So, i've been hearing things about Guild Wars 2...

[PPB]

To give you the blunt TL;DR version, I think GW2 is an overhyped game that doesn't innovate as much as it pretends to, BUT that doesn't stop it from being a very well-made and enjoyable game.

The thing I enjoy the most about it is probably that it's one of the first MMOs I've played that actually encourages (and rewards) you for exploring and simply wandering around the zones. The mechanics themselves are not all that revolutionary though; you still push number keys to make stuff happen and you need to kill certain amounts of enemies to complete quests. Random events are fun until you realise that they're not all that random; they're more like "open quests" that start over and over again in the same area after a set amount of time.

The personnal storyline was a disappointment for me, they more or less come off as a poor man's SWTOR. Now SWTOR was no Planescape, but most class storylines offered a certain standard that seems to be lacking in GW2 (which falls into the "fan fiction worthy" category too often). Of course character role-playing is far from the focus of this game, but the feature feels underwhelming nonetheless.

The lack of a subscription isn't so much an advantage for this game, it's a necessity. There is a lot of content in there for $60, but not in an overwhelming amount. If it had a monthly fee, I would have felt like it wasn't worth it.

As for your fear of low-level zones being empty, I can assure you it's not the case on the server I play on (Shiverpeaks). I'm frequently getting groups of 10-20 people on events.

In the end, the game was worth my $60, though I have to say that I really don't have the time to play all that much. If you play many hours a day and like to breeze through the content, I don't expect the game will last very long for you.

 

[bificommander]

I'm still having fun with the game, but then I play differently. I already shelled out for 3 extra slots so I have one character of each profession. I still haven't lvled any to 80 yet, but leveled 7 of them about a third of the way. And I like how the game lets you. Thanks to the branching story quests and there being more level-appropriate content than needed, I think you can get 3 characters to lvl 80 have at least 75% unique content in each. So this is the game for me.

BUT if you enjoy just playing with a single character for years... eh, that might be less fun for you if you don't care for PvP.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Both of these alternatives sound pretty scary when they concern a game one is thinking to just now get started with. How do lower-level areas look? Does level scaling actually encourage some activity there?

The problem with scaling as it functions right now is that there is little in the way of a cash incentive for people to dawdle about in low level zones with their high level characters, so once they've done their exploration pass they seldom return. Scaling could use some adjustment. It was advertised as a feature to prevent content obsolescence, but when you put all your high end drops and crafting materials in just a couple of zones, you've achieved content obsolescence whether you level scale or not.

As for population, I have several alts...two in the early teens, one in the 20's, one in the 30's, and one in the 40's, and while it is definitely not as crowded as it was during opening week, it is far from "empty". Frankly, the dynamic events work best with 3-5 people playing in them...any more than that and it just turns into AoE spam. On rare occasions you may run into an event that simply does not have enough people present to get it done, but that would be the exception rather than the rule. And realistically, occasionally seeing events go into their failure state is a Good Thing.

I recommend picking a more populated server though, for WvWvW purposes as much as anything. Be aware that the very best WvWvW servers still have brutal queues though.

 

[Driekan]

There is a reasonable difference between how I'm approaching GW2 and how I approached every other MMO played before. It ties into how you pay for the game and also into how it's designed.

You're not paying per month to play it. That may seem like a silly distinction, but it's not. If you don't log in to play a dozen hours in any given week, you're not wasting your money. You're playing as much as you want, when you want. Liberating, really.

The way it is designed supports that. The content in the game is far more enjoyable than in any MMO I've played before (Though a few do come close), and the experience is a lot more immediate and diverse. You will rarely just grind through a quest - instead, you will start doing it, then figure there is more than one way about it, then an event will trigger it and have you do something completely different for a while... So forth. Yes, you are absolutely using the same set of mechanics and the same inputs to do very similar things the whole time, but it feels far less repetitive and far less bland.

The game allows you to hop in, head to any region nearby and just do whatever is going on there. If you're over-leveled, you will automatically be set at the right level for the region, if you're underleveled, it will become obvious pretty fast. The game supports you just hopping in and having fun. Yes. Fabled fun, that thing that happens so rarely in MMOs it might as well not exist.

Is that something you want? An environment you can hop into, have some fun, earn some stuff and walk away from? If so, then this game is absolutely a good buy, and it is unlikely you'll find better bang for your buck. Most other full boxes priced at US$ 60 will have far less content, and usually far inferior content.

On the other hand, if what you want in an MMO is the classic MMO experience, doing 50 hours of grind per week to get a new piece of gear for your endgame character... Then why the fuck aren't you playing WoW? It does that probably better than any other game in the market, possibly better than any other game ever will.

 

[sanquin]

i didn't dislike it, but its not something i'd pay full price for, it'd be more an impulse purchase when its down to like $20 or so

Entitled much? If you got more than 30 hours of fun gameplay out of it you already got way more worth for your money than the average gamer does for your average single player AAA game. So GW2 is definitely worth the full 60 dollars, even if you didn't enjoy it any more after you hit 80.


Anyway, the dynamic events do slow down a LOT when there are little players in an area. It sucks big time, but it's not the end of the world either. It's only really bad on off hours. When I try to do events between 12 pm and 8~9 am there aren't that many other players, and even fewer in my area. But otherwise it's fine really.

 

[itsthesheppy]

It's a good MMO. And after buying it you can play it for however long you like and never spend another dime.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Entitled much? If you got more than 30 hours of fun gameplay out of it you already got way more worth for your money than the average gamer does for your average single player AAA game. So GW2 is definitely worth the full 60 dollars, even if you didn't enjoy it any more after you hit 80.

How on EARTH is that entitled? FFS people, I know "entitled" is like this year's buzzword, but it's turning into the next "grinding" with how frequently it's being misused.

 

[Driekan]

Entitled much? If you got more than 30 hours of fun gameplay out of it you already got way more worth for your money than the average gamer does for your average single player AAA game. So GW2 is definitely worth the full 60 dollars, even if you didn't enjoy it any more after you hit 80.

How on EARTH is that entitled? FFS people, I know "entitled" is like this year's buzzword, but it's turning into the next "grinding" with how frequently it's being misused.

Can't say that was a great use of the term, but word-choice aside, the argument has merit. If you just play up to level 80 then stop, you're still getting more bang for your 60 bucks than you will for almost any other game in the market.

And if you enjoyed that process, I find it likely that you will (Like I am doing) start multiple characters to check out the different classes and the early bits of narrative, thus adding a further few dozen hours.

 

[Lunar Templar]

i didn't dislike it, but its not something i'd pay full price for, it'd be more an impulse purchase when its down to like $20 or so

Entitled much? If you got more than 30 hours of fun gameplay out of it you already got way more worth for your money than the average gamer does for your average single player AAA game. So GW2 is definitely worth the full 60 dollars, even if you didn't enjoy it any more after you hit 80.

oh look some one's using 'entitled' like a bad word again, with out even asking for an explanation of that persons stance, how cute

which btw, your not going to get now unless some one else asks, i will how ever say.

GW2 bored me before i hit level 10, so chew on that for awhile before you going throwing around words you should probably look up first

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Can't say that was a great use of the term, but word-choice aside, the argument has merit. If you just play up to level 80 then stop, you're still getting more bang for your 60 bucks than you will for almost any other game in the market.

And if you enjoyed that process, I find it likely that you will (Like I am doing) start multiple characters to check out the different classes and the early bits of narrative, thus adding a further few dozen hours.

He can argue value all day long, it's completely subjective. I may not agree that the game is only worth it at $20, but that's not an argument I can support or win, since it's completely down to preference.

 

[cerebus23]

I got my money out of gw1 fully, i have watch my roommate play gw2 and it just fails to grab me much, The skills hunt of the old game seems completely gone less it is hidden end game.

and part of the things i liked to do in gw1 was get good l33t skills and when they added hero bots i spent a good amount of time getting them skills. trying out different builds for myself and them getting them unique gear etc. I spent very little time doing gvg or rvr in gw1, very little time actively title farming. I liked to explore the content immensely in gw1 the art direction was great in gw1 and they still seem to have that going on in gw2.

I think it is a major point that gw1/gw2 has no subscription fees, therefore you can play as much or as little as you want and you dont ever feel you are wasting money because you cant play that 15 a month game due to life or other games or just sheer boredom.

I never had to resub gw1 i could login on a whim do some stuff log out as i pleased. Were most other mmos i would have to spend some amount of time digging out a cc or some payment plan and reissuing all my info just to get on the game to even look at something.

Gw2 also have said they will be adding free content as well, they did the same for gw1, the sorrows furnace patch was a great piece of free content. So i dunno how you could exactly go horribly wrong with gw2 unless the gameplay and what not just does not appeal to you on any level.

All the end game stuff, etc will get sorted out they seem to be too busy overnerfing stuff atm then trying to correct it. Bugs will get fixed and content will be added. Especially if you are in no rush to get to end game and take your time to some decent degree you should get a smoother experience then people now are.

And even if you do rush through it all bugs and all then you can not play or play as you feel, and wait for the free expansions and for them to get done balancing stuff.

 

[Thyunda]

I'm sixty hours in and level.....42 I think. Human engineer. The best class. Ever. I won't accept any argument. Stats be damned, I get to use a flamethrower, a rifle and I get to throw wrenches at people. And my shoes explode.

Anyhow. I spend little time actually working on my own character, and I concentrate on helping everybody else - my friends in particular. So I spend time in low-level zones exploring with a friend's alt, and I'm still levelling at an albeit slow but steady rate. I've yet to try WvWvW, because I fancy maxing out my engineer's potential before I start pitting him against other players.

Everything I do in the game has a...well, a story feel. Dr. Grimm and his companion going on random adventures. Because stupid things keep happening to me. Like picking up a runestone and triggering the arrival of a giant cave troll, totally unwittingly, while I was a low level. Threw the runestone at him and ran for it. He broke my legs and only failed to finish the job when a veritable battalion of local players dived on him. Or on my first incursion into the Norn territory, when some idiot pissed off a dolyak herd and I managed to stumble into their charging attack. And I don't even need to mention the hundreds of times I've fallen off cliffs because I'm an idiot.


But there is ONE thing I hate. Double tapping a movement key triggers a roll. Edging forward to nail a jump more often than not seems to result in a clumsy cartwheel over the side.

 

[Driekan]

Two things.
One, different games don't necessarily correspond to the same ratio of time spent in relation to satisfaction received, for a whole slew of reasons (variety, scope, depth, etc.). It might indeed be more worth it to spend 60 bucks for 8 hours of gameplay over 80 depending on the games in question. For example, I'd buy something like Heavy Rain over Guild Wars 2 in a heartbeat, without a second's hesitation or a shadow of a doubt, 10 times out of 10[footnote]And I like(-d) Guild Wars 2.[/footnote].

Two, it's really condescending, presumptuous and short-sighted to actually tell people how much they should appreciate a game (or anything else) based on a single, one dimensional factor.

For the first half, that post was made within a context, which was being discussed at the time. That context was essentially that Guild Wars 2 may lack longevity.

A. Guild Wars 2 may not be worth it's price due to a perceived lack of content as compared to other MMOs;
B. Guild Wars 2 may lack longevity - i.e.: the capacity to allow you to play for very long periods of time

In no moment do I say that the length of a game is determinant of its quality (You can re-read the post and look for that if you want, it's not there), I was arguing within the context of this discussion, pointing out that I do not believe Guild Wars 2 is lacking when studied from that set of lenses. If you do want to discuss the whole "Does length matter or not" conundrum, I suggest you start a thread for that, as it is a pretty big issue in and of itself. Just for your information, I'd be arguing for "Not much".

For the second half, I have no idea what you are talking about. So... Yeah. Can't respond.

 

[el_kabong]

Bite the bullet. I have been playing on and off since opening week, and GW2 is a great game. This is one of the few MMO's that encourage me to get 100% completion and exploration of all zones. While it seems to lack the traditional "end game", since your level scales with the zone, you can actually have a good time rolling through other starting zones, instead of going through beginning missions and one-shotting every mob just to gain rep (as is the case in other MMOs).

I definitely got my money's worth out of the game. Another great thing is that I don't have to pay subscription. So, I don't feel like I'm wasting my money if I want to take a break from it and dive into another game. It'll be there waiting for me when I get back.

 

[Thistlehart]

So long as you're not a jobless do-nothing that will try to play through the game a couple weeks as some have (read: most of the people bitching about lack of content), GW2 will treat you well.

Think of it this way. You're paying $60 US for about 100+ hours of high quality content. It's a great value for anybody's money.

Captcha: top dog

What? Me or the game? Either way I'm flattered, Captcha.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

I've been playing for roughly 200 hours. Summary of my feelings: I think it's the highest entertainment value/money ratio in the gaming world right now, and everyone should at least try it--while keeping an open mind. If you play it like it's WoW, you probably won't like it. If you run around, explore, and treat the game like a treasure hunt of fun, then you'll enjoy your time with it. And the best part is that if you get bored then you can drop it and then come back when they release an expansion, and you won't feel like you've wasted your money. It's an MMO for people who have lives!

There is no endgame for several reasons:
1. They wanted the whole game to feel like endgame. You can do dungeons and huge world boss fights through most of the game instead of waiting for the end. This makes it feel less like you're grinding to reach the endgame and more like you're actually playing the entire time.
2. There is no subscription fee, so they have no reason to keep stringing you along.
3. You can treat PvP and WvW like endgame if you want, and lots of people do.
4. You can level up alts and have an almost entirely different experience, considering how big the world is.

I haven't felt that the world is empty either. I just did one of the big world boss fights on Friday and there were plenty of people around for it. The thing about dynamic events is that they scale based on the number of participants, so you can more or less solo a good portion of them. And even if you don't make it, you can go do something else and still get credit for your participation when the event ends.

Also, since many of the events are chains, it's not a bad thing if the event fails. It moves on to the next link in the chain, and that one might be more easily soloable.

I do have to comment on this though...

* Cheesy Story - That's kind of sad, but it's alright. Guild Wars wasn't really a game you played for the immersion. Also, as long as it's *entertaining*, I suppose bad voice acting is okay.

This is something that weirds me out about the game, because the writing for the background chatter, the dynamic events, and the racial lore is all superb. It's clever, it's original, it shatters convention and expectations, etc. And then there's the personal story, which feels totally flat, lifeless, and half-hearted. (Unless you go Order of Whispers and meet a certain Tybalt Leftpaw, but that only lasts ten levels or so.)

It really makes me wonder what happened. How they could have dropped the ball so badly when they otherwise seem to have a really good grasp of both writing and what gamers like and don't like in their games? No one in history has ever liked it when NPCs steal the spotlight, especially boring ones. And you'd think they would have really learned their lesson after the whole Kormir debacle in GW1.

But anyway. It has its flaws, like everything, but it's really pretty hard to go wrong with buying it.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

But there is ONE thing I hate. Double tapping a movement key triggers a roll. Edging forward to nail a jump more often than not seems to result in a clumsy cartwheel over the side.

You know, you can disable double-tap to evade in settings. Highly recommended while doing jumping puzzles.

 

[Thyunda]

But there is ONE thing I hate. Double tapping a movement key triggers a roll. Edging forward to nail a jump more often than not seems to result in a clumsy cartwheel over the side.

You know, you can disable double-tap to evade in settings. Highly recommended while doing jumping puzzles.

I can?! Surely you lie. I never saw that. Well, I'm fixing the hell out of that!

 

[Mourne]

Honestly, I hadn't read the entire thread, merely skimmed so I'll post my personal thoughts (abridged, of course, because a friend of mine managed to hit the back key after twenty minutes of typing).

I never bothered to try Guild Wars, because I didn't realize that you didn't have to pay monthly to play it. I bought it relatively recently, that being about three or four weeks ago.

=================

Events: I hadn't heard of a system like this before. You're just walking along and all of a sudden, a little icon flashes on the side of your screen with words under it, saying that some centaurs are attacking some settlement named Nebo Terrace, and that there are eight waves to fight off. You go there, fight them off, then get a hefty sum of XP and karma (special currency).

Another cool thing is how they can lead into other events. There's a place in the Kessex Hills (level 15+ area) where I always see a caravan rolling (from where? Don't ask, I'm not fortunate enough to be at the beginning). I hop on the caravan, usually with five or more players already there, helping defend it as centaurs attack us along the way. Finally, by the time we reach the destination, a village in the Triskellion Vale, a bunch of centaurs are attacking the village, and we gotta defend it! There are two outcomes, you beat them off and get your pay, or you fail, they capture the mine in the village (valuable, of course), and a new event pops up saying to assault the mine and retake it.

Another cool one is the attack on Thunder Rock, in the Harathi Hinterlands (level 35+ area). There's a small merc group there preparing themselves, launching events to set the attack in motion. One I helped in was where we had to raid one of the encampments around Thunder Rock and to plant explosives, to prevent reinforcements. Afterwards, we returned to the main camp, then a new event launched, the assault on Thunder Rock. We slaughtered our way through the first areas of it, a series of caves until we came out of the caves, on Thunder Rock itself, the main encampment. We assault and kill them, finishing the event, getting the payment, and then a new event starts, telling you to kill the Moddniir (?) Overlord. With fifteen of us, it took a good five to ten minutes to kill him, with a bunch of XP and karma.

=================

WvWvW: A great way to play PvP, as it launches you into battle, in war with two other servers, fighting for supremacy of camps, towers, castles, and strongholds.

A main tactic for this is to form a zerg group, a massive group that bum-rushes the enemy, and destroy everything that isn't yours.

I don't spend nearly as much time on this as I do on PvE, but I still find this a fun way to play, and certainly changes the pace. Nothing like watching arrows flying, fireballs pounding into the gates and the attackers below, the bellow of cannons and arrow carts smashing into the attackers.

=================

RP: Personally, this is one of the main reasons I play this game. As it so happens, I picked the server "Tarnished Coast," which happens to be one of the player-designated roleplay servers. I can't stand playing a game just to level. I love creating character plots, pushing along development, and weaving something on a larger scale (bwahaha).

The other day, I was playing my blind guardian, and walked right up to a group of people I've never met before, and RPed for a good twenty minutes before leaving in good graces.

The class system in this game allows for awesome personalities to be used, especially my mesmer, an illusionist. Makes great for showing her past to her closest friends, and it's an ability not necessarily usable by the other classes.

=================

Cons: The only gripe I have is the feeling of leveling. BUT, the good part about this is that I don't get aggravated at the game at all. I have yet to get red faced in irritation (wait, that's a pro).

I was never one for forcing myself to level, and after reaching level thirty-eight, my mesmer has slowed considerably in leveling because of RP, which doesn't bother me in the slightest.

=================

Overall: Again, I was worried to buy this. But if anything, for me, this has been one of the best purchases I've made in a while, a game with constant playability, especially with RP (I'm not biased, I swear.. Mostly).

I would certainly recommend the purchase. If not for RP, then just the mechanics of the game is pleasing, hearts instead of quests. Instead of raids, you have events and group events. By level 15, you get to fight a Shadow Behemoth if he's not having such a good day today.

EDIT: As well, if you're close to dying. Most people will try to come and help you.