The way they chain events/quests together is brilliant. Some of the more ambitious zones have quests upon quests seamlessly spinning up after you finish the previous. They have also done pretty cool things with the world bosses. Without a clear class system they pushed the movement mechanics to the limit - and they have gotten better at it over the years.
To me, it's definitely a game with a legacy. You can't find another like it. GW2 inspired me a lot for my own projects in terms of open event design. I see ArenaNet as innovators and leaders in that respect.
That said, the game has always been plagued by strange content schedules. The Live Seasons were hit and miss, with long periods of content draughts and then frequent release cycles out of nowhere. It's as if their production strategy changes on an annual basis, which probably makes most players (me included) confused as to where the project is going. The game release was similarly confusing, and it took them about a year to figure out what their identity is. I'm not sure if you recall, but their pre-release marketing was very different to what content they launched with, and extremely different to the game they ended up being.
I wouldn't call it a failure of a game at all. It has some amazing designs - artistically and it terms of gameplay. It just lacks in project management.
Hmm, I like GW2 design. Moved away from the linear quest hub BS. I can jump into the game and 1 of 100 things. I also liked the combat/combos. I don't care about story in MMO's, so I think they wasted too much there. I found nothing appealing about GW1. I guess I could play terminally boring ESO or umm WoW classic. Maybe it's time to stop trying to help the MMO genre and quit gaming altogether.
Comments
"I swung a sword. I swung a sword again. HEY! I swung it again. That's great! We just don't want players to grind in GW2."
I'll never forget that one.
The way they chain events/quests together is brilliant. Some of the more ambitious zones have quests upon quests seamlessly spinning up after you finish the previous. They have also done pretty cool things with the world bosses. Without a clear class system they pushed the movement mechanics to the limit - and they have gotten better at it over the years.
To me, it's definitely a game with a legacy. You can't find another like it. GW2 inspired me a lot for my own projects in terms of open event design. I see ArenaNet as innovators and leaders in that respect.
That said, the game has always been plagued by strange content schedules. The Live Seasons were hit and miss, with long periods of content draughts and then frequent release cycles out of nowhere. It's as if their production strategy changes on an annual basis, which probably makes most players (me included) confused as to where the project is going. The game release was similarly confusing, and it took them about a year to figure out what their identity is. I'm not sure if you recall, but their pre-release marketing was very different to what content they launched with, and extremely different to the game they ended up being.
I wouldn't call it a failure of a game at all. It has some amazing designs - artistically and it terms of gameplay. It just lacks in project management.