"Supporting" in Guild Wars 2

It's true that, in Guild Wars 2, there's no such thing as a dedicated "support class". But it's also true that a player can individually try to "support" in specific encounters, and the game doesn't do enough to reward that. This isn't specific to World vs. World, either. "Supporting", in the more literal and moment-to-moment sense of the word, is possible in GW2, and it's much more dynamic than the current trope of pigeon-holing "support" into dedicated character classes whose job it is to heal players and use crowd control on enemies.

ARCHIVE: Forced Grouping and Community in MMOs

note: any post that starts with "ARCHIVE:" is something that I wrote either for an older blog or in some other location, but deemed worth of copying over to this.

In the various MMO forums in which I spent an unhealthy amount of my free time, I've come to notice a trend in arguments about grouping. People are constantly arguing for and against more group content. While grouping is an integral part of all MMOs, I think there are two types of games in this regard: The type in which community is created through necessity, and the type that community has to be forced upon. There are upsides and downsides to both, and they're pretty much mutually exclusive.

ARCHIVE: Spontaneous Cooperation

note: any post that starts with "ARCHIVE:" is something that I wrote either for an older blog or in some other location, but deemed worth of copying over to this.

There really needs to be more of an effort by MMO developers to allow and reward spontaneous cooperation. I don't see why everyone shouldn't get quest credit for helping take down a mob, even if someone else tagged it first. If someone manages to come in at the last second and do a sliver of damage, well...lucky them!

There are so many fantasy movies/stories/whatevers in which someone pops out of nowhere to help someone out. We should be able to do this in MMO's! It's all about the multiplayer, isn't it? So why are there ever detrimental repercussions for cooperating?

I see the future of MMO's getting rid of the standard grouping formula all together. If people are near each other, they can cooperate! And all get credit for their heroic deeds! Yay!

Seems pretty simple. I don't know why no one has done it.

So come on, developers. Let's turn "kill stealing" into a forgotten term and replace it with "kill sharing".