Guild Wars 2

So I have been playing gw2 for around a month now.

Having played gw1 for 3 years in total I have to say that you dont need to rely on other players anywhere near as much in gw2,

Infact gw2 feels like a single player game with multiplayer elements (dungeons, wvw, pvp) where as in gw1 any hope you had of progressing meant teaming up and beating content with other players,
Here im just running around doing the single player story and jumping in and out of multiplayer as I see fit.

Anyone else getthis feeling?

actually suits my playing style as a very casual player, I can jump on and off as I need to, and I don’t have to gear grind hours upon hours. Through I have to say sPVP and WvWvW are lacking in my opiinion

MMOs have pretty much all gone the way of allowing you to solo and enjoy the game without needing to group up. I can think of far more that are set up that way than the amount that are not in this era.

? I actually think gw1 is more of a singleplayer game. You could do everything with heroes. Even PvP could be done with heroes!

Ferum Flamebender.5910:

? I actually think gw1 is more of a singleplayer game. You could do everything with heroes. Even PvP could be done with heroes!

Didn’t they remove that option?

And yes, I wound up playing 90% of GW1 as a solo player, heroes/henchmen. And if I did it with people, I would go back later and try it with heroes/henchmen. Some missions it just wasn’t feasible (two missions in Nightfall, two in Factions, one in Prophecies) while others it was far easier (Final Eye of the North mission, a few Factions missions, and a lot of Prophecies).

I need to wonder, if GW1 was more solo-able then how is it “more MMO” than GW2 where you talk about needing more people around . . . something seems backwards in the reasoning here.

Ferum Flamebender.5910:

? I actually think gw1 is more of a singleplayer game. You could do everything with heroes. Even PvP could be done with heroes!

Heroes were only added in GW Nightfall and for the longest time you could only take 3 of them with you.
Only when GW1 started dying out because of lack of expansions and approaching GW2 the option was added to make full hero parties.

Also, you could have always soloed GW1, with hench. This was a challenge on it’s own.
I still remember hunting Maw the Mountain Heart on my Mesmer with hench only, journeying from Camp Rankor back in Prophecies.

i never even considered GW1 an MMORPG it was for me allways an Coop online RPG…the world was closed of with citys acting as lobbys, how can this be considered an mmorpg? You didnt play together with a massive amount off people…

For me, GW2 is more of an MMO. I tend to solo a lot and in GW2, the barrier to playing with other players is just so low that it just happens anyway all the time.

When I am levelling or gathering I am usually solo unless someone wants to tag along. But the nature of GW2 also means I can call out for help in map or guild chat and get the help I need for a champion or a skill point. With GW1 you HAD to either group up or take henchies/heroes, where with GW2 a lot of content is soloable, but DE also tend to balance out for groups.

I don’t think that GW2 is any more or less an MMO than GW. I will say that GW was a hell of a lot more fun, though.

Chuo.4238:

I don’t think that GW2 is any more or less an MMO than GW. I will say that GW was a hell of a lot more fun, though.

In some places, yes.

Vanquishing Majesty’s Rest? I didn’t find it all that fun, I found it very freaking annoying. (Anyone ever parse how much health Rotwing actually has?)

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Chuo.4238:

I don’t think that GW2 is any more or less an MMO than GW. I will say that GW was a hell of a lot more fun, though.

In some places, yes.

Vanquishing Majesty’s Rest? I didn’t find it all that fun, I found it very freaking annoying. (Anyone ever parse how much health Rotwing actually has?)

There are a few hero builds on the wiki that make this fight fairly straightforward. Worked well with 600/smite back in the day, too.

Ricky Da Man.5064:

Anyone else getthis feeling?

No.
While it was true that there was a lot of coop in the first year or two of GW1 – we even made parties for questing – the last years you could do just about everything with heroes and henchmen.

Could be different for new players starting with GW1 now…

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Vanquishing Majesty’s Rest? I didn’t find it all that fun, I found it very freaking annoying. (Anyone ever parse how much health Rotwing actually has?)

The biggest obstacle with Rothwing is believing it is a tough fight. When I finally ditched the tactics and special builds we simply charged right over him.

Ok I understand what everyone is saying, but the actual base story of the original game was much easier to group up and do content with others, except as stated in its twilight years when hero’s etc were introduced.

But the point remains it still had more multiplayer elements than gw2 has.

Ricky Da Man.5064:

Ok I understand what everyone is saying, but the actual base story of the original game was much easier to group up and do content with others, except as stated in its twilight years when hero’s etc were introduced.

But the point remains it still had more multiplayer elements than gw2 has.

Well, it had more blatantly multiplayer elements. GW2 decided to let go of that in favor of pretty much hiding it. You don’t see people grouping up because of how the world works, especially Dynamic Events. Everyone at a DE gets a piece of the action and a piece of the reward (in theory, in theory!) and it scales up difficulty so it can challenge larger masses (in theory, again, in theory).

So there’s no need to shove “you need to group up” in people’s faces, or have that sort of thing intruding. You are free to roam around alone but unlike GW1 you aren’t really “alone” in a place.

(Unless we’re talking Timberline Falls, nobody goes there.)

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Ricky Da Man.5064:

Ok I understand what everyone is saying, but the actual base story of the original game was much easier to group up and do content with others, except as stated in its twilight years when hero’s etc were introduced.

But the point remains it still had more multiplayer elements than gw2 has.

Well, it had more blatantly multiplayer elements. GW2 decided to let go of that in favor of pretty much hiding it. You don’t see people grouping up because of how the world works, especially Dynamic Events. Everyone at a DE gets a piece of the action and a piece of the reward (in theory, in theory!) and it scales up difficulty so it can challenge larger masses (in theory, again, in theory).

So there’s no need to shove “you need to group up” in people’s faces, or have that sort of thing intruding. You are free to roam around alone but unlike GW1 you aren’t really “alone” in a place.

(Unless we’re talking Timberline Falls, nobody goes there.)

But even at DE’s theres no sense of helping each other, its all kill it so I can get the goodies,

And im a frequent visitor to Timberline falls :P the ever spawning grawl are great for some quick cash.

Just feelthat in gw1 I can choose to group up and do stuff more, here I keep execting tumbleweed to roll by.

MMO means open world. GW1 does not have an open world. GW1 was never an MMO.

The only times GW1 approached the MMO feeling was during massive events such as Halloween and Boardwalk. Events are what drives the GW2 MMO experience … what’s in a name.

I agree with most people, in that GW2 feels a lot more like an MMO than GW1. Mainly due to the fact that GW2 is an open world where you go wherever you want and do whatever you want. GW1 was very linear and directed you from lobby to lobby by forcing you find groups.

A lot of the game is soloable, due to it being a little bit more for casual players. There’s content suitable for both casual (WvW, PvE, dungeons) and hardcore (sPvP, WvW, dungeons; mainly FoTM)

cherrie.8907:

Also, you could have always soloed GW1, with hench. This was a challenge on it’s own.
I still remember hunting Maw the Mountain Heart on my Mesmer with hench only, journeying from Camp Rankor back in Prophecies.

Oh god, thanks for the PTSD flashback.

Played through all of Prophecies when it first came out, grouped up. Dropped the game after that and missed the expansions. Came back a few years later and played all the campaigns again, this time solo. So pretty much all the content in that game could be soloed, I just chose not to do it that way the first time around

Not a lot different with GW2, only this time I’m not making any choices because it’s not needed. Grouping happens on the fly. I enjoy it when it happens without having any down time to set it up. That makes this a better system to me.

As much as i loved GW1 GW2 will always be more of an MMO because once you stepped outside a town in GW1 it was your own instance.

Ricky Da Man.5064:

Just feelthat in gw1 I can choose to group up and do stuff more, here I keep execting tumbleweed to roll by.

It’s possible. It’s also possible you are in a zone and you’re swept up in so many places you can go and jump in and out of events and fighting going on just because. There’s the balance (so to speak) of being a 90% persistent world; sometime there’s nobody around, sometimes there’s lots of people around.

But interesting you put it:

“But even at DE’s theres no sense of helping each other, its all kill it so I can get the goodies,”

Because there was rarely a GW1 PUG I took into a dungeon or mission which wasn’t focused on loot and finishing it fast as possible. If it was alliance folks getting together? We were all for doing it slowly and methodically so as not to need to wipe and repeat. Random folks? Get through ASAP to the chest so they can map travel out for another run. Sorry, you just might have rose-colored glasses on for this point . . . and nothing wrong with that. I have my own fond memories too because when I grouped it tended to be like this:

Alliance Chat: “Hey, who feels like doing something?”
Me: “I’m game, not doing anything currently aside from chest runs.”
“What do people still need vanquished? Let’s go do it.”

And we did it. And it was glorious fun, even for Sacnoth Valley which took a couple hours to comb for that last one mob. Even the eight hour Urgoz run was entertaining in its own way. Even the “screw it, I’m gonna tackle Kanaxai” Deep run was entertaining.

I have no doubts in my mind those experiences aren’t necessarily representative of the game for an average player.

GW1 beats GW2 in somethings.

They are both created by ArenaNet so I don’t know why they didn’t take some good things about GW1 and improve then in GW2…

Instead they decided to make some revolution, that worked fine arround the game, but that failed in some areas that need, but really need DEVs to look at them.

First thing that came to my mind: PVP ~~ GW1 beat by far GW2 PVP, it’s soo simple, limited, repetitive… :X

Max Lexandre.6279:

GW1 beats GW2 in somethings.

They are both created by ArenaNet so I don’t know why they didn’t take some good things about GW1 and improve then in GW2…

Instead they decided to make some revolution, that worked fine arround the game, but that failed in some areas that need, but really need DEVs to look at them.

They decided they wanted to make a full-on MMO instead of what Guild Wars 1 was. And it’s obvious some of their ideas looked okay on paper and when they thought of the theory but in practice it turned out differently.

Mostly because no plan ever really survives first contact with reality.

Max Lexandre.6279:

First thing that came to my mind: PVP ~~ GW1 beat by far GW2 PVP, it’s soo simple, limited, repetitive… :X

As far as PVP goes, I think everyone agreed that capping points was a terrible mechanic. It was bad in AB, it didn’t work in Hero Battles and was the basis for the very bad map Forgotten Shrines in Tombs. The core mechanic is about avoiding PVP instead of promoting it.

Why exactly A.net chose to keep the worst mechanic in GW1 as it’s core mechanic in GW2 is beyond me. If it were up to me I’d have taken Underworld and Fetid River as the core mechanic (annihilation with or without priest).

Capture points, hated in GW1, is the only reason I didn’t touch sPVP yet.