Guild Wars 2

Hey guys.

You might remember me, or you might not! Hello anyway. Way back, from the beginning actually, I really liked Guild Wars 2. I started playing because I was bored of WoW-like clones. GW was innovative and new. I stopped playing ‘cause school kept me busy, but as I’m entering the holiday season I thought I might give it a go once more.

Is there anything I should know before I enter? Is the game dead?? Servers still up and running?

Happy holidays
/Zedex

The game is not dead.

Here’s what’s been happening: http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/

Welcome return, and good luck.

It’s not dead at all.

I also was here at the very beginning, and have come and gone intermittently since then, as I expected to do.

There are people everywhere, it is still very lively and active. In part that is due to the megaserver change which was made some time ago (controversial, as always), but if your concern is a dead world/game, that isn’t the case in GW2 currently.

GW2 is currently torn between people that want to make it stand out on its own, and people that want to turn it into another WoW clone. But enough about the internal conflicts at ANet…

Servers are not really a thing now, unless you’re in WvW. Go to the Wiki and look up “Megaservers” to find out how it works. Short version, though, is that people get dumped into the same maps from all servers, so you’ll rarely find one empty.

There’s been changes to the way you change the looks of armor, using the “wardrobe” now. Town clothes are gone, replaced with the single piece “Outfits”, and some crappy tonics. The Outfits, at least, you can use in battle and hide the head/hat of by hiding your normal hat/helm.

Current Living Story can be replayed. If you want to see it, you can find someone that has it and see if they’ll take you through the missions. If you want the rewards from it, though, you need to pay for it (200 gems per chapter). That may or may not be worth it, it’s a matter of opinion.

Leveling up has been changed some. Biggest changes are the lower levels (but they pass quickly), rewards on level-up (sometimes, depends on your new level), and how you gain traits (any characters made before that change will have all old traits accessible, thankfully).

Personal story now comes in lumps every 10 levels, and some of the later missions were removed to make the story more acceptable in China. Sadly, the plot hole ridden mess that made has yet to be fixed.

Let’s see… anything else? Oh, yeah! They destroyed Lion’s Arch. Again. Seriously, if this was an anime, that city would be Tokyo.

Some people like the changes, some hate them, and some don’t care. The game is still going, though, so welcome back. Fasten your seat belt, and if you have to hurl, aim for the Mystic Toilet.