I wasn’t a fan of Guild Wars 1.  I think it was a pretty game with decent gameplay, but the fact that they instanced it all and gave you hub-like towns as the only means of community interaction didn’t fly with me.

Guild Wars 2 is coming along and it’s gorgeous.   Watch this trailer and I dare you to not even think about getting hyped or being sold on the game.

Cool stuff mentioned, right?  Who wouldn’t want all that in a MMO?  Decisions from one player having lasting effects and all that diverse gameplay and all those events happening around you.

All of that is supposed to be happening in the… open… world? Nah.  Arenanet does say right in their FAQ that they’re going to use “extensive instanced gameplay”. Where do you think everything in that trailer is going to take place?

The illusion is suddenly destroyed for me.  I can get all of that great stuff in a singleplayer game or coop gameany time I want (see @NecroRogIcon).  I play MMO’s to participate in a world that is shared simultaneously with other players — a virtual world.  I play MMO’s to be in a world where the decisions of others change my gameplay experience.  I play for the community and the interaction.

I don’t want to diminish how cool GW2 looks or Arenanets accomplishments.  However, it’s time that we start seeing really cool stuff like this in the actual persistent world shared by everyone.   It’s not fair to say all the things they said in that video and call it a MMO when it’s more like a single player experience.  It’s just wrong.

If this is actually going to be apart of the persistent world then ignore everything I just said.  But…

How about being straight forward and actually informative so that I don’t even have to make these posts?

You just know that these types of questions scare the crap out of companies.  It’s why Bioware never gives a clear answer with SWTOR.  It’s probably why Arenanet hasn’t given a clear answer too.  Why can’t we get straightforward answers or at least more information about what we’re seeing and whether or not it’s instanced/singleplayer or persistent world?  That’s something I would remedy VERY quickly if I were ever in charge of marketing.  Lies of omission really create problems by forcing players to connect the dots, imo.

Nonetheless, looks cool.

Update: For those just now reading the entry, please read the comments section thoroughly for a great discussion about the persistent elements of GW2 as well as how much of what I have said here is indeed true.  ArenaNet clarified in a blog entry that much of the persistent elements and things talked about by the female developer in the trailer are instanced.  You can also read a ‘wrap up’ of sorts on my thoughts at Guildwars2Guru.com on their forums.  It comes down to, as I state in the entry, an issue with how this trailer misrepresents the design of the game through a lack of details.

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