I feel this Topic isn't brought the attention it deserves.
Looking back at TERA or worse SWTOR i can not cherish enough the joy of finally beeing able to play with various friends together.

While playing for nearly a decade with some guildmates we spend the time leveling in Rift, SWTOR, TERA seperated until max. level.

Our gaminghours do not always overlap, and these games severely punish you for not advancing at the _exact_ same speed always together.

Questchains which are so restrictive that you can't even accept ONE damn quest in the whole zone without the prequests. Facepalm easy scaled contend when you start getting 5 level "above" the Area.
Urgh, these games _forced! us apart.

.
.
.
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And then GW2.

One of my friends joins a day later. WE did everything together until then. Despite 10 Levels of difference. GW2 isn't just a living breathing world, it's even filled with friends.

Makes me sometimes wonder how the hell other Themepark MMOS got so unfriendly and degenerated in terms of playability with others (friends) outside raids.

... this reminds me that I wish sidekicking to friend's higher level was still in.  *sigh*

Oh well.  I managed to convince my friends to hang out in the lower level areas with me for a bit, and then for the rest of the game I just played content 5-6 levels higher and spent a lot of time learning how to play really well. :D  Not nearly as bad as it could have been, but I still would have liked to have the option to hang out in the big boy zones with my friends.

Originally posted by skydiver12

I feel this Topic isn't brought the attention it deserves.
Looking back at TERA or worse SWTOR i can not cherish enough the joy of finally beeing able to play with various friends together.

While playing for nearly a decade with some guildmates we spend the time leveling in Rift, SWTOR, TERA seperated until max. level.

Our gaminghours do not always overlap, and these games severely punish you for not advancing at the _exact_ same speed always together.

Questchains which are so restrictive that you can't even accept ONE damn quest in the whole zone without the prequests. Facepalm easy scaled contend when you start getting 5 level "above" the Area.
Urgh, these games _forced! us apart.

.
.
.
.
And then GW2.

 

 

One of my friends joins a day later. WE did everything together until then. Despite 10 Levels of difference. GW2 isn't just a living breathing world, it's even filled with friends.

Makes me sometimes wonder how the hell other Themepark MMOS got so unfriendly and degenerated in terms of playability with others (friends) outside raids.

 

This. This has me excited for GW2 more than anything else. I routinely get my friends to try out MMO's and its a replay of the same tragedy over and over. Everyone levels at different rates until we can really play together. Or is some game we can, but we sacrifice ever moving forward with our own characters.

GW2 will be perfect to play with firends/guild

Originally posted by Meowhead

... this reminds me that I wish sidekicking to friend's higher level was still in.  *sigh*

Oh well.  I managed to convince my friends to hang out in the lower level areas with me for a bit, and then for the rest of the game I just played content 5-6 levels higher and spent a lot of time learning how to play really well. :D  Not nearly as bad as it could have been, but I still would have liked to have the option to hang out in the big boy zones with my friends.

I'm kind of happy that the kick up was removed.  Many people would probably rage quit the game since they would be constantly one shotted and/or left on the edge of the action...since you're armor and skills would not have been allowed to kcik up with you.  If these items did change up, then what would be the incentive to play anywhere else in the game except in thehigher level zones?  I understand the idea of playing with friends, and time being valuable, etc.  The kick up just seemed to be at odds with the rest of the game.

Originally posted by Roybe

I'm kind of happy that the kick up was removed.  Many people would probably rage quit the game since they would be constantly one shotted and/or left on the edge of the action...since you're armor and skills would not have been allowed to kcik up with you.  If these items did change up, then what would be the incentive to play anywhere else in the game except in thehigher level zones?  I understand the idea of playing with friends, and time being valuable, etc.  The kick up just seemed to be at odds with the rest of the game.

 

... and you think I was NOT constantly getting one shotted and left on the edge of the action when I'm 5-6 levels below?  :D

I suffered and persevered.  Oh well.  Some people like the idea of sidekicking up, some don't.  I personally love it, but whatever, I'll just deal.  At least everything else is left in. :/

The Overflow issue has been heard by Anet.
But still you can get together at the end and keep playing, no questgrinding or stopping to "wait".

Originally posted by skydiver12

While playing for nearly a decade with some guildmates we spend the time leveling in Rift, SWTOR, TERA seperated until max. level.

other games have offered this -- City of Heroes with Sidekicking, Everquest 2 with mentoring

but yes, I wish more games offered this feature

While only slightly related, another huge benefit of this that deserves some attention: It means later expansions/content additions aren't nearly as limited by level range as what previous games had to deal with.

They can introduce a level 20 dungeon, and it can be experienced by level 20's, 35s, 48s, 67s, 80s, and anything/everything in between, and they still gain appropriate exp and loot, and still have an appropriate challenge- with players of many levels as well.

Games have been so limited by this that what we saw was either content tacked on for newly released levels (80-85 only, for example), or newbie areas that served no purpose for higher level players.

The value of this is something I'd overlooked at first, but when it really sunk in I was very impressed and very excited about the future and the role this can play.

I agree with the OP, but for other reasons.  One of my MMO pet peeves is out leveling my quests. This happens to me a lot becasue I like to pvp. Once I out outlevel the quests/missions they no longer give me any experience, so I have to kill mobs and finish the quests for nothing, or abandon them and risk messing up a quest chain.

Also, I like some areas better than others. In GW2 I'm not forced to leave areas before I want to, nor do I have to stay in a zone I don't like just because it's the zone with quests and mobs at my level.

It was nice to go back to levl 5 areas as a level 15 and still find it  (almost) as tough as it was the first time.

So endgame is - play the whole world, not just some final zones or raids.

Originally posted by Nadia

Originally posted by skydiver12

While playing for nearly a decade with some guildmates we spend the time leveling in Rift, SWTOR, TERA seperated until max. level.

other games have offered this -- City of Heroes with Sidekicking, Everquest 2 with mentoring

but yes, I wish more games offered this feature

City of Heroes did a lot of interesting things and Sidekicking is one of those things I think many games should have.  I thought when EQ2 added it we would see more games doing it but alas we didn't get that.

Originally posted by Deldor
A big problem with this in this beta weekend was with the overflow servers. You can't pick on which server you are redirected and if your friend gets on a different server, you can't play together.

This was my biggest issue with the BWE.  My partner and I got to play together all of 15 minutes in Divinity's Reach the ENTIRE weekend.  I was a bit unhappy about that.  I hope they fix it, because our whole POINT in buying this game was to have a game to play together again.  It's been a long time.  SO hoping they fix this.

Originally posted by just1opinion

Originally posted by Deldor
A big problem with this in this beta weekend was with the overflow servers. You can't pick on which server you are redirected and if your friend gets on a different server, you can't play together.

 

This was my biggest issue with the BWE.  My partner and I got to play together all of 15 minutes in Divinity's Reach the ENTIRE weekend.  I was a bit unhappy about that.  I hope they fix it, because our whole POINT in buying this game was to have a game to play together again.  It's been a long time.  SO hoping they fix this.

No worries.  It's NOT working as intended.  Groups are meant to stay together.  You were just getting trolled by the beta monster.

By the way, I spent most of my time in the overflow server and didn't even bother going to the live(?) server when it was offered.  There was just no need.  Wouldn't anyone who made it on to the live one mostly likely get shunted to the overflow the next time they entered the zone?  I haven't tried it but if this recurrs for the next BWE, just choose to stay on the overflow.  If you or your partner get separated, the one who made it to live should just rezone.  Then you can both stay on overflow.  And believe me, there is no difference between them.  Mine was packed consistently at all hours.

Originally posted by Unlight

Originally posted by just1opinion

Originally posted by Deldor
A big problem with this in this beta weekend was with the overflow servers. You can't pick on which server you are redirected and if your friend gets on a different server, you can't play together.

 

This was my biggest issue with the BWE.  My partner and I got to play together all of 15 minutes in Divinity's Reach the ENTIRE weekend.  I was a bit unhappy about that.  I hope they fix it, because our whole POINT in buying this game was to have a game to play together again.  It's been a long time.  SO hoping they fix this.

No worries.  It's NOT working as intended.  Groups are meant to stay together.  You were just getting trolled by the beta monster.

By the way, I spent most of my time in the overflow server and didn't even bother going to the live(?) server when it was offered.  There was just no need.  Wouldn't anyone who made it on to the live one mostly likely get shunted to the overflow the next time they entered the zone?  I haven't tried it but if this recurrs for the next BWE, just choose to stay on the overflow.  If you or your partner get separated, the one who made it to live should just rezone.  Then you can both stay on overflow.  And believe me, there is no difference between them.  Mine was packed consistently at all hours.

Overflow Servers

It was a bit more complicated than just one overflow server.  Me and hubby got split off into different overflow servers - really made us cranky on Friday but by Saturday we were resigned to it and by Sunday we actually managed to meet up by accident.  Read something on the official forums by a dev that it will be fixed by launch if not sooner.

Downlevelling

I love downleveling - we have a friend who must stop and smell every rose, stomp on every spider, get every title in the games she plays.  Problem is she must finish an area before moving on - super completionist who will only play maybe at most 4-6 hours a week, usually around 2-3.  We have so much fun when we group up that we basically just have alts that we keep locked to her level.  Will be nice to be playing the character I want when playing with her.

Then we have our kids - who outlevel us in just a few days.  But we enjoy grouping up with them as we all live in different states and it brings back family game nights for us.  Can't wait for the day I rez them in a newbie zone:)  Sheesh does that make me evil?

Appreciate scaling becoming more common, but it is more work for the devs (has to be built into the combat math pretty much from day one).  Retrofitting an older system would be something of a developer's terror dream.

The advantages extend to much more than sidekicking; boss scaling, the loot system, all sorts of things.

Actually this is the one thing that I think is the real game changer for this industry. And its not just these few parts you have mentioned its the whole philosophy "all of US" vs the Environment or "All of Us" Vs another server. All these mechanics fostered by previous MMOs that servered to divide us are purposely snuffed out by Anet. For Anet it is Community > All. Even Mechanics.

The impact of this type of community building is really hard to predict. If there is one thing I think will rocket GW2 to popularity its this philosophy. We won't really begin to see how prevassive it is until a few months after. Now granted it could backfire in terms of "everyone is now your friend so no one is". But I doubt it. My gut feel is its one of those things that will simply intensify the viral impact of this game. They truely eliminated most of the barriers to entry.