Guild Wars 2

Before release and manifesto:

I truly believe that before Gw2 was released it showed a lot of promise and had a lot to live up to after Gw1. I still remember when I first logged into Guild Wars 1, the game was fun and I only could think of 2 negative sides of the game: not able to jump and not an open world.
Other than that the game was almost perfect and that’s why I got hyped for guild wars 2 when I first saw the manifesto and heard “guild wars 2 takes everything you love about guild wars 1 and puts it into a persistant world, it’s got more active combat a fully branching personalized story line a new event system to get people playing together, and still no monthly fees.”
This manifesto blew my mind and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on GW2 !

Release:
When Guild Wars 2 got released, not everything went as smooth as I expected, hours of not being able to log in, disconnects , bugs and what not..
To be honest I didn’t mind, I was so glad I could finally play the game (and I started out on my laptop with massive fps lagg). After that I bought a new PC, just to play this game in full glory.

A few months in:
a)Skills

After a month of playing GW2, I started to think about a few things. “Guild Wars 2 takes everything you love about Guild Wars 1”. The only thing I really loved about Guild Wars 1 was the massive amount of skills to your disposal and every day you had a chance to try out something new. I had lots of fun just trying out the weirdest builds ever.

b)pvp

Furthermore, I loved the GW1 pvp, it felt balanced and it gave me the feeling that only truly skilled players would be able to get to the top. With ‘skilled’ I mainly mean veteran players who knew what every skill did and in what way they should counter, etc.
First time I played the GW2 pvp I felt disappointed, I really didn’t enjoy the base capturing at all. For me PvP means kill or get killed. But if you are able to make troll builds with massive amounts of armor, health and healing and all you have to do is ignore every player and stand at a base to keep it then I don’t count that as pvp. Of course a lot of people won’t agree and will tell us that PvP has a lot more going on, but after all the hot joins and tournaments I’ve played I can’t agree with that.
Tournaments is another thing that got me disappointed, the score that is listed on the website is based because of wins / losses, this score is not telling me anything about my personal skill level, it is telling me don’t join pugs or you will never get to the top. It is a team score.

c) end game

End game can mean many things, for me end game means.. stuff to do before you get bored. Either it is raiding, dungeons, gathering achievements,…
So I started asking myself the question, what is the point of leveling in GW2 ? Levels don’t make you a whole lot stronger (not that I think that is bad) but what do levels mean in this game ?
There is nothing waiting for you at max level and of course people will say that gear progression is not end game in other games, but in my opinion with gear progression you have at least something to do, you have a goal. Once you hit 80 in GW2 all you can do is try your luck to get a precursor and build a legendary, it looks nice indeed but imo a lot of the store weapons looked better.
Guild missions: when this feature got announced I got happy. I thought, finally ! Something to do with our guild. Then I realized that the influence was only focused on big guilds. Why is the influence needed to unlock something not based on the guild member size ? Why should a guild with more people get more fun ? We’ve all paid the same amount of money for this game,.. which brings me to no monthly fees.

d) No monthly fees !

I was amazed when I heard that one, until I realized what it really meant.
No monthly fees is by no doubt great, but if you want to play this mmo like any other mmo then we all know that no monthly fees is nothing but a lie. In other games you might pay 10 euro every month but you get everything the game has to offer in game. No need to unlock more character slots, more bank space, bag space, pvp server time, etc.. If you want to play this game the same way you have played another mmo you will need to cough up a lot more money than a monthly fee !
I also read how a lot of people wanted to buy RNG chests just to support the game, but those people got slapped in the face for not getting what they wanted. Why should one person pay more for an item than someone else ?
In other Mmorpg’s you have a monthly fee but you get also a lot in return, more character slots, a lot more bank and bag space , 24/7 Support !! , deleted an item/character by accident ? No problem it gets restored, bought the wrong item again no problem it gets restored. Heck, are you not happy about something, they will listen.

c) Updates

I think it’s very positive that arena net wants to update every two weeks. But all in all, what do these updates mean ? Living story is just the same as adding a few new quests (and since you don’t have quests in this game but hearts it also means you have a lot less to do than in another traditional mmo). New store items every two weeks, you don’t pay monthly indeed but every time you open up your trading post you get advertisement thrown at you trying to hypnotize you in buying it. (pvp server, pvp server time, gathering tools with no charges, bag slots, character slots, etc..)
Then people will react, nobody tells you that you need to buy it, true !
But in other mmos I do get a lot more for a lot less. Then you also have the feature to trade gold into gems all fine and cool but wonder why so many people complain about not getting any loot or gold ? It’s all due to this feature. Plus in GW2 there is only 1 thing you can do to get some “decent” amount of gold and that is farming COF P1 over and over and over again. I swung a sword, hey I swung it again. That’s great .. but I still didn’t get my loot.
_"This game is not about loot" , “Lol, you play for loot?”. LOOT is a BIG part of MMOS that’s what makes it fun for me ! If I don’t want to be rewarded for playing I would play a first person shooter something else.
But if it’s a game that can give you loot but just does not want to give it to you and create the illusion that you are getting rewarded then the fun is over.

d) Conclusion/Disclaimer

This review is written by my *PERSONAL opinion, I am trying to give CONSTRUCTIVE feedback, you do not have to agree, I RESPECT your opinion as well ! If you love this game than that’s great ! Guild Wars 2 has a lot of positive sides as well ! But giving feedback about positive things will not encourage anyone for change. I do not hate this game, but I also don’t see it as the next gen mmo.
I recently moved back to my old mmo which I still love, and love to pay for.
This review is mainly aimed to the developers of Guild wars 2 in the hopes they appreciate this feedback. If not then feel free to delete this post.
If you notice any grammar and/or spelling mistakes then you are free to see this review as your English grammar/spelling assignment and correct them. If you’re still bored after that you can always give a comment to reflect your personal opinion and tell me how wrong I am, or you can post something off topic with a fun approach which is also known as trolling. You only live once, the world is yours, do what you want and have fun ! ; )

Kind Regards,

Stay cool peeps <3

Hold on, I can tell this will be a long one. Let me go get a cup of coffee, and I’ll BRB to read and edit this post

Edit: Before I forget, let me write a quick few reactions:

-They heard the cries of the people that wanted more gear progression so they give you ascended gear. I think it is a kitten -poor gear progression system, but its there for you even if you dont want to do fractals and simply want BiS stats.
-You might pay 10 euro(or 15 dollars I guess?) for a monthly sub in other MMOs and get everything. But you also get things you dont need. If you do not hoard items, you might not need all the bag and bank space that is given to you. Yet, you are paying for it. If you only play one or two characters, you might not need the 10 that WoW gives you. The point is: You pay for things YOU want. Convenience items that you want to pay for. Not a blanket fee that covers everything. And if one month in GW2, you decide you have everything you need, you pay nothing. Whereas in WoW or another game, if you decide you have everything you need, your account is still siphoned of that 10 euro.
-Living story isnt giving you “quests” to do. Achievements to unlock for minis, titles, and AP. While I think the living story system is garbage, its not necessarily quests.
-I have never been hypnotized or felt forced to buy anything off the TP. I do because I want to.
-Pure speculation on gems to gold being the reason for your supposed belief that there is no loot in the game. I just think that arenanet thought we would love to have loads of blues and greens given to us and we would feel “rewarded”
-Loot is a big part of MMOs but its sounding like loot and progression are your only means of enjoyment. You came from GW1, but you sound like you came from WoW Was GW1 a loot heavy game?

I agree, guild wars does a lot wrong, but it does a lot correctly. I dont agree with their living story direction and some decisions arenanet makes, and you can see that through my posts… but I do think it is better than a lot of the alternatives if you are looking for a fantasy MMO.

Seems like most of the things you see as a negative, I see as a positive…and that’s okay. The only thing I disagree with is that you have to spend real money to play this game. For one thing people can farm gold and spend no money but more importantly there’s nothing in the cash shop I really need. Even if I did want to buy some characters slot, back or bank space…a pay to play MMO would cost me $120 a year….and most of them still have cash shops.

As for the rest of your review, it does sound like this isn’t the right game for you. Because the stuff you don’t like is the very stuff I’ve been waiting for.

Prior to this, I’d yet to find an MMO I could stomach for more than a few months.

For once Id have to agree with Vayne on all points.

The only thing that I’ve spent any considerable amount of real money on, has been bank space and transfers. I bought three or four extra bank tabs, and have transferred two or three times.

Totally agree. GW2 manifesto promised they will take everything, which is ofc cannot be true. But they too konly 4 things: name of the game, skill names, base lore (names, places) and the players. – almost everyx single GW1 Pvp player left after 2 weeks.

They told us they develop Pvp from the beginning – if 3 maps and 1 gamemode took 4-5 years, there’s no hope.

They told they need to make GW2 because GW1 engine if overdue and limited. Yet, if you ask them where’s the observer mode for top rated tournaments, they will tell that’s not possible due to engine limitations. While GW1 had it.

Gandarel.5091:

Totally agree. GW2 manifesto promised they will take everything, which is ofc cannot be true. But they too konly 4 things: name of the game, skill names, base lore (names, places) and the players. – almost everyx single GW1 Pvp player left after 2 weeks.

They told us they develop Pvp from the beginning – if 3 maps and 1 gamemode took 4-5 years, there’s no hope.

They told they need to make GW2 because GW1 engine if overdue and limited. Yet, if you ask them where’s the observer mode for top rated tournaments, they will tell that’s not possible due to engine limitations. While GW1 had it.

First of all not every Guild Wars 1 PvPer has left….but I agree many have. I’m not particularly surprised by this, since the game has a PvE focus, much like Guild Wars 1 did in the end.

But there are many things this game has that Guild Wars 1 also had…things you’re ignoring.

The way loot drops work in this game is the same as Guild Wars 1 and it’s completely different from the way most MMOs work. The idea that Guild Wars 1 had no taunt mechanic…most MMOs do. The fact that protection was more important than healing in Guild Wars 1. That’s not true for most games, but it’s true here. In Guild Wars 1 every single profession had a self-heal and that’s certainly an odd thing in many games. Even the idea that content isn’t gated by gear is something from Guild Wars 1. And Guild Wars 1 had dungeons that had story mode and explorable mode (such as Bloodstone Caves and Oola’s Lab). In other words, the first time you enter the dungeon is during the story and then you can return to see what happened after.

You even have a character like Traherne, who’s not all that far off Komir. lol

There’s plenty of stuff from Guild Wars 1 here…but unfortunately most of that doesn’t affect SPvP much.

It took a while for me to adapt to Guild Wars 2. I have more fun now than i had at release and that is how it’s supposed to be. With other mmorpgs i have always had a blast at start and the further i got into the game it became less fun or boring.

Vayne.8563:

The fact that protection was more important than healing in Guild Wars 1. That’s not true for most games, but it’s true here.

I have no idea what you’re talking about. Protection prayers was an attribute line with 38 skills from a super important profession that was deleted. Now we have a single “protection” boon which, while powerful, is not “more important” than healing in gw2.

Vayne.8563:

In Guild Wars 1 every single profession had a self-heal and that’s certainly an odd thing in many games. Even the idea that content isn’t gated by gear is something from Guild Wars 1. And Guild Wars 1 had dungeons that had story mode and explorable mode (such as Bloodstone Caves and Oola’s Lab). In other words, the first time you enter the dungeon is during the story and then you can return to see what happened after.

You’re running out of ideas mate.

If we made a comparison of all the defining features of gw1 vs gw2 how many do you suppose gw2 adopted? Almost none.

milo.6942:

Vayne.8563:

The fact that protection was more important than healing in Guild Wars 1. That’s not true for most games, but it’s true here.

I have no idea what you’re talking about. Protection prayers was an attribute line with 38 skills from a super important profession that was deleted. Now we have a single “protection” boon which, while powerful, is not “more important” than healing in gw2.

Vayne.8563:

In Guild Wars 1 every single profession had a self-heal and that’s certainly an odd thing in many games. Even the idea that content isn’t gated by gear is something from Guild Wars 1. And Guild Wars 1 had dungeons that had story mode and explorable mode (such as Bloodstone Caves and Oola’s Lab). In other words, the first time you enter the dungeon is during the story and then you can return to see what happened after.

You’re running out of ideas mate.

If we made a comparison of all the defining features of gw1 vs gw2 how many do you suppose gw2 adopted? Almost none.

Protection meaning damage mitigation as opposed to healing. It’s far more important than this game than most games.

And I’m not “running out of ideas”. You don’t like the game that’s fine…but you can’t tell others what to feel any more than I can.

I play this game very much like I played Guild Wars 1…but do you know why this game is the TRUE spiritual successor to Guild Wars 1?

Because Guild Wars 1 didn’t do what everyone else was doing…it went it’s own way and Anet is doing the exact same thing with Guild Wars 2.

So many WoW people tried Guild Wars 1 and didn’t like it, because it wasn’t WoW. So many Guild Wars 1 players try Guild Wars 2 and don’t like it because it’s not Guild Wars 1.

Anet innovated…which is what they do. That’s what I’d expect from them. Clearly you expected Guild Wars 1.5.

Vayne.8563:

milo.6942:

Vayne.8563:

The fact that protection was more important than healing in Guild Wars 1. That’s not true for most games, but it’s true here.

I have no idea what you’re talking about. Protection prayers was an attribute line with 38 skills from a super important profession that was deleted. Now we have a single “protection” boon which, while powerful, is not “more important” than healing in gw2.

Vayne.8563:

In Guild Wars 1 every single profession had a self-heal and that’s certainly an odd thing in many games. Even the idea that content isn’t gated by gear is something from Guild Wars 1. And Guild Wars 1 had dungeons that had story mode and explorable mode (such as Bloodstone Caves and Oola’s Lab). In other words, the first time you enter the dungeon is during the story and then you can return to see what happened after.

You’re running out of ideas mate.

If we made a comparison of all the defining features of gw1 vs gw2 how many do you suppose gw2 adopted? Almost none.

Protection meaning damage mitigation as opposed to healing. It’s far more important than this game than most games.

And I’m not “running out of ideas”. You don’t like the game that’s fine…but you can’t tell others what to feel any more than I can.

I play this game very much like I played Guild Wars 1…but do you know why this game is the TRUE spiritual successor to Guild Wars 1?

Because Guild Wars 1 didn’t do what everyone else was doing…it went it’s own way and Anet is doing the exact same thing with Guild Wars 2.

So many WoW people tried Guild Wars 1 and didn’t like it, because it wasn’t WoW. So many Guild Wars 1 players try Guild Wars 2 and don’t like it because it’s not Guild Wars 1.

Anet innovated…which is what they do. That’s what I’d expect from them. Clearly you expected Guild Wars 1.5.

We were discussing gw1 vs gw2. If you want to discuss gw2 vs other mmos, you should be clear about it. Don’t switch between these 2 frames of reference like they were the same thing to support your arguments.
Protection was an integral part of gw1 (especially pvp) combat. Here it has been reduced to a boon that some classes can have access to.
For the overwhelming majority of gw1 players I’ve talked to, gw2 is not a “guild wars” game. It doesn’t feel anything like what we expected. Everyone’s obviously entitled to their own opinions, but I think even objectively comparing gw1 vs gw2 vs rest of mmo genre, we can conclude that gw2 is closer to other mmos than it is to its predecessor. If this is a positive or negative thing is up to each player.

I really dont want to judge, You do seem to have some lets say mistakes in what you say. Perhaps its just that you chose your words poorly but you for example you claim what you’re writing is a review. A review implies an objective holistic view of whatever you’re reviewing and that means both the good and the bad. Yet you then state " Guild Wars 2 has a lot of positive sides as well ! But giving feedback about positive things will not encourage anyone for change." Thats not a review that makes it more like personal suggestions on how to improve the game. Just pointing that out for the future.

now based on your feedback…
skills, this is a tricky one.. gw1 offered a ton of options at build stage prior to actually dropping into combat. Gw2 offers a ton of options while in combat. Two differnent approaches, personally I like what Gw2 did more.

PvP I have nearly no experiance in either game, mostly a PvE player but I am a bit worried that you’re not be honest here. You said that in Gw1 PvP you felt that what made it good is that it gave an edge to veteran players who knew what they’re doing… yet you felt in a position to judge Gw2 PvP the first time you played it. You said PvP for you is kill or get killed and that holding a capture point isnt pvp even though what you’re doing is still kill or get killed. Also why do you think that tournament which are a team activity should be rated on the individuals rather then the teams?

end game:
You said you loved everything in gw1 except that you cannot jump and no open world. What was the end game in gw1? basically get better cosmetic rewards for your char. The same is true in gw2. Cosmetic armor and weapons + new content every 2 weeks is the end game is a goal just as much as better gear is. If its not for you fair enough.

There actually is a guild mission that rewards a ton of influence so that small guilds can do guild missions as well:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Bounty_Training

Monthly fees:
what you’re saying isnt true.
Wow has a character limit, you need to pay ingame gold to expand the inventory and the bank as well and it also has a monthly fee.

Rift had the same when it charged a monthly fee as well.

Gw2 is the same. You can use in game gold to expand inventory and bank or you can pay money if you want a more convenient option.

You dont need to buy pvp server time to engage in pvp. thats only true if you want to run a pvp game with custom rules. Other MMOs just dont have this feature as far as I know so you cant compare.

Updates

I disagree here. the reason why you get tons of gold is to control inflation. In most MMOs that have an inflation problem a new player doesnt need to look at the trading post for months because until they get to end game and horded gold for a few months they’ll not be able to afford anything. It currently takes 30g to buy 10 euros worth of gems. I think on average people can easily earn 2g in a day (if you do CoF p1 as you suggest, people claim to be able to earn 8g per hour there) but even with a conservative 2g per day it takes a week and a 1/2 to earn enough for 10 euros worth of gems. That seems extremely reasonable to me.

milo.6942:

Vayne.8563:

milo.6942:

Vayne.8563:

The fact that protection was more important than healing in Guild Wars 1. That’s not true for most games, but it’s true here.

I have no idea what you’re talking about. Protection prayers was an attribute line with 38 skills from a super important profession that was deleted. Now we have a single “protection” boon which, while powerful, is not “more important” than healing in gw2.

Vayne.8563:

In Guild Wars 1 every single profession had a self-heal and that’s certainly an odd thing in many games. Even the idea that content isn’t gated by gear is something from Guild Wars 1. And Guild Wars 1 had dungeons that had story mode and explorable mode (such as Bloodstone Caves and Oola’s Lab). In other words, the first time you enter the dungeon is during the story and then you can return to see what happened after.

You’re running out of ideas mate.

If we made a comparison of all the defining features of gw1 vs gw2 how many do you suppose gw2 adopted? Almost none.

Protection meaning damage mitigation as opposed to healing. It’s far more important than this game than most games.

And I’m not “running out of ideas”. You don’t like the game that’s fine…but you can’t tell others what to feel any more than I can.

I play this game very much like I played Guild Wars 1…but do you know why this game is the TRUE spiritual successor to Guild Wars 1?

Because Guild Wars 1 didn’t do what everyone else was doing…it went it’s own way and Anet is doing the exact same thing with Guild Wars 2.

So many WoW people tried Guild Wars 1 and didn’t like it, because it wasn’t WoW. So many Guild Wars 1 players try Guild Wars 2 and don’t like it because it’s not Guild Wars 1.

Anet innovated…which is what they do. That’s what I’d expect from them. Clearly you expected Guild Wars 1.5.

We were discussing gw1 vs gw2. If you want to discuss gw2 vs other mmos, you should be clear about it. Don’t switch between these 2 frames of reference like they were the same thing to support your arguments.
Protection was an integral part of gw1 (especially pvp) combat. Here it has been reduced to a boon that some classes can have access to.
For the overwhelming majority of gw1 players I’ve talked to, gw2 is not a “guild wars” game. It doesn’t feel anything like what we expected. Everyone’s obviously entitled to their own opinions, but I think even objectively comparing gw1 vs gw2 vs rest of mmo genre, we can conclude that gw2 is closer to other mmos than it is to its predecessor. If this is a positive or negative thing is up to each player.

I used the word protection, because I type fast…and what I meant was damage mitigation. There are many ways to mitigate damage in Guild Wars 2, not the least of which is the dodge roll. So yeah, change protection to damage mitigation and my sentence was correct. Sorry for using the wrong word.

The overwhelming majority of Guild Wars players don’t talk to you or me. They just play the game or don’t. I see a whole lot of people with GWAMM titles running around. I can only assume they played Guild Wars 1 for a while.