Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 is not like other MMORPGs out there. Sure on the most basic aspects it is, but major parts of it are done in it’s own way to carve itself a different piece of the genre’s giant pie (the piece with more flavor and more fun).

Resources: In most other games, resources are limited to one person looting it and then it goes away. Server limited to 1 spawn on a timer. GW2 decided to have players not compete against each other for resources and every node can be mined by every player in the zone equally.

Mob Tagging/Rewards: Someone hit the mob, it turns grey to everyone else and only the initial first-hitter gets credit for the kill. This is how most other MMOs do it. Not so in GW2 which has everyone who help kill the mob get credit based on three tiers of participation: bronze, silver, and gold. Rewards such as chests are available to every participant, just like coin, and even drops (though that’s still a system RTD generator thing).

Trinity: GW2 there is none. There’s no pure healer, no pure DPS, and no pure tank. In a 5 man dungeon, you don’t need to be “LF1M Healer +9,000 Int, link gear”. A group can successfully do 6 Fractals with 3 Rangers, 1 Elementalist, and 1 Mesmer. In other MMO’s, it’s all about getting a healer, getting a tank, and the rest fill in for damage. A standard, generic fantasy trope.

Gear: Guild Wars 2 has flat gear Tiers. This means that all the gear in a single Tier (say level 80 Exotic) has the exact same stat allocation unlike other games that there might be a single exotic staff from a boss that has 15% higher stats than all the other exotic ones, and the next dungeon does another stat increase, and so on.

Factions: As mentioned in some of the other points above, this game does a lot to prevent trying to pit other people against each other on the same server unless it’s in sPvP or WvW. That being said, there’s no factions and all the player races are all working together against the bigger evil (the Elder Dragons).

(s)PvP: Quite a few MMOs out there have gear stats influencing PvP in one way or another. Be that specific stats created for PvP beyond the normals, or just regular. In GW2, stats are based on spec and runes/sigils only, but they’re even. There’s no super top-tier gladiator set to own everyone who doesn’t have it.

Open World PvP: Another somewhat anti-grief mechanic. Open World PvP, also known as World vs World, is put into separate maps that is separate from normal PvE gameplay. This way those that want the PvP risks can fully without need to make different server sets, without need to set artificial zone restrictions. For other games, Open World PvP is a rule set for a server that’s also defined by labeled friendly and contested zones.

PvE Questing: Non-traditional dynamic events and Hearts sprinkle the lands in which players choose which to complete when and where. There’s no hub-to-hub track of clear definition, with exploration highly encouraged. Each section of the world has it’s own flair and unique events that characterize it. There are no “!” or “?” like in other games. A completed heart is rewarded by a letter in the mail with coin attached, no NPC to return to; dynamic events follow suit with coin directed deposited to the player, XP and Karma added in as well.

Raiding: There’s a lot of people that define raiding by what some other MMOs do in having an instanced zone with high HP bosses, quite a lot of “trash mobs” (also high HP) and a limitation of 10, 20, 30, or 40 man groups {there’s also many times a weekly or several-day count timer were completion cannot be done again within that cooldown period}. Guild Wars 2 has raiding in it. The raiding is provided in the form of open world bosses throughout the world that anyone (appropriate level, of course) can come and participate with other players. They reward participants with a once-a-day chest with a rare or greater item in it, plus the boss chest too.
—-_ Guild Wars 2 Raids: _—-

-The Frozen Maw
-Jungle Worm
-Shadowfiend
-Fire Elemental
-Karka Queen
-The Claws of Jormag
-The Shatterer
-Tequatl the Sunless
-Temple of Grenth
-Temple of Balthazar
-Temple of Melandru
-Cathedral of Zephyrs

Content Updates: Much to the controversy some see it as, GW2 pumps out temporary content updates every 1-3 weeks as part of the Living Story. These are chunks of story, mini-games, world events, achievements, and even possibly a dungeon within a month’s time. These content updates progress a story -however cheesy- and make the game feel alive through it’s progression. Other MMO’s? Be lucky if you see content patches every 2 months, maybe 3-6 is more likely. None of this is including balance, bug fixes, and the usual tuning of the game.

Cost: GW2 launched in August 28th 2012. That’s nearly 10 months ago. Initial cost was $60 (dropped to the now $50). That’s it. Against a subscription AAA title, which would cost $60+(15x(10-1))=$195 for those same 10 months of game time. Sure there are constantly added fluff items in the Gem Store that helps fund the bi-monthly content updates that have been rolling out.

What’s the point of all this?
Guild Wars 2 isn’t like other games, nor will it be. Raiding is already in the game, and it’s A.Net’s take on it, not a copy of other game’s raiding. Content updates are FREE for a non-subscription based game, temporary or otherwise. Gem store items help support the game’s constant updates, so some stuff will be added there and not to the game directly. Other things won’t be changed to fit what other MMO’s have.

TLDR Version: This is not a clone. This is not <insert other MMO here>. This is Guild Wars 2. It is it's own beast. It is fun. Deal with it.

uau you actually compare the “world Bosses” in gw2 with raiding, why didnt you talk about the awesome feature that gw2 have “culling” in PvE that makes the “raiding” an awesome experience?

My basic reaction to most of your points in TLDR form:

1. thumbs up
2. thumbs up
3. thumbs down
4. thumbs down
5. doesn’t matter
6. doesn’t matter
7. doesn’t matter
8. thumbs up
9. thumbs down
10. thumbs up
11. thumbs up

In other words, I love the game and how you are encouraged to play with others, that you do not need to worry about kill/resource stealing. I do NOT like how there is no trinity or equipment variation. It results (in my opinion) in less strategic dungeon runs and less to strive for in rewards.

I care little about PvP for the next 3 points.

Questing in this game is very fun in comparison to other games! However, raiding vs world bosses? Raids win hands down. World bosses have a lot of potential, but because it is not closed off or instanced, they get face rolled by swarms of people. The worst part is all of these people are random, so there is not any coordination involved. Raids are great because you are all in a raid group, and need to work together and coordinate.

Frequent content updates and subscription free service is definitely a plus.

I think Guild Missions are more like raiding, in fact I will go so far as to say they offer a superior experience over raiding.

World bosses – most of them are on a LFR difficulty level, with the exception of the corrupted god temples in Orr of course. Those are tough!

Siphaed.9235:

…. It is fun. Deal with it.

That right there is the primary problem with some major titles on the market. Guild Wars 2 and Diablo 3 are just a few major ones that stand out.

The devs think they know what their community likes – And even when they don’t (which is more often than they’d like to admit) – They try to tell you what you should like.

That is one of the MANY reasons this game is not what it should have been. One of the many reasons the playerbase has shrunk so quickly.

It is a gamer’s market right now, and the developers who think otherwise should brace for a rude awakening.

We as gamers are in a position to be convinced to come and play their games (We have options, why should I pick your game?) – It isn’t and shouldn’t be the other way around – We should not be the ones trying to make it fun.

“Deal with it”

I think gw2 is just a mixture of other things out there. It is like gw1, wow and dcuo combined.

Motoko.2875:

Siphaed.9235:

…. It is fun. Deal with it.

That right there is the primary problem with some major titles on the market. Guild Wars 2 and Diablo 3 are just a few major ones that stand out.

There are things i dont like about GW2. Mainly, the complete lack of concern for WvW content, lack of enemy names and deathspam and guildnames on sponsored keeps and, of course, dueling your own faction. Also, that buffs are shared outside your party, the commander tag / no raid group system.

To me, these are huge issues that keep the pvp very second-rate and bland and I will always be ready to jump ship to any game that even merely claims to care more about those areas of the game.

But to compare GW2 to Diablo3?
The whole point of Diablo3 was to sacrifice one of the greatest IP’s ever made for the sake of a game without any endgame other than farming items to sell on the RMAH, essentially turning every single player into a chinese gold farmer that works for blizzard. It was the greediest most unforgivable abuse a gaming company has done since… well, I guess the xbox 1.

But still, GW2 strove to make a great game and came up a little short, thats totally different than striving to make a game that exists only to profit off of the players.

Except world bosses are not raids !
the word raid, has many negative connotations but as already known by the majority
guild wars 2 will be introducing there own version of RAIDING.

what we can expect, I do not know, what I do know is this it won’t be wow style raiding as that is the kind of raiding most people actually hate.

I do hope it keeps the difficulty and challenge aspect of the traditional raids

Temple of Lyssa is probably more like the Raid style battle people are thinking about, and probably twice more interesting than actual raid content in other MMOs. Let’s not forget that WoW raids have been toned down a lot in the recent half decade, and is pretty much equivalent to the Claw of Jormag fight.

Katai.6240:

Temple of Lyssa is probably more like the Raid style battle people are thinking about, and probably twice more interesting than actual raid content in other MMOs. Let’s not forget that WoW raids have been toned down a lot in the recent half decade, and is pretty much equivalent to the Claw of Jormag fight.

Did I forget the Temple of Lyssa? I’m sorry. I tried getting as many listed as I could. I didn’t even list Ancient Karka as an expired, one-time-only raid. That itself, though laggy a bit, was a very interesting 2 and 1/2 to 3hr multiple phased event of very epic proportions.

The thing about these events I listed is that people just recall the boss and nothing more. Each one of these has many steps to them that includes such things as minion spawn, objects to destroy, and other odd mechanics that do require cooperation (verbally known or otherwise). ~Ex. During the Karka Queen’s first show, many people had to be told were to stand to avoid her jump-stomp of death, had to be educated that when she was still shelled players needed to egg her with her own eggs, and so on. That’s a raid experience, from both sound and feel of it all. And that’s just her fight, there’s still the four dynamic events required to even unlock her, which again requires communication amongst the players/server, as well as coordination (especially with her on a 10 minute timer as soon as she spawns).