Discovery feeling!

[McFrotton]

Anyone else feel the discovery feeling is back with GW2...I mean there isnt a real tutorial, I had to look up all my stuff and learn by myself, except the scout tellign me where to help people (hearts) I did not found lots of hand holding and I loved it. This made the game feel more ''alive'' and dangerous.

All the stuff about the skills and the weapon giving different skill ( I read about it on th eweb before BWE btu in game it was another story) Trying to find al the weapon skill raising all of em ASAP ...it was really cool but once you raised all of em you have acces to prety much all you weapon skill before level 5-6. It makes the game feel more linear in term of progression and it feel more stable.


Am I the only one ? or did I miss some kind of tuto that I never saw lol. I love the ''lack'' of hand holding that so many MMO does now.

[Deleted]

Also that they reward exploring is even better. I love ArenaNet and their awesome way of thinking with how to make an amazing MMO.

[Deleted]

The lack of hand-holding is one of the main things I like in the game.

There's a really hard to describe feeling it gives me. Becasue I'm a writer, Emily isn't me, she's a character in a story. And it felt great for me to basically say "Go on, off you go," to her once the "tutorial" was done.

I played WoW today, to get the Children's Week pets. Want to get 150 before my time runs out. One of the quests was a li'l orc kid wanting a kite. He said he'd seen the seller in passing when the orphans were out on the street, but the matron didnt let them go and see. But, oh, his name is Blax Bottlerocket. How did the kid know? Why did I need to be told the exact name of the toy seller, when I'd already been told where he was? It broke my immersion.

I love that there's none of that in GW2.

EDIT: also, "undiscovered point of interest". Love that. You dont know what things are until you go see.

[Cludo]

EDIT: also, "undiscovered point of interest". Love that. You dont know what things are until you go see.

They kinda suck though, it would be better if they were not marked on the map at all.

[Arkenaw]

They kinda suck though, it would be better if they were not marked on the map at all.

Ugh no way, it took me 30 minutes just to find the undiscovered one just on the map in the Lion's Arch secret sewer system

[Deleted]

They kinda suck though, it would be better if they were not marked on the map at all.

Hearts are there to give you some idea where to go. Some people would be too frustrated to play if there wouldn't be any pointers.

There is loads of stuff that has no marks on map... if you want to see one google "Charr's Hidden Strawberry Garden".

[Midnight Man]

Words don't exist to describe how much I agree with so many things ArenaNet have done in this regard. The sheer thrill of the unspoken "Go figure it out for yourself" is brilliant.

I seriously spent more than half my time in the BWE stumbling across things to do, and just doing them because. Sure enough, a few hours (literally) later, I'd be saying to myself "Oh, that's right, I originally set out to do X". You can bet your shoes more times than not X never got done

The strangest thing is, I'm a "planner". I plan to do X, and I usually find myself unhappy if X doesn't get done. And yet, in this game, I didn't have a care in the world.

There is something so relaxed, yet intense about the game - the game itself and overall is relaxing, there is no "pressure" to level, no "pressure" to get the next gear/item. Yet the combat is so alive, so intense at times.

The entire game turns a traditional MMO upside down - the "pressure" (if that's what you wish to call it) comes in combat, where blows are traded, dodges made, and it feels so alive. Once the enemy is beaten (or not, sometimes!), the overall approach becomes "Level as and when you wish, as your current level - even if that is 1, doesn't prevent you enjoying most aspects of the game".

To say that I've been taken, hook, line, sinker, rod and tackle box is an understatement - I love this game, it is everything a game of it's type should be, and for those, like me, used to "traditional" MMO's, this past weekend was like an epiphany, a waking up, if you like, as to what is possible in this genre, and the realisation sweeps over you when you realise how much fun you could have been having for so long, had design paradigms changed in the years gone past.

[Rife]

Yea after I realised how GW2 played i stopped looking at the map and just started roaming all around wherever I wanted. Had a blast and ended up finding tons of awesome stuff in caves and at the bottom of lakes etc.

[Deleted]

Depends on what you mean with hand holding. The game sorely need more tutorials, explaining the concepts of the game, or it will fail big time.

90% of the complaints i've heard about this game boils down to "I don't understand how this works".
ANet need to explain better how things work, or people will not play. You can not expect everyone to hop out to the forums to find out how the basic concepts work, such as what a heart is, what an event is, and how combat is supposed to work.

Exploration is also good, but making it a whole project to find how to get to WvW is a bad idea.

There must be guides in the game, explaining all these things. It doesn't have to point exactly to where you are supposed to go, or what you are supposed to do at all time, but people need to really understand the concepts of the game.

[Deleted]

I'm inclined to agree that the game does need some more explanations, tutorials, guides, whatever you want to call it. I knew pretty well what I was getting into, and how to do it, but a complete newcomer with no previous information on GW2 would've been completely lost and most likely turned off before even getting through the first level. Not to mention that despite doing as much research as I could about the game beforehand, now after the BWE I still hear about things I could've done but had no idea existed at the time (right clicking crafting mats to send it to the bank? Really?).

[Arkenaw]

I'm inclined to agree that the game does need some more explanations, tutorials, guides, whatever you want to call it. I knew pretty well what I was getting into, and how to do it, but a complete newcomer with no previous information on GW2 would've been completely lost and most likely turned off before even getting through the first level. Not to mention that despite doing as much research as I could about the game beforehand, now after the BWE I still hear about things I could've done but had no idea existed at the time (right clicking crafting mats to send it to the bank? Really?).

Agreed. I had to explain pretty much everything to my sister, but once she figured it out, she had a ton of fun on her engineer. I agree that someone completely new would probably be turned away. I know I would!

[jvbastel]

I feel that Arenanet have created something special with the world of tyria in GW2. It's been years since I saw a world so interesting in a game. During the beta, I played a charr, and for more than an hour just killed mobs on the great northern wall northwest of the ruined ascalon city, just enjoying the view and exploring everything on that wall. I didn't even realize I was grinding and didn't get a lot of xp. I just didn't care about levels

Actually, most of the beta I just spend running around, following my nose. That's what I miss in games like WoW,Tera,SWTOR, etc.
GW2 felt a lot more alive, organic, real.

And I didn't even talk about how beautiful LA looked, holy crap!

[rades]

Enjoy it while it lasts, I am sure Anet will make the game more user friendly (ie, hand holding) so as not to overwhelm new players that would feel overwhelmed and give up

[Deleted]

Enjoy it while it lasts, I am sure Anet will make the game more user friendly (ie, hand holding) so as not to overwhelm new players that would feel overwhelmed and give up

I think They'll only put that in for the first bit of your character. Part of their design is no hand-holding, so I cant see them going back on that completely.

[grandpab]

Yea idk...I played GW1 for the first time a month or 2 ago and it was pretty over-whelming at first too. There's still probably a ton of things I need to learn, but I really like that.

[Deleted]

I think some people might like some help at the start. They should ask when you start if you want to enable basic tips or something. As long as I don't need to watch them I'm fine.

[Deleted]

I think it helps that the world in GW2 just feels more alive in general. From audio assets to dynamic events, I felt like things could just happen more at random in general. Which they do of course, but the feeling was there as well. Which really helps when exploring, obviously if you've leveled up five characters to max it may not be as exciting anymore but regardless.

[Deleted]

What I would have liked to see is something like a tutorial storyline. Something that you can do that takes you through all the basic stuff, that I wrote about before (hearts, events, WvW, PvP, The Mists, jumping puzzles, etc). Basically, when you finish the first "tutorial" part of the game, you are asked if you want to go on this tutorial storyline.

Set it up a bit like Personal Story is now, but it takes you through all the basic concepts of the game, as well as more indeapth explains and train you in combat.

Doubt that is gonna happen though.

[Ynna]

[QUOTE=Agile Emily;16676426 Part of their design is no hand-holding, so I can't see them going back on that completely.[/QUOTE]
And it's terrible design, unless you want to scare away players. I went into it knowing what to expect, so I had little problems playing the game. Now imagine ] players who didn't look into it. Who's only MMO was WoW, or people who didn't even play MMO's ever and only played God of War, or Halo or something. Or the people who's first game is Guild Wars 2. They'll play the game for an hour and then quit out of frustration.
And I know I'll get the response of: "but those players already payed for the game, so Arenanet loses nothing," and that's true. But it's still a bad design.

[Vexies]

I echo the sentiment that its very overwhelming for the uninitiated. I did love the sense of exploration but I dont think some beginners tool tips here or there would in any way take away from that and are sorely needed. Just a explanation of what the hell do all these pretty colored symbols on the map mean for starters would be great. In general it does suffer from a lack of information and is very daunting for the new player. The game has a steep learning curve and thats not entirely bad but will put off new players.

There are plenty of things I still have no idea how to do and feel like a nub not knowing.. but in the end I had a blast the more and more I got comfortable with the game.

What I would have liked to see is something like a tutorial storyline. Something that you can do that takes you through all the basic stuff, that I wrote about before (hearts, events, WvW, PvP, The Mists, jumping puzzles, etc). Basically, when you finish the first "tutorial" part of the game, you are asked if you want to go on this tutorial storyline.

Im actually extremely surprised that they didn't go this route as it makes perfect sense and fits extremely well with there over all story / DE design. I think its a missed opportunity. People expect things to be user friendly. I am in no way talking about dumbing things down to the point of leading by the nose but this solution would be perfect actually.