Quote:
Originally Posted by DonTadow  Guild war is a phenomenal game, but not what DDO should have been. Guild wars is primarily played solo by players. Rarely have i gone to a place in my 3 years ofp laying and needed to or wanted to party. The only place that is neccessary is the guild part of the game, which is fun, but D&D has always been cooperative, not adversarial. |
With respects to cooperative v. adversarial game play, you are absolutely right; Guild War's end game (after campaign play) does not resemble anything I have ever played in D&D.
My comments are based on my experiences in the game while I am playing the campaign. Campaign being the operative word. DDO has no point, no internal or external drive. There is nothing in DDO that inspires me to play.
On the other hand GW has a great story. I actually watch the cut scenes to find out more about what is going on. There are plenty of missions and side quests, but you cannot repeat them for experience after they are completed. That gives me the impression that I am advancing through the world and campaign. From start to end game, is there a unifying story or campaign arc in DDO?
In DDO even though you have a wide variety of races and classes to play, everyone will play the exact same quests. With GW you will have quite a few set quests that are the same, but your classes will dictate what your side quests will be. A Warrior/Monk's campaign is going the have a different list of quests than an Elementalist/Mesmer. To me there is just enough variety in quests that I do not mind that the set quests are the same. In that it reminds me of a time when we were short on players and the DM (or I for the other players) would custom tailor adventures to take advantage of the limited number of characters and their strengths.
Truth be told, DDO most resembles my favorite play style in D&D, the mega-dungeon. The major difference though is all the mega-dungeons I have played though have been dynamic environments. Monsters move in when others are cleared. While the walls and layout might be the same, the inhabitants rarely were. We would often return to certain areas to clear the new monsters, but we never returned because the same monsters would keep dropping some crafting item. When was the last time anyone farmed Temple of Elemental Evil for scale drops?!? (in all honesty, GW has this as well, but it is not something or any importance. GW's go collect X amount of Skale Fins is not something you have to complete to advance in the game.)
All of the games that I listed in my original post had more D&D feel than DDO ever will. So while I can back pedal on "GW is everything DDO should have been," there is virtually nothing in DDO that resembles D&D at all.
More to follow in my next post.
And yet another word from our sponsors
