Guild Wars 2, How I Wish It Was Actually Personal

Around two weekends ago, I was one of the few thousands whom after finding out we could gain instant access to all their Beta weekends, bought a Pre-Purchase copy of Guild Wars 2 and prepared myself for adventures in the world of Tyria. With high expectations, I entered as a player who has played over six years of Guild Wars. It's not an overstatement to say that there was a lot ArenaNet had to live up to.

The World of Tyria

NOTE: This is an incomplete build for Guild Wars 2. therefore a lot of the content in the Beta is still being polished and developed(that’s right, it’s there but we had no access). Therefore, I’m not going to judge the beta as a final product nor am I stating that whatever I say will be final. Hopefully, the developers take note of my opinions and come to terms on how they can try to solve them.

If it wasn't apparent... things have not been going so well.

Tyria has changed, its landscape scarred from the ravages of various Dragons awakening after sleeping for thousands of years(in Guild Wars lore, it’s not known exactly how long the Dragons were asleep). The lands of Kryta, Ascalon and the Far Shiverpeaks have been given a complete tranformation, with the white mantle overthrown over a decade ago by the Shinning blade, and a new order of royal knights who guard its peace in the city of Divinity’s Reach; a city home to the various refugees who escaped a calamity that still scars what was once Lion’s Arch.

Diamond in the rough

Divinity's Reach is your typical European architecture human stronghold

Divinity’s Reach is a city that’s circular in shape. Housing the six gods worshipped by humans in Tyria, each with their own dedicated district with a unique theme. While exploring the city, you'll often find yourself lost as you wander through the multiple floors of the city. There’s alot to see and it’s often difficult to find everything in quick glance. Often, you'll find that ArenaNet has hidden away secret stores, stalls and even Easter eggs, all sitting there waiting for eager explorers to find.

In my exploration, I found a hidden Asuran Library which has a compilation of the Lore of Divinity’s Reach from its point of exodus from Lion’s Arch, to when the Dragons awoke and tore the world apart in their awakening.

There are also activities, or mini games scattered throughout Divinity's Reach. These are sometimes disguised as 'Point of Interest'; discovering them gains you experience and a reward in the form of a little fame(at this time however they do not work).

Divinity's Reach does surpass the previous Guild Wars's main hub in a lot of ways. Lion's Arch was a small coastal town compared to what was seen in Divinity's Reach. Which in turn, encourages me to take my time exploring the entire map before even thinking of setting out into the world.

Industrialisation, done right

Intimidating yet unique looking. The Black Citadel is a sight to behold

In the ruins of Ascalon, the Charr have taken over the once human civilisations of Ashford, now home to the Black Citadel and hulking pile of engineering prowess; it’s a huge contrast to the majestic city of Divinity’s Reach, with its huge factories, pollution and metallic structures. It’s not surprising to see slavery in a place like this as the Charr are depicted as a sinister (and strangely cute) race which have formed legions dedicated to a particular way of life. In the beta, you have a choice of three; Iron, Ash and Blood legions.

All legions start out within the proximity of the Black Citadel. However, they are split into different sections, with each class having their own section of the citadel. Their impact on the city leaves a lot to be desired, as you often wonder how organise could a city practically be organised in this manner. I literally spent almost two hours wandering on the upper levels of the city trying to locate my next quest point. I then realised it was actually below me and spent another hour trying to figure out how I’m supposed to go down there. Maybe a design flaw by the developers, however, I have a feeling it’s purposely done in such a fashion to establish a sense of brutality, domination and militarism.

Of Ice and Snow

Of all of the cities I've visited, the one I spent the least of my time was the Norn tribal Capital. In my personal embarrassment, I cannot even recall the name of the city. It’s basically a simpler version of the other two, and most likely the most environmentally friendly. Its main draw could very well be its Viking like culture, where the Norns are seen as Nordic barbarians with Native American Indian beliefs. The city itself is surrounded by snow, with little to anything resembling a machine. The Norns are very old-fashioned, relying on pure brute strength rather than ingenuity and intelligence.

"Its main draw could very well be its Viking like culture, where the Norns are seen as Nordic barbarians with Native American Indian beliefs"

The buildings themselves are constructed as huts, with each part of the city named after an animal or some sort of spirit(I honestly have no idea). In my honest opinion, the Norns are my least favourite race, therefore, I didn’t care much for their capital or surrounding environment. In the next beta weekend, I would probably play them more given the little time I have so I’ll give a more expansive account of my experience with them.

Those were the only three capitals available in the beta so far, the rest are still under construction and hopefully will be included in the next beta weekend.

The Lion's Arch

Lion’s Arch, once the centre piece of civilisation for the Kryta region, now sits under water, ruined by the calamity of Orr. Huge waves of ocean water swallowed the city in mere seconds and a flood of undead attacked the survivors that survived the initial flood. Not much else is known afterwards, but the results are plain to see in the New Lion’s Arch.

"Taking a trip down into the depths leaves you with an impression of a deep sea diver's paradise, this place is beautiful"

Much like a re-imagination of a Water-Village (a village built above water or near a coast with stilts as supports) but instead of just wooden huts, the city is littered with ships that have been marooned and converted to bridges, houses or shops. It has a strange vibe about it, much like a holiday resort. The city is developed around a cove, which leads to a larger Ocean where Old Lion’s Arch once was. Underwater, the wildlife has taken over as the city’s new tenants, with corals growing from the ocean floor, vast forest of seaweed becoming the natural walls which stop anything dangerous from entering into the cove. Taking a trip down into the depths leaves you with an impression of a deep sea diver's paradise, this place is beautiful.

Upon entering the portal gate into Lion’s Arch, you're greeted with its own theme and style, soldiers who wear armour that look like security guards at a theme park (grey and dull looking colours), to blend into the background as they watch you go about this fantasy based resort. Furthermore, each little NPC has their own conversations with the locals, either they themselves are looking for ‘points of interest’ or just happen to stumble into Lion’s Arch for the first time and want information on local delights.

The real star of Lion’s Arch is of course the environment, having both an underwater environment, where whales (yes, a freaking whale can be spotted in the cove), salmon and even jellyfish swim without danger. Above ground, you may find people talking about their day, doing some fishing or hear conversations between guards discussing how their jobs could be better. Upon further exploration, an assortment of taverns can be found scattered across the entire city, with merchants shouting out the deals on their wares at you(mostly about selling alcohol).

It’s hard to imagine that this town was once a tiny hub for a lot of Guild Wars players, now turned into a massive city. What’s even stranger is that sense of being in a resort, where everyone is there to relax, meet new people and do some deep sea fishing (that would be an awesome mini-game). The design and outlook of Lion's Arch seems very promising, with so much to see and do, it would most likely turn into a second home for most players. I for one am looking forward to it's final version of Lion's Arch.

   Underwater battles are beautiful as they are dangerous.

These three places are the main highlights of the recent beta, I could also talk about other environments just outside of the capitals, however I’m pretty sure they are all subject to change, therefore I won’t comment on them at least until the full release of the game.

My Personal story

Moving on from the world itself to my personal character, it has been marketed by ArenaNet that your character has his/her own personal story that differs from player to player. From the looks, to the back story to your friends and even your own district(if you're human) all custom built to make you feel as though your presence and input into every little detail counts.

To some degree I believe ArenaNet has nailed that down pretty well, the beta however does a really bad job at showing that off.

I’m sure a lot of fans/players will wonder why claim it does a bad job presenting this. For one thing during beta, I and ten others all decided on not telling each other what our back stories were and why we were doing the things we did. As anyone who has gotten friends involved in the weekend beta, we all took our time to see if our stories differed from one another in some way. For instance, I played an engineer/human who grew up in the streets and has close ties with one of the gods (I believe its’ Korma, can’t really remember), I didn’t care to look for my parents who I didn’t know.

Sounds pretty unique, I’m very sure no one would have had the same back story as I did. So I decided to proceed with that and made my character called ‘Vertigo’ (no last name cause I didn’t realise you had to write it all in the little contract at the very end). Enter the new world of Tyria, with a back story of Oliver Twist and defending Divinity’s reach with my bag of tools. So far everything’s very linear, with the goal of defeating this evil demon gate(which is oddly reminiscent of a Rift gate from ‘Rift’) and a few cutscenes later, you're teleported to a house filled with sixty more people who went through the same ‘phase’. So far I’m not feeling very unique, rather just part of the world of other individuals who also I’m sure feel as though they aren’t unique. Two hours later my first friend comes online and went through the same incident and also we decided to meet up.

Our first thoughts were to check out if we could see each other’s personal stories, therefore find out how different we were from one another. So since I was the first, we decided to do mine before his.

So begins my story, the Captain(Thackery) has taken a liking to me and therefore has said that he may have work for me in the future. Feeling a little lonely I decided to pay a close childhood friend a visit in my personal district, turns out that my friend is actually an activist who recently took part in a scheme to cause havoc within the city walls(Terrorism anyone?). I continued on with this storyline with my friend in tow, and we both felt that it’s pretty interesting so far.

So about another two hours later(yeah it was 4.00 am in the morning at this point, I remember I didn’t sleep much that weekend), we decided to try out his story. Mind you that we didn't talk about our back stories during this entire two hours but rather just imagined ‘what-if’ scenarios. For example; What if I decided to let my friend die rather than letting him live, What if I decided to help those I grew up with rather than help the Seraph. There were so few situations where choices become integral, before you know it certain choices could shape your world into something you never even imagine.

Back to my friend, his name was Reetz (yes, it was my brother, who else would be playing at this time), he played a female guardian who was raised in nobility and had been blessed by Dwayna. He also said that his character’s plot revolves around not knowing who her parents were as well. So far we realised that we had little difference there. For the first hour of mucking about with his character, I felt there was a lot of difference in our stories. His character being the nobility class and mine being a street urchin. His character lived in the social class and therefore has to abide to certain rules the nobility has in place, while I just didn’t give a damn. Later on we realised that regardless, our back stories were different, there were a few instances where the game would repeat events(probably key scenarios to the main GW2 plot) but from a different view point.

Something that I found to be very different from other MMORPGs in the market today, where you actually have different characters intertwined, that makes me feel as though I am part of something bigger and have some impact on the world. I’m not just somebody who is forced to part-take in a pre-scripted scenario(it was scripted but has a lot more variety in how the scripts work in tandem with all of the players starting choice). However, I'm where I was because of my own 'circumstances' or 'choices' I made which led to this 'conclusion'. That's what I call 'Personal' story writing. Not a linear plot of words, but rather having choices that would eventually clash with others.

"I’m not just somebody who is forced to part-take in a pre-scripted scenario."

Unfortunately, the game doesn’t do all that, the reason being it's still a beta. It's very much unpolished, I feel as though there's little to no choice. Often, it leads to having the same result, regardless of what I do. For example; in one instance I had to convince a friend to not join a rebellion, where I would persuade her, or beat the crap outta her, either way I ended up with the same outcome. In a twisted outcome, why not allow me to fail during my persuasion choice, whereby my friend still decides to join a rebellion and end-up dead. I'm very sure that would have been more personal rather than just having the same outcome over and over.

Regardless of trying to diversify yourself from others, there are still times when others will play the same plot path that you have chosen. They will also have similar backgrounds and even a similar class. Again it's just a beta therefore I believe that there's a lot of work to be done to fully utilise the ‘Personal story’ aspect of Guild Wars 2.

Hopefully ArenaNet is heading in this direction with intertwining storytelling that would cause me to imagine my own personal experiences within Tyria that differed from my close friends.

My Legacy

I'd like to state that I am a long time Guild Wars player, I bought the game a year after it was released and have spent six years playing it on a casual basis, much like how certain people would devote themselves to playing World of Warcraft. I devoted my time playing Guild Wars(at least during the years of 2008-2009) mainly for its awesome PvP and raiding with my Guild mates. When Eye of the North was released, I quickly saw that as an opportunity to further develop my character so I can continue my own story in Guild wars 2.

Guild Wars was lots of fun. But it wasn't really an MMO. Lots of instances.
NOTE: Screenshot from Guild Wars

As you can see, those like me would have a sentimental value in their character would find that if they are to move to Guild Wars 2, they would want to have some kind of legacy of all their exploits. The solution to this is ArenaNet’s legacy point system, it's a simple system introduced after the release of Eye of the North Expansion.

It involves earning points through achievements in your Hall of Fame, whereby you would unlock exclusive items that your account would exclusively have. It was a simple quick fix solution to a big problem. I'm rather sceptical if that really is what I want as a long time player of Guild Wars 2.

"It involves earning points through achievements in your Hall of Fame, whereby you would unlock exclusive items that your account would exclusively have."

Let's re-examine the character creation system once again, ignoring the customisation features such as gender, class and facial features, but look deeper into the overall choices provided. For this discussion I’ll just pick on the human race, due to the fact that my previous character was a human (by default). The choices range from your social class, your behaviour during cutscenes, your plot line, and your own god. So far this sounds very intriguing, and does offer a little customisation as we saw in the previous write up.

I found this to be extremely limiting. I’m sure some of you guys do as well. In Guild Wars, I created eight different characters, each one had their own personal story(regardless whether it was just part of a big campaign). I however had one particular class I loved to play which was my Canthan born Assassin named Leo Swiftblade(a cheesy name, I know). I always felt as though this character would be my canon character for my personal story in Guild Wars 2. How I ended up in Tyria and why did I stay in that place over Cantha; how my family survived the calamity that befell Lion’s Arch; how they survived through the 250 years before Guild Wars 2. That would have been a great way to continue my legacy from Guild Wars to Guild Wars 2, rather than just receiving some items.

I can easily come up with an entire back story, which at least isn’t as streamlined as those given to me in the beta, but again, not everything is set in stone. Hopefully ArenaNet diversifies their choices of backgrounds and make it so that everyone has a unique back story that would also suit their legacy from Guild Wars.

A world of fighting and carnage

I won’t spend too much time discussing the PvP for Guild Wars 2 as for now it pretty much speaks for itself.

"In World vs World, a huge battlefield designed for up to thousands of players, where anything from Castle seiges to outright army skirmishes involving hundreds of players, can take place across four different world maps"

Without a doubt a game called 'Guild War' is heavily based around PvP, and I can easily say those who are long time fans of Guild Wars, already know what to expect when it comes to PvP. But for those who aren't familiar with the previous game, it's basically a game heavily based on PvP, there's no doubt there's still a lot of PvE content, but in essence the game is a glorified PvP centred game. In World vs World, a huge (I mean HUGE!!!) battlefield designed for up to thousands of players, where anything from Castle seiges to outright army skirmishes involving hundreds of players, can take place across four different world maps. If you feel as though scale isn't your thing, there are 8v8 matches that have you facing other players in small skirmishes for ranking and fame.

World vs World, you may find yourself spending all your time in here.

An MMORPG

In its current offerings, Guild Wars 2 is still without a doubt an improvement from Guild Wars, taking into account of their experiences having learnt from providing seven years of service to their loyal player base. The new game does provide a fresh breath of new experiences, which isn't anywhere near completion sadly, but it seems very likely that Guild Wars 2 will prove to be a strong competitor in the MMORPG genre in the future.