Guild Wars 2 is one of the most successful western MMORPGs on the market and has done some things differently than its genre counterparts. MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch has compiled some positive and negative aspects that, in his opinion, other MMORPGs should take as examples.
Guild Wars 2 was released in 2012 and has some interesting approaches. The MMORPG relies on a scaling system, which means that even level 80 players have significantly lost strength when they are in low-level areas. Moreover, it long refrained from using a Holy Trinity and classic content like raids or an item spiral.
Some of these aspects have changed over time, while others have remained. However, new MMORPGs can learn a lot from the positive and negative aspects of Guild Wars 2. What exactly that is, I have summarized here.
What everyone should adopt from Guild Wars 2
Events in the open world
One of the biggest advantages of Guild Wars 2 is the events in the open world. There is nothing better than spontaneously landing in an event chain that dozens of players are participating in and that also has an impact on the environment.
For example, in the Harathi Hinterlands, there are a number of fortifications that players fight over with centaurs. Once all these fortifications are taken, you can fight against the centaur leader and get good loot.
Another example is the map Dragon’s Stand, which exists solely to challenge and fight the Elder Dragon Mordremoth. The map resets every 2 hours, and I fight along with other players from the north to the south of the map. At the end, the Elder Dragon himself awaits, who also puts up a significant resistance for several minutes and keeps wiping out entire groups of players.
These world events in Guild Wars 2 are special because they appear everywhere and constantly attract players. While I can also consciously dive into these events with the help of a timer, I can also accidentally get swept along by a large group of players.
With every new map, I look forward to trying out the new world events or boss fights with a huge crowd of players.
The action-packed combat system
Although Guild Wars 2 is basically based on a tab-targeting system, it is impressive what this MMORPG makes of it:
- Almost all abilities can be used while moving
- The dodge roll makes the combat much more dynamic overall
- The weapon swap system allows me to freely switch between melee and ranged attacks
- There are many abilities that involve movement (jumps, rolls to the side, teleports, etc.)
- There is no global cooldown on abilities like in SWTOR
Additionally, Guild Wars 2 features an interesting combo system. Certain abilities like fire walls or lava fountains count as a so-called “field.” Whoever uses a finisher in such a field creates an additional effect, such as a fire explosion or burning arrows when shot through.
This overall leads to Guild Wars 2 offering one of the best and smoothest combat systems of all MMORPGs. Essentially, every new game can learn something from this, just like from the fair equipment in PvP, which should never play a role in arenas.
Dyeing of armor
Guild Wars 2 is jokingly also called Fashion Wars 2 for good reason. The game offers a variety of armors, weapons, back pieces, and costumes that can change the appearance of my character. Additionally, there is a transmutation system through which I can unlock a skin once and then use it endlessly.
However, the real highlight of Fashion Wars 2 is the dyeing system. Each armor or costume has multiple color slots that can be dyed at will. Currently (as of June 25), there are 606 different colors in the game.
So anyone who loves designing their own gear will definitely find happiness in Guild Wars 2.
These mistakes from Guild Wars 2 should be avoided by other MMORPGs
The opaque update and story structure
The biggest problem for newcomers is the update and story structure. This has two significant weaknesses.
- On the one hand, certain story contents are missing in Guild Wars 2 that can never be replayed and leave a gap in the story for newcomers.
- On the other hand, players have to purchase old episodes, even though others received them for free.
What is the problem with the story? The story of Guild Wars 2 begins with the Personal Story. This revolves around the adventures between levels 1 and 80.
Next follows in the chronicle the first season of the Living World. However, this season was something very special because the events only remained in the game for 2 to 4 weeks. After that, they were removed forever. For players who were live at the time, it was an exciting experience. For latecomers and newcomers, however, about 1.5 years of story is missing. This gap has not been adequately addressed by the developers to this day.
What is the problem with updates? Anyone purchasing the latest expansion, Path of Fire, receives access to the base game and the first expansion, Heart of Thorns. However, there are always new seasons in between with several episodes of the Living World.
And players must purchase these seasons separately unless they were online live when the respective episode was released. Then they received them for free. This means that some players may own a few episodes of the seasons, but not all of them.
In plain text, someone who buys Path of Fire today has access to the following story contents:
- The story of the base game – Yes
- The story of the 1st season of the Living World – No, never
- The story of the 2nd season of the Living World – Yes, if you pay
- The story of Heart of Thorns – Yes
- The story of the 3rd season of the Living World – Yes, if you pay
- The story of Path of Fire – Yes
- The story of the 4th season of the Living World – Yes, if you pay
- The story of the 5th and current season of the Living World – Yes, if you pay, then the last episode
A pretty confusing system that no other MMORPG should ever implement.
Poor communication with players
Fans of almost every game in the world have probably complained about poor communication from the developers. But with Guild Wars 2, this has reached a whole new level for me. Time and again, one had the feeling they would finally interact with their community, only to drop everything a few days later or step into a faux pas.
The example of new addons:
- Before the release of Heart of Thorns, almost daily new information was shared for 9 months.
- At release, the developers suddenly went completely silent.
- After the release, they only hesitantly responded to community inquiries, which was struggling with numerous bugs and problems. The high expectations were also not met. There was hardly any information on new content and the future of the game.
- With the next addon, Path of Fire, there was a big announcement event, and 1.5 months later, the expansion was released. Hype and regular new information were nearly absent.
- Similarly, it seems to be unfolding now with the upcoming expansion End of Dragons.
The example of raids:
- With Heart of Thorns, Guild Wars 2 finally introduced raids.
- Over time, six more were added, but their quality and difficulty declined.
- For two years, there have been no raids at all. When asked whether a raid would ever return, developers do not respond.
The example of PvP:
- During the beta and release, there was a lot of talk about e-sports and major PvP tournaments.
- But suddenly, the topic went completely quiet.
- In 2014, two years after release, the first tournaments began with ESL. Tournaments quickly offered prize money of $50,000 or even $200,000.
- In the summer of 2016, the entire e-sports operation was virtually shut down overnight. Since then, there has been no word on it.
The example of executives: One of the craziest stories surrounding Guild Wars 2 was written by Game Director Mike Zadorojny, who took over the leadership of Guild Wars 2 in October 2019, after the previous President Mike O’Brien left the company. For the first few months, hardly anything was heard from the new boss. In March 2020, it turned out that he had already left ArenaNet in November.
Additionally, there are always scandals or bizarre stories, such as the firing of developer Jessica Price amid a sexism debate or failed advertising deals like the one with the sandwich chain Quiznos, which only exists in America and is hardly known there (via reddit).
Pure horizontal progression
This point is the most controversial on this list. One of the hallmarks of Guild Wars 2 is that it has no level cap increase and no item spiral. Anyone who acquired the maximum armor – the Ascended Armor – in 2012 is still perfectly equipped in 2021.
This aspect makes Guild Wars 2 probably the most casual and beginner-friendly MMORPG ever. However, it also leads to players quickly losing their goals.
As much as I, as a multi-MMO player, appreciate this system, I understand that players may eventually lose interest in Guild Wars 2. However, to keep people tied to a game in the long term, I find it reasonable to regularly make an adjustment that requires players to grind for new gear. However, with restrictions:
- A new item level should not be introduced too often, and not every dungeon or raid should mean an increase.
- In PvP, equipment should always be fair and not play a role. Here, skill is paramount.
What do you think about Guild Wars 2 and the points mentioned here? What, in your opinion, would the perfect MMORPG need? Feel free to write it in the comments.
Despite its flaws, Guild Wars 2 belongs to the best MMORPGs on the market. What other games we can recommend from MeinMMO can be found here: The 15 currently best MMOs and MMORPGs 2021.
