Guild Wars 2

PLEASE NOTE: This is not a thread to discuss problems with GW2. I am not against such discussion, and I myself participate in it, but there are other threads for that sort of thing (so many of them…).

I have recently been thinking about how the whole reason I started posting in the forums was because I was annoyed about something in the game and wanted to complain. Now, mind you, I am not retracting any previously made points I’ve made, because nothing is perfect and I think they are valid complaints, but it did get me thinking about how I should acknowledge all the things about this game that I love, since there are so many more of those than there are things I dislike.

So this is a thread to post the things about GW2 that you find awesome, whatever that means for you. Developers: I’d love to hear from you as well, not just with what you find fun from a player’s perspective, but also what you enjoyed about the design process.

I’ll start with a few of my favorites:

• Leveling: It takes less time than other MMOs while still taking long enough for it to feel like an accomplishment to max out a character’s level. Quests—renown hearts, personal story quests and dynamic events alike (I consider all three to be different types of “quests”)—are fun and very rarely tedious.
• Group play: Little things like boon skills automatically affecting nearby players—even if they’re not in your party, static resource nodes that can be mined by every player once, generous and equal exp. distribution to all players who sufficiently damaged an enemy, and a whole host of other features that make spontaneous cooperation possible, benificial and frequent, are fantastic. I still, to this day, remember the first time I participated in a dynamic event and found several other players just naturally gravitating to the area as we—complete strangers—almost effortlessly collaborated for mutual gain; I was amazed.
• Transmutation: Yes, the fact that it is, and still will be after the april 15 update, pay-to-change rather than pay-to-unlock, is annoying, and I still hope ANet hears the player base and changes that (please do not start an arguement about that here—there are other threads for that). HOWEVER, the fact that it exists at all is honestly fantastic. Other MMOs would have you wearing the armor with your preferred stats and just having to deal with the appearance, whether you liked it or not. Such MMOs would also have you looking identical to anyone else who preferred the same stat combo you did. Even with it’s flaws, the existence of a transmutation system allows you to have both the stats you need for your build and the look you prefer for your character, and that is awesome.

There is a lot more I could say, but then there would be little left to talk about. Tell me what you love about the game! Let ANet know that, while nothing is perfect and we’d appreciate their continued improvement upon the game based on player feedback, they’ve made a pretty awesome and groundbreaking game here! I daresay they deserve some recognition for that.

tl;dr: This is a thread for posting reasons why you love GW2/things that make it awesome. Please do not use this thread for complaints about the game; there are other threads for that.

The world is awesome to explore. if you haven’t seen it – do hidden garden puzzle.

Three words: free to play.

That’s about it. Ive tried several other ftp mmos, but you are lvl capped, or have to pay to unlock content. Other than the first initial purchase, you can access all content without ever paying a dime. That and the art work. Simply breath taking.

pdavis.8031:

Three words: free to play.

That’s about it. Ive tried several other ftp mmos, but you are lvl capped, or have to pay to unlock content. Other than the first initial purchase, you can access all content without ever paying a dime. That and the art work. Simply breath taking.

Can’t believe I left that out! This is, indeed, the main reason I’ve stuck with this game. Monthy fees suck, and the fact that GW2 delivers such fantastic content without one is indeed amazing.

1) As OP, leveling is one of the great pleasure. I got 8 lv80 and 2 extra slots. Especially the down scaling makes up a very good exp no matter solo roaming or playing with friends. I no longer need to left a toon lv behind so i can enjoy playing with low lv real live friends.

2) Removal of trinity, this is a few MMO that not rely on some specific role to play harder contents, i know berserker is the pve meta but i don’t feel forced to use berserker gear here and there. I can build every character to what i want to play.

sPvP – the whole concept of trying builds, and everyone entering on a level playing field is pretty awesome. Actually, the various ways to play in general is also great. Activities, WvW, PvE, and sPvP are unique and allow me to enjoy GW2 no matter what mood I am in.

Crossaber.8934:

1) As OP, leveling is one of the great pleasure. I got 8 lv80 and 2 extra slots. Especially the down scaling makes up a very good exp no matter solo roaming or playing with friends. I no longer need to left a toon lv behind so i can enjoy playing with low lv real live friends.

2) Removal of trinity, this is a few MMO that not rely on some specific role to play harder contents, i know berserker is the pve meta but i don’t feel forced to use berserker gear here and there. I can build every character to what i want to play.

I think I belong to the pool of people who prefers the trinity system. Having specified roles in say a dungeon gives a lot more purpose to each player playing a specific class rather than the usual mentality of “ZERG IT DOWN” or “NO ZERKER GTFO” that we see in gw2. That being said, things that I find awesome about GW2:
1)Loot system – Loots for everybody ! Nuff said
2)Group play- one of my favourite things. especially running small groups in WvW
3)Active Devs/CM’s in the forums – I think the devs are more actively involved in the forums than any other MMOs
4)Community – I’ve played tons of MMO’s. GW2’s community has to be the best out of all of them. Sure they ’ll be a few bad apples but overall the best
5)Content – They may not get much gratitude for it but they always deliver new content throughout the year even on a F2P game. So theres always something to look forward to.

You can help people. I just res’d a total stranger who got smacked down by some jungle trolls. That’s my absolute favorite aspect of this game. In the open world, you don’t compete with everyone else. If you want to compete, there are places like WvW and PvP. It’s beautiful everywhere you go. WvW is a blast. No sub fee. My guild is awesome. Developers actually listen… at least sometimes.

The developers.

The developers of GWII are always so calm and down to earth. Everything at ArenaNet seems to be so casual and relaxed.

This may just be me, but it’s a dealbreaker to me. If I don’t like the devs, then I won’t play the game.

I always get such an arrogant vibe from the developers of ESO and other games. Such a turnoff.

I can have a job, go to school, and play guild wars 2 all on the same day… I don’t need to play at least 6 hours a day in gw2 to stay well geared.

It is awesome because when I feel like my head will explode, I log on to the game to go and stare at its emptiness

Azure Moonfire.7493:

pdavis.8031:

Three words: free to play.

That’s about it. Ive tried several other ftp mmos, but you are lvl capped, or have to pay to unlock content. Other than the first initial purchase, you can access all content without ever paying a dime. That and the art work. Simply breath taking.

Can’t believe I left that out! This is, indeed, the main reason I’ve stuck with this game. Monthy fees suck, and the fact that GW2 delivers such fantastic content without one is indeed amazing.

+100…..and all your other reasons, too!

One of the things I love is the (usually) fast pace of content release. It’s great to have something new on offer to do every couple of weeks. No waiting months and months for some new content. I think the anticipation is almost as good as the release. =)

I also am most appreciative of the dye system. I can change my look on a whim at any time.

Hey, Devs! Thanks for all your hard work! =)

That I had to make choices in the personal story. Too bad this is totally gone with the LS.

My main reasons to love GW2:

The world is absolutely beautiful. Also my biggest gripe, because after leveling there is little reason to revisit the areas.

Visual character customization. Not just when creating the character, but also after it via dyes and armor choices. Rarely will I meet an exact copy of myself out there, which cannot be said for many other MMOs.

No sub. This is actually a funny point, since by my calculations I’ve paid more to play GW2 via gem purchases than I would have for a sub game in the same time of gameplay. Even then, it just feels so liberating that I can spend as much as I want on one month and then nothing on the next, should I choose so. I also choose what I spend my money on, instead of just handing it over and hoping the devs would give me the content I want. And the best part is, I can take a break and come back without spending a dime or waiting for “come back for free” promotions.

I know one of these days I’ll be getting fed up with GW2 again, but after a few months break I’ll probably be back again. I don’t see any games in the horizon that could challenge that, except maybe EQN but that one is years away I think.

Abusive.1849:

Crossaber.8934:

1) As OP, leveling is one of the great pleasure. I got 8 lv80 and 2 extra slots. Especially the down scaling makes up a very good exp no matter solo roaming or playing with friends. I no longer need to left a toon lv behind so i can enjoy playing with low lv real live friends.

2) Removal of trinity, this is a few MMO that not rely on some specific role to play harder contents, i know berserker is the pve meta but i don’t feel forced to use berserker gear here and there. I can build every character to what i want to play.

I think I belong to the pool of people who prefers the trinity system. Having specified roles in say a dungeon gives a lot more purpose to each player playing a specific class rather than the usual mentality of “ZERG IT DOWN” or “NO ZERKER GTFO” that we see in gw2. That being said, things that I find awesome about GW2:
1)Loot system – Loots for everybody ! Nuff said
2)Group play- one of my favourite things. especially running small groups in WvW
3)Active Devs/CM’s in the forums – I think the devs are more actively involved in the forums than any other MMOs
4)Community – I’ve played tons of MMO’s. GW2’s community has to be the best out of all of them. Sure they ’ll be a few bad apples but overall the best
5)Content – They may not get much gratitude for it but they always deliver new content throughout the year even on a F2P game. So theres always something to look forward to.

forgot to add these

6)Gorgeous worlds / art – to the whole art team, you’re doing a superb job!
7)Weekly Dev Discussions – http://www.youtube.com/user/arenanetofficial/videos
8)Outstanding support – I was away from the game for a whole year and forgot the password to my account. They responded and restored my account in 15 minutes

What more can I say. The game isnt perfect but you gotta love the commitment of this GW team.

Why I like GW2:
- First of all, AreaNet Devs are awesome. Good presence, shows they are only human, kind and funny.
- World of Guild Wars, even though some people think GW2 story fails I think it is still good and a part of the epic Guild Wars story and I just wanna see more of it.
- The Living World concept, I just love how the story continues and doesn’t freeze in time like in all other game. I feel like I am a part of this world and as long as I play I see the world evolve.
- Crafting nodes for everyone, I just hate it in other games when someone is just a second faster than me and harvests my recourses :P
- Combat, I can’t expess how supriced I was over this wonderfull combat in this game. It is alive and aguile, it is never stale.
- None Holy Trinity, there are some flaws to this I agree to not having it but I realy hate The trinity system so with a year or two with more polishing to it I think Anet has it down perfectly.
- Not always but usually updates every two weeks is so awesome that you never have time to get tired of the game (Sadly though these weeks without an update has led to less online time for me).

There is more, but these where from the top of my head.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

That I had to make choices in the personal story. Too bad this is totally gone with the LS.

I think it is hard to make possible but hopefully in the future, this is something I would like

+1 to everyone! I agree with all of the above.
GW2 is beautiful, fun, exciting, and full of adventures.
Amazing places to explore: I’m still finding things I haven’t seen before.
People help each other.
No competition for resource nodes.
Everyone gets loots if they participate.
Lots of added content without having to pay for it.

I want to give them MORE of my money!

The music, the first two weeks I played this game and Tybalt.

The rest of it is overhyped.

Wall of text incoming: Apologies for my over-verbose-ness.

Thank you all for the comments! Many of you are reminding me of reasons I love the game that I had forgotten about, or demonstrating entirely new ones to me.

Another thing I haven’t mentioned is the class system. As a couple people have already brought up, I personally am glad that there is no trinity, because it makes everyone more versatile without totally sacrificing a given profession’s uniqueness. I’ve noticed when running dungeons that virtually any combination of professions can get it done (even five of the same profession, which is kind of hilarious), but the fun part is that each different combination requires a different strategy, because, again, professions are unique despite the lack of a “trinity.” The differentiation of classes keeps it fun and varied, while the removal of a need for extremely rigid roles mages LFG loads easier, and makes it so you and your friends don’t have to pick classes specifically to fit the trinity roles; you can just pick the ones that appeal to you most and it will work out—you will develop a unique strategy with your friends if you play often enough with them, in my experience.

The other thing is that a sort of quasi holy trinity does happen often, it’s just that many professions can fit more than one role depending on what’s needed. Guardians are very good a being tanks, but can also be supplementary healers. Elementalists with staff+water attunement are very good at party healing but can also switch to fire for heavy DPS, air for control or earth for DOT. Rangers with a bear pet can use their pet to tank, but the ranger him/herself is mostly DPS, and everyone is a secondary healer for themselves because of personal heal spells, just to give a few examples of what I mean.

And that’s only scratching the surface. The different roles each profession can fill and the way they fill them can be exciting to discover. I really enjoy running a dungeon with a mix of professions I haven’t done it with before and working out a strategy that makes it work. The fact that roles are dynamic, rather than static (in a trinity system, you’d have one defined role to play and that’s it, but in GW2 your role is flexible and can change) adds a very strategic challenge to GW2 that isn’t present in most MMOs.

Now, I realize that I stated very clearly that this wasn’t a thread to start arguments, so I do apologize if this seems antagonistic to those who like the trinity system. Bear in mind that I have nothing against you if you have fun in that system, and there are plenty of games (WoW, for instance) that you can enjoy the trinity system in, and you should do whatever is fun for you (video games are about having fun, after all). Personally, I find it like a breath of fresh air that there is no trinity in GW2.

Although most of these things have already been mentioned I will give my reasons for why GW2 is awesome:
1. no subscription fee
2. no competition for resource nodes or loot – which promotes cooperation with other players so the whole experience is very friendly
3. beautiful world and great music -exploring is fun and rewarding
4. experience is gained from just about every activity so there is more choice about how to play
5. active combat
6. skills tied to weapons used and a limited number of utility skills so choices must be made
7. limited number of traits chosen from a larger amount so there is build diversity
8. great choice in customization of a hero from race, profession, story elements, traits, weapons, skills, armor and looks.
9. useful wiki and forum
10. jumping puzzles, diving goggles and interesting little nooks to discover and explore
11. different games within a game – pve, wvw, pvp, dungeons, fractals, living story, mini games like winter’s day bell choir, etc

Sylvari British accents.

They’re awesome!

No need to compete for loot/resources.

^ how this feature isn’t standard in the latest MMOs is absurd (yes, I’m looking at you ESO)

1. WvW (epic large scale fights)
2. Nice music
3. Beautiful environment
4. Relaxing to play
5. World events
6. Unique questing system

Lankybrit.4598:

Sylvari British accents.

They’re awesome!

I know we aren’t supposed to complain in this thread, but every time Trahearne pronounces “Claw Island” as “Clowr Island” I have a little eye-twitch. Other than that, I like the accents, even if they don’t make sense ^^;.

More on topic: I love the depth of lore in Guild Wars. A good story and good characters are some of my favorite things.

Vystirch.3418:

I can have a job, go to school, and play guild wars 2 all on the same day… I don’t need to play at least 6 hours a day in gw2 to stay well geared.

Oh gosh, so much this!

I work, have a family, and pets….and a social life I can’t seem to get rid of, even though I don’t want it. Anyway, I’m very happy that after 10+ hours of work, I don’t have to devote 4, 6, or even 8 more hours of my day to GW2 to ‘keep up.’ I can log on for an hour or two, have fun however I want, and not feel like I’m somehow being ‘left behind.’ It’s a great way to destress.

I like wvw and the combat system

Hmm, why I like gw2?
-Buy once payment model
-No forced pvp
-Very interesting lore (not to be confused with story…story is beyond crap imo)
-One of the first mmorpgs to risk deviating from the eq pve formula
-Norn
-Open world concept is superior to every previous mmorpg’s
-Norn
-Jumping puzzles (I can’t do them and generally stay away but I appreciate that they are there in the game immensely)
-Norn
-Pretty good action/tab target hybrid combat system
-Music for Norn opening cinematic
-Norn

Those are the things that stand out in a good way in my mind.

Imbune.5497:

-Jumping puzzles (I can’t do them and generally stay away but I appreciate that they are there in the game immensely)
-Norn

You should never mention “Norn” and “jumping puzzles” in one and the same post…

I love the idea of the soft trinity system. Note I said idea. If they ever figure it out it will be great.

I am free to do whatever I want. I’m not penalized for wanting to play any certain way.
No matter what I do, I’m gaining experience and levels for it.
If I want to run around gathering and killing mobs along the way, I can.
If I want to do events solo or with other players, I can.
If I want to run dungeons, I can.
If I want to run from place to place, discovering new things and map completion points, I can.
If I want to do PvP or WvW, I can.
No restrictions, no penalties.
I love it!

Edit: Oh, and I’m gonna catch some flak for this, but… the UI.
It’s my favorite standard game UI of any MMO I’ve ever played.
I have one very minute gripe with it, but that’s for a different thread.

There’s too much I love!

• Dye system – The dye system makes it so much easier to coordinate different sets, rather than hunting down for that one particular reskin of an armor piece already in-game with the specific colors you wanted. Thus you can see really varied silhouettes on players since they’re no longer restricted to wearing full sets!
• Very small death penalty – There’s no “You died, lose 20% of your exp and have lowered stats for 10 minutes,” debuff going on, the game just goes “Well, you messed up. Have another go!” All you have to do is fork over a pittance of silver and even that’s going away on April 15.
• TRAIT SYSTEEEEEM – Dear Jesus what a godsend. Not only is it easy to refund traits if I don’t like my current setup, it’s also more reactionary and flexible than searching for that one specific skill that would help me at that very specific moment. There’s so many neat traits that can be chained together, like Warrior’s cripple causes immob and immobing grants fury, which then leads to increased crit/bleed chance. The system really makes me feel that the devs aren’t afraid to give me power.
• Jumping Puzzles – I guess these aren’t for everyone, but I love how hidden-away these tend to be. I already thought the explorable world was huge, but wandering into one of these makes the world feel even bigger.
• The soundtrack – It’s pretty unforgettable! My favorite track is “Knight of Embers,” which plays in Ascalon. It always makes me laugh when I hear the overture theme in one of the other tracks, too.
• Dodging – After playing other games where taking damage is outright unavoidable, this is great. It changes combat from the Awkward Pokemon Battle, where you can tell from the first hit whether you’ll win or lose, to a situation where you stand a chance.
• Dynamic Events – These feel so much more fluid than the usual questline. The humor in GW2 shines through here, too, when accidents happen or the aftermath of the event makes the NPCs say a funny.
• Almost everything is voiced – Sometimes I’ll pass by a conversation starting between two NPCs, and I’ll stop and listen. It’s much more lively than just seeing speech bubbles pop up under an emoting NPC. The asura especially tend to have great acting!
• Short and concise text – Instead of dumping five paragraphs on me about everything ever, the info and lore about places is spread throughout the map on different NPCs who all have just a bit to say about whatever situation they’re in. Makes it a lot more interesting! On a related note, race-specific text or having an “X the un-X-able” Order of Whispers options also makes me happy.
• Asura and charr female models sharing male armor models – I guess this is a mixed opinion? I like to think it emphasizes how these races prioritize and think far differently from the humanoid races. Don’t get me wrong, I’m ok with people wearing what they want! But it definitely puts asura and charr way out of the “short human with big ears” or “human with fur that runs on all fours” category.
• The race choices in general – All the races are original with their own lore, government, history, society, etc. Even the humans are different! Everyone’s so much more than “big human, tree elf, smart gremlin, warriorcats character, default option that everyone else is compared to” and even the non-playable races get the same treatment.

I think I need a breather, this game is too much. Someone hold me.

gryphonwing.2531:

• Almost everything is voiced – Sometimes I’ll pass by a conversation starting between two NPCs, and I’ll stop and listen. It’s much more lively than just seeing speech bubbles pop up under an emoting NPC. The asura especially tend to have great acting!

+1 and I agree with all your points! I wanted to highlight this, though, because I recently heard a hilarious conversation in Brisban Wildlands that actually made me laugh out loud (although admittedly I do have an odd sense of humor and sometimes find “mildly amusing” things to be “hilarious”). Ever heard the Sylvari group discussing rock paper scissors?

Female Sylvari: I learned it from a small human girl. It’s a simple game, once you know how to play

Male Sylvari 1: But how does paper beat rock?

Male Sylvari 2: It covers it.

Male Sylvari 1: I understand that, but how does it best a rock? A rock can tear through paper.

Male Sylvari 2: I think a better question to ask is: “why would anyone want to crush a perfectly good pair of scissors?”

The best game world that was ever created.

Now all we need is more of it.

Mad King’s Mad Clocktower Mad jumping puzzle…, mad!! First year I gave up because too many charr and norn made it impossible to see what was going on, and I didn’t feel like staying up to 3am to run it alone. This year I managed to get through and it felt great. A bunch of other JPs are also quite fun.

1) Jememy soule music (and recently some very nice stuff from gw2 composer himself, surprising good, didn’t expect that).

2) Underwater combat. Frustrating at first, and especially if you don’t know the mobs/player mechanics/tricks underwater. But once you get the hold of it, so much fun. I often have more fun underwater then above water. (hint, hint, future content)

3) 8 different profession. Quite a lot for a launch game. Some profession are a little to limited though. I hope they fix it by added more weapons to every profession later on to fill the gaps, that would make it perfect.

4) Dynamic events. While they have their problems, I totally missed them when i played Eso. text balloon quest feel outdated, once you played guild wars.

5) Good cinematics (there maybe a few games better out there, but in the end, those games are single player and much shorter, overall). Only prob i see if very few additions of cinematics. And a lot is not replayable from living story (feels like a bit of waste).

6) Every player base has ‘bad apples’. That said, gw2 community is still amazing. I hope it stays that way. Greed, trolling, elitism, they are in gw2, but overall in much lower intensity then most mmo’s. And that’s a very good thing.

7) Jumping puzzles. Used to hate them. Then the clocktower came. Hated them even more Then I succeeded the tower. Crazy relief it was done. Then i repeated other jumping puzzles. Suddenly they were almost a breeze, and I had a lot of fun doing them… Now i’m almost daily doing a few jumping puzzles, cause of the fun, and graphic panorama’s they give.

8) No sub. Totally forgot it and it’s the most important one. Just so much less stress then other mmo’s. It’s probably part of why i’m so dissapointed in eso (much higher pressure/expectations).

There’s probably more but that’s it for now.

pdavis.8031:

Three words: free to play.

That’s about it. Ive tried several other ftp mmos, but you are lvl capped, or have to pay to unlock content. Other than the first initial purchase, you can access all content without ever paying a dime. That and the art work. Simply breath taking.

Yea sadly it is really buy to play. Free to play means you pay nothing at all where as buy to play means you spend money that front but can then later pay or just play for free.

Hope.

/15 char

Bloody Knight Jack.2546:

pdavis.8031:

Three words: free to play.

That’s about it. Ive tried several other ftp mmos, but you are lvl capped, or have to pay to unlock content. Other than the first initial purchase, you can access all content without ever paying a dime. That and the art work. Simply breath taking.

Yea sadly it is really buy to play. Free to play means you pay nothing at all where as buy to play means you spend money that front but can then later pay or just play for free.

I wouldn’t be suprised if this game goes fully F2P one day, given that they keep putting the game on sale and have no interest in box sell expansions.

I think the main reason they stick to B2P at the moment is spammers. They ran a few trial weekends here and there and it resulted in hundreds of gold sellers spamming people for months on end… :/

Unfortunately the B2P model also harms new player uptake.

Hannelore.8153:

Bloody Knight Jack.2546:

pdavis.8031:

Three words: free to play.

That’s about it. Ive tried several other ftp mmos, but you are lvl capped, or have to pay to unlock content. Other than the first initial purchase, you can access all content without ever paying a dime. That and the art work. Simply breath taking.

Yea sadly it is really buy to play. Free to play means you pay nothing at all where as buy to play means you spend money that front but can then later pay or just play for free.

I wouldn’t be suprised if this game goes fully F2P one day, given that they keep putting the game on sale and have no interest in box sell expansions.

I think the main reason they stick to B2P at the moment is spammers. They ran a few trial weekends here and there and it resulted in hundreds of gold sellers spamming people for months on end… :/

Unfortunately the B2P model also harms new player uptake.

I just wish they’d give a trial option, that’d be a nice in between.

I know a lot of people who would love this game i THINK, thing is I have a hard time telling them to drop $50 for something i just THINK they’d like.

Cap it at lvl 40, remove the ability to talk in public chats outside of /say and no /whisper except as a reply.

That’s more than enough to experience much of what the game has to offer, then if they want to move on beyond that, they have to buy the game, but I think MANY people would. Personally the things that caught me were the things that no one mentioned. I was able to kill Moose! Leveling comes from every avenue so you’re never really wasting time, and with that so does gold, which is still worthwhile as this economy hasn’t been hit by inflation as hard as other games I’ve played. Just lots of little things that are wonderful that people overlooked when telling me about the game.

I am sure that I am simply reiterating what a lot of others have said, but I’m going to list them anyway.

No node stealing Everyone can chop the same tree, or mine the same vein.
No mob tagging Kind of like nodes, if you hit a mob, the next person will still get credit if they hit it too.
No Mounts The waypoint system is pretty cool. If they introduce mounts, I hope they do it like they did the broom. Same walk/run speed, just animated. (although my preference is for none at all.)
The ability to take a brand new character to sPvP or WvW yeah, I’ll still die in WvW because I’m not traited, but I can go there. Sometimes that’s enough
Gorgeous, big world Every corner you turn out in the world has a view, it seems. From the towering mountains of the Shiverpeaks to the swamps of Caladon, the graphics people should get much more praise than I can give. My only real wish is for more deserts.
Downleveling Yes, I know. fully traited level 80 players can faceroll a level 10 mob, but it’s nice to know that if I go out with a guildie and their new character, I can still get credit for DEs and kills. Some of the encounters are actually difficult. Those champ trains are victims of zerg numbers. A downleveled 80 can still solo a champ, but it’s definitely a challenge. How many other games can you say that about?
Children Something I have always loved about this game. When you go into a town, there are children playing. Some game worlds are made up of adults only. Makes them kind of creepy.
ANet Tags It’s nice to see that the people who work for the game actually PLAY the game. Ya, I know they play without their tags, but it is still nice to see them occasionally. Makes me think they really do like the game as much as I do.
Guilds I love the fact that you’re not restricted to one. Now, if they would only bring on the GvG…
NPCs I love walking around and seeing the NPC conversations. (I would listen, but I am partially deaf and my electronic ears don’t like speakers/headphones.)
The destruction of LA ok, so…I know this is an odd one, but let me explain: LA was the hub of everything. Seeing it get destroyed showed me that the developers are not afraid to change anything. Walking around in its aftermath brought me some extremely strong feelings and dredged up some real world memories as well. I know I wasn’t alone in shedding a tear or two at the note from the little boy looking for his mom and dad…AND WHERE IS RAISIN FACE???? Good Job, ANet!

@ the OP:
Thanks for this thread. Sometimes we’re so bogged down in the little problems we see that we forget what keeps us coming back.

I had some customers that had never played an MMO considering WoW.
I mentioned some things I liked and didn’t like about it, and then Guild Wars 2.
“Did I mention it was Free-To-Play?”

Proudest sale of the day.

I also love the story and lore of the world. The Living Story ended on such a big, devastating note. Lion’s Arch was my city and I have memories of it that will stick just as much as any other that I hold dear.
The art, not just the scenery, but character design too. In any other game the Charr would have been mis-proportioned furries. I am so glad for that!
The questing system that isn’t fixated on one objective I can go and eliminate hostiles to complete them, or help a researcher solve a puzzle. The flavor for my gameplay style and mood.
Dynamic Events that invite us in. They pop up and I can help or not. It may be to difficult for me to complete alone, but people can show up and make it team effort.
I don’t feel like I completed a quest. I feel like we saved the day.
Shared Resources for co-operative play! Playing ESO I was constantly losing races to nodes and chests. It was so disappointing to have to do this after playing Guild Wars 2. A friend invited me to play WoW and I had a time of it when helping others and not receiving XP for helping them. Guild Wars 2 system seems more organic.
I like the skill system Tying the base skills to weapons was a great idea that allows people to build around a preferred set, and meta counter-measures for people that face them.
For PvP and WvWvW this makes for some interesting match-ups with people that may know your build as well as (maybe better than) you do.
Weapon and Armor Skins are the best. Each character I create I build with a look in mind. Whether it be a cloistered healer, or a mischievous necromancer, I want to portray that visually.
Skins allow us that sort of freedom to be creative. I don’t know if everyone creates backstories, but I do.
I like the ambient stuff. For anyone that remembers the tavern hopping ladies in LA, this is pretty cool. So much stuff going on in the background that makes the game live more than just merchants in the market and guards at the gate. Kids played. People go to work. That guy that orders you out of his house when you go in looking for treasure…

???

Ashabhi.1365:

@ the OP:
Thanks for this thread. Sometimes we’re so bogged down in the little problems we see that we forget what keeps us coming back.

You’re welcome! This is exactly why I started the thread, because of the realization that my forum presence was almost entirely complaints, making it seem like I disliked the game, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

Everyone

A bunch of awesome reasons GW2 is a great game!

I agree! Thanks to all who have replied! I’d respond individually to each of the reasons given, but that would take waaaay too long given how many there are. Suffice to say I have read them all and I have yet to see one (with the possible exception of some posted by a couple mildly derogatory commenters who I will not name—you know who you are) that I disagree with.