Yeah. I do not agree with everything, but they did make a pretty good game, and they’re mostly improving it every time they add something – like they did with GW1. I see many parallels between both games and their post-release developments, such as how different realms can play together (see Megaserver) or free refunding traits in GW2 / removal of Attribute Refund points in GW1.
I do have a few gripes. Traits could be more interesting, or rather, all of them could be as interesting as the more interesting ones. There’s a Mesmer focus trait that grants the focus skills the ability to reflect projectiles (and reducing their recharge), for the greatsword, you “only” get some 100 points in Power (and reduce recharge). When transition happened for GW1, I had hoped for more traits that add bounces or shots, grant additional functionality or abilities to skills, and less… stat-boosting. But maybe that’s just me.
I also hope that the Megaserver system will, at some point, allow me to play with one account on both NA and EU, even if it’d be just as a guest on NA. In GW1, it did start out quite similarly (although we always had the international districts) but it became easier, and easier to switch to “other realms” – from unlimited switching of the region to all regions being displayed as one in the district selection.
And yes, if that ever happens, I will request, politely, if it’d be possible to merge my two accounts into one.
Then there’s the grind-heavy legendary and ascended weapons – why do they have to have 5% better base stats than exotics? I liked it in GW1 to have maximum gear at an affordable rate, and with skills tied to weapons, it would seem even more important in Guild Wars 2… but, I know, exotic is still considered “max gear”.
And I do hope that, at some point, they’ll manage to re-work Living Storyline season 1 (or at least the most relevant plot points) into a purchasable package. Somehow. I’d like to see how my character met the people I adventure with in Season 2. I remember Rox and Braham, played that much of S1, but the others? I like them, I’d like to know why my character likes them, too.
You see, I’ve been playing Guild Wars 1 since before release. I always was a PvE player, but GW1 drew me in with with deck-building and more horizontal progression. I know a lot of things I loved about the first part weren’t there from the start, and most changes done to GW2 since release fill me with hope it might still be the same with GW2 – I think the changes are promising, for the most part.
GW2 solo is more fun than GW1 solo was, even though GW1 grappled me in a more powerful way, probably because of the company I kept in game at the time, with which I sadly was unable to truly reconnect.
A few of them have recently (re-)started playing GW1. And it’s funny to notice how they rave over things they see there that aren’t in GW2. “Fully customizable skill sets”, “actual quests with exclamation points”, and so on. You know, I was always the one in GW1 to say “Wait, I’ll have to switch up a few skills.” – but in the end, I don’t really miss it all that much. There’s still choice, and execution matters more. And I certainly don’t miss the traditional quests. Even doing all hearts in a GW2 zone feels more rewarding and more varied than the old GW1 quests.
There is a few things I do miss – the Mesmers interrupt playstyle, loved that, Vanquishing (including Hard Mode vanquishing) was seriously fun as an alternative to most other stuff. Generally, everything being instanced, not being jumped from behind by some freshly-respawned foe. I know that this cannot be helped, though. The possibility to get a max stats blue item from a collector some 2/3 of the way through the campaign, and upgrade it with little effort to be just as good as any endgame stuff, and keeping that cheap, blue, prophecies collectors item until the end of Eye of the North as my Mesmers weapon, because it was HER weapon, and with it came the memory of that tour we had through the southern shiverpeaks, and how I/she got it.
But Guild Wars 1 ended for me with Ogdens Benediction. I’m a sucker for narrated epilogues, thank you very much.
Guild Wars 1 spoiled me for most MMOs, Guild Wars 2 spoiled me for most other MMOs, and probably for Guild Wars 1.
Guild Wars 2 is a fine game, and in a lot of changes I still see the same spirit at work as it was back then. I hope that this spirit will prevail in the long run, against the ever-present ideas of traditional MMOs, but – as we said on GW2guru, pre-release – in ANet I trust. I have yet to be truly disappointed.
I also played GW2 on release, then less, and less, and less, and not any more, and relatively recently re-started playing, with more fun and vigour than ever. Yes. I really like most changes and additions.
/End rant (if anything seems out of place, it’s probably because I had to shorten the message. Probably overdid it.)
( It wouldn’t be a forum post without a complaint, right)