Guild Wars 2

There are a ton of threads going bashing aspects of GW2. There are a smaller few praising the game. It seems many of the stories are the same, yet there is no balance to the feedback. So I pose a question to everyone, two if you will:

1) What is one thing you like about the game?

2) What is one thing you don’t like about the game?

I’ll start us off.

1) I like that I don’t feel pressured to rush through content to grind gear in raids. I can take my time and explore. As a former raider in an other MMO, I don’t miss the repetition of the same instance for months on end. Was it rewarding to get that piece of tier gear finally? Yes, but looking back I missed many of the details and story elements that got worked over by expansions.

2) I don’t like that there are not enough starting character slots to have a character of each class. I know that I can buy those slots however I am new to GW and would like to try each one without having to delete others that I spent time creating.

1) The dynamic event system is very fun with a small group of people, completing a large event chain is very satisfying. It’s also scaled up enough to be a genuine challenge without being too hard or too easy.

2) I find the skill system doesn’t have much room for builds, they’re there but they rely on utilities which are often very useless.

1. I like the rich world and lore. I like exploring for no other reason than “let’s go see what’s over HERE”. I like it that NPC often have very interesting tales to tell. I like vista’s and jumping puzzles. I like being able to compete in PvP despite me not having Da Uber Pwn Gear. And, despite everything, I love the community.

2. I don’t like the fact that I do not dare to set foot in Orr yet. My char is level 70 and at Orrs doorstep, but reading the forum, I’ve decided to put walking into Orr on hold until I see a large patch update for the area. Doesn’t make me bored – there is still plenty left to do – but I hate having an area I can’t poke my nose into just yet.

I just spent 10 minutes writing this response that explains why it is the details that make something good and simplifying something does not help you understand it. Then the thread got closed so I am posting it here since it does mention some of the details that I really think make this game good.

I hate people who simplify objectives. “Doiy, this game is like all other because it is about doing X to get Y”

The utterly moronic thing is if you take the details out of objectives you can compare anything to anything. In GW2 we do X to get Y. In CoD you do X to get Y. In Scrabble you do X to get Y.

Using algebraic equations simplifies something to its basic components and in that sense everything humanity creates is all the same. At my job, I do X to get Y.

WoW: DO “complete quests” GET “experience”
Rift: DO “complete quests” GET “experience”
GW2: DO “complete events” GET “experience”
Scrabble: DO “create words from letters” GET “points”
ALL GAMES: DO “play the game” GET “fun”

The point is that the details are what separates anything in existence from anything else, so taking them out does not make you smart and it does not give any kind of picture of what an experience is like.

The details of this game are brilliant. The variety of the scenery, the NPC’s that start up conversations that lead to events, the layout of the terrain and engaging story. The way my character really feels like he has weight and falls flat on his face if I jump from too high. The details are what separate good from bad.

1) Dynamic Events. They are pretty quick, you can do them whenever you like and you can quit whenever you like while still getting rewards. Sometimes the medals are not very well balanced: i.e. you may get gold for 15 seconds of participation, while others participated for 5 minutes and got the exact same reward. Other than that it’s perfect.

2) Lack of strategic elements: Mainly the lack of dual-class, lack of skills, lack of an energy system and grindy dungeon design rather than strategic design as in GW1.

1. The graphics?

2. The rest of the game is so watered down compared to GW1 it’s really hard to get into. PvE is really boring and your character doesn’t evolve. Classes are so homogenized everyone feels the same.

1. detailed zones.

2. anti farming code.

1- hearts and DE instead of quests
2- no competitive pve

1- fun time playing coop with friends, and combats (oh, and graphic)

2- would like to have more gaming mechanics that focus on social interation and player led content. (ie: epic players could influence the game).

1. Graphics

2. Builds … Everybody feels and plays the same. You don’t have the upper hand if you have a better, well thought-out build because they is none (no healer, tank etc)

1. Combat-system, fluidness, optimizations at most places (except weather/fog), trading post rocks when it works. Epic areas, epic mobs and bosses. No geargrinding. Fair-fight-pvp. No forced monthly costs.

2. Not being allowed to cast instant-abilities when jumping. I always have to do a storyquest 3 to 4 times because it bugs out, server is overflowing alot but yet there are no players in vicinity except on overflow-server, too many other gamebreaking stops in quests, events and puzzles, like non-working interactives and npcs that forget to keep moving or what to do. Guild does not work very well either, for example, right now I got all memberrights but I am not even allowed to view our guildemblem, guildbank says 3 out of 4 times that the guild has no bank. During maintenance the launcher calls for wild accusations that my router is wrongly configured instead of saying it is maintenance. I don’t even use a router. NCSoft’s chinese goldsellers that take up 98% of the map-chat. Being a bit afraid of reporting people for botting/selling/ spamming because other people get banned for reporting them according to forumposts. All support consists of “Sorry, we do not want/aren’t able to help you.” Long story short – Bugs & Annoyances.

Looks like 2 is way bigger than it should be, and it is, but I really like the game none the less.

1) trading post and the ability to set an auction instantly upon you picking up an item and its on your inventory (assuming it hasnt been removed as i havent played in 2 weeks).

2) The combat: The lack of skills, the lack of energy resource so we can have more DPS skills, the lack of healer for more strategic and organized combat, The lack of customization/variety/number of useful skills. The inherently borken bleed caps, condition stacking and how all condition builds past 2 people are basically completely broken and hardly do additional damage. How blind is just 1 hit, how the mesmer copys reset when the target dies, how necros dont raise fiends from bodies but from thin air. There isnt a consistant design and everything is all over the place. One big messy zerg that is broken and is failing this game and fans of Guild Wars.