I really like that experience is pretty low for normal mobs. Considering that there are events going off all the time, i don't see it as a problem. The leveling curve is supposed to be flat anyway and this game is more about the journey than getting to some fictional end game. What's your hurry? GW2 is a game to be savored, not engorged all at once like some fat man in a fast food restaurant.

I agree, what's the hurry?  I do hope that different types of mobs will drop difference types of loot though.  I'm not holding my breath for rare spawn mobs as this looks to be a very different type of game. 

They can give me 1 exp and I wouldn't mind, I would be happy to not game hop bimonthly.

xp doesnt matter.Keep in mind that the level curve is horizontal,after a few levels the xp needed to level up will be the same.So lets say the curve stops at level 20 afterwars either 21 or 79 will need the same amount of xp or more or less the same amount of it.

Originally posted by blognorg

I'm not saying that I want to sit in one area and grind, ignoring all of the events. I'm saying it seems a little odd that players will get penalized for exploring. I know that there are DEs everywhere, but what if I want to check out a hill, and fight a few monsters along they way? Do they have to gimp the benefits of that? What's the point of even having mobs that aren't related to the events if they are worthless?

Actually, seems to me that it is an incentive to explore. Don't remember where but I read that one of the incentives they have for exploring is bonus XP, that's basically extra XP you get from a mob depending on how long it is since it spawned, the longer the mob has been alive, the more bonus XP you get.

So, if you were to stay in one area grinding mobs and killing them as soon as they spawned, you'd get less XP from them than if you were exploring off the beaten track and kiling mobs that fewer people are attacking.

Originally posted by evilastro

I think its a great idea. Stops people from being anti-social and just grinding away instead of participating in world events. Making the dynamic events the bread and butter of leveling is a fantastic idea and is one of the things I am most looking forward to.

The dynamic events in Rift didnt give nearly enough experience, and you were often better off just doing quests and ignoring them if your sole purpose is to level.

I think that the Dynamic events, themselves, are a great idea, but I don't agree with limiting options. I think some alternatives to contant epic encounters is refreshing. Like in Skyrim, I wasn't fighting dragons the entire time. I spaced out the action and paced myself. Likewise, I don't want to be doing the DEs 100% of the time; it would be nice to have the option to kill some random enemies and not feel like I'm getting gimped for doing so.

Originally posted by evilastro

Originally posted by blognorg

Originally posted by ariboersma

I think that nearly all the mobs ARE part of one event or another, if they arent well you still need to kill for drops for crafting or w/e. I am glad that you dont kill 1 mob and hit lvl 2 and 2 more mobs and hit lvl 3 like in many MMOs out there... It is enjoyable to play the game regardless of your lvl so why the rush to "max" when "max" doesn't mean all that much!

My qualm has nothing to do with wanting to reach max level quickly or getting a level from two mobs. I just don't see the reason to take the extra effort to gimp mobs. I'm not saying that bulk of exp should come from them, I'm just saying that I don't want radoms to feel like a waste of time when I encounter them. That has always been an aspect of RPGs that I liked, that each encounter felt like a gain. Drops could be argued, but it's not quite the same. The enemies in Megaman and Zelda have drops, but I don't feel especially compelled to kll them. ArenaNet constantly preaches choice, so I'd be curious to hear what their reasoning is behind it.

Why should adventurers in MMOs always be bloodthirsty killers who kill any sentient being they can find in their path?

I think linking the experience to actually performing a deed with a purpose makes far more sense.

Yes if you want to be a bloodthirsty Thief that kills everything in its path you can certainly play that way, but someone role playing a Guardian might just want to help people rather than kill for no reason other than experience.

The best part is that it encourages team work and for everyone to work together in the events.

I tihnk the game already has a lot of options to not make you feel like a bloodthirsty killer. Plus, I'm not sure if it counts when the enemies attack you first. I never said that I didn't like the DEs; I think they're great, but I don't feel that other parts of the game need to be nerfed.

Originally posted by L0C0Man

Originally posted by blognorg

I'm not saying that I want to sit in one area and grind, ignoring all of the events. I'm saying it seems a little odd that players will get penalized for exploring. I know that there are DEs everywhere, but what if I want to check out a hill, and fight a few monsters along they way? Do they have to gimp the benefits of that? What's the point of even having mobs that aren't related to the events if they are worthless?

Actually, seems to me that it is an incentive to explore. Don't remember where but I read that one of the incentives they have for exploring is bonus XP, that's basically extra XP you get from a mob depending on how long it is since it spawned, the longer the mob has been alive, the more bonus XP you get.

So, if you were to stay in one area grinding mobs and killing them as soon as they spawned, you'd get less XP from them than if you were exploring off the beaten track and kiling mobs that fewer people are attacking.

I never heard about that mechanic, but if that's accurate, then that's a really cool idea. However, I don't that quite justifies the absurdly low experience gain from mobs. I could understand if they don't give an especially large amount, but to make them basically worthless seems odd. From what I've heard, the amount gained from them is practially neglegible. Like I said in the original post, the article I read was subjective, and how much it's nerfed is unconfirmed. I just posted this for some info.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1219059p1.html

This was where I frist heard about the low exp for mobs. It makes sound like i's entirely pointless to kill them.

I read the same thing in an interview...I don't remember where.  And yes, the justification was to get players to focus more on participating in events.  But honestly, what else would you be doing for EXP?  Are you seriously going to want to avoid all the events going on around you and just grind mobs? 

You have to understand that Guild Wars won't be about levels(at least after you get the last stat points) its about exploration, socialization, partying, and guilds, and story.

One way Anet found to resolve the issue of players just grinding their asses to max level and just blasting through all the content too fast was to perhaps, lower the exp you receive from monsters.

Originally posted by Homitu

I read the same thing in an interview...I don't remember where.  And yes, the justification was to get players to focus more on participating in events.  But honestly, what else would you be doing for EXP?  Are you seriously going to want to avoid all the events going on around you and just grind mobs? 

I'm not saying that I want to grind until my eyes bleed. I think the DEs are awesome, but do I want to do them 100% of the time? No. Like I mentioned before, it would be nice to have the option to pace things out a bit without feeling like you're getting penalized for it. I can understand if they don't want random mobs to be worth that much, but why make the worth next to nothing? I agree that most of the exp should be achieved through the DEs, but I think a better ballance can be found.

Originally posted by blognorg

Originally posted by fiontar

Originally posted by Pushkina

In this yogscast video (03.56) he get 3 xp.

 

Yeah? It looks like the XP to level at that point, (level 2) is around 450 XP. All the mobs in that video seem to be part of Dynamic Events and most of the XP is for completeing the event, rather than the killing of any monsters during the event. It's an event driven game.
 

There are no quest givers for this content. Stumble across it, participate in what you want to participate in and get the rewards. It will be pretty hard to go out just hunting mobs and not find many DEs along the way. You'd have to deliberately circumvent mobs attached to DEs, gimping your progress intentionally, in order to have issues progressing while hunting mobs in the world.

Who would want to sit in one place grinding a small pool of mobs in a game ike this anyway, other than a gold farmer/botter? Applying old strategies to a new paradigm seems pretty counter-productive.

 

I'm not saying that I want to sit in one area and grind, ignoring all of the events. I'm saying it seems a little odd that players will get penalized for exploring. I know that there are DEs everywhere, but what if I want to check out a hill, and fight a few monsters along they way? Do they have to gimp the benefits of that? What's the point of even having mobs that aren't related to the events if they are worthless?

This issue you have about leveling speed and xp gain is totally irrelevant to this game. Who cares how fast you go up levels? The game is supposed to be designed so that players of all levels can participate in what they find enjoyable. If someone wants to go wandering and randomly killing any old mob they find then they are free to do that. The game doesnt "penalise" them for choosing to do that. It simply doesnt put large rewards on brainless repetitive activities that serve no purpose (in a roleplaying sense)......and why should it? If players want to log on to a roleplaying game and not actually get involved in the roleplaying activities the game provides then yeah their characters may experience stunted xp growth. Serves them right for having zero imagination in a game that is supposed to be about roleplaying (yeah I know it's a forgotten concept) and has clearly stated that xp and levels dont matter. If you or anyone else wants to cling to this rather pointless mindset then thats a personal choice.

Sadly I think LOTS of people are going to end up thinking along the same lines, due to the brainwashing inflicted on us all by all the other games which think killing things is the best way for our characters to learn anything. They view all monsters in the game as walking xp bags and nothing more. Actually why bother having monster graphics at all? Why not just replace all of the monsters with graphics of animated xp bags, if that's all you view them as?

Forget about xp. Forget about levels. It's all just carrot-on-a-stick bullshit. Try treating it like a roleplaying game instead.

Originally posted by blognorg

Originally posted by fiontar

Originally posted by Pushkina

In this yogscast video (03.56) he get 3 xp.

 

Yeah? It looks like the XP to level at that point, (level 2) is around 450 XP. All the mobs in that video seem to be part of Dynamic Events and most of the XP is for completeing the event, rather than the killing of any monsters during the event. It's an event driven game.
 

There are no quest givers for this content. Stumble across it, participate in what you want to participate in and get the rewards. It will be pretty hard to go out just hunting mobs and not find many DEs along the way. You'd have to deliberately circumvent mobs attached to DEs, gimping your progress intentionally, in order to have issues progressing while hunting mobs in the world.

Who would want to sit in one place grinding a small pool of mobs in a game ike this anyway, other than a gold farmer/botter? Applying old strategies to a new paradigm seems pretty counter-productive.

 

I'm not saying that I want to sit in one area and grind, ignoring all of the events. I'm saying it seems a little odd that players will get penalized for exploring. I know that there are DEs everywhere, but what if I want to check out a hill, and fight a few monsters along they way? Do they have to gimp the benefits of that? What's the point of even having mobs that aren't related to the events if they are worthless?

How are you penalized for exploring? You find Dynamic Events by exploring. You can be headed to where you know there is an event and stumble across other events along the way. There are "Scout" NPCs that point people who don't like to explore in the right direction for some content, but the entire game rewards you for exploring because that's how you find most of the Dynamic Events in the game, by running into the events as they are unfolding in the game world!

I also pointed out that mobs not obviously associated with DEs accumulate bonus XP the longer it's been since their last defeat. This is a direct reward for exploration. The more out of the way the places are you explore, the more likely you are to get bonus XP for kills, along with the possibility of finding DE content that many who don't explore will miss entirely.

On top of all that, the game world is populated by many interesting locations hidden away in the nooks and crannies of the world and possess design elements specifically meant to appeal to those who enjoy finding difficult and hidden paths to travel.

GW2 is an MMO explorers paradise!

Originally posted by neonwire

 

Originally posted by blognorg

Originally posted by fiontar

Originally posted by Pushkina

In this yogscast video (03.56) he get 3 xp.

 

Yeah? It looks like the XP to level at that point, (level 2) is around 450 XP. All the mobs in that video seem to be part of Dynamic Events and most of the XP is for completeing the event, rather than the killing of any monsters during the event. It's an event driven game.
 

There are no quest givers for this content. Stumble across it, participate in what you want to participate in and get the rewards. It will be pretty hard to go out just hunting mobs and not find many DEs along the way. You'd have to deliberately circumvent mobs attached to DEs, gimping your progress intentionally, in order to have issues progressing while hunting mobs in the world.

Who would want to sit in one place grinding a small pool of mobs in a game ike this anyway, other than a gold farmer/botter? Applying old strategies to a new paradigm seems pretty counter-productive.

 

I'm not saying that I want to sit in one area and grind, ignoring all of the events. I'm saying it seems a little odd that players will get penalized for exploring. I know that there are DEs everywhere, but what if I want to check out a hill, and fight a few monsters along they way? Do they have to gimp the benefits of that? What's the point of even having mobs that aren't related to the events if they are worthless?

This issue you have about leveling speed and xp gain is totally irrelevant to this game. Who cares how fast you go up levels? The game is supposed to be designed so that players of all levels can participate in what they find enjoyable. If someone wants to go wandering and randomly killing any old mob they find then they are free to do that. The game doesnt "penalise" them for choosing to do that. It simply doesnt put large rewards on brainless repetitive activities that serve no purpose (in a roleplaying sense)......and why should it? If players want to log on to a roleplaying game and not actually get involved in the roleplaying activities the game provides then yeah their characters may experience stunted xp growth. Serves them right for having zero imagination in a game that is supposed to be about roleplaying (yeah I know it's a forgotten concept) and has clearly stated that xp and levels dont matter. If you or anyone else wants to cling to this rather pointless mindset then thats a personal choice.

Sadly I think LOTS of people are going to end up thinking along the same lines, due to the brainwashing inflicted on us all by all the other games which think killing things is the best way for our characters to learn anything. They view all monsters in the game as walking xp bags and nothing more. Actually why bother having monster graphics at all? Why not just replace all of the monsters with graphics of animated xp bags, if that's all you view them as?

Forget about xp. Forget about levels. It's all just carrot-on-a-stick bullshit. Try treating it like a roleplaying game instead.

Strange. When I role play my character, usually a good guy trying to make a difference in the world, I dont usually just run from one event to another. If I'm walking a path through the woods, and I happen to see some monster that would love to eat small children, I go out of my way to kill it, with or without being given an event quest telling me to do so. Should it matter to me more just because some NPC or quest tells me they are bad guys? Not in my opinion. 

As I roam the world with my hero I prefer to do my best to clear the world of evil, no matter the circumstnces behind how or when or where I find it. And yes, that usually means I kill pretty much every bad guy on my path from A to Z. That is my normal play style, and my normal view of my characters life. An explorer who does whatever he can to preserve the world he lives in. I dont require someone to tell me I should, quests and events mean little to me usually. I help on them if I care to, but they are NEVER my motivation.

So to me, telling me I dont deserve to gain as much experience as the person who walks past 200 bad guys on the path on his way to event A and then another 250 on his way to event B just seems ludicrous to me. But I guess thats not the way everyone sees it here.

Perhaps I should treat it less like a roleplaying game and more like a mechanical MMO where I do what I am told, how I am told to live it...following the carrot on a stick called events which I encounter on my travels and ignoring the rest of the world...because I wasn't presented with a scripted whatever telling me I should NOW pay attention to those 200+ bad guy mobs I have been walking past on auto-ignore.

Originally posted by neonwire

 

Originally posted by blognorg

Originally posted by fiontar

Originally posted by Pushkina

In this yogscast video (03.56) he get 3 xp.

 

Yeah? It looks like the XP to level at that point, (level 2) is around 450 XP. All the mobs in that video seem to be part of Dynamic Events and most of the XP is for completeing the event, rather than the killing of any monsters during the event. It's an event driven game.
 

There are no quest givers for this content. Stumble across it, participate in what you want to participate in and get the rewards. It will be pretty hard to go out just hunting mobs and not find many DEs along the way. You'd have to deliberately circumvent mobs attached to DEs, gimping your progress intentionally, in order to have issues progressing while hunting mobs in the world.

Who would want to sit in one place grinding a small pool of mobs in a game ike this anyway, other than a gold farmer/botter? Applying old strategies to a new paradigm seems pretty counter-productive.

 

I'm not saying that I want to sit in one area and grind, ignoring all of the events. I'm saying it seems a little odd that players will get penalized for exploring. I know that there are DEs everywhere, but what if I want to check out a hill, and fight a few monsters along they way? Do they have to gimp the benefits of that? What's the point of even having mobs that aren't related to the events if they are worthless?

This issue you have about leveling speed and xp gain is totally irrelevant to this game. Who cares how fast you go up levels? The game is supposed to be designed so that players of all levels can participate in what they find enjoyable. If someone wants to go wandering and randomly killing any old mob they find then they are free to do that. The game doesnt "penalise" them for choosing to do that. It simply doesnt put large rewards on brainless repetitive activities that serve no purpose (in a roleplaying sense)......and why should it? If players want to log on to a roleplaying game and not actually get involved in the roleplaying activities the game provides then yeah their characters may experience stunted xp growth. Serves them right for having zero imagination in a game that is supposed to be about roleplaying (yeah I know it's a forgotten concept) and has clearly stated that xp and levels dont matter. If you or anyone else wants to cling to this rather pointless mindset then thats a personal choice.

Sadly I think LOTS of people are going to end up thinking along the same lines, due to the brainwashing inflicted on us all by all the other games which think killing things is the best way for our characters to learn anything. They view all monsters in the game as walking xp bags and nothing more. Actually why bother having monster graphics at all? Why not just replace all of the monsters with graphics of animated xp bags, if that's all you view them as?

Forget about xp. Forget about levels. It's all just carrot-on-a-stick bullshit. Try treating it like a roleplaying game instead.

Good post!

This game presents a new paradigm for MMORPGs. I have no doubt that it will take people time to adjust. It's a good thing that Arenanet focuses on making the game as fun as possible, so that even if it takes a while to adjust and gain appreciation for the nuances that make the game great, you won't be having any less fun as a result.

Originally posted by Kaocan

Originally posted by neonwire

 

Originally posted by blognorg

Originally posted by fiontar

Originally posted by Pushkina

In this yogscast video (03.56) he get 3 xp.

 

Yeah? It looks like the XP to level at that point, (level 2) is around 450 XP. All the mobs in that video seem to be part of Dynamic Events and most of the XP is for completeing the event, rather than the killing of any monsters during the event. It's an event driven game.
 

There are no quest givers for this content. Stumble across it, participate in what you want to participate in and get the rewards. It will be pretty hard to go out just hunting mobs and not find many DEs along the way. You'd have to deliberately circumvent mobs attached to DEs, gimping your progress intentionally, in order to have issues progressing while hunting mobs in the world.

Who would want to sit in one place grinding a small pool of mobs in a game ike this anyway, other than a gold farmer/botter? Applying old strategies to a new paradigm seems pretty counter-productive.

 

I'm not saying that I want to sit in one area and grind, ignoring all of the events. I'm saying it seems a little odd that players will get penalized for exploring. I know that there are DEs everywhere, but what if I want to check out a hill, and fight a few monsters along they way? Do they have to gimp the benefits of that? What's the point of even having mobs that aren't related to the events if they are worthless?

This issue you have about leveling speed and xp gain is totally irrelevant to this game. Who cares how fast you go up levels? The game is supposed to be designed so that players of all levels can participate in what they find enjoyable. If someone wants to go wandering and randomly killing any old mob they find then they are free to do that. The game doesnt "penalise" them for choosing to do that. It simply doesnt put large rewards on brainless repetitive activities that serve no purpose (in a roleplaying sense)......and why should it? If players want to log on to a roleplaying game and not actually get involved in the roleplaying activities the game provides then yeah their characters may experience stunted xp growth. Serves them right for having zero imagination in a game that is supposed to be about roleplaying (yeah I know it's a forgotten concept) and has clearly stated that xp and levels dont matter. If you or anyone else wants to cling to this rather pointless mindset then thats a personal choice.

Sadly I think LOTS of people are going to end up thinking along the same lines, due to the brainwashing inflicted on us all by all the other games which think killing things is the best way for our characters to learn anything. They view all monsters in the game as walking xp bags and nothing more. Actually why bother having monster graphics at all? Why not just replace all of the monsters with graphics of animated xp bags, if that's all you view them as?

Forget about xp. Forget about levels. It's all just carrot-on-a-stick bullshit. Try treating it like a roleplaying game instead.

Strange. When I role play my character, usually a good guy trying to make a difference in the world, I dont usually just run from one event to another. If I'm walking a path through the woods, and I happen to see some monster that would love to eat small children, I go out of my way to kill it, with or without being given an event quest telling me to do so. Should it matter to me more just because some NPC or quest tells me they are bad guys? Not in my opinion. 

As I roam the world with my hero I prefer to do my best to clear the world of evil, no matter the circumstnces behind how or when or where I find it. And yes, that usually means I kill pretty much every bad guy on my path from A to Z. That is my normal play style, and my normal view of my characters life. An explorer who does whatever he can to preserve the world he lives in. I dont require someone to tell me I should, quests and events mean little to me usually. I help on them if I care to, but they are NEVER my motivation.

So to me, telling me I dont deserve to gain as much experience as the person who walks past 200 bad guys on the path on his way to event A and then another 250 on his way to event B just seems ludicrous to me. But I guess thats not the way everyone sees it here.

Perhaps I should treat it less like a roleplaying game and more like a mechanical MMO where I do what I am told, how I am told to live it...following the carrot on a stick called events which I encounter on my travels and ignoring the rest of the world...because I wasn't presented with a scripted whatever telling me I should NOW pay attention to those 200+ bad guy mobs I have been walking past on auto-ignore.

You are completely missing the point and seemingly are contradicting yourself in the process.

Are you playing as a character looking to be a hero in the world, whos actions are meaningful in the fight against evil? Or ar you really just concerned with how fast your XP meter runs?

What's the point of an obssessive/compulsive "cleansing" of mobs that are just going to respwwan five minutes later, ensuring that your actions have no actual impact on the game? In GW2, you have the opportunity to go out into the world and encounter situations where your actions actually make a difference to the state of the world around you. Would you really obtusely ignore the Ogres marching on the villiage, with the intent on killing the inhabitants, burning their structures and making it a base of operations for further mayhem, just because there is some group of random boars closer by just "begging to be slaughtered"?

Watch some of the extended game play videos from the Press Beta. There is so much active content every where you travel that you will quickly find it sad that other games have conditioned you to believe that walking a straight line, killing every random thing in your path is meaningful game play.

You can chose to help those in need or ignore them. You can succeed at saving the day, or fail and see your efforts tragically fall short. There are always consequences either way. Nothing mechanical or linear about that.

Originally posted by DeaconX

I honestly don't even care that much about XP and like the idea of not being rewarded for simply grinding mobs, but rather for accomplishing heroic deeds.

I agree 100%

Originally posted by fiontar

Originally posted by Kaocan

Originally posted by neonwire

 

Originally posted by blognorg

Originally posted by fiontar

Originally posted by Pushkina

In this yogscast video (03.56) he get 3 xp.

 

Yeah? It looks like the XP to level at that point, (level 2) is around 450 XP. All the mobs in that video seem to be part of Dynamic Events and most of the XP is for completeing the event, rather than the killing of any monsters during the event. It's an event driven game.
 

There are no quest givers for this content. Stumble across it, participate in what you want to participate in and get the rewards. It will be pretty hard to go out just hunting mobs and not find many DEs along the way. You'd have to deliberately circumvent mobs attached to DEs, gimping your progress intentionally, in order to have issues progressing while hunting mobs in the world.

Who would want to sit in one place grinding a small pool of mobs in a game ike this anyway, other than a gold farmer/botter? Applying old strategies to a new paradigm seems pretty counter-productive.

 

I'm not saying that I want to sit in one area and grind, ignoring all of the events. I'm saying it seems a little odd that players will get penalized for exploring. I know that there are DEs everywhere, but what if I want to check out a hill, and fight a few monsters along they way? Do they have to gimp the benefits of that? What's the point of even having mobs that aren't related to the events if they are worthless?

This issue you have about leveling speed and xp gain is totally irrelevant to this game. Who cares how fast you go up levels? The game is supposed to be designed so that players of all levels can participate in what they find enjoyable. If someone wants to go wandering and randomly killing any old mob they find then they are free to do that. The game doesnt "penalise" them for choosing to do that. It simply doesnt put large rewards on brainless repetitive activities that serve no purpose (in a roleplaying sense)......and why should it? If players want to log on to a roleplaying game and not actually get involved in the roleplaying activities the game provides then yeah their characters may experience stunted xp growth. Serves them right for having zero imagination in a game that is supposed to be about roleplaying (yeah I know it's a forgotten concept) and has clearly stated that xp and levels dont matter. If you or anyone else wants to cling to this rather pointless mindset then thats a personal choice.

Sadly I think LOTS of people are going to end up thinking along the same lines, due to the brainwashing inflicted on us all by all the other games which think killing things is the best way for our characters to learn anything. They view all monsters in the game as walking xp bags and nothing more. Actually why bother having monster graphics at all? Why not just replace all of the monsters with graphics of animated xp bags, if that's all you view them as?

Forget about xp. Forget about levels. It's all just carrot-on-a-stick bullshit. Try treating it like a roleplaying game instead.

Strange. When I role play my character, usually a good guy trying to make a difference in the world, I dont usually just run from one event to another. If I'm walking a path through the woods, and I happen to see some monster that would love to eat small children, I go out of my way to kill it, with or without being given an event quest telling me to do so. Should it matter to me more just because some NPC or quest tells me they are bad guys? Not in my opinion. 

As I roam the world with my hero I prefer to do my best to clear the world of evil, no matter the circumstnces behind how or when or where I find it. And yes, that usually means I kill pretty much every bad guy on my path from A to Z. That is my normal play style, and my normal view of my characters life. An explorer who does whatever he can to preserve the world he lives in. I dont require someone to tell me I should, quests and events mean little to me usually. I help on them if I care to, but they are NEVER my motivation.

So to me, telling me I dont deserve to gain as much experience as the person who walks past 200 bad guys on the path on his way to event A and then another 250 on his way to event B just seems ludicrous to me. But I guess thats not the way everyone sees it here.

Perhaps I should treat it less like a roleplaying game and more like a mechanical MMO where I do what I am told, how I am told to live it...following the carrot on a stick called events which I encounter on my travels and ignoring the rest of the world...because I wasn't presented with a scripted whatever telling me I should NOW pay attention to those 200+ bad guy mobs I have been walking past on auto-ignore.

You are completely missing the point and seemingly are contradicting yourself in the proccess.

Are you playing as a character looking to be a hero in the world, whos actions are meaningful in the fight against evil? Or ar you really just concerned with how fast your XP meter runs?

What's the point of an obssessive/compulsive "cleansing" of mobs that are just going to respwwan five minutes later, ensuring that your actions have no actual impact on the game? In GW2, you have the opportunity to go out into the world and encounter situations where your actions actually make a difference to the state of the world around you. Would you really obtusely ignore the Ogres marching on the villiage, with the intent on killing the inhabitants, burning their structures and making it a base of operations for further mayhem, just because there is some group of random boars closer by just "begging to be slaughtered"?

Watch some of the extended game play videos from the Press Beta. There is so much active content every where you travel that you will quickly find it sad that other games have conditioned you to believe that walking a straight line, killing every random thing in your path is meaningful game play.

You see, all your looking at is the mechanical aspect, both in your original post and in your reply here. You seem to find it very hard to believe that someone can actually play an MMO without a single concern for XP at all when they play. You keep bringing the conversation back to this point, trying to imply that my motivation for playing my character is based on xp gain, and/or the speed in which I gain that experience. It is not, and has absolutley nothing to do with xp gain at all. 

It amazes me honestly how you feel in your example that the ogres are more important than the boars, just because someone told you they were more important. And if you never got the event notification that they were attacking the villagers? Would you care that those same ogres just got done destroying a village two fields over, but that you were not near enough to notice or get notified of? Does that lack of notification make them all of a sudden unimportant to you? Why is that?

And no, there is no conditioning from other games that makes me play the way I do, on the contrary, I avoid the way they try to make me play. I play my character based on his beliefs, no matter the NPCs or game mechanics telling me I should otherwise. I do not require content, quests, or events to drive my motivation. What you concider to be motivation, I call a carrot on a stick, holding your hand and guiding you down the path the game wants you to follow. 

If I walk into an area, a farmers field, and I see that there are mobs there, unlike you, I do not need the game to tell me they need to be killed. I dont do it for xp, I do it because they are evil and should be killed. It is the personality of the character which drives his actions, the roleplaying aspect of his life. If you were actually trying to put forth the argument that people who roleplay will have no issue with near non-existing xp from random world mobs, then perhaps you should concider what you are saying.

If I am to only be rewarded for doing scripted events, and not for playing my character in the world he lives in, under his own concious choices, then you are in fact limiting my roleplayability in the game world. You are in fact telling me, that if I chose to advance, then i MUST participate in the events. And that if I chose to not do so, then I am in fact limiting my characters advancement based solely on my roleplaying choices I have made.

Stop looking at the random mobs as random mobs and start looking at them as you would if the character yoru playing was you, seeing them as you walked by them. A raging wolf is still a raging wolf, even if it isn't attacking the farme'rs pigs right at the momeent you are walkign by. It is just as dangerous to the world either way. 

By making it the way they appear to be, it will eventually cause the mentality that to advance, you should run from event to event, and doing anythign else is irrelivant. And in a way, that becomes the same as every other themepark out there, only you get your quests from the place they are happening instead of at a hub. Your still just doing nothing but quests to advance, does it matter the manner in which you are given those quests?

Originally posted by Flex1

You have to understand that Guild Wars won't be about levels(at least after you get the last stat points) its about exploration, socialization, partying, and guilds, and story.

 

One way Anet found to resolve the issue of players just grinding their asses to max level and just blasting through all the content too fast was to perhaps, lower the exp you receive from monsters.

Every MMO is about levels. Guild War 2 is, too, but to a lesser extent. Part of the joy of the game still comes from gaining levels and progressing. They're mantra is choice, so it seems a little contradictory. I posted that video of the lead designer saying that he's not concered with how people want to level when he was asked about a potential exploit concerning the level scaling. So why should grinding concern him? 

Originally posted by neonwire

 

Originally posted by blognorg

Originally posted by fiontar

Originally posted by Pushkina

In this yogscast video (03.56) he get 3 xp.

 

Yeah? It looks like the XP to level at that point, (level 2) is around 450 XP. All the mobs in that video seem to be part of Dynamic Events and most of the XP is for completeing the event, rather than the killing of any monsters during the event. It's an event driven game.
 

There are no quest givers for this content. Stumble across it, participate in what you want to participate in and get the rewards. It will be pretty hard to go out just hunting mobs and not find many DEs along the way. You'd have to deliberately circumvent mobs attached to DEs, gimping your progress intentionally, in order to have issues progressing while hunting mobs in the world.

Who would want to sit in one place grinding a small pool of mobs in a game ike this anyway, other than a gold farmer/botter? Applying old strategies to a new paradigm seems pretty counter-productive.

 

I'm not saying that I want to sit in one area and grind, ignoring all of the events. I'm saying it seems a little odd that players will get penalized for exploring. I know that there are DEs everywhere, but what if I want to check out a hill, and fight a few monsters along they way? Do they have to gimp the benefits of that? What's the point of even having mobs that aren't related to the events if they are worthless?

This issue you have about leveling speed and xp gain is totally irrelevant to this game. Who cares how fast you go up levels? The game is supposed to be designed so that players of all levels can participate in what they find enjoyable. If someone wants to go wandering and randomly killing any old mob they find then they are free to do that. The game doesnt "penalise" them for choosing to do that. It simply doesnt put large rewards on brainless repetitive activities that serve no purpose (in a roleplaying sense)......and why should it? If players want to log on to a roleplaying game and not actually get involved in the roleplaying activities the game provides then yeah their characters may experience stunted xp growth. Serves them right for having zero imagination in a game that is supposed to be about roleplaying (yeah I know it's a forgotten concept) and has clearly stated that xp and levels dont matter. If you or anyone else wants to cling to this rather pointless mindset then thats a personal choice.

Sadly I think LOTS of people are going to end up thinking along the same lines, due to the brainwashing inflicted on us all by all the other games which think killing things is the best way for our characters to learn anything. They view all monsters in the game as walking xp bags and nothing more. Actually why bother having monster graphics at all? Why not just replace all of the monsters with graphics of animated xp bags, if that's all you view them as?

Forget about xp. Forget about levels. It's all just carrot-on-a-stick bullshit. Try treating it like a roleplaying game instead.

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that it's not irrelevant. Here's why: all MMORPGs are about leveling and progressing. Getting rewards is still a very large part of the game. Denying that is silly. That being said, I think this game has a much better approach to leveling compared to most MMOs. So far, I haven't ever said that it was a bad design choice, because I don't have enough information to conclude that. I was simply looking for the actual reasoning for the decision. 

Another point of yours that I'm going to argue is your claim that not participating explicitly in what the game wants you to lacks imagination. It kind of seems like the other way around. That's what most people's issues with themepark games are, the fact that you aren't allowed to use imagination. Deviating from the game's designs is more imaginative than simply going with the flow. 

Getting back to my original point, I don't want to be doing DEs 100% of the time. I would like to wonder off the path and do something else to break up the pace a little. I'm not saying that killing random monsters should be the best way to level, but it would be nice to explore for a bit and actually have my exp bar move. 

Originally posted by fiontar

Originally posted by blognorg

Originally posted by fiontar

Originally posted by Pushkina

In this yogscast video (03.56) he get 3 xp.

 

Yeah? It looks like the XP to level at that point, (level 2) is around 450 XP. All the mobs in that video seem to be part of Dynamic Events and most of the XP is for completeing the event, rather than the killing of any monsters during the event. It's an event driven game.
 

There are no quest givers for this content. Stumble across it, participate in what you want to participate in and get the rewards. It will be pretty hard to go out just hunting mobs and not find many DEs along the way. You'd have to deliberately circumvent mobs attached to DEs, gimping your progress intentionally, in order to have issues progressing while hunting mobs in the world.

Who would want to sit in one place grinding a small pool of mobs in a game ike this anyway, other than a gold farmer/botter? Applying old strategies to a new paradigm seems pretty counter-productive.

 

I'm not saying that I want to sit in one area and grind, ignoring all of the events. I'm saying it seems a little odd that players will get penalized for exploring. I know that there are DEs everywhere, but what if I want to check out a hill, and fight a few monsters along they way? Do they have to gimp the benefits of that? What's the point of even having mobs that aren't related to the events if they are worthless?

How are you penalized for exploring? You find Dynamic Events by exploring. You can be headed to where you know there is an event and stumble across other events along the way. There are "Scout" NPCs that point people who don't like to explore in the right direction for some content, but the entire game rewards you for exploring because that's how you find most of the Dynamic Events in the game, by running into the events as they are unfolding in the game world!

I also pointed out that mobs not obviously associated with DEs accumulate bonus XP the longer it's been since their last defeat. This is a direct reward for exploration. The more out of the way the places are you explore, the more likely you are to get bonus XP for kills, along with the possibility of finding DE content that many who don't explore will miss entirely.

On top of all that, the game world is populated by many interesting locations hidden away in the nooks and crannies of the world and possess design elements specifically meant to appeal to those who enjoy finding difficult and hidden paths to travel.

GW2 is an MMO explorers paradise!

To answer your question, I'm penalized by diminished rewards. Yes, there are things to discover out in the world, but you may or may not find anything; what you will come across is monsters, so why make that an obvious disadvantage? I'm not saying that I just want to level to max as quickly as I can. If that was the case, then I would just shut my mouth and do the DEs (the obvious way to get the max quickly). All I'm doing is questioning the design choice. I don't even know if it's one that I won't like yet. All I asked for is if someone knew the actual reasoning behind it. Instead, people are just taking stabs at what they think is my point. I wasn't starting a debate; I was asking a question.

The gaming mechanic you mentioned might be the closest thing to an answer that I've gotten. If the bonus exp is acutually substantial, then that puts my issue to rest. I was never looking to start a flamewar, just an anawer. It not like I can just email the devs, so I thought I'd hit the forums.