Although these are now all over the place, I could not let another day go by without linking to the nine-part high-quality series of videos posted to GameTrailers.com on the Guild Wars 2 demo:
Among the promises made by ArenaNet that seem to have come to fruition are: persistence in the open world (that boss fight is not instanced), instanced personal storyline, scaling dynamic events (e.g. the broodmother’s sweeping tail attack), environmental weapons, ambient voice acting, downed mechanics and self-healing not assuring easy-mode, active combat including the ability to fire off attacks even out of range of enemies, and cross-profession combinations.
Promises made that were touched on but have not been seen in full: out-of-combat activities such as the shooting gallery could be seen but not participated in during the demo, and due to ANet’s efforts in keeping the demo experience active at all times, the dynamic events were set to cycle on much faster intervals than in the live game so that we cannot make any conclusions about their persistence within the world. I did, however, over the course of several videos (and I have watched so many by now that I wouldn’t even know where to begin to find the specific link) that certain events were at different stages depending on who was participating and how successful they were.
One more issue has been raised by both Rubi of GuildCast and Crimson Starfire of Word of Shadow, and that is the pop-up notifications of event status and location. My better half and I fall firmly into the camp of wishing that these were not present, and not only expected to, but would prefer to wander through the world happening upon events randomly. I can’t help but suspect, though, that ANet has seen too many people run by events in progress during testing, unable to retrain themselves to leave no stone unturned in lieu of searching out exclamation points. Perhaps I underestimate my fellow gamers and overestimate ArenaNet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case. It’s also possible that the notifications only exist for demo purposes, again to keep demo players notified and involved due to reduced playtimes.
Only time will tell and prove me right or wrong. I eagerly await confirmation either way from the ArenaNet staff. Note to ArenaNet staffers: I will settle for toggle-able notifications.
I also feel the need to link to two more videos from the French site Univers-Virtuels showing footage of Beetlun, the Temple of the Ages, and wandering around in Kryta. I include these to show that the demo was not constrained to some 10- or 15-minute segment of the game world with no exploration possible (as some have claimed). Swimming is in (amusingly, it was allowed although a warning popped up politely requesting that the demo tester get out of the water) and it’s evident that some of our familiar spots from Guild Wars 1 have fallen into disrepair in a believable way over the 250-year interim between Guild Wars 1 and 2.
Also? Epic swamp monster.
I think in exploration phase, turning off the events could be fun, but once you get to efficiency/advancement phase, I think most players will not want to spin around like a clueless tourist.
I agree, and I’m glad the notifications are there for those folks as I’m sure they’re the majority, but then I’ve never been much for efficiency ;).
It’s definitely a case of my building an expectation that didn’t necessarily match ArenaNet’s statements.
It’s so strange to see people bothered by some minor feature I hadn’t even thought of as negative.
At this point I’ve seen every aspect of the demo criticized by at least one person, whether it be the “ugly” armour, the outlines, the “WoW” graphics, people who hate charr running on all 4s, the flashy skill effects.
Event notifications really don’t bother me.
Oh I’m not criticizing them (or, are you talking about the stuff I linked?). They don’t bother me either. Even if I couldn’t turn them off I wouldn’t be bothered (though I would try to turn them off).
I have so few concerns about GW2 at this point that honestly, I’m reaching for things I’d give an 8/10 rather than a 10/10, lol.
At this point my biggest concern is that GW2 will be a WoW 2.0 and not a GW 2.0. The event messages popping up and affecting immersion will be small time compared the bigger picture.
Must maintain faith…
I feel this will largely depend on what people feel are the integral characteristics of GW vs WoW…. for example, when I think of WoW I think of a crappy-graphiced loot grind where story doesn’t matter at all, leveling is just a waste of time until you can raid raid raid, and your gearscore is your worth as a person.
If GW2 is absent these things, and adds in the other stuff from the demo, I’ll be beyond thrilled. But then again, I’m an amateur at GW the first who didn’t delve too deeply into too many of its unique mechanics.
I hope your fears are allayed as more footage comes through and more questions are answered!
Wow, those videos are amazing. Thanks 😀
My pleasure! There are so many videos out there that I wanted to shed a light on my favorites :).
I prefer to keep the GUI to a minimum. Personaly I like to be able to see as much of the world and what is going on around me as I possibly can, both for immersion and observational reasons. Often I find myself playing GW with the camera fully zoomed out, and the GW interface is about as minimalistic as MMO’s get.
Given that the events have rewards attached to them, I think some sort of notifaction that you are participating in, or have completed an event is kind of necessary. In some of the videos I have seen, the notifications seem rather large and invasive while in others not so much. I really can’t see any way around the need for the notifactions, but I think they could be toned down a bit maybe if the need arises or if enough people say they want them to. But in all honesty it isnt a big issue for me either way.
I seem to recall Anet mentioning somewhere that they where sticking with the minimalist GUI philosophy, though I dont remember exactly where I read that. For the most part from what I have seen that is holding true. I am sure at the very least we will have plenty of interface options for size and placement of all the different elements. If not I am going to have a bit of a hard time getting used to the mini map in the bottom corner.