Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone.

So I’ve been playing MMORPGs for ten years now and I’ve played Guild Wars 2 since the headstart. Unfortunately I used the mindset that I did for other MMOs when leveling my characters by rushing from heart to heart, tagging every DE I could to try to level as fast as possible to hit ‘end game’. I’ve never been a hardcore raider in any MMO but in all the ones I’ve played the real game was essentially a dungeon crawler at max level and the leveling process was to get you used to game mechanics.

So now I created a new sylvari mesmer and I’m slowly taking my time through it and exploring little things and I have to say that the game feels very fresh to me! It really brings me nostasgaic feelings of my first MMO as I just want to discover things just because they’re fun! I love the vistas, randomly finding jumping puzzles, looking at the beautiful, painted art style (especially Divinity’s Reach!) and hearing little conversations around me. There are some pretty funny ones in The Grove and rather emotional ones too. The world feels alive! It felt cramped when I first started as the population density was far too big! But now on my server (Seafarer’s Rest) small events have 2-3 people doing them and it feels right for me. People are friendly and I’m just loving taking my time and playing the game.

If you haven’t already I’d highly recommend that you try to forget the end game gear/money grab mentality (harder than it sounds – it was for me anyway) and just play the game slowly and explore little things that add a surprising amount to the game. I was disappointed with Guild Wars 2 but honestly now I find it incredible. It has it’s flaws but those are far outweighed by the positives

I agree. Glad to see someone taking the time to smell the roses. I feel that the “magic” of MMO’s comes from the sense of wonderment at a new world. It’s sad that the magic is lost on those who think stat progression is the main element of a good RPG. The good news is that this game provides a great vehicle to regain that original “OMG awesome” feeling.

Agreed as well. The game is so much better when you stop focusing on “I need this epic loot” and instead just go and do what you like. For me, that’s hunting champions down and soloing them, or doing some WvW/Dungeons.

I found a book last night in the Iron Marches titled “One Hundred and One Reasons Why All Humans Should Die, Vol III”.

There was also a funny conversation between two old charr soldiers:

You know what they say, you’ve got your old charr…
And you’ve got your bold charr…
But you ain’t got many…
(both together pointing at each other) OLD AND BOLD CHARR!

Then they laugh. It was hilarious!

Greetings! Glad to hear that others are enjoying all the awesome artwork that make up the GW2 world.

I’m more of an ‘explorer’ than a ‘completionist’ and surely not a ‘level racer’. I built my gaming habits from games of old which actually required you to look in every nook and corner of the game world as the designers would often hide things ‘off the beaten path’. GW2 has awarded my play style with a number of caves, tunnels and breath taking vistas to further my enjoyment!

After seeing, doing and taking in everything available “end game” simply is the question of if I wish to repeat or move onto the next title.

I love the Original Post and the responses. The beauty of Guild Wars 2 is in the details. Call me nubcake but I love being in Divinity’s Reach. Just walking around and listening to the music and looking at the scenery is one of my favorite things to do. Some of the NPC’s give you Way Points to the unique areas there. Forgive me if I label it incorrectly but there is a Zoo type thing in town and if you talk to the Animal Keeper she will walk from caged animal to caged animal and actually tell you about them. You can examine the book cart merchants and they describe the books the merchant cart has and a synopsis of the books. One of my favorites is in regards to a Dragon book and it actually says that if you would like to read more or understand more about the Dragons to go the Priory and read their information. It made me actually want to go to the Priory just to read.

Unforturnately though, the Devil is also in the details. In the original Guild Wars my level 20 character was maxed out in several minutes. In this game I feel like I’m constantly falling behind my peers. I want to spend my time exploring and examine every detail that the developers have put into this game, but I can’t. The reason is the gear grind. I’m not trying to bomb this thread, as I stated earlier I appreciate it; but I want to stay competative and at the top of my game. It was easy to do in the original Guild Wars but it’s not so easy to do in Guild Wars 2. If I don’t run in full exotics with superior runes I’m at a clear disadvantage in WvWvW, which I happen to love. It also takes money because a lot of the players I encounter are running gem shop boosters as well. In sPvP there are so few players running paid tournaments that my poor Wolf Rank isn’t cutting it and you need to be Tiger or above with Champ Slayer title to be taken seriously. So now I’m sucked into running the same dungeon a million times, fractal daily’s for rings, and I have to make tons of cash so that I don’t fall behind in WvWvW. At the same time I have to grind it out in sPvP so that my rank is at least respectable so people take me seriously when I want to join their group because there are so few Guilds that run paids. With a full time job, girlfriend, and life, this makes it nearly impossible because there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. Literllay, as I type this, I’m fallling behind my peers. I just wish it was like Guild Wars 1 where I could do both and always be on an even playing field but unlike the original Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2 PvE is a grind fest.

This game is superior in content compared to other MMO’s out there.
Problem is that most gamers don’t give a kitten about it these days, me included.

While I do appreciate all the effort put into actually creating a world to immerse with.. it is not what most gamers are looking for, and frankly am quite disappointed with Anet working even further on polishing the stories on next patch, rather than the actual game mechanics.