3601

Qt3 ended up on Ehmry Bay. BFF is on Jade Quarry, I believe.

3602

You’d be welcome to join both. I can invite you into BFF if you want to PM me your handle and are looking for people to play with on JQ.

3603

The quests are whack-a-mole, sometimes (often), but it’s quality whacking. Stuff looks and feels right, and the level balancing seems spot on. I’ve never felt I couldn’t handle the stuff I was meant to handle, and the stuff I was not supposed to be able to solo is appropriately nasty.

I really like the fact that the game rewards jumping in and helping people who are fighting. It seems there is no downside to it, and it means that if you catch the attention of a nasty veteran or worse creature, often a bunch of other questers in the area will join in and, voila!, everyone gets some credit and someone gets some loot, usually. Events are sort of come as you are and leave when you want to things. I’ve seen rampaging cave trolls kited all over the place as different people coalesce around the fight until it’s done. Of course, I’m only in the lowbie areas still but it’s been really enjoyable.

3604

Arenanet just released a new trailer. Kinda underwhelming/disappointing though.

Summary: the real world is a terrible, boring place to live…so play our game! :D

3605

Sorry but I am afraid your ideas are not going to be very popular with the MMO audience. I, for one, wouldn’t want my character progression options to depend on what options I clicked in a quest dialog.

What I actually did to get the reward has no impact whatsoever on the reward.

In many people’s book, this is actually a good thing. What you call “a reward based on your decision”, I call “you are forced down a certain way if you want a certain reward”. And I don’t like games forcing me to do things only the certain way.

As an example, imagine if they implemented this logic. Did you mostly heal quaggans for this “heart”? Get the + Healing item. Did you mostly kill the monsters that spread plague? Get the + Power item. But what if I want to heal quaggans AND a + Power item? Tough luck, come back on another character, because you can’t re-do the quest because that would make it less “meaningful”.

This sucks. To be honest, I can’t even think about a single player RPG that would do something like this. It’s just bad design IMO.

By the way, even the best of RPGs will lose all their appeal story-wise, if you just click dialog options without reading them, fast forward all the cutscenes and ignore all the in-world conversations (which are actually a huge part of the story telling in GW2).

3606

MMORPGs are RPGs, and I think there’s a general expectation on the part of the developers that you’ll develop some affinity for their dinky little fantasy world.

I think if you’re not charmed by the game - by playing the different races (the cute-with-teeth Asura, the tree-hugging but warrior Sylvari, the mighty Charr, etc.), by getting some sense of the politics and history and goings-on - you’re not going to get the most you can out of the game (in the sense of all there is to experience in the game). It’s supposed to be a blend of competitive game and a persistent virtual world to play let’s pretend in.

(Just as an experiment, try talking to NPCs a lot and listening in on their conversations. There’s a ton of detail hidden there that fleshes out the fantasy world.)

Basically I’m having fun pretending to be a fairy elf made of cabbage - that in itself is a portion of the fun of the game. If you miss out on that side of it, then you’re missing a fair part of what the developers intended.

Go on, there’s nothing embarrassing about it - I knew a partner in a magic circle law firm who liked to wind down pretending to be a dwarf in WoW :)

3607

I was about to make another sarcastic remark about how I’d love to play their game if they’d sell it to me, but as I was about to I just got an email that you can buy serial numbers off their site again. :P

3608

They have created a game that feels like a beautiful oil painting and that is the crap they came up with for a commercial?? They should either fire the group in charge of approving marketing or hire someone who knows something about marketing.

3609

What the hell was that…

3610

I liked it - It shows people that its time to step away from the television and be active instead, that its time to be active, instead of passive. Thats the big thing games have over television. Be the one that does, instead of watches.

3611

ArenaNet would cement themselves as my favorite developer of all time if they released a open world PvP / full loot server. A lot of the mechanics they already have in place would work perfectly in that scenario.

It’s a niche but it would definitely fill a server in no time.

3612

A lot of the mechanics they have in place would break horrifically as well.

How would you determine who fought who? Please don’t say that you’d have the player’s self-organize into guilds who would then battle one another, because you’d have a full server of GOONs in no time flat, and I’m pretty sure that’s not what you’re after.

Most of the time when I hear people asking for something like this they’re either griefers or naive, because I have a hard time understanding why anyone else would want what this turns into.

3613

If every game was cancelled before it got off the ground because the developers were afraid people would exploit it at some point, we’d all be playing single player pong.

3614

Has anyone been to the strange town of Garenhof?

I swear its like something taken straight out of Warhammer Fantasy…a very nice secluded town near the water, where Ice Elementals watches over the town, courtesy of a Wizard that lives in a cloud castle nearby, but no-one has ever seen him. Overhearing a conversation between the mayor and the town guard (Who is there to keep up apperances, since the Ice Elementals handle everything) the Town Guard mentions hearing screams at night that doesnt sound human, but the mayor scoffs and says the wizard will protect them, as always… There isnt really anything to do there (Other than a skillpoint) and I dont see any way to reach the Sky Castle.

Does anyone know anything about the place, perhaps from GW1?

3615

oh wow - There is a place close by, you have to enter by jumping up some waterfalls, that is amazing! Basically, its a broken ruin of a city, completely destroyed, with just a few remnants of buildings, stonestaircases and the like left, and a giant globe of sorts, hidden inside the mountain for no reason whatsoever. Thats the kind of of stuff that I love! Brilliantly done, Anet, simply brilliant!

3616

I thought the trailer started out great and the guy was going to bust out of that statue and land in a castle siege or whatever. Instead it just went downhill with the live action and way downhill for the gameplay part.

3617

I came across that site last week. I got lost, it was so large. For what must just be a piece of scenery, it’s pretty elaborate. Hopefully they’ll add some dynamic events or other reason to visit.

3618

You lurk for a year and then you’re just all chatty cathy aren’t you?

3619

Dear site mods, you should probably have some sort of warning on the main page that all new posters have to check with Jag before participating in your site.

3620

I’ve played Darkfall since beta so I’m well aware of what a free for all MMO environment is. Believe it or not there are people who like that sort of thing and they specifically battle it out against the random PK crowd.

Why does this topic irritate people so much? There are plenty of standard servers to pick from. I think Arena would ultimately make money so whats the big deal?