And do you remember this chart?
It was meant to show how most MMOs crank up the “time grind” to level, but Guild Wars 2 wouldn't do that. Tell me that again while I look at the five million XP I need for my next mastery level. And look at this quote from Colin Johanson, from two months before GW2 launched:
“When your game systems are derived and designed to fill this prime motivation of a subscription-based MMO, you potentially sacrifice quality to get as much content in as possible to fill that time. You get leveling systems that take insane amounts of grind to gain a level, loot drop systems that require doing a dungeon with a tiny chance the item you want can drop at the end, raid systems that need huge numbers of people online simultaneously to organize and play, thousands of wash/repeat item-collection or kill-mob quests or dailies with flavor text support, the best stat gear requiring crazy amounts of time to earn, etc.”
Guild Wars 2 isn't subscription-based, but, as with any MMO – buy-to-play, free-to-play, and everything in between – its creators want you to log in every day and spend as much time as possible playing it. The accuracy of other parts of that paragraph are open to debate.
Maybe it's unfair to examine statements and promises from three years ago and try to apply them to the game as it is today, but a lot of us leaped aboard the GW2 hype train because of those promises and still remember them fondly. I'm not looking for any kind of “gotcha” or “we screwed up” statement from ArenaNet, but an acknowledgment that these were the initial goals of the game and explanation of how things had to change. On some level, we already know those reasons, and there's fair justification for them, but an official statement of purpose – which we saw so much of before the game launched but very rarely since – would be a reassuring gift.
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...trait build pages for PvE
All right, enough of the super-serious business. But semi-related to the above parts is a quality-of-life change I've been wanting for a while now, especially since traits were re-worked earlier this year.
I want to try out different builds for my characters and have the ability to switch quickly in the world to meet my needs. But having to remember exactly how I was set up, or write it down, for when I want to switch back is a pain and it greatly reduces my interest in trying new stuff.
You already have a different trait setup for when you go into PvP and WvW, so being able to do the same at the touch of a button in PvE shouldn't be a monumentally difficult undertaking. It's a basic thing that just about any MMO with variance in builds offers right from the start – imagine Rift without it! – and its well overdue for Guild Wars 2.
...Kessex Hill renewed
This is hardly an “urgent matter,” but more of an aesthetic request. It's been two years since Kessex was devastated by the Toxic Alliance. As with Lion's Arch in the aftermath of Scarlet Briar's attack, it made sense to leave it in its wrecked state for a while, to drive home how awful the attack was, but you'd think a cleanup crew might have moved in by now, or at least that the area would have been “reclaimed” partially by nature itself. Sounds like the perfect project for an asura/sylvari cleanup crew...
I don't think a total revamp of the zone, as with Lion's Arch, is needed; returning it to its old state, maybe with an added feature or two or some smaller remnant of the Toxic Alliance's influence, could work. Just take the old map and put it back in, with a few additional flowers – make Kessex green again!
...a Guild Wars 2 toaster.
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Please?
