How did I totally miss this? This video and Bio Break post There’s no place like home (instances) give a good overview. As I watched the video, the main thought that I had was “this feels like Fable 3”. Fable was a game that I loved for reasons that totally surprised me…I actually loved riding into town and having my kids run up to me squealing in excitement that their Big Damned Hero mother was back. Then my hardworking husband (or wife, depending on which town it was) would fall into my arms. The villagers hailed me and cheered me. (Yeah, I have trouble being a bad guy – my characters were always well-loved.) The GW2 home instance will be quite similar to this.
In the video, the dev team gave an example of a choice that you have to make, which was to save either a hospital or an orphanage, but not both. In your home neighborhood, both are represented; if you saved the orphanage, the kids are happy but the hospital is burnt out. If you make the other choice, you have a working hospital, but hungry orphan kids have no place to live. The people in your hometown react to you according to choices that you have made in your life story.
I totally love this idea. It is the perfect balace between having your actions change the world around you, and also being able to share a world environment with others.The problem with MMOs, of course, being that we are all heroes, every single one of us is The Chosen. On a realistic level, that just doesn’t work. I want to come home and have people clap my back and buy me drinks in the pub. I want a buxom wench to give me a sly look when she serves my ale, and I want my best friend to live next door. Yeah, I want to be a Big Damned Hero, you bet.
Now, if the game would finally come out! Every video makes me feel like a small child who knows that Christmas is just too far away.