Guild Wars 2

Well let me start out by saying that I’ve been a player of Guildwars 1 since about late 2008. Guildwars was a game I enjoyed because it was casual and also challenging. It wasn’t a grind it was just a game that could be extremely hard and challenging at times but your hardwork was usually rewarded. It just has a balance to it that I liked. Things weren’t easily achieved they were earned and they were earned only through really playing the game. The Story Arcs and super detailed environments made the game fun as well as the community that relied mostly on eachother for help since there were no things like ingame stores to buy gold or gems or things you wanted to use gold and gems to buy. The game also would let you use henchmen, heroes, or real players to join up on missions to progress through the story. The Henchmen and heroes (like henchmen) came in handy when it was hard to find a group or a group that was cooperative. If you wanted to solo you could and if you wanted to play with others you could. I liked that option a lot. What that game lacked though was a continuous world and an open MMO environment to really explore the game side by side with other people. I drooled at GW2 like everyone else for years waiting the day I’d get a chance to play it. GW2 was something like everything we had wished for in GW1’s like being able to swim, no more instances, and being in a real live open world!

Now when I got GW2 I purchased it back on Preorder and played it on Prerelease. I didn’t make it past level 6 because the game kept crashing and GW2 decided to rule out XP users altogether by including a file that completely crashes our systems when we try to play. I put the game on the shelf and didn’t play it again till last month till now after learning how to get the game to play on XP. So these past few weeks have been my true experience of the game. So far it’s been bitter sweet. Sweet because it has so many things included into it from GW1 but Bitter because at the same time it’s so far apart from GW1. The fighting style is fun because it’s more fluent but the limited option of skills for your specific class gets old quite quickly. The fun of changing out builds and having your character fight differently kept the feeling of combat fresh which was one of the selling points of GW’s for me. This time around I get bored in combat switch weapons till I get even more tired of seeing the same moves. It just doesn’t feel like Guild Wars. The other things I noticed is that the community of course is different thanks to the game being much bigger and renowned now but, no one socializes. It’s just solo this and grind that while people are off in their own little worlds. Sometimes I feel like I’m right back in those GW1 instance Zones except without my henchmen. Maybe it’s because I’m so late in the game but still there should be other new players about questing that you can group and level with but there rarely are (most of the time I just run into high-level players farming for items or map achievements). It’s hard to explain but leveling as a new player feels so desolate. It be a good idea to quest with old pals from GW1 but they quit or just stopped playing for whatever else they have going on in their lives.

The Sweet part about the game is everything else. Seeing the details and work put into the game to make the world feel alive, the story arc is interesting, and the living world so far is a good touch. As GW1 felt stale once you beat the game there’s nothing much else to do with the story. The living world solved that problem but, I do hate how you can complete a quest and 5 minutes later the same quests is back up. I wish there was a way for the world to remain altered for you once you complete a quest instead of just resetting like nothing ever happened.

PVP and the Wvs.W. with the huge battleground is also nice as Jade Quarry, Fort Aspenwood, and Random arena’s got old after playing them for years. What the game is missing is the Kurzick and Luxon feel to it. There’s no group to oppose which makes PVP even more fun when you have a real team/side to represent. I liked those kind of games the most because they strengthen the community of the game.

The biggest let down I’ve experienced so far are group content. Since there’s no one around on maps it’s hard to find a group for a boss. It’s also hard to get a group for the special world events as Lowbie’s or non level 80’s aren’t exactly welcomed even if you get the “instant 80! Bonus”. I’ve been kicked from several groups for being the low level odd man out. So exploring special content isn’t exactly the most fun experience for new/leveling players. You can join guilds that can help but so far it hasn’t been much different from the same people soloing and farming away. Most people just sit quietly online going about their business. These things aren’t really the fault of the game it’s just how mmo culture has changed. No one’s really interested in questing, leveling, socializing in a group. It’s about getting to the end as fast as possible and getting armored up as fast as possible. Most of lionarch chat can tell that story of “look at this shiny armor here”. As a GW1 player I’m just not used to that I guess. Armor wasn’t a big part of the game it was just a reward for your hard work. The emphasis on armor now is something I’d rather do without. Looking cool but not mattering is what it was about but now it seems that looking cool matters when it did not matter before in the Guildwars world. Your badge of “Elitism” I guess were the skills you acquired and how well you played with those skills. That’s completely gone now.

So far I find myself liking things about the game and also disliking certain things about game (more so the MMO aspects of it). It’s not a bad game at all it’s just not for me anymore I guess. I’ll probably continue on in my storyline and then put the game aside. I still play GW1 so I’ll reflect to that when I have a Guildwars itch.

Someone never hung out in Marhan’s Grotto!

Interesting review. I think Guild Wars 2’s best years are ahead of it. Right now, what you see is a backbone of what was to come later. Remember in earlier Guild Wars 1, there was a whole lot less to do. There were no heroes at all. There were less challenging content. All these things take time to develop.

In fact, Guild Wars 1 isn’t one game….it’s 3 games and an expansion. In order to compare Guild Wars 2 to that you’d have to wait at least a couple of years.

So don’t be so fast to write the game off quite yet. There’ll be a lot of changes in the years to come.

I actually haven’t had any of the same issues you have with the community. Finding a guild will really solve a lot of them problems, and generally people don’t group up for levelling in this game they just meet up at the place where the event is. That doesn’t necessarily mean there’s no communication though, a lot of it is just done through the say channel. Even if you do group up, if you got kicked for being a lower level player then you’re better off without them honestly.

I think it’s partly down to what server you play on, but you can guest on other servers to see if you like them, and even stay on there without having to spend a penny if you just keep guesting. I also think your disappointment is partly based on you comparing 2 rather different games. I played GW1 years ago, and this just isn’t the same game at all. It has similarities, like for example Final Fantasy whereby every game has the same mobs and magic, summons etc. Similarities is as far as it goes though. I think to really enjoy GW2 you have to lose those rose tinted glasses of GW1 and class this as a whole new game without comparing it to anything. Comparing can only be bad for your view on any game because it immediately points out the flaws that you might have otherwise missed.

Vayne.8563:

Interesting review. I think Guild Wars 2’s best years are ahead of it. Right now, what you see is a backbone of what was to come later. Remember in earlier Guild Wars 1, there was a whole lot less to do. There were no heroes at all. There were less challenging content. All these things take time to develop.

In fact, Guild Wars 1 isn’t one game….it’s 3 games and an expansion. In order to compare Guild Wars 2 to that you’d have to wait at least a couple of years.

So don’t be so fast to write the game off quite yet. There’ll be a lot of changes in the years to come.

It’s a very different game indeed. I see the potential for it becomming even better. It’s just lost a lot of what I enjoyed about GW1 and replaced it with something new. I’m open to new ideas but I just don’t really enjoy some of the changes, and what I mean by changes are the lack of character customizations with the skill options, the lack of a challenge when fighting and no real fear of death or failure. It feels too simplistic for me.

QueenHysteria.1084:

Vayne.8563:

Interesting review. I think Guild Wars 2’s best years are ahead of it. Right now, what you see is a backbone of what was to come later. Remember in earlier Guild Wars 1, there was a whole lot less to do. There were no heroes at all. There were less challenging content. All these things take time to develop.

In fact, Guild Wars 1 isn’t one game….it’s 3 games and an expansion. In order to compare Guild Wars 2 to that you’d have to wait at least a couple of years.

So don’t be so fast to write the game off quite yet. There’ll be a lot of changes in the years to come.

It’s a very different game indeed. I see the potential for it becomming even better. It’s just lost a lot of what I enjoyed about GW1 and replaced it with something new. I’m open to new ideas but I just don’t really enjoy some of the changes, and what I mean by changes are the lack of character customizations with the skill options, the lack of a challenge when fighting and no real fear of death or failure. It feels too simplistic for me.

Do you find a lack of challenge when fighting when doing explorable mode dungeons too, or fractals? I’m curious.

Crysto.7089:

Someone never hung out in Marhan’s Grotto!

Didn’t know that was a “hangout” spot. Aside from getting armor I’ve never known anyone to hangout there. Most people choose Kamadan.

Guild Wars (1) was much different than what you experienced prior to late 2008. Once Guild Wars 2 has been operational for three years, people may have a much different outlook on what the game offers. The great thing about Guild Wars games is ArenaNet will never terminate your account for being idle, so you can take a vacation from them, and always come back to see how the games have progressed. =)

Jaall.3420:

I actually haven’t had any of the same issues you have with the community. Finding a guild will really solve a lot of them problems, and generally people don’t group up for levelling in this game they just meet up at the place where the event is. That doesn’t necessarily mean there’s no communication though, a lot of it is just done through the say channel. Even if you do group up, if you got kicked for being a lower level player then you’re better off without them honestly.

I think it’s partly down to what server you play on, but you can guest on other servers to see if you like them, and even stay on there without having to spend a penny if you just keep guesting. I also think your disappointment is partly based on you comparing 2 rather different games. I played GW1 years ago, and this just isn’t the same game at all. It has similarities, like for example Final Fantasy whereby every game has the same mobs and magic, summons etc. Similarities is as far as it goes though. I think to really enjoy GW2 you have to lose those rose tinted glasses of GW1 and class this as a whole new game without comparing it to anything. Comparing can only be bad for your view on any game because it immediately points out the flaws that you might have otherwise missed.

I’m just basing my review off my experiences with the game so far. It has been very desolate. For new/leveling players the game isn’t so welcoming unless you’re playing with friends IRL. By this point finding groups to level with or getting into dungeons isn’t so easy. August and September no problem but now it’s pretty quiet unless your max. For the first 40 levels it’s been like that. I don’t see much changing the next 40 levels. I am one of those “annoying” people you can say I guess. I like to talk to everyone I come across but a lot of people just don’t feel like being social or grouping up and doing quests. The game is also so easy that you really don’t need to do that at all. Untill you get to a Mob boss and then you’re searching for other players to come help. One time I got frustrated and just camped out at the boss till enough people came by and started attacking him and eventually they jumped in. It took about 1 day and a half to make that happen (that includes asking people on the map for help).

As the game is now it’s a sologame with grouping game play at Max level. That’s just not what I’m looking for in a game or MMO. For me a game is all about the journey. The level 80 thing really killed the thrill I think. They were smart before to keep the level cap low so people focused more on the game experience. Even though leveling comes fast it shouldn’t really matter. I like one of the ideas “The Secret World” Did where they removed leveling altogether and just made the game skill dependent. That sounded more like what a next Gen Guildwars game would be like but instead it ended up being the exact opposite. “Limited Skills” and “Leveling”. I don’t think GW2 is a bad game it’s just very different from GW1. It should really be called Guild Wars “Rise of The Dragons” or something like that because it doesn’t have enough in common with the first game to be a sequel to it.

Sorry to disagree here, but TSW didn’t really remove levels in any meaningful way. TSW just SAID they removed levels.

You still got experience points for doing things and when you got enough experience points you could unlock a skill. Having higher skills in a certain category meant you had to have the lower skills first, so you got experience which unlocked skills when you had enough of it.

By the time you had enough experience, you had enough skills unlocked to unlock the next tier of skills. TSW did a lot of things right, but I personally felt lied to about them not having levels. Because skills required experience points, and because you had to unlock them in order, you had levels in everything but the appearance of the number on your character page.

Yes. GW2 is way more anti-social compared to GW1. Why? Because in GW2 u don’t need teamwork. Everyone is DPS. Healers aren’t there, you just need to dodge. So with this huge lack of roles you are pretty unimportant as a player. Also because it’s all DPS, you don’t need coördination, so no communication. In GW1 however you had many many roles, each player was really important and they had a certain task in the group, they have to work together as a group else they will fail. That’s it. In GW1 you have: Tank, heal, protecter, Nuker, CC’er, Hexer, Spiker, Runners, interrupters and many more. GW went from a super innovative game to a simplistic system where teamwork has no place.

You can join guilds that can help but so far it hasn’t been much different from the same people soloing and farming away. Most people just sit quietly online going about their business. These things aren’t really the fault of the game it’s just how mmo culture has changed. No one’s really interested in questing, leveling, socializing in a group. It’s about getting to the end as fast as possible and getting armored up as fast as possible.

I think that IS a direct, unseen consequence of the game design. Gw2 tries very hard to make the game casual, playable in the same way by any class, removing trinity and givining most classes different ways to spec.

What is unfortunate is that in doing so they streamlined the experience. In other games you NEED heals, or a tank etc. Those games are designed with classes that integrate each other, and content that needs specific teamwork and composition. Taking that away gave alot more freedom, yes, but at the cost of “feeling like a team”.

Sure, you can buff, control, heal (kinda) but everyone can do that, and the effect are so minor (because ultimately everything is based on dps) that ultimately people just do their own thing and care about nothing else, or even feel offended if you ask builds to coordinate skills.

Too much freedom always tends to expose the selfish nature of humans, story has told us that. If you are not FORCED to rely on someone, you don’t have to communicate with him, coordinate with him and ultimately partecipate/contribute in the community.

Sure guilds help, but that’s true in any game, and no excuse for a flaw that HAS to be remedied in an expansion, because as much as everyone loves having as much freedom as possible, people get bored quickly playing that way.

Vayne.8563:

Interesting review. I think Guild Wars 2’s best years are ahead of it. Right now, what you see is a backbone of what was to come later. Remember in earlier Guild Wars 1, there was a whole lot less to do. There were no heroes at all. There were less challenging content. All these things take time to develop.

In fact, Guild Wars 1 isn’t one game….it’s 3 games and an expansion. In order to compare Guild Wars 2 to that you’d have to wait at least a couple of years.

So don’t be so fast to write the game off quite yet. There’ll be a lot of changes in the years to come.

I totally agree with this and would add that GW2 has much more content than GW1 had when it first started. So I am sure we are in for some amazing things in the future.

I have come to the conclusion that this first year is an extended beta – testing out new ideas and getting stuff a little more balanced. I’m not expecting anything really cool yet.

I know it’s generally unacceptable to buy an incomplete game but it’s pretty much the same with every single MMO, I actually can’t think of any that have been great on release. Some launch better than others but none are perfect. As mentioned, GW1 didn’t even start off that great, was good but then so is this.

The other problem is this game has enticed people to play who haven’t played any MMO before, so they probably don’t know this. Or it entices people who played GW1 in it’s heyday rather than when it was first released all them years ago so they’ve never really experienced that “first year”.

It’s a difficult situation because as it’s free to play after you buy the box it would be easy to think it’s like a console game where the only addons come from actual bought expansions sold on the shelf. Also if you’re generally unaware of the time an MMO takes to iron out all the problems then you could feel cheated out of your money, but it does get better. It takes time but it has with any MMO. If there was a way to view the WoW forums all them years ago it would effectively be the same as it is here if not worse.

CoRtex.2157:

Yes. GW2 is way more anti-social compared to GW1. Why? Because in GW2 u don’t need teamwork. Everyone is DPS. Healers aren’t there, you just need to dodge. So with this huge lack of roles you are pretty unimportant as a player. Also because it’s all DPS, you don’t need coördination, so no communication. In GW1 however you had many many roles, each player was really important and they had a certain task in the group, they have to work together as a group else they will fail. That’s it. In GW1 you have: Tank, heal, protecter, Nuker, CC’er, Hexer, Spiker, Runners, interrupters and many more. GW went from a super innovative game to a simplistic system where teamwork has no place.

Agree with this view, also the Addition of a gear treadmill only made the community worse, all the elitist attitudes and player base division are helped along by Ascended and Legendary stupidity, honestly none of that was needed and it made the community so much worse…

I also agree with most the Op said i’m not sure why Vayne’s GW1 experience was so bitter but i never had half the issues he had in GW1 for what 4 years, and its was on a whole a much superior game all round if you had no issues with instanced game play.. most other issues were small compared to GW2.

Dante.1508:

CoRtex.2157:

Yes. GW2 is way more anti-social compared to GW1. Why? Because in GW2 u don’t need teamwork. Everyone is DPS. Healers aren’t there, you just need to dodge. So with this huge lack of roles you are pretty unimportant as a player. Also because it’s all DPS, you don’t need coördination, so no communication. In GW1 however you had many many roles, each player was really important and they had a certain task in the group, they have to work together as a group else they will fail. That’s it. In GW1 you have: Tank, heal, protecter, Nuker, CC’er, Hexer, Spiker, Runners, interrupters and many more. GW went from a super innovative game to a simplistic system where teamwork has no place.

Agree with this view, also the Addition of a gear treadmill only made the community worse, all the elitist attitudes and player base division are helped along by Ascended and Legendary stupidity, honestly none of that was needed and it made the community so much worse…

I also agree with most the Op said i’m not sure why Vayne’s GW1 experience was so bitter but i never had half the issues he had in GW1 for what 4 years, and its was on a whole a much superior game all round if you had no issues with instanced game play.. most other issues were small compared to GW2.

No matter how many times you use the word treadmill, it doesn’t make what is in this game a treadmill. It’s not. Play WoW for a few years and you’ll see what a treadmill is.

What I dislike most about GW2 is that it was sold as a game that would do away with the trinity (tank, healer, nuker) but the professions are so horribly balanced in PvE at least that it feels like they’ve just replaced that trinity with a different one. Guardians, warriors and mesmers are just way better than everyone else to the point where it feels like taking anyone else is just hurting your team. A dungeon team full of heavy armor professions for example can clear pretty much any content with ease whereas a team full of light or medium armor professions would struggle in many areas. In GW1 this wasn’t as much an issue because you had secondary professions and heroes which allowed you to build around the weaknesses of your profession.

Apart from that there are a few more things such as a lack of ability to post URL’s to webpages using the in-game chat which in GW1 was a good way to hang out with friends and the lack of a guild alliance system. Low level dungeons like AC and CM being so hard is also disappointing, they should be made easier to encourage people to do them more, CoF p2 has the best difficulty balance in my opinion.

GW1’s best times were from around 9 months in to about 2 years in, but that was mainly due to just ironing out balance issues because of the skill structure. GW1 produced a stunning PvP game right out of the gate and once balance was decent it was supreme. PvE had it’s evolution but at a slower pace.
GW2 had it’s main mechanics down from day 1, and has gone through the inevitable bug fixing phase. I think we’ll look back and say the game’s sweet spot started aout 6 months in and will last to around 18 months to 2 years.