I am a big fan of Josh Strife Hayes and in particular his classic "Worst MMO Ever?" review series - rest assured for those not familiar with JSH, he isn't actually saying GW is the worst MMO ever!
Here is the video: Worst MMO Ever? - Guild Wars
I hadn't watched this video before and although it's 2 years old now it's still as relevant as ever (of course because GW is timeless!). I left the following comment on the video, as a lot of what JSH says in his review made me reflect on why I found GW so entertaining all those years ago, and why I still do:
"...having been an avid GW fan and player since its release, what I find that resonates with me most of Josh's criticisms are actually the things that for me make GW great and that I wouldn't change. The fact that you don't get quest identifiers to take new quests, the fact that you aren't told where Merchants are and thus don't know quite initially how the navigate the towns, the fact that you don't get told where to find specific items that crafters want, the fact that you have to painstakingly craft your builds and attribute points and test them out one instance at a time, the fact that you don't just get easily told about weapon comparisons; that "this new weapon that you have acquired is X better than your old one". These are exactly the reasons why as a 13 year old new to this style of game I found the experience completely immersive. Yes it was challenging, at times irritatingly so, but ultimately that made it all the more rewarding. It meant that I had to fully invest in the game in order to do well. It thus built a depth to my knowledge of the inner workings of the game that made me feel like a professional player (even though I was trash). Looking back, had there been all of these "Quality of Life" additions, it actually would have made the whole experience much too easy, and much too surface level. If I were to go back to Guild Wars as a 13 year old today, I wouldn't have it any other way. Still playing 19 years later with >9k hours on my account. I have a wife and a professional career now but GW remains a huge passion of mine and will do forever. Its my escape that I come back to time and time again. I'm so grateful to ArenaNet for maintaining this servers to this day and hope it will continue forever."
I'm curious to know from others here - what was it for you that made you fall in love with Guild Wars?
Reflections on Josh Strife Hayes - Worst MMO Ever?
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I remember playing in high school with my friends on ventrilo. I had been putting +30 HP plus 41HP and +50 HP runes on three of my five armor pieces on all my characters in guild wars for a long time. One day I told my friends that I had been doing this, and they laughed and jeered and told me that I was doing it incorrectly. ezscape is bad. The idea that you need to hold players hands so much so that they can learn early on seems like a very modern trend in games. It was never a problem for us when we first started playing. Dark souls is a perfect example of a successful reaction against ezscape. In old school RuneScape people always say that run energy as a problem for new players. It was never a problem when we first started playing. New players don't care about efficiency, they are just happy to play the Game and it's fun because it's new and they've never experienced it.
Without ingame explanations and tutorials and hints everywhere, you rely on other players helping you and teaching you what to do. This improves the community experience, which is what games are all about obviously. an Excuse for people to spend time together. It doesn't really matter whether there is more handholding or less handholding to me. The push the developers have made to make Games easier to play and have more hand holding for new players, is a reaction to more competition in the market. They are trying to maintain relevancy and draw new players in as other new games are developed that cater to Younger players and newer players, and they do have all these handholding guides and hits for new players built in.
In the end what will keep guild wars going is money and player numbers. The business model of guild wars one failed because it was based on people buying new campaigns and expansions. Without a monthly subscription cost the only way the developers could make money is by selling new titles. and some titles ended up being rushed and low quality like nightfall. In the end they had to change up the business model and in guild wars two they have micro transactions. Which is the route that a lot of games have gone. Arena net has said time and time again that they are not going to release new content for guild wars one. Bringing new players to the game obviously helps to keep the game going, which is done via YouTube and games done quick.
I've said before that one way to improve the game is kickstarter's for third-party development. The guild wars community can come together and pay people to improve tools like toolbox that operate within the terms and conditions.
Easy scape is not really the problem. It's just business models and competition and maintaining relevance. If the game was to be developed further, obviously for new players some hand holding directions and tutorials wouldn't hurt. But it's a lesser problem compared with the competition and business Side of things.
