Guild Wars 2: New Player Experience to Be Overhauled

SBFord

ArenaNet has revealed plans to update the Guild Wars 2 new player experience to offer the game's newest players a clearer progression throughout the earliest phases. Players can expect to find "story chunks" of the Personal Story that will be unlocked as the game unfolds for new players.

As another addition with the level-up guide, we’re updating the personal story steps using our new Story Journal so they come in story chunks that unlock all at once per chapter. When a story chapter is unlocked as a level-up reward, you’ll be able to play straight through the entire chapter from start to finish and not have any awkward starts and stops that throw off the storyline. In this way, story chapters become another big moment to look forward to earning and unlocking as your character levels up.

We’ve also taken this opportunity to go back and reevaluate the rewards of each of the major story chapters. We’ve done some pretty major overhauls to make the rewards for completing chapters feel much more compelling than they were in the past. Personal story chapters will absolutely be worth completing for your character as you progress. Similar to level-up rewards, we won’t be able to retroactively apply these to current level 80 characters, but all future characters you create or level up to 80 will benefit from this system.

Read more about the changes coming in the September update on the Guild Wars 2 site.

kinkyJalepeno

Sounds decent...  Will patch up and have a peek....

Oh and first !!

Chrisbox

What? They don't need to overhaul the new player experience they need to overhaul the veteran experience.  This game eases you in perfectly, and cuts you off with no real endgame. 

Bladestrom

Ithis is in addition to a whole ream of changes that are starting to immerge, all of which are aimed at vets.

blueoasis

"What? They don't need to overhaul the new player experience they need to overhaul the veteran experience.  This game eases you in perfectly, and cuts you off with no real endgame. "

 

My thoughts exactly.

Octagon7711

Originally posted by blueoasis

"What? They don't need to overhaul the new player experience they need to overhaul the veteran experience.  This game eases you in perfectly, and cuts you off with no real endgame. "

 

My thoughts exactly.

+1  Found no problems with the personal story except for the end story that forced grouping, seemed a little strange in such open game.  

Raapnaap

A lot of development effort on the one thing they didn't need to touch. The levelling experience in GW2 was one of the few levelling experiences that was perfectly fine compared to the quest grind of other themeparks. The fact it was relatively hands-free made it great... And now they're adding a railroad under it and further dumbing down the levelling progression. What is their audience? 8 year olds?

 

Very typical of ArenaNet to spend resources on unnecessary things while ignoring important game issues. The game is completely content-starved from PvE to WvW. This is yet more evidence of how out of touch they are with their own product. How many things could they have added to other parts of the game if they actually used their development resources properly?

 

 

Shodanas

I was considering re-installing GW2 and level some classes from scratch again. Now, i will definitely do so. 

 

Shodanas

Originally posted by raapnaap

A lot of development effort on the one thing they didn't need to touch. The levelling experience in GW2 was one of the few levelling experiences that was perfectly fine compared to the quest grind of other themeparks. The fact it was relatively hands-free made it great... And now they're adding a railroad under it and further dumbing down the levelling progression. What is their audience? 8 year olds?

 

Very typical of ArenaNet to spend resources on unnecessary things while ignoring important game issues. The game is completely content-starved from PvE to WvW. This is yet more evidence of how out of touch they are with their own product. How many things could they have added to other parts of the game if they actually used their development resources properly?

 

 

 

Actually a number of people where not quite pleased with the way story was presented while leveling up. We felt that it lacked certain coherence and that it held much bigger potential. 

 

I think that this is a welcomed change. 

 

 

Dakeru

"Rallying from the downed state can be overwhelming to a brand-new Guild Wars 2 player. We’ve moved the downed state to unlock at level five so players have time to learn the basics of combat before they experience this system. "

 

This is amusing me big time. Who even dies before level 5? Why is a player starting out "overwhelmed" by the downed system but then after 20 minutes of playtime he is considered experienced enough to grasp this basic feature?

 

Talk about completely random and pointless changes.

Ludwik

Originally posted by Chrisbox
What? They don't need to overhaul the new player experience they need to overhaul the veteran experience.  This game eases you in perfectly, and cuts you off with no real endgame. 

Spot on, mate.

APThug

I have lots of friends and family with sub par pc's that cant any thing decent outside of Microsoft office and paint. So when I introduced them to gw2 they literally had no idea what to do and had little understanding of what the point of the game was. (Console players no doubt)

I believe that if one person has a problem understanding something, even if its simple as all hell, then theres bound to be multiple people with the same issue.

Anet is trying to please everyone while staying true to their vision of what they want their game to be. Could they have worked on other things? Yeah, but back when they announced the story journal they were going to add the option to replay some of those segments. The revamped lvling experience serves as an added improvement bonus. Aint nothing wrong with that.

sumdumguy1

You know honestly this is one of the few times where I can really understand and support either side of the argument.  I ca  see the issue with story cohesion but I can also understand the veteran gripe.  I just hope if they are doing this, they have something planned for those veterans, like me, who play this game.  I don't mind leveling a new character but after the time I complete that, then what?  I'm back where I was previously.

Homitu

"Some systems have been layered further along the leveling progression and will become fully unlocked when you reach those levels to help give players more time to learn the core game systems. For example, rallying from the downed state can be overwhelming to a brand-newGuild Wars 2 player. We’ve moved the downed state to unlock at level five so players have time to learn the basics of combat before they experience this system. We also made the downed state give you additional health early on to help make it easier to learn."

 

This may be the first time I couldn't tell whether or not developer notes were being sarcastic.  Like, this could have been from a gaming Onion article.  

Tatercake

my problem is with this living story im compleltey lost have no clue wtf is going on in it and im loosing my depth and total ermersan into the game i feel like i missed so much and have  and will never understand or know what is going on

GeezerGamer

Originally posted by APThug
I have lots of friends and family with sub par pc's that cant any thing decent outside of Microsoft office and paint. So when I introduced them to gw2 they literally had no idea what to do and had little understanding of what the point of the game was. (Console players no doubt)

I believe that if one person has a problem understanding something, even if its simple as all hell, then theres bound to be multiple people with the same issue.

Anet is trying to please everyone while staying true to their vision of what they want their game to be. Could they have worked on other things? Yeah, but back when they announced the story journal they were going to add the option to replay some of those segments. The revamped lvling experience serves as an added improvement bonus. Aint nothing wrong with that.

There is 1 thing wrong with it....well 2 actually.

1. If it aint broke, don't fix it. They now run the risk of breaking something that didn't need fixing.

2. Diverted resources. The team they have on this project could have been doing other things that GW2 really needs. But  they aren't so now there are fewer, if any people working on the big and much more needed changes. Like  an expansion.

Thupli

My understanding is.that this.was a feature that they added to the china release and are recycling it here for NA and EU.

Amjoco

Originally posted by GeezerGamer

Originally posted by APThug
I have lots of friends and family with sub par pc's that cant any thing decent outside of Microsoft office and paint. So when I introduced them to gw2 they literally had no idea what to do and had little understanding of what the point of the game was. (Console players no doubt)

I believe that if one person has a problem understanding something, even if its simple as all hell, then theres bound to be multiple people with the same issue.

Anet is trying to please everyone while staying true to their vision of what they want their game to be. Could they have worked on other things? Yeah, but back when they announced the story journal they were going to add the option to replay some of those segments. The revamped lvling experience serves as an added improvement bonus. Aint nothing wrong with that.

There is 1 thing wrong with it....well 2 actually.

1. If it aint broke, don't fix it. They now run the risk of breaking something that didn't need fixing.

2. Diverted resources. The team they have on this project could have been doing other things that GW2 really needs. But  they aren't so now there are fewer, if any people working on the big and much more needed changes. Like  an expansion.

1 and 2 go together. Somewhere down the line people must have had problems and/or it has something to do with the China client. They don't just spend resources on "things to do to stay busy". /shrug

Amjoco

Originally posted by Tatercake
my problem is with this living story im compleltey lost have no clue wtf is going on in it and im loosing my depth and total ermersan into the game i feel like i missed so much and have  and will never understand or know what is going on

This could be why they are changing a few things. 

To me the LS is like any book, if you put it down for a period of time you forget what you read. I'm not exactly sure of what the changes are, but hopefully they have made it so the stories are laid out in a more memorable format. I'm excited to see what they did with it. Damn, I forgot what I just wrote.

observer

For those reinstalling to try this out, it isn't out yet.  The patch doesn't come out until mid september.

Talrune

IMO just by reading the posts on here they being ArenaNet need to do both revamp what they are doing for new folks and then as well revamp for vets.

While the living story is great it doesn't give enough content in a episode hence t he need for an expansion......   I am sure it is a money issue why we are not seeing this.

 

 

PaRoXiTiC

Originally posted by Talrune

IMO just by reading the posts on here they being ArenaNet need to do both revamp what they are doing for new folks and then as well revamp for vets.

While the living story is great it doesn't give enough content in a episode hence t he need for an expansion......   I am sure it is a money issue why we are not seeing this.

 

 

Highly doubt that there is any money issue. Highly.

AI724

Originally posted by APThug
Anet is trying to please everyone while staying true to their vision of what they want their game to be. Could they have worked on other things? Yeah, but back when they announced the story journal they were going to add the option to replay some of those segments. The revamped lvling experience serves as an added improvement bonus. Aint nothing wrong with that.

I'm also totally fine with everything they're improving. I would definitely replay the story with new character just to enjoy it all over again!

 

Thanks Anet for constantly improving GW2! You guys rock!!

ProGee

@Dakeru According to (I think) a WoW Dev some people have a hard time realising that shiny corpse equals loot. A lot of systems we here on mmorpg.com think are self explanatory are actually confusing for others.

dreamscaper

To all of the armchair developers here:

 

They wouldn't overhaul something like this just because they were bored. If they're doing this it's because their polling is showing that they're losing a lot of new players at early levels. At least wait to see the final result before bashing.

Bladestrom

Exactly ^^ they wouldn't say lets divert additional resources from feature x that players are asking for because we fancy changing the levelling experience.