The big, over world will be persistent ...

... but when you go into missions and dungeons it will be instanced.

That is a recent quote from Anet about GW2. I was wondering how this is going to work, and what exactly it could mean. GW1 kinda works like this already, so what ideas do you think they have in store?

One thing I've though of is maybe you'll now have to travel from place to place, rather than map travel (mounts maybe?). Then once you arrive you jump into an instanced game. This is the only way I can think it can differ from GW1.

Any other ideas?

hm sounds good actually...so basically one big ass town with a few monsters/quest/events spotted about

but some good ol dungons to crawl anf (hopefuly) far....I lke farming, no so much the cash but the more casual gamplay

I think that's about it. If you were at Lion's Arch and had to get to the temple of ages, you would walk right out the front door (without zoning) and start fighting your way there.

Along the way, you'll likely bump into other folks doing their thing, and may even hook up with others making the same trip.

What I'm looking foward to is getting word on the forums / general chat that LA has come under attack by a massive horde of undead and then rushing in to join the fight already in progress. Fun stuff.

Even more fun is you zone in to "World Zone 3" and see that Lion's Arch is a wreck because folks in that zone messed up and let the town get sacked.

I gotta say, one of the things I loved about WoW (and there wasn't many) was travelling from one area to another on the back of a bird and seeing the world "living" below you as you went along. If this statement would mean something like this then I can't wait.

LOL! That sounds brilliant. Do it Anet, do iiiiit! (oh and give this lad a job, he knows whats we wants).

A nice little half-and-half. Sounds like it'll get the best of both worlds.

And world events, like King's Spectre has pointed it, would be sooooooooo fun.

I'm just wondering how they're gonna handle that kind of world where you can still find mobs to kill and bosses without having some other groups slaughter everything and leaving just an empty world for you. Some kind of respawn maybe, but will it go to a point where there are a huge number of players all fighting for a small number of mobs?

The "living world" concept does seem promising, though, and I'm keen to see what they will come up with.

All Aboard The Mob Train!chugga Chugga Chugga Chugga Chooo Chooooooo

ya, i'd like to be able to randomly meet up with ppl in dangerous areas, but i don't really want them killing off everything before i get there. so far i don't see any way that boss spawn camping could be countered.

Well, it all depends on how the implement this. If the Dragon flies over the bridge at the same time, every day, then yeah, people will camp. If it's a Random event, people are less likely to just wait around.

In any case, having Monsters spawn continuously in persistant areas would certainly beat having to re-zone for farming.

No bosses in open non-instanced areas would solve that problem.

It would also solve that "too many greens issue" raise in another thread if there were only one or two bosses in each section of an instanced area.

Does that mean no more map teleporting?

Gaile has already came about how unfun monster camping is and it won't be the case. I suspect elite mob / cap sig is similar or "green drops" they will be located in instanced zones.

I never played WoW, but when I saw my friend play it he ended up taking a griffon I think they're called and it was definatly a cool thing to see.

Probably

Also, the world events idea is great, I would like to see that implemented in GW2 and I'm really looking forward to a persistant world too. The only thing I could see being a problem is how groups would be handled. Right now, the monster mobs function in their own groups as well and players are encouraged to group as well (not counting the soloers). I wonder how Anet will handle this in GW2. If they go the more traditional route, the monsters will all be one profession and very easy to solo. If Anet sticks true to the group aspect of the game, perhaps there could be an exp penalty or drop penalty for killing a mob without a group or without a group member close by.

It currently doesn't work like this at all. A persistent world map means, walk outside and there are actually other parties, and you can see them!

I don't see why they'd have to remove that.

IMO, Persistant areas should be optional, not mandatory, for you to visit.

To all the folks posting about how the world events would be a great idea, and "ANet Please do this!!":

ANet has already said that there will be things like this... I haven't got the PC Gamer yet but i've seen it quoted where they talked specifically about things like this...

There are differant ways that this can be accomplished.
Have the whole world persistant Which would mean no zones except for missions(which would be instanced). Problem with this. Lots and Lots of lag issues.
Have zones.(which we have now in GW) This would cut down on the lag quite a bit. Also would allow Town porting. Only problems would be the same we have now in GW each time we zone.
Have zones but have towns in the same explorable zone. This would allow mobs to attack towns and let players defend those towns. Problem would be more lag.
There are more I am sure but I wanted to get to the ones most likely would be implimented. Concerning lag issues about the above. One thing that could minimize lag would to create Districts. Very simular to what we have now. But of course none of us will know for sure what Anet will do. As long as it is done right Anet will be sitting pretty with a very large player base. I think Anet will do well with GW2.

Word. I liked Morrowind for this because you had multiple options of fast travel and you could always walk. Although it was tedious at times.

My guess is that the persistent zones will be a lot like really stretched-out towns, except that you'll be able to carry your weapons and use your skills, and there will be things to use skills on.