Anets attitude towards strictly PvE players?

[Deleted]

Well, all I'll say is that anet have gone to an astonishing amount of effort to create a rich, detailed world if they were aiming for a PvP game.

Regarding the claims that the PvE aspects are just a tutorial for the PvP - I'm not really sure that PvE makes for a good PvP tutorial TBH...they'd have been better off creating drone players and areas that drill you on specific tactics etc. Why create multiple, extremely beautiful cities? Or dungeons? They would have been better off creating just one to be used as lobby and spending the extra time on more PvP maps, skills, classes etc. In fact, why bother creating an outside world at all? They should just expand the WvWvW zone and have that as the main world.

In summary - it doesn't really seem as if this chap has thought things through...or, he just assumes that anet are completely incompetent, aimed for a PvP game but somehow, accidentally, spent years creating totally inappropriate content.

[rayden54]

Why not try PVP?

I've never understood this. Do you not like competing?

No, I don't. Not in video games anyway. Besides, what my friends call "good" PvP isn't a competition anyway (the only thing they like to do is "ganking nubs").

The only reason I prefer MMOs to single player RPGs is that most of them suck. I guess what I want in a RPG is too behind the times, but they don't make games like that anymore. At least a MMO changes over time. You don't get stuck doing the same crappy quest (as in the quest is crappy the first time) over and over again. Eventually they'll add something else.

[Arrowstormen]

No, I merely made several points. The first is that it's silly to take 2 weekends' experience and say anything about the longevity of PVE in GW2.

Secondly, PvE in the sense of dungeons and raids doesn't seem to have the same focus in GW2 that it does in, say, WoW or EQ.

Third, that even for someone whose interest is solely or mostly PvE, it's probably still worth buying because you can play the PvE content that they do release and probably get plenty of value for your $60.

What you probably won't get is long term PvE value that lasts over months and months of consistent play because, unlike other games such as WoW, they don't seem focused on raiding and high end dungeons as a main activity. It's one of a few. However, since you aren't paying a sub, so what? If you run out of PVE content you can put it down, pick it back up, etc.

Could this be wrong? Sure, they could turn out xpacs every 4 months that have plenty of PvE content and that DO give you the same amount of play activity as a WoW or EQ. Or they might not. We'll see.

I'm sorry to break it to you, but unless you're somehow making a symbol out of my posts, then you're trying to convert a priest.

[nocturnus]

Don't expect to pour 4 hrs/night into trying to progress on one boss in this game.

On the contrary, expect it. Story mode of a level 30 dungeon was harder than 70% of heroic FL. Your co-worker is absolutely clueless since GW2 offers more PvE content than let's say wow where you're limited to one useful tier of raiding (since dungeons can be compared to gathering herbs, both in difficulty as in reason to do them).

GW2 is a game, with a huge appeal to PvE players and PvP players alike.

Anyone claiming Anet aren't focused on 'high-end' PvE content are speaking without any experience or knowledge and lack logic as a whole. Why would a 'pvp centred' game, channel so many resources into PvE aspects? You do know that the development of DE and dungeons is way more challenging and expensive than any PvP aspect, right?

[Maarius]

official word on this:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/01...ks-pve-vs-pve/

We treat both the PvE and PvP aspects of the game as being equally important. When we first sat down to plan the game, we knew that we wanted robust PvP and PvE, and we also wanted to introduce a third type of content that spanned the two with what would eventually become WvW. It's very important to know and recognize how all of your systems will interact with and affect each other.

For example, one of the first major decisions was eliminating the concept of dedicated PvP characters from the game, deciding instead on a system where you took the same character into each of the different game types (PvP,PvE,WvW) and your character changed to suit the game type as they needed to. So in PvP all characters can be set to the same power level and have access to the set of skills we designate for PvP while still being the same character you play in PvE.

We felt like this helped tie the different parts of the game together and place an importance on the player's identity as a specific character, which is of course an important aspect of all RPGs. This decision has had a profound effect on Guild Wars 2, and it's a decision that we could only have made by knowing that we value PvE, PvP, and WvW equally right from the start of development.

Guild Wars 2 news until now has been tremendously focused on the PvE side of things. Will the completed game lean more heavily toward PvE at launch, or is there lots of PvP goodness still to come?

Eric Flannum: To be honest, our focus on talking about the PvE side of things has come primarily because we are very conscious that the first game was regarded as a PvP-centric game and we wanted people to become familiar with the many cool and new features of Guild Wars 2 PvE before we talked about PvP or WvW.

Also take into consideration that although we do consider all three types of play to be equally important to the success of the game, PvE content takes a lot more in the way of raw resources and time to develop, so we needed to get the ball rolling on PvE early. Because of this, we just had more to talk about with regard to PvE early on. We'll be releasing more info about PvP and WvW as well as PvE in the coming months.

[Blufossa]

I've not playing GW2 for the PVP and the PVE is more than enough to keep my attention through the two beta weekends. Your friend is an idiot.

This x100000000.

@ the OP: Stop taking your friend's advice/opinion like it's cold hard facts. You should dig more into subjects yourself than take his word for it.

Guild Wars 2 isn't strictly PvP, nor is it strictly PvE. It's an MMO, with all sorts of aspects to it, and that's what makes it a grand ol'game.

[Lannden]

The guy is not my friend, hes a Co-worker. I barely know him.

My main fear is the longevity of the PvE content. I know the content exists, but as someone who might be considered "hardcore" and is tired of WoW but still wants a satisfying PvE experience that can take WoWs place for more than a few months. I wonder if GW2 will be able to fill this for me and my friends.

Before anyone starts, "hardcore" does not mean wanting gear grinds (personally I never once raided for gear ever since vanilla) but about wanting challenging fun content. Explored modes fill that but have some issues and I fear they wont last more than 2 or 3 months at best. I honestly feel anet can keep this fresh, but if they're focused on PvP and PvE is simply a side thing, as my co-worker claims, then they wont.

I feel that from what I have seen in this thread, they are planning on trying to keep it fresh though, so much of the worry is gone.

[Merendel]

What you probably won't get is long term PvE value that lasts over months and months of consistent play because, unlike other games such as WoW, they don't seem focused on raiding and high end dungeons as a main activity. It's one of a few. However, since you aren't paying a sub, so what? If you run out of PVE content you can put it down, pick it back up, etc.

Thats not really long term value, its constant repetition. Dungeons in GW2 have just as much value as in any other MMO. If anything they are harder than the norm so you get that headbanging difficulty some people want from raid content. Being forced to farm the same dungeon/raid over and over agian does not make it better nor does it magicly add more content. All it does is hide the fact that there is a finite amount of content and tries to stretch out its longevity with delaying tactics.

[Deleted]

if they're focused on PvP and PvE is simply a side thing, as my co-worker claims, then they wont.

Well, again, if PvE is a side thing then they've blown an awful lot of money on something that they intend to just let rot.

[Hellspawnxxx]

Sounds to me like you need to find a new friend.

[Maarius]

what you mustn't forget about dungeons:

-) story mode =/= easy mode
-) story mode can be done with less than 5 players too, no need for healer and tanks in GW2. So challenge yourself with 2 friends.
-) explorable mode has 3 paths (each path has very different encounters)
-) there are dynamic events in dungeons too, which spawn on multiple conditions (e.g. random, pulling a lever,...) so runs might be at least slightly different then the ones before. (example: a troll-boss breaks through a wall and has to be defeated. In beta this boss broke through a wall near a spider-boss encounter, so people had to seperate those bosses first in order to fight one at a time. Probably a bug, who knows.)
-) different player-professions mean very different strategies - healer/tank/dd in old mmos always plays out the same imho.

so dungeons in GW2 may sound less engaging than they actually are.

[Exedore]

My main fear is the longevity of the PvE content. I know the content exists, but as someone who might be considered "hardcore" and is tired of WoW but still wants a satisfying PvE experience that can take WoWs place for more than a few months. I wonder if GW2 will be able to fill this for me and my friends.

Before anyone starts, "hardcore" does not mean wanting gear grinds (personally I never once raided for gear ever since vanilla) but about wanting challenging fun content. Explored modes fill that but have some issues and I fear they wont last more than 2 or 3 months at best. I honestly feel anet can keep this fresh, but if they're focused on PvP and PvE is simply a side thing, as my co-worker claims, then they wont.

If your friend is truly "hardcore" as he claims, he probably exhausts WoW's new content in a couple of months. And it only lasts that long because of raid lockouts. Considering you pay $13-$15/month for that and new content only comes out every 5 months or so, you're paying about the same as you would for the standard edition of GW2. So by that standard, if it takes him 2 months to do all the explorable modes and dynamic events, which there will probably be a lot of, it's provided as much or more than WoW. Another thing to consider is that unlike WoW, GW2 is not a race to max level. The content at the lower levels is similar to the content at higher levels. And with down-leveling, and no gear treadmill, the content is never less challenging. In addition, GW2 will add new free content during its lifetime.

[Hellspawnxxx]

LoL Probably 80-90% of thier overall development budget has to have gone too PvE so why your friend would think its not a PvE friendly game is ubsurd.

and yes i pulled those numbers out of thin air. But come on think about it. Lore/ Diffrent Races/ Landscapes / Mobs/ Bosses/ Jumping Puzzles/ Dungeons/ Loot Loot and oh ya MORE LOOT/ Dynamic Events/ hell even WvW is heavy with PvE elements.

if ANET was only focused primarly on appealing to sPvP the game would have only taken 2 years to develope and they would already have designed a observer mode.

Honestly it sounds to me that your friend is one of those kinds of people who enjoy making themselves and others feel bad, sometimes people enjoy the glass half full for no other reson then to just feel something. Has he ever been checked out for bi polar disorder???

[Lannden]

Hes not my friend, he is a co-worker that I barely know.

I am the one who is the hardcore raider and WoW and yes I have exhausted all the content besides Classic Naxx which I never finished before BC was released. But this is not a WoW vs. GW2 thread. My friends and I are simply looking for a game to replace WoW with because I am tired of WoW's style and wants something different, and GW2 looks very promising for that.

[Meledelion]

I love competing but MMO PvP, fundamentally, has never applied to me. I would rather play an FPS, fighting game, or hell a MOBA for PvP. Or I could just call up my buddies and play basketball or football. MMOs are about facing huge difficult challenges and overcoming them with friends to me. PvP in them, the fundamentals of it, just never did it for me.

I consider myself a hardcore GW1 player, I've focused hardcore on both PvE and PvP in that game and if you're going to take the past as a reference PvE players can be very content. They've added an entire new area (the first actual dungeon in a way) after most people cleared out the last mission in Prophecies(the first game). They changed the way UW and FOW (elite areas) work numerous times. (those elite areas used to take experienced groups 6h to clear since it was that, hard oh yea and in those areas it's dead is dead: you wipe, you get ported out and have to start over again)

As for PvP, if you like FPS games you should like GW2, I've posted numerous times (and recently in the megathread again) that GW2 feels/reacts like an FPS game, it's about getting the drop on people and controling the engagement (and "typhooning people of lumbermill").

I know people don't always see this is a real PvE side but I personally do. They added titles which you could get, some simply add a challenge others are a grind. But some change the gameplay a bit, for instance if you have a high wisdom/treasure title the change of salvaging runes of your gear without breaking said gear increases. The higher your luck title, the better the chance to retain a lockpick without breaking it...
I found the Hall of Monuments and the God Walking Amongst Mere Mortal title, an addition to PvE or atleast a trigger for me to go back and do those PvE things.

Best thing to do is check some videos to be honest, (check both PvE and PvP) so you get what I mean. It's not the same as playing it and getting a feel for the game but heck I understand sc2 and the only RTS i ever played was age of empires, (the original)

[Exedore]

Never intended it for WoW vs GW2. Just using one that you're familiar with to give insight to the other. I can't really say "you'll play for x weeks before you quit" since people consume content at different rates.

[Deleted]

Thats not really long term value, its constant repetition. Dungeons in GW2 have just as much value as in any other MMO. If anything they are harder than the norm so you get that headbanging difficulty some people want from raid content. Being forced to farm the same dungeon/raid over and over agian does not make it better nor does it magicly add more content. All it does is hide the fact that there is a finite amount of content and tries to stretch out its longevity with delaying tactics.

I quote this because it's pretty much true. Repetive content does not add more content to the game, and I dare to say that Guild Wars 2 dungeons are harder than WoW raids. (Some)

The game is not PvP focused. It even got more PvE content than PvP, but it's nice to see a company that cares much about PvP compared to like, Blizzard.

[Zogarth]

I think the main focus of the game will be PVP, but they will also focus a great deal on PVE. In a game like WOW PVE is the main focus while pvp comes second in line.

[Squirrelbanes]

Don't get where the idea that because it doesn't have raids it must be pvp focused comes from.
Well............ofc I do.....but I'm not going there lol.

Until there's a quote from Anet saying the game is pvp focused imma just sit here and hum a tune.

[DrakeWurrum]

I think the main focus of the game will be PVP, but they will also focus a great deal on PVE

This is plain and simple not true. The game was built from the ground up with PvP in mind, but that doesn't mean PvP takes center stage. It just means that PvP wasn't an afterthought the way it was in WoW.

---------- Post added 2012-06-16 at 08:34 PM ----------

If your friend is truly "hardcore" as he claims, he probably exhausts WoW's new content in a couple of months.

Less than that. People start HM raiding the second week of a new tier, and truly hardcore players should be done with it super quick.