Plains of Ashford; Defending against the Flame Legion and UndeadExterminas said:This is folly, in my opionion, since story and gameplay should not be kept in seperate areas of the game (Hello Guild Wars 2!) but instead should be a union.
WoW might be pretty dry on ideas by now, but you can still tell what each area's story and theme are. I dare you to do the same for Guild Wars 2.
Queensdale; Defending against Bandits
Caledon Forest; Defending Against the Nightmare Countrt
Metrica Province; Defending Against the Inquisition
Wayfarer Foothills; Defending against the Sons of Svanir
Diessa Plateau; Defending against the human sepratists
Kessex Hills; Defending against Centaurs and Bandits
Brisban Wildlands; Defending against the Inquisition, Nightmare court and bandits
Snowden Drifts; Defending against Sons of Svanir
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Then when you get to the straights of devastation, narrative rears its head and from then on your have dynamic events where you are trying to claim the land.
Why must you get to 65 to get to this point? Because it's an MMO. You can't spread intense narrative across 80 levels. So they focus on the last 15. There are no quests at all at this level and your exp gain must come from exploration or participating in the assault.
Don't think the zones in WoW had a strong narrative for each zone. It was the narrative which I listed above in GW2's. A lot of defending against certain factions. What WoW had was violent distinctions in aesthetics for each zones. WoW came from the land of whackiness; TBC. Guild Wars 2 is more grounded in realism with regards to their landscapes (if you ignore giant crystals).
What will kill TESO is awful game play. You have many games now that offer large Co-Op which allows you to play with a small community of friends and the gameplay is good. Why would you want to play an MMO with worse gameplay and play with people who you don't want to play with?
Having a subfee won't help either.