Guild Wars 2

Hi,
As the title states: How are you able to simply log into GW2, not worry about receiving your due rewards for whatever activity, and just enjoy the game. “hmm, I want to do a dungeon:” “Ok, maybe I’ll run around Orr a bit and do some DEs.” “K done with Orr, what Jumping Puzzles have I not done yet?”

I started playing this game with this mindset: It was an explorers paradise. Gear did not matter, reward did not matter. Get to max level, gear your gearset, go after cosmetics, and just explore the gorgeous world and enjoy the game because you had all the gear you wanted, now just have fun!

So my plan was this:
-Level up as many characters as I could stomach (I got 5 to 80)
-Then pick two or three to be the characters you play the most and gear them in exotics (I picked Thief as real main, Warrior, Necro)
-Then get into WvW for some server pride!
-Then in tandem with WvW begin looking at what you want to do about Legendaries and begin the process.
-Maybe dabble in sPvP
-Enjoy the game.

Ascended gear was introduced, along with many other reward systems, changes to reward systems, incentives to do this or that, guild missions, etc. So lately my mindset has been:
-Farm materials for legendary via farm spots or COF1.
-Try to hit up every dragon / meta event I can not because they are fun, but for the rares
-Check off the boxes I need for my daily.
-Try to acquire as many Laurels as possible
-Try to acquire as much Ascended gear as possible

You can see where I went wrong. And it is hard to change this mindset with so many carrots(rewards) dangling in front of you. I hear a few people in the forums that are able to ignore all of this crap and simply play for instrinsic enjoyment. How are you able to do this! I really want to know because despite all of the criticism I have given Gw2 over the past 3 or so months, it still provides the most gorgeous landscape, the most MMO experience out of any MMO out there, an ambitious design team(even though I disagree with where they are taking the game), and a few other minor positives.

I want to get back into the game. Ive invested about 1000 hours and probably 160$ in the game(not a lot compared to you people with loads of disposable income). Maybe your stories of fun and memories can inspire me to not be such a kitten and play to play. Ignore the rewards, and just play.

I have four characters at level 80 with full map and story completion. My overarching goal is to have all eight professions at that point, though I have not bothered to set myself a timeframe (originally it was ‘before the first expansion’, but an expansion may never come, so no timeframe).

Those four characters all have at least one set of full exotic gear and each of them has at least one piece of Ascended equipment. Three of the four have both rings, by tonight, three of the four will have amulets (although one has an extra amulet too), two have Fractal backpieces, one at stage one and one at the fully glowy stage three.

I have 7,700 achievement points.

However, I still don’t have Dungeon Master, Master Crafter or even Hint Completion and I’m only vaguely interested in the possibility of a legendary. I am content that all of these will come in time and do not worry myself with trying to achieve them by a specific date or just as soon as I possibly can. I play the content I find enjoyable. For instance, my love of exploration and jumping puzzles is the reason four of my characters have map completion.

The only content I ‘rush’ towards is the content associated with the Living Story, because it’s fresh, new and different and because some of it will only be here for a short time. In time, I will see everything, but I’m in no rush to do so. I do set myself goals but I do not pressure myself because I know that if I do, I will eventually burn out and the content itself will become less enjoyable to me. The end goals are nice, but the journey is better.

I don’t know how I’m able to do it but I just can. It’s not anything I’ve ever analysed. Rewards are fun to aim for but not generally necessary. I don’t car about ascended since I don’t do fractals. I’ll get them when I need them.

I log in and just enjoy the feeling I get when I see my character roster. Running through zones whether there’s people in them or not enhances that. I love the beauty of the game in general, the artwork amazes me. The character I play at any time is the one I’m up to in my levelling program (altaholic here) but its not set in stone, and I do dailies for the xp boost mostly. Got over the feeling I needed to do them when I missed one.

I don’t think this will really help but I thought I’d share. I just really enjoy playing this game.

Playing with my friends is what I enjoy the most.

This is why I am one of the people who love the living story concept: more for me to explore.

Maybe if I had enough time to actually get bored, I would create a new character, level them to 80 as quickly as possible, and then play their personal story and the story dungeons “in order” as sort of an RPG.

If you are into RP at all, that quickly becomes its own reward.

Thanks for the responses. And here I am, deciding if I want to give it another serious go…but Im behind in a lot of the living story stuff. Missed a lot of dragon bash, skypirates, and whatever Ive missed so far with Winds of the Bazaar. Id feel compelled to get that stuff done as much as I can before anything else.

I don’t play the game that much, maybe a couple hours per day. I usually log in, see where are the dailies pointing me to (“Ascalon Killer”, “Maguuma Veteran Killer”, and so on), pick whatever character I feel like playing, and go to some part of the map I haven’t been to in some time, to see what cool events I can find there. That, or I do a bit of WvW.

I like the basic gameplay. Quite a lot, actually. I’ve got 10 characters now, with 7 of them at level 80. Just recently added a second mesmer. I got 100% map completion on my 1st character and I don’t intend to repeat that with any of my alts, but I still do map completions with them. Most of the time when I’m playing with guildies, we are ‘exploring’ zones with new characters (or characters that haven’t explored a particular zone yet), even though we, the players, know quite well where everything is by now. We do the hearts and whatever DEs we happen upon. Sometimes we jump from zone to zone in pursuit of the dailies.

Here’s what I don’t (or very seldom) do:

Dungeons
WvW
sPvP
Fractals
Personal Story

My guildies like to do personal story missions. I don’t like how the ‘personal’ stories end up, so after one run through all the way to the end, I tend to not bother with them on my alts, but I’ll play them with my guildies.

If we could have more zones – fully-developed zones, with all the bells and whistles and not more porcupine (bet you thought I was gonna say kitten) like Southsun – added periodically, that would be cooler than cool. I am ready, in a big way, for an expansion. Instead we are getting more of this Living Story mess. Nothing I have seen yet has encouraged me to believe this ‘innovation’ is going to improve.

As they say on Barsoom, “I have spoken.”

You guys say “go off exploring” when you have multiple 80s, and probably hundreds or over a thousand hours played. Honestly, whats left to explore? Are you really finding those nook and crannies hidden in the game?

I dont have any RL friends that play. My guild is dead and its the only guild Ive enjoyed since playing Gw2. I cannot find one that fits me: Small casual tight knit guild(30-35 ACTIVE players, max). So playing with other people tends not to happen. And I agree with the living story, but there could be something cool here and there with it. So I tend to check it out a bit.

But then Im..bored again or want to go after more carrots!

I have 7 characters that are level 80.

I think the pursuit of legendaries is the root of all evil in this game (well most evil). They force you into prolonged periods of doing things that aren’t fun at all. If you aren’t going for a legendary, you actually don’t need very much money.

I recommend suspending the legendary grind for two days, then at least once a week after that. For those days do whatever interests you. If it’s WvW then do that. Run a longer dungeon. Whatever. Just don’t grind.

Edit: If there’s nothing you want to do, turn off the game and do something else. This isn’t a “this game is not for you” post, more of a “don’t play out of habit” post.

I see the game through the eyes of my characters, call it immersion I suppose, so when they travel the world or deal with events/personal story/hearts its still fresh. All my guys and girls are different anyway.

Do you think it’s a case of you really wanting to love this game but falling short? I’m not going to play the “this game is not for you” card but maybe you have a disappointment factor that jut won’t be overcome. Or something else entirely. Anyway, this game is made to play on and off. Perfect for those who need it.

I have 3 80’s and I am one of those who just log on and enjoy myself.
How do I do this?
I am not actually sure.

I don’t care about ascended at all, I don’t really care about carrots either, I do not grind and I do not farm.

I do love exploring and playing any of my 3 max characters give me great joy- I love the art in this game and that drives me to revisit my favorite zones and hang out, climb a mountain, check out a cave- see if I can solo that champ if no-one is around etc.

I do not feel pressured by the Living Story because I will check it out and if it looks fun or interesting I stick around, if not I simply go do something else.

I guess it comes down to what am I in the mood for when I log on- there are so many options that I just pick one and go with it.

Feeling social?- head over to Queensdale or hit up a meta event for some silly map chat and some costume brawl.
Feel like wandering?- head over to Fireheart rise, Dredgehaunt Cliffs, Mt Maelstrom or where ever.
Feeling productive?- level an alt
Feeling my oats?- go do some Jumping Puzzles :P
Feel like I want to blow off some steam?- Go run some Orr events.
You get the idea.

With my playstyle I was utterly surprised that I managed to gear 3 characters in exotics and managed to get just short of 4000 AP’s

When I saw that I actually had Lifetime survivor I almost fell off my chair.

So my only criteria when I log on: Is it fun and am I in the mood for this

ps : I missed they Sky Pirates completely and am largely skipping bazaar because I’m a klutz and don’t need the frustration :P

TooBz.3065:

I have 7 characters that are level 80.

I think the pursuit of legendaries is the root of all evil in this game (well most evil). They force you into prolonged periods of doing things that aren’t fun at all. If you aren’t going for a legendary, you actually don’t need very much money.

I recommend suspending the legendary grind for two days, then at least once a week after that. For those days do whatever interests you. If it’s WvW then do that. Run a longer dungeon. Whatever. Just don’t grind.

Edit: If there’s nothing you want to do, turn off the game and do something else. This isn’t a “this game is not for you” post, more of a “don’t play out of habit” post.

Good advice.
/10char

zenleto.6179:

I see the game through the eyes of my characters, call it immersion I suppose, so when they travel the world or deal with events/personal story/hearts its still fresh. All my guys and girls are different anyway.

Do you think it’s a case of you really wanting to love this game but falling short? I’m not going to play the “this game is not for you” card but maybe you have a disappointment factor that jut won’t be overcome. Or something else entirely. Anyway, this game is made to play on and off. Perfect for those who need it.

It definately could be a case of not living up to my perception of what it might have been. Along with what I posted previously on how I thought the game would play out for me, we were sold on the concept of a world that changes based on our successes and failures as a playerbase. If we dont defend that camp, its taken over and might have resounding impacts on the surrounding area. Thats definately not the case. Who cares if the centaurs destroy that water tower. Seriously…who cares? It doesnt impact the farmer that needs water to water his crops. Has no impact. I guess I was let down on that aspect as well.

Maybe it cant be overcome, who knows. I keep going back and forth… GW2 or firefall. GW2 was going to be “the one for me”. But betwee november and march, with the exception of Wintersday, it was one letdown after another. One frustration after another. With pockets of fun. But I have a lot of time energy and “emotion” invested in the game, which is why I dont want to just put it down. But I know it will be “hard work” to change my own mindset and expectaitons of the game going forward. And then theres firefall which is more of what I thought GW2 would have been. Absolutely no pressures and no carrots to do anything. All content rewards nearly the same stuff: Currency, resources, XP. And all content rewards roughly the same quantity of it. And you need all three for nearly everything you want to do in the game in terms of progression. So you really can just do what you want, and spend it however. Yet, then I think of the nostalogic good times of “old GW2”..pre-november and the possibilities that the firefall devs might go down some stupid route as well with gated content or gear progression or something that the game shouldnt be.

Torn torn torn. And I just read Colins blog. Promising, I like it. If they can pull it off. I remember they said they adjusted Champion loot tables. Nothing was changed, I still received Blues. So Im so skeptical when they say we’ll be rewarded accordingly.

I dunno how I enjoy playing GW2, I just do! I even kind of like it when I’m alone in a zone because I start to RP by myself.

“Help us save our camp! The children! Think of the children!”

“I’ll save those kids!”

Then I single handedly save the camp and it feelsgoodman

Whenever I log in, I just do what I feel like. I am saving for a legendary, but in my own pace. I’ll hang onto the mats I need, I check gw2stuff for dragon attacks when I feel like it, but certainly won’t drop everything I’m doing for it. I do jumping puzzles, RP with my guild and just relax.
I have 3 level 80 characters, mostly in exotics but I still lack pieces here and there and haven’t put in specific runes.
When I want to run a dungeon I’ll ask some friends along and we’ll do the dungeon at our own pace.
Besides that I also play wvwvw and pvp every now and then.

tl;dr: I just relax. Don’t rush things, enjoy the journey there and the moment I get annoyed with something I just stop doing it until I feel like trying again.

I won’t lie and say it’s always easy, sometimes it’s not, particularly if the reward is cosmetic (I’m a total sucker for customisation – shown by when I first bought the game I spent THREE HOURS making my first character) as I always want all the different skins, haha.

However, I am also realistic. Now, I can throw as much money as I wanted at this game, for example, and spend as much time as I wanted (if I quit my job or whatever), but the reality is, I just won’t run that many dungeons. Ever. So … no dungeon armour for me. At first, that really hurt. At first I would get annoyed that I couldn’t find a group or that all of my gaming friends are strictly console, but now it rarely bothers me.

Once I realised what I couldn’t realistically get, but compared it to what I really COULD get, I just made up my mind to go for the stuff I could get and would ENJOY getting. I mean, it’s easier to have fun exploring than it is to waste an hour looking for a group to run a dungeon with.

I think the biggest help was that I never really got started down the route to ascended etc. The longer I didn’t start and the more I realised that it didn’t really impact my gameplay (I’m the sort of person who just finds things like fractals frustrating rather than fun) experience at all, the more I realised that it is much more of a bother to care and continually frustrate myself than it is to just, well, not care.

I won’t lie and say I don’t sometimes wish for stuff I know I probably won’t get. That I don’t look at other people’s armour and realise with a sinking feeling that it’s bought only from dungeon tokens or whatever. But, honestly, I think to myself “how on earth does NOT owning that piece of armour really impact anything about the gameplay that I like?” And the answer is ALWAYS: not much.

I’ve just read Colin’s blog. I have reservations, but on the whole I’m very excited about it. Champion loot rewards can go either way – we may just see an increase in the Queensdale zergs, possibly I feel like I have more to lose out from by not running dungeons regularly – but we’ll have to wait and see. Ultimately, I have faith that everyone will have access to ENOUGH stuff to keep them happy (and, seriously, I devour customisations).

If I get to a point where things are really affecting my enjoyment, then I take a break. I have a cup of tea (I’m British, I drink tea, haha). I speak to my irl friends, watch tv etc … I just … do something else and readjust to the fact that it’s just a game that I paid less than £30 for. I’ve had more than enough fun to last several pounds more than that (I also have spent far too much in the gem store but that was entirely optional so I don’t count that). By the time I come back to the game I’ve forgotten what I was unhappy about in the first place.

I’m sorry that you are feeling dissatisfied with the way things are at the moment. And I know it sounds trite to say “take a break”, but I mean it very, very sincerely. I’m not implying “don’t like it, don’t play it”, I’m saying, “feel dissatisfied, then work out why, work out if this really, really impacts the elements of the game that you DO love, and have a cup of tea.”

cesmode.4257:

I dont have any RL friends that play. My guild is dead and its the only guild Ive enjoyed since playing Gw2.

I can see how that would present a problem. The guildies I mentioned in my previous post are folks I teamed with over in Paragon City for many years. I have one long-term online gaming friend (goes back to 2002 and Mechwarrior IV Mercs) that still plays GW2, but he mostly does WvW.

If not for them… I don’t know. I’d probably still play, but nowhere near as much.

Killing people appeals to me and this game has numerous avenues for destroying lesser ninjas.

Absolutely right that the dynamic events aren’t dynamic as they could be but I can completely ignore some of it or even enjoy the crazy cyclical nature of them.

Like the Dredgehaunt event with the Vet Potential Mate. I’ll run in and beat him down, and then go save him in the next part so he can go back to the lodge and try and be a better person. I’ll then go do some things in the zone, run back that way, and see that he’s ranting again. I tend to day to myself something along the lines of “there’s that drunk loser causing trouble again”. Sometimes I’ll run the events again an sometimes I won’t. The events don’t really mean anything as far as I can tell but I like them.

I like the immersion. There’s that word again. You’ve got the emotional investment but do you feel “immersed”?

And I started playing in the first week of January so I missed all the November shenanigans. I think I’m glad of that.

I have 12 characters 8 at 80 all geared and guess what i’ve got 2500 hours in game, i quit playing why because i’m like you i’ve done it all (all of what i wanted to do) so i wait for some new meaningful content, some meaningful balance and fixes and just login occasionally, very occasional..

Time is the best fix give it 6 months and see where it is then.. with from what i’ve seen most of the temporary content you wont really have missed very much and who knows by then some new real content may have been added..

Yeah you are fdefinately glad you missed that stuff. Its probably where my negativity derived.
I feel immersed in that the world is gorgeous and I can look around and say “ya theres cool crap out there…I wonder what everyone else is doing!” But opposite of you: If I see the same event happening again that I juts completed 5-10 minutes ago, Im like “wtf? these events cycle too quick..”

Dante.1508:

I have 12 characters 8 at 80 all geared and guess what i’ve got 2500 hours in game, i quit playing why because i’m like you i’ve done it all (all of what i wanted to do) so i wait for some new meaningful content, some meaningful balance and fixes and just login occasionally, very occasional..

Time is the best fix give it 6 months and see where it is then.. with from what i’ve seen most of the temporary content you wont really have missed very much and who knows by then some new real content may have been added..

Indeed, ofcourse I could give it a solid 6 months or so to see if anything of substance has been released. I really think that the living story and all the things that have been released since..jeez…January have been fluffy mini-game themed crap. All holiday-themed things without the holiday. Mini games, a poor weak fluffy story, and nothing that we have been asking for.

But after reading Colins blog, I feel a bit more energized. Getting some requirements done for the precursor might be worth the time. Who knows.

Still torn

I don’t mind that the events cycle quickly (it depends on how I’m feeling that day, sometimes) … no, it doesn’t matter if you save the centaur camp or not, but on the bright side, that means I can dash past and get to an event I really enjoy doing without worrying about it. Sometimes I’ll stand by and watch an event fail to see what the fail state is, sometimes I’ll jump in and help out. The challenge isn’t “save the camp because the villagers need help and protection from the centaurs”, it’s “those centaurs feel they can disrespect the might of my hero? I’ll show them!” and I charge in.

It’s not maybe the mindset that I was initially looking for, but sometimes it’s nice to know there aren’t any consequences. I play to reward myself, not the local NPCs. This might be a break from immersion, but I enjoy it that way, so for me it is immersive.

Lol sometimes I think “wtf!” as well. It’s why I tend to stay out of Queensdale. I can put up with it in other zones though.

The bulk of your problems are centered around Ascended and Legendary gear. I still enjoy playing the game because I do not care about these things.

Unlike other MMOs, gear is not the distinguishing factor between players, experience and skill is. Therefore you do not need BIS gear to do anything in the game with the possible exception of higher level fractals but this is by design because they are set aside for those who want that kind of challenge.

Legendary Weapons may look nice, and they offer the promise that someday when there’s a weapon better than exotic quality they will automatically upgrade so you don’t have to replace the. And the upcoming ability to change stats isn’t too bad. But consider that they take 200x more time, effort and gold than a basic exotic weapon. Now, the auto upgrade will never make up for it, not having to carry an extra set of weapons will never make up for it, is it worth 200x more work to have a pretty weapon skin?

I think if you focus on the game itself and not that 1/10 of a percent of content at the very end, you’ll have a much better experience overall.

1) Run dungeon with friends.
2) Kill stuff, get l00t.
3) ???
4) Profit
5) Buy purpz.

@OP

It seems to me that you allowed changes in the game to change how you perceived the game. That was your mistake. The carrots, to one degree or another, have always been there, and they are no harder to ignore now than they were at head-start when I began playing. I think you saw all these new rewards being added to the game and concluded that Guild Wars 2 was shifting into a more reward driven game. That is a simple enough mistake to make, especially if you happened to be coming from a more traditional MMO. But you don’t really need to pay attention to them anymore than you did in the past.

For a long time, really until two days ago, ascended items held exactly zero value to me. I saw them as needed only for Fractals, and due to a philosophical difference with that type of content (I hate content designed to be repeated farmed and grinded) I have and continue to refuse to set foot in that dungeon. The change that got me was the new Celestial armor prefix, and how I feel that a full celestial gear set would be best for my engineer main. If Celestial stats were available from exotics I wouldn’t be bothering with ascended gear, and as it stands still refuse to go into Fractals and will be buying all my ascended stuff with laurels.

Ultimately I still enjoy the game because I keep a casual mindset. Set up in full Knight’s Exotic armor, ‘Zerker weapons, and rare Magi’s accessories I can pretty much handle anything. Yeah I may not be the best geared or have optimal stats, but I really don’t care; I have yet face any content that I couldn’t complete with proper time, effort, and skill. Once you hit a point gear, and by extension rewards, simply don’t matter to your ability to play and enjoy the game. And that point comes a lot sooner than certain min/max players would have you believe.

So as long as I’m sitting happily at that point I can just log in when I feel like it, or on my days off from work, and enjoy this or that new content from the living story. I don’t have the time to grind through content so the small patches are best for me, and they are frequent enough that I don’t get bored with the content. Perfect set up for someone holding down a full-time job. Rewards don’t matter. And yeah I want the full Celestial set up (I’ll also need to raise my huntsman skill as it is currently only at about forty), but I don’t need it to play all the content I want, and have a good time doing it. So keeping that in mind I honestly don’t care if it takes me over a month just to craft the armor, and god knows how long to save enough laurels for the accessories.

That’s the trick; keep it casual, remember the rewards don’t matter, and take your time. If you feel the need to rush, farm, grind, and work to get what you want out of the game then what you’re doing stops being playing a game at all. At the risk of upsetting traditional MMO players; GW2 is the MMO for people who actually want to play an MMO. If you liked the genre only because of some unhealthy carrot addition you are better off elsewhere.

Renxian.6982:

Killing people appeals to me

In real life or in the game?

You probably won’t love my advice, but I don’t think in this game, that size guild is viable. I think you need a larger guild and then find within that guild a subset of players you play with all the time, which is what most people end up doing in my guild. The same people tend to team a lot.

The reason I say this is because the game isn’t like other games. It’s harder to keep people in smaller guilds, partly because of guild missions, but also because of the casual nature of the game.

If you have 30-35 people and some are sick and some are away and some are doing things you’re not interested in, you’re back to having no one to play with.

Vayne.8563:

You probably won’t love my advice, but I don’t think in this game, that size guild is viable. I think you need a larger guild and then find within that guild a subset of players you play with all the time, which is what most people end up doing in my guild. The same people tend to team a lot.

The reason I say this is because the game isn’t like other games. It’s harder to keep people in smaller guilds, partly because of guild missions, but also because of the casual nature of the game.

If you have 30-35 people and some are sick and some are away and some are doing things you’re not interested in, you’re back to having no one to play with.

Why would I not love your advice, vayne? !! I was actually waiting for you to show up This thread is prime for your opinion so please give it.

I see your point, true..true. But then it feels less like a guild and more like a company where you go out to lunch with only your small area of co workers and thumb your nose to the rest.

I honestly don’t have any trick or tips to share with you, it’s just the way I play. Then again I easily satisfied the drive to get BiS gear months ago as I play only one character and have yet to level a second one to 80.

I don’t know, try stopping to think about legendaries? Ascended items don’t cost gold (if you do guild missions) and laurels shouldn’t be such an hassle to get, given enough time.

i have all eight professions. every playable race. world completion,2 alt banks. finished my 2nd legendary but am now bored of this game.

I’ve been a long player of the Guild Wars series, and I can echo the opinions of many of the players here. If you feel like you have to grind out the achievement points or laurels or karma jugs, consider asking yourself the question: what for? What do you hope to get out of the game? Why do you want X?

“To look cool”.

Ok, but is that for yourself, or is that to impress other people? I think something to consider is: to what extent does the opinion of others affect your own enjoyment of the game? For that matter, what makes you happy (online or offline), OP?

If I’m understanding you right, I think you’ve identified the why in your problem – you’ve invested a lot of time and effort and money into it, and don’t feel like you’ve enjoyed the game as much as you should. Were I you, I’d try to figure out what makes you happy, and see if GW2 has enough of it to warrant your time and effort. Don’t fall into the trap of “I HAVE TO PLAY BECAUSE I HAVE ALREADY SPENT SO MUCH TIME” – that doesn’t do anyone except for maybe your subscription company good. If you feel it’s no longer worth your time or money, then don’t bother sinking more resources into it.

I’ll paraphrase the words of someone else on the forums here. I’m a “hardcore casual”. In occupation, I’m a medical scientist. Most of my tryharding is during my normal “day-job”, where we try to figure out what’s going on in the human body. Tyria is one of my retreats in which I can come to whenever I want, or if I just want some “me” time.

Sure, I like being efficient, but I also like cosmetic rewards, and I like to randomly wander up to things and just do things as they come along. Laurels are more of a case of “oh, I can still do this today” rather than “MUST DO IT FOR GEAR”. For me, the enjoyment is intrinsic because of the path taken towards it, and not necessarily the rewards. I don’t have a legendary. Never had one dropped, and only had Dungeon Master because we were trying to dig up some lore to use in a friend’s RP.

I’m a simple person at heart, and it doesn’t take much to make me happy. One of my favorite things to do, despite the potentials of it being frustrating, is to pug content like higher-level fractals or Arah. I like randomly picking up people in WvW and go off slapping yaks.

Now, you might see it as stupidity – “You’ll never get past Lupi!” or “You’re just wasting your time with bads”. For me, however, I find it extremely rewarding when a random group of people can come together and cooperate in order to achieve some goal. That’s what makes me happy. A random ranger pug singlehandedly saving an Arah 1 run. Logan’s Journey playing the first time I entered Divinity’s Reach just as a few RPers walk past discussing the fate of humanity. Baiting the Eye of Zhaitan into a bot train. That sort of thing.

In the end, what I’m taking away from GW2 are all the random instances of awesome that has occurred without intentional orchestration. In a single word: memories.

A little background first: I play this game super casually, only for an hour or two a day at most. I also don’t have any prior MMO experience (aside from a brief foray into WoW which didn’t pan out). Here’s how I enjoy GW2:

I essentially just roam around the world without any particular plan, running from renown heart to tree to PoI to skill point to ore, and killing anything I come across.
If I see other players nearby I’ll tag along with them for a bit and help them kill stuff.
If I come across something cool or a view that I like, I take a screenshot of it.
I am in a small guild with my immediate friends who still play the game, but since they’re not online a lot of the time I spend most of my GW2 experience playing solo.
I don’t care about PvP or WvW, and I only rarely do dungeons (though I’m not averse to them necessarily).
My highest level character is 56 (I took a break from the game for a while), so I’m working on getting him to 80 mostly via map completion.
The only thing that ever feels like a grind for me are the dailies, and even then it’s just a matter of “start in the zone with <area> Killer or <area> Events and get the rest along the way”.
Since the vast majority of the grindy stuff is for level 80 characters anyway, I figure I’ll get to 80 first and then decide whether or not I want to spend time on those things.

I try not to lurk these forums too much just because there’s so much doom and gloom around here. It’s easy to forget that many of the complainers sped through the game as fast as possible (have multiple 80s, etc.) and now are struggling to find something worthwhile to do. For me, the worth comes from the leveling experience itself, which is why I’m in no rush to finish it.

cesmode.4257:

You guys say “go off exploring” when you have multiple 80s, and probably hundreds or over a thousand hours played. Honestly, whats left to explore? Are you really finding those nook and crannies hidden in the game?

Yes actually, well at least I do.
I have one character for each profession.
Out of those I have two who are level 80, only one finished the Personal Story.
The lowest leveled character I have right now is a Thief at 35.

When my main 80 finished the personal story I went back and tried to get map completion.
Note this doesn’t mean I went and explored, I simply hit every POI/Vista/WP/etc.
Now I look back at him and think two things:
1. I really want that enemy garrison WP and the PoI in WvWvW for map completion
2. I should have slowed down with him.

My secondary 80 just obtained it by cooking and running around the map killing things.
I didn’t really take in the story or scenery. He’s now my kitchen slave lol.

Now going to my Thief, I use him and the other non 80s for dailies.
A few days ago I had him in the Grove and Caledon area because of the Jungle Vet counter for dailies.
After accomplishing it, I stopped and had him listen to the NPCs. I followed random runners to spots and watched their dialogue.
Then I went and talked with as many as I could.
That’s when I realized, holy heck this area is beautiful.
Houses are built from the plants, everyone is so open and asking about life, and the Nightmare Court really does scare them.

I guess that’s why I can “just enjoy” the game. I finally learned to stop and look around.
I still do the Living Story stuff, I just don’t want to rush through it like I used to.

Tachenon.5270:

cesmode.4257:

I dont have any RL friends that play. My guild is dead and its the only guild Ive enjoyed since playing Gw2.

I can see how that would present a problem. The guildies I mentioned in my previous post are folks I teamed with over in Paragon City for many years. I have one long-term online gaming friend (goes back to 2002 and Mechwarrior IV Mercs) that still plays GW2, but he mostly does WvW.

If not for them… I don’t know. I’d probably still play, but nowhere near as much.

Mechwarrior 4, good game! I tip my hat to you and your pal.

I started this game aware of my limitations and dislikes, and knowing some things were either not within my reach or my tastes. I have a severe motor skills handicap, serious Rhuematiod Arthritus in my hands and finger joints.

I’ve played many MMOs with this condition. I assumed I would be able to explore, and do most content save JPs. As time went on, I found that world completion..on my own..is impossible since they made some vista and skill points only possible by JP. I find myself increasingly locked out of more Living Story by JP inclusion. I have given up on both World Exploration and Living Story because of JPs, and also mandated 5man grouping. So.. a lot of stuff to do..gone. Because of the 5man mandate for Personal Story, that has also been abandoned. More gone for me.

In every game I have enjoyed the challenge of taking out harder content solo, and perhaps gaining a reward for doing so. For example.. in GW1 there was always the chance of that Unique from a boss, and a better chance the more you handicapped yourself by smaller group size. Well, here I found the challenge of taking on Champions is a “fun once” thing..no point after doing it one time, as I need no porous bone or blue junk, if it drops that much. More things to do lost.

I thought I would enjoy DEs. I did, but soon learned that again, what is the point. It is less a DE and more of a timed “kill ten rats” and any change you make is very temporary and meaningless. I find myself running past DEs out of sheer apathy, just another repeatable kill 10 rats for a poor reward.

I enjoy making Alts. I have 8 level 80s and a 53. If content is really enjoyable, I have run all my alts through it. Example.. I did Battle for LA, the whole WIK line, on 14 characters in GW1. Here, its by acct for most Living Story and achievements. Do it once, its done for the acct. Sure, I could redo some parts, but to what end. The reward is done, just going through the motions. More content lost for me.

I discovered WvW and pursued that, enjoyed it, till the hard reality of zoom hacks sunk in. Then the new matching system put the nail in the coffin for that. And now, even less to do.

I’ve even lost the desire to do dailies. I would trade Laurels for t6 mats, I have a lot of crafting to do with 8 80s. Now, with crafting going to 500, why bother. Also, the Achievement rewards left me cold. I thought it would be a token system, to allow choice in what I earned with MY achievements. No, I get a box of mostly junk, gear and buffs for sPvP which I have never done, useless consumables, skins with horrific art, etc. I’ve deleted most of it. I don’t care if I don’t earn any more of it

So here I am. I log in daily, I harvest Ori, I talk to my friend, I log out. And play GW1, because, I have things to do there even after 5 years of play.

except for the PvP which isnt even remotely finished , GW2 has nothing to offer, living world is a joke, hunting achievements is nothing for me and its the only thing you do, unique skins dont exist and everyone is walking around with them in a matter of weeks, walking in LA has never been for me like wow you LOOK awesome or have an awesome TITLE because they are easily to get, both gear and titles.

I have tried to get into PvE again, its Always the same bullkitten over and over again, with the reward of having a skin EVERYONE can get, where is that feeling of being the best, there is nothing

I mainly play WvW, so ascended gear doesn’t bother me as much as it might bother a dungeon/fractals etc. player. Basically most of my GW2 play is about tactics, about picking fights carefully, and if the zerg decides that I’m its next snack then the 5% or so boost compared to Exotics isn’t going to save me :P

Darkdanjal

walking in LA has never been for me like wow you LOOK awesome or have an awesome TITLE because they are easily to get, both gear and titles.

If you want a grind-based title then go to WvW. To get the ‘Yakslapper’ title, for example, you’d have to do nothing but kill Dolyaks for about two years.

I’ve got 17 chars, 3 at 80 decked out, the rest at various levels from 5 on up … and to be honest, how I do it? It’s because I spend the rest of my day chasing after the so-called carrots that come from work and other RL pursuits which have more than enough “requirements”, “tasks”, “responsibilities”, etc. …

So when I log in? It’s to enjoy myself with NOT having to do anything in particular. Pick a char, play him/her for awhile, whether it be DEs, dailies, world bosses, or just straight-up getting lost somewhere i haven’t been in a few weeks/months.

Get bored with that char? Switch, go wander off to do something else. As I posted on a different thread at one point, even though I have dupes of each class with an extra warrior on top, each of them are different, and though I could set them up with the same weapons/armor/whatnot, I don’t, because in my head, they’re all unique.

In all reality, I think it becomes a question of mindset, as you yourself pointed out and many others have seconded. Once a “game” begins making you feel, think, believe you HAVE to do something in order for it be enjoyable, that’s when it ceases to be enjoyable. NEED a legendary? NEED ascended gear? NEED windcatcher back skin? I don’t NEED any of those to play the game, nor do I NEED them to enjoy the time I spend in-game. Want them? Sure, maybe, perhaps, don’t know … but many folks confuse desire and necessity on a regular basis.

Is the NEED mindset curable? Sure. Easy? Not so much.

But for me, if I wanted to feel like I was being forced to do something i didn’t particularly enjoy, I’d just go back to the office — at least there I’d be getting paid for my time.

I enjoy it still by playing for others. I’m GM of a fairly big (370+) guild and we run events 5-6 days a week atm. Nearly all of my playtime is involved in doing something with my guild and the spare time I spend on levelling, wvwing or doing my favourite dungeons. I dont even look at the daily/monthly and the gear still rolls in just fine. In fact I often get the daily/monthly without checking.

I’ve got 4 80s, a 60 and a couple 20 odd lvl characters none of which have 100% map completion. I didn’t want to rush exploring as I enjoy it and wanted to have new stuff to see/do whilst lvling alts. That was one of my best choices I think, really helps keep the game fresh. I’ve not done all the JPs yet, I’ve barely touched sPvP and I dont think I’ve even done all the chest-giving world bosses yet either.

I’m savoring GW2, keeping content, classes etc. aside for later and really getting involved in the guild community instead. Keeps it fresh for me and my mind off the carrots. After all, what’s the rush dude?

cesmode.4257:

Vayne.8563:

You probably won’t love my advice, but I don’t think in this game, that size guild is viable. I think you need a larger guild and then find within that guild a subset of players you play with all the time, which is what most people end up doing in my guild. The same people tend to team a lot.

The reason I say this is because the game isn’t like other games. It’s harder to keep people in smaller guilds, partly because of guild missions, but also because of the casual nature of the game.

If you have 30-35 people and some are sick and some are away and some are doing things you’re not interested in, you’re back to having no one to play with.

Why would I not love your advice, vayne? !! I was actually waiting for you to show up This thread is prime for your opinion so please give it.

I see your point, true..true. But then it feels less like a guild and more like a company where you go out to lunch with only your small area of co workers and thumb your nose to the rest.

It doesn’t feel like that at all in my guild. It’s more like we’re a collective of people who have slightly different play styles. But here’s what usually happens.

I usually run with a group of less than 20 people, but as I said, there are over one hundred in the guild (about 30 active).

Now, I’m playing with the same people most of the time, but we’re not an exclusive group. We’ll talk to anyone, play with anyone. And sometimes, someone will need something or ask for help and I’ll be right there. I don’t really care who it is. Because they’re in the guild.

Think of it in terms of a community. I know a lot of people are friends and hang out together. Everyone doesn’t have to be my friend. By the same token, there are times when my friends, my play group just isn’t around. Then there are people I hang out with.

It’s not that these people aren’t as nice as the people I usually hang with. I’ts not like these people are somehow less. It’s like having close friends, and then friends you go to the movies with with your wife, and then friends from work. They’re all nice people. I like them all.

But I only have so many hours in a day. It’s not cliquish where people can’t move from group to group…and sometimes that happens.

Some people group up because they have common interests or they’re in the same age range. I’m older and slower. I don’t like to run run run through dungeons, but some people do. I’m probably not the first choice for running dungeons with some of the guys. But sure if there’s room, they’ll hang with me and no one complains.

I don’t understand this idea that everyone has to be friends on all the same levels. But it doesn’t mean we’re not friends.

Well my first character was a Necromancer and I enjoyed it with all map exploring, jumping puzzles and all the others activities and festivities events they gave us. Then, Fractal arrived and I really enjoyed that at first.. Then they felt me in a burrow of: farming, farming, rares, levels, exotic, golds etc etc..
After 1 month of full immersion in FotM I left Guild wars 2 because it started To Be more an obsession than a game and I was never happy with drops or People.
I came Back, After four months and i realized that FotM was not really What I like from this game. I can stay 5 minutes watching panoramas or a butterfly, so I made some other character and I’m levelling them slowly, having fun with boyfriend and doing whatever We want: pve, pvp, wvw, or also.. Nothing at all! The Best thing is that I found two precursor Just enjoying game, one of those with a lv 30ish character