Where have I been? Guild Wars 2

Night at night.

I fell in love with Tyria, especially the plant-based elf replacement, the Sylvari. They’re so magical and alien. They don’t even know who they are, let alone who everyone else is, or what the world is that they’ve suddenly sprouted into.

It is quite simply a beautiful place. The official artwork in and out of game is based on rough strokes of paint that tells stories in smudges. As you explore, the smudges give way to details.

And Tyria fixes a slew of problems that have always grated on my nerves in MMOs.

1.) All the areas are level restricted, meaning you can go to any area on the map at any time, at any level, and gain experience, gather useful materials, participate in the events. That means the entire map stays relevant. Forever. Most games, you get to level hojillion, and go back to where you started, and it’s an amusing retrospective where you can wave in the general direction of the enemies and they splatter.

Not so in Tyria. No matter how powerful you are, you go back to the very beginning, everything will still take more than one hit to die. It’s beautiful.

Photobombed by a skritt.

2.) Loot is individual. Whatever a kill drops for you is yours. It’s not possible for you to take from someone else or profit from someone else’s kill. If you help someone, you get your share and they get theirs. Gorgeous.

3.) Resources are individual. For example, you decide to go mining. You go to the local mine and find someone else is already there and has scraped it dry. In Tyria, that never happens. There could be 40 of you in that mine. You would all get whatever you wanted from what was there.

4.) Loot is relevant. If you’re max level, killing the starter creatures will generally get you crap all, and becomes a ludicrous waste of time to even try it. In Tyria, you can go to the starter area as max level, and the creatures there will drop a mixture of low level items and items appropriate for your level. No map, no participation in Tyria is ever a waste of time.

There’s more, a lot more, a lot more that keeps all the other players your friends and not your competitors. Even this start, though, if you’ve played other MMOs and not GW2, just picture it. You never have to fight anyone for anything. Ever.