There’s a lot to be said in favor of the “messy” realm of dynamic events, PvP, and any other MMO system that embraces chaotic unpredictability. It’s never quite the same, it forces you to stay on your toes, you get your secret decoder ring that allows you to crow about how much more awesome your preferred playstyle is than the “normies,” etc. And all of this is great for what it is — but I don’t always want it.
On the whole in my life, I like things neat. When I read Choose Your Own Adventure books, I’d find that my mind would become obsessed with all of the pages I was not reading due to choices, and eventually I’d break down and read the book out of order, front page to the last. I needed to tidy everything up, you see.
Likewise in adventure or roleplaying games, I always become very worried that I’m overlooking a part of the game, missed some secret, didn’t do everything I should’ve, and so on. It’s what drove me more than once to walkthroughs, because I couldn’t stand completing a game messily. I know that sounds weak and “Gee, Syp, you need to relax and just experience life as it goes,” but I’m merely being honest here. I like order in my gameplay, as with my life. I’m a Hobbit, I suppose, taking great comfort in the routine and predictability.
So back to MMOs: I’ve never really thought about it this way, but I don’t like being “messy” in those games for too long. The questing system that dominates MMOs these days gets a lot of backlash and hate, but the “neat” part of me adores them. I love knowing that I’m progressing through the game at exactly my own pace and none other’s. Group content sometimes makes me feel rushed — okay, always makes me feel rushed — and I can never stop to really enjoy the details or mull over the story when I’m in one. It’s messy because it’s several desires and agendas all pulling and pushing at each other. Not bad in limited quantities, mind you, just not something I want for 100% of my gameplay experience.
Right now I’m doing a weird yin-yang thing with LOTRO and RIFT. LOTRO for me is as neat as they come. I’m chewing through quest and deeds at my own pace, and achieving great satisfaction from it. My progress is almost always dependent on just me. In RIFT, however, I’m taking the messy path by completely eschewing quest content in favor of dungeon runs, invasions, rifts, instant adventures, chronicles, and so on. It’s far more dependent on outside influences — the game itself and other players — and thus creates a very different dynamic to explore. I’m trying my hardest to let my quite short hair down and see if I can just roll with it, or if my old urges will kick in and I’ll scurry back to the local quest line.
It also makes me somewhat nervous for GW2. I love the idea of just adventuring and seeing what’s out in the world, but the neat guy, the completionist in me might be driven nuts by how random it all is and how I’m unable to access every scrap of content that I’d want to see before moving on.
But it doesn’t mean I’m OCD either. A little mess is acceptable, especially if you can come back later and clean house.
I was actually worried myself before I played, While I’m still a little worried it will always be an all-out zerg fest, the thing that has me super interested is the “Zone Completed” and “World Completed” stats that are hard to ignore right on the map…
I feel that. The Completionist elf in me drives me to make a notebook of lists of things to-do. It also keeps the Shire’s “chicken run” quest in my quest log, even though it has been there for 2 years. I didn’t do it yet, but will. Eventually. Slow and steady, but eventually.
After having played GW2 for the first time this weekend I am quite sure I would not play that one as the only MMO to play. It felt that it was perhaps a bit too much “go go go, action!” to spend much time with over a long period of time.
So for me I think it will complement TSW quite well for me. I do not need everything neat and I am no completionist. But when I choose to do so I certainly want to dive deeper into some things, in my own pace. TSW looks like it would fit that spot quite well.
I would imagine the GW2 achievement system would fulfill the amount of “neat” gameplay that you desire. Finding all the Waypoints, Points of Interest, and Reknown Hearts in an area is a very, orderly and controlled way to progress through the game. The Reknown Hearts are labeled with their level recommendations, so you could follow those, grabbing the PoI’s and Waypoints you see along the way and it’d feel just like any other quest-hub style progression for the most part.
I feel like GW2 has a red pill/blue pill opportunity. On one hand, I can look at each zone and break down which activities can be done at my level, what’s nearby, and what’s next. Each renown heart becomes a mini hub to finish, and the zone tracking helps make sure that everyone is aware of the big checkboxes that still need filling. On the other hand, I can just wade into the zone, looking out for things that take my interest (“What’s up on top of that hill? Who’s this guy? Why is the bush shaking?”). The random events complement the feeling of dynamism, of just getting out there and *adventuring*.
Each player can decide how they want to play, or blend the styles together to fit their taste. And given GW2′s pricing, I think that a lot of people will be very happy to jump between GW2 and other titles in order to get their fix for alternative gameplay. Lots of benefit, very few drawbacks. If the average player enjoys two months of gameplay in GW2, I think they come out on par or ahead of other box-supported MMO releases.
The nice thing about GW2′s downlevelling system, of course, is that you’re never really “done” with an area – there’s no fear that you have to do everything in this zone NOW or you’ll out-level it and it will be rendered forever pointless. And if ArenaNet’s boasts of their planned live team are true, then you’re never going to be done with an area anyway, because it’s guaranteed when you come back in the future that things will have changed and there will be new dynamic content there.
If you saw the room I’m sitting in, the house that room is sitting in and the garden that house is sitting in you’d know which side of the argument I’m on!
I never feel the need to complete anything, be it a questline, a collection or the exploration of a zone. I just wander around doing whatever the fancy takes me for as long as it holds my attention, which is often that long. GW2 is great for that but really so is any MMO.
Syp, your play style is very similar to a mate of mine who I am playing LOTRO through with now. He is a competionist so had to do as many quests in the area as he could before we moved on. He loves the deeds as its his own private checklist. Makes sure he has “finished” an area. I prefer to do that with alts for me. Come back and do a quest chain I havent done before with a different class.
While he has been doing that I can duck out and play the story in TOR (my subscription MMO)
Looking forward to GW2. Dynamic events with a group of friends and encouraging exploring the world suits my style (no rushing required). My checklist is a totally uncovered map. Having scalable events just happen when I am in an area will be great.
It’s satisfying to see that there are so many MMOs at the moment that suit a persons particular playstyle. I hope this trend continues.
Well, I played GW2: BW1, stress test and BW2.
IMHO, explorers will love explore the world, too much things to see there. Achievers will try hard to complete all POI, teleporters and hearts while look from a zone for events and try crafting. Killers will try WvW, but some will not be happy because they cannot gank lower level players. Socializers can have some issues, because while the community is nice and there is no competition between players (individual nodes, no kill stealing, everyone gain full xp from mobs and full drops, you gain xp when rez other players), teh game not incentive grouping (everyone is pratically grouped to everyone else) and people are just too much occupied running from one event to other for talk. But maybe that get better when the game guilds working (currently, the guild invite is bugged).
Everyone says that GW2 is an “evolution” but not a “Revolution”. Well, the fish evolved to have legs and it is free to explore a new world, the dry land. I advice to try GW2, because if you don’t adapt, you will go extinct.
(I see some people asking about the “end game”… they just cannot understand that GW2 is a new beast and the “end game” starts at level 1…. but I am sure that who not adapt will go extinct…)
Good read, I can relate, I like to go at my own pace too. I love exploring and taking my time and theme-parks do help you feel as if you are progressing. Sometimes it is nice to bounce around too, I’m somewhere in the middle, heh.