Okay, so I didn't look at the first closed beta videos (were there any?). I don't know if this is the result of being second beta, but I had issues with these videos. Admittedly I haven't watched everything (no time), but the ones I did watch (from different sites just for wider sampling) really struck me as horribly made. It's like these journalists don't understand how journalism works.
1. I do not understand the point of having videos that feature a single profession and then not cover everything about that profession. I understand that there's a lot of walking around, but where are the highlight clips? Why am I sitting here watching people commenting "Oh, let me find something to kill to show off this skill"? I'm sure the game isn't nearly so boring as this, but god I was bored to tears. I think these videos actually made me want to play the game less.
2. Comparison videos. Where the fuck are they? I do not want to have to sit through 2 hours worth of videos on each different profession and try to do comparisons myself, since, again, I'm not playing the game yet. I'm amazed at the basic lack of commentary on how ranged vs. melee classes play, or how caster vs. physical attackers play.
3. Why are the commentary stuck at the level of describing what is happening on screen? I have eyes, I can see arrows raining down or fire bursting or whatever. Commentary is supposed to tell me something I can't get out of just watching the video, like how the controls feel, if there's down time, are the buttons awkward to press, what the rhythm of battle feels like, etc. That's the stuff I want to know.
4. While it's nice to see what each skill does, it's really annoying to hear people say stuff like "Oh, I haven't unlocked that skill yet, but..." No, no buts. If you haven't unlocked the skill, don't talk about it. Basic journalism: if you don't know, don't report on it.
5. Less commentary on potential usage in PvP when showing PvE footage. It's like these people don't understand how commentary work. Comment on the video footage. I want it. Why can they not deliver?
6. There is definitely something wrong when the first video on the list is made by someone who wasn't really into the game and was mashing the 1 button the entire time. Just WTF, why is that even listed? How is that representative? And worst of all, after watching the video, I didn't want to play the game, because it looked so utterly boring and not at all interesting. The lighting was horrible and the action slow paced and all I saw was the guy burning up over and over and over and over and over... You get the idea.
7. I feel like I haven't gotten any new information about the game, and what new info that did leak through had zero follow up. For example, one video mentioned in passing that karma points are used for equipment repair. What? There's a repair mechanic? How does it work? How long can we go before we need to repair things? How easy is it to repair shit? I like that I get a single throwaway line on this mechanic that was never released in prior GW2 news and there is zero followup. I thought the point of these closed betas are supposed to show us how the game worked. The existence of a repair mechanic is kind of important. I mean, for fuck's sake, this is not about promotion, ArenaNet does enough of that, this is about journalism and giving the inside scoop of how the game actually works. And I still know nothing more coming out than going in.
Gaming journalism is so much crap right now. I'm amazed that these people get paid to do what they do, when they fail at their jobs so much. The whole point is for them to record video footage of new information and disseminate that info and I get...nothing that I don't already know.
Or maybe I'm missing the point. Maybe the point is to build hype. But if that's the case, then why is the first listed video of gameplay footage that's boring as fuck? Because this is practically negative hype and makes the game seem really boring to play and I know the game has to be more fun than that.
I'm sad that engineer had very little interesting footage. It's a damn shame that all the video footage is surrounding warriors and elementalists, which are really pretty traditional and already talked to death. I want to know how the non-traditional classes play. The one video of engineer I did get to watch bored me to tears. Just...god, the pacing is so slow. I've seen turn based combat that finished faster. And that was a single enemy; I can't imagine what solo-ing is going to feel like on this profession. Maybe the guy just really sucked at playing an engineer.
Ranger looked interesting, but will we need to level each individual pet, like we did in GW1? Because that would blow chunks. I really hope pet level is transferable, so that when we switch pets, the skills are comparably unlocked and we won't have to go back and grind levels for each and ever available pet.
I just don't know. This press release has me feeling very unenthusiastic about playing this game. You're thoughts?
Honestly, I wasn't expecting these to be anything like critical reviews. They're more like sneak peaks. Often done by people who haven't played GW before.
Also, regarding #7 - I think the repair mechanism was explained in a blog post somewhere. Basically, every time you die, you take a hit to a piece of equipment, and after 3 hits it doesn't provide any defense bonus at all any more and basically falls off (isn't worn anymore) and needs to be fixed. The joke is that you can now literally get the pants knocked off of you.
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branchandroot
I am going to sound so obnoxiously entitled
Date: 2012-03-29 10:03 pm (UTC)1. I do not understand the point of having videos that feature a single profession and then not cover everything about that profession. I understand that there's a lot of walking around, but where are the highlight clips? Why am I sitting here watching people commenting "Oh, let me find something to kill to show off this skill"? I'm sure the game isn't nearly so boring as this, but god I was bored to tears. I think these videos actually made me want to play the game less.
2. Comparison videos. Where the fuck are they? I do not want to have to sit through 2 hours worth of videos on each different profession and try to do comparisons myself, since, again, I'm not playing the game yet. I'm amazed at the basic lack of commentary on how ranged vs. melee classes play, or how caster vs. physical attackers play.
3. Why are the commentary stuck at the level of describing what is happening on screen? I have eyes, I can see arrows raining down or fire bursting or whatever. Commentary is supposed to tell me something I can't get out of just watching the video, like how the controls feel, if there's down time, are the buttons awkward to press, what the rhythm of battle feels like, etc. That's the stuff I want to know.
4. While it's nice to see what each skill does, it's really annoying to hear people say stuff like "Oh, I haven't unlocked that skill yet, but..." No, no buts. If you haven't unlocked the skill, don't talk about it. Basic journalism: if you don't know, don't report on it.
5. Less commentary on potential usage in PvP when showing PvE footage. It's like these people don't understand how commentary work. Comment on the video footage. I want it. Why can they not deliver?
6. There is definitely something wrong when the first video on the list is made by someone who wasn't really into the game and was mashing the 1 button the entire time. Just WTF, why is that even listed? How is that representative? And worst of all, after watching the video, I didn't want to play the game, because it looked so utterly boring and not at all interesting. The lighting was horrible and the action slow paced and all I saw was the guy burning up over and over and over and over and over... You get the idea.
7. I feel like I haven't gotten any new information about the game, and what new info that did leak through had zero follow up. For example, one video mentioned in passing that karma points are used for equipment repair. What? There's a repair mechanic? How does it work? How long can we go before we need to repair things? How easy is it to repair shit? I like that I get a single throwaway line on this mechanic that was never released in prior GW2 news and there is zero followup. I thought the point of these closed betas are supposed to show us how the game worked. The existence of a repair mechanic is kind of important. I mean, for fuck's sake, this is not about promotion, ArenaNet does enough of that, this is about journalism and giving the inside scoop of how the game actually works. And I still know nothing more coming out than going in.
Gaming journalism is so much crap right now. I'm amazed that these people get paid to do what they do, when they fail at their jobs so much. The whole point is for them to record video footage of new information and disseminate that info and I get...nothing that I don't already know.
Or maybe I'm missing the point. Maybe the point is to build hype. But if that's the case, then why is the first listed video of gameplay footage that's boring as fuck? Because this is practically negative hype and makes the game seem really boring to play and I know the game has to be more fun than that.
(Feelings in next comment. Things got too long.)
Feelingses
Date: 2012-03-29 10:03 pm (UTC)Ranger looked interesting, but will we need to level each individual pet, like we did in GW1? Because that would blow chunks. I really hope pet level is transferable, so that when we switch pets, the skills are comparably unlocked and we won't have to go back and grind levels for each and ever available pet.
I just don't know. This press release has me feeling very unenthusiastic about playing this game. You're thoughts?
Re: I am going to sound so obnoxiously entitled
Date: 2012-03-30 06:08 am (UTC)Honestly, I wasn't expecting these to be anything like critical reviews. They're more like sneak peaks. Often done by people who haven't played GW before.
Also, regarding #7 - I think the repair mechanism was explained in a blog post somewhere. Basically, every time you die, you take a hit to a piece of equipment, and after 3 hits it doesn't provide any defense bonus at all any more and basically falls off (isn't worn anymore) and needs to be fixed. The joke is that you can now literally get the pants knocked off of you.
Re: Feelingses
Date: 2012-03-30 06:10 am (UTC)I do like the questing/event system the more I see of that though.
Ranger pets - the pet is supposed to always be your level so there's no need to level pets.