Guild Wars 2: Combat Isn't Everything

With the introduction of the branching personal storyline and the existence of world events—some of which can be triggered by non-combat activities—the quest and goal system for Guild Wars 2 seems to have been covered fairly well, however much I might want for a lot more details that I imagine I'm simply going to have to wait until the game is released to find out. But most games, Guild Wars included (where I'm currently standing on a ring trying to increase my Lucky and Unlucky points), have a non-combat feature or two. Guild Wars 2 is planning on having a few more than usual.

This week, they released some new information on activities. Of note: each capital city (one per race) will have a different set of activities. Some will be pseudo-combat, some competitive, and others cooperative. We don't know many details yet, but they mentioned a bar brawl, a shooting gallery, and some sort of music-related activity (all of which, from art, appear to be based in Divinity's Reach, the human capital). The total number is roughly 30, which would, if evenly split, mean half a dozen things per capital. They say that rather than worry about whether or not each individual activity would appeal to every player, instead they've concentrated on making a good mix of activities available, so that no matter how you play or what you're in the mood for, you probably can find something to do... even if it's in a city you've never been to before.

This also means they've released some travel information, in case you were wondering. The Asura Gates from EoTN are still going to be operational (I'm wondering what they're powered by now that the dragon's awake, though) and will allow you to travel to fixed locations, whether or not you've ever been there before. It seems fairly certain the five capital cities are on this list, though how many other cities boast a gate is unknown.

In addition, map travel to places you've visited before will still be in the game, although it will now come with a small fee—no indication yet on what the fee is based on, or what "small" means, of course. And when asked directly about mounts, they ducked the question by saying they weren't ready to discuss that yet... which suggests to me they're at least seriously considering it. For some reason, the idea fills a ton of people with dismay, probably out of reflexive WoW-hate... but for every person who wishes mightily they'd avoid mounts, there's at least one who really would like there to be some. I'm somewhere in the middle; if there are mounts, I'll certainly use them, but I'm used to having to run around all over, so I won't notice if they're not a feature.

Also released this week via interviews, a bit of information on "achievements"—a name I wish they hadn't picked, since I prefered the GW1-style titles (or CoH's badges) to the Xbox-live/WoW/Steam, even if the difference is really just a word or the way it's displayed. But they're basically a list of goals, either way. Also in the goal category are "feats", daily goals that will offer a bit of extra experience and possibly money that they're using in lieu of rest XP or a similar system... the idea of which is to allow casual players (who generally invest far less time into the game) to not end up falling as far behind the hardcore players.

All of this is making the game sound better and better, of course, but I'm still jonesing for some more profession and character creation information (especially things like "How long can your name be and do you still need a first/last name?" and "How many slots are you offering to start with?"). Since the second profession reveal was nearly a month ago and they've got Gamescom and Pax Prime demos coming up, I'm hoping we'll get a bit more on those things soon. I'm not holding my breath; I think we'll probably only get one more profession prior to the first demo, probably the Ranger since it'd be from the last class of professions (adventurer), and possibly not get any real info on the other things until the demo. But I can hope. :)