OK, first, I want to clarify that this is not intended as a “If you don’t like it, leave” kind of message.
What I’m seeing is a lot of players coming on here to express their frustration with GW2. That’s fair enough. What jumps out at me is people often claiming that they feel FORCED to play.
Please, please, don’t force yourself to play. What is it that you are aiming for that absolutely necessitates you turn this game on and force yourself through 3 or more hours of gameplay that you don’t enjoy? Honestly, the more you force yourself to do something you don’t want to do, the MORE you’ll hate it and the MORE you’ll feel frustrated and aggrieved.
I’m not saying “leave, get out, this game isn’t for you”. Clearly, you enjoyed it once. Once it WAS for you. Once, you couldn’t wait to turn on the computer and fire up the game, and it entertained you for hours. So obviously this game IS for you. Just … not right now.
So please, please, take a break. Put it down. Not forever, not even for a long time if you don’t want. Just stop forcing yourself to do this. We have to make ourselves do things we don’t want to every day – we go to work (some of us enjoy this, but some find it a bit of a bore, lol), we do chores/busywork etc. The LAST THING WE NEED is to feel obliged to play a GAME, which is supposed to be fun.
The beauty of the B2P model that GW2 have created is that the last thing you should feel is forced to play. You paid for the game – that’s it. There’s no contract that ties you in. You lose no money if you take a break. Yes, you miss some of the living story, but in the end, if you don’t enjoy it anyway, what’s the harm in missing one of several installations? Nothing about this game should make you feel you have to play the moment you aren’t having fun. And, when you’ve refreshed your love of the game (or not) you can pick it right back up and start where you left off. Level 80? Great! That will STILL be relevant. Had all ascended gear? Great! That will STILL be relevant.
By all means, keep posting on the forums, keep suggesting new ideas and leaving constructive criticism. Tell ANet why you were bored/frustrated etc. But please, DON’T play the game IF YOU DON’T WANT TO. This will not get you anywhere except more frustrated and angry. And at that point, EVERYTHING becomes annoying – even stuff you genuinely like about the game. Honestly, just everything – even looking at the starting screen will annoy you.
I think things start to turn sour for everyone the moment someone feels obliged to play a game. I have a great group of gaming friends I met on a forum like this (for a totally different game). And we play most weeks together, and that’s great. But we started co-op on a game I didn’t particularly like. I played for a while because, well, I wanted to stay in touch with my friends and the co-op made the game fun. But honestly, I didn’t enjoy it much. Then we started playing outside of co-op and getting to particular stages of the game solo so we could co-op specific areas. Then it all stopped being fun. I didn’t want to play the game. I took longer to do everything because it felt like work. I fell behind. I got frustrated. They got frustrated. The game got less and less fun until even what I had liked about it became irritating. And we stopped co-op. We still talked most days via our own private chat, but we didn’t co-op anymore. And in the end, I just said “I’m taking a break from this game”. So I did. They carried on playing and having fun, and I played some other stuff and found other games to co-op with them at other times and it was fun again. Now, I’ve since picked up that game once more and it’s fun again. And we’re co-opping a second playthrough and it’s fun. But the moment it isn’t, then we’re going to stop. Because it’s a game, and it’s FOR fun.
The MOMENT you’re not having fun, you should take a break. The last thing ANet want is for you to feel like you’re not enjoying yourself and that you’re only playing because someone is forcing you to. So, please, just do yourself the biggest favour you can, and take a break. Let them know why you became bored, but please, don’t play for a while and see how you feel.
If you miss the game, then maybe try it again and see if what you were feeling was genuine dislike or if it was just burnout (MMOs are pretty good at inducing burnout, I find). If you still don’t like it, then that’s the start of a constructive criticism conversation that we can ALL benefit from.