Guild Wars 2 Column: Future Events
2012 was a huge year for ArenaNet. Not only did they have the launch of Guild Wars 2, but they also had to throw a handful of in-game events to keep us players busy. In October, players got a taste of what’s to come in holiday events with the ever so popular Halloween event. In November, players were tasked with discovering a whole new island, and asked to take on a new threat in a non-related holiday event, The Lost Shores. Just last month ArenaNet entertained players yet again with a winter season inspired event that was so large it lasted for weeks!
ArenaNet has used 2 different methods to deliver their events content. The first is what has been used for the holidays. Several patches would be released over the course of a week or more, with each patch delivering a new segment to the event. These segments could be visited at any time, and any order.
The Lost Shores event was a bit different. It lasted for a much shorter amount of time, and the events happened only once. If you missed the Karka unleashing their first assault on Lion’s Arch, you missed it. You can’t fast travel to an area and activate it like in the holiday events. This method is neat, as it can make some of the events just huge, massive dynamic events, which is exactly what they ended up being, but people have lives and jobs. If you missed it, you’re out of luck.
I believe a major event may be a few months away, with ArenaNet going to focus on revamping dungeons, and fixing/adding in new features to the game. But I’m wondering if how they’ll present future events will be addressed during this time. A lot of players didn’t like the one time only events. I was lucky and was able to play around my work schedule (it helps when you work at home) but I didn’t miss any of the action during the event. I could see why a player who was really looking forward to the event couldn’t play due to real life events could be disappointed.
I could see why a one shot event is useful to the story telling in Guild Wars 2, but I still believe there is a way for ArenaNet to give some access to players who missed it the first time. I could envision an area on a map act as a gateway to an instance, much like a character’s story instance, or the Wintersday dungeon instances. Players could form a group and enter the instance together and experience the event for themselves.
For those of you who took part in the final dynamic event for The Lost Shores, you know that just having 5 players try to fight off tons of Karka, and their leader is just a disaster waiting to happen. Already we see the game able to scale difficulty levels for normal dynamic events based on how many players are taking part in the event. For these second chance offers it would make sense for ArenaNet to scale down the difficulty of the event to prevent players from just being massacred.
Want more than 5 players to take on the event? Ok, let’s try this idea. WvW maps are like giant instances. Why not do the same thing for these events? Once again, just have the game adjust the difficulty level to the amount of players that enter, and participate, in the instance. You may also have to adjust the rewards for the second chance offers since it won’t be as tough of a trail as the original event. Yes players would still complain about the rewards not being as amazing, but hey, at least you get he chance to do it!
I feel 2013 will a great year for Guild Wars 2, as some serious changes and additions are on the horizon. These next few months we should see the game becoming a more rewarding and user-friendly experience. But I would like other players to be able to experience the neat and unique large dynamic events that I got to experience, because I understand how life and jobs can cut into a chance to play a game. If ArenaNet could give everyone the chance to participate in these events, I think they would score bonus points with the players that felt left out before.
How would you like ArenaNet to tackle their events? What type of content would you like to see in future events? Share your ideas in the comments below.
