Guild Wars 2

I’ve played since release. Not as much as many of you all, but I’ve got several hundred hours solely on my Elementalist.

This isn’t a rant on the SOG with regards to the Ele, or class balance at all.

I guess my question is, simply, is the game fun any more? Lately, I find myself logging in, doing the daily, maybe working towards whatever current LS achievements there are, and that’s about it.

PvP is a joke, WvW is still a zergfest, and PvE is for lack of a better word, uniform, despite the “dynamic” events system.

Perhaps I’m in the minority here, but it seems that the game has veered way off its intended promises. I thought I’d be playing a dynamic MMO, one that had interesting and unique content, not Champ Train farming, or grinding my eyeballs out to get Ascended gear (even just one prefix is ridiculous in terms of time/mats required), or any of the other boring, grindy things REQUIRED by the game to remain competitive with the rest of the players, especially in WvW content.

I mean, for over a year’s worth of play I think I had maybe 20 or possibly even 30 exotic drops, running the gamut from Zhed’s Gloves to Levvi’s Detector. Never a precursor drop. If I had salvaged every single one once Ascended crafting became available, I still might not have got enough Globs of Dark Matter for even one armor set. After a YEAR of play.

So yeah, I think I may be done. I loved playing my Ele, back before ANet jumped on the nerf train and made the class nearly the worst at everything, because it was fun to play a versatile character that evoked Aang the Avatar imagery. But even playing other professions (Mesmer, Thief, Guardian, Engineer) just hammered the point home that this game has become the mother of all grindfests, in direct opposition to the original goal. I had more fun playing WoW, because at least there you had a good chance at high level drops from bosses. I can’t count the number of times I’ve killed World Bosses in this game, or done dungeons and Fractals, and all my characters STILL are wearing either crafted gear or stuff purchased with Laurels.

Maybe I’m spoiled, or just unlucky. But GW2 has rapidly been receding in interest for me, and I think a large part of it is due to the lack of content in favor of achievement grinding, and the “sameness” of every activity in the world. I’d LIKE to keep playing, if for no other reason than that I enjoy the look and feel of the Elementalist, but that’s a thin veneer to draw one to a game.

Meh. It has its moments.

For me, it’s mostly just a placeholder until 4/4/14 and Elder Scrolls Online comes out.

Kaleban.9834:

~snip~

I had more fun playing WoW, because at least there you had a good chance at high level drops from bosses.

~snip~

Many thing doesn’t hold true in your post, especially this one.

If that is true, then I don’t see why running the dungeons here in GW2 to get badges so that you can purchase the gears you want is not better than running raids in hopes for a high level drops.

It seems that the problem here is your preference and not the game itself.

I’m having fun. WvW has been a blast for me, and now that we know account wide WXP is coming I feel less like I’m gimping my main by running alts for a change of pace every now and then.

Nothing in life is fun if you keep doing the samethings repeatedly without new experiences.

I left for awhile. Nearly 6 months actually. Came back a few weeks ago and am having fun again. If you aren’t having fun, go play or do something else.

Tachii.3506:

Nothing in life is fun if you keep doing the samethings repeatedly without new experiences.

If only Anet would realize that and stop giving us what’s essentially the same Living Story gameplay every two weeks.

MercyKilling.8519:

Meh. It has its moments.

For me, it’s mostly just a placeholder until 4/4/14 and Elder Scrolls Online comes out.

You are going to realize you are so spoiled in GW2. You’ll be back in a month.

Raf.1078:

If you aren’t having fun, go play or do something else.

every time the same words.

my opinion: no. for now, it’s more disappointment for recent changes than fun. so yes…no gw2 on my ssd until a miracle occurs.

It is a decent fall back game for me.
Lately my attention, what little gaming attention I have, was focused on XCom related stuff for a while.
Now that I’ve entered detox (had to do house stuff, no time to play) I’ve gone back to GW2 because I miss the art and game a bit.

Raf.1078:

I left for awhile. Nearly 6 months actually. Came back a few weeks ago and am having fun again. If you aren’t having fun, go play or do something else.

Same.

And I find it mostly fun too, especially the combat.

The only thing I don’t find fun is working towards all this ascended gear – stupid and unnecessary. I’m ignoring weapons and armour for the moment.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Kaleban.9834:

~snip~

I had more fun playing WoW, because at least there you had a good chance at high level drops from bosses.

~snip~

Many thing doesn’t hold true in your post, especially this one.

If that is true, then I don’t see why running the dungeons here in GW2 to get badges so that you can purchase the gears you want is not better than running raids in hopes for a high level drops.

It seems that the problem here is your preference and not the game itself.

Respectfully, most of my post is opinion, and what isn’t is in fact true, or are you going to tell me that PvP has several new game modes I’m unaware of and WvW has finally gotten small group/unit engagements to become meta instead of zerging?

And your reference to running the same dungeon over and over for badges is completely missing the point. WoW had a similar system, yet you could still get unique drops available nowhere else. It would be akin to running the Arah dungeon and having a good chance at a precursor drop in addition to badges. If this were the case, people would not be tossing thousands of gold’s worth of exotics into the Mystic Forge in the hopes of a precursor. THAT is seen as a better option, and that is ridiculous.

But you might be right. My “preference” is for a game that is dynamic and evolves, and non-dependent on grind to remain competitive. This was what GW2 was initially billed as, what drew me in, and from everything I’ve seen over a year of regular play, the plan has significantly drifted, or evaporated entirely.

It’s worth a 60 dollar price tag, and as far as it goes you get a lot of good quality play time for that cash. Even better if you happened to pick it up on sale.

It is missing some long term progression style mechanics. And hitting level cap is pretty much meaningless, except to finish out your build and go for your BiS if that’s what you want. It also does a poor job of masking grind behind fun mechanics or encounters, or building lore within it’s world for the players. It also doesn’t try to use it’s own mechanics towards it’s own benefit. Where open tagging on mobs is a great idea on paper, in game it just breaks down to everyone running zerg trains and a lack of true social interaction between players.

The way I see it is this: It’s a great game, but a really mediocre MMO. Lots of great ideas, a beautiful world, a good beginning of a story and foundation for lore. It just doesn’t hold up to it’s own promise.

Still glad I bought it though.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Kaleban.9834:

~snip~

I had more fun playing WoW, because at least there you had a good chance at high level drops from bosses.

~snip~

Many thing doesn’t hold true in your post, especially this one.

If that is true, then I don’t see why running the dungeons here in GW2 to get badges so that you can purchase the gears you want is not better than running raids in hopes for a high level drops.

It seems that the problem here is your preference and not the game itself.

The true part about his post is, that you have to grind through dungeons until you get the reward you wanted. I would like to see longer content with higher rewards.
That would help lowering the grind experience.

I have to say there are few things in GW2 you can do, they’re fun but since you have to grind those few things, like dungeons, championfarming, Worldboss-farming or resourcefarming all day long, they become very grindy. I would love to go out to maps like Timberline falls and farm eventchains. But until I don’t get a proper reward which can compete with dungeonrewards, I wont.

The most funny moments happend in LA anyways. Mystery tonics where involved…

Kevan.8912:

Raf.1078:

If you aren’t having fun, go play or do something else.

every time the same words.

my opinion: no. for now, it’s more disappointment for recent changes than fun. so yes…no gw2 on my ssd until a miracle occurs.

Apparently the game not residing on your hard drive doesn’t keep you from the forums though, eh?

No its not fun any more.

Curunen.8729:

Raf.1078:

I left for awhile. Nearly 6 months actually. Came back a few weeks ago and am having fun again. If you aren’t having fun, go play or do something else.

Same.

And I find it mostly fun too, especially the combat.

The only thing I don’t find fun is working towards all this ascended gear – stupid and unnecessary. I’m ignoring weapons and armour for the moment.

Yeah…I’m ignoring it too. Exotic gear is fine for me or the ascended stuff I can buy with wvw laurels / badges and such.

>log in
>hmm, which dailies are the least tedious
>think i can find 5 things that aren’t too painful
>recycler’s always a good one
>"golem’s up"
>may as well go, nothing else to do
>golem’s dead – yay a rare
>port around gathering these silly nodes
>not sure why i even do this, i have exotics, ascended stuff is stupid
>"lyssa’s up"
>what a massive waste of time that was
>"fire ele’s up"
>kitten i hate the fire ele pre’s
>what a massive waste of time that was
>"maw"
>may as well go there for the 1000th time
>heard someone got a precursor here once
>what a massive waste of time that was
>see generic guild spam in map chat “we have mumble and a website no one ever uses!”

I do love frost bow and fiery greatsword though.

WvW can be insanly fun to do. It has it’s bad days but also can be so much fun you completly forget the time.

If you enjoy grind, it’s actually really really fun.

I almost feel like the enjoyment I get from this game has more to do with my nostalgia for Guild Wars 1 than anything about it. I’ve seen any of the reasons I could point out listed plenty of times on these forums, so I won’t rehash them here. I guess I’m playing Guild Wars 2, and in my head I’m kind of playing what Guild Wars 2 could have been, if that makes any sense. I’ve got this fantastic mental image of a game, and the one I’m actually playing at least has the right setting, lore, and graphics, even if it gets so very much more of it completely wrong.

Lord Kuru.3685:

If you enjoy grind, it’s actually really really fun.

I don’t enjoy the grind, I enjoy the things I can buy from grinding…

tomlin.8204:

>log in
>hmm, which dailies are the least tedious
>think i can find 5 things that aren’t too painful
>recycler’s always a good one
>“golem’s up”
>may as well go, nothing else to do
>golem’s dead – yay a rare
>port around gathering these silly nodes
>not sure why i even do this, i have exotics, ascended stuff is stupid
>“lyssa’s up”
>what a massive waste of time that was
>“fire ele’s up”
>kitten i hate the fire ele pre’s
>what a massive waste of time that was
>“maw”
>may as well go there for the 1000th time
>heard someone got a precursor here once
>what a massive waste of time that was
>see generic guild spam in map chat “we have mumble and a website no one ever uses!”

I do love frost bow and fiery greatsword though.

I could say yes to (almost) all. I’m just jumping from worldboss to worldboss, from dungeon to dungeon.
Actually, the only time in which I’m just running around is while I complete my daylies.

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Lord Kuru.3685:

If you enjoy grind, it’s actually really really fun.

I don’t enjoy the grind, I enjoy the things I can buy from grinding…

GW2’s like real life where you have a job (grinding) to support your actual interests (whatever you do with what you buy from grinding)?

Kaleban.9834:

I had more fun playing WoW, because at least there you had a good chance at high level drops from bosses. I can’t count the number of times I’ve killed World Bosses in this game, or done dungeons and Fractals, and all my characters STILL are wearing either crafted gear or stuff purchased with Laurels.

I can totally agree with this point anyways, I think the last time I equipped something that was “droped” was like lvl 35. And I love having that “omg I found something awesome” moment like once and a while but now the best I can hope for is an ascended ring in fractals. :/ I would kill to have unique and exciting armor drops from hard dungeon paths or high level fractals.

Lord Kuru.3685:

GW2’s like real life where you have a job (grinding) to support your actual interests (whatever you do with what you buy from grinding)?

Imagine a game in which we just did stuff because we thought it was fun, and got rewarded for whatever that might be in cool and interesting ways. It would be like having a job doing what you love, instead of work.

But that’s ridiculous, right? Anyway, no time to hang out here at the water cooler, I have to get back to grinding for ascended armor…

I was able to find enjoyment in GW2 by exploring and doing DE’s in un- (or under-) populated zones. Finding a look for my characters was a reasonably enjoyable distraction. Dungeons were fun with GW alliance members until they decided that GW2 PvP did not float their boat and went back to other games. Meta-events and temples were fun back when it was happenstance (responding to a call-out in zone chat). That’s about the size of it for me. All of that made GW2 the product a great buy, well worth the price of admission.

Over the course of 2013, the game changed. The Living World initiative seems to focus everything on aspects of the game I dislike. There’s no new exploration. The story presented is not engaging, as my part in it mostly amounts to click x to help the NPC, kill a few mobs to feel useful and do a dungeon. The content, by its nature and presentation, is aimed at massive herds of players steamrolling things, which lasts only as long as it takes for people to get their achievements done. Progression via Ascended weapons and armor also produces herd play, which I don’t find fun. All of that made GW2 the ongoing service not something I want to support.

Drops? The “user-friendly” mechanic whereby everyone who tags has a chance at a drop from the same mob has had an unfortunate side-effect. Drop chances have to be low to ensure the market does not get over-filled. However, with the exception of the truly rare, the market is flooded anyway. The low chance, though, means that no one player (unless phenomenally lucky) is going to see anything like “good” drops on a consistent basis — and some people will get all trash, all the time. 20-30 exotic drops? Yeah, I’ve had about that many, with most of them dropping during the two-week Clockwork Chaos update.

Yes Guild Wars 2 is a lot of fun, it has some fantastic moments.

Trail blazing across Southsun and setting up outposts.

Super Adventure Box world 1.

Travelling up to Zephyr Sanctum for the first time.

First Wintersday & Halloween.

Guild Wars has some exceptional and memorable moments just from the living story alone and judging from that we will likely have many more to come.

But I guess your definition of fun is different to mine Kaleban. When you say fun you talk about loot drops and class balance, if that is all that is fun to you then you might as well be playing a spreadsheet.

I don’t really think any grind is REQUIRED to be competitive. I still don’t even have a full set bonus on my gear and I can do just fine in all the dungeons of the game and WvW. The bonus will help, but I don’t ever feel like I’m crippled for helping my party or even winning 1vs1 fights in PvP.

I have 9 characters, 7 lvl 80’s and 2 fastly becoming 80 (mid 50’s today)as of late. I have no interest of getting 9 times ascended gear.

I want 1 character with ascended gear. The others will have to do with ascended trinkets, or just stay exotic.

It really doesn’t matter too much. It is the difference of putting a sigil of force on your weapon or not, that’s the damage change. If you change everything.

5%….

So your dungeon will take 20/19* the time if you run exotics compared to ascended, on a cof 1 (7 minutes, or 420 seconds) Having full Ascended Gear will save you 3 seconds for every minute fought. You’ll have a slightly better chance to shrug off dmg as well.. but go and think about it …

Until Agony resistance is essential ingame, ascended gear is just for showing off…

Frankly if you left months ago nothing’s changed since that would alleviate that. However, the accursed living story will soon (3-4months I think?)end and then maybe we will get proper updates. I’d say check back around that time-it’s what I’m doing….and hoping that enough will change that I can convince my 5 friends who stopped playing to come back. I am of course hoping that by that time the new thing won’t be ‘LFM <insert sub-lvl 80 dugneon> lvl 80 zerker asc only, PING gear’ because once that happens I won’t be staying, let alone getting my friends to come back.

…..you know, now that I think about it, it might make sense to just quit now. Asc gear is in the game so it will come to that state in time; might as well get off the train now.

Guild Wars 2 started out as very fun, but every time they “fix” something, the result is something less fun to play.

Kaleban.9834:

PvP is a joke, WvW is still a zergfest, and PvE is for lack of a better word, uniform, despite the “dynamic” events system.

i can’t really offer any advice about sPvP or PvE, but i can help with WvW. while, yeah, there’s usually going to be some level of zergfest going on, there are other very valuable assignments you can take care of while avoiding the zerg entirely. scouting, sentrying (a mobile sentrying system with a few other people with you helps avoid getting bored) and roaming/havoc work. if you can get a full party working with you, you can be extremely effective. maintain control of your camps and the ruins, gank yaks and flip opponent’s camps just before the tick. and ninja attacks if you find a soft target. escorting yaks is great too, if you don’t mind getting no personal rewards for your efforts. as an ele, if you get a thief working with you, you can keep the yak speed buffed and extremely well protected throughout out its journey.

if the small scale stuff doesn’t interest you, you could join a zerg busting guild. you’d be dealing with zergs, but your own numbers would be relatively low (10-20) and highly coordinated.

or you can do what a dude on TC does. buy a golem, build said golem, casually stroll to a keep and work it over while the enemy zerg is tied up elsewhere, then call out when the inner gate is at 50% for people to come join in for the cap. it doesn’t always turn out as planned, but it’s absolutely awesome when it does.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Kaleban.9834:

~snip~

I had more fun playing WoW, because at least there you had a good chance at high level drops from bosses.

~snip~

Many thing doesn’t hold true in your post, especially this one.

If that is true, then I don’t see why running the dungeons here in GW2 to get badges so that you can purchase the gears you want is not better than running raids in hopes for a high level drops.

It seems that the problem here is your preference and not the game itself.

This is one thing that psychologists should be jumping all over for research. I realise how doing a dungeon, getting some tokens and repeat until you have enough is appealing to some people but it actually has the opposite effect for me.

I personally love doing dungeons where each boss has a set table of loot that might drop the one item I’m looking for. I would (and have in other games) continue to run the same group of dungeons specifically to farm a set of boss dropped gear and enjoyed every minute, but change that to boss drops tokens that I can spend at a gendor and the whole concept just repulses me for some reason.

Some games have both systems, the boss drops specific loot AND tokens, the tokens can be used to buy a set that is just as good stat wise but has a slightly different skin or texture model to differentiate the two. I really think both systems is better than one or the other, why reward one customer only to repulse another when you can make a slight adjustment and please both?

Kaleban.9834:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Kaleban.9834:

~snip~

I had more fun playing WoW, because at least there you had a good chance at high level drops from bosses.

~snip~

Many thing doesn’t hold true in your post, especially this one.

If that is true, then I don’t see why running the dungeons here in GW2 to get badges so that you can purchase the gears you want is not better than running raids in hopes for a high level drops.

It seems that the problem here is your preference and not the game itself.

Respectfully, most of my post is opinion, and what isn’t is in fact true, or are you going to tell me that PvP has several new game modes I’m unaware of and WvW has finally gotten small group/unit engagements to become meta instead of zerging?

Not really sure what other mode are you looking for in PvP. The only thing that is probably missing is the classic GvG, GW1 style. As for WvW, how exactly are you going to implement a small group engagements in an open world PvP?

In PvP servers, you’ll find Horde vs Alliance zergs happening also, that’s the nature of an open world PvP.

And your reference to running the same dungeon over and over for badges is completely missing the point. WoW had a similar system, yet you could still get unique drops available nowhere else. It would be akin to running the Arah dungeon and having a good chance at a precursor drop in addition to badges. If this were the case, people would not be tossing thousands of gold’s worth of exotics into the Mystic Forge in the hopes of a precursor. THAT is seen as a better option, and that is ridiculous.

You see, you reveal the falsehood of your claim. You just admitted that you don’t have to run dungeons to get what you wanted. Compare to WoW, you have to run the raid to get the stuff you want — there’s no alternative.

If people wants to run champion-train to get exotics to use in the Forge instead of running a dungeon, what’s wrong with that? At least you have a choice on which method you prefer.

To me it’s less fun sitting in a LFR or Dungeon Finder queue waiting for a healer or tank because I have to grind for the items I want — talk about boring and a waste of time.

But you might be right. My “preference” is for a game that is dynamic and evolves, and non-dependent on grind to remain competitive.

You see that’s another false statement. You’ve shown your preference to WoW because you find it fun, yet that game is neither dynamic nor it evolves and it is highly depend on grinding. How many weeks does it take to run SoO just to complete your tier set? Not to mention how many times you have to play in the Arena just to compete.

This was what GW2 was initially billed as, what drew me in, and from everything I’ve seen over a year of regular play, the plan has significantly drifted, or evaporated entirely.

Grinding only exist if you choose to grind yourself even though you don’t have to. Getting something shiny is based on RNG and some people are just lucky, not because they are grinding their life away. People choose to grind because they think that it increases their chances on getting the shinies, but it’s all about luck or maybe they really just like to run around with other players killing stuff.

Working 8hrs/day can be a grind too, but if you like what you’re doing and you enjoy working, it’s not even close to grinding.

Aedelric.1287:

Yes Guild Wars 2 is a lot of fun, it has some fantastic moments.

Trail blazing across Southsun and setting up outposts.

Super Adventure Box world 1.

Travelling up to Zephyr Sanctum for the first time.

First Wintersday & Halloween.

Guild Wars has some exceptional and memorable moments just from the living story alone and judging from that we will likely have many more to come.

But I guess your definition of fun is different to mine Kaleban. When you say fun you talk about loot drops and class balance, if that is all that is fun to you then you might as well be playing a spreadsheet.

Class balance is necessary for well done competitive play, whether WvW or PvP, and so is inherent to the “fun factor” that makes players feel like they were victorious over an enemy, rather than just roflstomping an Ele with a Warrior because of a balance system that is extremely out of whack.

Loot in an MMO is also part of the fun factor, but how its handled is extremely important. The thrill of beating a big boss through strategy and tactics, and seeing that rare drop that you’ve been questing for is all sorts more epic and involving than dungeon grinding and “stacking” to exploit mob AI, after which you purchase your “epic lewts” with yet another inexplicable currency.

The point is, an MMO that was billed as dynamic and diverse with changing gameplay cannot have said gameplay (and fun factor) defined by “moments.” The first time you went up Zephyr Sanctum, awesome right? How about after your 1000th run of Sanctum Sprint? Or wow, can you believe the tower in Kessex Hills, how cool right? And after how many runs through the same end mini dungeon at the top without getting any of the tri-color key parts does it become a joke?

MMOs need to have fun and engaging gameplay ALL the time, which is why many have various avenues of PvP that cater to all sorts of builds. Capture and Hold plays to a few professions’ strengths, but not to most, so that format is dominated by those builds. WvW favors AoE and zerg tactics, which is why builds never run minions and Rangers are especially at a disadvantage.

So no, I don’t want to play a spreadsheet, that’s the point. But due to ANet’s increasing focus on grinding treadmills (Ascended and the potential future release of Legendary armors and trinkets, the repetitive title and achievement grinding, dailies and monthlies, etc.) they’re forcing the playerbase to also focus on these aspects, creating a game environment that is more like a 9 to 5 job rather than a fun diversion.

My whole deal is I really like the GW lore, the great art design, and even the look and feel of my beloved Elementalist. Problem is that its getting to the point where that is not enough to keep my interest anymore, and adding stuff to the gem shop or yet another 2 week LS release with Scarlet just isn’t cutting it. I hope ANet gets back to injecting fun into their games, and take a page from GW1, where everyone was competitive at level 20 with collector gear in PvE, but grinded for aesthetics. Ascended items were/are a huge mistake, and really detract from what the focus of GW2 should have been. Instead of spending resources on creating the Ascended category, ANet should have been adding in more dynamic events and adjusting rewards for areas not frequently traveled, which would give players something to do for fun, rather than just grind treadmill for the next tier of power.

a colossal +1.
virtual handshake.
the perfect definition of all the grind gw2 is pushing in the name of “fun”.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

You see, you reveal the falsehood of your claim. You just admitted that you don’t have to run dungeons to get what you wanted. Compare to WoW, you have to run the raid to get the stuff you want — there’s no alternative.

You really need to stop calling my opinions false dude.

As for your quote above, here’s the point: the raids are fun and time consuming, and require strategy and timing, if only to avoid certain attacks and phases. Especially as a tank or melee DPS, you’re “in the thick of it.”

When I login to GW2, the idea of doing another CoF1 speedrun, even with my Ele is enough to make me nauseous. The dungeons in this game, especially the later level ones like Arah are either very punishing to those unfamiliar with the mechanics, or boring due to use of the same tactics over and over (i.e. “stack against wall”) that don’t really make any logical sense.

Whereas a raid in other MMOs may take an hour or more, the dungeons in GW2 is tremendously shorter and usually much “lighter” in content. And there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as the dungeons are fun, or involve interesting dynamics or puzzles.

But the tl;dr version is this: in a game like WoW, defeating the raid is actually fun, with the possible drop icing on the cake. In a game like GW2, the fun (if it exists) is buying something from a merchant, with currency that you had to amass via repetitively slogging through a dungeon that has no interesting gameplay.

Kaleban.9834:

Snip…

I agree, Scarlet is not cutting it. But we only have a few more updates with her and what is supposed to come after is meant to be worth the wait.

I say exercise patience.

Tachii.3506:

Nothing in life is fun if you keep doing the samethings repeatedly without new experiences.

How does League of Legends succeed. It’s even worse when it comes to lack of new content etc. Apart from an occasional champion release.

Oatz.5487:

Tachii.3506:

Nothing in life is fun if you keep doing the samethings repeatedly without new experiences.

How does League of Legends succeed. It’s even worse when it comes to lack of new content etc. Apart from an occasional champion release.

You play with different champcombs vs. other players.
It’s challenging and a teamgame.

Inb4 someone says “Subjective”

It was fun as hell for me in the first two months. I got bored and uninstalled for 6 months-ish. I came back and it was a a bit more fun but in the sense of fun being achievements and grind (which were fun in GW as rewards for GW2). I ran with it and levelled an alt of every profession to 80.

..When I questioned myself as to why ‘I’ me personally still played outwith my Guild. I’m now taking an very long break but will keep in touch with my Guild on their forums. Outwith dailies and Sesame Street storylines, there was nothing but callous addiction.

Oatz.5487:

Tachii.3506:

Nothing in life is fun if you keep doing the samethings repeatedly without new experiences.

How does League of Legends succeed. It’s even worse when it comes to lack of new content etc. Apart from an occasional champion release.

It is a double standard for pvp only games. That’s why a game like TF2 can still be going stronger than ever with minimal additions to core content or why games like CoD or Halo see healthy populations up until the new game comes out.

Notice that both games also have massive amounts of weapons to use that change your play style along with multiple game modes that differ greatly. GW2 pvp has 1 game mode which isn’t even team deathmatch and many of the classes get pigeonholed into 1 or 2 actually effective builds because of it killing dynamic play if you want to have a chance to win.

Single player/PvE content can only keep you so entertained because it can only be so dynamic and GW2 is so scripted it hurts. About the only real single player games that allow for continuous play are roguelikes and voxel games that revolve around procedurally randomized maps and mobs so it’s never the same twice in a row.

Ps. I also didn’t find it fun that about 30 different types of axes, swords in this game all shared the same lazy skin.

Tip, When leveling if you get a higher level weapon with words in front but it’s the exact same skin as a rusty axe. (even exotics). And you realise . “This is a beta”

It won’t ever be anything but. Thank NC and Cox

But hey, Quaggan backpacks, right?

Does fun equate to always winning and always farming?
If so, then the answer is: HOP ABOARD!

I only log in for the daily pve achievement and to keep crafting the time-gated ascended materials por my light armor…

I deeply wish more critiques of the game were this mature, patient and eloquent. Thanks for expressing what a lot of us are feeling but may not be able to say so well.

I’ve been very critical of the Living World’s “throwaway content” and the way the rest of the game, despite many welcome quality of life improvements, has languished. I think that and the “Zerg Wars” paradigm underlies a lot of the dissatisfaction many players are experiencing.

However, I believe ArenaNet has gotten the message — at least on the Living World, and hopefully scaling down “zerg-only content” — and I really do think we’ll see a welcome change of direction in 2014.

If not, it’s still the best game I’ve ever played, just lacking in key areas. If so, and we see ArenaNet’s efforts to incorporate collaborative development make meaningful improvements to Guild Wars 2 that will bring us a truly living, growing world constantly being filled with fresh, replayable new content, it’s going to be EPIC.

Lettuce prey.

Not really, yet I still play it regularly.

WvW is really the only activity that is inherently fun (aka. fun regardless of rewards). But even that gets dry due to its shallow nature, constant PvD, mindless zerging and tiny maps that allow almost no tactics.

The rest of the game is just a massive grind-fest. Everyone seems to be running around hoping that someday, they too fill find a lucky drop that will somehow change their fate (mostly a Precursor). But they are just kidding themselves into thinking this is fun.

I have no other explanation as to why so many people would run Champion trains so much of the time.

Dungeons can be fun if they were a challenge, but they’re not. Fractals aren’t either, at least not challenging in a fun way.

Kaleban.9834:

I’ve played since release. Not as much as many of you all, but I’ve got several hundred hours solely on my Elementalist.

This isn’t a rant on the SOG with regards to the Ele, or class balance at all.

I guess my question is, simply, is the game fun any more? Lately, I find myself logging in, doing the daily, maybe working towards whatever current LS achievements there are, and that’s about it.

PvP is a joke, WvW is still a zergfest, and PvE is for lack of a better word, uniform, despite the “dynamic” events system.

Perhaps I’m in the minority here, but it seems that the game has veered way off its intended promises. I thought I’d be playing a dynamic MMO, one that had interesting and unique content, not Champ Train farming, or grinding my eyeballs out to get Ascended gear (even just one prefix is ridiculous in terms of time/mats required), or any of the other boring, grindy things REQUIRED by the game to remain competitive with the rest of the players, especially in WvW content.

I mean, for over a year’s worth of play I think I had maybe 20 or possibly even 30 exotic drops, running the gamut from Zhed’s Gloves to Levvi’s Detector. Never a precursor drop. If I had salvaged every single one once Ascended crafting became available, I still might not have got enough Globs of Dark Matter for even one armor set. After a YEAR of play.

So yeah, I think I may be done. I loved playing my Ele, back before ANet jumped on the nerf train and made the class nearly the worst at everything, because it was fun to play a versatile character that evoked Aang the Avatar imagery. But even playing other professions (Mesmer, Thief, Guardian, Engineer) just hammered the point home that this game has become the mother of all grindfests, in direct opposition to the original goal. I had more fun playing WoW, because at least there you had a good chance at high level drops from bosses. I can’t count the number of times I’ve killed World Bosses in this game, or done dungeons and Fractals, and all my characters STILL are wearing either crafted gear or stuff purchased with Laurels.

Maybe I’m spoiled, or just unlucky. But GW2 has rapidly been receding in interest for me, and I think a large part of it is due to the lack of content in favor of achievement grinding, and the “sameness” of every activity in the world. I’d LIKE to keep playing, if for no other reason than that I enjoy the look and feel of the Elementalist, but that’s a thin veneer to draw one to a game.

solo pve leveling and exploring is kinda-sorta-like-but-not-like fun in a subpar kinda way. professions, and any activity that involves combat, are anything but a fun, rewarding, heroic, deep, fulfilling, exciting… graphics are great, and it’s a nice feature to move around and attack though. game has potential so I’m hoping the april 2014 patch is the start of some quality changes and additions.

MercyKilling.8519:

Meh. It has its moments.

For me, it’s mostly just a placeholder until 4/4/14 and Elder Scrolls Online comes out.

you are not alone