Guild Wars 2

This community seems to be very, VERY angry. Almost every post I see is bursting at the seams with negativity, so as the title asks, is there anything good about this game? I am just getting back from a break where I was overseas, just built a computer, and am packing up to move to a new state so unfortunately I have not been able to play for more than 2 hours or so over the past few days.

Honestly, and please try and be as mature and rational as possible here, but is this game dying? Are people about to start leaving in high numbers? What is your real assessment of this game? I am thinking about getting my bf into this game, but after reading through these forums a bit I just don’t know.

Try your best to be objective. I would really like to read some mature responses. I see what’s bad, I see it in almost every thread, so what’s this game got going for it?

The recent patch ruined a very important aspect it claims to have been trying to fix… The level 80 experience is pretty good… Goodluck with anything below 40 though… its a sorry excuse of ‘rewarding’ leveling experience.

GW2 is different. You can play for months on end without ever spending a dime of real money if you don’t want to. I’m fully aware it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you need a break from old-school MMOs like World of Warcraft, GW2 is worth a look in my opinion.

The game is still good, the problem is the community feels it could be significantly better if than it is right now if it were taken in another direction. in its preasent state there are still many portions of the game that many still find to be worth doing however much of the criticism is that most of the content in the game has been around since launch and much of this content is found to be lacking in true depth. additionally arena net seems to believe that living world will be enough to satisfy their playerbase and has not added significant enough permanent content to add to the games variety. Despite these flaws there are still many fun aspects to the game that are worth playing it just that there seem to be too few of them added for community’s tastes.

vermazing.4602:

The game is still good, the problem is the community feels it could be significantly better if than it is right now if it were taken in another direction. in its preasent state there are still many portions of the game that many still find to be worth doing however much of the criticism is that most of the content in the game has been around since launch and much of this content is found to be lacking in true depth. additionally arena net seems to believe that living world will be enough to satisfy their playerbase and has not added significant enough permanent content to add to the games variety. Despite these flaws there are still many fun aspects to the game that are worth playing it just that there seem to be too few of them added for community’s tastes.

Pardon my saying, but I don’t think you really answered OPs question.

Graphics! (The best out of any game pretty much, even most single player ones)
Combat! (Very engaging and dynamic)
Convenience perks – trading post, inventory management, this mmo strives to make life easy for you, not hard.
Casual player targeting – you don’t have to feel you must log on every day to stay viable. You can even go take vacation and travel for a month and come back to the game no problem.

Out of all mmos I played and saw, this is still my absolute #1.

The reason community is angry is because some changes in this feature pack don’t make sense to them as veteran players, and they’d rather see efforts be spent on creating new content catering to their wants.
Also some changes occurred to existing content that seem completely unjustified, so you will see a lot of anger. Should die out in a month.

I don’t think this game’s dying. I see ton of people all over the place, the servers are full.
I think the fact this game lets you do what you want and how you want it ensures the steady population. (I’m no expert though)

Sarabande.8260:

what’s this game got going for it?

The combat system is great.
But if I were you I would wait a couple weeks and check the forums again. New patch is bugged and not working as intended. At least I can not recommend it as it is now.
So come back when stuff has been sorted out and the game is working better.

if you like farmville2, then you’re going to love gw2

Oh wait. Also downlevelling is great (even if you’re 80 you can play normally on lower level maps). Tons of maps! Lower level maps still worth going to for collections!
Freedom!
I can rant on and on about good things in this game. I think it’s part of why community gets so upset because they love the game so much.

Personally I think if you never played GW 2 before you should definitely give it a try. There’s a lot to explore especially for first-timers and the amount of content you get for the price you pay is amazing.

If you already reached the “alt-phase” where a good chunk of your playtime is spent in exploring different classes and races then it’s still worth it …just not as good as it was before (in my opinion).

Even though the latest feature pack was horrendous it did by no means break the game as a whole but it serves as a reminder in which direction the game is going. For those of us who have already played other MMO’s before GW2 it’s kind of scary to watch how a familiar pattern slowly creeps back that drove us from the other games in the first place. That is: a systematic dumbing down of the game to increase “accessability” to a broader audience. Games that try to cater to everyone are not as good as games that try to appeal to a specific type of player.

The best thing about Guild Wars 2 is I can turn it off at the end of the night.

I still can’t quite manage it with Minecraft and have to orchestrate interruptions so someone can ninja-close it for me.

There is negativity in every game forum. There is more negativity in every game forum after any patch that makes substantial changes to the game. ANet has acknowledged that some of the issues people are pointing to are bugs that will be fixed, and that they are making some changes to the new system based on feedback.

Some people may carry through with their threats to leave, but please understand the psychology of posters. Threats to leave are often used as leverage to get the developers to see how badly the poster hates feature X. Some people doubtless left over Ascended gear, over living world, over no expansion, or over the trait revamp. I’ve played twice since the patch and there have been plenty of people around. While that’s anecdotal evidence, so is, “The game is dying.”

In other words, there is no evidence the game is dead or dying other than the pronouncements of some forum users who are trying to generate agreement with how bad X is.

But seriously, if you want me to start talking about good things:

- I enjoy the first chapter of the Blood Legion Charr personal story. Like, really enjoy it.

- I really enjoy the music at times, especially the tracks which play while fighting the Claw of Jormag and the ambient music which puts pieces of pre-Searing Ascalon in it.

If you like to spend the entire end-game doing nothing but completing achievements and unlocking skins because the developers stopped pushing out content that had any substance almost a year ago, this is the game for you.
The combat is fun and fresh, the world has many beautiful sights and tidbits, but after you’ve seen anything and done every dungeon twice, you have no reason to keep playing unless you enjoy grinding with diminishing returns for expensive skins and equipment that is roughly 6% better than the second best but costs at least 10x more.

Personally, even though the last two feature packs have crushed any hopes for making another alt or getting new, interesting content, they still can’t ruin going on a rampage in lower level areas for me.

Normally, this is where I would sing the praises of the Personal Story, but given this recent patch I’m afraid I can’t do that anymore.

if the entire forum and their mums left the game that would still only amount to .2% of all players, if you’re asking for a number.

the first 40 levels just got a complete revamp basically and a lot of players think it’s dumbing down the game. If you like your experience so far, I wouldn’t concern myself too much with this.
If you don’t like the experience, let the devs know as you are their prime target at the moment (yes, you).
There is comparatively little “end-game” content, but you are still miles away.

maybe check out this and turn up the graphics to max once in a while
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Beauty-of-Guild-Wars-2/first

Hey, I just found the perfect deal for you!
https://register.guildwars2.com/trial
From the 25th you can get a free trial.

I just learned about it and this explains a lot actually.

Player.2475:

If you like to spend the entire end-game doing nothing but completing achievements and unlocking skins because the developers stopped pushing out content that had any substance almost a year ago, this is the game for you.

Sounds like Guild Wars 1 to me . . . at least that was all I really did in the last two years I played. Worked on titles and tried to find the few interesting skins.

Well it depends on what u mean with “isn’t dying…”

If u see guilds with 200-300 members that are logging in every few days instead of every day, and each time they log in there is a negative comment like “did they fix xxxx” or “why is this game go frustratingly time gated, im wasting my time on everything i try to do…” and then they just log out.

I guess u can call that dying. its a shame really, coming from gw1 where u could do anything in 3 mins. buy armor, play pvp, get into instance.

u played that game because u wanted to and wasnt frustraited by almost every single thing being time consuming for no reason. gw2 u feel more like u must play it, on lowest level its working on the hamster in all of us to finish something u started, daily, crafting, armor anything… because u cant really do it when u want it and how u want it, u must wait for the game to let u do it… and its frustrating as hell. by the time u get what u set out to get, armor, weapon, into the map that does world event etc. u really dont want to do it anymore.
It just leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, u are being used, manipulated and made WASTE single most precious thing u have on this world, YOUR OWN PERSONAL TIME OUT OF YOUR SHORT LIFE, one thing u cant buy or get back. anet is taking away from u on a massive scale.

So if u are smart or have any self control u will stay away from this product until it start respecting you and your choices and gives u enough credit to have more than 2 brain cells to decide what to do in a game to have fun on your own terms, its not like u payed for it or anything.

GW2 probably has the best art direction I’ve ever seen for an MMO. It’s a nice blend of realistic and fantasy elements where the settings and character designs are neither too gritty or cartoonish. Cultures and architecture between the races is very distinct. Not to mention the races themselves are probably some of the most unique I’ve come across in a while; a really nice change of pace from bland elves and dwarves. This makes room for plenty of narrative and lore potential.

Combat manages to be very engaging and fun while still maintaining a simple skill set, making it very easy for new players or mmo newbies to get into. PVP is pretty good, if it weren’t for the lack of updates and frequent balancing issues.

World bosses are great and should be expanded upon. Tequatl and the Triple Trouble are fun and challenging while requiring everyone in a large-scale zerg to put in group effort.

Its still a great game. Most of the uproar is about veteran players not liking the new leveling experience or that time it took to develop could have been better utilized (latter being a valid point perhaps).

However brand new players could very well enjoy this new experience since they dont know how it used to be. I have played with it a bit and personally dont share the anguish many other vets have towards it. In fact, I rather like the changes and this is coming from someone with over 20+ level 80s.

The white elephant in the room is a thing called key farming which has been knee capped by this change. You used to be able to create a brand new character and jump into your personal story right away. It was possible to get your level 10 personal story done in about 10-15 minutes. This rewarded you with a Black Lion Chest key which could award Black Lion ticket scraps or even a complete ticket that could be exchanged for unique weapon skins that could be traded. The end result was a gold farm had been given a nerf.

Now many of the complaints you read about just are not legitimate except for the utility skills perhaps being spread out too far. Even the devs admit this issue and are addressing this. The weapon skills being level gated are no big deal. If you log in an get with it, youll be level 10 in 30 minutes or less. All your weapon skills will be unlocked. If you truly are new, youll probably like the way things are.

This community is very volatile. The last few big patches have slowly been closing many of the gold farms and naturally this gets under more than a few peoples skin. My thinking is these people will keep finding ways to get around the system or move on to a game where farming is more productive. Either way the game will persevere. Nothing about this patch vastly affects what you do at level 80. The fact so many claimed veterans get on here to object to this new patch probably has more to do with affecting their bottom line than how the game is actually played at lower levels. I am sure that ANET has some way of vetting the genuine concerns from the “OMGIHAZLOSTMUNNY” crowd.

I would urge anyone sitting on the fence to give it a whirl. You have not lost much if you dont like it. Personally I find that I still love this game very much even after the patches of late because primarily it did not affect me. I did keyfarm for a while but it is a mindless madness to do. It was profitable…sure. But it was like a second job or something. I felt like a zombie lol.

They nerfed champions a while back. I did run a lot of champ trains and at first I hated the change. I was even venomous about it. However, a funny thing happened afterwards. I ventured out and actually begin completing zones. I really began to take in the game as I think I should have all along.

So…come on in. Play a bit. Im still here. Many others will be too even after all this dust settles. It may not be your cup of tea, but you will not have lost much giving it a try. then again, you might just love it too.

Oh lord another one of these posts again. If you actually read all of the comments even in the most passionate of threads there are always people who are in between. Who won’t hesitate to tell them when they are doing something wrong but will give you several reasons why they like other things, it’s not all vitriol.

tigirius.9014:

Oh lord another one of these posts again. If you actually read all of the comments even in the most passionate of threads there are always people who are in between. Who won’t hesitate to tell them when they are doing something wrong but will give you several reasons why they like other things, it’s not all vitriol.

I’d say in the forums, it seems like quite a bit more vitriol to me. In the game itself on the other hand, there seems to be a more even spread of opinions. At least within my guild, anyhow.

cheshirefox.7026:

if you like farmville2, then you’re going to love gw2

Actually, ArcheAge is more like FarmVille than GW2, GW2is like hello kitty online atm.

Plenty of good things about this game. Plenty of bad things about this game. Depends on who you ask, who you play with. My guild is mostly happily playing since the patch. We had one guy that didn’t like the changes and he left. That’s 1 out of 50 regulars who play very frequently.

I went to the guild yesterday due to the reaction on the forums and asked them how they were enjoying the patch. Most of them either likes it or didn’t feel it made a difference to their game play.

A couple of them felt that the new leveling experience, one part of the patch needed to be tweaked. They saw what Anet was going for, but they don’t think Anet has hit the mark yet.

But I still have roughly the same number of people logging in daily as I did last week, actually a couple more because some older members came back for the patch, and I have substantially more people logging in and staying logged in now than six months ago.

Things I like about the game: The graphics, the combat, the cooperative (as oppose to competitive) nature of PvE, jumping puzzles (done better in this game than others I’ve seen), the fact that dungeon groups fill fast because you don’t have to wait for a tank or healer, no one can steal your node, no one can steal your kill, I like the crafting better now than I did before the patch, I like the trading post better now than I did before the patch, I like the leveling experience better now than I did before the patch.

I’ve played this game almost every day since the first beta. I must like something about it.

Many of my guild members have been playing that long as well.

Lunar Sunset.8742:

cheshirefox.7026:

if you like farmville2, then you’re going to love gw2

Actually, ArcheAge is more like FarmVille than GW2, GW2is like hello kitty online atm.

If that’s the case I have to check out this “Hello Kitty Online”.

“Is there anything good about GW2?”

Not any more.

I hear the sounds of the warlord’s drums. Follow them to a better land. Let this one lay fragmented.

Miss Pink Floyd.9730:

“Is there anything good about GW2?”

Not any more.

Then ciao. And don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Sarabande.8260:

This community seems to be very, VERY angry. Almost every post I see is bursting at the seams with negativity, so as the title asks, is there anything good about this game? I am just getting back from a break where I was overseas, just built a computer, and am packing up to move to a new state so unfortunately I have not been able to play for more than 2 hours or so over the past few days.

Honestly, and please try and be as mature and rational as possible here, but is this game dying? Are people about to start leaving in high numbers? What is your real assessment of this game? I am thinking about getting my bf into this game, but after reading through these forums a bit I just don’t know.

Try your best to be objective. I would really like to read some mature responses. I see what’s bad, I see it in almost every thread, so what’s this game got going for it?

The game has been hemorrhaging players for some time. Everyone has a different opinion on why: the most used reason has been content in relation to PvE. The original Guild Wars retained and attracted new players through expansions. Guild Wars 2 was given a different approach that hasn’t panned out.

Instead of development time used to create a new continent, new classes, races, and quests we were given the Living Story. The first iteration was a flaming wreck. The 2nd iteration was very short before Anet took a break to “work” on the September feature release.

The feature pack is akin to a home owner redecorating the front of his abode during a house party in an effort to attract more guests, while keeping his back turned to his current ones. Veterans were slapped in the face. Many have voiced their frustration. some have come out and said they refuse to spend another dollar on this game until things are fixed. Others have probably just signed off.

My honest recommendation: stay away from GW2 until they release an expansion. The Living Story will not fix their tarnished image, nor will any Quality of Life improvement. ArenaNet has given the middle finger to every paying customer for too long. It’s expansion or bust.

Guild Wars 2 is a great game. The recent changes shouldn’t concern you, especially if you don’t know how the game played before the patch. If these features had been in place at launch, no one would have an issue with them. That is also why new players will not have an issue with them.

As to the game dying, only time will tell that. But I don’t believe it. I didn’t believe it two years ago when ascended items came into being, and I didn’t believe it when the champ trains were nerfed, and I don’t believe it now. Some folks will leave. That’s okay. Just leaves room for the new folks.

Vix.6730:

Sarabande.8260:

This community seems to be very, VERY angry. Almost every post I see is bursting at the seams with negativity, so as the title asks, is there anything good about this game? I am just getting back from a break where I was overseas, just built a computer, and am packing up to move to a new state so unfortunately I have not been able to play for more than 2 hours or so over the past few days.

Honestly, and please try and be as mature and rational as possible here, but is this game dying? Are people about to start leaving in high numbers? What is your real assessment of this game? I am thinking about getting my bf into this game, but after reading through these forums a bit I just don’t know.

Try your best to be objective. I would really like to read some mature responses. I see what’s bad, I see it in almost every thread, so what’s this game got going for it?

The game has been hemorrhaging players for some time. Everyone has a different opinion on why: the most used reason has been content in relation to PvE. The original Guild Wars retained and attracted new players through expansions. Guild Wars 2 was given a different approach that hasn’t panned out.

Instead of development time used to create a new continent, new classes, races, and quests we were given the Living Story. The first iteration was a flaming wreck. The 2nd iteration was very short before Anet took a break to “work” on the September feature release.

The feature pack is akin to a home owner redecorating the front of his abode during a house party in an effort to attract more guests, while keeping his back turned to his current ones. Veterans were slapped in the face. Many have voiced their frustration, others have probably just signed off.

My honest recommendation: stay away from GW2 until they release an expansion. The Living Story will not fix their tarnished image, nor will any Quality of Life improvement. ArenaNet has given the middle finger to every paying customer for too long. It’s expansion or bust.

If that’s your recommendation, I can accept it as valid. But you’ll be disappointed. Every expansion in the original Guild Wars required new professions, with a corresponding new glut of skills and new tutorial content. To continue with that business model would have been simply untenable. Anet publicly said as much. GW2 was their effort to correct the problems they had with the development of Guild Wars. My recommendation is, if you liked Guild Wars better than GW2, Guild Wars is still a perfectly functional game. But good luck finding other players to hang with. It’s been a little barren for the last 2 years.

Sarabande.8260:

very expansion in the original Guild Wars required new professions, with a corresponding new glut of skills and new tutorial content.

You must have meant, “every Guild Wars expansion included new professions with a corresponding new glut of skills and new tutorial content.” Expansions aren’t required to have new professions, its just makes sense to release them there from a monetary/marketing perspective. And a glut of new skills would be most welcomed right about now.

Back to the OP – Guild Wars remained relevant through expansions. Could there have been a different way to release content? Sure! Would it have fared any better than the standard expansion model? Who knows? I left my crystal ball in my other pants.

Bottom line is, the current model is obviously not working. You’ll be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t want the chance to explore a new continent or try their hands at a new class. What you will find is a plethora of veterans asking when they can enjoy some new content that doesn’t come in a forgettable, 2-hour dietary pill. The Living Story can never replace the meat you find in an expansion. Not in its current form.

Vix.6730:

Sarabande.8260:

very expansion in the original Guild Wars required new professions, with a corresponding new glut of skills and new tutorial content.

You must have meant, “every Guild Wars expansion included new professions with a corresponding new glut of skills and new tutorial content.” Expansions aren’t required to have new professions, its makes sense to release them there. And a glut of new skills would be welcomed right about now.

Back to the OP – Guild Wars remained relevant through expansions. Could there have been a different way to release content? Sure! Would it have fared any better than the standard expansion model? Who knows? I left my crystal ball in my other pants.

Bottom line is, the current model is obviously not working. You’ll be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t want the chance to explore a new continent or try their hands at a new class. What you will find is a plethora of veterans asking when they can enjoy some new content that doesn’t come in a forgettable, 2-hour dietary pill. The Living Story can never replace the meat you find in an expansion. Not in its current form.

I’m just the messenger. Anet would have continued with a fourth expansion and beyond if there was a way for them to do it without bogging the game down in ways that made skill balancing and tutorial design more and more cumbersome for them. If you have a problem with the fact that they decided not to go that route in GW2, Guild Wars is still running.

And to say that Guild Wars had “expansions” is technically untrue. Guild Wars had one expansion. The first three parts of the games were independent chapters that could be played in any order. Not really “expansions” in the sense that you could play them in any order or even independently of each other.

It looks pretty.

And SAB was cool.

Hm…

Nope, that’s all I got.

I’m starting to get sick of all this whining from everyone about the patch. If you dont like it why the kitten are you playing. Instead of saying everything sucks why not give the devs some constructive criticism. They are giving you a game w/o monthly payments and w/o making this game pay to win. If you want this to be like WoW go pay Blizzard $15 a month and tell me GW2 isnt better.

The art is stunning. The core engine creates a fantastic living world. The community of people who play are, with rare exception, friendly, helpful and intelligent. (At least the ones that are chatty on my server are. Fantastic people. )

I am not any happier about this update than anyone else, and I’ll admit to getting feisty about it, but I tell ya, a friend at Blizzard gave me a free week to reactivate all my old characters…and these are ranked, raiding equipped, fully tweaked awesome characters of awesomeness that I played for years…and have things like flying carpets and their own dragons and whatnot, and I just couldn’t get in to it again.

I missed the mellow fields of GW2. I missed the open-world cooperative play that means there’s no such thing as kill stealing. I love that players aren’t competing for resources…that node can be mined by everyone. I love that the zone level system and harvesting resources means that that there’s almost always someone in every zone that will come help you out if you ask on /map for help for a skill point or an event.

I love how the quests aren’t just “go kill 12 kobolds and come back” most of the time. I love the cut scenes, and the story lines.

I love how closely they hued to the Prose Eddas when creating the Norn stories. I laugh every time I play an Asura and interact with npc asuras. I love the vistas…although I struggle to get some of them.

I suck at jumping puzzles, really suck…and I love that feeling when I finally beat one. (It doesn’t happen often.)

There’s a lot about this game that I love.

There’s a lot about this update that I really hate. I have to say that I wouldn’t recommend a friend buy a new box right now, because I find the level-lock thing to be problematic, and I’m not sure which parts are bugs and which parts are “working as intended”, but if you already own the game, then it costs you nothing to load it up and see what you think.

For the record, I’m still playing, although that may change if some of the things I think are bugs turn out to be working as intended.

gryph.8734:

Miss Pink Floyd.9730:

“Is there anything good about GW2?”

Not any more.

Then ciao. And don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Ahh yes… the attitude that SWTOR players took…

3 months later there was no one left to tell that to and all the devs were fired and the game went P2W.

Here’s a bit of advice for you. If you find yourself telling multiple people to do this… then the problem may not be with the people…

ZudetGambeous.9573:

gryph.8734:

Miss Pink Floyd.9730:

“Is there anything good about GW2?”

Not any more.

Then ciao. And don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Ahh yes… the attitude that SWTOR players took…

3 months later there was no one left to tell that to and all the devs were fired and the game went P2W.

Here’s a bit of advice for you. If you find yourself telling multiple people to do this… then the problem may not be with the people…

Ah. But SWTOR had one thing that Guild Wars 2 never had: It started as a subscription model. I’m sure that didn’t help matters much. Anyone who leaves GW2 is just as welcome to come back at a time of their choosing without having to spend a single thin red penny to do so. Whether they will ever want to is another matter, of course, but oh well.

I think the art, combat, and game world are excellent. The ‘core’ of the game, that was mostly in place at launch, was great.

However, with an MMO, there’s often an expectation of content growth/expansion.

The game doesn’t feel like it’s really expanded that much. In a sense it feels like many of the updates are “running in place”, remixing old content or adding new systems around existing content, instead of truly expanding the game.

I would’ve liked to see more new combat additions (e.g. new skills, traits, weapon types, classes). I would’ve liked to see more permanent maps (new continents!) and dungeons added in 2 years. The PvP modes and “high end” instanced PvE still feel neglected.

I think the devs made mistakes from an opportunity cost perspective, in the features/content they chose to develop.

I’ve had a lot of fun with the game and still enjoy it, but there’s also a feeling of disappointment from what I think the game could’ve become.

For some reason, I’ve long suspected that the development team is significantly understaffed…

voidwater.2064:

I think the art, combat, and game world are excellent. The ‘core’ of the game, that was mostly in place at launch, was great.

However, with an MMO, there’s often an expectation of content growth/expansion.

The game doesn’t feel like it’s really expanded that much. In a sense it feels like many of the updates are “running in place”, remixing old content or adding new systems around existing content, instead of truly expanding the game.

I would’ve liked to see more new combat additions (e.g. new skills, traits, weapon types, classes). I would’ve liked to see more permanent maps (new continents!) and dungeons added in 2 years. The PvP modes and “high end” instanced PvE still feel neglected.

I think the devs made mistakes from an opportunity cost perspective, in the features/content they chose to develop.

For some reason, I’ve long suspected that the development team is significantly understaffed…

…as opposed to more established companies like Blizzard? Almost definitely understaffed. But I think one can also look at this as a matter of expectations. Anet wanted to do something different. Some players — I dunno how many — apparently want GW2 to be more like other MMOs. Never the twain shall meet be-twixt.

• Visual and physical aspects of zone design. I’m not sure another game has been made with terrain that uses 3D space like GW2. The life in zones is also far better than average. Patrols, NPCs working/training, NPCs conversing with each other … GW2 is more alive than most games in this respect.
• Diversity, appearance (including the animations), and tone of the game’s races/cultures.
• Multiple leveling “paths” as one explores the world. Like with WoW, there are multiple starting zones and zones at given level ranges that allow the player to experience different parts of the world on separate playthroughs, thereby greatly improving replayability.
• While I think the dynamic event system underdelivered in a lot of respects, what it does do successfully is make zones different from one visit to the next as long as you aren’t in the habit of camping out all day in them.
• Stationary world bosses are pretty bleh IMO; nevertheless, Claw of Jormag and revamped Tequatl fights have a suitably epic tone for world bosses. Giant lasers and flak cannons should be required to take down dragons.
• Attractive gear. So many games have hideous armor and weapons. GW2 has its fair share, but there are a lot of really quality pieces too. People have made some incredibly awesome looking characters with the gear available.
• Wardrobe and dye system. It took awhile for them to get this what I consider to be “right,” but it’s one of the better appearance management systems available in any game. My one wish here is that I had gotten more value out of my pre-80 transmute stones before the conversion, so that I could enjoy putting armor on low level characters without wasting now precious transmutation charges.
• Class diversity. I’m not as big a fan of the combat mechanics as others, but the classes do feel different once you’ve unlocked their capabilities.
• Non-competitive open world PvE play. PvE play between people on the same faction (which applies to GW2 where everyone is on the same side) should not be a case of one player benefiting at the expense of others. GW2 helped do away with resource node and kill-stealing, encouraging less selfish play. It’s good that these things have found their way into other games.
• Inventory and materials management. The collections tab is a great way to organize useful things picked up in the game world. Selling junk items, the ability to condense items with the click of a button, having bags that are meant for gear or mats or to make stuff unavailable in vendor tabs … these are all good QoL features.
• Guild “points” that can be spent on useful upgrades, activities, buffs, and so on.
• Cooking. While there are issues with the usefulness of crafted items and the availability of materials, the mechanics of the crafting system in general are actually decent.

There are a host of negatives I could get into too, but these are things that stand out to me as things GW2 does well and should be acknowledged for. Fundamentally the game does enough right to be one of the best MMORPGs available, even if one’s individual tastes lead one to prefer things that are done better in other games.

As far as whether the game is dying, the answer is no. GW2 will still have an active population for the next several years. That doesn’t mean that ANet doesn’t have a perception problem on their hands. The game has often struggled at giving max-level players meaningful things to do, and the practice of changing things that “nobody” asked to be changed and not addressing things that “lots” of people have asked to be addressed has created sourness that does have a cancerous effect both in-game and out.

This is what’s wrong with Guild Wars 2. It was a game that was made for the players. Not a game made to give the players the best experience. You can tell at times ANET is running on a serious budget because of the lack of a subscription.

To elaborate on this and yes, we have to compare it to WoW because WoW has undoubtedly been the best MMO.

In GW2 the instanced dungeons are pretty terrible and lack real rewards unless you essentially farm tokens. And this farming has lead to mindless repetition of COF where new players can’t even get five seconds to even watch the cut scenes without being left behind or booted.

In WoW you can essentially earn money by the means you choose to. If you want to farm crafting materials from enemies to sell you are not penalized by this. If you want to earn money by questing you can earn a lot of money on this alone. If you want to earn money by foraging that is also an great way. In GW2 the only way to farm. Yes, you can get 1 gold for a 10-30 minute dungeon but anything worth having costs 2000+ gold.

High level gear in this game can really only be obtained by crafting and that means having massive amounts of gold, which involves massive amounts of farming. So pretty much only the people that play a lot of hours or spend a lot of real money can get legendary gear. In, wow it’s a lot more rewarding and you get to choose how you want to get your high level gear. There is raiding, PVP, crafting, etc.

Raids I’m still not sure I consider the open world bosses in Guild Wars raiding.

And do not get me started on Zerg vs Zerg I mean Guild wars pvp.

I love that Guild Wars 2 is very casual and free after you buy. I stopped playing WoW because I was honestly playing that game way to much and it was costly. It’s a good game but if your looking for a more polished experience and can afford it just play WoW.

voidwater.2064:

I think the art, combat, and game world are excellent. The ‘core’ of the game, that was mostly in place at launch, was great.

However, with an MMO, there’s often an expectation of content growth/expansion.

The game doesn’t feel like it’s really expanded that much. In a sense it feels like many of the updates are “running in place”, remixing old content or adding new systems around existing content, instead of truly expanding the game.

I would’ve liked to see more new combat additions (e.g. new skills, traits, weapon types, classes). I would’ve liked to see more permanent maps (new continents!) and dungeons added in 2 years. The PvP modes and “high end” instanced PvE still feel neglected.

I think the devs made mistakes from an opportunity cost perspective, in the features/content they chose to develop.

I’ve had a lot of fun with the game and still enjoy it, but there’s also a feeling of disappointment from what I think the game could’ve become.

For some reason, I’ve long suspected that the development team is significantly understaffed…

I agree.

A lot of the zones just seem empty and pointless to visit. And this whole dragons vs the world is just getting boring to me. And like I said boring to me my opinion is not meant for anyone else.

I think this game would be more fun if it were more Charr vs Human centered.

The graphics and combat (two of the things that were not touched after release), and of course some ‘quirks’ like the human female idle animations which this latest feature pack bugged out, unfortunately… but it’s being looked into at least. They haven’t fixed the running animation back to its former glory yet however, and that has been an issue for nearly a year now.

The little things make a big impact on the psyche of a player, believe it or not. People grow attached to this kind of stuff.

Someone mentioned WoW. I used to play WoW, but my days with that game are loooong over. To add to that, I read up, lurked on their forums and looked at some popular WoW youtubers and I do not like the changes they have planned for the next expac. Also, that game is far too expensive. I am not hurting for cash, but I am not about to just throw my money at Blizzard and their decade old MMO – $50 for an expansion plus like $20 for all the previous expacs and vanilla, then $15/mo sub fee… oh and my old server is dead (despite them merging servers) so if I want to do current tier high end raiding (which is all WoW is good for imo), I would have to pay whatever the cost is to transfer my main and profession alts off my dead server. Add to that the rabid community and insane levels of competition for everything from herbs out in the world to gear in raids, recount – and the lil boy mentality that comes with it all… just no. Main thing I love and miss about WoW is addons and killing hard raid bosses <3

Now this comp I just build isn’t some mega crazy awesome rig, but I had GW2 in mind when I got the parts from newegg. So it’s that, coupled with the fact I am trying to convince my bf to play which is why I am really trying to find out as much as possible about the game, some positive things, and you guys helped me.

Just for the sake of it all, I’ll answer my own question as best I can. One thing I like about this game, really, is the community. People are always so eager to help. I got to enjoy the night playing around in game (finally some relaxation) and talking to people in map was fun. Folks were helpful and I came across no trolls. GW2 always had a decent community from what I remember. That is VERY important to me. The combat is snappy and I will admit, if you have a nice monitor and can turn the graphics up this game is insanely gorgeous.

Thanks for all being polite in this thread, folks. I really do appreciate that.

Thanks again for all the replies.

Yes. Just about everything with guild wars (minus the bugs that are being worked on) is good.

Unless you count the community and the forums. They suck. Seriously, this is the most hateful of the game community I’ve ever been a part of.

Piecekeeper.4361:

Yes. Just about everything with guild wars (minus the bugs that are being worked on) is good.

Unless you count the community and the forums. They suck. Seriously, this is the most hateful of the game community I’ve ever been a part of.

. . . I’ve seen worse. WAY worse.

BlackGhostz.2483:

In GW2 the instanced dungeons are pretty terrible and lack real rewards unless you essentially farm tokens.

The WoW community isn’t exactly happy with their dungeons either, talking about 5mans here. They aren’t rewarding and challenging. The “challenge” mode they added to dungeons is great for organized groups, but once you’ve done them once there is really no point repeating them.

In WoW you can essentially earn money by the means you choose to. If you want to farm crafting materials from enemies to sell you are not penalized by this. If you want to earn money by questing you can earn a lot of money on this alone. If you want to earn money by foraging that is also an great way. In GW2 the only way to farm. Yes, you can get 1 gold for a 10-30 minute dungeon but anything worth having costs 2000+ gold.

The thing is though, money is more or less “worthless” in WoW, it is so easy to earn you’ll never have to worry about becoming broke. Unless you are actively going for the most expensive mounts or BMAH cosmetic/vanity stuff, you’ll earn way more money than you can spend. Gold in GW2 still has value, which is a good thing.

High level gear in this game can really only be obtained by crafting and that means having massive amounts of gold, which involves massive amounts of farming. So pretty much only the people that play a lot of hours or spend a lot of real money can get legendary gear. In, wow it’s a lot more rewarding and you get to choose how you want to get your high level gear. There is raiding, PVP, crafting, etc.

Crafting in WoW is only a viable means of gearing up at the start of an expansion.

WoW showers you in gear, which you are expected to replace whenever a new arena season/raid tier/expansion hits. To me, the gearing up felt actually less rewarding, as I knew in a few months I’d be replacing it all anyways. Like gold, gear is so easy to come by it no longer even feels like a reward.

I crafted a legendary weapon in WoW, and it felt truly like an achievement. 3 months later I got quest rewards which were ten times better than said legendary weapon. It ended up gathering dust in the bank, and I wasn’t even able to transmute the skin onto another weapon.

anything good?

erm, err oh yes, it doesn’t cost me real life money to play.
L80 endgame – oh yes I can grind dungeons or run around collecting wood (ahem)
Levelling (now) nope nothing good at all (17 toons lets you know I liked levelling – not now!)