CS3247 Assignment 1: Option 1 – Analysis of Guild Wars 2

 

The Lens of Challenge

1. Easy to attaining maximum character level due to relative flat leveling experience curve.
2. Difficult to craft legendary weapon due to expensive materials and materials that can only be gained through tough achievements.
3. Reward at the end of a tough terrain and puzzle-liked jumping task.
4. Maintaining top server position in server versus server war.
5. Recognition for having 100% world map explored.
6. Different difficulties of achievements, from easy resource gathering to difficult jumping task.
7. Easy to reach max level for all crafting skill with gold.

 

The Lens of Skill

1. Supports movement using WASD keys for finer maneuver during critical situations.
2. Dodge system for all characters to evade incoming attack, limited by stamina system.
   1. Requires players to have fast reaction time.
   2. Requires players to make on spot decision in order to fully utilize their number of dodges.
   3. Can be trained to become part of muscle memory.
3. Balance player versus player system where players can choose on default characters and equipment.
   1. Players have to fully understand all characters to give them an edge in the fight.
   2. Good decision making and fine motor skills are required to correctly out one’s actions.
4. Good tactics, commanders, siege and defense equipment operation are needed to be successful in massive server versus server war.
   1. Such experience can be gained during the course of war.
5. Jumping tasks require good gauge of distance, fine motor skill, observant and patience to succeed.
   1. These skills require considerable effort and are difficult to nurture.

 

The Lens of Economy

1. Open and transparent market system shared by all servers, where players can view items posted by others
   1. Can be accessed at any place in game.
   2. Trading flourish due to ease of selling and buying items.
   3. Little chance for price manipulation due to large supply of items.
   4. Reduces frustration due to selling an item too cheaply or buying overpriced item.
2. Multiple game currencies for different purposes.
   1. Gold – The general currency used for trading.

i.      Can be gained through monster drops and questing.

1. Vis – The secondary currency used in game to buy some crucial items that are Vis exclusive.

i.      Can only be gained through real time dynamic events.

ii.      Non-tradable, forces players to obtain some items through their own effort.

1. Gems – Can be bought through real cash.

i.      Allows trading between gold and gems through the principle of demand and supply.

ii.      Helps to discourage real money trading.

iii.      Most cash items are for cosmetic purpose or can be gathered through drops.

iv.      Cash items that provide unfair advantage are too expensive to be abused.

1. Tokens – Rewards for completing dungeon instances.

i.      Used to trade for dungeon specific equipment which is used for cosmetic purpose.

1. Crafting leveling skills as a major component of gameplay.
   1. Low level drops are always in demand due to low level crafters.
   2. Used by game developer to prevent price crashing of any items, by making them as ingredient for new items.
   3. Allows new players to sell drops for decent profit to fund for their equipment.
   4. Decent equipment comes at affordable price due to excess supply from crafting.
2. Limited number of item stacking on an item slot to stop player from amassing too much of the item at any point of time.
   1. Further prevent price manipulation due to item hogging.
3. Anti-inflation measures placed on gold to make the game more new player friendly.
   1. High tax, 10% for listing and 5% for being sold, placed on items listed in the market.
   2. Some crafting materials are only available through non-playable characters.
   3. Huge amount of gold is required for siege and defense equipment in Server versus Server war.

 

The Lens of Freedom

1. Different approaches to play the game, most of which alone could result in maximum character level.
   1. Grinding – Relative flat level experience curve.

i.      Grinding becomes less boring due to more visible changes in character ability.

ii.      Equipped with decent equipment, character could kill monster at its level range with relative ease.

iii.      Dynamic level adjustment to character’s level when it enters a region below its range.

iv.      Lower level maps are no longer more efficient at character leveling.

v.      Game population becomes more evenly spread to all maps

1. Questing – Interesting storyline where character is one of the two main heroes preventing an evil dragon race from corrupting the land.

i.      Different deviation of starting and mid storyline, depending on how players set their characters and their interactions during the quest.

ii.      A lot of replay value for players who want to try out different possible deviation of the storyline.

1. Real time dynamic events – Group activities that can be done repeatedly.

i.      Can only be done when they are frequently activated at a fixed interval.

ii.      Activation notification sent to characters within its radius.

iii.      Good reward encourages strangers to gather together to complete the event.

iv.      Good range of activities, which include resource gathering, escorting, defend an area, invade an area, etc.

1. Dungeon instances – Small group of 5 with an average of less than an hour completion time.

i.      Allows players to choose different paths to complete the same dungeon.

1. Exploration – Experience is gained when a region of map is explored.

i.      Some difficult to access places allow a fun and challenging exploration experience.

ii.      Extra monetary reward given out at a map completion so that explorer does not suffer financially.

iii.      Mini quests that have no impact on main storyline and are part of the exploration experience.

1. Achievement – Predefined activities that character has to complete daily, monthly, or in its lifetime.

i.      Recorded in character’s profile and a point system allow players’ effort to be recognized.

1. Resource gathering – Different resources are spread randomly throughout all maps.

i.      Limit of each resource point is character bounded.

ii.      Therefore players who prefer resource gathering are not restricted by competition to the resource.

1. Server versus server war – 24/7 War, with weekly reset and ranking update.

i.      Players could log in any time and enter the war, provided the players limit for their server is not reached.

ii.      Reward given when an objective is achieved.

1. Extensive range of character customization, giving each character its unique identity.
   1. Appearance customization is similar to that of the creation of Sims in The Sims game franchise by Maxis.
   2. Each character class can wield a number of different types of weapon types.

i.      Allows different playing styles even with same character class.

1. Most character classes can wield two different sets of weapon at the same time

i.      Players can now better adapt to different combat situations.

ii.      Abilities activated when swapping weapon encourages players to utilize dual wielding system.

1. Equipment can be mounted with other equipment skins while retaining their stats.

i.      Players no longer have to make a compromise between looks and weapon ability.

1. Good transport system and few restrictions on character movement.
   1. A number of teleport points evenly spread out on a map.
   2. For a small fee, players can teleport straight to a specific explored region on any map.
   3. The fee is scaled according to the character level.

i.      Low level and poor players can still enjoy the convenience of transport system at a lower cost.

1. Good jumping feature allows players to access weird place on map like roof top and hill top.
2. Water is no longer a physical boundary as players can dive deep into the sea to explore.
3. Customizable chat system support creation of different chat tabs to cater to players’ needs.
   1. Players can pick which kind of chat to appear in their tab.
   2. Multiple tabs allow players to switch chat effortlessly according to their activities.
4. Freedom to change community.
   1. Multiple guilds feature allows players to conveniently switch main guild without the need to leave other.
   2. Players can switch servers once a week to find their ideal servers.

 

The Lens of Community

1. Real time dynamic events create opportunities for strangers to gather together and forge new friendship.
2. Profound guild system support for guilds’ operation.
   1. Guild leveling feature as a common goal which members work together in.
   2. Member ranking feature creates an orderly hierarchy with different level of power access to different ranks.
   3. Guild bank allows members to share their wealth with other members and for the operation of the guild.
   4. Multiple guilds feature creates a platform for like-minded people to gather together for different situations.
3. 24/7 Three-sided server versus server war.
   1. Forces guilds within the same server to cooperate together to have constant military presence throughout the week.
   2. Although war is a number game, difficult objectives still requires cooperation from a large number of people.
   3. Instead of wandering aimlessly in battlefield, commander tag feature to direct players to battle front.
   4. Diplomacy at work to prevent the onslaught of two other servers and the loss of guilds to other servers.
4. Cross server communication.
   1. Players can chat in game with one another even though they are on different servers.
   2. Guest system to be introduced soon, which allows players to visit servers that they have friends in.
   3. Foster and maintain friendship with anyone that plays the game.
5. Both real time and non-real time events organized during festive holidays for players to indulge in the festivals together.

 

Guild Wars 2 Official Website: https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/

24/7 Massive server versus server war gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk06sCaB0l4