One of the sad things about no longer working on the same continent as the core OnRPG team is that I get to work and talk with them a lot less. They’re based in LA and I have recently returned to The Netherlands back in Europe. But there are advantages that come from this move as well! Like for example when NCSoft organizes a hands-on Guild Wars 2 press event in a hotel in Hamburg, Germany! With most of our other writers in the States and other parts of the world I was the designated man to take the trip.
When I got the invitation I was very excited, I hadn’t played Guild Wars 2 yet and the hand-on section of the event was going to give me ample opportunity to feel with my own fingers if the game plays as well as it looks and sounds!
Without jumping straight to the conclusion of this write-up I’ll reveal one thing: Guild Wars 2 Gold feels as good as it looks and sounds!
A couple of months ago I mentioned how the creators behind Rift, Trion Worlds, had taken the bold move to not innovate at all. Instead they took the (rather successful) path of copying and improving all the best features from a myriad of MMOs in the market. The result is a great game… but a very predictable and comfortable one. Rift just won’t surprise you very often and as I wrote back then, that’s fine.
Guild Wars 2, in this respect, is the polar opposite of Rift. The game and the entire driving force behind it is one giant soup of innovation and new, different game mechanics and challenges. In fact the basic premise of Guild Wars 2 almost seems to be “What is wrong in today’s MMOs and how are we going to fix it in Guild Wars 2?”
The first example of how Guild Wars 2 Gold is different is the game’s emphasis on cooperation. There is no penalty whatsoever for playing together with others, only rewards. So if you see someone else beating up an NPC you can join in at your leisure. You will not be stealing their xp nor will you be locked out of any loot. Loot is another fine example as there will be NO rolling for loot. If a monster drops an item EVERYBODY who helped kill the monster will get it. Ninjas need NOT apply!
A 3rd example of how Arena Net is poised to change the MMO landscape is how they handle crafting. There are no requirements for being able to pick up, harvest, mine, pick etc crafting materials and there will be no mad dash for the mining node to steal it from your fellow players as all resources are instances. In other words: everybody gets an equal amount of resources from every gathering point.
I can’t even remember the amount of times I have cleared a path through some dangerous monsters to get to a flower in World of Warcraft only to see someone else run off with the reward!
There are many other ways Guild Wars 2 is really trying to set its own standards and not stick to the current mold but I’ll get back to them in the full preview.
