Guild Wars 2

Hey there guys.

I’ve owned GW2 since release and honestly played it very little. I’m very curious as to how dedicated players spend their time.

How much do you play? What motivates you to play?

What attracted you to this game over other MMOs?

How often do you play with and interact with other players? Are most of your friends people you know from in game, or from real life?

What do you do with your time in game?

I’m really interested to here the responses and get a feel for the GW2 community, and what the game really is to each individual player.

Hopefully this sparks some interesting discussion

Well I had typed up a nice answer for you but I got an error upon submitting and lost all the data so…

I play with my guild in WvW mostly. I enjoy pvp (both wvw and spvp) and don’t really care for the pve.

I play quite a bit throughout the week.

I was more attracted to guild wars 2 because I was tired of standing still spamming same auto attacks in WoW. Also I was tired of going and getting X of these for X person. And I was tired of all night raids.

I interact over vent 100 percent of time when on gw2. It is a mixture of friends in real life and others across nation.

In game me and my guild wvw, dungeons, tpvp, and be goofy in LA haha.

Varies. Sometimes I do a dungeon for the day on different alts, other times I’ll spend a few hours in WvW. I’ll also work on map completion on my alts as well.

The only thing that I do daily are dailies (if they aren’t 90% finished by the time I’ve done w/e it was I wanted to do). Other than that, I do what I find is fun.

-Start on dailies
-Jump into WvWvW, play til it becomes more stress than fun, log off
-Come back the next day like a battered wife.

How much do you play? What motivates you to play?

I play almost every day, but only for a few hours because on weekdays my time is very limited and on weekends I have to do all the stuff I didn’t have time for during the week. What motivates me is simply that I enjoy this game. It’s what I feel like doing when I have some free time.

What attracted you to this game over other MMOs?

I’d been playing GW1 for about 5 years and loved it. Also the lack of a subscription fee.

How often do you play with and interact with other players? Are most of your friends people you know from in game, or from real life?

Well once or twice a week I do guild missions, with my guild obviously and there’s usually a conversation going in guild chat all the rest of the time. I also tend to chat to random people in either /map or /say if we happen to be doing similar things. I’d only really say I’m friends with people in my guild though. Unfortunately I don’t have any real life friends who play this. I don’t actually know many people who are in to RPGs generally.

What do you do with your time in game?

Exploring mostly. Sometimes I do other things, at the start of the month I was doing SAB almost exclusively and obviously I level alts and get achievements while exploring, but trying to see the whole map (NOT just get the POIs, Vistas etc., actually see it, speak to the NPCs etc.) on one character of each race is my main focus.

I’m not quite sure what I’ll do when I’m finished with that, but it’s taking me a very long time so I won’t have to worry for a while. There will probably be expansions or something by the time I’m done.

How much do you play? What motivates you to play?

I haven’t played it much because I dislike it compared to GW1. I was motivated to play it to advance a character to level 80 and explore all the different zones, but now I’m done.

What attracted you to this game over other MMOs?

I thought it would be like GW1. But it turned out to be a hybrid of all the other MMO’s out there, like Rift and WoW. No more NPC heroes, no more personalized instances.

How often do you play with and interact with other players? Are most of your friends people you know from in game, or from real life?

Not at all. What I loved about GW1 is that you didn’t have to. In GW2, you do for the most meaningful content.

What do you do with your time in game?

I PVE’d solo from 1-80, exploring all the areas possible. But it didn’t grab me and I doubt I’ll be picking it up much again.

How much do you play? What motivates you to play?
Currently several hours a day. It’s pretty fun to play.

What attracted you to this game over other MMOs?
Almost everything. The moment ArenaNet released information about Guild Wars 2 I knew I’d like this game. It does away with a lot of the things I don’t like in MMO’s, and replaces them with better mechanics. For the rest, things like art style, overall quality, combat etc. are good.
Even though I dislike some of things they’ve done with the game, it’s still miles better than any other MMO currently out.

How often do you play with and interact with other players? Are most of your friends people you know from in game, or from real life?
I play with other people almost every day via dungeon PUGs.
Yeah, I don’t really have any ingame friends besides the people I know from real life.

What do you do with your time in game?
Level up a new character with dailies, explore some of the world with them, and do a story mission. Sometimes getting daily Fractal on my latest level 80 character. Often go PUG a random dungeon for fun.

How much do you play? What motivates you to play?
Almost every day for fhew hours when i’m not playing Defiance.
The main if not only reason i’m still here and play is friends, the moment they leave, i do too for good.

What attracted you to this game over other MMOs?
The manifesto and all the interviews pre launch… Then they turned out being only BSs, but still, it provides a decent amount of fun and it doesn’t requires money to play… So i’ll be around at least until Wildstar and ESO will comes out.

How often do you play with and interact with other players? Are most of your friends people you know from in game, or from real life?
I’m almost full time in group with a close friend of mine, then i group often fro dungeoning or wvw, mostly with guildies.

What do you do with your time in game?
Daily and events (they are so mindlessly dumb that i can do them while half afk talking with friends or doing other stuff), then fractals or random dungeons or wvw.

How much do you play? What motivates you to play?
maybe 4-6 hrs a day, the hopes i’ll get a skin or good loot for something (insanity), but
it’s pretty much sunday do guild missions and every other night do frac 26 and 30. The rest is pretty much run around finding something interesting but finding nothing and playing another game.

What attracted you to this game over other MMOs?
Friends who were moving to this game and the no subscription fee.

How often do you play with and interact with other players? Are most of your friends people you know from in game, or from real life?
I usually play with my friends everyday, just not always in gw2. Only 2 friends from other games, the rest i met in my guild.

What do you do with your time in game?
fractals 26/30, guild missions on sunday, figure out ways to get my precursor so i can finish my legendary, stand around doing nothing cause nothing is rewarding other than world bosses, maybe a sab run to get baubbles. Gonna be honest i’m really bored.

I play every day, the time each day varies. I want to play this game for the same reason you play other MMOs. I want to get gear, and level up my characters to max level, get all achievements, etc.

Why this game? Well, I was following it for a long time, and since I quit WoW, I was looking for a new game to play. Tried SWTOR, didnt like it as much as i hoped i would, and I am now playing this.

Most of the friends i play this with are from my guild who i have played with on other games for 8 years or so.

I wish that there was a more hardcore tier of dungeons, like a raid, but hey, i am fine with what they got.

Normandy.2596:

How much do you play?

0 hours per day/week/month.
Clocked about 1500 hours on my account since headstart.

Normandy.2596:

What motivates you to play?

Nothing. Everyone (all my friends / guildies I started with) left. I held out as long as I could, but ultimately…

Normandy.2596:

What attracted you to this game over other MMOs?

Guild Wars 1, the promises made (then broken, pardon.. ‘changed’) during development.

Normandy.2596:

How often do you play with and interact with other players?

Used to interact in almost everything, until my friends list started running dry… changed guilds, tried playing with strangers (a.k.a PuGs)… just not as much fun. Some nice people out there, btw.

Normandy.2596:

Are most of your friends people you know from in game, or from real life?

Some really good IRL friends as well as guildies from GW1 and other previous games.

Normandy.2596:

What do you do with your time in game?

Used to do pretty much everything. From JP’s to PvP to WvW to Dragons… Dungeons, Orr… you name it, we did it.

Normandy.2596:

I’m really interested to here the responses and get a feel for the GW2 community, and what the game really is to each individual player.

Hopefully this sparks some interesting discussion

Interesting discussion?
LOL…
I suspect the Anet ‘defence force’ to be on this topic like white on rice. But lest see…
/popcorn

Normandy.2596:

How much do you play? What motivates you to play?

I recently came back from a six month break. I was between games and didn’t feel like taking a risk on something new. I thought I’d try out the various changes since I last stopped playing.

What attracted you to this game over other MMOs?

The lack of a gear grind. The promising PvP. No monthly subscription.

I’m still waiting for the PvP to improve. They have a long way to go. If another MMO with no subscription comes out with superior PvP, you can bet I’ll be heading that way.

How often do you play with and interact with other players? Are most of your friends people you know from in game, or from real life?

I play with a combination of RL friends and family and people I met through WoW. In fact, the core group of gamers I met in WoW have played a very large number of games together the past several years. Most of us tried out GW2 when it came out and were thoroughly impressed. Three months later, all of them had left.

What do you do with your time in game?

I roam in WvW with my bunker D/D elementalist. When I get overrun by a zerg, I join a friendly zerg to farm badges to finish out my exotic gear. Once I tire of WvW (which is pretty fast), I log off or do a daily to grind (yes, grind) out my ascended trinkets.

Hopefully this sparks some interesting discussion

I hope so too, but it will probably just draw the usual suspects into a flamewar.

Faceroll keyboard with my Warrior.
Angrily smash keyboard with my Thief.
Laugh at burning enemies alive with my Engineer.
Reach for a tissue when I find diving goggles.

My GW2 routine:

Log in to see if other friends still log in. Log off shortly after.

Go on forums to play Spot the Logical Fallacy, a mental exercise I’ve developed partly for fun and partly out of necessity.

Post occasionally. Get infracted customarily.

I mostly do my daily, a bit of SAB for a skin on my Alts and then world events 24/7, not much else, to me the rest of the game has become stagnant..

If im really forced i’ll do a dungeon with my friends, i usually decline though..

with one hand on my keyboard and one on my mice.

I liked it at first, very pretty, and leveling was different and done well. Quit tho, no end game, crafting sucks, no unique gear (everyone looks the same), dungeons (no groups, ever), and it’s alleged cornerstone – PvP – is terrible.

Sorry move along, nothing to see here.

How much do you play? What motivates you to play?

I play a fair amount during the week (I’m retired). Friday nights and Saturday afternoons/night. What keeps me playing and what keeps me here is my guild. Period.

What attracted you to this game over other MMOs?

The dev interviews and their comments about whittling down the size of groups to 5 and their concern about a community feel within the game. My guild has been looking for real 5-man content (e.g. raiding) for over a decade. We’ve missed DAoC’s community feel. Add in the fact that the game (during beta and at release) was not a gear-centric design and we were sold.

How often do you play with and interact with other players? Are most of your friends people you know from in game, or from real life?

I’ve known the people in my guild for over 20 years, some over 26. Over the last 2 months I’ve learned to run with map chat off because there has been an increase in immature players from other games that have brought over the, pardon me, disgusting entitled culture that was fostered there. When the dailies reset at 5 PM PDT, map chat goes on and I try to help folks as much as I used to. I’ve run with map chat on recently in Lion’s Arch again, and have found some friendly, mature conversations again which has been wonderful.

What do you do with your time in game?

During the week, I am usually soloing alts (working on #10, #11 80’s out of 39) as well as a little farming and some crafting.

On the weekends, my guild is either 4-manning Explorables or working on Fractals. Although we often take time to help each other level alts, run stories, storymode dungeons, experimenting with different builds, running around outside helping others when we can and doing events.

I’ve probably missed a lot of data here, but I’ve gotta scoot, because tonight is a “Lucky Sunday” when my guildmates have a little extra time to play.

-Hope that helps

I play every day but since I’m fairly recently divorced I don’t have a life, and don’t feel like going out and getting one yet. A mate of mine who moved interstate recommended the game to me. We’ve played the same mmos so I trusted him and haven’t looked back. Like Goldenwing i’ve missed Daoc’s community feel (alliances!) an I think this might do it for me.

And the best part? I very, very rarely lag!

Oh, and Norn.

How much do you play? What motivates you to play?
-2-3 hours a day
-wayyy more at weekends

What attracted you to this game over other MMOs?
-GW1 player
-new combatsystem, continuation of the story, good documentation of the development

How often do you play with and interact with other players?
-as much as possible
Are most of your friends people you know from in game, or from real life?
-from ingame

What do you do with your time in game?
-doing 1-2 dungeonpaths each day
-doing events/gathering all over the world
-trying to finish my legendary

I play roughly 2-3 hours a day during the week and longer on my weekends. At the moment I am leveling a guardian trying to take my time and enjoy everything along the way. I was first attracted to this game because of WvW which I now avoid likes its the plague. I spend all my gametime on teamspeak socializing with my guildies which I met through this game, all my RL friends have moved on to other games.

Thanks for all the responses guys, it’s really helping me get a feel of what actually goes on past the very beginning levels.

How much do you play? What motivates you to play?
I’m very casual. I log about 2-3 nights a week for about 1 hour.

What attracted you to this game over other MMOs?
I actually also play World of Warcraft, and I don’t play this game “over” it. (More the opposite.)

How often do you play with and interact with other players? Are most of your friends people you know from in game, or from real life?
I don’t play the game enough to have a guild or a large amount of in-game friends, although when I meet someone nice to play with it’s always more fun.

What do you do with your time in game?
Daily achievements, jumping puzzles, role-playing and a bit of WvW.

How much do you play? What motivates you to play?
- I play for like 5-6 hours everyday pretty much, less on weekends though because I usually have more to do on weekends. It’ll probably change a lot when my broken leg heals up and I’m back at work but for now it’s a fantastic way of passing the time!

What attracted you to this game over other MMOs?
- I’ve always played other MMO’s to look good which hasn’t really sat well with people! Turning up with decent gear that looks good rather than the ultimately best gear isn’t an option in most games but being able to get skins in this game is perfect for me. Also the fact that I was getting a bit too elitist in other games so wanted something a bit more relaxing.

How often do you play with and interact with other players? Are most of your friends people you know from in game, or from real life?
- I don’t really interact with many people in game, or at least not as much as previous games but at the same time I’m still lvling so that will most likely change the higher I lvl up. I have a friend in real life that I play with but most friends are too busy to play.

What do you do with your time in game?
- Dailies, exploration, missions etc etc

Q: “How much do you play?”
A: As much as I feel like and am able to within my schedules.

Q: “What motivates you to play?”
A: The fact that I am rewarded for playing the game the way I actually want to play it, be it exploring, crafting, doing quests or PvPing.
The fact that I am properly challenged in the open world even if I am max level and go to a low level zone.
The fact that there is always something for me to actually do ingame, even if 90% of it is stuff I don’t feel like doing at that moment.

Q:“What attracted you to this game over other MMOs?”
A: I could give you a very long list, but I’ll just give you some of the basics:
No subscription.
A living world.
No gear treadmill.
Upleveling to max level and instant access to best-in-slot gear in sPvP.
Being properly challenged in the open world.
Being properly rewarded for playing the game the way I actually want to play it.
The graphics.
The ridicolously long list of innovations ArenaNet has made to the MMO genre.
The animations.
Having most of the content available to me at level 2.
The music.
The voice acting.

Q: “How often do you play with and interact with other players?”
A: Whenever I feel like it, or when my guild talks to me. I like to play MMOs as 50% single player and 50% multiplayer

Q: “Are most of your friends people you know from in game, or from real life?”
A: Everyone I play with ingame are people I met through GWII. For some reason most of my IRL friends either aren’t interested in GWII, or simply just want to play WoW.

Q:“What do you do with your time in game?”
A: Whatever I feel like. Be it leveling up my alts, exploring the world, crafting, PvPing or anything else really.

How much do you play?

I don’t anymore. I did play and had the game since beta, I loved it in the beginning but have now stopped playing through boredom.

What motivates you to play?

Nothing

What attracted you to this game over other MMOs?

I played GW1 for years and loved it; I thought GW2 would be epic, but sadly IMO it hasn’t lived up to its expectations.

How often do you play with and interact with other players?

Used to play a lot with the guild, but sadly watched the guild dwindle to non existence and finally gave up myself.

What do you do with your time in game?

Not applicable as I don’t play, I make use of my time now playing skyrim and waiting for the Elder Scrolls online.

Normandy.2596:

Hey there guys.

I’ve owned GW2 since release and honestly played it very little. I’m very curious as to how dedicated players spend their time.

How much do you play? What motivates you to play?
-I have stopped playing when missions come out. Scheduling time to play to do missions with the guild is a lot like raids. I am done scheduling my life around a game.

What attracted you to this game over other MMOs?
-The promise of no grind. Also, like many, I was led to believe that there would be no gear progression. I thought this because, for example, during an interview one of the designers and colin referred to legendaries as being only aesthetically better than exotics. Now we have ascended gear, and eventually will have ascended weapons…they must bump it up.

How often do you play with and interact with other players? Are most of your friends people you know from in game, or from real life?
-I absolutely loved this portion of the game, and I knew no one. Very MMO-like. I’ll give it that.

What do you do with your time in game?
-After I was done leveling 5 characters, I do the DEs in Orr, dragon chests, and dungeons. I ocassionally mixed in some WvW or jumping puzzles.

I’m really interested to here the responses and get a feel for the GW2 community, and what the game really is to each individual player.

Hopefully this sparks some interesting discussion