Guild Wars 2

Months on end people have been complaining about GW2 and it’s excessive attention to grinding. I found this quote on MMORPG.com (see below) and it really touches the point. Instead of playing the game, people play numbers. Let me elaborate.

WvW:

• Farm player kills (3476/250.000), you are one kill closer to “Ultimate Dominator”, and will reach this title in approximately 35 years.
• Farm badges
• Farm dolyak kills
• Farm rare/exotic drops

• Instead of enjoying the world, enjoying battle scenes, enjoying advanced tactics, enjoying teamplay…

PvE:

• Farm champions for rare/exotic drops that will bring you 20s-300s closer to a legendary weapon. Congratulations you still have 1.066 exotic drops to go and about 30.000 champion kills.
• Farm dungeons for tokens, to salvage rares, that you then sell on the tp for money.
• Farm achievements, because you then get 2 gold for 500 achievement points that took you 2 weeks to gather!! OMG.
• Farm Living story – cause everyone does it and I need materials so I can buy the +1 ascended gear, because the stats are 10% better, but why do we need them if the bosses are just scaled with exotic armour?
• Farm explorable maps, because then you are one heart closer (heart being kill 30x and gather 20x) to map completion!!

• Instead of enjoying the exploration itself, having fun fighting hard mobs etc.

SPvP:

• Farm hot-join matches or tournaments, for glory, so you get a virtual rank 45 that actually doesn’t give you anything.

• Instead of dueling for fun etc.

Is the whole GW2 community who goes along with this kittened or is that just my opinion?

Originally posted by Fishu

Originally posted by Bananaramaa

Roll on to GW2 and every area just feels the same. Quick finish and pass by to next area, rinse and repeat till level 80.

I agree. When I was playing and leveling my toon in GW2 . I actually was more focused on the map and the dot of my character and not the environment itself. Just focusing of where my character was going and not what I was doing. My character dot on the world map was my environment 50 % of the time.
Grinding has it’s flaw of course, but it’s forced people to group together and work together. Not in some ‘’public group’’ , but in private group where you had to talk to other human being. That how camaraderie started and guild were formed. In today mmorpg, I just don’t care. Everyone want to do their own little thing and move on to the next zone the fastest possible so I do the same and get bored very quickly. GW2 world was emptier than DAOC. Since I did not care about it, I just cared about the experience I gained in it.
Older mmorpg like daoc and UO had a great community because players felt they were being part of it New MMORPG are all ’’MEMEME’’ and ’’NOWNOWNOW’’. It’’s reflect well the hyper-individualist culture of North America. Not caring about the people, but where you’re heading.
Thing with new mmorpg is .. You’re so spammed with quest that you don’t care anymore. They should do something more like a chainable quest with other area to explore rather than exclamation point everywhere making you lose interest in the environment and others player.

yes, it is, to some extend. PvE, guess you are right. But, as you say, the achievements in pvp are rather useless and unrealistic to achieve and you demand pvp should be funcentric. Well, then play PvP and WvW for the fun of it for god´s sake. I cannot see a noteworthy problem with farmers there. And what is “farm player kills” even supposed to mean? What else would you do in pvp besides kill players? Sorry, your complaint isn´t without good reasons, but you twist and turn things to suit your position. So no, you got it wrong in my opinion.

Grinding is a state of mind. The game encourages people to grind, but people don’t have to. I don’t. I do what I want when I want.

Like Vayne said its a state of mind.

The game gives you goals, be it legendary weapons, cosmetic armor, minis, tonics, named exotics, ascended stuff whatever… How you go about it is up to you.

Lets say I am going for ascended armor pieces.

Some players log on. Play the first 30 minutes to complete the daily, complete the daily then having done their daily choir go play dungeons or WvW or DE and complete the daily another couple of times but still they feel the urge that the firsts thing the have to do is grind the Daily achievement.

Some people log on, play whatever they feel like playing and if by the time they’re gonna log out the daily isnt done yet they just finish it off and thats it.

Nothing wrong with any type but one feels grindy the other doesnt. However the content is exactly the same!

Let put this whole thing in funny way.

It takes 9 minutes to cross wayfarer hills. If we assume 1 step every second that’s 540 steps my character needs to take. So Assuming I want to go on foot to Diessa I can either count all the way and tell to myself excellent 40 steps complete 500 to get to my destination or I can enjoy the scenery and let myself be distracted by stuff as it happens. No matter what I do it will still take me at least 540 steps… probably more. But which one is more enjoyable…. 9 minutes of counting or 9 minutes of playing the game?

Anet said they don’t make grindy games. They did. Whether you choose to go into that grind or not is another matter.

If you can just walk around and not get bored by it, well done to you.

You should just try a Korean MMO. Then you will realize what is a true mandatory grind.

Riss.1536:

You should just try a Korean MMO. Then you will realize what is a true mandatory grind.

I know them. Just because cause they are triple bad doesn’t mean this isn’t bad.

Vayne.8563:

Grinding is a state of mind. The game encourages people to grind, but people don’t have to. I don’t. I do what I want when I want.

Really like the way you phrase this.

Grind IS DEFINITELY a state of mind.

To some, lvling to 80 is a grind. To others, doing dailies is a grind.

I swear some people refer to any thing within a game that progresses character a grind. Unfortunately, some have been bred into the carrot and stick mentality so much that now all they can see is carrots, nothing more.

Gehenna.3625:

Anet said they don’t make grindy games. They did. Whether you choose to go into that grind or not is another matter.

If you can just walk around and not get bored by it, well done to you.

Anet didn’t make a grindy game. They made a non-grindy game and people walked away from it. Go figure.

I guess if you invested millions of dollars into something that wasn’t working out you’d take the loss instead of changing it to make money. You’re just that kind of guy. lol

This is so subjective. To me ‘grind’ includes stuff I have to do in game in order to get something that is required for playing. I do need gear. So if I want ascended items there are certain things I HAVE TO do to get them. That for me is a grind.

Everything else – no. I don’t HAVE TO do anything else to enjoy the game, be competitive and do well.

PvP – hell no, I don’t have to grind anything there. All rewards are aesthetic, I don’t need ANYTHING besides what I get right away when starting to compete on the highest level.

WvW – nope. Not a grind. Despite what people might think you do not NEED the new ranks or any of the other stuff to compete and play well here. Sure it helps, but it’s not necessary. So you can just enjoy it and play for fun.

PvE – the only grind is the one for a full exotic (soon ascended) set of gear. And even that, if you are not competitive you can stick with greens you get from drops and never care. Everything else is your choice.

Guild Wars has always been unapologetically grindy — for aesthetics.

Power on the other hand has the lowest grind of any major MMO.

Eliyahu.1467:

Guild Wars has always been unapologetically grindy — for aesthetics.

Power on the other hand has the lowest grind of any major MMO.

Until now is what you meant to say.

Now you can argue what is more grindy, WoW or GW2.

They should have dropped GW2 as a stand-alone game, instead upgraded GW1 to the new engine and servers and added a new expansion. I’m not saying GW2 is absolutely horrible, it’s still one of the better mmos out there, but mmos in general are horribly zergy.

Riss.1536:

You should just try a Korean MMO. Then you will realize what is a true mandatory grind.

I came here from a Korean MMO. GW2 was a very nice change of pace. I could finally relax because getting top stat gear took some time but that was the end. Then I could leisurely figure out how I wanted each of my characters to look and work towards that.
Legendary was an afterthought because I really didn’t like any of the looks except the underwater weapons. I could definitely ignore those until the new legendary weapons came. I would save up for them in the meantime. Then ascended happened. I could largely ignore it except for the amulet.
The pace of the gear is nowhere near as hectic or grindy as that other MMO but I am feeling the pressure now.
I left a guild that I had been with for a long time because the pressure was on for top gear, and top effectiveness in WvW. It wasn’t about fun anymore, just winning.

It may not be as bad as other MMO’s but it wasn’t what we all bought into, it’s just what it has become.

Lately, even leveling my ranger feels like grinding. I count every number, watch every piece of the xp bar fill up slowly. Run around like a chicken without a head looking for events.

I’m not looking forward to the two weekly patches either. Because it makes me focus on achievements/mini’s/weapons to much…

I was thinking to just juggle between the rest of my characters. Each day a different one, a different landscape.
Maybe… I just need a break.