Earlier this fall, MOP’s Tyler said something that resonated with me: “Guild Wars 2 is a great game that is wholly ignorant of its own strengths.” He was talking about how so much of what the game’s devs have done since its launch in 2012 has “run counter to the freeform, casual play the game was built on.”
It leaped out at me because I agree with him. I mean, I understand why over the years ArenaNet has sought to revamp its core gameloop to pull in new types of players who needed more than open-world play and alting and pretty gear; it has layered in things like fractals and raids to try to capture the attention of more hardcore themepark MMORPG players. That part doesn’t bother me. The part that bothers me is that it often seems as if the casual gameplay that Guild Wars 2 is actually genuinely good at gets rolled over in the service of hardcore-chasing, or worse, in the service of chasing stuff nobody seems hungry for anyway. Sometimes I genuinely wonder whether the folks running Guild Wars 2 actually understand what kind of absolute gem they have.
What is your favorite MMO’s greatest untapped strength?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
