GW2 missed the mark for me, and here’s why. GW2 is the perfect game for the kind of player who likes to jump in to the game and just mess around. You can do anything at any level, you can wander about aimlessly constantly getting yourself into all sort of shenanigans, there is so much you can explore and participate in and most importantly, there is nothing you need to do. Generally, there is no real requirement that you need in order to participate in all the content.
But that system doesn’t work for me.
Leveling is easy so you can engage in all the end game content, but it’s also almost irrelevant. You can get better, but never OP enough that there is content that doesn’t apply to you. Getting gear is easy enough but also comes close to irrelevancy. It’s easy because crafted gear is on par with karma and dungeon gear. (True enough-i bought mine while they are still cheap, but the prices of 80 exotics are rising and will probably continue to rise as end game players continue to generate more money).
Let’s Compare to RoM (Runes of Magic) as it’s the only other MMO i played seriously and recently.
In RoM, leveling was hard. After i finished all the main quests, it took me over a month without resets to reach the level cap on ONE of my classes, in it’s dual class system. There was a great necessity to keep coming back in order to reach max level. And most importantly, when i reached max level, it was a huge accomplishment.
In RoM, getting the best gear wasn’t just hard, it was CRAZY hard. I had to gather mats for weeks till i could sell the mats to buy gear that could help me keep aggro in DoD (first dungeon that gave mentos ie. the dungeon tokens). Then, I had to farm DoD for weeks till i could get the mentos to buy stats to sell. (it had a complex system where you had to get 6 separate stats and then put them onto a piece of gear) Then, once i had enough money to get the stats/gear to run the end game dungeon, i finally started raking it in. THE POINT IS, there was a real necessity for me to keep coming back to make the enormous amount of money needed to run high end stuff.
In GW2 there are TWO main issues that I have (which are also real advantages to other people). A- Leveling is too fast. and B-Craftable gear is on par with Karma and Dungeon Gear.
I’m already max level. And There is no need for me to run dungeons 50 times to get the same gear which I bought on the AH that’s just as good. There is no need to farm events, because there’s nothing i need that costs Karma, and karma items cant be sold for gold. (seriously, i have like 100k karma and no idea what to spend it on) Which is a real shame, because call me crazy but i LOVE the karma system, and the dungeon system too. I like the idea of working hard and for a long time to get the best stuff, and this game comes so close to doing it perfectly. The only problem is, why should i do that? i already have gear thats just as good. If not better, since i can customize craftable gear with my own runes.
If craftable gear isn’t good, then crafting becomes obsolete. Except that in GW2 i dont think it would. If Craftable gear was only slightly worse then karma/dungeon gear. it would be necessary to buy the craftable gear in order to be good enough to run those events/dungeons.
I log into the game now, and on one hand there is so much i Can do, and on the other hand, there is nothing i Need to do. For the type of player who likes to just hang out and explore this massive world and all its fun little quirks and do all the accomplishments, and make tons of alts and complete everything, and collect all the cool looking skins, and buy ALL the dyes, then this Game is PERFECT for you. it does it the best out of any game i have ever seen, and this is just its first month, it will continue to improve as time goes on. But for me, call me old fashioned, but when i play a game i like to “win.” i know that makes me sound like a total d-bag, and i accept that, but the feeling of accomplisment in this game is lacking for me.
This post is getting too long. IN CONCLUSION, i still LOVE this game but I don’t think ill be playing as often as i was. I’ll definitely be logging in a lot because i love my guildies-KABAL-Sorrow’s Furnace (seed), and the dungeons and world stuff-jumping puzzles, exploring,achievements, world events, is very FUN. But theres little to compel me to come back every day, and to play till all hours of the night anymore.