Turning Progression on its Ear (a gaming thing)

A vista in GW2

First things first.  I’m an adult gamer.  If you don’t know what that means, go HERE.  I love online games, and recently I’ve come upon Guild Wars 2, and for many reasons I believe that ArenaNet cracked the code.  I loved Skyrim for the open-ended scope where your decisions seemed to really drive your story.  I loved Mass Effect (and even SWtOR) for the story and strong character development.  I loved early Dark Age of Camelot for their focus on accessible and meaningful realm conflict.  Having said all of that, the cornerstone of any Massively Multiplayer Online RPG is end game progression, and that is where I want to focus.  Guild Wars 2 (GW2) has turned progression on its ear and I believe for the better.

End game progression in an MMO is usually characterized by a character reaching max level and then moving through a series of encounters in order to obtain the highest levels of gear that the game can offer.  Your accomplishment is gauged by the type of gear you own, but that gear reflects the progressively higher level of skill necessary to achieve those items.  Additionally those items that you obtain enable you to progress to the next tier of items and so forth.  Progression expands the longevity of an online game, but that longevity can either become a never-ending hamster wheel or can offer multiple possibilities that keep people engaged.

My little Yurtil ready to take on a dungeon

On first glance, you might think that GW2 doesn’t have end game progression.  There are no ‘raid’ dungeons that provide levels of high end gear.  All of their dungeons are 5-man max and start at level 30 (really 35, but I’ll get to that later).  However, what isn’t clear is that the GW2 actually has a different type of progression.  There are 8 dungeons currently in the game.  Each of those dungeons has a story mode and an ‘Explore’ mode that is slated at 5-levels above the dungeon’s level.  Explore mode consists of 2-3 different ‘paths’ within the same dungeon.  That gives around 30 different dungeon experiences for a single character.

I came upon this in a random dungeon encounter

 GW2 automatically levels a character down to the level of a zone so you can group with people below your level and still have a significant challenge.  Therefore, the dungeons in GW2 start at level 30, but all characters level 30 and above can participate in those encounters.  The other BIG change in GW2 is the elimination of the ‘holy trinity’ of tank/healer/dps classes.  Any combination of characters can form a 5-man group and be successful.  Finally, dungeons in GW2 are HARD.  There may be a general strategy for success, but these dungeons are tuned to accommodate multiple strategies and in most cases, you are lucky if you only die a couple times per encounter.  The result is frantic, fun, and very intense.  You feel a real satisfaction when you finish a dungeon and there are times that you might just want to quit in frustration.

everywhere you go is beautiful

Then why do you want to run dungeons in GW2?  If you are leveling your character, the experience is excellent.  You gain about a level of experience per run.  If you are max level, you still gain tokens for each ‘Explore’ run.  Everyone who participates in and finishes a dungeon run in ‘Explore’ mode gets a number of dungeon-specific tokens for each run.  Those tokens can be used to purchase the highest level of armor and weapons from dungeon-specific vendors.  Each set of armor and weapons looks differently and has different stats.  Additionally, you can augment those stats with runes that you can purchase at these vendors as well.  Therefore, you can build your unique look, with the stats that work best for you by running these dungeons in ‘Explore’ mode multiple times.

More vistas. Beautiful artwork abounds.

Progression in GW2 starts at level 30, but runs well through level 80.  Gear choices are huge and with the addition of crafting, world-vs-world competition, small team pvp competition, and the various challenges involving platforming puzzles and zone unlocks there is a whole lot to keep the player engaged in just the base game.  Knowing that the original Guild Wars had a number of expansions, there is a lot to keep a player involved, and this is from a game that has NO subscription fee.  That is why I’m loving GW2 and think that ArenaNet has cracked the code with respect to MMORPGs.  I would encourage all my gamer friends to give it a try.  The price is only the cost of the game, the cost of any other console or PC game out on the market, but the value of the game is huge.