As I noted back in August/September (when I resumed playing due to the Secrets of the Obscure expansion), this gave me something to play normally again. And once I unlocked the skyscale (via the SOTO route), this incentivized me to get 100% map completion (on my main character).
Playing blindly mostly without guides does have its downsides at times though since previously, I didn’t realize that 100% completion applied to just the core base maps. When I resumed playing in August, my map completion was at 83% (and I was at only 93 masteries; as of this posting, I’m at 172 which is still far from the current 514 total). Back in 2019 when I started playing Guild Wars 2, I went on this playing spree of exploration + main story quest + Heart of Thorns expansion + Path of Fire expansion + Living World Seasons 3/4 + Ice Brood Saga. So my presumption was that this 83% applied to all of these maps (because I was playing the majority of the story/exploration content all at once during this short timeframe). I did resume for a short bit in 2021 when ArenaNet offered up a free unlock of LWS2.
However, when I began completing the SOTO maps, I noticed this percentage wasn’t increasing. And that is when I finally decided to search around and found out that 100% map completion was only in the core Tyria maps (OOF). Much of the rest of the 17% was unfinished renown hearts and a few missing points of interest from locations that I hadn’t discovered previously. I also re-learned how to play my Revenant and get around again. I should note that I’m not a “have to complete all the dailies/weeklies all the time” sort of player (I find that being drawn into that mindset in any game, is the fastest way to lead to burnout). Thus with this new Wizard’s Vault dailies/weeklies system, if there are objectives I don’t want to do, I just don’t do them. “Oh, but you’re missing out on a lot of Astral Acclaim”. I personally don’t care if I’m not getting the maximum amount for each season. Likewise, I stopped being an achievement hunting maximist in games for awhile including Guild Wars 2 (I’m at only 2.5K whereas the leaderboard shows players at 48K as of this posting). Yes, there are some lucrative rewards, but I’ve long preferred to just get achievements as organically as possible from just playing normally (I do realize that many achievements in Guild Wars 2 requires more purposeful execution).
I also finally installed and began using the Blish HUD addon (little did I realize how much QoL I was missing with this nifty overlay). The map completion modules aided in discovering these areas that I had missed (usually these tunnels). Again, I often times do myself a disservice by taking this “playing blind” approach to games (it’s a trade off though when it comes to that sense of initial adventure/discovery; the thing that made me extremely immersed during that 1.5 month timeframe in 2019 where I began playing the heck out of the game).
I’ve been trying it out on an alt and finding some of the re-exploration a bit more tolerable (though I need to be honest, doing everything a second time even with this overlay, isn’t as engaging as the first time when that discovery was all fresh). Yes, I am not a huge fan of renown type of systems when it is character based (which is why I laud Lost Ark for changing most of their system to be roster wide on a specific server). While 100% map completion isn’t required (the most important objectives are waypoints and hero points), it’s something that you might as well try to knock out since you’re passing by most of these things anyway.
Digressing, ever since SOTO launched and I completed what has been released for the initial MSQ (and then acquiring the permanent skyscale unlock), I have been playing Guild Wars 2 systematically (and at a more sane pace compared to 2019) including purchasing Ends of Dragon and completing that story. So for the past month and half, I’ve been slowly leveling my masteries in HoT, PoF, and EoD maps (SOTO, I’m capped as far as the 22 initial mastery points [majority used to complete the 7 flight mastery tracks for the skyscale] and thus am training the other tracks until they cap).
This also made me realize that once again, I’ve ended up sinking my time into an older released title (specifically, games that were released in that 2011-2014 timeframe which kind of highlights how more recently released games, have been designed with a lot more blatant mechanics as the design priority that I end up honing in on/disliking when it comes to monetization and daily/weekly/monthly player engagement tactics). This is probably a topic I could expand on separately so I’ll leave it at this for now.
