A couple weeks ago, the
guys at Arenanet did a live-stream talking about the inclusion of
“challenging content” coming alongside the release of the game's
first expansion, Heart of Thorns. The stream went on to discuss the
nature of its raiding content; outlining its large set pieces and
difficult encounters that will require the co-ordination of your
group (of which has been set to 10 players) to overcome significant
opponents. Over the past couple weeks, I've 'ermed and errred' over
this subject trying to think about how I would like to discuss it,
but I feel I've got to a point where I feel it best showcases my
thoughts. These thoughts come from two particular areas: my interest
of architectural theory and my experience of raiding in traditional
MMOs such as WoW and Rift.
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| Many years ago raiding up against Onyxia in WoW. Screenshot taken 19/08/2006 |
The subject of raiding
in essence is quite simple; stringing together challenging bosses
broken up by trash mobs and narrative to give context and pacing to
the environment. Its the way a significant force can be tackle in a
narrative, that may present them as an almost impossible mountain to
climb but through determination and skill it can be overcome. This
of course is a strong feeling to have in a game like an MMO (and
kinda any game really) but grouping together with like-minded people
and having that roar from a VoIP server upon success is amazing to
experience. I experienced this in WoW during Vanilla and Wrath as
well as Vanilla Rift as both a healer and DPS which to a certain
extent was a while ago, but with Guild Wars 2 I have the potential to
experience that once again. That being said, I'm not sure whether
the game (or myself) can live up to what raiding is.
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| My first time seeing Rag was a memorable experienced hampered by the nature of Molten Core. Screenshot taken 17/12/2006 |
The most clear point on
this subject in my opinion is the nature of the current content; that
focuses heavily on grouped-up 'blob-like' movement with enemy
movement that plays into this. There are of course reasons behind
this such as boon stacking (stacking large numbers of buffs on the
party in quick succession), ease of access to resurrecting downed
players and that players are rarely punished for acting in this way.
To a certain extent, it makes me think of the traditional “boss vs.
tank” then everyone else that I experienced in my days of raiding
in places like Molten Core as the factor of the number of players
doesn't matter visually. Of course the damage matters but the enemy
doesn't care as it just sees 'enemy'.
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| World bosses maybe large but the same tactic applies. Screenshot taken 14/09/2015 |
The second point, more
relevant to my interests, means that the environment and its
narrative is somewhat fractured by this. Whether you're in AC, CoE,
Fractals or an open world meta event boss you adopt the blob and keep
on attacking and the background becomes blurred to a certain extent.
You maybe doing world bosses for 3 or so hours but all that's
changing is the backdrop; a theatre if you will that revolves the
background from a townscape to a forest during a performance but the
actors are still conversing in the same prose. A couple weeks ago
when I did a post about arenas I did say that the combat loop can be
engaging if the arena gives you an engaging environment and narrative
to get stuck into, but at the moment Guild Wars 2 content in the
above examples doesn't give me the same feeling.
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| A large boss that hopefully looks to be more dynamic in its movement and actions. Image from https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/designing-challenging-content/ accessed 14/09/2015 |
Going back to my
earlier paragraph on raiding, one of the pieces I did discuss that
its not just the bosses but the connecting sections that add to the
experience of a raid. Personally, I feel that this is what Guild
Wars 2 currently has a lot of potential to set themselves apart.
They have a enjoyable series of jumping puzzles, open world
explorable dungeons and guild puzzles that create an interesting mix
of combat and cryptic problem solving allowing groups to use logic
and deduction to balance the combat they experience in the vast
amount of a game like Guild Wars 2. Going back to my time raiding,
the process was very much so a “trash->boss->trash->boss”
loop and although if the bosses are engaging this can work, having
these interest mid sections that replace trash at points
(trash->boss->puzzle->boss) it can keep people interested
for longer with a level of pacing appropriate.
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| Using mechanics like gliding has the potential to give us those interesting connecting paths. Image from https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/designing-challenging-content/ accessed 14/09/2015 |
These thoughts
naturally follow into quite a few posts I've made on this blog in the
past. Pacing is a subject from “Walking Simulators” because of
the tone rarely changes and the pace remains static alongside the
“Arenas” that need to not just be arenas but means to create
grand set pieces and times of lull so that the player doesn't tire of
the content. In architecture we do this with room sizes, lighting
levels, furniture arrangement, level changes, open plan vs. closed
and an overall consideration for the human interactions that may go
on such a space which together play a lot into our thoughts of how we
remember it. Did that museum take you through a story of a by-gone
time or did it feel somewhat out of place with a bright background on
the content of a tragic event. As space does this in the built
environment, so must a digital one.
To conclude,
challenging content is a great more than just difficult encounters.
The importance of the spaces engaging the player so that context and
motivation is given for players wanting to overcome the challenge.
Difficult bosses is one thing, but difficult bosses with pathways,
narrative, times of intense feelings and lulls in the pace all make
an experience like a raid so much more. Will GW2 do this? Time will
tell but I hope that becomes a memorable experience for those who
look to take on its content. Only like 5-6 weeks to find out and
personally I'm looking forward to it.
