Guild Wars 2

tl/dr: I have been playing GW2 for a bit over 4 weeks so far. To take a break from some of the negative I thought I would post what I like. Keep in mind that according to what many have said here, I personify casual player with exception of the ‘casuals don’t care and don’t pursue goals’ label. I’m not posting to start a debate so please refrain from that however like always, opinions are welcomed.

-I already feel like I have gotten what I paid for. I have played a total of 106 hours as of this post. I don’t know many other sources of entertainment where I can get 106 hours at the cost of $60. If I went to 53 2 hour movies it would cost a lot more. So the investment of money into entertainment time will only get better as I play more, even picking up some gems from time to time.

-Even though I have to run on low graphics I still like the artwork very much. I’ll be upgrading soon so I bet I will like it even more then.

-I love the combat mechanics even though I’m still not very good at them. I think it’s cool that it involves more than just pushing attack keys. The more I learn when to dodge and in what direction the more fun I have.

-Not having to fight of resource nodes and XP is great. I never liked in other games where I was trying to clear mobs to approach a node and some other player lets me take agro and runs by to tap the node.

-The community as a whole is a lot better than experiences I’ve had in other games. If I ask a question in /map I’ll get the answer 5x over without having to read “LoL Newbs!” A lot of time if I ask a question about an area someone will offer to waypoint near me and show me where to go and help me in combat if I need.

-Along that line and this goes with the XP thing, if I’m in a bind players will run up and bail me out. This has happened more times than I can count. I try to do the same when I have the opportunity.

-The travel mechanics make it much easier on me. I don’t have to freak out if I get wasted because usually the trip back to where I was is short thanks to waypoints. Also I don’t have to worry about racing back to my body or losing loot from dying.

-While I have found the dailys are a bit repetitive they give me a nice goal to get me started for the day or in the evening if I’m tired of doing harder things. I’m almost done with my monthly without even really paying attention to it. That gives me a few more things to do with no rush to do it.

-I like all the map location goals. It gives me a reason to go to places on the map that I normally would not visit.

-All the different weapon sets and various combinations are fun to mess around with. If I get burned out with a certain set when things seem repetitive and too easy for not much more coin I can set up a different rig and play with that for a while. I’m running a p/p/sb Thief right now, probably the worst rig for a thief aside from naked or offhand only. I am having fun with it though because I enjoy the challenge and the visuals from run and gun.

-It took me a while to get into crafting but I like that I can switch around to suit my needs and go right back to where I left off if I switch back. I like the easy XP from it but other than that I don’t care for the lack of value of the crafted item. At least at my level so far.

-The vistas have been fun so far since many of them are a bit tricky, at least for me, to get to. My memory somewhat sucks so even when I roll an alt the vistas I already with my main are another challenge lol. With that I just ran across the high dive in Lions Arch today and that was a cool little surprise. It would be cool if you could do different trick dives maybe for a one time per trick XP bonus.

-I understand the map group event boses, or whatever they are called, getting a bit boring but it is nice to hit one with a group for a nice bit of loot. Although today all I got was Mystic Toilet fodder, but hey messing around with that is interesting at times.

-Being able to go to the other races maps easily is very helpful to me. No huge travel time and I can switch around to work other map goals, different mob and so forth when I need a change.

I should mention that my first MMO experience was Ultima Online many, many years ago when dial-up was the norm, so I’m probably easy to impress. The only other MMOs I spent a dedicated amount of time with were the original Anarchy Online and WoW. I spent years with WoW from launch. I like GW2 much better so far.

Well I’ll stop here from now. I just wanted to add something positive and I know most of you already know about this stuff. By the time and expansion comes out I will probably be no where close to world completion and level cap. I have only sniffed WvW so that is a whole new world for me to explore when I’m ready for a big change of pace.

So yeah, even if I quit right now I feel I got my 106 hours of entertainment and I have enjoyed it. I’m sure I’ll have many for so the price per hour will be nearly nothing in no time. I understand most here have been playing since around beta so I can understand being bored. I hope the devs add new content for you soon and for me a very long way down the road.

Glad you like it, most of that I had a blast with too for the leveling experience. All in all you will notice tho that most of the negative threads you’ll read (including mine) are about post max level max gear expectations and loot issues. Let’s hope you are one of the ones that’s not affected by DR or the loot drop one sided-ness that the end game has become for many of us.

Glad you’re having a good time OP. I wonder what actual percentage of the playerbase is experiencing the problems Tigirius is experiencing. It seems that some people are having loot problems, and others are not…but no one can say for sure, RNG being what it is.

At any rate, there are also many of us who have no problems at all with loot drops, and love the game, even after hitting level cap.

Hope you continue to have fun in the long term.

JustTrogdor.7892:

-Along that line and this goes with the XP thing, if I’m in a bind players will run up and bail me out. This has happened more times than I can count. I try to do the same when I have the opportunity.

This is one of the most beautiful things about the way XP works in this game; there is never a reason not to help someone out or ask for help when you need it. The fact that everyone can res you back up, too, makes for a strong community where people feel good about helping each other out.

During the massive Karka event I ran around as part of the medic team, getting everyone back on their feet when they got knocked down and not only was it a blast, but people are almost always very cool about thanking and giving credit to the non combat specs.

Congrats on liking the game. It took me a while.

Whatever you do, don’t rush to the end. Just take your time.

just one comment you mentioned about low graphics. i thought it was my video card bottlenecking my fps find out it was when i changed cpu after i upgraded my video card i saw a huge fps difference and after it iwas able to run my game on high setting. when i upgraded my video card i was still running on low settings it was cpu change that made a huge difference. i didnt realize that was my trouble same everything else.im glad you love the game. my biggest thing is i can go and come back when i want. i got discouraged a bit when they introduced ascended but it made me step back but im back and still going strong

JustTrogdor.7892:

-Even though I have to run on low graphics I still like the artwork very much. I’ll be upgrading soon so I bet I will like it even more then.

You can turn up your graphics right before taking a screenshot, take the shot, and then turn them down.
- Handy when you want to get a pic of your character or some amazing location.

On dailies: I keep them interesting by having them just set some but not all of what I’m up to.
- My daily is usually for my lowest level alt to get an XP boost at its end, so I look through them and make sure at least the last one I do is done on that character.

If they’re something like “events in Ascalaon” then my lowbie hits the zone in Ascalon of her level and starts doing all sorts of things there, rushing through the daily part midway in my play time so I can be sure to have it done well before I plan to log out, in case I have to log out early.

- But I mostly then focus on doing normal play in that area.

Because my guild is doing dungeons so often, the daily often gets interrupted for me for a bit, so it kind of also gives me a ‘what next’ right after leaving the dungeon(s) of the night.

The key tip to making sure you are able to enjoy the game LONG after you have multiple 80s is to play slowly, stopping to “smell the roses” and reading random text on everything, or even standing there listening to NPCs. That will fill you with the lore, and enable a lot of things that happen to start making sense. Once that happens you’ll start to “fall in love” with the setting, and that will enable you to get a lot more long term enjoyment out of the game.

I for example, often just stop to look around in spots – in part because they remind me things from GW1, or they evoke some bit of lore I’d heard NPCs bantering about earlier.

(Like this morning, I was in Lornar’s pass noting what looked like telephone poles along various mountains, until I remembered what was going on around this part of the Shiverpeaks in GW1: The dwarven civil war, and the camps where the dredge were enslaved – and similar poles were being used to hold up ‘mining rails’.)

ricky markham.8173:

just one comment you mentioned about low graphics. i thought it was my video card bottlenecking my fps find out it was when i changed cpu after i upgraded my video card i saw a huge fps difference and after it iwas able to run my game on high setting. when i upgraded my video card i was still running on low settings it was cpu change that made a huge difference. i didnt realize that was my trouble same everything else.im glad you love the game. my biggest thing is i can go and come back when i want. i got discouraged a bit when they introduced ascended but it made me step back but im back and still going strong

Thanks for the info on fps improvements. I’m a mac user (insert macs are kitten comments) here. I’m running a 2009 base iMac (9NVIDIA GTX 675MX so it as wonder I can even play in crowded areas). I mostly use it for work and it does a very good job with that. I never purchased it for gaming. I got it because it handles a lot of work related functions very well and has been insanely stable, even when maxing out my RAM and a lot of page outs. I don’t want to get into that argument though. The unfortunate aspects of iMac are limited upgrade options, pretty much RAM. I’m due for an upgrade and I have been rewarded with a significant discount for future purchase. So after payday I will be picking this up, which I think should handle it well:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Apple%26%23174%3B+-+27%22+iMac%26%23174%3B+-+8GB+Memory+-+1TB+Hard+Drive/4840607.p?id=1218548288365&skuId=4840607

Work comes first and it should handle my video editing and such just fine. Games come second so even if I’m not running top specs thats fine with me.

Kichwas.7152:

The key tip to making sure you are able to enjoy the game LONG after you have multiple 80s is to play slowly, stopping to “smell the roses” and reading random text on everything, or even standing there listening to NPCs. That will fill you with the lore, and enable a lot of things that happen to start making sense. Once that happens you’ll start to “fall in love” with the setting, and that will enable you to get a lot more long term enjoyment out of the game.

I agree and that is why I’m not racing to do everything. By the time I hit 80 there will probably be a lot of new content for me. In my 106 hours of play I have only leveled 25 and a level 17. I read some place that the first person to hit 80 did it in 32 hours. I think he got to 60 and then crafted to 80 with mats his guild gave him. I wonder if he still plays now.

Also I have not done any screen shots yet because most of the stuff I have done so far has been seen 1,000 times over by others. I did have a situation yesterday when I was playing my p/p/sb Thief (yes I know terrible build but fun for me) and while strafing with guns blasting I somehow ran along the side of a wall like the Matrix. I wish I had caught that on video.

JustTrogdor.7892:

-Along that line and this goes with the XP thing, if I’m in a bind players will run up and bail me out. This has happened more times than I can count. I try to do the same when I have the opportunity.

This made me smile and I’m glad you are enjoying the experience.
All we can do is pay it forward to the next newbie or lowbie.

ArchonWing.9480:

Congrats on liking the game. It took me a while.

Whatever you do, don’t rush to the end. Just take your time.

THIS! I agree a lot with your post OP, I too am having a great time with this game but when you hit level cap its a different story so I’m glad you’re not rushing. I almost wish that crafting DIDN’T give you as much XP since I’ve blown past levels FAST just by crafting so now I avoid crafting altogether on my alts lol.

Some advice about these forums:

For the most part, these forums are divided into two camps.

In the first camp, you have people who think it is their sacred duty to balance out any negative comments made about this game by dismissing critics as in the minority, unreasonable, blind and/or biased.

In the second camp, you have people who hate this game and troll the forums to rile up the first camp, posting negative threads just to annoy or otherwise disrupt the enjoyment others have in the game. These people are usually banned from the forums, and rightly so.

Both groups are worth ignoring. The first hardly ever has anything worthwhile to add, and the second, even if they did have something meaningful to say, are so negative as to be not worth the effort of reading.

You should just enjoy the game as much as you can and then post constructive criticism and concerns on the forum when you don’t. These will still be flamed and dismissed by white knights, but some developer might end up reading it eventually.

This game caters to casuals, so if you find yourself in that category, you should enjoy it for a while.

Just a warning, however: if you are looking for higher level strategic depth, in either PvP or PvE, you won’t find it. As has been the experience with several top players, respected GW1 veterans and those interested in high-level PvP, the game will quickly wane at max level.

JustTrogdor.7892:

-The community as a whole is a lot better than experiences I’ve had in other games. If I ask a question in /map I’ll get the answer 5x over without having to read “LoL Newbs!” A lot of time if I ask a question about an area someone will offer to waypoint near me and show me where to go and help me in combat if I need.

-Along that line and this goes with the XP thing, if I’m in a bind players will run up and bail me out. This has happened more times than I can count. I try to do the same when I have the opportunity.

I don’t get this community, where did they come from because everyone seems to be really helpful. How can WoW (my previous MMO) have such a nasty toxic community and yet this one is so much better?

Thobek.1730:

I don’t get this community, where did they come from because everyone seems to be really helpful. How can WoW (my previous MMO) have such a nasty toxic community and yet this one is so much better?

My theory? Unless WoW has changed since I tried it out, XP and Treasure Drops can be ganked by other players tagging your kills – this happened a lot in EQ2 as well. That doesn’t make for an environment where people want to help each other, but instead where everyone is competing with everyone else. Same goes with gear; since gear is such a big deal in those games and everyone wants to get the best gear faster than you, it doesn’t do them any favors to help someone out in a jam.

The way GW2 play is designed you are encouraged and even rewarded for helping others, so it creates a sense of community in the game. Usually people got help when they were low level and they want to pass in on and so, and so, and so …

Reminds me alot of the good years of Star Wars Galaxies, when the community was really good and the low levels were so hard and such a grind that high level players would stop to help out the newbies with money, gear, etc. all the time … and remembering that, the newbies would do the same when they got high level. I know it happened for me and I went on and did it for others.

That’s what an in game community in an MMO should feel like.

Jack of Tears.9458:

Thobek.1730:

I don’t get this community, where did they come from because everyone seems to be really helpful. How can WoW (my previous MMO) have such a nasty toxic community and yet this one is so much better?

My theory? Unless WoW has changed since I tried it out, XP and Treasure Drops can be ganked by other players tagging your kills – this happened a lot in EQ2 as well. That doesn’t make for an environment where people want to help each other, but instead where everyone is competing with everyone else. Same goes with gear; since gear is such a big deal in those games and everyone wants to get the best gear faster than you, it doesn’t do them any favors to help someone out in a jam.

The way GW2 play is designed you are encouraged and even rewarded for helping others, so it creates a sense of community in the game. Usually people got help when they were low level and they want to pass in on and so, and so, and so …

Reminds me alot of the good years of Star Wars Galaxies, when the community was really good and the low levels were so hard and such a grind that high level players would stop to help out the newbies with money, gear, etc. all the time … and remembering that, the newbies would do the same when they got high level. I know it happened for me and I went on and did it for others.

That’s what an in game community in an MMO should feel like.

Yep, that’s what I refernced in my OP and I agree. I played a lot more today than usual I think I hit every champion in Queensdale at least 3 times just to be part of it. Well that and I enjoy the show and like trying different moves. I ran in on Oak rambo style once with pistols blazing. That didn’t work out very well at least someone was there to rez me so I could get my share of the loot. From my experience when I played WoW I’d probably still be laying there dead lol.