What is the point to the game, exactly? - Page 2 - Guild Wars Forums

egervari · Sep 06, 2010, 02:35 AM // 02:35

Well, in WoW, there was at least a driving persuit to get gold, sell items on the AH, etc. to eventually get a mount, and then a flying mount, and so on.

When it comes to raids, the dungeons had some great loot, and getting that special item for your character was a pretty nice incentive.

Sure, it's rinse-and-repeat, but it's a pretty good formula and it's tried and true.

Take a look at a lot of single player games. Final fantasy has lots of ways to develop characters, lots of gear and spells to unlock. But once you've done it all... is there really a driving incentive to actually beat the game? Not really. There's actually not much reword for doing it, other than saying, "Yep, I beat it."

I find the enjoyment happens because of the journey, not so much to do with the end.

I see two solutions. One, you make the world smaller and more focused to the strengths of the game. That'd actually make it better.

Two, you have pvp armor vs. pve armor. Make the pvp armor work the way it already does, but scale the pve armor with the challenges/missions to be done in pve.

Both approaches would work. One is more focused and probably does the strengths of the game more justice. The other would probably give a more enjoyable pve experience for a greater number of players.

ruk1a · Sep 06, 2010, 03:26 AM // 03:26

i would say the point to guild wars is pvp with the option of pve.

Arsalan · Sep 06, 2010, 04:06 AM // 04:06

Get lost. No, really. Get lost in the huge world

If you want to focus on PvE and want to see why the world is so huge, explore the areas. Sooner or later, when you progress from Ascalon's ruins to the Shiverpeaks and further on, you will be amazed at the world and love the storyline. For now, keep doing the main missions and primary quests. They should take you through the world and youll see why it;s so huge: a considerable part of the map is used by missions. After that, you might want to explore the lore a bit more. Return to Ascalon, nolani and other areas, and explore the lore. Then continue the storyline in Factions and Nightfall and it will all come together.

Sirds · Sep 06, 2010, 10:50 AM // 10:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by egervari

... what is the point? What are the goals? What is there to look forward to and enjoy?

In short for PvE:

1) go through storyline,
2) make obsidian armor,
3) Vanquish continent (aka kill all enemies),
4) show your achievements in Hall of Monuments.

Godefridus · Sep 06, 2010, 01:55 PM // 13:55

Basically, up till lvl.20 is tutorial time

As for targets once you hit lvl.20.... first and most obvious target in PvE is to "complete" the game, meaning going through the storyline. There are several missions and main quests that take you through the storyline (yes indeed, there is a storyline behind what you experience in pve). Each mission, overall, increasing in difficulty and bringing variation in required strategy, challenging you to rethink what you are doing. More and more skills become available throughout the storyline enabling you to choose from a wider variation of skills, some skills you can (l)earn with side quests, others you can learn from skill trainers against a fee.

The world, especially in prophecies, is so vast so that you can wander off and go experience some other adventures if you don't feel like progressing through the main storyline. The great thing about prophecies is that you do not neccessarily need to go through the storyine in a linear fashion. But that also has the downside that you might skip part of the main story line without knowing and find yourself wondering why the heck the story made such a jump. That's probably why they later limited access to outposts in Factions and Nightfall depending on your proces in the main storyline. As you progress you gain access to higher level armor and weapons. Also later on you can change your secondary profession to have access to an even wider range of skills.

Once you have completed a chapter ("the storyline") then you have gear and titles to earn and some more difficult areas to beat. Now in GW max level armor and weapons can be gained quite early in the game. But here it is important to understand that "max" in GW means that it provides the maximum possible protection (for armor) or damage (for weapons). There are armors and weapons in GW that are much more expensive or rare than the "basic" max armor and weapons, but these do not give you more benefit over the basic variants. These are purely for the looks and give you an opportunity to show off how l33t you (think you) are. But that's only about the looks. Depending on your taste it could very well be that you find one of the basic armors much cooler than any of the "elite" armors.

Quote:

When it comes to raids, the dungeons had some great loot, and getting that special item for your character was a pretty nice incentive.

In GW there too are "elite" areas, dungeons, etc. where special items may drop for you as end reward. These can be sold for high amounts in one of the cities (where Kamadan is the main trading city). Though GW does not have something like an AH, so you'd have to do the selling yourself ingame (or via an external site like this).

Quote:

But once you've done it all...

Well, when have you done all? When you reach max level? when you have maxed all titles? when you have got all the elite armors? Everyone has it's own definition of "all", nor does it say anything about if there is still anything left for you to do. I personally have not "done it all", I have not completed each and every quest yet and suck at pvp, yet I do have the title God Walking Among Mere Mortals (max level of the title indicating how many other titles you have maxed).

Quote:

One, you make the world smaller and more focused to the strengths of the game. That'd actually make it better.

Depending on who you ask, some might say you only need the pvp arena's then

. For PvE you'd only weaken the game by making it smaller cause there would be less room to "just wander around". Practically you'd turn it into a mission only game.... if that is what you want, then you're probably better of playing an FPS.... or some of the PvP formats, and forget about PvE.

Quote:

....scale the pve armor with the challenges/missions to be done in pve.

Starter army is of a lower level than the armor later on, so in that regard it is already scaled. Later on you will not get even higher lvl.armor, but you'll have to solve it more creatively with your skill build.

Oh, and with regard to the question in your topic:

Quote:

What is the point to the game, exactly?

I don't think that there is an "exact" point to the game that is valid for each and everyone of us out there. One plays it for pvp, the other for doing "raids" together with others, another for the titles, another for exploring the GW world, etcetera, etcetera.....

Sep 06, 2010, 02:35 AM // 02:35	#21
egervari Academy Page Join Date: Jul 2006	Well, in WoW, there was at least a driving persuit to get gold, sell items on the AH, etc. to eventually get a mount, and then a flying mount, and so on. When it comes to raids, the dungeons had some great loot, and getting that special item for your character was a pretty nice incentive. Sure, it's rinse-and-repeat, but it's a pretty good formula and it's tried and true. Take a look at a lot of single player games. Final fantasy has lots of ways to develop characters, lots of gear and spells to unlock. But once you've done it all... is there really a driving incentive to actually beat the game? Not really. There's actually not much reword for doing it, other than saying, "Yep, I beat it." I find the enjoyment happens because of the journey, not so much to do with the end. I see two solutions. One, you make the world smaller and more focused to the strengths of the game. That'd actually make it better. Two, you have pvp armor vs. pve armor. Make the pvp armor work the way it already does, but scale the pve armor with the challenges/missions to be done in pve. Both approaches would work. One is more focused and probably does the strengths of the game more justice. The other would probably give a more enjoyable pve experience for a greater number of players.

Sep 06, 2010, 03:26 AM // 03:26	#22
ruk1a Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: May 2008 Location: UR MOM LOL Guild: ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES Profession: A/	i would say the point to guild wars is pvp with the option of pve.

Sep 06, 2010, 04:06 AM // 04:06	#23
Arsalan Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Dec 2006	Get lost. No, really. Get lost in the huge world If you want to focus on PvE and want to see why the world is so huge, explore the areas. Sooner or later, when you progress from Ascalon's ruins to the Shiverpeaks and further on, you will be amazed at the world and love the storyline. For now, keep doing the main missions and primary quests. They should take you through the world and youll see why it;s so huge: a considerable part of the map is used by missions. After that, you might want to explore the lore a bit more. Return to Ascalon, nolani and other areas, and explore the lore. Then continue the storyline in Factions and Nightfall and it will all come together.