I’ll start by saying that I was extremely suspicious when I went to research GW2 before buying it. No (OK, VERY infrequently offered) trial and no tally of server populations (being told total accounts on a server is utterly pointless unless you’re told total ACTIVE accounts) really made me think twice about buying GW2. I probably wouldn’t have if it wasn’t on sale.
Now I see why. The game is designed to house a gigantic population. I’ve only made it to lvl 15, so I ain’t sure if it gets better or if it’s the server I picked, but PvE maps are very sporadically populated as is teh enormous WvW map. The megaserver system should eventually fix teh PvE issue (hopefully) but in my fair, honest opinion there’s WAY WAAAY too much running around in WvW. I bought GW2 specifically and only for PvP. Well I planned on doing 85% PvP and 15% PvE, and that’s only if the PvE was fun. I read about teh public quests and active events then thought the PvE in GW 2 was going to be something different and fun; pleasantly that is the case. I usually abhor PvE but GW 2 PvE is surprisingly entertaining and engaging, not the old kill 200 walking mushrooms to level up WoW BS.
However, the PvP side of GW 2 has been very disappointing so far. WvW could use some work, imo. As a lvl 15 (I prefer to lvl up on PvP) wandering around looking for other players to fight with I found myself running for 10-15 minutes then getting ambushed, assassinated, or owned in 1v1s constantly. When I do make it clear across teh map to an allied champion battles are very brief and unsatisfying. As is, WvW is all about making a player blob and rushing through everything. As a low lvl player everyone else is usually faster than you, too. That means there’s barely any fighting for you, really most everyone, to do and you have the constant chance to miss out on reward due simply to speed difference. There’s no prolonged epic battles, no long (or even normal length) skirmishes, it’s just one side steamrolling over the other. I was a great fan of Warhammer Online while it was available. WAR had great Realm VS Realm combat. It had the basic good stuff like objective points that start a countdown timer which ping contested on teh whole map when players try to cap them. WvW could benefit from the same points, but add a “no contest timer” in addition to the longer countdown that’ll cause the point to cap if no one tries to defend it but resets if anyone does so people dont have to ALT TAB or fall asleep when they cap those points. I know big battles are marked on the map, but when players near Keeps, Outposts, Towers, or whatever they’re all called, the map could display the amount of players or simply execute a color coded ping when a certain number of players are in teh area. translucent for 0-5, green for 5-10, yellow for 10-20, red for 20+. There could also be a lot of PvE side-objectives added geared specifically for low lvl poorly equipped players consisting of a group of 1-5 members. Taking over orc camps, or those frog people, or whatever, helping out allied NPCs fight evil NPCs, etc. BUT make it so it takes a little time to do and PING the OBJ contested on the map to invite PvP. I would also highly suggest open world PvP but that’d just be marauding high lvls owning everyone, unless they were severely handicapped (much more than is) for entering low lvl areas. Lower the level area higher the handicap. Overall GW 2 is an extremely promising game that could indeed be truly great with some more development and I am only slightly regretful for purchasing it.
Again, I am still a low lvl and if anyone would like to point something out or offer valid, logical argument they are welcome to.