Guild Wars 2

There’s so much to write about, I hardly know where to start. After 170 hours played, my highest character is level 35. Actually, I have two characters that are level 35, one is level 22, and two more are in their high teens. GW2 has destroyed my concept of having a “main” character and having “alts”. Why have a “main” when there is nothing to rush to, no reason to hurry through the leveling process? In other MMOG’s that had specific class roles, most players might find one or two professions they enjoyed playing, but the diversity of each profession in GW2 makes it so you can probably find enjoyment in playing any of the 8 professions.

Let’s face it: in other MMORPGs, there’s really not much reason to spend much time doing anything other than leveling as fast as possible to get to the “end game”; in GW2, the whole game is really the end game. You’re not going to be doing anything fundamentally different at 80 than you do at level 2, so you can take your time and explore the content in every nook and cranny of Tyria.

GW2’s Tyria, though, is packed with so much content that you can spend a lifetime exploring it and still not find it all. Beyond getting a character or two to level 80 as fast as you can (if you’re still myopically following the treadmill style of other MMOGs), there are many, many diferent storylines and permutations of storylines to explore with your stable of characters. There are truly different weapon, skill and trait combinations to use that can provide radically different ways to play any particular profession. The options are astoundingly deep and varied.

Beyond the “100% Completed” map checklist, there is a world of stuff to discover not even listed on the map. The underwater regions is like an entire new game on its own. There are nooks, crannies and treasures just waiting to be found by those that explore more than just what it takes to complete the map checklist. There are breathaking views to find not pinpointed by “vista” icons and villages not officially marked as a “point of interest”.

Besides the NPCs one would engage in their storyline and which are marked on the map, there are countless intersting NPC activities to watch, voice conversations and comments to listen to, and dialogue to explore. There are books to be found and read, objects to pick up and use. Every time I go into a zone, I find something different and interesting. I’ve passed by NPCs having casual conversations and realized they were talking about something relevant to my storyline.

The WvW areas are like entire other worlds to explore, and they are enormous. Finding ways to contribute in WvW is yet another challlenge when it comes to arranging the weapon and skills you carry into a situation.

Claiming "there is no content’ or that one has consumed all the content and are bored because they have a level 80 character or two is preposterous. They are bored not because there is no different content to experience, but only because they cannot advance their level 80 characters in any way that makes them more powerful. For them, “content” is really just “whatever the shortest route is to maxing out a linear checklist of progression.” So, if they got a couple of crafting professions up to 400, then “check”, in their minds, they’ve consumed the crafting content. If they’ve got 100% map completion, then “check”, in their minds they’ve seen the whole world of Tyria. If they’ve progressed a character or two to 80 and finished the storyline, then “check”, they’ve experienced all the character progression and story GW2 has to offer.

Then, they argue that all that is left is essentially repeating the content via "alts’, or with their level 80 characters, and that repeating content is not fun (often claiming it isn’t fun for anyone, or for most people), and that it is less fun each time you do something – which is patently false. Playing pool is not “less fun” each time you do it. Swimming is not “less fun” each time you do it. Getting burned out on something because you force-feed it to yourself more than you enjoy it is not how everyone engages their favorite entertainment activities.

At 170 hours, I’ve only scratched the surface of the content available, and I’m loving GW2 every time I log in. But then, I’m not playing the game to put marks in checkboxes and efficiently max out all official forms of character progression; I’m exploring the deeply diverse, interesting and beautifully rendered content of that the developers at ANET have so lovingly dispersed throughout every inch of Tyria.

(This is also posted at my blog at MMORPG.com)

This is well said. I wish I could say more, but you’ve already covered all of it. However you are glazing over the top, some of the classes are still buggy and require further tweaking.

The games only just been released, so its bound to have bugs. However, going by the recent patches, ArenaNet seem dedicated to tracking them down and fixing them asap.

In all honesty, the only “bugs” I’ve encountered is a couple of times in WvW a siren-like noise drowns out everything until I close the game out and restart, and my elementalist continues firing electricity out of his scepter long after the creature is dead. If I’ve experienced any other bugs or glitches, I am unaware they were bugs.

The five classes I play so far – elementalist, ranger, warrior, guardian and thief … all seem to me to be extremely powerful and fun to play – but, as I said, it’s going to take a long, long time to explore the potential of all eight classes.

I have clocked over 200 hours and in the same boat as you. There is a ridiculous amount of things to do in this game that I am overwhelmed, anyways good read and keep enjoying this masterpiece of an MMO.

wait until you get to 70+, geez there whole personal story quest that require silly work around just to complete them, the DE are constantly stuck there are bugs and balance issues everywhere.

how much of that time is idle?, I have explored everywhere and did it slow and after 130 hours I have 1 lvl 80 and 3 lvl 30’s . I got 3 levels in 25mins just doing my daily in one zone

Love how you’re so afraid to learn the truth about this game that you hold yourself in the first 30 levels and swap characters constantly.

That is actually a good way to delay the inevitable indeed. You give yourself the variety the game doesnt by constantly swapping character and you dont reach the plateau of end-game soon so you cant be appauled by it. I dont know how you dont get bored of playing the same areas though, i sure was pulling my hairs out of boredom when i tried leveling an alt.

Unfortunely, you are delaying the inevitable. It will come to you too. Also, at this pace you wont even be able to enjoy the big events on the Orr cause of lack of players.

Well said. Echoed my impressions more eloquently.

Only I like putting and removing checks in checkboxes, it toggles my helm, my backpack… ;D

I applaud you OP.

Difference between myself and OP…
1. I am level 77
2. I am too lasy to write that much, but basically, yeah, what he said!

Zeebie.5937:

how much of that time is idle?, I have explored everywhere and did it slow and after 130 hours I have 1 lvl 80 and 3 lvl 30’s . I got 3 levels in 25mins just doing my daily in one zone

Virtually none of it is idle time – that doesn’t even count (I guess) the time I spend in character creation, which has been several hours. I spend a lot of time doing things that don’t give any experience whatsoever – like talking to NPCs, following them, reading books, thoroughly exploring areas beyond the map points, following NPCs around and listening to them, checking out their gear, finding interesting spots for good camera angles and videos, watching other players RP (there’s a lot of that going on on Tarnished Coast), doing a little RPing myself, gawking at the amazing, amazing graphics, playing with dyes and variant armor looks, setting up different weapon/skill/trait systems, etc.

One thing I really enjoy is just hitting an area, cranking up my playlist (no disrespect to the awesome music in-game), and going on a mob killing spree in a zone, training my old fingers to hit the right keys even when I have the UI off so I can take pics and record videos. If you can play with the UI off, the game is almost surreal, it’s like controlling a water-color style Disney movie. I can just stare at the graphics in GW2 for hours, and killing the same set of mobs continuously doesn’t give you much exp – which is fine by me

Well said, and I agree. I’ve got almost 200 hours played…and there’s no end to the fun in sight.

This is pretty much how I feel about the game, as well. I’m overwhelmed by all the things there is to explore and learn. In the beta I had planed to level one main to 80 and then play sPvP a lot. But so far the PvE content has taken all my time in the game, because there are so many things to see beyond the beaten path. A lot of times when I try to go from one place to the next, I get distracted by a dynamic event, or an area that just literally looks interesting, which then leads me to something ells. I wasn’t even planing to craft, but after trying out that, it was a ton of fun as well. I’m level 72 right now, and I barely feel like I’ve scratched the surface of the PvE content.

Ive been level 80 for a while and I agree with every word of this post.

There was a time (70s, 80s through the late 90s) when video games kept you playing because they were fun. People didnt need contrived mechanics like gear treadmills to keep you in the game. MMO’s, mostly to keep subscriptions coming in, changed that model considerable. We all (myself included) got caught up in that neverending cycle to the point where it became the norm and what we expect from an MMO. At some point, we forgot we were supposed to have fun and began looking at the games as choirs – something we had to do to validate our self worth.

At level 80, I find myself running dynamic events in level 35 zones – not because of a need to advance (im in all exotics), but because I find it fun to do so. The fact that I still get good karma rewards and random level appropriate drops is icing on the cake.

Of course, I also love the level 80 stuff – Orr, explorable dungeons, pvp. The difference is, I can do those things because I find them fun – not because I feel I have to – and that makes all the difference.

Nemmar.8491:

Love how you’re so afraid to learn the truth about this game that you hold yourself in the first 30 levels and swap characters constantly.

That is actually a good way to delay the inevitable indeed. You give yourself the variety the game doesnt by constantly swapping character and you dont reach the plateau of end-game soon so you cant be appauled by it. I dont know how you dont get bored of playing the same areas though, i sure was pulling my hairs out of boredom when i tried leveling an alt.

Unfortunely, you are delaying the inevitable. It will come to you too. Also, at this pace you wont even be able to enjoy the big events on the Orr cause of lack of players.

Just leave already lol

I really don’t understand people like you. Whining and trying to scare people off, only to make yourself sound like some sort of sad weirdo with nothing better to do.

We get it. You’re not happy. Ever heard of moving on?

@OP Glad you’re having fun I hit 70 last night and might have done 40% of the pve stuff.

I’ll work along doing crafting and dungeons later, but my main eye candy is the pvp. Looking forward to more focus on this.

Funny, this is the first game where I haven’t been an Alt freak, for most of the reasons you mention. Since you aren’t stuck in a rut with your character here, I don’t get bored with a class as quickly and so can stick with it much much longer. If I get bored with a weapon set, I just change weapons … bored with the Skill layout or Traits I’m using … I switch. In fact, I only have one serious character and three below 10th level. I love that the game has kept me so focused for a change.

In addition to all the content … and I’ve got a lot left to do, I also rp one or two hours every session – sometimes much more – so that just adds to my enjoyment and stretches the whole thing out even further. (and the game designers deserve huge kudos for making the game setting so rich and full of life that it’s a place that not only makes rp easy, but inspires it better than most other MMOs I’ve tried)

I expect, sometime before the first expansion comes out in six months or so, I’ll start gettin’ bored … but then an expansion will come out and I’ll have a few more months of delightful exploration! This is the MMO I’ve been waiting for, for a long time … it’s the MMO I’d hoped SWTOR would be, but wasn’t.

(and yeah, there are some bugs and technical issues, I’m not blind to them, but they’ll get fixed)

I’m really enjoying my time in GW2. I have a 59 Ranger and a 45 Guardian. I LOVE the Ranger.
My play style is super casual. I literally just walk around the game world killing what’s in front of me, doing hearts/vistas/poi as they appear, DE’s when I see them.
Got cooking upto 308. I really like to ‘eat’/craft magic find foods. 22% mf!

What would really put this game over the top for me is some kind of player housing….

once if you reach 40 level, if you run CM dungeon, you can be 80 easily. don’t waste time on dungeon exp. they give you small experience and small rewards. everyone in my party said they wasted too many time on exp. even sometimes i wasted 2~4 hours on a exp dungeon.

sigh yeah the topic opener didn’t “invest” time in the game he didn’t “work really hard”, instead he choose just to “spend” time and “enjoy”, how bad is this… /irony off

Exactly my feelings… That’s exactly how I like to experience the game. I love talking to npcs, see what they do, follow them, hear their conversation, explore every corner of the map, watch the surroundings, etc.

I have 6 chars, my highest being 52. The game is so much immersive and fun that sometimes I level up and end up only noticing it minutes later.

@Plague:

He invested 170 hours playing the game… His investiment is exactly the same, in quality of meaning, as anyone’s else. I couldn’t even understand the logic behind your comment. Care to elaborate?

>>I have 6 chars, my highest being 52. The game is so much immersive and fun that sometimes I level up and end up only noticing it minutes later.<<

I will often go levels at a time before suddenly remembering, “oh yeah, I have skill points to use!” I’m just more focused on having fun runnin’ around and doing my thing.

Excellent feedback OP!

Glad to see so many others enjoying the game!

Enjoyed your account, Wintyre, and my experience has been similar. This game was obviously designed to be appreciated best by not-in-a-hurry players.

Thank you so much for writing this post. I was beginning to get lost with this game after reaching level 80 due to exactly what you said, “checkboxing” (old habit from WoW dies hard).

Your post showed me a different perspective and now I begin to realized, this game isn’t WoW, but it is very much its own genre – an exploring RPG.

This will definitely take some time to get used to, but thanks to you, I think it will be easier for me now.

+1

I’m going at the same pace as you op, and I’m tackling it the same way, playing toons at once, and just enjoying the game at a nice pace.

Absolutely in love with tyria!

Good post, enjoyed reading it. I have a character at 80 but have not completed the game with that character and instead have taken an interest in leveling an alt and I’m enjoying the fresh experience….

tbh, now i’m no longer looking forward to progressing in the game (ofc I still want to be decked in full exotics at least and a nice pistol that has particle effects. HELP ME!) but rather I wanna look forward to playing with my guildmates, either in dungeons, their/my PS, or just strolling about around, doing jumping puzzles together, etc =P

I agree with everything the OP said. Great game. I am especially surprised about the underwater content, which I still shy away from because your combat is a bit limited. But there are so many cool visuals and things to see, like sunken ships, half broken domes of whatever…sunken cities, etc…awesome.

Nemmar.8491:

Love how you’re so afraid to learn the truth about this game that you hold yourself in the first 30 levels and swap characters constantly.

That is actually a good way to delay the inevitable indeed. You give yourself the variety the game doesnt by constantly swapping character and you dont reach the plateau of end-game soon so you cant be appauled by it. I dont know how you dont get bored of playing the same areas though, i sure was pulling my hairs out of boredom when i tried leveling an alt.

Unfortunely, you are delaying the inevitable. It will come to you too. Also, at this pace you wont even be able to enjoy the big events on the Orr cause of lack of players.

I have a level 80, 36, a handful of teens. I have about as much play time as the OP, maybe more. When I hit 80, I had 43% world completion, and probably only 25% total of the three Orr zones.

I can honestly say that being a casual-mild hardcore player, in that I take my char seriously, learn the class, ins and outs, etc but do not get hung up on nitty gritty things that tourny players do…I can say that I was even a bit overwhelmed when I hit 80.

Ok so I can:
-Finish world completion(probably 4 or 5 zones I havent even seen yet)
-Farm dungeons: Ok, so what dungeon tokens give what gear? Research…
-Level crafting: Is it worth it or not? quickest way? Or should I just make money…
-Mystic forge: Can this be a source of income if played correctly?
-Playing the AH: the Trading post is prime for playing the market.
-Acquiring all dyes
-obtaining craftable max level gear
-get into WvW a bit more as well as spvp.
-Try out a crit backstab build instead of my condition build.

Not bad for a fresh max level in a game with no sub.

Well said, cesmode! I spent time on the raiding treadmill and when I was done, I was really, really done. But I’m not done, as you said, caring about my character’s gear, learning her class, etc. I hit 80 this week, and like you I have yet to touch several zones. My alts (two in their 20’s and two in their low teens) allow me variety when I want it in terms of profession and invariably, when I’m playing them, I get to see/do an event that I didn’t see the first time through.

As the OP said, there’s a good six months worth of stuff in-game right now, and ANet promises more to come.

Knuckledust.5621:

Fanboyism level is TOO kitten HIGH!

Basically the OP keeps doing low level characters so he avoids getting stuck on the void that endgame is. Well done!

Seeing as how the report system works beautifully, I’ll remove my harsh words.

I’ll be so happy the day these people disappear permanently.

Knuckledust.5621:

Fanboyism level is TOO kitten HIGH!

Basically the OP keeps doing low level characters so he avoids getting stuck on the void that endgame is. Well done!

It does not explain why there are also 80’s agreeing with him as well. Half of my entire guild is 80 and they are pretty much still playing every day…

Your point, again?

Wintyre Fraust.6534:

There’s so much to write about, I hardly know where to start.

Great review, this is more or less my own feeling about the game and how to get the most out of it. My highest is still only 58, after 120 hours in 27 days, 160 hours total including alts.

Debsylvania.7396:

Enjoyed your account, Wintyre, and my experience has been similar. This game was obviously designed to be appreciated best by not-in-a-hurry players.

And hopefully it’ll create some converts, too. I just spent two hours just wandering around Hoelbrak talking to NPCs and looking at the city and still haven’t seen it all yet … not a lot of games where you can do that and want to do that. I was also delighted to find some stuff in the city that wasn’t marked with POIs on the map, but were very neat to uncover just by exploring, (poi’s would get you close, but if you didn’t wander off the map a bit you’d miss out).

I also spent half an hour playing a PvP football on ice with beer kegs … got creamed, but it was fun just for being there.

If the game keeps producing at this quality … and I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t … I’ll be putting money into the franchise for a long time to come.