Curse

Badger · May 26, 2005, 09:44 AM // 09:44

Hi all

I’ve been playing GW now for just under a week and have posted a couple of questions in the Q&A forum, but not yet poked my stripey nose into general discussion.

I’d like to say in advance that while this particular thread has kind of a negative theme, I am very much enjoying the game itself and don’t regret my decision to invest in the retail release.

I’ve played various MMORPG’s over the years and have developed a good idea of what to expect when first dipping my paws into the water. So it was that I knew in advance to expect the high numbers of kiddies and “l33t” hordes attracted by the zero monthly fee, and good luck to em I say. After all “no monthly charges” is the very aspect which caught my attention as well. (Finances are tight just now.)

So I’m not going to say I’m surprised by some of the swearing matches and general rudeness which I’ve noticed going on around me in the past four days. It’s a shame, but it’s the nature of the beast and it’s to be ignored because GW hopefully has better things to offer around the corner.

But what I would ask is where is the more mature player? (Not talking about age here) Where are the players who want to enjoy GW as a social as well as hack n slash experience?

Yesterday I needed directions to “Foibles Party” (is that right?) as I had been given a quest whose first objective was there, but no directional arrow had appeared on my scanner. Having no idea even which direction to strike out in, I asked the question in the chat window and received no reply.

I waited a while and asked again, still no reply. After a while I decided to start jumping between the different shards/servers (I know they’re not called that but the name escapes me.) in the hopes of finding one with a friendlier crowd. Eventually I got an answer, but it took about five jumps.

During these jumps I found myself helping about three different people with their twenty second “join a party” quest and coming to the rescue of a couple of new players even fresher to the game than I was who were stuck as to how to begin. But any hope of reciprocation by the world as a whole was soon dashed on the rocks of stony silence.

That’s perhaps a little unfair as there were some people communicating. Now and again I would see people asking for volunteers to join them on one mission or another. But attempts by me to ask these people about the missions or what level party members they were looking form were largely ignored.

When I eventually did join up with one of these folk, I almost wished I hadn’t. When he said he needed someone to join him I assumed that it was because the difficulty level of the mission precluded doing it alone and he needed the extra support. (Isn’t it bad that by this point I had stopped assuming that it might be a social thing.) But in retrospect I suspect that he literally needed another party member in order to access the mission at all! Because once we got in there I can only describe what followed as the gaming equivalent to a “McDonalds drive thru.”

It was pretty obvious that this chap was looking purely at the directional arrow in his scanner and paying little attention to what was going on around him or where I was. He was focussed solely on his mission (finding a missing ranger) and pursued this goal to the exclusion of all else.

Beautiful scenery went unnoticed, strange as yet unseen (at least by me) creatures were gone in a flash as we hurtled by en-route to our goal. Unless they got in our path, in which case they were despatched unceremoniously before quickly moving on.

All this was accomplished largely in silence and attempts at communication by me were for the most part greeted by single words or grunts. My presence having opened the mission doors, it seemed I was to be seen but not heard from this point on.

If the whole mission from inception to reward took more than four minutes I’ll be surprised. Like a trip to a safari park, videoed and then played back at 4x normal speed. Lots of animals, lots of noise, but zero atmosphere and zero emotional involvement.

I did have to smile later though when before signing off I was approached by a gentleman who wanted me to join a guild. Pleased at the prospect of any interaction by this point I was happy to listen, but the conversation went something like;

Clawman: (not real name) “Join my guild.”
Grey Badger: “Right… Hello?”
Clawman: “?”
Grey Badger: “Hello

How are you?”
Clawman: “Hello join my guild.”

It seemed that introductions were not on today’s menu. Ah well.

Grey Badger: “I don’t want to join your guild thankyou.”
Clawman: “Y”
Grey Badger: “Sorry, do you mean yes? Or why?”
Clawman: “Why”
Grey Badger: “Well I don’t know you. Why would I want to join your guild?”
Clawman: “U can du stuff.”
Grey Badger: “We can do stuff if you like. Do you mean you want me to join your party?”
Clawman: “ Not party, guild.”
Grey Badger: “ Ah I see. Well no thankyou, but thankyou for the invite.”
Clawman: “ Please.”

Uh-oh… that’s a little embarrassing.

Grey Badger: “No thanks anyway. Bye for now.”

<Badger makes good his escape.>

So sadly then not the best of first impressions of Guild Wars. But I have high hopes for the game as I find my way around a little better and hopefully scratch below its surface. I love the visuals and the different creatures are all nicely realised. I particularly enjoyed now that I am L7, returning for revenge on a certain River Drake who treated me badly at L2. Not so ****y now eh Lizard breath! Not now that I can pelt you from a distance with magic arrows at the same time as setting my big cat “Claude” onto your sorry hide!

I just hope that as time goes by I’ll meet people who want to take the time to enjoy the game as well as the opportunity of meeting the diverse player base. Also I hope that I can find more people who speak English, as my French & German is nowhere near strong enough to quest with a non English speaking party and I would say 60% of what I am seeing in the chat window when I log in is (to me) foreign.

All the best

Badger

cyberzomby · May 26, 2005, 10:07 AM // 10:07

It realy depends who are on. I find 2 that communication varys a lot from party to party. Wich is a shame. My first party was like ures 2. I was saying a lot but he wasnt very chatterlike. I think that once you joined a guild, and you get a long with those people you can do partys with them, they chatt back, because you got somethign in common. ( i think thats one of the reasons ) Im a little bit dissapointed about euro servers 2. Germans looking for Germans, If someone asks what country, you bet its a german. French people talking french 2. If they just talked english we could help each other a lot better. Later on when u get tougher missions, it pays of to mind what party members u invite and how well u work together. So wait a bit till u get further in the game

Badger · May 26, 2005, 10:27 AM // 10:27

Thanks cyberzomby

I'm definately impressed enough with the game itself to give it plenty of time to warm up.

Badger

Zeppelin · May 26, 2005, 10:30 AM // 10:30

It's difficult to find like-minded players most of the time. There are alot of reasons for the lack of community feeling, especially early in the game. At that point, the majority of players may not even know the answer to a given question. Then you have the people that are all about rushing and grinding it out, and would be wasting their time to talk to anyone, unless it benefits their path for success in some fashion. Some of these people are going through pre-searing for the second or third time and are rushing just to get past that part, and some are new and the only thing they look forward to is more power.

A factor in this I suppose, is the length of quests. Sometimes it may take an hour or so to complete a quest. Some people may be limited to the point that they have to hurry through the mission, then there are others who wouldn't want to invest that much time in a quest, especially if it's solely another person's quest. In other words, if they agree to go questing with someone, they could be making a big time investment just to help someone else and not really gain the power satisfaction they're seeking.

You'll have the moments you're seeking, but in the early part of the game people are still figuring things out, trying to rush to the next part, and overall not as knowledgeable about the game. Also, as I said, the questing in pre-searing is almost designed for single-player, unless a kind soul decides they would like to help someone out with quests that wouldn't benefit them much personally.

Mainly, though, you'll just need to find a like-minded guild in which you can make some friends. If you're talking to guildies on a regular basis, there's alot more probability that you'll enjoy exploring together, more than with a stranger. It's alot easier to communicate with a friend than a stranger I guess. :P

Another factor in the helping/talking in towns may be that some of the more experienced players could have the All Chat turned off. I know that I turn mine off alot if I'm trying to have a conversation with friends or guildies. I try to keep it on to help people and just to conversate, but sometimes the All Chat spam makes having a conversation with friends difficult.

The community could be better, but you'll definitely find like-minded people if you continue on. There are alot of people out there that play the game for fun and social interaction, you'll just have to find them in the midst of everyone needing to finish their quest.

Badger · May 26, 2005, 10:35 AM // 10:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeppelin

Another factor in the helping/talking in towns may be that some of the more experienced players could have the All Chat turned off. I know that I turn mine off alot if I'm trying to have a conversation with friends or guildies. I try to keep it on to help people and just to conversate, but sometimes the All Chat spam makes having a conversation with friends difficult.

Thanks Zeppelin. Very good point and one I must admit had not occurred to me.

Badger

Gortz · May 26, 2005, 10:50 AM // 10:50

Im one of them, the friendly crew
/raises hand

see IGn on left if got a question i may know it put me on buddies list and drop me a whisper, might not know but willing to help

Zeppelin · May 26, 2005, 10:51 AM // 10:51

Thanks. I'm hoping they make some advancements to the guild/friend chat so this wouldn't be as much of an issue. Without any audio cues for PM's or guild chat, it's quite easy to miss a friend's message if you have all the chat tabs active, unless you regularly scroll up through dozens of messages to check, or keep an ever constant eye on the chat screen. Not a huge issue I guess, but sometimes turning off trade and all channels makes it much easier to keep track of your conversations, which in turn tunes out the rest of the world. :P

Gortz · May 26, 2005, 10:57 AM // 10:57

Tbh this game does seemed to ruled by "l33t" kiddies needing to win at all costs, to point they twink and go back and beat up low lvl toons in the asc arena.

V v v sad.

My impression of all chat i see every day:-

enter town

Joe bloggs taunts you
Geoff taunts you
"need monk for bonus"
"need 2 more for mission"
/whisper leader "hi im w/e need to do mission and bonus if want me?"
Fred taunts you
"parlez zous le francais?"
"ich mission complete"
/whisper leader of another "hi any room for me?"
lots of french and german talk some of which can dicpher about wanting german or french only players
Lots more random taunting (why? i never understood that)
"need 2 more for mission"
/whisper leader "hi im still here if want me rdy to go"
leader starts dancing

and repeat...

Community pftt!

so badger and all others on boards here uk or english speaking want proper people to help each other out and have some fun on way, put my name in buddies and whisper i will reply.
I lvl 12 at yaks bend if any help to anyone

Badger · May 26, 2005, 11:08 AM // 11:08

Will do Gortz.

Badger

Mr. Matt · May 26, 2005, 11:10 AM // 11:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Badger

-Snip-

My thoughts exactly! Too many people are dead-set on advancing through this game as fast as they can, without taking any notice of the things around them. I was almost guilty of this myself, but after reaching post-searing Ascalon I noticed just how much stuff they 'hide' in this game, and so created a new character to explore in Beginnersville. Getting drunk in Regent's Valley might not give you any experience points, useful items or money, but it's fun

.

You have to remember that this game is still pretty new. I think if it is given time to filter out a lot of the bad elements (i.e. those people who are burning their way through the game without stopping to look around and enjoy life, those who will likely get bored and leave after a while), we may be left with an environment which is a lot better. Wishful thinking on my part, perhaps. I've never played an MMORPG before, so even that example of a conversation you gave is better than what I'm used to.

One thing I don't understand about this game, and others like it, is why it's called an 'RPG'. Surely a 'role play game' would involve putting yourself in the shoes of your character, if only to some small degree? How many people do you think would be going around saying 'plz join my guild' and other such things in Tyria if it were a real place? Seems like a hollow, rather arbitrary name for the genre if you ask me -- I only feel like I'm actually in the environment when I'm playing on my own, away from all the stupid comments which detract from the atmosphere. Which basically voids its use as a 'Massive Multiplayer' game anyway.

By the way, if you're still looking for Foible and you see a character called 'Rick Barbarus' later on, don't hesitate to ask. He's the guy I keep in pre-Searing Ascalon for the purposes of exploring and helping people out with stuff.

super dooper · May 26, 2005, 11:19 AM // 11:19

There's a good community hiding around from what I've seen, you just have to do some looking. If you ever need help with anything, anyone, my game name is Soup Of Leet, and despite the name, I'm not too bad of a guy.

Sometimes I go back and sit in Ascalon or Yak's Bend waiting for someone to say they need help, because I seldom see people get help when they request it.

Schorny · May 26, 2005, 11:53 AM // 11:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gortz

I lvl 12 at yaks bend if any help to anyone

And that's where it starts to get much better.
At least, I feel like that

I joined a few very nice groups in yak's bend. OK, i'm just there for 2 days now, so i'm pretty new - but I realy feel that the more you advance ingame the more advanced people you meet.

But in towns there is mostly just nonsense

I answer most questions that appear in towns, and that is (I think) the best way to make 'ascalon' a better place

Just be nice to everyone and ignore all the nonsense talk.

Gortz · May 26, 2005, 12:21 PM // 12:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Matt

My thoughts exactly! Too many people are dead-set on advancing through this game as fast as they can, without taking any notice of the things around them. I was almost guilty of this myself, but after reaching post-searing Ascalon I noticed just how much stuff they 'hide' in this game, and so created a new character to explore in Beginnersville. Getting drunk in Regent's Valley might not give you any experience points, useful items or money, but it's fun

.

You have to remember that this game is still pretty new. I think if it is given time to filter out a lot of the bad elements (i.e. those people who are burning their way through the game without stopping to look around and enjoy life, those who will likely get bored and leave after a while), we may be left with an environment which is a lot better. Wishful thinking on my part, perhaps. I've never played an MMORPG before, so even that example of a conversation you gave is better than what I'm used to.

One thing I don't understand about this game, and others like it, is why it's called an 'RPG'. Surely a 'role play game' would involve putting yourself in the shoes of your character, if only to some small degree? How many people do you think would be going around saying 'plz join my guild' and other such things in Tyria if it were a real place? Seems like a hollow, rather arbitrary name for the genre if you ask me -- I only feel like I'm actually in the environment when I'm playing on my own, away from all the stupid comments which detract from the atmosphere. Which basically voids its use as a 'Massive Multiplayer' game anyway.

By the way, if you're still looking for Foible and you see a character called 'Rick Barbarus' later on, don't hesitate to ask. He's the guy I keep in pre-Searing Ascalon for the purposes of exploring and helping people out with stuff.

Im afraid the bad element doesnt leave as they get so uber if they change they lose all the "respect" *cough*. True of most MMORPGs.

But for yourself sounds like would benefit from a RP district (isnt one im afraid) im in the middle somewhere as mood takes - not a hardcore rp but i do get into character every now and then

But damn good idea to help guys out i did it in EQ2 - did a troll and called him Grottie and used to hold grottie's tours shwoing people where to go or how not to get beaten silly as most requests from new guys got replies like "nooooob" and "lamer".

So yes good idea to have a helper and maybe even do a tag for helper players?