Category Archives: Guild Wars

GW2: Colin Johanson understands raiding

Posted on September 17, 2012 by SynCaine

Our own internal testing teams and alpha test groups learned to beat them using a combination of player skill, synchronous builds, strong use of cross-profession combos, use of cooking/consumable buffs (these make a huge difference!) and well formed player tactics. … Continue reading →

Posted in Guild Wars, MMO design, Rant | 7 Comments

GW2: Dead on the inside

Posted on September 14, 2012 by SynCaine

Everything just kinda plays/unlocks itself. – kalex716 I think this describes why GW2 feels like an enjoyably meh experience to me right now. I like each piece of content, to varying degrees, but as soon as I close GW2 the … Continue reading →

Posted in Guild Wars, MMO design, Rant | 40 Comments

The MMO genre is a niche space, entry 25603

Posted on September 14, 2012 by SynCaine

“TSW was not buggier than, say, GW2. Nor did it lack things to do.” – tithian “Personally I found TSW to be sub-par in both combat and graphics, and far inferior to GW2 in game flow. In the beta the … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, Guild Wars, MMO design, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 11 Comments

GW2: To scale or not to scale

Posted on September 13, 2012 by SynCaine

GW2 scaling in many ways makes the whole leveling process somewhat silly. You return to where you started but the local bandits are still just as tough as their far more senior members in later zones. No matter how legendary … Continue reading →

Posted in Guild Wars, Rant | 33 Comments

GW2: An ‘explorers’ dream

Posted on September 11, 2012 by SynCaine

Short musing for today: The ‘explorers’ who love GW2 for rewarding ‘exploring’ when they ‘find’ all of the points of interest and such in a zone and getting the “you got it all” chest. That’s not being an explorer. That’s … Continue reading →

Posted in crafting, Guild Wars, Rant | 37 Comments

GW2: Review at the midpoint

Posted on September 5, 2012 by SynCaine

I hit level 41 last night on my Human Elementalist. In that time I’ve completed (all items checked) three zones, done all storyline quests up to my level, have two crafting skills to 130ish, ran the first instance in Story … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, Guild Wars, Inquisition Clan, MMO design, PvP, RvR, Warhammer Online | 21 Comments

GW2: Exploration content done right

Posted on September 4, 2012 by SynCaine

The exploration achievement content has been the highlight of GW2 for me so far. For those who might not be aware, every zone (I believe) has one achievement that is accomplished by finding a ‘hidden’ location. This location is not … Continue reading →

Posted in Guild Wars, MMO design | 17 Comments

GW2: Anet hard at work fixing overpopulation

Posted on August 31, 2012 by SynCaine

Anet’s handling of the karma weapon bug they introduced is a joke. Keen has a post up about it, and in the comments you will find Anet’s stepping-back statement. First, the ban makes zero sense. So anyone who ‘used’ the … Continue reading →

Posted in Guild Wars, Rant | 33 Comments

GW2: Dead Centaurs

Posted on August 30, 2012 by SynCaine

One of the nice things about being in the initial wave of WAR players was seeing all of the PQs played out more or less as intended. Only the newbie zone PQs were heavily zerged, and even then at least … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Guild Wars, MMO design, Rant, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online | 35 Comments

GW2: Scalefail

Posted on August 29, 2012 by SynCaine

Anet is selling that once you hit 80, you can still go back to all areas of the game and enjoy the content as intended because you scale down to it. I’m not buying that. For starters you have more … Continue reading →

Posted in Guild Wars, MMO design | 25 Comments