We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. Once a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions. I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!
With the addition of ascended gear, Guild Wars 2 definitely has more options when it comes to grabbing gear at max level. This fact can be good, since options are generally welcome among the MMO community, but ascended gear has seen quite a bit of negative feedback as well. So negative, in fact, that Chris Whiteside addressed the issue more than once during a recent GW2 Reddit AMA chat. ArenaNet admitted that the introduction of the new tier-set-of-sorts wasn’t communicated well, but the team was confident that the gear was a step in the right direction.
So, is it? Do we need new levels of tier gear at level 80 to keep ourselves interested in the game? Is is enough to journey after pretty cosmetic pieces, achievements, and take part in PvP and dungeons for the fun of it, or is a gear climb really what most players want? Good questions, yet fairly difficult to answer.
The main issue at hand here is generally the whole vertical progression versus horizontal progression debate. Horizontal progression is the notion of progressing by simply allowing your character to have various options, whether they differ as far as looks, cosmetic abilities, and other aspects that don’t necessarily have to do with pure mathematical stats. Stats, rather, reach a plateau of sorts that make all players fairly equal.
The other option is, of course, the one most MMO gamers are familiar with, is vertical progression. Gear has obvious tiers based on how much better it makes your character, and the only viable direction is generally upwards. This gives players an obvious endgame route as opposed to something a little more free-flowing, and both gear and content are constantly shifting, which can leave some players feeling a little left behind so to speak.
The upside of vertical progression is, of course, the fact that players can easily make goals for themselves and see their character improve upon obtaining items. It’s interesting, though, because despite vertical progression being easier to understand for most MMO gamers, there are a rising number of gamers who want more out of their MMOs. They want options as well as the ability to stay clear from vertical sets of stairs that often have a “carrot on a stick” effect. Horizontal progression allows players freedom, and since there are so few games that truly utilize the concept, there’s a space wide open in the industry.
Many gamers hoped Guild Wars 2 would offer some great horizontal progression routes, but with ascended gear, some of those hopes are starting to falter. ArenaNet claims that further sets of ascended gear will not be vertical enough to cause players to feel as if they’re riding a gear treadmill, but some say that the addition itself is a slippery slope.
What do you think about the path ArenaNet’s chosen for ascended gear so far? Is the slope feeling a tad bit slippery, or is some level of standard gear progression in Guild Wars 2 a good thing?
