Guild Wars 2

[Typhon]

In Prophecies it took you a lot longer to reach 20, and there were two quests you had to do to gain those two final chunks of 15 attribute points.  Because of that, it did seem to take a while to "power up" which is what you are remembering.  They made it so you get past that point a lot faster in the other two campaigns.  Once you've done the first 4-5 missions and are on the mainland, you're done with levels and getting more attributes.

Your feelings on getting new spells and skills and the occasional item drop that was better is more along the lines of normal play.  There are runes and inscriptions which can change your health, though it takes a while to build them up and on average your health will be about the same.  There isn't a huge power curve with most of your increases.  You might find a neat synergy or get a nice item, but most things are minor increases or side-grades.

I'm good with it being like this (I bolded the part I'm talking about), especially if it makes the gate to effective participation in PvP smaller.  I do see a difference between what Lantyssa typed above and "no levels" though.  "No levels" seems like I'd get bored and leave sooner.

[Sophismata]

There are no reasons at all to have levels in guild wars.  None.

They tried that in the the GW1 alpha, and it didn't work.


Levels provide a way to ease people into the game, without overwhelming them. As an online only game, the early levels end up being the tutorial, and provide an early measure of progress as well as an ever-shifting goalpost to help pace the game before players are thrown into the PvP deep end.

Removing the levelling hurt the feel of the game, IIRC. I don't remember complaints being specific.

[Hawkbit]

I think someone should make a game with a billion levels so that ding! can be had every few seconds.  That'll keep 'em playing.

[ghost]

I think someone should make a game with a billion levels so that ding! can be had every few seconds.  That'll keep 'em playing.

Unfortunately, this is probably correct.

[Mrbloodworth]

China GDC 2010 - Concept Sequence

[EWSpider]

Guild Wars manifesto (new movie) is up on the front page:  http://www.guildwars2.com/en/

Plethora of new in-game footage and a whole lot of awesomeness.

[Ingmar]

Argh, I really just hate those stupid asuras.

[Draegan]

Now that's what I call the hype train.

[Mrbloodworth]

Now that's what I call the hype train.

Thats what I thought too!

Also, I noticed boob physics.

[tmp]

Was there even single second in that video shot from a perspective player will actually get to see while they you know, play? Felt a bit like watching EVE trailers -- "here's all the awesome things that technically are in our game".

[ghost]

EVE should do a trailer showing the exhilarating experience of mining veldspar. 

[Stormwaltz]

Guild Wars 2: our dragons are made out of hyperspace.

[Draegan]

One of the guys said, "in other MMOS you just swing your sword, again and again" or something to that effect.  We have yet to see a string of two attacks in a typical combat sequence.

I'm sure it's going to be completely different.

[ghost]

Maybe they could make elaborate combos in which you have to swing left or right or overhead.  There could be combos that could include as many as five different needed "swings" to make it more skill based.  That would be super cool and great for melee based PvP.

[HaemishM]

That video makes me happy in the pants.

[Shatter]

So pets made of fire > all...noted

[Velorath]

Guild Wars manifesto (new movie) is up on the front page:  http://www.guildwars2.com/en/

Plethora of new in-game footage and a whole lot of awesomeness.

Looks like good stuff.  Of course all I could think of when I heard the developers talking though was that it was the exact kind of talk that would draw ridicule over in the SWTOR thread.  Looking forward to this though, even as someone who didn't play the original past beta.

[ghost]

It really does look awesome.  As everything else out right now is pure shite they will certainly get their chance to shine.

[Soln]

given that their engine was proven in GW1, expanding the actual gameplay and not worrying just about graphics (i.e. like WAR did and probably what EQ3 will do) should this hopefully be fun.

[Malakili]

Ok, that video was awesome, even to a jaded MMO gamer like myself.

[Nebu]

Ok, that video was awesome, even to a jaded MMO gamer like myself.

I'm drinking the Kool-Aid as well.  I'm in.

[Ingmar]

I've quite liked all their previous more substantial videos but this one just kind of made me go  . I think it was the sort of forced enthusiasm from the designers that did it.

Still looking forward to the game, though, even if no heroes still makes me QQ and I'm a little leery about 80 levels and I'll have to look at those damn asuras all the time. Nobody tell me if they also got rid of the pokemon skill collecting please, I liked that too. 

[ghost]

I've quite liked all their previous more substantial videos but this one just kind of made me go  . I think it was the sort of forced enthusiasm from the designers that did it.

You're just hedging your bets 

[Fordel]

Needs more actual new footage imo, I've seen those birds peck out those eyes like 50 times now!

[Lantyssa]

I'm never going to be able to leave my bunk long enough to play the actual game.

[Mattemeo]

I just sat watching that, willing the devs to shut the fuck up and stop interrupting my viewing. This game seems... impossible. I mean, GW looked astonishing when it came out, and yet played beautifully on underpowered PCs with hardly a drop in visual quality. I think the Arenanet graphics team might actually be wizards if they can pull of GW2 as advertised. To be able to walk around these places... I don't even think I'll notice I'm playing a game. I barely even care it is a game. I just want to go there.

[Modern Angel]

You can log into GW1 right now, crank your graphics up to the top in a four year old machine and it STILL looks better than any other MMO on the market. I've been saying since day one that they have the best art team on the market. I see no reason for GW2 to be any different.

[Numtini]

Yeah, that was one of the most convincing demos I've seen for an MMO. One big key in GW1 was that everything was instanced and on rails. That let them do a lot more and I'm not sure how they'll pull everything off with an actual Massively MMO.

Probably the only thing on the radar at all that I'm honestly looking forward to.

[Shatter]

GW2 has pretty much inched its way up to the top MMO Im waiting for now.  If they dont live up to the hype and promises Im pretty much gonna go on a kitten killing rampage

[Brogarn]

This is the only MMO on my radar. Everything else looks like shit to me.

[caladein]

You can log into GW1 right now, crank your graphics up to the top in a four year old machine and it STILL looks better than any other MMO on the market. I've been saying since day one that they have the best art team on the market. I see no reason for GW2 to be any different.

Not really, no.  GW1 looks good, but it's really a low-res/low-poly Aion with slightly better art direction.

At this point, the only part of their FAQ dealing with PvP is buried in their character advancement question and only mentions something "similar to GvG in the original Guild Wars" (and their blog posts only mention it in questions about other systems) so I still have my cynical trousers on.

[Draegan]

They talked about world vs. world and stuff too.

[EWSpider]

You can log into GW1 right now, crank your graphics up to the top in a four year old machine and it STILL looks better than any other MMO on the market. I've been saying since day one that they have the best art team on the market. I see no reason for GW2 to be any different.

Not really, no.  GW1 looks good, but it's really a low-res/low-poly Aion with slightly better art direction.

At this point, the only part of their FAQ dealing with PvP is buried in their character advancement question and only mentions something "similar to GvG in the original Guild Wars" (and their blog posts only mention it in questions about other systems) so I still have my cynical trousers on.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pvp

Three types of PvP:  Structured PvP (ala GW1 GvG), World PvP (open pvp), and "Activities" (mini games).

[caladein]

Yeah, unless the Structured stuff offers a way to unlock/reward skills outside of it, I see it as a net loss over having PvP-only characters.  Bah.

If you just spent your time in GvG or RAs, it's not so bad.  Also, they're not going to nickel-and-dime you into buying skills (even though I quite liked the unlocking process) if you just want to play Structured. Unfortunately, I equally liked RAs and Fort Aspenwood so seeing one be locked away in PvE-land annoys me.  

[Ratman_tf]

Also, I noticed boob physics.

Female characters should get bigger boobs that jiggle more as they level up.