Flameseeker Chronicles: Of revolutionary design, babies, and bathwater

The "revolutionary" aspects of Guild Wars 2 might be an old topic, but it's one that's been on my mind lately for two reasons. First, a couple of my colleagues and I got some hands-on time with Star Wars: The Old Republic at E3. One consistent feeling was that it's a good, solid game but nothing revolutionary. (I was very impressed with it overall, even though I feel it's not a game for me.)

That sparked a lot of discussion regarding the fact that BioWare never claimed that the game would be revolutionary, so the argument is pointless. I can certainly get on board that train of thought, but it still set me thinking about this aspect of game design.

The other incident was a conversation in Massively's staff chatroom the other day. Two Massively team members were discussing the pros and cons of the Guild Wars 2 class setup -- specifically, the elimination of the holy trinity. Watching the two of them discuss it, combined with my recent thinking on revolutionary game design, set me thinking. Follow along after the jump and let's take a look at the pros and cons of blazing a new trail!

Revolutionizing just for the sake of it

I want to start with the potential downsides of this. When I'm talking to my kids about misbehavior, I ask them, "Why did you do that?" I know, I know, it's an age-old question that parents ask, and 90% of the time there is no good answer, but stay with me. When they reply "I dunno," I tell them that if that's the best answer they have, then they probably should not have been doing it.

It's a point that holds very true in many situations besides "Why did you smack your sister?" If you're doing something and cannot readily provide a good reason as to why, it's often a good idea to stop and figure out what the reason is. Can't figure out the reason? You might want to stop and think about whether you should keep doing it or not.

Things like throwing out the holy trinity, eliminating ally-targeted skills, and creating a system that encourages but doesn't force you to group together are all concepts that are sure to gain some attention. These are bright and shiny ideas to wave around and say, "Look what we are doing! Cool, huh? You should totally buy this game when it comes out!"

If there's no sound reasoning and nothing of substance behind it, though, it's not going to go well when you launch -- it's great if these concepts sound wonderful in theory, but they've got to hold up in practice.

Thinking it through

My personal opinion is that ArenaNet has created more than a series of catchy ideas designed to gain attention. As I've watched development progress, I've seen a consistent theme: "How can we make this better?" Of course I'm not privy to the inner workings of the development team, but most of what I've seen points to the team's looking at the good thing it has in Guild Wars and working to improve it in Guild Wars 2.

ArenaNet was a small, unknown entity back at the launch of Guild Wars, and the developers were striving to create something good on a limited budget and with other limited resources. It worked extremely well, and now they've got the ability to do something even bigger and better.

My feeling is that the team has spent a lot of time looking at various aspects of its current game and saying, "What is good about this? What could be better? What isn't working at all? What can we do about it?"

The developers looked for the same things in other MMOs -- node-looting is a good example of this. We all know how irritating it is to race other players to a node only to lose, or to fight an enemy while someone else runs up to harvest the item you were trying to get to in the first place. ArenaNet has eliminated that problem in Guild Wars 2 by making nodes disappear only for you when you harvest them -- they're still available for everyone else.

The Guild Wars 2 crafting system is an example of something in MMOs that is working fairly well, so ArenaNet didn't see a reason to do anything drastic with it. We've been promised some improvements, namely, that we'll have the chance to craft useful items to skill up rather than 87 copies of the same pants that everyone else is crafting to skill up -- but as a whole it's been kept pretty intact.

On the other hand, many familiar staples of MMO gaming have been tossed right out the window, like the holy trinity. Having experienced the trinity-less system during my few Guild Wars 2 gameplay sessions, I personally think it's great. However, not everyone loves it, and I'm certainly not arrogant enough to declare my opinion of it as holding true for everyone.

I don't feel like ArenaNet blindly tossed the concept out the window just for its own sake and said, "Let's let everyone be everything!" I think there are still some clearly defined class roles, but they're much more open, and if you think, strategize, and learn as you play, they're going to be extremely effective.

Will it work?

The short answer to this question is "I don't know." I think the playerbase is going to need some time to get used to it. Nobody can dive into something new and master it in five minutes. Furthermore, it's going to be pretty hard for players to say it is or is not great for them until they've tried it in a group play setting.

Do I expect a certain group of people to say, "This sucks, this is stupid, Guild Wars 2 is broken," and ragequit the game? Sure, Guild Wars 2 won't be for everyone. You can never please everyone. That's a simple fact of life -- and one that holds even truer in MMO gaming.

I think ArenaNet is simply trying to make the best game it can, and while it won't work for everyone, I have high hopes. There are pros and cons, just as with anything. As always, now it's your turn to tell me what you think they are and how you think they can be improved!

Finally, special aside to Dan and Leo: Have a safe and wonderful trip this week!

Rubi is a longtime Guild Wars player and the writer of Flameseeker Chronicles here at Massively. The column keeps a close eye on all the events in Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, and anything bridging the two. It's also the home of a weekly summary of the travels of [MVOP], Massively's Guild Wars guild. Email Rubi at rubi@massively.com.