• 25Jan 13

  Guild Wars 2 is a massive disappoinment

  I was going to review it on youtube, but I have the tools to do that atm.

  Gameplay

  The gameplay in GW2 while not as restrictive and limited as that seen in most modern themepark mmos such as WoW, still feels very hollow and plastic. The crafting feels half assed (still better than average though), and the questing is still a bore. Dynamic events repeat all too often removing any illusion you had of being able to influence the world. Levelling past level 30 feels pointless and the level cap of 80 feels like it is that high for the sake of being that high. Compare this to WoW for instance where you would learn cool new abilities from level 1 all the way to level cap, as a result each level felt a lot more rewarding in WoW than they do in GW2. There is no reason for the level cap being 80. Too still give me some feeling of progression between 30-80, I had to take my skills in a very linear order. On the bright side, character customization (equipment/traits), has a lot more depth to it than what the competition has.

  Combat

  Like most themepark mmos, GW2 is centered around combat. GW2's combat is unfortunately to say the least... crap. Ok, sure it beats the typcal guitar hero with fireballs that most hotkey combat mmos use. But ultimately, the combat still feels very shallow, and just spammy. PvP has some depth but even the game's PvP is ultimately weak compared to Guild Wars 1 and that is not even bringing up far better PvP games out there. Underwater combat is atrocious, and I dread doing underwater events. Plenty of encounters in dungeons does not do a good job taking advantage of GW2's mechanics, and the dodge mechanic was implemented in the most boring way possible.

  Music

  The sound is quite possibly some of Jeremy Soule's worst. And with 2 exceptions, the new music is awful. It is no wonder a lot of the soundtrack was copy pasted from GW1. Thankfully, players can change the soundtrack. I didnt like how i heard the same music no matter where I went.

  Misc Mistakes

  • Arenanet seems to be more focused on adding forgettable one time content as opposed to fixing some serious bugs and exploits out there.
  • Arenanet seems to be far too banhappy.
  • Forcing players on the personal drivel
  • They made it too easy, go back to BWE1 difficulty please
  • Not allowing for a very customizable UI, want to move around the skills on your weapon hotbar? Too bad. Want to hide the personal drivel that is rubbed in your face whenever you play, too bad you cant, it will take up a good portion of your screen and have a constant reminder on the minimap.
  • Obnoxious anti bot techniques that gets in the way of legal players.
  • Making each and every player an unlikable deuche. Thanks to random comments such as "I can outrun a centaur" and "Talk to me, NOW!" (that was my guardian btw, who was supposed to be honorable and virtious). In EverQuest 2, you had multiple voices per race you could choose from.

  What they got right

  • Removed the holy trinity. While roles themselves are fine, the holy trinity is a HORRIBLE implementation of the role system that are always anti-tactical and makes the foes dumb as bricks. Gone is the need for positioning, formations and tactics with a combat system that allows for an injured tank to get back to full heatlh with ease. Where the healers can heal the tank without any risk of getting attacked themselves.
  • Level scaling. You will always be one level above the encounter, you temporarily delevel when you visit areas lower level than you. But your rewards are scaled up. So it wont be a complete waste of time.
  • Itemizaiton. Instead of just having one PvP set and one PvE set, or one set for each role, each class has multiple viable attributes.

  On the bright side, it is still way better than anything else that has come out in the genre for a long, long while. Since WoW, in fact (GW1 was not an mmo).

  • Posted Jan 25, 2013 5:06 am GMT
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• 13Nov 12

  Injustice

  So I did an exam earlier today. For most of the part it was pretty damn easy.

  But around halfway through the exam, something hit me. I started thinking of my old co-workers back at my part time job. The fact, that I am here studying and getting a future whereas they are stuck in a rut stuck with a job that pays them less than 1000 dollars a month.

  The fact that I will study software engineering, getting a real job and one that pays more than all 3 of my co-workers behind. Now it is not the fact that my future salary is much higher than theirs that bothers me. Instead what bothers me is the fact that it is not their fault they were stuck with crappy jobs like those.

  You see, I have Asperger's Syndrome, and so did 2 of my coworkers, but there is a huge difference between us. While I was put in normal classes since I began school (I even began one year early), they were put in school suited for mentally deficient students simply put because they had Asperger's. I wasnt diagnosed until my early teens and when I was in school there I was effective enough already in school to prove that I can study with normal people. Yet my co-workers didnt have this opportunity. They were judged before they were even given a chance to prove themselves and sent to schools where they had no opportunity or chance to make something out of themselves, heck, they didnt even learn algebra. I highly doubt they are stupid because while I was working with them, they learned a LOT from me, they learned algebra, they even learned some calculus, they learned sequences, they learned science, history and even some philosphy from me. As ignorant as they were (thanks to the terrible schools they went to), they learned real fast, and if they had studied at a proper school, I am sure they could have made something out of themselves. Yet, they are stuck there in the rut, being seen and treated as mentally deficient subjects.

  And here I am, in college, studying engineering.

  Really makes me wonder, if we had switched roles in life. What would they have done with their lives if they had not been met with prejudice since early childhood and what woudl happen to me if my parents had discovered I wasnt neurotypical and put me in a bad school?

  Of course, it is not just people with traits like Asperger's who are not given the education and opportunities they deserve. There are hundreds of thousands... no millions of people in poor and underdeveloped countries not given the chance that I or many others were given. Why, because their country cant afford their education, or prioritizes on other stuff... like warfare.

  I know one thing for sure, I know that I am lucky to be given these chances in life, and there is no way I am gonna waste these chances. I must make the most of my time here in college, and not only that, I must make sure I make the most out of what I can learn, not only to better my own life, but also to better the lives of those around me. I want to use what I learn here to help humanity, I owe the world at least that much.

  • Posted Nov 13, 2012 2:34 pm GMT
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• 23Oct 12

  The decline of Computer RPGs

  Old School

  • Fully customizable party members
  • Copies sometimes coupled with goodies
  • Low level caps, sometimes lower than 10
  • User Interfaces and controls were hardly perfect
  • Combat is turn based
  • Dying could have serious consequences

  Middle Ages

  • A lot of real time with pause games
  • Greatly improved user interfaces and games are much more accessable
  • Some levels of level scaling, but nothing overly intrusive
  • Fully customizable PC, sometimes party members were fully customizable too. Baldur's Gate allowed for both.
  • Dying could have serious consequences

  The new ****

  • Action combat is favored with the occational RTwP
  • Full heal and mana after each battle, fallen party members are ressed
  • Dialogue trees replaced with voiced protagonists and 3 dialogue options
  • Tactical combat=MMO combat, complete with tactics killing elements such as threat mechanics
  • MMORPGs have obscene power scaling with level 90 WoW characters having over 1000 times more hp than a level 1 character
  • Rise of the Single Player mmo, ripe with kill 10 rats quests
  • Even the PC is not always very customizable anymore
  • Cooldowns and procs causing players to play the UI as opposed to the game
  • Posted Oct 23, 2012 6:39 am GMT
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