I keep hearing people talking about Dynamic Events and how they are just like Rift's rifts, or Warhammer's PQ's, but I don't see the similarity at all.   The DE's in GW2 are extremely revolutionary.   Rifts just seem to be random occurances of mobs all over the map, and that doesn't sound revolutionary at all, nothing like GW2 Dynamic Events.

Now I know that there are all sorts of people going to tell me how wrong I am. I've seen how people react to words, and especially words that might show GW2 in a positive light.  And I'm sure that none of them actually care if  nobody says anything, but they sure care if someone says that they like the game. It's just a negative world for many people, and they  feel compelled to "keep the optimism in check"

 The DE's in GW2 are very revolutionary. Take for example, one of the norn Dynamic Events in the starting area.  It starts off with a norn woman wanting to collect wyrm eggs for food. Now she asks everyone in the area to help by retrieving as many wyrm eggs as possible, and she will use the eggs to make some food for everyone. Needless to say, she needs a lot of eggs, and the more people that take part, means she will need even more eggs. Once she has enough, she will say so and then give people a chance to bring the last of the eggs they've collected to her.  Yeah, thats right, she doesn't just stop and leave, she gives everyone a chance to participate even though she's reached her quota.

Then she goes back to the lodge to prepare a wondrous meal for everyone, but the scent of the eggs attracts wyrms to the lodge! Yes, this is a lodge with NPC vendors and everything, and everybody has to help fend off the wyrm attack! The attack almost seems endless as wave after wave of wyrms attack the lodge. The bodies of wyrms, and norn litter the ground in front of the lodge.  And once the assault is finally over, the eggs are ruined and the woman has to admit that it might not have been such a good idea to collect all those eggs. Another norn comments that the fight was magnificent (LOL! That is sooo norn) and before long the woman decides to go collect more eggs, and the event has gone through it's full revolution. Full circle, so to speak.

That is why I say that GW2 Dynamic Events are revolutionary, but what I'm really looking forward to is when they become evolutionary. When an event chain matures to not always come back to the exact same point. Maybe it will still have the potential to return to it's original point, but I would like to see multiple return points to start off from, as well as multiple outcomes. 

I can't wait to see where the genre moves to next.

Originally posted by Phry
They may have more detail than Rifts dynamic events, but that doesnt really alter the fact that Rift created the concept. Maybe Arenanet took that idea and ran with it, but ultimately, it was Trion that brought about that revolution, if you can call it that. Whether it will catch on and evolve into something more in other games remains to be seen, i kind of hope it does.

ANet already were talking about their DEs way before Rift was released... so no, Rift did not creat DEs.  Which aren't really dynamic to begin with, just pathing mobs was all it was until you shut down the rift.  And if we really wanna go there I'm sure we can find DEs long before Rift was even in the beginning development stage.

As far as GW2.  DEs are certainly refreshing and a change of pace.  It's great how there are differnt events (not 100% but a definate different experience in the same zeon) when you lvl a diff toon.  However they are just another form of quests which one repeats over and over and a lot.  There are great immersion in a zone but too much is it on a repeat cycle.  My biggest beef was how these "dynamic events" turned to a zerg fest after so many join the fray.  Didn't really see this till Orr where I couldn't even see the mob because it was such a cluster fuck of toons.  Certainly a great break from the dreadful quest log approach to things.

Revolutionary?  Hardly, just simpely the next step in MMO development or evolution.

i can kinda agree that the public quest system takes it to the next level but I find them to be almost exactly like warhammer online but an extra script kicks in to start a new chain by a npc or completing a heart quest. Rifts system is really no different at all because most of the newer rifts invasion system require a lot more than random spawning mobs. Though the ones rift released with were simple kill lots of mobs boring repetitive stuff. Im not sure now though or at least for the last six months of rift there is any difference at all than guild wars 2 pqs and rifts.

Also give credit where credit is due warhammer online started the entire pq thing so to diss it for not being all that technical the game was made in 2007 rift in 2010 and guild wars 2 in 2011-12 ...

Originally posted by Phry
They may have more detail than Rifts dynamic events, but that doesnt really alter the fact that Rift created the concept. Maybe Arenanet took that idea and ran with it, but ultimately, it was Trion that brought about that revolution, if you can call it that. Whether it will catch on and evolve into something more in other games remains to be seen, i kind of hope it does.

There might be an even earlier example, but Warhammer Onilne created the concept with their PQs.

They were terrible, but better than rifts imo.

edit: sorry, didn't see cronius' post.

Originally posted by Phry
They may have more detail than Rifts dynamic events, but that doesnt really alter the fact that Rift created the concept. Maybe Arenanet took that idea and ran with it, but ultimately, it was Trion that brought about that revolution, if you can call it that. Whether it will catch on and evolve into something more in other games remains to be seen, i kind of hope it does.

False.  ANet was working on them before Rift was released.  Trion is a decent company, but basically they're known as the guys that made yet another WoW clone.

Everybody knows that rifts were added to RIFT the day before the game released. They totally stole their whole concept from Anet.

And PQs are scheduled to be added to Warhammer next week, now that we know they are successful.

Originally posted by WhiteLantern

Everybody knows that rifts were added to RIFT the day before the game released. They totally stole their whole concept from Anet.

 

And PQs are scheduled to be added to Warhammer next week, now that we know they are successful.

i know, i thought it was hillarious that people were claiming arenanet created stuff because they were talking about it before Rift was released, which totally ignored the fact that Trion had been working on that for years..  and totally ignoring that just maybe, Arenanet were watching how Rift was developing and taking a few ideas from there.. but whatever, truth is, that Trion were there first, Arenanet expanded on the concept, but they didnt invent it

Originally posted by eyelolled

GW2 Dynamic Events ARE revolutionary, I can't wait till they are evolutionary! 

 You meant "recurrent" right? Otherwise it totally meant the opposite of what you are trying to say.

Revolutionary, if you look up any Dictionary, actually means it is "ground-breaking". Revolutionary is an adjective of revolution, but it is used when meant o mean "ground-breaking" and is not used to describe "reccurrent" or "circular" tasks.

Originally posted by Eir_S

Originally posted by Phry
They may have more detail than Rifts dynamic events, but that doesnt really alter the fact that Rift created the concept. Maybe Arenanet took that idea and ran with it, but ultimately, it was Trion that brought about that revolution, if you can call it that. Whether it will catch on and evolve into something more in other games remains to be seen, i kind of hope it does.

False.  ANet was working on them before Rift was released.  Trion is a decent company, but basically they're known as the guys that made yet another WoW clone.

[mod edit] Maybe Anet folks used time machine to go back an give War and Rift devs the ultimate wisdom of "dynamic events"? Running in circles or from point A to point B is nothing to brag about though (imho).

City of heroes had dynamic events before either of these companies even dreamed up the games, and I doubt it was first. Ever take part in a rikti invasion..... kinda looks like a rift doesn't it.

This is the same sort of thing that happened with wow. Some guy that's never played any mmo before ...whatever game they want to give credit to, decideds it's the first time he's seen it so obviously that game came up with it.

ANET did DEs quite nicely (can be done better of course...). For me DEs are not circular, repeating quests... for me it's different style how to tell the story. It's kinda similar to what quests do in WoW, only allow more freedom to developers, like branching, it also allows fail states of certain parts of chain (which quests just don't). Also circular or not, you can see that end of the part of chain actually have smaller or bigger impact on the world. Again quests do not do this pre phasing... and phasing is just doing it wrong in MMO I think.

The last but not least, these chains are so well polished. For instance guy that needs to send for caravan sends a pigeon (or hawk) somewhere to do so. And in a (actually not so short) while caravan comes. I suppose many people jsut ignore this small things, but for me this is what makes what ANET did truly unique and revolutionary.

nice writeup from the OP, nice see people can post possitive thing too :)

I have played all 3 games mentioned, WAR, RIFT and GW2. Each game had a similar PQ system but 2 of them where primarily based around the quest hub model heavily at launch rather than focusing on the PQ's and 2 of these games did not encourage exploring any more than any mmo before it with those systems either, you are shown exactly where to go for the public quest.

That to me is the difference, I can care less who made what first, to me that is like not buying a vehicle from one brand that you would enjoy driving more than another brand because they made a similar model before hand.

I enjoy GW2 version of the PQ's multiple times more than I did the other 2 game which could barely hold my interest for 2 months each, and thats counting times I went back to check out changes. So wheher it is revolutionary, evolutionary, or it isnt.. Guild Wars 2 did it better in my opinion. What else matters? 

Originally posted by Scalpless
It's not about who did them first. It's about who did the right first.

So....nobody yet then?

City of Heroes

Warhammer Online

Rift.

Sure you just think that OP.

They are actually quite fun to do. I think they need to add in  a ton more events to do so they can live upto the boast that "Every time you do a zone you might find something new." and also add in more permanent events which could take days to reset. They boasted genuine changes to the environment that were fairly permanent but have not lived upto that.

Great start. I hope they make more different types of DEs. 

Side note the world needs more big bosses.

I have a mixed feeling about GW2's so called dynamic events. At the core, those DEs are nothing but repeatable quests that pop out every 15-30 mins. And all the DEs I did so far up to lv 30 of my ele were all about zerging. I really want something more than just ganging up on the waves of mob untill it's over. Something that requires strategy and coordination between the players other than just following the way point. What's worse is that there's no real rewards or consequences for those DEs. Succeeded? Good, here's your karma and exp. Now open the map and head to your next DE. You failed to stop the monster attack? No bid deal try again in 30 mins.

It's still better than seeing ! on the heads of NPC though.