Defies existing conventions? Yes. Absolutely.

Active combat? Yes. New? Ehhh kinda. There are mixed opinions about this.

Is the event system fun? There are some timing issues but in general they are far more engaging than traditional quests. (If done correctly)

Painterly / artisanal and hand crafted? It's pretty damn good.

Branching personal storyline? I've yet to see the far reaching effects of my choices but it is clear that different things can happen (to your home zone) depending on what you choose.

Are quests happening in the world? Yes.

Do I effect things around me? Yes. Depending on the DE. Not all events have world changing effects.

Does a single players decision eventually fan out into something huge? If you do DEs correctly then yes. I personally  experienced this. 

Does the game remember you? Do towns remember you? No. I most definitely didn't experience this at all. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention to NPCs enough but I am pretty sure I was just another faceless hero to them.

Did they build a game for us? Hard to answer. For the most part yes. There are so many things designed to SAVE my time, not waste it.

From what we've seen so far they live upto most of their claims. They've put in changes we've been demanding from them. Namely chat bubbles, taking away/modifying a few of the CS boosts and first person camera view (to come later).

What more can we ask for?

Does the game remember you? Do towns remember you? No. I most definitely didn't experience this at all. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention to NPCs enough but I am pretty sure I was just another faceless hero to them.

 

yes it does.... people in towns greet you by name and things like that...

Originally posted by Mardermann

Does the game remember you? Do towns remember you? No. I most definitely didn't experience this at all. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention to NPCs enough but I am pretty sure I was just another faceless hero to them.

 

yes it does.... people in towns greet you by name and things like that...

Must've been me missing it. Too busy rushing.

Originally posted by Magnetia

 

Does the game remember you? Do towns remember you? No. I most definitely didn't experience this at all. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention to NPCs enough but I am pretty sure I was just another faceless hero to them.

 

They pretty much lived up to their old manifesto. Guild Wars 2 delivered all that it promised.

That part was in... i guess they meant the hearts vendor remember you did help them and are now selling you "stuff". But anyway in the manifesto video it sounded as something much more epic. It's so so as it is now.

Originally posted by Magnetia

Defies existing conventions? Yes. Absolutely.

Active combat? Yes. New? Ehhh kinda. There are mixed opinions about this.

Name one MMORPG with more active combat. (No TERA is not active as it freezes me in place when i use skills)

Is the event system fun? There are some timing issues but in general they are far more engaging than traditional quests. (If done correctly)

Painterly / artisanal and hand crafted? It's pretty damn good.

Branching personal storyline? I've yet to see the far reaching effects of my choices but it is clear that different things can happen (to your home zone) depending on what you choose.

The human Noble and Poor choices made up for totally different story lines up to level 20. Keep in mind tough that they branch from below, the higher level we get the less different types of story are available, untill we probably end the Personal story all in the same step. So the branching is top down mostly

Are quests happening in the world? Yes.

Do I effect things around me? Yes. Depending on the DE. Not all events have world changing effects.

Does a single players decision eventually fan out into something huge? If you do DEs correctly then yes. I personally  experienced this. 

Does the game remember you? Do towns remember you? No. I most definitely didn't experience this at all. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention to NPCs enough but I am pretty sure I was just another faceless hero to them.

Basicall it does, but only a short time after a DE, on top of that, certain reactions are based on your personal story actions. But in general open world PvE does not let you change NPC´s reactions to you over the long haul.

Did they build a game for us? Hard to answer. For the most part yes. There are so many things designed to SAVE my time, not waste it.

 I dare say that they build it for me, many (not all) of my wishes come true with this game. Nevertheless no game will ever sattisfy all players.

From what we've seen so far they live upto most of their claims. They've put in changes we've been demanding from them. Namely chat bubbles, taking away/modifying a few of the CS boosts and first person camera view (to come later).

What more can we ask for?

We can ask for expansions adding even more of our wishes. 

We can ask them to keep teh game world vibrant and alive by continously adding new things to it.

Anet did deliver one hell of a mmo, it aint perfect, but compare this to any other mmo out there currently and GW2 stand ontop of those with 2 legs.

Some things i havent seen yet, but then again i leveld each class to 10 to see what i liked the most :P

Overal i think they dint lie to us about stuff like many other studio;s did to hype their game up (SWTOR any1).

We realy need to wait a few months to see how things are when you played the game massive amounts of hours in a row and dinged 80 and know the inns and outs of GW2 to judge the game on a more unhyped manner.

People are so hyped up that most dont see the bad things and even if they see it they point it out as a small thing.

But so far iam happy about just anything they said is true.

  Well... they pretty much lived up to it.

  The problem is that many people watched it with pink glasses, mostly those who felt dissapointed in it by now. They thought that DE will be... i dont know... some cinematic experiences never seen before in video game industry? I dont know.

  However, for majority that watched the video and saw a game like another MMORPG and in some kind knew what will DEs, combat, atmosphere and stuff be like, i think that Manifesto pretty much lived up to be what it is. Still, it is not to say that those things mentioned in video are not awesome and epic-looking (at least for me).

  Bottom line: the point of whole Manifesto video was to promote Anet design philosophy and they pretty much stay true to it. Who realised what it is, can enjoy GW2 without issues. 

Walking through a town, see a text bubble off a bit from an NPC: "Hey, is that Volkon over there?" Yeah, bought her a few drinks, the night was magical... oops, wait... might have had a few drinks and imagined the night, but the text bubble was real.

Yeah, for me they're pretty much nailing what they've said they're going to set out to do in the Manifesto. They have shown an excessive capability of failing to disappoint.

Active combat? Yes. New? Ehhh kinda. There are mixed opinions about this.

Name one MMORPG with more active combat. (No TERA is not active as it freezes me in place when i use skills)

I think Champions Online has a pretty active combat system. Although it was completely unbalanced for PVP I had a really good time with the combat in that game. 

Originally posted by Evokerz
Once, I entered a town and then the npc guard says "No lollygagging".

In GW2? I remember that a lot from Skyrim, maybe it's a little Easter Egg related to that.

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

Originally posted by Magnetia

Defies existing conventions? Yes. Absolutely.

Active combat? Yes. New? Ehhh kinda. There are mixed opinions about this.

Name one MMORPG with more active combat. (No TERA is not active as it freezes me in place when i use skills)

Notice mixed opinions weren't about "more active", but about "new". DCUO would be the first contender that comes to mind. A very interesting game to compare to GW2 in gerenal, as it has several of the systems of GW2, but in less complete, less fleshed-out form.

Originally posted by Naqaj

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

Originally posted by Magnetia

Defies existing conventions? Yes. Absolutely.

Active combat? Yes. New? Ehhh kinda. There are mixed opinions about this.

Name one MMORPG with more active combat. (No TERA is not active as it freezes me in place when i use skills)

Notice mixed opinions weren't about "more active", but about "new". DCUO would be the first contender that comes to mind. A very interesting game to compare to GW2 in gerenal, as it has several of the systems of GW2, but in less complete, less fleshed-out form.

What a lot of people seem to forget, is that when the GW2 manifesto was made, games like TERA didn't exist yet.

Yes, DCUO would probably be the first MMO with 'action combat', but again, these are all games that just came out within the passed year or so. (DCUO was 2011, everything else is either still in beta, or was released this year), so by any practical means, yes 'action combat' is a new feature. It just so happens that they aren't the only one with this new feature. For some, action combat is about the only thing they did differently.

Just remember, the GW2 manifesto was publicised April 27, 2010. A lot has changed in the MMO space since then.

Originally posted by aesperus

What a lot of people seem to forget, is that when the GW2 manifesto was made, games like TERA didn't exist yet.

Yes, DCUO would probably be the first MMO with 'action combat', but again, these are all games that just came out within the passed year or so. (DCUO was 2011, everything else is either still in beta, or was released this year), so by any practical means, yes 'action combat' is a new feature. It just so happens that they aren't the only one with this new feature. For some, action combat is about the only thing they did differently.

Just remember, the GW2 manifesto was publicised April 27, 2010. A lot has changed in the MMO space since then.

fair enough but DCUO had "hands on" combat demos since June 2009

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/912598/e3_dc_universe_online_handson_impressions.html

Originally posted by Magnetia

Defies existing conventions? Yes. Absolutely.

Active combat? Yes. New? Ehhh kinda. There are mixed opinions about this.

Is the event system fun? There are some timing issues but in general they are far more engaging than traditional quests. (If done correctly)

Painterly / artisanal and hand crafted? It's pretty damn good.

Branching personal storyline? I've yet to see the far reaching effects of my choices but it is clear that different things can happen (to your home zone) depending on what you choose.

Are quests happening in the world? Yes.

Do I effect things around me? Yes. Depending on the DE. Not all events have world changing effects.

Does a single players decision eventually fan out into something huge? If you do DEs correctly then yes. I personally  experienced this. 

Does the game remember you? Do towns remember you? No. I most definitely didn't experience this at all. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention to NPCs enough but I am pretty sure I was just another faceless hero to them.

Did they build a game for us? Hard to answer. For the most part yes. There are so many things designed to SAVE my time, not waste it.

 

From what we've seen so far they live upto most of their claims. They've put in changes we've been demanding from them. Namely chat bubbles, taking away/modifying a few of the CS boosts and first person camera view (to come later).

What more can we ask for?

While I am looking forward to GW2 and loved the propaganda/manifesto video...

The worrying line in your post for me is "if done correctly" one of the big promises of the scripted events was that they were approachable from multiple angles... if there is a "correct" way to do them, then surely they are just quests by a different name.

That said, its trying new ways to deliver the staple mmo content that I enjoy, and for that alone I wish them every success..

Originally posted by Magnetia

 

Does the game remember you? Do towns remember you? No. I most definitely didn't experience this at all. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention to NPCs enough but I am pretty sure I was just another faceless hero to them.

 

Ree Soesbee was talking about Personal Story, and this has been clarified numerous times.   The answer is a definitive yes.  The hospital was still burned down, and the orphans remembered my heroism for saving them. I don't think anybody actually thought that what she described was even possible in the open world.  Imagine if a boss could only be killed once in the open world?  How many bosses would Anet have to sit there and create to give new players a chance.  That doesn't even make sense.

Originally posted by Kothoses

one of the big promises of the scripted events was that they were approachable from multiple angles... if there is a "correct" way to do them, then surely they are just quests by a different name.

 

But thats how they work no?

You never really know on wich phase of the event you might come in.

They are like quests in the sense that they are the primary way of advancing your character and telling the world story.

The really big difference between a quest and a DE is that DE's don't wait for the player to happen.

Some events are triggered by picking up an object or something but I'd say a fair majority of them just happen.

Personally I feel they are in the end so very different from traditional questing that they are no longer quests.

Its like a bicycle and a motorcycle, both are similar types of transportation but nobody would claim they are the same.