12:54 am, October 13, 2013
251
What's the point?
I keep bringing up solo, repeatable on-demand content here and I figured I'd actually make a thread about. This probably won't be just about that, but with a title that's "slightly" open to interpretation, I figured I'd put this up here.
What I mean by that phrase is content that players can experience solo, it can be repeated and they can experience at any time they want - it's player started content. With dynamic events being the bread and butter of the open world game (which is where solo players should be), GW2 has a bit of a lack of such content - the players are expected to adjust to the world, instead of the world bending backwards to make the player feel welcome.
And it's this, that is creating problems for me - with content being either present or not, I am having issue seeing why should I be in a certain area. If I am in an area with no events happening, why should I be there? If I want to move to a different area, and I don't know if I'll have DEs to do, why should I go there? To **** trash? In a game in which the devs stated that they don't want you killing trash?
Clearly, DEs have some absolutely amazing features (compared to traditional quests) - the fact that you can join in on "someone else's" DE and the fact that you can repeat them goes a very long way to creating a point for the player to be in a certain location. In games with more traditional quests, after you complete all quests in an area, there's only killing trash left. There's no chance of something else happening, it's just trash that's left over. But to get there, you first need to complete certain on-demand content, and until you do, you know you will always have content waiting for you in an area. The switch to DEs creates a game where you go from certain content, followed by certainly no content (outside of trash), to a game where you just have potential content.
And it's the potential content that seems to just create a potential point. And I am not sure this is enough.
(Hearts clearly add a point, but they aren't repeatable, and, given the design of hearts, they are basically all just variations of killing ten rats. Not only that, they also force you to stay in a fairly small area - there's no heart that would send you looking for a young mesmer's remains a few maps away. They just represent the more boring type of on-demand content.)
What I mean by that phrase is content that players can experience solo, it can be repeated and they can experience at any time they want - it's player started content. With dynamic events being the bread and butter of the open world game (which is where solo players should be), GW2 has a bit of a lack of such content - the players are expected to adjust to the world, instead of the world bending backwards to make the player feel welcome.
And it's this, that is creating problems for me - with content being either present or not, I am having issue seeing why should I be in a certain area. If I am in an area with no events happening, why should I be there? If I want to move to a different area, and I don't know if I'll have DEs to do, why should I go there? To **** trash? In a game in which the devs stated that they don't want you killing trash?
Clearly, DEs have some absolutely amazing features (compared to traditional quests) - the fact that you can join in on "someone else's" DE and the fact that you can repeat them goes a very long way to creating a point for the player to be in a certain location. In games with more traditional quests, after you complete all quests in an area, there's only killing trash left. There's no chance of something else happening, it's just trash that's left over. But to get there, you first need to complete certain on-demand content, and until you do, you know you will always have content waiting for you in an area. The switch to DEs creates a game where you go from certain content, followed by certainly no content (outside of trash), to a game where you just have potential content.
And it's the potential content that seems to just create a potential point. And I am not sure this is enough.
(Hearts clearly add a point, but they aren't repeatable, and, given the design of hearts, they are basically all just variations of killing ten rats. Not only that, they also force you to stay in a fairly small area - there's no heart that would send you looking for a young mesmer's remains a few maps away. They just represent the more boring type of on-demand content.)