Beta PvE impressions. The feel of the game is... Very much like a generic MMO.

[RoyHarmon]

I don't think I actually completed a more than a handful of "Hearts", if even that, during the beta. Sure I participated in loads - I doused fires, I washed cows, I motivated lazy workers. And those things were fun to do in their own right. But somehow something else often grabbed my fancy and I moved on without really paying attention to whether or not I filled the heart.

From what I could gather, this was a perfectly fine playstyle. However, I hardly even scratched the surface of the personal story, so could be that I would have been outleveled for that. (Of course, if that was the case I could have opted for doing more DEs or WvW even to level in stead of Hearts. Which is, afaik, the point - you have a choice of where and how to level.)

I was just about to post this. Throughout the weekend, I don't think I ever felt as though I was being forced into a particular direction (except by my wife, who didn't care that all her crafting would be gone by Monday). I participated in Hearts, but not because I felt like I needed to do them; I participated because they seemed fun and interesting.
However, both my wife and I finished the beta preview versions of our respective storylines, coming up just shy of level 20. We really didn't care about levels, though, and we spent most of the weekend exploring (and in her case, crafting).

Grind, some say? Fun, interesting, totally optional grind? Bring it.

[Alaris]

But the hearts quests are essentially just a combination of multiple single-purpose quests located in the same area. I can only repeat, pretty much the same thing...

You don't need to repeat, we all understood that. I don't believe that this part is under any disagreement here.

You should focus on what changed, and the fact that some people here (not everyone) thinks this makes the whole experience a lot more interesting, and why.

It's fine if it doesn't do it for you. But it certainly makes a big difference for me. Like no kill-stealing, and mobs moving around doing things. They are small changes perhaps, but small changes that together make a big difference for me at least.

you are running in danger that you will be doing the "wrong" kind of things, like you say is bad when you don't read a traditional quest description. I'd say the fact that you could complete some events blindly was a healthy mix out of coincidence and your experience with past games.

I do actually agree with you that the system is a (slight) improvement over the traditional quest system, but stuff does however not just magically fall into your lap, sorry to say.

It'd be hard to do the wrong stuff, because stuff that can be done is usually the right stuff. If there are monsters, I doubt a heart would ask you to leave them alone. Clickable environment items are only clickable when the relevant event is active. My only fail was that I tended to forget to bring the items I collected.

So yes, things pretty much fell on my lap magically (or one might say, as if by intelligent design) as a result of me playing the game.

Grind, some say? Fun, interesting, totally optional grind? Bring it.

That's how I feel about it too. I don't mind the grind that I don't notice. Yes, it might start getting annoying the 4th character through, but at least for the betas I noticed the grind a whole lot less than in other MMORPGs I did play. Not that it's not there, but rather I had fun so I didn't notice it.

[satenia]

It'd be hard to do the wrong stuff, because stuff that can be done is usually the right stuff. If there are monsters, I doubt a heart would ask you to leave them alone. Clickable environment items are only clickable when the relevant event is active. My only fail was that I tended to forget to bring the items I collected.

So yes, things pretty much fell on my lap magically (or one might say, as if by intelligent design) as a result of me playing the game.

So in the end you did suffer from some redundancy which could have been avoided by simply following the "quest log" (aka event description)

That's how I feel about it too. I don't mind the grind that I don't notice. Yes, it might start getting annoying the 4th character through, but at least for the betas I noticed the grind a whole lot less than in other MMORPGs I did play. Not that it's not there, but rather I had fun so I didn't notice it.

I guess we'll see if/how they can remain interesting over time and multiple play-through, personally I would guess they will do just like any other traditional quest. Too much credit is easily given to something new and exciting.

[Alaris]

So in the end you did suffer from some redundancy which could have been avoided by simply following the "quest log" (aka event description)

To be more precise, because I preferred to stay and fight rather than bring the stuff. I always hated Fedex quests, so perhaps I was just not doing them entirely. And as a result I had stuff cluttering my inventory like it always happens in RPGs from incomplete Fedex quests.

At least my progress was not stunted :)

I guess we'll see if/how they can remain interesting over time and multiple play-through, personally I would guess they will do just like any other traditional quest. Too much credit is easily given to something new and exciting.

I can predict that they'll stay entertaining enough for my time in GW2. I didn't have a problem with repetitive quests in GW1 already, and they solved a number of problems I had with traditional quests already, so it's looking good.

ANet's game design isn't just new and exciting like Rift's rifts... for example, but rather ANet pretty much systematically looks at everything people tend to complain about MMORPGs and tries to fix it even if it means redesigning systems.

[Akirai Annuvil]

Oldies coming out of the cupboards, fun.

[Varealkin]

Actually, during heart quests you don't have to do anything if other people are around. If you stay in the area and do something else, like kill mobs, then when someone else does something that the heart quest asked you to do, you get credit for it.

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[Erring Ryft]

In GW1, the low areas also have only scattered groups. And if they are clustered, they often don't work like a group, but rather individually. Only later on will you get more interesting groups with more profession types in them.

Do they fight better later on in GW2 as well? Maybe you can't say it outright, so...wink slyly for "yes," cuss really loud and lose your account access for "no."




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[Смерть]

I went as far as lvl 20 and didn't see much of a difference other than enemies using dodge.

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[Lady Rhonwyn]

Do they fight better later on in GW2 as well? Maybe you can't say it outright, so...wink slyly for "yes," cuss really loud and lose your account access for "no."




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Better? They have better skills. And thus can hinder me more (snares, knock downs, poisons) which means I must think about what skills to use against what enemies.

[raspberry jam]

In WoW I also liked fishing and cooking a lot. There's nothing like walking to a lake after midnight, throw out your line and just chill by the water. Fishing in WoW gave me enough of an illusion to make it feel real, so I could just hang back and relax. Of all the things I ever did in WoW, I liked fishing the most. Often 2 other people were at the same spot. No talking, just chilling. I've sat next to level 30 horde while I was 60, but I left him alone. Most people whined about the fishing grind. I really liked to just use it to chill ingame.

You liked it because you approached it in a different way than most. For most people, fishing was just a way to level up the fishing skill until they could fish stuff that got them bonuses or could be used for high grade cooking. They didn't like the fishing process but forced themselves to do it anyway. Of course they complain about that.

I personally like fishing, but only in reality, not in games.

Oh, and feeding cows. I love the way they got little hearts over their heads when I fed them. Took me back to my days on the farm, but in this case, the cows seemed to actually feel some gratitude.

The farm? I see. It made me think of Minecraft.