No matter how hard you try, and no matter how many sleepless nights you pour into making a game, it will never be perfect. Sure the reviews can be good, and millions of players will enjoy playing the game, but there will always be things that players don’t like. We all have opinions and we love to share them, and I’m no exception. I love Guild Wars 2. I wouldn’t be writing a weekly column about my experiences in the game if I didn’t. I feel ArenaNet did an amazing job creating an MMO that many people wanted. But being a normal human, I still find things that bug the crap out of me. Let me share a few this week.
Speaking of being bugged, I hate bugged events! The Dynamic Events that are sprinkled over every zone are a tasty treat. Sadly, not every sprinkle is a sugary and delicious morsel. Bugged events have plagued my experience in the game. I didn’t run into a lot of them in the beginning zones, but in the higher level areas it isn’t uncommon to see more than one bugged event. And it does make the game at times feel incomplete.
Now I know some updates have come out to fix several issues, one of them being bugged events. A day after the update I found the “fixed” events bugging out… again. The worst part is that they were skill challenge events, so they prevent me from completing a map. Nothing makes me angry in this game except that. I’ll have one skill challenge left in a zone, but it bugs out and all my hard work towards OCD zone completion is thwarted. Makes me angry just thinking about it.
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The rage you get when the last skill challenge is bugged.
The lands of Orr are unlike anything I’ve seen in an MMO. The environment is fresh and exciting. The events are numerous and massive in comparison to other zones. Getting to these events and enjoying this unique environment can be a pain though. The land is crawling with undead. Now it should be, as it fits the lore, but the issue I have is with the respawn speed on these guys. You kill one guy only to aggro another, and by the time you kill the second guy the first guy respawned. It’s madness! Now there is a way to zig and zag through the enemies, only aggroing just enough that they don’t kill you. But not every player has figured that out. Once I did, I could enjoy things a bit more, but it’s still annoying. I’m thinking it needs to be looked at, even for an “Elder Game” area.
This next issue is one that really bugs me more than anything else. I may notice it as I’m an artist by trade and have done work on games. Being a visual person, having my character look awesome and epic is important to me. I do know I’m not alone however, as I’ve talked to other players about armor designs, and they see the same thing.
Now the armors look amazing, don’t get me wrong. I’m blown away at how unique and eye-catching many of them are. But my issue is with professions sharing armor types. All scholars use light armor, and all the same light armors. Most of them look amazing on Elementalists and Mesmers, but they won’t really fit the Necromancer that well. Sure there are a few designs you can craft, but that’s still only a few. While playing my Necro, he rarely gets to look like one.
I wish that armors were more like in the original Guild Wars. Each profession all had an equal number of styles for armor, and all the styles fit the profession perfectly and individually. You knew by the armor what profession you were looking at. Trying to mash everything together into one palette doesn’t work for me. Sure people want to mix and match looks, but some professions get fewer options. And while there are transmutation stones, I shouldn’t have to use them to have armor that looks appropriately evil if I want to. They should be used so I have a choice between stats and styles that all fit my profession.
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In Guild Wars 1, Necromancer armor could look tough and epic without having skulls hanging all over the place. Light armor actually looked like armor.
The issue with armors goes even deeper. I know ArenaNet had to have a tough time designing armors that would fit on every race. Norn, Humans, and Sylvari have it easy. The poor Charr and Asura get the short end of the stick though (no pun intended). To keep this short (maybe intended), let’s look directly at ears, and horns. The two features are even choices a player makes when creating their characters. It’s a big deal! So with it being so important, why do these horns disappear when I put on a helmet? Why do Asuran ears just pop out of the side of the same helmet? Why weren’t new models of this helmet made for each race, featuring a space for horns or ears to poke out of? New models were made for shoes and boots, but rarely do I look at my character’s feet. It really, really bugs me.
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The Charr tail was also not factored into most armor designs. Also, I wanted a reason to post my character's butt on the internet.
I know ArenaNet is addressing some of these issues as you read this. Fixing these things won’t make Guild Wars 2 perfect. There will never be a perfect game. To think so is folly. But addressing these issues will only help GW2 become more enjoyable. I just hope the wait isn’t that long. I really need to get these zones cleared for those tasty rewards.
