Guild Wars 2

There’s an inverse to this thread, you can find it here. I agree with some of what’s being said there, not all of it. As the OP states, it’s an IMO thread, just like this one but there are some things that ANET, IMO, certainly did get wrong (new trait acquisition, removal of solo queue), but I’m still playing.

And it’s not because I’m a masochist (ok, sometimes I am, like on a particularly long run of bad games solo queuing into ranked/unranked arena…). Like I said, I keep playing, just like a lot of us, in spite of the faults we find with the game: we keep playing. And it’s because ANET got a lot of things right. Sometimes it’s important to not lose sight of that, so while I appreciate the 5/Wrong thread, here’s some balance to it.

Top 5 things ANET got Right – not in any particular order

1. Art Work/Visuals: This game is beautiful, the artwork is fantastic (thank goodness there’s no 1st person view to ruin it, eh?! :o)). It feels like a real place, I don’t get a lot of repetitive textures, I get the feeling a lot of time and effort went in to making this game look beautiful. From character creation to the dye options we have to the way LA and all the major cities in this game look different from eachother, this game is gorgeous.

2. Combat/Movement: This aspect of the game has ruined me for other MMOs. Nothing I’ve played combines the characteristics of an MMO with the kind of freedom of movement that GW2 has. It’s probably the main reason I still play. I love the combat in this game from combo fields to dodging and the importance of visual queues and positioning, this is the best combat system I’ve played in an MMO, no other comes close for me.

3. Events: It’s easy to forget how different quests felt in this game (I hate hearts, for the record). The first time I really got events was in Harathi where my brother and I followed a chain which culminated in a show-down with a Harathi Overlord. Awesome. The event system is something I can take for granted now, but is it a cool way to engage the environment of the game, it does give it a more “realistic” feel for me. And I sometimes forget how much I prefer it to traditional questing mechanics.

4. Trading Post: I know some people cry foul on this thing and claim market manipulation, but I remember having to spam chat in Kamadan trying to off-load a BDS for 100ectos and thinking, “I could be out doing stuff right now.” I don’t have to worry about that in GW2. I love the trading post, and I love being able to find what I need w/o having to pm people and watch map-chat in a major city. Stuff I don’t need doesn’t take up space in my inventory or go to an NPC merchant, I can list it and forget it. I like that.

5. Buy to Play: I played GW1 extensively (50/50 GWAMM), and I bought each expansion as well as EotN, and I would never have spent a penny on GW1 if it came with a monthly fee. ANET have managed to offer a massive game with a lot of content (but I do side with the expansion crowd, need moar!), and I haven’t had to pay a monthly fee. It’s the reason GW1 and now GW2 are the main games I play online. I can’t stress enough how important an aspect of ANET’s game this is to me.

So there you have it, my list. What’s your top 5?

SO basically everything they did before launch… your list has not a single thing that came after launch… sounds about right

I agree with your list. I would also add that the CONCEPT of a story driven living world is something they got right.

The first year of festivals were also fun, the second year was decent as well. The third year got the rewards better, but the content is now stale.

The idea of fractals was also something they did well, but they killed them with their “revamp” and stopped adding new ones on a regular basis making them become stale as well.

Anet has very good ideas, they execution seems to fall flat sometimes though.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

SO basically everything they did before launch… your list has not a single thing that came after launch… sounds about right

I agree with your list. I would also add that the CONCEPT of a story driven living world is something they got right.

The first year of festivals were also fun, the second year was decent as well. The third year got the rewards better, but the content is now stale.

The idea of fractals was also something they did well, but they killed them with their “revamp” and stopped adding new ones on a regular basis making them become stale as well.

Anet has very good ideas, they execution seems to fall flat sometimes though.

kitten its a shame really.

I will give them the Wardrobe feature, and the instant respec on traits. But that’s all I can think of..l most of the new heal skills that were added, sucked eggs!!! And they did add some cool meta events, but now they are history now….
Nvm I don’t want to even think about this…. Bye

ZudetGambeous.9573:

SO basically everything they did before launch… your list has not a single thing that came after launch… sounds about right

Wow, I didn’t even think about that as I was writing it, but yeah, you’re right. I do like Silverwastes, the wardrobe system (feature) and the Fractals which are all post launch updates. I wish the Fractals would get more support though… And the Halloween and Wintersday JPs are my two favorite in the game. But yeah, the majority of what I love about this game has been there from day 1.

Haha, before I read the OP or comments, my first thought was “everything prior to launch”, and then “and then I guess the wardrobe”.

Basically ANet started with absolute gold, and have been steadily painting it with silver and ahem brown. It’s still gold underneath, but it’s getting really hard to see it sometimes.

for me its

5. Torn between combat and level scaling. They probably tie anyway. the Combat is awesome, involved and keeps you engaged and thinking rather then looking at cooldowns waiting for the right moment to continue your rotation. Level scaling keeps the whole world as your playground at max level rather then a handful of zones. Thats just an awesome idea.

4. The exploration… ohhh my actual hidden stuff thats really hard to find. Hidden events. Hard to reach places. This is an awesome game for exploration.

3. The artwork… this game is just beautiful and the music is just amazing too.

2. Dynamic Event… “quests” that finally reflect in the game world. I love how if an artifact unleases a demon that artifact really unleashes that demon rather then having the demon always be there regardless the unleashing has happened or not

1. The living world.. an ever evolving story line with new stuff every 2 weeks? that was my dream end game that I have been looking for since my first MMO and finally I have it

Here my list.

1) Combat Mechanic : This is the core gameplay, this is what model each second in this game and what make it fun and interesting for me.

2) Cooperation over Competition : With some exception the game push us to help each other and don’t punish us for doing so. We want to full maps to do certain event by taxing ppl in it, no stress or competition over mining node, we are not afraid of other ppl stealing our loots, there is no rage because a guardian take the roll on that nice light armor pieces that he don’t need anyway, etc. This reinforce the community in a positive way. Trolls are limited in the chat most of the time and can’t really ruin your gaming experience.

3) Scaling don’t make older content obsolete. 99% of my time is on a level 80, but I can still complete AC, do the Dredge Commissar or random quest without one shooting everything. The dev are also not limited in the place they can add new end game content. Nice to have the Triple Wurm at Sparky Fen and not limited to the limited amount of level 80 maps. This also spread ppl over several map and not only concentrate all the player base in end game maps.

4) Limited vertical progression. I leave the game each summer, like most of my guildmates and friends. Getting back in the game and still having the best game and being able to complete any content with anyone is a big reason why i’m still playing. It always feel like i’m going forward and I can’t continue my old goals, starts new ones. I’m not lock out of the current content because I miss on the last gear grind. This is one of the big reason why I keep getting back into the game even when I take a 3 months break.

5) Customization. This is a big part of any MMO and GW2 do it really good. I can put any skins on any stats, I can have any race as any profession and all that wihtout a difference in gameplay which is a big plus for me. I like that I can play a tiny asura warrior or a big clumsy thief charr. Add to that the large dye pools, the wardrobe, how easy it is to get transmutation charge, back item, etc

Engine optimisation.

The game looks amazing and is not a hog on system resources.

Lore.

The game lore is fantastic and I love how each map has it’s own story to tell through dynamic events

For me:

Open beautiful world

Armor/skin diversity— no one looks the same.

world vs world

Personal story – sorry..I loved it.

Gem store – although I dont spend $$ in gem store anymore, if/when Im playing because I dont support what arenanet has done to the game in the last 1+ yr

let me be honest , i have no idea what they did wrong or right, BUT i´m sitting at 5k+ hours of gameplay, that shows me that there must be something that they did right

oh wait , there is one thing i am absoulutly sure they did right, pay once play forever, i have never played an mmo where i have to pay monthly fee and i will never play one, so thank you anet for not beeing a monthly pay MMO

Events are debatable considering the design is extremely flawed, it encourages running around tagging stuff and semi afk ranging bosses while watching pr0n. I would say the quest/event system is only fine when people just start out and aren’t wary of the many problems with this system.

My list is similar to the OP’s:-

1) Buy to play.

2) Graphics/art work, always been a very, very high standard.

3) Dynamic events (much better than hearts/static quests), the chains of dynamic events have always been great.

4) WvW, it was awesome at release and for 6 months to a year later but lack of development undermined it.

5) Quality of life features like trading post, wardrobe and wallet.

5. LS2 Episode Availabilty
4. Acc. bound Dyes
3. PvP skins available in PvE (and viceversa)
2. Token Wallet
1. Commander Colored Tags

1. Environment design, art, visuals… some of the best I’ve ever seen.

2. Buy to play… fantastic.

3. Combat dynamics, action rpg style… fluid and still great fun to play.

4. Background lore… surprisingly I love it, it isn’t the usual fantasy trope nonsense (apart from dragons of course), and I think they have done an excellent job in fleshing out fairly unique races, regions and characters. I’ll be honest – the reason I bought the game in the first place was because of being able to play as an asura which at the time gave me the impression of super intelligent rabbits, and I like rabbits.

5. Fairly well managed horizontal progression… ok, ascended gear is stupid and there is too much grind for certain items when gearing up your character(s). However, I still think it maintains a reasonable level of allowing all players easy access to at least full exotic gear, with the remainder being cosmetic grind.

Things they have done right? Quite a bit in my opinion… Lets see…

-The B2P model… No monthly subscription for a game that is as big as this one. The only time I felt any pressure to log in and ‘get my moneys worth’ is when a new Chapter of the LS comes out or annual events like Halloween or Wintersday happens. And even during those events, I never felt like I was racing to try and get things done before I ran out of time.

-Combat… The pace of combat in this game far exceeds anything else I have bothered to try. As much as I loved City of Heroes, practically every attack you did rooted you to the ground. Most other games are the same way (with FFXIV being an exception in that aspect.)
Another thing about the combat in this game is how I feel like I am actually playing the game during a fight, rather then playing the skill bar. Add the Dodge ability, and combat can be the most fluid, engaging experience I have had in an MMORPG.

-Quality of Life Improvements… The Wardrobe and Transmutation systems are a -huge- improvement over the previous system. The Wallet was a much needed and desired upgrade that made currency so much easier to use between alts. The Story Journal. The Trading Post. The sPvP reward tracks…

-Travel… I can’t think of any other game that allowed players to move around the map with such ease. FFXIV comes close, but the way their map is set up make’s it far less convenient.

-Graphics… The look of this game is amazing. Whether you are in one of the main cities, or wandering around the world, the place looks kitten ed good.

-WvW… Some people complain that this is stale… I still say it’s the best realm vs realm PvP out there. If you like the idea of big armies of players fighting each other, invading and defending forts and castles, and otherwise the feel of a huge open-field war, this is for you. It might not be perfect (is anything, really?) but it’s still good.

-Dynamic Events… Far and away better then the standard, time-worn ‘Quest giving NPCs’ that is used everywhere else.

I could say more, but that’s two more then the OP asked for. Suffice to say, that while not everything in this game is perfect, there is quite a bit they have done well (which is all too often conveniently overlooked/forgotten/ignored.)

How can I limit this to just 5?

• We have buy to play
• In-game acquisition of cash shop items
• Great combat
• A general lack of classism in gameplay, and no waiting around for healers
• An OMG-this-is-so-good-I-can’t-play-other-games-now loot and EXP sharing system
• An OMG-this-is-so-good-I-can’t-play-other-games-now lack of pick-up quests
  (Because I always miss ONE)
• Sharing gathering nodes
• Buffing rangers
• Wardrobe
• Extremely high quality player characters
• Transmutation
• Account magic find
• Great looking skill effects
• Water reflections
• Bobblehead Laboratory
• Giving female humanoids cleavage lines so their skin doesn’t turn into play-doh in the wrong lighting
• Kites
• A sound system so good you sometimes think the voices coming from the NPCs nearby came from real people who broke in your house

Top 5 things ANET got right

5) Fluid combat
4) Character customization, appearance, dyes, and wardrobe.
3) WvW, the addition of this game mode PvPvE.
2) Tyria, how the world was built, feels, and looks.
1) Art style, best in the genre imo.

I would list the technical stuff if I knew how to explain that, those behind the scene guys/gals do a great job.

• Dodge roll/active defense

• Removing magic find from gear

• Removing personal score from PvP rewards

• Account wardrobe

• WvW concept

I agree with the original list here, but I’m going to try to discuss things that weren’t mentioned in it and are, perhaps, more recent changes.

-The compass and its various settings.
-Filters in the trading post finally.
-The Marionette fight.
-Labyrinthine Cliffs
-Reward tracks in PvP

Again, I’m a huge fan of the artwork, the combat system, the wardrobe and many other things that have already been mentioned, but this speaks to Anet’s more recent work.

I dont play GW1, but for GW2 same order as OP said:
1. Art Work/Visuals: nice and smooth except fire animation drops framerate for me and many aoe spells with a lot of players at once in one place making my eyes bleed.
2. Combat/Movement/pvp: fresh exceptionally well done.
3. Events/Exploration: strong to keep you busy and fun to level.I like the new map areas added to the game with more fun events and stuff to farm for endgame.
4. Trading Post: never seen as good economy as this in other mmos.
5. Business model: i like and maybe top of the list:)
What is not right for me for gw2 was almost every new patch with more bugs and stupid features and changes that have never been beta-tested before adding to the game.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

SO basically everything they did before launch… your list has not a single thing that came after launch… sounds about right

I agree with your list. I would also add that the CONCEPT of a story driven living world is something they got right.

The first year of festivals were also fun, the second year was decent as well. The third year got the rewards better, but the content is now stale.

The idea of fractals was also something they did well, but they killed them with their “revamp” and stopped adding new ones on a regular basis making them become stale as well.

Anet has very good ideas, they execution seems to fall flat sometimes though.

Logically speaking, they have five years to create a game. They’ve had two years since to add to it. That said there are several parts of the game that have been well received since launch. Now, they’re not all in the game at this time, which is part of the problem. I’d agree that the game’s foundation is amazing and that much of the best stuff comes from that foundation. But there have been quite a few good features since then.

If I’m not mistaken lots and lots of people enjoyed SAB, The Nightmare Tower, the Marionette fight and Escape from Lion’s Arch. I personally think the wardrobe is one of the best updates of the whole lot. And yes, there are people who really like the Living World, including me.

Fractals came out after launch and a lot of people seem to enjoy them. The fact that they came out and didn’t get huge updates well, you know.

There are a whole lot of people that like Edge of the Mists. I know some WvWers don’t, but a lot of other people do.

And there are plenty of people that really enjoy the Silverwastes and Dry top.

Not to mention the new jumping puzzle which a lot of people seem to enjoy.

But added content is not core features and core features is what makes the game. So obviously the stuff that they spent five years building without having to worry about fans in game would resonate most.

Not yet mentioned:

You may travel to lvl 80 areas as soon as you start playing. Instead of story or making hearts, I traveled the world.

Revive. I did not know about it. I thought the “noble soul” is the game itself and that the respawn is done this weird way. Because I always opened the map, I did not see anyone coming to me – just wondered was it another player who was there and suddenly vanished from the view.

Getting naked when armor was damaged. So surprise

Character names are printed in the screenspace, and that is why they are so clear and can be read from a distant.

Ya know, I was gonna try to post this topic before anyone else :p

5. Living World STORY – I mentioned in my other topic that it was the GAPS and length of the episodes is what they got wrong. But what they got right was at least the story, and some world events, like the Marionette boss. LS 1 wasn’t perfect story wise, but LS 2 is making up for it, as I am still intrigued and wanting to know what happens. And if that is what I feel, then its done right.

4. Super Adventure Box – I probably could’ve swapped this and LS back and forth, as they both had some flaws. But SAB won this spot because of mostly nostalgia. Sure, world 2 wasn’t as great as world 1. It was waaay too long (even saying increasing the length, this was just way too much of an increase), and so few baubles, you had to grind world 1 to buy stuff in w2. But in the end, I still went for achievements, I still searched for secrets and puzzles. I still. had. fun. And that’s all I want in a game.

3. The Wallet – My god did I love this. No more going from alt to alt to spend karma or give/deposit money in bank. More room in said bank as tokens moved there. Just…such a great update. So worth it.

2. SPVP reward tracks – I quit Spvp before because I was tired of rewards being nothing but RNG. Open chests, salvage, hope the forge gives you a skin you don’t have (which it mostly didn’t) rinse, repeat. The reward tracks have me testing the waters again, trying it out slowly and getting back into the swing of things. I feel like i am actually WORKING towards something and receiving a reward for that work. Sure, some armors and stuff have gone missing, but at least they saw the problem with the rewards system and worked to fix it.

Runners up:
Dailies – More rewarding, but I believe they need to add more choices to calm down the fury
Holidays – yeah, basically a repeat this year, and missing stuff from previous years (still miss the mad king dungeon), and some stuff in wintersday is bugged due to spvp update, but its ok.
Silverwastes – What’s mostly hurting silver wastes are harmful players, and just the gap of the LS, but other than that, love the loot, love the concept, love the JP.
Easier salvaging – God this small improvement was such a boon. If I did top 10, number 6 easily.
World boss rare chest – At least you now know you get something.

1. Wardrobe – Its a shame this was released beside the trait redesign. But I love the wardrobe. I love not having to keep skins in my bank to use when needed. I love how its organized, I love how you can build your look and color it before finalizing. And I love how dyes went account bound and you received more identified dyes for compensation XD (anyone else remember blue quality dies hitting near 50s at times before the patch? LoL). The only, ONLY complaint I can make of this is losing out on older skins because of lack of room in bank. Witch’s cap (can’t seem to use the real word), you shall be missed :’(

edit: bah, filter filtering a simple word!

1) The combat system. Nice pace.

2) Visuals. Gorgeous.

3) The concept of level scaling so that high level characters have the entire world in which to adventure. I say concept because I don’t think the scaling works as well as it should.

4) Buy to play.

5) gemstore.

Art – GW2 is one of the most visually stunning games I have ever played. The landscapes actually look like real landscapes, and not just terrain with a texture painted over. Extra credit goes to Josh Foreman who came up with the idea of including Jumping Puzzles in the maps, which further helps reinforce the idea that the terrain itself can be an adventure.

Wardrobe/Account Wallet/Account Wide Dyes – One of the best things ANet has done for this game. There are some lingering complaints about how outfits work and the inability to mix and match these, but on the whole I wouldn’t give up the Wardrobe for anything.

Economic Balance – Dynamic scaling is one of the most innovative things I’ve ever seen in an MMO, making it worthwhile for high level players to still visit low level zones. ANet’s also been careful to structure their rewards and gear in such a way that even at high levels, low tier mats and goods still have value. (And I alluded to this in the other thread when talking about Ascended gear.) My own minor gripes aside, GW2 has one of the best economies I’ve ever seen, and it’s working very well even years after release.

PvP Reward Tracks – A very neat and effective way of getting people to try out PvP. (It certainly got me playing.)

Super Adventure Box – One of the most awesome things that ANet has released, bar none. XD Can’t wait for it to be back!

Wow so there are still people that remember what the game was like around launch time. BWE and like the first couple of months after launch were the best times. Then came the living story (good-bye DE and PS), and the April update (good-bye trait system). After that the game just kind of wandered off somewhere…

Good things?

Concept of WvW
Super Adventure Box
Gear acquisition up to exotic
Landscape
DEs before they were abandoned
Concept of “the underwater world” before it was abandoned

In no particular order

At launch:

• No node stealing or kill stealing
• Combat mechanics
• No trinity
• Artwork and game world
• Easter Eggs

Since Launch:

• Teq
• Outfits
• Mob Army revamps
• Dungeon Gear via PvP Reward Tracks
• Labyrinthine Cliffs

1. The visuals: great looking characters without the difficulty of many sliders, beautifull artwork, great map design (I feel like every part of a map is unique in some way),… .

2. The combat system: very fluid, quite simple and nature of the skills, dodgeing is not totally stat bound,… .

3. The mordrem: good mechanics that are engaging without too much denial of other combat methods.

4. Quality of life updates: wallet, wardrobe, free trait changes, … .

5. The living story model: free update every 2 weeks who am I to say no?

Whenever I play another MMO, I get to thinking about the QoL things ANet did right:

I still sing the praises of the Trading Post.
Deposit Collectables. Enough said.
Unified character bank and collectable storage.
Crafting interface (which got even better!)
Wardrobe

Other games can’t catch GW2 on quality of life.

And there are some solid conceptual design decisions:
Fluid combat
Character aesthetic
Buy-to-play
Non-trinity with fast LFG
Permanent living story starting with season 2
(Of course, there’s a lot I can argue against in their decision making.)

Okay my list of things Anet got right. Limiting it to 5 is going to be tough:

1. The beauty of the world. This game is a work of art. There’s nothing I could say to express how beautiful I find the game world.

2. The combination of factors that make PvE less competitive than other games including: no kill stealing, no node stealing, everyone getting credit for kills, everyone getting loot, everyone being able to rez each other without using a skill slot, not having to party to get buffs or heals from people, combo fields and I’m sure there’s more.

3. The small details. There are so many little hidden things in this game, stuff I’d never have thought to look for sometimes. Recently the seagulls have returned to Lion’s Arch. So many little things, from ambient conversations to hidden novelties.

4. QOL features like being able to sell stuff or deposit materials remotely when our inventory is full. The Wardrobe. The account wallet. Now not having to have currency on your character, you can leave it in your bank. The new update to the crafting UI.

5. Jumping puzzles (including SAB). That’s one thing this MMO has that most MMOs don’t. I love the jumping puzzles. They’re a lot of fun for me. Halloween and Obsidian Sanctum are my favorites.

OK so basically everything that already existed when the game launched.

Zylonite.5913:

OK so basically everything that already existed when the game launched.

Not sure if this reponse was to the OP or me.

No, a lot of the QoL features on my list (including the wardrobe and the wallet) didn’t exist at launch.

But there are quite a few things I’ve liked since launch, they’re just more specific. For example, I love the new jumping puzzle in Silverwastes, and I like the zone itself. I like many of the minigames that have come out. They’re simply not the best thing. There are a lot of things that have been done to this game that make the game better for me, including the NPE.

I had to pick 5, though.