Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 1 was a great game, a game that ANet should be looking back on and thinking, “What did we do right?”

Now, let me say : I really love GW2. Also, I don’t want GW2 to be GW1. I want it to be a spiritual successor, but one that’s very different. So far they’re doing an alright job, I don’t have too much to complain about.

With that in mind, let’s discuss how Guild Wars 2 and Guild Wars 1 compare around the mark of their first anniversary.

Guild Wars 2 additions, first year -

Fractals were a big addition, one of the biggest in the game, in my opinion. Numerous, repeatable dungeons, with interesting/lasting rewards.

The daily/monthly system gave people a chore, which is nice. Laurels also came along.

Ascended items. I think it was smart to add them later rather than at the launch. People would had full sets in such a tiny amount of time, and then complain there’s no endgame. It’s been smooth additions, nothing I can complain about.

WvW rankings/matchup/Season 1. Pretty good overall. I’m glad there’s a decent amount of balancing done around the WvW scene, and I’m glad WvW maps are still full to the brim on many servers. WvW rankings/skills was another good addition.

Living Story. We’ve seen numerous dungeons come and go, unique events with unique rewards. Essentially, a reason to check in at least every 2 weeks to keep your character decked out with all of the limited time items.

Skins. No one can complain about aesthetics, we have piles of new options added every week.

Balance. A few big balance patches that have addressed clear issues in the GW2 community. Buffs where they’ve been needed, too.

The karka/southsun shore. A big map addition.

Obviously this isn’t everything, but this is some big ones.

Now, those are respectable additions, and they keep coming, but I want to compare it to the big release shortly after Guild Wars 1 first anniversary, which was an expansion, Factions.

Factions added -

An entirely new story. Probably about as much “Living Story” content as has been released in Guild Wars 2.

Alliances. Kurzick/Luxon, which allowed for players to accumulate a new type of currency and spend it. This also brought the “ownership” of certain areas of the maps, as well as battles with the opposing Alliance. Similar to some additions we’ve seen in GW2 (new currency, new way to accumulate it, though in GW2 it hasn’t been very story inspired).

Two new ways to play PvE. Challenge Missions/Competitive Missions.

Most importantly, two new classes, and 25-30+ new skills for all of the existing classes.
I think this is clearly, clearly the area where GW2 is falling behind. You could argue one way or the other regarding most of the updates to GW1 (including Factions) vs GW2 in year 1, except on this point.

The addition of Factions completely flipped the meta on it’s head. It made everyone excited to dive into new builds, new options, come back to the game to try and find your niche in PvP again, or build a new type of dungeon running PvE group.

GW2 has had no gameplay additions on a character/combat level. You’re playing with the exact same skills you’ve played with since Day 1. Maybe, just maybe, they’ve removed a skill and replaced it with another, or removed a trait/combined it and added a new one, but essentially it’s the same.

If the meta changes, or your character changes, it’s generally because of meta+balance, not because of new options.

Guild Wars 2 is on a collision course with stagnation. One year of the exact same characters with no new options isn’t crazy, but it’s worse than what ANet has given us before.

I still enjoy playing, but every day I’m wishing more and more I could unlock some new weapon skills, an elite skill that’s actually interesting, or a bunch of new traits. It’s starting to get painful.

I think ANet desperately, desperately, needs to buckle down, get their heads out of the “black lion ticket skins” and “meta achievement for another 2 weeks” department, and head towards the “GW 2.0” department. A patch with new weapon options/new skills/new traits would surge the games population and create a fresh sense of enjoyment, which GW2 is starting to lack.

tl;dr : GW2 hasn’t had a single new addition at the actual level of how your character can play, ever. GW1 added 2 new class options (which, with dual classes, affects every other class), as well as 30+ new skills to EACH class, at the first anniversary.

You have to keep in mind however that Factions was basically a whole new GAME.
Not an expansion.
Not an addition to the original.
It was a completely stand-alone game, with a price.

If we are going to compare we should compare what was given for Prophecies vs GW2 Vanilla. And in that case GW2 wins quite easily, since more or less the only thing that was added for Prophecies during the first year was Sorrow’s Furnace.

I think that just arbitrarily saying “Factions was a different game” is a little bit naive.

Sure, you could buy it and not buy Prophecies, but that was more or less just a nice-guy option that ANet gave. If you liked the look of the game, you didn’t need to pick up EVERY pre-expansion (like WoW), you could just play Factions.

Factions is referred to as the second campaign of guild wars (the first being prophecies). You can’t just act like they’re unrelated and we should ignore them. People who played Prophecies bought Factions, period.

And it’s the same company, and the same servers, and the same game (Guild Wars). All of the content from Factions is STILL Guild Wars content. If you want to say we should compare GW2 to Prophecies, sure, but GW2 doesn’t have a “Factions” for me to go out and buy, does it? Nah. :/

This is going to vary with each player, since each player probably gets bored with things at a different rate, but I can’t say I’ve gotten tired of my options. I mainly play Staff Ele, occasionally switching up my utility skills for conjures if I feel like some variety, but I don’t generally feel bored. I have a scepter, focus, and two daggers on hand if I ever want to switch it up, but conjures are usually enough to do that trick.

It probably helps that I have four characters total, which means I can switch to a distinctly different playstyle by switching character, before I even get into switching weapons on my alts. I’m not rushing for them to introduce more classes or a lot more skills because, frankly, I’ve still got Warrior, Necro, Thief, and Engineer totally untouched for me to explore, or untouched since beta, with all their weapon sets, on top of the unused weapons sets for characters I already have.

I dunno. Maybe it feels more stagnant if you PvP a lot and are tired with the meta-game. Maybe I, personally, just find things I like and don’t get bored of them easily. Either way, new skills/classes aren’t going to add very much to my game experience, because I’m still working through the ones we already have.

actually, except for better graphics, a more open world and a good crafting system, GW2 is the back spot of the GW franchise.
it isn’t a successor at all, that what makes GW1 so great isn’t even in GW2.
all we have are crappy grind fests, farm stuff to do and broken promises, i can’t stand it when ppl break a promise.

example: they said in an interview that you could do a dungeon and when you finished a dungeon you get a token to choose dungeon weapons or armor pieces, currently you need to farm a dungeon until you finally have enough points to get one piece.

when looking at the living story, it’s more a bunch of achievement hunts with allot of grinding for a stupid minipet.
it isn’t even alive, i dare to say it’s more static then a simple patrol event, simply not worth the time.
and then you have the lame town clothings, in GW1 you could simply take your clothing and use it however you want, in GW2 it’s a useless piece of junk that only has show-off potential.
in GW1 the things you buy are account unlocked, in GW2 everything is ether an item you need to keep in your storage or a soul bound thing that makes it entirely useless.

if they really want to improve GW2 they should at least add the features GW1 has for a long time, then make the living story an actual living story so it makes the world alive.
then and only then we will see an improvement, still not a successor but well on it’s way.

Wow. I’m pretty sure most of the things you listed that you hate about GW2 are things I personally enjoy. Just a reminder that people had different tastes, and one player’s “simple patrol event, simply not worth the time” is another player’s “Oh, I want to make sure they get home safe!” moment, among other contrasts.

That’s getting off-topic, though, when this thread is meant to be discussing additions to how characters play mechanically, not the story or rewards. Plenty of other threads to discuss those in.

I think the worst part of GW2 is that we don’t have a real choice. There is always the “one and only, best” way to play. Most gear stats are useless, most weapons too. Every profession have only one weapon that is really good, but of course it’s a melee weapon. Everyone have to play melee if they want to deal good damage. Ranged is considered “bad” and it really is, in most cases. GW2 is the first game that forced me to play something like elementalist or necromancer in melee. I don’t like it, but I play it so I don’t have to struggle with mobs. But even worse thing is that we can’t make our own choice about weapon skills, so it’s really boring if someone plays only one profession most of the time. I’m tired of doing same things every fight. In every aspect of the game, we’re forced to do things the way Anet wanted, which isn’t exctiting at all. After playing WoW long time I was really glad that I’m done with the “one and only good build” thing, but I’m disappointed how it turned out.

Lol, never got pinned down by a bow/rifle war or a condition thief when roamming or what ? But whatever, not the topic here.
As you look back, the patches rocked a lot of build, mesmer/elem/warrior/necro had to change their build and their gameplay as the patches nerfed/upped/moved trait and skills. I don’t play other classes exept those, so I don’t know for sure if it changed, but for those four, I changed at least two times because of the patches.
And the town clothing are for the aesthetic when costum brawling and role playing that you might or might not enjoy.

As for the dungeons, 3 path a day is a week to gettimg full stuff. They don’t want you to rush things and incite you to go try other things, like costume brawling. If you want to rush thing you farm, if not, you play.
Those are our guild clear time approximately, I know we can do it much faster, but we don’t force guildies to use fixed build.
3 path AC : 45min, 3 path CM : 45 min, 3 path TA : 1h10, 3 path SE : 45 min, 3 path HW : 45 min, 3 path CF : 40 min, 3 path CE : 45 min, 4 path Arah : 2h50.
I’m a little bit slower in Arah as we don’t do it as often as we should.

Though, an expansion for a next dragon could be nice with new dungeons, classes, areas, skills, fractals… and I will buy it asap if it’s not over 65 €.

Yes. Very well thought out OP. A major factor of engaging me in gw1 was constantly playing with builds and options. Incalculable hours were spent in this way. It is true that with the addition of heroes in gw1 these options became insanely varied and complex for the solo player. Without the possibility of heroes in gw2, it is never going to match gw1 in this respect, not to mention that a well thought out build in gw2 is nowhere near as important. There are just fewer build options that really matter, but new professions with new traits and skills would certainly keep me engaged for a while – and I would probably spend money buying new character slots . . . also, more areas to explore – absolutely yes! I think the equivalent of factions is too much to hope for, but, nevertheless, that is the dream!

Jikuim.1349:

Guild Wars 1 was a great game, a game that ANet should be looking back on and thinking, “What did we do right?”

Now, let me say : I really love GW2. Also, I don’t want GW2 to be GW1. I want it to be a spiritual successor, but one that’s very different. So far they’re doing an alright job, I don’t have too much to complain about.

With that in mind, let’s discuss how Guild Wars 2 and Guild Wars 1 compare around the mark of their first anniversary.

Guild Wars 2 additions, first year -

Fractals were a big addition, one of the biggest in the game, in my opinion. Numerous, repeatable dungeons, with interesting/lasting rewards.

The daily/monthly system gave people a chore, which is nice. Laurels also came along.

Ascended items. I think it was smart to add them later rather than at the launch. People would had full sets in such a tiny amount of time, and then complain there’s no endgame. It’s been smooth additions, nothing I can complain about.

WvW rankings/matchup/Season 1. Pretty good overall. I’m glad there’s a decent amount of balancing done around the WvW scene, and I’m glad WvW maps are still full to the brim on many servers. WvW rankings/skills was another good addition.

Living Story. We’ve seen numerous dungeons come and go, unique events with unique rewards. Essentially, a reason to check in at least every 2 weeks to keep your character decked out with all of the limited time items.

Skins. No one can complain about aesthetics, we have piles of new options added every week.

Balance. A few big balance patches that have addressed clear issues in the GW2 community. Buffs where they’ve been needed, too.

The karka/southsun shore. A big map addition.

Obviously this isn’t everything, but this is some big ones.

Now, those are respectable additions, and they keep coming, but I want to compare it to the big release shortly after Guild Wars 1 first anniversary, which was an expansion, Factions.

Factions added -

An entirely new story. Probably about as much “Living Story” content as has been released in Guild Wars 2.

Alliances. Kurzick/Luxon, which allowed for players to accumulate a new type of currency and spend it. This also brought the “ownership” of certain areas of the maps, as well as battles with the opposing Alliance. Similar to some additions we’ve seen in GW2 (new currency, new way to accumulate it, though in GW2 it hasn’t been very story inspired).

Two new ways to play PvE. Challenge Missions/Competitive Missions.

Most importantly, two new classes, and 25-30+ new skills for all of the existing classes.
I think this is clearly, clearly the area where GW2 is falling behind. You could argue one way or the other regarding most of the updates to GW1 (including Factions) vs GW2 in year 1, except on this point.

The addition of Factions completely flipped the meta on it’s head. It made everyone excited to dive into new builds, new options, come back to the game to try and find your niche in PvP again, or build a new type of dungeon running PvE group.

GW2 has had no gameplay additions on a character/combat level. You’re playing with the exact same skills you’ve played with since Day 1. Maybe, just maybe, they’ve removed a skill and replaced it with another, or removed a trait/combined it and added a new one, but essentially it’s the same.

If the meta changes, or your character changes, it’s generally because of meta+balance, not because of new options.

Guild Wars 2 is on a collision course with stagnation. One year of the exact same characters with no new options isn’t crazy, but it’s worse than what ANet has given us before.

I still enjoy playing, but every day I’m wishing more and more I could unlock some new weapon skills, an elite skill that’s actually interesting, or a bunch of new traits. It’s starting to get painful.

I think ANet desperately, desperately, needs to buckle down, get their heads out of the “black lion ticket skins” and “meta achievement for another 2 weeks” department, and head towards the “GW 2.0” department. A patch with new weapon options/new skills/new traits would surge the games population and create a fresh sense of enjoyment, which GW2 is starting to lack.

tl;dr : GW2 hasn’t had a single new addition at the actual level of how your character can play, ever. GW1 added 2 new class options (which, with dual classes, affects every other class), as well as 30+ new skills to EACH class, at the first anniversary.

When talking about the Factions skills you have to remember that a lot of them were the exact same skill as their prophesies counterpart . Yes factions added alot as a Standspansion ( as i like to call it ) but GW2 has done quite a bit of updates too . Look at the recent Kessex overhaul or southsun , The Tequatl overhaul is something i expect more of and the Aether path as well. That’s not even taking into account fractals or Ascended gear

Redenaz.8631:

Just a reminder that people had different tastes, and one player’s “simple patrol event, simply not worth the time” is another player’s “Oh, I want to make sure they get home safe!” moment, among other contrasts.

and if you read what i said you might know i didn’t say that, i said that a living story is more static then a patrol event.
please read things trough before putting words in my mouth, it’s not a good way to start an argument.

I’m sorry if I misread your confusingly-written run-on sentences.