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

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

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 can turn that off.

There is plenty of end game in Guild Wars people just blasted through it expecting to grind for raiding gear from what I've seen in complaints from that regard. Even then you can farm for a Legendary weapon. The end game is in exploring, Jump Puzzles, WvWvW, SPvP and doing all the dungeon paths. There is plenty to do but the game won't tell you to do it and choose what to do it won't tell you what to do. And you do get it for fuck sake do not rush the content you will miss so much back story and funny conversations from NPCs. Until they bring out more zones.

There is plenty to work for and do.

Guild Wars is not like other MMOs it never is and it never was. This game is like Bethesda games I've put nearly 150 hours into it and there is still plenty I hear about that I've never seen or even been close to.

Bugs are non existent until you get to the later zones which are still a bit fucked on some servers. More importantly however, zones being dead is grade A bullshit. People are at college and school now and the games has been out a month. People have spread out and gone back to their lives among other things of course the numbers were going to drop from the ridiculous launch levels which created other problems. As far as numbers go for doing Dynamic events they are pretty much perfect.

As far as annoying goes only bugs and an underwhelming personal story have gotten to me. That and is done in an uninspired spread out way. Other than that the game is at least a solid experience for ?60 or much better.

 

[LetalisK]

Ehhh. I'm kinda meh on Guild Wars 2 now. The questing system bores me. I like that you can do a number of things for a single quest, but it bothers me that you can just run into the general area, do the quest, and have no fucking clue what that was all about or how it really matters in the overall story of the world(even if you talk to the quest giver). I know a lot of people don't even care about what quests are for and just blast through them, but I do care. It feels more like I'm doing chores. Kind of kills my connection to the world. I don't think I've really felt any kind of immersion in the world except during main story line quests and those are woefully few and far between.

There is also little to no direction given and it manifests in two ways. First, the game doesn't do a good job of explaining itself to new players. At best, it glosses over elements of gameplay and at worst doesn't even acknowledge them. Second, the game thrives off of doing what the fuck ever. And I like this, but I don't like that there is not some sort of metaphorical trail you can come back to whenever you're done "getting lost in the woods". As it is now, it's just wandering around and getting lost in the woods. This is another element that divorces me from the game and hinders immersion.

If you pick up Guild Wars 2, I wouldn't go in expecting it to play like a common MMO, because it doesn't in anything past the superficial sense. Some people like this, some people don't. On the plus side, because there is no monthly fee, I can just pick at it at my leisure. Right now I've been bouncing between GW2, WC3, and Overlord 2.

Oh, and pvp. They did an amazing job with PvP. Besides WvW, sPvP is just fucking brilliant, as is the balancing. Standardized gear(that still is customizable to suit specific play preference), very little insta-gibbing, and you generally can't tell just by someone's class if you're going to just roll over them or their going to roll over you. If WoW were ever to adopt the standardization, something that I absolutely adored in SWTOR too, then I'd be back with them in a heartbeat. My only complaint is that you don't get experience through sPvP and they really need more than the one game mode.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Nothing new in the GW franchise...if you only want stats and min-maxing, then yes, you're done quite soon. If you want looks, though...My character looks quite good by now, but there are still plenty of skins I want that I'll have to grind some more for.

Then there's the jumping puzzles. By Grenth, the jumping puzzles. I am reasonably convinced that Anet is secretly evil and wants to take over the world.

But indeed, if you go into GW2 just to consume the content, you're gonna have a bad time.

Oh, of course I have complaints about the game (lousy story, show-stealing vegetable with no personality, more bugs than Beetlejuice manages to chomp throughout his series...), but, eh, lack of content isn't one of them.

Oh, and, ever played Oblivion? Well, "We don't have outhouses" is to GW2 what "I saw some mudcrabs the other day" is to Oblivion.

Oh yeah and finally, a mumorpuger I can get some decent roleplaying in, too.

Yeah, I played guild wars 1, all 4 games, and I was never one to care about brinding for looks, it always seemed..... dumb as fuck to me.

And yes, those jumping puzzles.... seriously Anet WHY WWWHHHYYY!!!

I don't know, the whole festival conversation between that Asura and sylvari in Lions Arch gets more annoying then outhouses to me especially when the asura says "wait and see kid wait. and. see."

 

[WoW Killer]

I loved it during beta, but since release for some reason I found it got boring quicker than I'd hoped. Luckily there's no subscription so I can go back whenever I feel the urge (might not be for a while as I've just started Borderlands 2). I still feel it was a worthy purchase.

Issues for me include (mainly a guess as I can't really define why I found the game boring so soon):

Combat isn't deep enough. Don't get me wrong I think the combat engine is very solid. The way your movements and positioning have an effect over the outcome of a fight is leaps and bounds ahead of WoW and WoW clones. Mobs don't stick to you applying damage passively, they take concrete swings you can avoid. Kiting feels like a proper general mechanic rather than an exploit. Melee combat even involves a certain amount of kiting. But the class designs and the abilities you get to choose from make the combat feel more repetitive than it should do. Weapon skills feel like they were cobbled together with no thought to their interplay. In most situations the most appropriate strategy is to push each and every button the moment it becomes available, a.k.a. whack-a-mole. Utility skills are predominantly trinket style cooldowns (which is what you'd expect from the elite skills) rather than general purpose tools. There are even utilities with passive components that essentially reward you for (or at least give you a valid option of) not using them. Given that they made the decision to limit the number of buttons how they did (which wasn't necessarily a bad move), there needed to be much more emphasis on activity rather than passivity. With such a great engine there could have been more emphasis on movement, stuff you have to aim, abilities with different shapes. Basically, stuff you have to think about using. There are examples of that, but not nearly enough.

Lack of progression. You have most abilities learned by level 30, and probably all except the two most expensive (which are likely rubbish) by level 40. After this, it's just passive stat increases. Traits are almost entirely passive. So actually, they didn't even get rid of the progression mechanics, they just got rid of the fun side of it. They got rid of the active kind of progression where you unlock fun new skills and modify them to do new things, and kept the boring passive stat increases. The loot is similarly passive. Every item is just a bunch of stats when, given the engine, they could have done so much more. How about a set of boots that modify the effects of your dodge roll? I'd do dungeons for that. How about different ranges and shapes on weapons of the same type, to emphasise certain abilities over others? Progression doesn't need to be so dull. Instead, all I get is a choice between 10 Power and 10 Precision.

Group play is incoherent. I don't think I need to elaborate much. It's good that the trinity is gone, but it needs a replacement. I'm not convinced that the dungeons can be balanced correctly. Sometimes the difference between feeling cheap and feeling too easy is the difference between being one-shot and not being one-shot. They can't fix it with a numbers tweak. They need group mechanics built from the ground up. All I can think of to fix it now, with what they have, would be to introduce some sort of artificial mechanics via the environment weapons on a fight by fight basis. You'll have to wait for the next big MMO to see a fully fledged, organic, non-trinity based group dynamic.

But it is a good game, and worth a single purchase IMO. The levelling process is interesting enough, even if the endgame is lacking. The scaling problems with the DEs only happen right at the start and right at the end, so for the bulk of the levelling content they work pretty well. The PvP is the best I've ever played. The story... well yeah it's shite, but I actually really liked the story quests. Ignoring the bugs, the quests themselves are well designed mechanically, with good pace and balance. You've got lots of mobs, lots of NPCs, like you're just one person taking part in a full scale battle. Reminds me a bit of reclaiming the Undercity in WoW, which was easily the best solo content they ever did. It's a good game, but I can't help but feel it could've been a lot better. Unlike with earlier MMOs, I don't feel like it was a restriction in the technology. They could've made a much better game based on the exact same engine, which is a bit sad actually.

 

[Kyr Knightbane]

Well, my dear Watson (that's the captcha), I...

No, let's do this properly.

For the past few weeks, I've been cobbling together a few bucks here and there from my overstretched student budget to be able to afford Guild Wars 2 in good conscience (without exceeding my self-set budget).
Browsing through the hallowed sites of the internet lately, though, I stumbled upon a few rather critical voices. Suddenly, it appears that large parts of the game are called "empty" where it was considered overloaded before, and other criticisms about the lack of an end-game emerge.
Before I spend money on GW2, obviously, I would like to be certain it is worth it, so here's my call to all friendly GW2 players out there: what is the game like right now? How long have you been playing? Are there any elements you enjoy particularly, or that you are growing bored with?

Looking forward to your responses!

I have quite a few friends that play the game and i too have been excited about this here MMO. The big thing for me is the lack of a subscription fee. I like being able to play and put it away without the fear of losing time. I have an almost 1 year old daughter and being able to play intermittently is a huge bonus without fearing a subscription renewal. Also if the 60 dollar price tag is daunting you, Green Man Gaming has a sale on where you can pick it up for 45 with a 25 percent off coupon til Friday.

Honestly it comes down to what you look for. I'm looking for an MMO with exploration and a feel of freedom. And from most of the streamers i've seen on Twitch, its what i'm looking for, The jumping puzzles specifically make me excited as do the vistas. So look at Guild Wars 2 as a game that isn't forcing you to grind for gear or tokens for gear, a-la World of Warcraft, it gives you the tools to play as much or as little as you want and when you get to 80, by all means, do pvp or dungeons or just run around and RP or grind. I prefer that to grinding all day, maybe getting 1 raid done and having the group wipe and you lose all the progress. Just my 2 cents though

 

[Vegosiux]

Oh yeah and finally, a mumorpuger I can get some decent roleplaying in, too.

What!? Tell me more!

Playing on Piken Square, the "unofficial EU RP server", and I've run into many instances of both tavern play, organized gatherings and events (guild I'm in runs them regularly, and I'm ashamed to say due to work obligations I tend to miss some of those), and the world itself does feel "alive", so to say (well, there's Orr with all those annoying undead zerg rushes that can get aggravating when you're just trying to mine in peace), and I've also run into small groups of people in character out in the world.

It certainly is unlike WoW in the department that it's not all "Idle in current hub city, insta-port to dungeon, back to the city, play the AH a bit, then run another dungeon".

 

[Joshimodo]

I really liked guild wars 2...... until I beat it.

the game is fun and all, but once you are don with the content, there is no reason to keep playing.

Arena Net's "we don't want players to grind" philosophy kinda backfired because there is no need to grind for end-game gear, because stuff you can buy is just as a good.

There really isn't anything to work for.

You have not done all the content, that I guarantee.

Who really wants to grind for 1% better gear in "traditional" MMOs? Nobody. They simply cut out the silly gear grind and made it simple - Earn the gear you want without having to piss about with whether an number is bigger than another, as if it really matters.

 

[SajuukKhar]

You have not done all the content, that I guarantee.

Who really wants to grind for 1% better gear in "traditional" MMOs? Nobody. They simply cut out the silly gear grind and made it simple - Earn the gear you want without having to piss about with whether an number is bigger than another, as if it really matters.

Lets see
-100% world map completion
-Personal story done
-All dungeon paths for each dungeon done at least once
-Jumping puzzles done

yeah... I think I reached the end.

 

[MysticToast]

For what it's worth, I bought GW2 over the weekend and am having a total blast with it.

I haven't had this much fun in an MMO since DAoC and I'm only level 16. The world events are awesome especially when there's a lot of players around. I gave WvW a try and that was great too.

I'm also enjoying the little things in the game like the awesome mini map and the artwork in the loading screens.

 

[Joshimodo]

You have not done all the content, that I guarantee.

Who really wants to grind for 1% better gear in "traditional" MMOs? Nobody. They simply cut out the silly gear grind and made it simple - Earn the gear you want without having to piss about with whether an number is bigger than another, as if it really matters.

Lets see
-100% world map completion
-Personal story done
-All dungeon paths for each dungeon done at least once
-Jumping puzzles done

yeah... I think I reached the end.

Got a Legendary yet? Acquired any of the named Exotics? Earned full dungeon sets? Organised full-scale sieges in WvW? Done all the major zone events (ok, that one isn't particularly challenging)?

No? Cool. Glad we cleared that up, and you're not "done", especially if you're not after arbitrary Skinner goals.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Got a Legendary yet? Acquired any of the named Exotics? Earned full dungeon sets? Organised full-scale sieges in WvW? Done all the major zone events (ok, that one isn't particularly challenging)?

No? Cool. Glad we cleared that up, and you're not "done", especially if you're not after arbitrary Skinner goals.

Grinding for different unnecessary gear =/= content.

which all of this

Got a Legendary yet? Acquired any of the named Exotics? Earned full dungeon sets?

entails

Glad we cleared that up

 

[DanielBrown]

I really liked guild wars 2...... until I beat it.

the game is fun and all, but once you are don with the content, there is no reason to keep playing.

Arena Net's "we don't want players to grind" philosophy kinda backfired because there is no need to grind for end-game gear, because stuff you can buy is just as a good.

There really isn't anything to work for.

Was the same thing here. I'm not intrested in PvP at all, so when I got to level 80 and got fed up with the high level areas respawn rates I didn't want to play anymore. Tried making alts, but going through the same content again so soon was really boring. Really liked the game until then.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Was the same thing here. I'm not intrested in PvP at all, so when I got to level 80 and got fed up with the high level areas respawn rates I didn't want to play anymore. Tried making alts, but going through the same content again so soon was really boring. Really liked the game until then.

Guild Wars never had good PVP imo.

It was pretty shitty in the first game, and the second game isn't that much different except that WVWVW is larger.

 

[Shuguard]

You have not done all the content, that I guarantee.

Who really wants to grind for 1% better gear in "traditional" MMOs? Nobody. They simply cut out the silly gear grind and made it simple - Earn the gear you want without having to piss about with whether an number is bigger than another, as if it really matters.

Lets see
-100% world map completion
-Personal story done
-All dungeon paths for each dungeon done at least once
-Jumping puzzles done

yeah... I think I reached the end.

Well unless you want to go for a legendary or level 100 in SPvP. Then yes you have completed the game until an expansion has come out.

 

[Joshimodo]

Got a Legendary yet? Acquired any of the named Exotics? Earned full dungeon sets? Organised full-scale sieges in WvW? Done all the major zone events (ok, that one isn't particularly challenging)?

No? Cool. Glad we cleared that up, and you're not "done", especially if you're not after arbitrary Skinner goals.

Grinding for different unnecessary gear =/= content.

which all of this

Got a Legendary yet? Acquired any of the named Exotics? Earned full dungeon sets?

entails

Glad we cleared that up

but once you are don with the content, there is no reason to keep playing.

Arena Net's "we don't want players to grind" philosophy kinda backfired because there is no need to grind for end-game gear, because stuff you can buy is just as a good.

There really isn't anything to work for.

Let's play spot the contradiction!

So, you complete the content, then complain about no "reason" to keep playing. You go on to mention there's no need to grind for end-game gear because you can buy stuff with equivalent stats - Which in other MMOs and RPGs in general, is irrelevant aside from generic percentage increases in stats, which by the end (and especially after completing content) aren't really worth the actual grinding involved. GW2's "grind" is less about doing the same task over and over because of shitty loot tables (0.08% drop chance, yay!), but about collection. I.E: Long-term goal.

Also, "unnecessary gear"? At what point does gear become necessary at endgame, and when that point arrives do you not see the obvious, boring psychological trap that is?


GW2's content volume is fine considering GW1's update history. You haven't obtained prestige sets, you haven't gotten any named Exotics (which, by the way, are hardly a grind - They're tiny compared to Legendary requirements). Hell, you haven't even gone through multiple character's storylines by the sounds of it.

GW2 does need HARDER content, however. Bosses need less health, but more speed and damage. Make Explorable mode difficult, or add a Hardmode variant.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Let's play spot the contradiction!

So, you complete the content, then complain about no "reason" to keep playing. You go on to mention there's no need to grind for end-game gear because you can buy stuff with equivalent stats - Which in other MMOs and RPGs in general, is irrelevant aside from generic percentage increases in stats, which by the end (and especially after completing content) aren't really worth the actual grinding involved. GW2's "grind" is less about doing the same task over and over because of shitty loot tables (0.08% drop chance, yay!), but about collection. I.E: Long-term goal.

Also, "unnecessary gear"? At what point does gear become necessary at endgame, and when that point arrives do you not see the obvious, boring psychological trap that is?


GW2's content volume is fine considering GW1's update history. You haven't obtained prestige sets, you haven't gotten any named Exotics (which, by the way, are hardly a grind - They're tiny compared to Legendary requirements). Hell, you haven't even gone through multiple character's storylines by the sounds of it.

GW2 does need HARDER content, however. Bosses need less health, but more speed and damage. Make Explorable mode difficult, or add a Hardmode variant.

Collecting different item skins is not real content for the same reason the challenge to find all the Vault symbols in borderlands 2 is not real content.

It is pointless, it doesn't advance anything, and it doesn't improve your character in any meaningful way.

Skin collecting is not content, it never has been, and never will be.

Also, at one point in the past, I was obsessive about collecting all the prestige armor and weapons in guild wars 1, but about 1/3 of the way through I looked back at what I had gotten and realized ITS POINTLESS, because they did nothing to improve my character.

As much as people don't like it, I would rather have to grind for meaningful gear that improves my characters in a noticeable way then grind for gear that does nothing but have a different skin, at least with the former I have a worthwhile goal.

 

[Driekan]

Collecting different item skins is not real content for the same reason the challenge to find all the Vault symbols in borderlands 2 is not real content.

It is pointless, it doesn't advance anything, and it doesn't improve your character in any meaningful way.

Skin collecting is not content, it never has been, and never will be.

I feel skin collecting is better content than increasing arbitrary, meaningless numbers.

Further, if you are having fun inherently playing the game's content it is apparent that there is, indeed, still stuff to do (As was mentioned on the preceding posts). I mean, people don't demand they get a bar of candy for every can of beer they drink, they drink beer because they want to.

What I'm adding up to is: If you enjoy the game, you have plenty to do, and you will be able to do it for very, very long periods of time. If not, then why are you wasting your time in the first place?

 

[sanquin]

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.

I hardly ever use the word. But basically expecting more than dozens, possibly hundreds of hours of entertainment from a 60 dollar game is entitlement to me. "Oh I leveled to 80 in 30+ hours, and had fun during 90% of that time. Nope, it wasn't worth 60 bucks!" (30 hours being the fastest someone levelled to 80 in gw2)

Captcha: Back to basics

 

[sanquin]

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

If you got bored with gw2 before even reaching level 10, then I'd say it's a different story yea. Then you're not entitled, then mmorpg's in general are just not for you. That's how I see it at least.

 

[Lunar Templar]

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

If you got bored with gw2 before even reaching level 10, then I'd say it's a different story yea. Then you're not entitled, then mmorpg's in general are just not for you. That's how I see it at least.

again, you assume wrong

City of Heroesit's shutting down, but its up still so still counts)
i have 5 lvl capped characters
i had over 30 characters on 1 severer
of those lvl capped character, 3 had completed, as well as 'maxed out' the end game abilitys

Vindictus:
2 characters over lvl 60 (cap is 70) 3 over lvl 50
i have almost every suit of armor the game has(it all requires to be crafted and i can send it to other characters. so i hang out to in, particularly the harder to get sets)
i have a lvl 17 and lvl 8 Dark Knight, and a lvl 3 Paladin
one character (lvl 68 almost 69) is maxed out on ability's.
and i've completed almost every raid in the game (some are harder to get groups for then others).

and those are the main 2.

so no, i like MMO's i just don't like GW2 that much