From the sound of it (thanks, Fool’s Age, Rowan x 2, Syp and Syl, I can’t recommend your articles enough), the social scene in Guild Wars 2 is exactly what I’m looking for when it comes to MMO sociality: a light touch, encouraging cooperation instead of demanding it.
The way of the Open Hand of friendship, instead of the Closed Fist of the designer. It’s a Zen kinda thing, man.
It’s… less Big Brother, more… Crazy Uncle Eddie with golems and firecrackers.
I’m just wired that way. Tell me I must do something social, like find a tank and a healer to run a dungeon, and I’ll fight it and try to solo it. Tell me that there are baddies that need whumping over thataway, give me tools to help anyone I happen to stumble into, and I’ll stop to give a hand up to a fallen friendly or do whatever tricks I can to offer assistance in killing said baddies.
Tell me I can be social, and I probably will. Tell me I have to be, and I probably won’t.
Guild Wars 2 apparently also has a big exploration factor, and that’s kind of what I do in these MMO things. Yes, I’m looking forward to playing GW2. I’m selling some of my older games to fund it (and make my blasted computer work), and one of those WoW time cards, but that’s OK, new vistas await. One can’t dwell in the past forever.
Unless one is a nasty, grumpy ghost of Ascalon, I guess.
Story from last night:
One of the types of things that you can do in GW2 is complete “skill challenges”, which are identified on your map. These challenges range anywhere from simply reaching a certain area, to fighting a nasty enemy.
I took on one of the latter during a play session yesterday, and was in a bit over my head when, out of no where, another player showed up and threw himself into the battle. We proceeded to finish off the enemy and I completed my challenge. As I was about the leave, I saw the notification that the other player had restarted the event (I guess he came too late to get credit?) and so I stuck around and helped him earn the skill point as well.
This sort of thing happens all the time in Guild Wars 2. Purely dynamic (and often silent) groups of players form up, do an event (or two, or three), and then disperse. While the players are together they’re dropping heals, res’ing fallen players, and helping each other kill off whatever is in the way. It’s a really fun way to play an MMO as a solo player.
I’ll have to admit that I am enjoying GW2 a lot. The pacing is much more laidback and I don’t feel the urgency to hit max level that comes with the sub based MMOs that I am used to. While I didn’t get on with GW1 the sequel appeals to me a lot and I’m enjoying grabbing the Vistas, doing the Heart quests and sliding into events. It might just be that I’m older, have a family now and therefore less time for gaming but GW2 seems to fit everything better.
Here’s the difference between Azeroth and Tyria: battling against enemies in an event in Tyria, I was hit badly, and downed. Three people came to help revive me. Last night in Azeroth, while fighting some tough mobs, two more respawned right on top of me. I was going down. Nearby, adventurers went about their business, ignoring my plight; or used my difficulties to scoot through the mobs, aggro-free.
Yup…. that pretty much sums it up. I assume that the tiny bonus xp for reviving a downed player (or npc!) is what motivates the differences in behaviour.
@ Andrew: I think the exp is only a small part of the motivation, actually. The larger issue is that in GW2, other players are your allies, not your competition. In GW2, I’m genuinely pleased to run into other players; that’s very much the opposite of how I feel in MMOs in general.
@ Tesh: You have confused me with Yeebo it seems. I just noticed that the link to my article is under another’s name above.
Ah, that is indeed me making a mistake. I read both of you, and just managed to addle my brain long enough to misattribute. Sorry!
…OK, I fixed it, thanks for the catch!
It’s probably hard for Bliz developers to think differently on such nuances (even as they form the bedrock of the game) when millions are at stake. I could imagine being conservative.
Indeed. It does make me wonder if they are playing conservatively with Titan or if they are going to take some chances.