Vernacademia 9 -- Sientir on Guild Wars 1 and 2

Another game impressions/interview piece. This time Sientir talks about Guild Wars 1 and 2 and his impression of their approach to designing the two games.

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Cliff Notes:

00:04 Introduction
01:07 A brief history
03:08 The Modes of Play
04:28 The iteration process
05:44 Guild Wars 1 Crafting
08:14 Guild Wars 2 Crafting
11:57 Material Acquisition in both Games
12:40 Experimenting with Questing
16:48 The Point of Quests
18:32 Contextualization, Hearts and Presence
19:34 Goblin Slayer and Reputation
20:50 Level Cap and Skill Acquisition
21:19 Guild Wars 1 Progression
23:25 Guild Wars 2 Progression
24:46 Guild Wars 1 and Early Level Cap
26:47 Guild Wars 2 and Later Level Cap
28:00 Guild Wars 2 Combat and Build System
28:51 Comparing Guild Wars 2 to Middle Earth Shadow of War
32:24 Guild Wars 1, Balance, and Bad Builds
37:16 Guild Wars 2, and Lowered Build Variance
39:56 Guild Wars 1 and Barrier of Entry vs. Depth
40:25 Guild Wars 2 and Opportunity Cost
42:33 The Removal of the Healer Class
43:35 Play Variance or Lack there of
46:05 Big Take Aways
46:39 Managing Scope
47:55 You Need to Define a Game's Design Identity
48:41 Overall Guild Wars 2 is not a bad game
49:14 Wrap Up, Next Podcast, and Sign Off