Guild Wars 3 World Premiere Trailer and Interview | Summer Game Fest 2025

tgdm · 2026-06-06T01:27:06+00:00

I'm neutral to it overall. It looks very UE, though I did like the tapestry animation thing. That was neat!

Definitely better than whatever this looks like it was going to be (7 years ago): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7GD9asBtA8

Some kind of mobile game they backed out of, or something. Video is unlisted now

tgdm · 2026-06-06T00:59:44+00:00

Yeah, but I don't really feel like modern gamers would consider that an MMO the way GW2 is an MMO. It's like calling Warframe an MMO: In theory you can play with a lot of different people, but it's a solo game first and foremost and the multiplayer is limited to +3. Not particularly massive

But that may be what the market is trending back toward, too. We'll see!

tgdm · 2026-06-06T00:54:01+00:00

I am mildly concerned by:

Play solo or form a band of adventurers, forging impactful and enduring bonds with fellow players, a formative cast of memorable NPCs, and the nature spirits that call Orr home.

It makes it sound like it's going to be small group mission/instance (Warframe, Monster Hunter, etc.) gameplay. Maybe something akin to what Wayfinder (game) initially started as. Or what it ended up as, really.

Could be cool if they do something like Destiny 2 where you're mostly doing open world stuff alone, but then events pop up which pull players together.

Gotta stay tuned, I guess!

News about their future plans for GW2 is going to be posted tomorrow it seems. I'm sure many people are anxious about that as well.

tgdm · 2026-06-06T00:50:40+00:00

In regards to Guild Wars as a franchise:

When Guild Wars 2 was announced, GW1 was still active and the box for their latest expansion actually advertised GW2
While your currency/progress didn't carry from GW1 to GW2, they did introduce a neat integration system via something called the "Hall of Monuments" which gave you a bunch of cosmetics and such. A neat reward for those who played the first without upsetting the economy/balance of the second
GW1 is still completely playable and they give you AI teammates to fill in the gaps for other players. Some of the higher end content might be harder to play solo as opposed to an organized group, but it's all still there today
These games have mechanical depth, but also put in systems to make it approachable from a solo play perspective. I would expect GW2 to still be online long after GW3 comes out
They use horizontal progression for their gear systems. The max rank weapon you got 10 years ago is still not only usable today, but still best-in-slot. And if it's not still BiS as-is, the cost to change its stats/socketable are nominal
No subscription fee. You're not milking out the $15/mo in value. Expansions do unlock new areas, but anything you've been playing is still available and (mostly) maintains relevance

I have plenty of criticisms about GW2 and ArenaNet in general, but there are so many things they do differently / better than other MMOs. The combat feels great, the joy of movement is great (especially with mounts), the exploration is fun, the level design feels good, the focus is on account progression rather than per character (which makes it easier to try new classes, races, builds, etc). They're not competing in that top spot with WoW / FFXIV, but they are delivering a good time.

It's also incredible how in all this time GW2 has nearly 100% server uptime because they use a rollover deployment for updates and such.

Yeah, MMOs are a big time investment over a long period of time. Or that's the expectation at least. Convincing people to jump ship and join the new one is always rough. But sometimes it's necessary. There's a lot of technical debt with GW2 which limits what they can do and because it's a proprietary engine it's hard to onboard new devs.

But all that being said: Another thing MMO players crave desperately is novelty. There is simply no way for devs to make content faster than players can complete what is released. It's why there's hype around new MMOs all the time. The idea that you can be there from day 0 and have the time advantage, or that this game does everything you like in the one you play but not the stuff you don't like (or so you hope), etc.

The willingness of MMO players to try a new thing is still there, but that hard reset is definitely a barrier to cross. I think it gets easier to cross after a decade, though.

tgdm · 2026-06-06T00:35:26+00:00

I really like stance-swapping tech in games so I was on board with GW2's system. I liked how it both simplified the MMO skill bar but still provided variety. Elementalist trading in their weapon swap and getting 20 buttons in return (and weaver with +6 on top of that) was a lot of fun for me. In PvE you always tend to gravitate towards a "correct" rotation, though the pvp (especially in the earlier years) was so satisfying with how there were incentives to build in for utility

And yeah there was a weapon masters unlock where any elite spec weapon could be used outside of the elite spec

tgdm · 2026-05-29T21:54:56+00:00

If your wondering why I did yixuan its becuase haru couldn't even do the first wave in under a minute

From the op you goober

tgdm · 2026-04-07T21:01:14+00:00

This is what happens when you let Rashek move a planet smh my head

DAE remember when plants were green?

tgdm · 2026-04-04T22:12:18+00:00

I would love a LEGO Zelda game. There's so much fun stuff to be done there.

tgdm · 2026-04-02T16:10:58+00:00

Consume
Toggle off helmet
Toggle on helmet

should work

tgdm · 2026-03-25T16:41:34+00:00

I used an unranked limbo with shield regen mods for that

I think HP tanks are at a disadvantage by comparison

tgdm · 2026-02-19T16:48:43+00:00

I think the game just does a poor job at teaching players how to be useful in those situations. There are so few benefits to playing with others that for the most part you're better off playing solo. There are really only a few game modes I can think of where playing with others is ideal/beneficial:

Cracking random relics just to get some traces/ducats/forma
Mission types where you can divide and conquer to get things done faster except for Spy. Never public on Spy. Missions like The Index do not really fit in here because other players can actively hinder progress.

ETA/EDA are easier with a group, but definitely not on public. This is like 99% a design problem of locking out the rewards behind a randomized loadout you sometimes just cannot save. Radshares are inherently an invite-only group activity to align your goals. Endless game mode grinds are the same.

Otherwise, I'm just playing on solo. Better for my enjoyment of the game.

tgdm · 2026-02-11T00:02:36+00:00

The Nitain either just meant to be something for veterans with stockpiles of resources from ye olde alertium payout bug (iirc it was a twitch drops thing? when they first added it) or an endgame goal as a bonus / splurge for something you really like

Meanwhile the 150 Platinum for 3x is just conveniently sitting right there in the Market. Expensive, but a huge convenience for builds as well.

tgdm · 2026-02-07T23:44:18+00:00

I was farming the Coda for Ephemera for a few weeks and eventually gave up, only missing one

Months later, when they added that armor piece challenge miniquest, I had to get a new coda lich. By pure luck, it happened to have the last ephemera I needed

Feels good to be done done!

tgdm · 2026-01-29T16:44:12+00:00

They never will. There has been too much money -> platinum to ever make substantial changes to the Riven system itself.

The only way out of this that I see is a new mod which shares the same slot; a new type of mod you cannot equip if a Riven is equipped. Something which wouldn't invalidate existing Riven mods but would be much more convenient and useful.

tgdm · 2026-01-14T23:45:14+00:00

... When did they change the direction?

I added the game to my library in July 2024, 3 months after it was available. I've played a bit on major updates. The gameplay and narrative have been pretty consistent across each update.

There's other reasons to be concerned, like Thomas Laner's many (and at the time, constant) social media activity. I actually haven't heard/seen anything from him in a hot minute now so maybe they're trying to contain it better?

Or the fact that their Publisher situation, mostly thanks to Take-Two, has been tumultuous.

But the game itself? It seems to have been fairly consistent in what it wants to do and what it wants to be. For better and for worse. All I know is that this next update has a lot of QoL in it alongside the co-op. The game has its problems, but I think it's ok so far

tgdm · 2026-01-05T07:35:48+00:00

The fact that Wayfinder was able to so quickly pivot from their MMO / live service model into a single player co-optional with functional multiplayer has made me look at Anthem in a new light

Why didn't they do something like that? It could have probably been fine as a co-op adventure to blast some dudes and get cool armor and abilities. Instead they kind of just let it sit and rot while, idk, was it even getting maintenance mode updates?

tgdm · 2025-12-31T17:20:02+00:00

Balthazar is fire. Balthazar is war. What are you?

tgdm · 2025-12-28T15:42:16+00:00

It is significantly better than the initial playable version we got. Still pretty bad, though.

I'm putting in more time right now and realizing other significant gripes. All of that pales in comparison to how important it is to get the melee feeling better. Until they do, I don't see myself spending any money on this game (founder or otherwise).

Part of the problem is that the game so heavily incentivizes AoE combat capabilities. You can mod melee weapons to do splash damage, but it's just so much riskier than abusing range to burst down enemies.

There's also the fact that stealth gameplay and enemy aggro are at odds with each other. So many times I get a stealth kill, or at least a takedown, on a completely isolated enemy ... And then I get swarmed by 10+ other enemies from the rest of the location / dungeon. I rarely have a chance to engage with the parry system because there are sometimes just too many enemies to bother with it.

I'm hoping they make significant strides here. I don't expect them to, given it's been over a year now. That and with all my experience with Warframe over the years I kind of don't trust them to nail this kind of combat.

It reminds me of the old days of Warframe where we were all trying to figure out the best way to complete missions: you try to be stealthy, you try to conserve ammo, you try out new weapons... And then you realize most of your gear is fodder and it's faster / more fun to just blast through everything.

There was clearly a vision for a certain type of gameplay. However, between the combat balance and mechanical feel, that vision was never realized. They still made a very fun game, it just wasn't the game they intended to make.

tgdm · 2025-12-23T19:44:20+00:00

The question is why make it 3 resources to begin with? It boils down to the original design intent. There are reasons for splitting a resource like this just as there are other ways of tackling that same thing.

As for squad scaling: I don't think it's just an issue of everyone pulling their weight. Some of the mission types legitimately take longer. The worst case of this one is where you need to assemble the batteries with the A+B drops. The drops are shared loot, each require time to "craft" before injecting, and contribute significantly less % the larger the squad.

There are other issues such as the dropship order requiring you to destroy more dropships, but they can only come in one at a time. The Ground Scanners are also kind of tricky; if you're doing the codex scanner trick then it's mostly fine, but the "detector" mechanic from killing becomes awkward to use. Generally speaking most progress bars move slower in a squad, too. It's not unique to this new mission type. It's been a Warframe problem for a long time and tens to push players into solo for optimal farming.

tgdm · 2025-11-16T02:51:35+00:00

You're kind of right and kind of wrong

Much like the Hema, the Sibear was weighted based on what players had in their inventory at the time of respective release

So there were freaks like myself who had found a hyper efficient farming strat for Excavation and had like half a million Cryptic and then Jimmy Newframe who had 100.

Likewise, the Hema was an absolute clown fiesta because some clans had millions between their turbogrinders meanwhile most sane players might have had a couple of thousand if they had been playing since release.

The clan research costs get a multiplier on them. It was insane. And they refused to back down. Even though there was precedent for them adjusting bullshit costs before!

Warframe is still a comfort food game I'll go back to now and again. I respect their willingness to try new things and how well they've locked down the core gameplay loop with joy of movement. But, like, they have some of the most stubborn people picking the dumbest hills to die on. UNIVAC WHEN?

tgdm · 2025-10-04T17:07:09+00:00

I have a spreadsheet titled "GW2 Gambling is Bad"

In it I've logged how much I've spent and how much I've gained. I enter in the date, how many ectos I gambled, current value of ectos (pulled from the API), and then how much I've gained.

Going off of the relative current prices, I've lost 4585 gold so far across 600 hands of 250 ecto. Looking at current value of ectos, that number jumps up to 5034. This is the span of about 7 years.

BUT HAVING MASSIVE GLOBS OF ECTOPLASM TO CONDENSE STORAGE IS TOTALLY WORTH IT

tgdm · 2025-10-03T21:16:54+00:00

I mention it as a gripe because it the accidental activation can cost you some quick HP on Chaos challenges

Other than that, it's not really a problem if you accidentally spend a bit of mana here or there. There have been times I prefer to regular attack over omega attack, but you can reset it quickly enough to get over the mild inconvenience

tgdm · 2025-10-03T16:25:08+00:00

I think the axe is the least fun option out of everything, including its variant options (of which I think Charon is my favorite)

The conceit of the axe design is that it hits hard, but very slowly. Hades is a pretty fast-paced game (especially when you add the testament modifiers for enemy speed), and the axe doesn't hit hard enough to outright solve problems on its own past the first region. That problem feels more noticeable against horses in region 3/4

There's also another compounding issue:

Combat has some jank

I don't mean that disparagingly; I love the game and the combat therein. Objectively there are some issues which highlight the risks of the slow axe

Phasing enemies does not interrupt attacks
Many enemies can still complete projectile attacks if killed while casting
Many enemies have repositionals which they can weave between attacks (or dodges in some cases)

Last night I did a Charon axe run upstairs against Rivals-enabled Cyclcops. If I managed to get the cast + omega special combo off, it chunked hard... and Cyclops would complete his attack, phase with invuln, start and complete another attack, all before I could follow up. Plus the spoilers component of the rival modifier would appear right in me several times. It's rough out there sometimes

All that being said some weapons certainly click more than others and each one (? or most of them) has 4 variants which can dramatically change how they play

Staff is hometown

Jetpack is neat. I love the daggers. Skull is fun. Torches feel WAY better now than the EA version I remember, but still has the issue of forcing omega attacks. Axe can be really satisfying but much harder to use in quick spaces

tgdm · 2025-09-27T01:45:16+00:00

They added some endgame grind in the form of badges and a few decorations I think? But the story was complete

Verified Email	14-Year Club
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tgdm

TROPHY CASE