Question Regarding Hearts/Story Line

[dreighver]

Hey guys, another question from me:

I was thinking about why I enjoyed vanilla WoW so much more than the current iteration and I realized it was because of the exploration and potential to get lost. Original WoW didn't give you exact coordinates for where to go for a given quest, it simple told you a general direction (Northeast, west, etc). This allowed for the possibility to get lost while questing, and added fun and immersion to the game.

Now, many games, RIFT and WoW included, tell you exactly where to go. For me, this ruins immersion and makes the game exponentially easier, and therefore exponentially less fun.

With GW2, I understand that the majority of your 'quests' or 'tasks' will be impromptu dynamic-events that are found via exploration, and therefore the idea of exploring and getting lost in the world will actually be encouraged.

With that said, will your personal story line quest chain, and the 'hearts' (equivalent to any traditional MMORPG quest) tell you (on your map) the exact coordinates that you need to go to, or will they rather guide you a bit, but not hold your hand (akin to vanilla WoW)?

Thanks in advance!

[theredviola]

For your personal story, there will be a green... star on your map that tells you where to go.

As far as DE's are concerned, there are sometimes a circle around the area where the event is being held.

[Deleted]

The personal storyline I wouldn't say is there to guide you, but the hearts definitely are. They lead you in the direction of places that need help. It's like showing only a few events out of the huge amount of events, and it's intended to get you involved with random DEs on your way to the renown heart. If you skip all the DEs and run straight to the renown hearts and only do the hearts then you'll be severely underlevelled.

It's simply pointing you in the direction of events. Kind of like 'Well, we know the farmer over there needs help, but you could help anyone out while you're on your way to help the farmer.' And it's needed for the most part, because a lot of people will not be used to simply wandering off and doing events.

Therefore, renown hearts show up on the map, your personal story does and vistas do as well, but that is all. The idea is they point you in the right direction.

[Karizee]

Vistas are a prime example of this. Say you do a jump puzzle or climb up to a vista point, click it and get the big sweeping panoramic view of the area. Remember, vistas are of the *live* game, so if while my camera is sweeping and zooming over an area, I happen to spy a couple players jumping through a waterfall, I might go, "Hmmm, wonder what's back there?", head on over to check it out, get caught up in multiple adventures along the way and maybe get around to it the next day.

I get so sidetracked in this game :P

[Maarius]

yes, hearts were put into the game for people coming from other mmos looking for guidance. They are NOT the main content though, Dynamic Events are. There are 1500+ DEs in the game, as you can see in the pic there are "only" 300 renown hearts in the game.




PS: you have the choice to turn off the hearts/skillpoints/points of interest on your map/minimap. It's a little option on the worldmap. I tried it and it was damn challenging, I really learned to know the zone. Challenging... and fun as hell

[Shanseala]

I heard (though don't remember where, probably from Guildcast on Gamebreaker) that originally, those hearts weren't there. Dynamic events were the ONLY combat-related PVE. But most of the testers, even those who were mmo vets, were overwhelmed by not knowing where to go. So they put in the hearts to act as signposts to gently guide people to where the action will most likely be. They aren't meant to be the main point at all. In fact, Orr, the final zone, has none, and from the sound of it, sounds pretty complex and interesting.

I didn't know that the option to turn off the hearts was there... I'm SO gonna do that when it goes live, at least with the starter areas that I've done multiple times.

[WorldofWorkcraft]

Well hearts are good for obtaining new gear and being a place to spend karma. As per whether they show you where to go, they give you a general area, and if you go out of that area, the heart quest will disappear from your log, indicating you've gone too far. However, during my time, when I found myself heading toward a heart, I almost always found myself "sidetracked" by a dynamic event or place I wanted to explore, which led even further off my intended path.

With any new game, there's always that exploration and new feeling which is great. In this case, GW2 doesn't really tell you where to go, they just give you a few places you could go to, then show you the world is pretty alive and that you should KILL EVERYTHING. Oh, and also help save stuff...by KILLING MORE...and then collecting stuff too.

And to top that off, sometimes heart quests or DEs lead to more stuff you didn't expect. Well, didn't expect yet...I'm sure one day someone will have every DE recorded and what they connect to, but until then...surprise!