornate, Pharaoh’s, Primeval dervish, Queensdale academy, Raiment of the lich, Ritualist, Shrine guardian, Spring promenade, Striped silk, Wedding, White mantle, Winter monarch, Witch

Medium: Abyss stalker, Arctic explorer, Bandit sniper, Casual, Cook’s, Country lace, Crystal nomad, Defiant glass, Dragon’s watch, Executioner’s, Grenth’s regalia, Gwen’s, Imperial guard, Inquest exo-suit, Jungle explorer, Khaki, Layered vest, Mad king’s, Mad scientist, Mist stranger, Mursaat robes, Nightspeaker, Outlaw, Pirate captain’s, Primal warden, Riding clothes, Rox’s pathfinder, Shadow assassin, Silk brocade, Taimi’s, True assassin's guise, Winter solstice, Zafirah tactical

Heavy: Awakened Zealot, Balthazar’s regalia, Braham’s wolfblood, Ceremonial plated, Champion of Tyria, Crystal arbiter, Dynamics exo-suit, Ebon vanguard elite, Fallen Balthazar, Forged, Harbinger of Mordremoth, Haunted, Herald of Aurene, Ice Encasement, Infused samurai, Ironclad, Jora’s, Logan’s pact marshal, Lunatic guard, Royal guard, Sentinel, Slayer’s, Spellforged, Starborn, Sunspear, Timekeeper, Verdant executioner’s

UI could be special vendor where you get unlocked ability to buy a chest with certain outfit armor pieces once you own that outfit. And you buy that chests with this "Outfit armor ticket".

And that's all for now. I know this is just my wishlist for the game and that none of this is easy to implement, but yeah... here it is. Hope you like some of the ideas! Have a nice day~

[ivi-gw2]

Wonderful ideas from a player on reddit. I love them!

[ivi-gw2]

Recycling old content and why must some easy things stay easy

(long post)

In the last post I explained why I think that Guild Wars 2 is in desperate need of “medium” difficulty content. In this post I’ll talk about some ideas that come to my mind.

What would I say is needed? More hard and much, much more medium content to balance things out with large amounts of easy content? More updates? Sure! But let’s go green: I would like to see older content that once was medium or that wilted, revisited and refreshed. There is already enough variety of stuff to do in GW2 - we don’t need so much new stuff, it will just make older stuff more abandoned and maybe the player base too fragmented. Also, not touching old and boring content will make it “bad” and more and more abandoned by players” - the game would benefit a lot if they’d find a way to make it new and interesting.

Also - the best solution would be to make the most change with the least possible work done - to make it economically rational. While - importantly - focusing on making what already exists in the game better. With Colin Johanson as a new (old) leader and more focus shifted at GW2, I once again have hopes that ArenaNet will stop abandoning good content shortly after shipping it. Yes, Colin means experimentation - but the focus part will, I believe, make them think about it for a bit.

So first of all - what change would make a lot of now trivial and too-easy content better and a bit harder? Buffing all mobs and encounters and nerfing all player abilities? Yes, but… it wouldn’t make the game better. Let’s say we have a low-skill player - one that is new to the game or simply hasn’t yet learned some of the game mechanics. And a high-skill player. For the high-skill player most of the game (as it is in the easy category) is braindead. But for the low skill one it is not braindead. It is a probem even ArenaNet is trying to fix; in an interview when Icebrood Saga was coming, Mike Zadorojny said that “The challenge is that the skill disparity between average players and hardcore players is extreme. We’re talking about ten times damage output. You can’t necessarily put a DPS check that the average player is going to be able to overcome without making the fight entirely trivialized for the hardcore.” Just buffing everything and nerfing all player abilities wouldn’t do much because many new players and lower skill players suddenly won’t be able to play content that was intended for everyone. Some guy who just created their first character in Queensdale, running around, would come up to the bandit who would kill him in 3 hits. For many people that would be a good learning lesson, but GW2 is a fundamentally different game (and differently marketed) from MMOs that focus mostly on hard endgame content (FFXIV or WoW, for example) and so it attracts everyone, not just people that want to be super skillful players. Just making the absolute whole of the game much harder because that would make average players’ skill closer to the raids or quality PvP experience would succeed in what it wants. But it would also deter a lot of people and, more importantly, lose a lot of players who found friends and communities, peace or happiness in simple things GW2 offered. Harder content is needed, many of the existing stuff in GW2 has to be notched up just a bit, but a lot of it has to stay in “easy” difficulty. 

Most of core’s open world mobs and events are definitely one of those things - most of them being in lower level maps. Leaving them in the easy difficulty category won’t take anything from raids - yes, ArenaNet hasn’t focused on the raids because a small number of players play them and it would be cool to have more players that play them so we could then have more raids… but harsh up in difficulty for this kind of content isn’t the solution. Making low-skill players better and bringing them closer to playing raids is best done with small step ups in difficulty - something having enough content in all difficulties does - making easy and medium important. Only thing I would add to the open world core mobs is better telegraphs for attacks - red aoe dots on ground, arrows for charges, etc. As for LS, PoF and HoT open world mobs and events - those can stay the same, they are an appropriate level of challenge for many players.

Next up is content I believe was and still is the most played content in the game: world bosses. Huge dragon coming from the sky and hundred brave warriors rush to defeat him, epic music playing… And the dragon is dead in 2 minutes. I’ll say this right away: I love world bosses, even them being this easy. I still play them. Because I love MMO experience and I love to see a lot of other players. World bosses are Guild Wars’ 2 trademark and the defining game characteristic, and something they did the best way possible out of all the other MMOs. And while they are in no way falling in popularity, I believe they should be a bit refreshed so they move into the “medium content”. In my opinion, focus for their rework should be: small changes to make them a bit harder (most of them just a bit, few of them a lot) and teaching players some of the more difficult game mechanics. Making them harder is needed so players would organise more and make the bosses feel as an actual threat. New and low skill players aren't the issue here because most other players can carry them. A good example of teaching some difficult mechanics with a harder boss was adding the Vale Guardian event in Bloodstone Fen.

But no changes to the world bosses means no engaging (or “better”) content for experienced players. Well, then some changes that would affect only the experienced players are needed:

Much harsher dynamic level adjusting for high-level characters in lower level maps.. I already wrote in one of my previous posts: “Make me, while in top gear, have just 15% better stats than a noob in some low-level map, but let me be stronger and more able to help them with my skill creep.” I would say that it would require less work for ArenaNet, than revisiting every mob, event and skill. But I can only guess.

Harsher event scaling for larger amounts of players - currently events are scaled well mostly for single players and small groups, but big metas get too easy. Boss doing more damage and having much more HP than how it scales now could help a bit.

Keeping power-creep in check - constant skill balance changes to keep every top damage number under a certain threshold.

More work needed to get participation, scaled by players level. Low level characters could do less and have more participation while lvl 80 characters should do more to get the same. This would work even for expansion/living story/lvl 80 maps - in those cases, everyone should do just a bit more. And in my opinion that is okay because a lvl 80 player will by default do much, much more than a low-level one. Unless… they are not doing their part.

Add timers to big meta events - as they work in strikes - with more work done, you get a better reward. And make gold really hard to get. Not all world bosses should be absolutely lethal and only killable for players with super skills, but all of them should be a kind of a challenge.

Another thing that should be revisited is the personal story - the story of how we killed Zhaithan. It is the content that can’t be just pushed under a rug like dungeons were. Everybody plays it and all the new players will play it - it will define their first hours of GW2 experience. The focus of its rework should be to make it a big tutorial for many game mechanics and something that should slowly, step by step, up the player’s skill. The pacing, events in it and boss encounters are something I don’t need to say anything about because of how old and easy they feel today. New story stuff is great and shiny and made in a way that’ll take much more time to lose it’s shine. While we’re at the shiny new story - while all of GW2's story should be little by little harder, it should never get too hard. It should stay pretty low in difficulty - maybe just lower-medium difficulty tier. Because it is a showcase for new players what new stuff ArenaNet just added to the game. They shouldn’t need to play hundreds of hours of all the rest of the story before they can try out and be happy playing the new toys that they just got. Adding special achievements, making memorable encounters, special fractals or strikes with CMs is a very good solution ArenaNet made. It makes the story a bit more of a challenge for more experienced players. I would also like to see some core story’s memorable moments be turned into fractals or strikes - killing the Eye and The Claw Island come to my mind. Even HoT, PoF and LS story events could be made repeatable somehow - Mordremoth, Balthazar and Joko fights are some of my favourite ones.

Then there are dungeons, somehow tied with the personal story. With them, a lot of rework is needed. I believe they are the type of old content that can be redone from bottom up and people won’t be mad about it. Some of the stuff I don’t miss is running down iced scaffolding to light a fire or luring skelks away from orbs to get to Mossman. FotM update was a very good decision - boring or needlessly irritating parts were removed and replaced with more meaningful encounters. An art of the deal. If it gets removed and replaced with something better in the same vein - some of the stuff I won’t miss that comes to mind: underwater boss in HotW, many simply irritating mobs in Arah or the fiery tunnel in CoF. Dungeons have an immense potential to span difficulty steps from easy (story path), over medium, up to hard difficulty.

But why should we, the veteran players, go back to this, already played content - even after “the refresh” relatively easy content? More about that in upcoming posts!

Source: Balancing Guild Wars 2 difficulty is tough when top players do “ten times” more damage | PCGamesN https://www.pcgamesn.com/guild-wars-2/difficulty

[ivi-gw2]

Bell curve of skill and “medium content” in Guild Wars 2

(long post)

So, I want to talk a bit more about the medium content and importance of it.

First off, let’s say something about two other types of content: easy and hard.

Easy content is something everyone can do. It can vary in difficulty, but overall there is not much skill, time investment, knowledge or even other players needed to successfully enjoy it. And it’s very, very needed - as a slow tutorial of basics for teaching players and for any other player who, out of any reason, wants to play it at the moment - because they are tired, burnt out, waiting, don’t have time, just want to chill a bit, want spend some time taking it easy, want to play the game how they feel at the moment or for any reason can’t play content of other difficulties. In Guild Wars 2 there is a lot of content that would fit this category.

Hard content is opposite of easy - it’s not for everyone, nor something everyone can or will be able to do. For playing it there is a need for a fair amount of skill, knowledge, often a lot of time investment and other people on whose skill your own success depends. Said things make it also really stressful. Unfortunately, because of said things, it's the studio's resource investment into something most players won’t be able to experience - and because of that I think it wasn’t a priority at all for ArenaNet. But its existence is needed in GW2 as much as the easy content: it challenges players, gives them a level of skill to strive for, gives immense satisfaction upon beating it and generates some kind of prestige and respect in the community for the most successful players. And GW2 has a very intricate gameplay that shines the most in that content. In GW2 there is a lack of hard content - but I won’t focus on that now.

I love both easy and hard content. Many days I logged into GW2 just to relax a bit, listen to a podcast while just running around the maps doing nothing. I spent days just going around world boss trains or mindlessly farming. I also think most of the main story has to stay in the “easy” content so it would be accessible for everyone who wants to experience it. Many other days I got up early with a mission in my mind: that today’s is the day I finally manage to kill some boss or to simply do my best and win a lot in wvw. 

Now what about medium content? It’s somewhere in-between - easy, but no hand holding, you have to know what you’re doing, you have to concentrate, know how to react in certain situations and pull your own weight. Many times different amounts of player cooperation are needed. Sometimes it is a bit harder and you fail and die a lot and have to try a lot of times, sometimes it’s a bit easier, borderline with easy content - but you still have to do your job and not mash random buttons on the keyboard. Also it can be some kind of content you still don’t know how to do or don’t have skill for but since it is not as punishing as hard content, small amounts of players can be carried by the more experienced. Because of all that it is playable and can be successfully completed by most of the players, but it requires more than just basic knowledge of the game. Many times it is not something you can play completely your own way, but it doesn’t require absolute perfection.

And I think there’s an unhealthy lack of it in Guild Wars 2. I want to be clear: on release there was a lot of medium content. Also when expansions came, with each and with next LS updates, Anet added more medium content. Added medium content - in times when added - was always proportional to community skill and power. But with time, months and years after it was added it became trivial because of the uncontrolled power creep. Medium content wasn’t updated to match new levels of power and skill players had and so it transitioned into “easy” content. And so, today, there is not much of it left. Hollythame said it very well. What’s left are DRMs, strikes, T3 and T4 level fractals, Triple Trouble and now Marionette. I would also put WvW into here because of how many people there are - big zerg players even in hardest fights can be carried. I would also say that newer story missions are kind of in the lower medium content - people have to respect some mechanics and work the skills more.

What’s more of a problem: all of the content requires some level of skill, from 0 to 100. Easy is up to, let’s say 15; hard is from 85 to 100. Last couple of years there was almost no medium content. And most of the players miss the steps needed to bite through from easy to hard content. That would be the purpose of medium content.

I believe in bell curves. A lot of stuff about people is easily displayed by bell curves. They kinda work - we’re all kinda the same, but vary around some golden middle. There are always people left and right of us, but the vast majority is in “the middle”. 2 takes from me:

Guild Wars 2 players, the community - are in a somewhat perfect bell curve by the potential of their skill. That potential is the skill they could develop easily and how quickly they would succeed in a task of certain difficulty.

Guild Wars 2 content - the amount of it, as it is today - when rated by skill needed is definitely not a bell curve. It kind of was when the game was released, but with power creep, advancement of mechanics and gameplay many of it was pushed into “easy” where it is now.

And with that being said, next thing is:

Content added into the game has to be more proportional than it is now to the amount of players with the skill level needed for it. Because then most of the players can engage in a bigger variety of content that will satisfy them. And the vast majority of players are by bell curve - in the middle, so I would assume - most of the content in the game that is “for all kinds of players” should be some kind of “medium difficulty content range”.

(graph above: Guild Wars 2 situation - tumblr lowered the quality... RED - current game content distribution / BLACK - players by skill level potential / CYAN goal game content distribution // x - player skill level potential / content difficulty // y - amount of players / amount of game content)

It’s all about what’s promised and what’s delivered. Hard games like Dark Souls get marketed as such and therefore attract the kind of audience that is willing to invest a lot of time, patience and skill in it. Some more chill games, like The Sims or Animal Crossing get marketed as such and therefore attract an audience that is more concentrated in the “taking it easy” part of the graph. All of said games then deliver on that marketing promise - they have most (or all) of the content in a specific difficulty that corresponds to their players’ “skill potential”. Guild Wars 2 may have made a mistake of attracting a wider range of players. At launch it could sustain that promise, but now has more and more problems.

So there it is, the new forming of medium content in Guild Wars 2 could resolve this issue. Players that can clear a raid will be able to play medium content and it won’t be too braindead for them. Vast majority of players will be able to play it - on start or after trying - and will be pretty happy with the amount of challenge. And it is still not impossible to reach for players that struggle with some levels of easy content, like raids or FotM CMs are.

Important bits about adding more medium content are:

it makes the player learn and improve their skill without much effort

gives the player bigger amounts of satisfaction upon completion because some level of investment was needed 

in many cases - it has a need for player organisation and socialisation - which is always the best thing in MMOs. 

GGs, smiles and cheering in chat at the end of difficult content is why I play MMO games. Both low-skilled player and anti-social player problems - gone (I wrote about them in one of my previous essays).

What would I suggest is needed? More in upcoming posts!

[ivi-gw2]

Horizontal progression in GW2 and little bit of it that wasn’t done well

(long post ahead)

Guild Wars 2 prides itself on being an MMO where you can take a break, come back, and still have all the relevant equipment needed for newest content. No steep vertical progression - where your once gilded, steel shining sword that killed dragons now feels like being made of tin because it can’t kill most low level rats in a new map. An MMO where you don’t have to grind day and night to access most of the content, where you can stop and smell the flowers and feel welcome wherever you go. But is everything about horizontal progression in GW2 done well?

After getting the biggest muscles possible on level 80, you can get special abilities - survive jumping off a cliff or have a big pet that makes you travel at the speed of light. Colin Johanson, in an interview at HoT release (when they decided to focus on horizontal progression) said that very well: “We noted that this took a lot of progression from other franchises. In fact, the traversal systems like gliding are like Metroid and Zelda slammed together. Some day you’ll be able to come back and do other things, like bounce up on a certain mushroom and go up into certain treetop areas.”. And I like how it turned out to be. Unlocking gliding or a new mount ability made me feel great - like there really is a reward for my work and how much stronger and resourceful I am. I have to praise ArenaNet for it. There are some recent masteries that missed a point a bit, but I want to write about something else now.

After HoT and even more when PoF came, somehow I felt… much more powerful. The rest of the game felt… much easier. But I haven’t killed enemies with gliding nor dungeon bosses with mounts. Every time when I took a break and came back to the game after a few months it was nice to feel relevant - but I was always too relevant. I felt like I did a vertical progression jump without doing anything - the game did that for me. “Horizontal progression” gave some kind of promise that all of the content (especially top level one) will always stay fun as it was (of the same difficulty) but it didn’t.

What happened were 2 things: I and many other players had become more skilled, and ArenaNet did some combat changes and balance updates that made everything stronger, bit by bit. New specializations had to be a little bit OP so they would sell and stick to players better. Skill creep and power creep.

Skill creep is inevitable and a very healthy thing to have in a MMO. But it mustn’t be overlooked. Rest of the content that needs to stay relevant has to be updated and gradually made a bit harder or skills have to gradually be a bit weaker for a player to feel consistent engagement. And along with the skill creep, power creep is even worse.

Let’s read another very good quote from the same interview: “We want people to go back to everywhere in the game. We want strong core areas with lots of fun things to do. Inherently, there will be more people to play with in those areas, which is what MMOs are all about. So we want to make less areas and create more focused experiences.” So will a random Harathi centaur be able to outrun yet another power creep? It won’t - not without some divine intervention, aka regular balance updates where classes get nerfed again and again to keep top dps (proportionally to the player skill) at a consistent number. And I’m all for that - regular skill balance updates and nerfs. I think that is one of the things most needed for an MMO that focuses on horizontal progression and tries to keep all of the top level content always relevant.

Another option would be buffing everything. Every mob on every map, in all instances.

But, for a new player, an encounter with some super buffed and super quick boar in the starting map would be a bad experience. Too difficult because that player lacks skill (understandably). Even nerfing all skills into oblivion would be bad for this player because he would be doing even less damage to any mob as he has the same skills to use as the top player.

It’s all about balance - having good experience for both starting players and experienced veterans.

In my humble opinion, the three things which ArenaNet missed about horizontal progression and that could be worked upon are:

more regular skill balance updates (always having a certain top dps in mind)

buffing some bosses/mobs that became trivial with power creep updates (some that shouldn’t be)

a better dynamic level adjustment for high-level players is needed. Make it much harsher, scale it much lower. Make me, while in top gear, have just 15% better stats than a noob in some low-level map, but let me be better and more able to help them with my skill creep.

I would say this bad side-effect is just a very small bit, but it keeps me and many more players feeling indifferent about anything from before HoT, and a lot of world bosses, some of them more recent.

Lastly, now I won’t write about “why would some veteran go to a low level map”, those are a carrot on a stick, skill progression and repeatable content discussions that will come in some later posts.

(Also I won’t talk much more about power creep and balance issues - there are many more knowledgeable people that discussed it over and over - my recommendation is the “Teatime” podcast by MightyTeapot.)

Source: “ArenaNet: Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns ‘is like Metroid and Zelda slammed together’”, from Destructoid(com)

[ivi-gw2]

I agree with everything you wrote! I couldn’t have said it better - reblogging that as another premise of type of content I will be putting on this blog.

Twisted Marionette came back yesterday - a case for not blaming players for fails (well... not 100%)

/rambling, wooooo, but a premise to what is coming…/

I joined many pug groups and all were organized. But all of them failed. This is a very straight and actually pretty easy world boss, but the kind where you need just one or two “low-skilled” or “anti-social” players to fail.

Now - I won’t go into a discussion of was it a bad choice to make a difficult 50-man content. I personally love it. I will point out some facts about how this event shed more light on one of the biggest Guild Wars 2 problems - a lot of anti-social and low skilled players.

Under “anti-social” player I mean: the player that willfully does not cooperate with others - afks, doesn’t pull it’s own weight when needed of them, blames others for their failure, doesn’t want to improve their skill, or doesn’t want to “play” the game - read its tells, do what the game tells them to do (go in the portal, defend, evade, kill this, that etc.). From wikipedia I’ll quote: “Anti-social behaviours are actions that harm or lack consideration for the well-being of others. It has also been defined as any type of conduct that violates the basic rights of another person and any behaviour that is considered to be disruptive to others in society. This can be carried out in various ways, which includes, but is not limited to, intentional aggression, as well as covert and overt hostility.” - and honestly, clinically anti-social people are rare in this game. And of course that the player who is in real life anti-social will act the same way in the game and that is unavoidable; but in this game a lot of players simply play the game this way because the game never told them it’s bad, or it told them it’s okay.

Under “low skilled” player I mean: player that is not new to level 80, player that lacks knowledge about one or many parts of the game (about their class, skills, dodging correctly, CC…). It’s bad to expect of a new player or a player learning their class to be a better player instantly because… well, they will, just not yet, time is needed. Time spent learning. Low skilled players that are problem here were never told learning is needed.

When it comes to Guild Wars 2, with years of giving content that does not require of a player to cooperate, to have an incentive to do more than just pressing “1111″, to never talk in chat, to join and be active in a guild, to never have a need to read traits or to change a build, to understand what skills do, to never “defeat” a player, or to never show a player how bad at the game they are… Guild Wars 2 made a lot of players to be anti-social or low-skilled. There is no need to learn. Just spam all of skills. Equip berserker. And that’s it. Oh you’re bored? Don’t want to press keyboard buttons? Don’t worry - everyone gets a participation trophy. And only a participation trophy exists, so no worry, it’s like you did all your best. No need to try.

So this problem - anti-social and low-skilled players - are the game’s own fault because the game made them this way.

There is missing not one, but many steps between what the game teaches you while leveling, killing world bosses, doing personal story; and what the hard content is. Hard content being the most fun because then you’re actually playing the game. And there is almost nothing in-between. “Medium content” is missing. Last few years there was a lot of effort to add those steps - a little bit harder story, some a little bit harder world bosses, Strikes and DRMs. But again, some of these steps added were still too steep and still need some steps before because average player was not one level under, but in basement while some of this “stepping-stone” content is on third floor. Many steps missing there… Also, the harder world bosses were great and improved players’ skill level a bit… But again, only for those who wanted to learn.

Twisted Marionette is one of these great new steps in fixing this problem. Tonight many players were told to “git gud” by the game itself. Some players are afk? Well, no-one gets anything. Great! Guess we’re playing an mmo, then. But even with this great step… Many are missing. Out of defeated players, only players who stop being anti-social and learn will kill Marionette. And I’m afraid it’ll make many give up or continue trying - always failing - because the game until this point didn’t make them learn.

There is a need to re-do dungeons. Re-do personal story. Re-do each and every enemy in open world. Re-do world bosses. Re-do every encounter a player can have to make them use more skills. And to know what skills to use.

Imagine… if only one of said things, the most popular and where is the largest amount of these “problematic” players… was revamped just a bit.

Disclaimer: there is maybe 1 in 10 players who is that kind of player (as far as my encounters go). Not really a problem, there will always be this kinds of players… but imagine if the statistic is 1 in 100 and everyone else is even better at what they do. And… imagine the game made you better by just leveling to level 80.

[ivi-gw2]

Twisted Marionette came back yesterday - a case for not blaming players for fails (well... not 100%)

/rambling, wooooo, but a premise to what is coming.../

I joined many pug groups and all were organized. But all of them failed. This is a very straight and actually pretty easy world boss, but the kind where you need just one or two “low-skilled” or “anti-social” players to fail.

Now - I won’t go into a discussion of was it a bad choice to make a difficult 50-man content. I personally love it. I will point out some facts about how this event shed more light on one of the biggest Guild Wars 2 problems - a lot of anti-social and low skilled players.

Under “anti-social” player I mean: the player that willfully does not cooperate with others - afks, doesn’t pull it’s own weight when needed of them, blames others for their failure, doesn’t want to improve their skill, or doesn’t want to “play” the game - read its tells, do what the game tells them to do (go in the portal, defend, evade, kill this, that etc.). From wikipedia I’ll quote: “Anti-social behaviours are actions that harm or lack consideration for the well-being of others. It has also been defined as any type of conduct that violates the basic rights of another person and any behaviour that is considered to be disruptive to others in society. This can be carried out in various ways, which includes, but is not limited to, intentional aggression, as well as covert and overt hostility.” - and honestly, clinically anti-social people are rare in this game. And of course that the player who is in real life anti-social will act the same way in the game and that is unavoidable; but in this game a lot of players simply play the game this way because the game never told them it’s bad, or it told them it’s okay.

Under “low skilled” player I mean: player that is not new to level 80, player that lacks knowledge about one or many parts of the game (about their class, skills, dodging correctly, CC...). It’s bad to expect of a new player or a player learning their class to be a better player instantly because... well, they will, just not yet, time is needed. Time spent learning. Low skilled players that are problem here were never told learning is needed.

When it comes to Guild Wars 2, with years of giving content that does not require of a player to cooperate, to have an incentive to do more than just pressing “1111″, to never talk in chat, to join and be active in a guild, to never have a need to read traits or to change a build, to understand what skills do, to never “defeat” a player, or to never show a player how bad at the game they are... Guild Wars 2 made a lot of players to be anti-social or low-skilled. There is no need to learn. Just spam all of skills. Equip berserker. And that’s it. Oh you’re bored? Don’t want to press keyboard buttons? Don’t worry - everyone gets a participation trophy. And only a participation trophy exists, so no worry, it’s like you did all your best. No need to try.

So this problem - anti-social and low-skilled players - are the game’s own fault because the game made them this way.

There is missing not one, but many steps between what the game teaches you while leveling, killing world bosses, doing personal story; and what the hard content is. Hard content being the most fun because then you’re actually playing the game. And there is almost nothing in-between. "Medium content” is missing. Last few years there was a lot of effort to add those steps - a little bit harder story, some a little bit harder world bosses, Strikes and DRMs. But again, some of these steps added were still too steep and still need some steps before because average player was not one level under, but in basement while some of this “stepping-stone” content is on third floor. Many steps missing there... Also, the harder world bosses were great and improved players’ skill level a bit... But again, only for those who wanted to learn.

Twisted Marionette is one of these great new steps in fixing this problem. Tonight many players were told to “git gud” by the game itself. Some players are afk? Well, no-one gets anything. Great! Guess we’re playing an mmo, then. But even with this great step... Many are missing. Out of defeated players, only players who stop being anti-social and learn will kill Marionette. And I’m afraid it’ll make many give up or continue trying - always failing - because the game until this point didn’t make them learn.

There is a need to re-do dungeons. Re-do personal story. Re-do each and every enemy in open world. Re-do world bosses. Re-do every encounter a player can have to make them use more skills. And to know what skills to use.

Imagine... if only one of said things, the most popular and where is the largest amount of these “problematic” players... was revamped just a bit.

Disclaimer: there is maybe 1 in 10 players who is that kind of player (as far as my encounters go). Not really a problem, there will always be this kinds of players... but imagine if the statistic is 1 in 100 and everyone else is even better at what they do. And... imagine the game made you better by just leveling to level 80.

[ivi-gw2]

Cogs turning

After months of too much other stuff to do I managed to return to this project of mine. I still have illustrations to do. Text is now much longer with many things removed and revamped. Every “finished” chapter has been reevaluated at least twice. Stuff is coming soon (tm), first illustrations have to be scanned.

Should I say stay tuned? Well not really... There is still a lot of scanning to do :D

[ivi-gw2]

First post!

So, here it is. I made the decision few months ago and gathered all the stuff. There is still some background work to do (and almost all the graphics and drawing), but foundations are set.

I was afraid this won’t ever get to them. Why would I put it anywhere? Why does it matter? And then I decided that it matters to me. I want to do this. Even if they don’t see this, I will be happy.