great show, just some comments from my point of view:
i think when looking at how certain level up mechanics work for the game you have to remember the MMO sort of structure which is to make things last longer than they should. this is why leveling takes longer, you have to spend all your money to unlock things, and you have to spend more skill points to unlock things. what this does is extends your game playing time because you have to try and get more money, get more skill points, and take more time to level (as an example). Now i know this is a free MMO but i think they are still sort of stuck in that MMO structure so that people don’t get on GW2 level to 80 in a week and then get bored in a onth. while there may be no monthly fee if they can get you to play GW2 for 3-4 months compared to 1 month they have that much more of a chance to make more money off you. if you take an average player who plays say, 10 hours a week off and on nights and weekend, that person, if he could level quicker and choose just the skills he wants and not have to spend a lot of ingame money to unlock things will hit 80 much faster than if he has to buy the trait book instead of gear to level and things like that. the skill system is dumb the way it is like you guys talked about, but it might also make people explore more, or use more time to get more skill points to pick up those skills for WvW and dungeons. i also think it might be a little bit for balancing in WvW but who knows as far as that.
i think the major assumption by any MMO maker is that they want the average player instead of players like me that will probly play for 20-25 hours a week maybe more. look at star wars, people hit 50 in that first 2 weeks and now everyone is done with it, not that end game stuff would have kept me playing it either, but if it took longer to hit 50 i certainly might have played for more months. so take that into why arenanet feels like they have to make their MMO like that also, so that if you take 3-4 maybe 6 months to hit 80 and get into WvW then you will still be invested in the game enough to buy an expansion or gems. if they made it so hearts fill up quicker, you level quicker and easier and get the skills you want easy, you might be "done" with the game faster, and the type of person who doesn't stick with games like most of us would for PvP and WvW then they won’t be there to buy gems and expansions. the best reason why i think this way is how i played GW1, i bought the game at release, played it to level 20 with 2 characters, did little but not much PvP and then was "done" i never bought an expansion or really looked back. now with GW2 i have a guild to actually play with, and more levels with more things to unlock and a whole other mode of play (WvW) that will make me stay with the game longer.
these are just my thoughts, i think we are all guilty of kind of being impatient and wanting to hit 80 quicker so we get the WvW character we want quicker or the skills we want quicker and easier, but don't let me put words in mouths either... i think in the beta weekend people hit level 25-30 i personally hit level 16 on one character and level 10 on 7 others so i feel like leveling is still pretty damn quick, and i did most of it solo. what might keep me more into the game past hitting 80 or being "done" is having people to play with like the stress test PvP we all did and learning WvW. so the fact it's a free MMO makes it easier to me that it might take a while to level or see each dungeon, and they have other things to offer as well. it must have been a hard balance to hit for arenanet since they want to keep people around but also make it as little grinding as possible, ending up with them being able to keep players long enough to sell expansions AND offer a great game.
sorry for the book i ramble a lot so if it is sort of repeated throughout i hope my point comes across. thanks again for the show! :)
-silentdante
-cory
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