Guild Wars 2

When I first saw this thread I thought, oh great another cry thread. However, in all honesty, I was expecting a lot. I havent thought about this in so long I’m unsure how to start. Hmm. I suppose a list would help:

>Enjoyable, repeatable PvP. Competitive missions, alliance battles, not this one game mode crap that we got. I dont even understand the reasoning for not at least putting a couple of different game modes in.

>Build diversity, or at least not the minuscule amount of skills we got. One of my favorite things to do in GW1 was to create random builds and test them out. In GW1 this was made possible by the crazy amount of skills available and the 2nd profession mechanic. When I first looked at the skill panel on my first toon at level 2, I was pretty taken aback at how simplistic it was.

>I was expecting a way wider range of select able weapons. Not immersive? I could care less, really. This is one of the biggest ways to hurt your game, by taking away options from players.

>GvG. This was by far the biggest disappointment. This was one of the main reasons I bought GW2. Not only was it not supported, but was actively shunned or looked down upon by a lot of people. So sad. GvG made GW1 imo.

>Im not sure what I was expecting from WvW, but I do know that when I first saw it I was really excited. I still enjoy it, but now that I think about it, its kinda a big fat mess without the trinity system. I think WvW would work a lot better on a smaller scale.

>Immersive story, no cheese plot, interesting characters that CHANGE with the story (some major tv shows dont follow this basic concept). A system that doesnt rely on cutscenes to bring the story to the player, rather do this by different types of story missions, immediate decision making, quest items and requirements, etc. After a certain point on my first toon, I dunno maybe level 50ish, I just skipped everything and waited for the bad guys to show up so I could kill them. I liked the story in GW1, so I’m not biased against doing this sort of stuff. Dont get me wrong, I dont think the GW2 story was horrible even though thats probably how it sounds, just room for improvement is all. There werent many surprises in the GW2 storyline I think is what I’m getting at. In the first game events unravelled at a much slower pace so there was time to experience it, all of it. In GW2 it comes pretty apparent early on that you gotta get your buds together and save the world. In GW1 prophecies, that only became apparent at the last couple of missions when Rurik your main bud turned evil and you had to take him out. Much tear such wow.

>Diverse, repeatable and difficult PvE encounters. Seems like the only things to do in PvE land is to do world bosses and dungeons. Well, now its fractals and raids. Fractals are kinda fun, I havent done them nearly as much as some people, but I’m already bored. Raids look really fun, cant wait for those. In GW1, there was the story (repeatable, hard mode for a bigger challenge and title), FoW+UW, the hero system which made all of PvE so much better, Elona endgame missions (forget what they are lol didnt do them much), vanquishing (killing all the creatures in a map, all PvE maps were instanced), I’m sure I’m missing something just cant think of it. I was expecting the dungeons in GW2 to be way harder.

>Something that I wasnt expecting was the complete lack of good armor and weapon skins. Some of them are really awesome but out of my price range, but 75% of the armor skins out there look like trenchcoats, 1930s dresses, or big kitten ish metal pot helmet+trashcan lid sets.

>Another thing, a major thing I wasnt expecting, was that cool skill effects and graphics would replace content. I would much rather have toned down skill effects for more skills, less graphics for more PvE content (fractals, dungeons, world events). I dont understand how some other games (GW2 is by far the worst offender) rush to update their graphics system but completely forget to add certain things that originally made their game what it is now. Graphics are great, and very necessary, but cmon for petes sake dont abandon what made your game attractive in the first place.

Wow thats a wall of text, my first in a long while. Welp, I guess I’ll leave it at that. Have fun reading all that spew muahahaha! Nah jk, I did put thought and effort into this.

I’ll be direct, no curly sentences. More GW1 like, more hard content (HOT is surprisingly hard enough) love it, no GEM content GW1 survived without one so should GW2, and transit all the GEM store content to PvE/PvP/WvW. More content unique loot from mobs, less junk bags. More class based specializations, and less “jack of all trade” type of specializations. 50% specializations have no sense, and we are getting back to holy trinity. 70% of armor type stats dont even matter never did, it’s just there so we can say that we have armor diversity. A continue of good personal story like in HoT. GW2 story was crap, same as living story.

PvP/Classes in general, more balanced stuff since we have a lot less skills in GW2 then GW1… one would expect pvp to be pvp, not capture the point bunker meta surviving. More true death match please, 5v5 last man stand, no reviving. I miss GvG the point of Guild wars 1, the MAIN THING that made Guild Wars 1 popular, GvG ladyz.

And what i miss the most. And it’s sad and true, I miss GW1 developers, that did put in a lot more community contact, i miss the days when they came on forum and in game, and chat with us for hours, i miss days when our feedback did matter a lot more then today. If i think about all the CDI that we wrote and none of this was ever checked, is sad deep in my soul to see how every single company changes over the years, it truly makes me sad. I see the effort that they make, but if you don’t talk with us, it hurts a lot.

In GW1 i felt like i was part of community.
In GW2 i feel i’m just a number.

Ardid.7203:

Taimi is amazing. Vulnerable yet strong, with a simple yet deep story, an interesting, non-maniqueist personality, and a high contrast character design where her disability actually IS visible and not a mere mention. My favorite character in the game by far.

Same here. I love how upbeat and happy she seems. I loved her interaction with the charr engineer during season 2’s Silverwastes scenes.

Like everyone else has said, the worst part about GW2 has been the writing. It doesn’t help that Rytlock, in the expansion, immediately bursts into the scene with the subtlety of a talking Chihuahua in a Taco Bell commercial, with zero logical explanation or exposition.

GW1 got it right. The plotlines were simple, straightforward, compelling, and included a few genuinely surprising twists and turns.

I was expecting this:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-wars-2-design-manifesto/

Oops.

Non snark answer:
1. Accessible yet complex combat, like GW1 had, but more refined and modern.
2. A large open world without barriers, that you were free to explore and re-explore without worrying about min/maxing.
3. A world that changed constantly in response to player actions.
4. Competitive, thoughtful PVP like GW1 had.
5. A complete lack of traditional MMO grind and treadmill-style progression.
6. Complex character builds and gameplay. Breaking the Trinity into it’s core roles (broad roles of Control and Support instead of the narrowly designed Tank and Healer) and focusing on dynamic gameplay instead of scripted bosses and events.

Oops. So much for those ideas.

Rhyse.8179:

I was expecting this:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-wars-2-design-manifesto/

Oops.

Non snark answer:
1. Accessible yet complex combat, like GW1 had, but more refined and modern.
2. A large open world without barriers, that you were free to explore and re-explore without worrying about min/maxing.
3. A world that changed constantly in response to player actions.
4. Competitive, thoughtful PVP like GW1 had.
5. A complete lack of traditional MMO grind and treadmill-style progression.
6. Complex character builds and gameplay. Breaking the Trinity into it’s core roles (broad roles of Control and Support instead of the narrowly designed Tank and Healer) and focusing on dynamic gameplay instead of scripted bosses and events.

Oops. So much for those ideas.

This, a thousand times this.

Test.8734:

Instead of improving dynamic event design, ArenaNet actually gave up on using them to tell a story, and turned them into just a grind. Take a look at the Silverwastes – it’s basically the same three events being repeated over and over on four different places, with no story development, no overall narrative, nothing. It’s just a grind pretending to be a “dynamic event” when it’s anything but dynamic.

I dunno, I find there is a story going on in the Verdant Brink. There was some going on in Dry Top too. But picking on Silverwastes as terrible and grindy is a cool thing so . . .

And the storyline became even worse than the original personal storyline. Instead of building from the lore originally present in GW2, ArenaNet chose to add a very Mary Sue villain out of nothing, Scarlett, and it only went downhill from there; the way cutscenes and dialogue was built meant that our characters had to stay in silent and hidden most of the time, so the story basically became about a bunch of poorly written token characters instead of being about our PCs.

Your mileage may, nay, does vary there, I think.

Really, this has been nothing but a massive disappointment.

Eh, a lot of that I watched develop because players voted with their feet and their actions . . . for every two people who were posting here “we don’t like the grind” there are eight more happily just going at it for the chance of shinies. (There may be some overlap, there.)

People didn’t like the personal story because reasons, and one complaint put forward was how characters seemed to come and go with no consequence. So we get a persistent crew to move through the Living Story now, and that’s now somehow worse.

Honestly, anything is going to be a “massive disappointment” to some people and they’ll be the first atop the wall to cry it to the masses. “No, no don’t be having fun! This is terrible!”

Well I was expecting the skills to be more like GW1. I expected the event system to be less repetitive and more impacting on the world. I expected more things related to/similar to GW1 such as build templates and the spectator mode (which exists but different). I didn’t pvp for the first 2 years because I was disappointed that it was so different from GW1.

I’ve grown to like GW2 for what it is but I wish it had done some things differently.

I want GW2 to be GW1 with GW2 graphics and open world maps.

What I miss the most:

- Secondary profession
- Build diversity
- Skill diversity
- aaaaaand bloody build templates SAVE option.

I expected good world PvP. That never happened and never will happen. Fundamental game design decisions prevent WvW from ever being good. Thankfully it has some of the best “battleground” style PvP I’ve seen and that is keeping me entertained for now.

Also… Guild Wars 1 was lame. >.>

GW2 is not GW1. It’s a new era and GW2 must comply to the new standards. I think the devs are doing a good job. Even the free account system is way better than other MMOs similar solutions.
Hey! We can jump! And hey, GW2 Prophecies[sic] has the “new” feature called underwater battle, and now HoT has gliding! Whats next? Mounts?

Didn’t have any expectations. I never liked MMOs. I picked up GW trilogy once in my local game store’s bargain bin (only because I heard you didn’t need a subscription) and hated it.

Then SWTOR came out and that was the first MMO I played for more than a week; I liked the story but afterwards I immediately dropped out because I hated the rest of the game other than the story. But it was at least an opening into MMOs. So when GW2 came out and friends were raving about it, I decided to at least check out some reviews and a month afterwards I bought it.

Since then I been playing on and off. Usually I play the game for 3-4 months every day, then disappear for the rest of the year.

A few weeks ago I tried GW1 again for Hall of Monuments completion. Still hated it.

Rinn.2375:

GW2 is not GW1. It’s a new era and GW2 must comply to the new standards. I think the devs are doing a good job. Even the free account system is way better than other MMOs similar solutions.
Hey! We can jump! And hey, GW2 Prophecies[sic] has the “new” feature called underwater battle, and now HoT has gliding! Whats next? Mounts?

I hope so. We can see all the threads about how mounts go against the founding principles that made people decide to buy this game for twenty bucks in a sale.

Rinn.2375:

GW2 is not GW1. It’s a new era and GW2 must comply to the new standards. I think the devs are doing a good job. Even the free account system is way better than other MMOs similar solutions.
Hey! We can jump! And hey, GW2 Prophecies[sic] has the “new” feature called underwater battle, and now HoT has gliding! Whats next? Mounts?

The standards used during GW1 were more modern then the outdated ones they have been using for the last 2 years.

GW1 with better graphics and features, honestly.

There is a lot to like in GW2, but the longer one plays it the harder it is to keep doing so. I was looking forward to a world I could wrap myself up in and also challenge myself in. What I got was a daily theme park with nearly endless grind.

Guild Wars 1 was like reading an excellent book series.
Guild Wars 2 feels like I’m at a chuckie cheese.

roachsrealm.9284:

What I got was a daily theme park with nearly endless grind.

I remember the grind for the EotN titles, the Kurzik/Luxon titles, for ecto in The Underworld, the 55 monk farm, etc. If you wanted a really great thing, you have to grind a lot. I mean a lot It’s not changed at all. The cherry on top was the no TP thing. Do you remember Spamadan? I loved GW1, but it had/has issues too. Very big issues.

A fun game that was worth every penny I spent to purchase it. I got that and then some.

roachsrealm.9284:

GW1 with better graphics and features, honestly.

There is a lot to like in GW2, but the longer one plays it the harder it is to keep doing so. I was looking forward to a world I could wrap myself up in and also challenge myself in. What I got was a daily theme park with nearly endless grind.

Guild Wars 1 was like reading an excellent book series.
Guild Wars 2 feels like I’m at a chuckie cheese.

You and I played a very different Guild Wars 1 then, because it wasn’t like that at all for me. It was nice, but it wasn’t an excellent book series – there’s no Lord Vorkosigan, for one.

And endless grind pretty much describes all the achievements/titles in GW1 . . . plus Obsidian or Vabbian armors . . . not so much for progression here.

Posts like these make me wonder what I spent six years playing before GW2 opened up . . .

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Posts like these make me wonder what I spent six years playing before GW2 opened up . . .

For one we apparently did very different things in GW1.

After hitting level 20 and finishing the campaign, I did these things:
-Explored the world looking for new skills to steal from bosses.
-Leveled new classes to learn their mechanics (the better to pvp others with) or to unlock skills to use in my secondary professions.
-Casual pvp, which was fun.
-Guild pvp, which was frikken epic.
-Perfecting my build(s).
-(Later, during Nightfall) Collecting Heroes
-Perfecting hero builds
-Perfecting entire hero team builds, which was a whole new level of in-depth
-Gearing up said hero teams

None of those things involved grind by any standard, except maybe gearing up the heroes part. Now, GW1 had lots of grind, and apparently those are the things you chose to do. The point is there were many other things to do as well. GW2 has nothing that doesn’t require a grind, and now that HOT has locked content behind elite specs, that grind gates content as well. It’s nothing like it used to be. More importantly, since I can forgive change, it’s nothing like what was (and still is) advertised.

I expected it to be how it is now honestly. Constantly evolving and experimenting. GW1 is GW1. GW2 was never to be anything like it. I left GW1 in the past where it belongs when I got GW2.

I now only have fond memories in which I cherish from the first one. I think a lot of people would be a lot happier if they stopped trying to compare/make GW2 into GW1 with shinies.

It is what it is, and I enjoy it immensely. Of course, that is my opinion as we all have one.

Firelysm.4967:

In GW1 i felt like i was part of community.
In GW2 i feel i’m just a number.

Sums it up for me to be honest. I would like to point out to EVERYONE here and on Every other topic on the forum and EVERY other gaming forum that guild wars 1 is still alive and is actually quite active, I play it daily and we have an amazing active guild that are always keen to help out or do speed clears. Urgoz and Deep are still active (assuming you are part of an alliance). Pvp is a little dead, however this would change if more people came.

Basically if you dislike guild wars 2, show the developers that you want something else and come back to guild wars 1, sure a few people came back it won’t make a difference, but suddenly a large number come back? Anet have no choice but to listen.

I started playing this game since beta. I stopped playing 2 months after the release. I hoped that this game would replace all my other games. AND IT EASILY COULD! But there were 4 things that REALLY sucked.
1. The camera. It was (and still is, but less) gliding around. I mean go play Overwatch for the first time. Feel how comfortable the game is. LoL, CoD, Battlefront. All these games are responsive and comfortable. GW2’s has some very weird and messy programmed stuff. Just get the camera tight and responsive…
2. The combat. Abilities feel cluncky and just not fun at all. WHY IS THERE A DOWNTIME BETWEEN ABILITIES EVEN AFTER THE SKILL BAR IS FINISHED LOADING? WTF? Using “powerful” abilities don’t feel powerful. Its the same problem that Heroes of the Storm has compared to LoL. HotS has awkward combat animations and not intiresting abilities like GW2.
3. SPvP. Ok, you make SPvP and we are able to jump in at level 2. Thats actually great! BUT, why would I bother? What should I aim for? There is absolutely nothing. First year there were not even leaderboards… There is no ranking system. I cant even compare myself to my friends… There is just nothing at all… except some skins…
4. Killing Zhaitan with a level 80 Warrior gives me level 20 elementalist boots and a carrot? Seriously Arenanet? I know it got improved some time after release, but you know how many players GW2 lost in the first few weeks because of this?

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

roachsrealm.9284:

GW1 with better graphics and features, honestly.

There is a lot to like in GW2, but the longer one plays it the harder it is to keep doing so. I was looking forward to a world I could wrap myself up in and also challenge myself in. What I got was a daily theme park with nearly endless grind.

Guild Wars 1 was like reading an excellent book series.
Guild Wars 2 feels like I’m at a chuckie cheese.

You and I played a very different Guild Wars 1 then, because it wasn’t like that at all for me. It was nice, but it wasn’t an excellent book series – there’s no Lord Vorkosigan, for one.

And endless grind pretty much describes all the achievements/titles in GW1 . . . plus Obsidian or Vabbian armors . . . not so much for progression here.

Posts like these make me wonder what I spent six years playing before GW2 opened up . . .

+1 for Sir Miles

Rhyse.8179:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Posts like these make me wonder what I spent six years playing before GW2 opened up . . .

For one we apparently did very different things in GW1.

I am so glad you know what I did in GW1, better than me. It really takes a load off my mind, you know?

None of those things involved grind by any standard, except maybe gearing up the heroes part. Now, GW1 had lots of grind, and apparently those are the things you chose to do. The point is there were many other things to do as well. GW2 has nothing that doesn’t require a grind, and now that HOT has locked content behind elite specs, that grind gates content as well. It’s nothing like it used to be. More importantly, since I can forgive change, it’s nothing like what was (and still is) advertised.

. . . “nothing that doesn’t require a grind”? Are you going with that, then? And GW1 not having grind except for things by choice?

(sigh)

The required Faction farming in Cantha to progress the story. The required Sunspear farming in Elona. Very likely not reaching Level 20 before the end of Prophecies. Skills requiring being purchased with Skill Points, which you would need to earn in order to learn.

Now, I don’t know about you but GW2 by comparison has significantly less grind than people want to claim. Most of the open world does not need to be ground out any more than GW1’s did, and there is significantly more things to do than the endless slog of fighting similar mixes of monsters in GW1’s trips between towns. (EOTN did get better about this, though.) The primary targets people choose to talk about grinding would be earning Ascended armor (unnecessary for anything outside Fractals for the Agony Resist), Legendaries or other shinies (which are comparatively as expensive as it was to build Obsidian Armor during the height of GW1 if you compare the economies), and now Heart of Thorns (which I can’t evaluate due to, well, not having time in the last seven days to sit down and strip through all the content . . . that in turn due to, well, enjoying being paid so I can keep eating.)

And, of course, Silverwastes. Which was designed on a base level much like WvW was and that’s completely evident – and as we know, WvW is nothing but repetitive actions with no actual consequences. Therefore you could call it a grind . . . but also one you do not need to subject yourself to. Which sounds familiar, but I can’t place where I heard that before . . .

Can we please stop pretending there wasn’t grind in GW1 and GW2 is nothing but grind? Both games can be excruciatingly grindy (I still do not have Obsidian armor nor do I have a full Hall of Monuments) but just playing the fricking games don’t force you to do any of it . . . this is not Final Fantasy.

. . . and I don’t mean 14, I mean any of them.

stale.9785:

+1 for Sir Miles

Not “Sir”, “Lord Auditor Miles Vorkosigan”.

If you please

i havent played GW2 in over a year. this is my first time checking the site and forums in 6 months. i have no intention of updating the game and trying out the new content.

i played the original GW for more hours than i should have, had all the expansions and campaigns, made friends in the game and even had my wife play and have a ton of fun, especially in end game content areas like the Underworld and Fissure of Woe. (i even have a tattoo designed from the UW as it was my favorite part of the game and spent alot of time farming there)

Both the wife and I were super excited to play GW2 and see what the producers of such a great game that we both loved would bring us in the second iteration. With our pre-orders we got early access to the game and brought us a first taste of what was to come. we were both disappointed.

GW2 isnt really GW2. in fact, its not really Guild Wars. the differences in gameplay and style are so radically different that we ended up with a completely different game. While i did expect to see new and different content, i wasnt expecting to see a completely different game. all the things that I (and my wife) had come to love and find enjoyable in GW1 were nowhere to be seen in GW2.

I played for about a year learning and exploring the new game to see if i could get the same enjoyment out of it as i had gotten out of the original. sadly, it wasnt to be. while GW2 has its own things going for it, i have a hard time enjoying it. there are some things that are quite enjoyable but for the most part, its missing the hook that the original had. maybe its androgenous character types and play, maybe its the huge amount of grinding thats required for RNG to smile on you. i do know that waiting for other people to show up just so i could do my own storyline was a huge disappointment. i was also quite disappointed with the fact that i required other active players in order to do an event that i wanted to do and if they left after 1 try, i was forced to leave as well because i couldnt do it solo.

anyhoo, the rants and ramblings of an inactive player should be taken for what they are. i’m not back here to try and change the GW2 world, just sharing my thoughts. i will always have fond memories of playing GW1 and even after years later, the wife and i still bring up old GW1 jokes. as much as GW1 has made us smile and laugh, similarly, GW2 has made us quite sad.

Rpgtabbycat.5869:

Sadly GW2 isn’t as good as GW1 was and I’m not entirely sure what ANet can do to fix that.

Really ? Fix something that is great ? I hope Anet won’t “fix” our GW2 into GW1 , haha

Nika.3946:

Rpgtabbycat.5869:

Sadly GW2 isn’t as good as GW1 was and I’m not entirely sure what ANet can do to fix that.

Really ? Fix something that is great ? I hope Anet won’t “fix” our GW2 into GW1 , haha

I don’t understand people like you, You like gw2 correct? Did you not read my post at the start of this topic?

Why the hell do the original players from guild wars not have the right! to complain when the game they loved and supported into what Anet has become today is nothing like the original? Thi company was BUILT off of fans from Gw1 like us!

If you enjoy gw2, great go and play it, read forums like this and laugh but leave it at that! Guild wars would be nothing without the fans from the original.

cam.6850:

Nika.3946:

Rpgtabbycat.5869:

Sadly GW2 isn’t as good as GW1 was and I’m not entirely sure what ANet can do to fix that.

Really ? Fix something that is great ? I hope Anet won’t “fix” our GW2 into GW1 , haha

If you enjoy gw2, great go and play it, read forums like this and laugh but leave it at that! Guild wars would be nothing without the fans from the original.

If the original is so different from the current iteration, then evidently the fans from the original had very little to do with Guildwars 2

PyrateSilly.4710:

There is also the fact that technology changes and they can now allow us to do different things like gliding or having (almost) 3D maps, jumping, etc. Things that were not really doable 10 or even 5 yrs ago.

There was nothing stopping these other than choice.
For example, gliders, and subsequently flying, are just a choice to either be included or not. The choice can hinge on design, the lore, the work of actually implementing it, or any number of other reasons, but the technology itself is not a limiting factor. The MMO Perfect World, which came out in its first version roughly 10 years ago, has always had a fully implemented character flight system, with different means of flying (wings, swords and flying animals), variable speeds and auto-pilot. Not to mention other MMO’s and games that have flight systems and 3D maps. More than a decade ago, Metroid Prime had a very well executed 3D mapping system to show where you are within the 3D world. Granted that’s a specific genre, but technology has not held back that mapping system or the platforming from being utilized within an MMO (which IMO is the kind of mapping system GW2 needs in areas with multiple levels.)

MrRuin.9740:

Granted that’s a specific genre, but technology has not held back that mapping system or the platforming from being utilized within an MMO (which IMO is the kind of mapping system GW2 needs in areas with multiple levels.)

Is it worth noting that Metroid Prime also was more a collection of rooms strung together with doors, and not really an “open” world? It could render only one room and the doors functioned as “loading gates” to allow the Gamecube to load the next room before it opened. (And we hate gated content here, don’t we?).

As interesting a technical achievement as it is, another example would be Descent (the first and second) for having a nice 3D game experience going on. It also was one of the examples for how this was an incredibly disorienting thing to do to a player used to thinking in 2D for shooters.

Gliding, as far as it goes for MMOs, really has kind of existed since EQ with the old “Levitation glide” technique for getting around into all sorts of places you weren’t meant to go. But that also was kind of . . . let’s say could cause bugs

papaiggy.1345:

You can add me to the boycotting with my money and not going to purchase this expansion. I wanted GW2 to be a waaay better game then it is.

There are things i dont like about gw2, but if you play the game i can recommend the expansion. the expansion is a lot better than the core game
i really enjoy exploring the jungle

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

You and I played a very different Guild Wars 1 then, because it wasn’t like that at all for me. It was nice, but it wasn’t an excellent book series – there’s no Lord Vorkosigan, for one.

And endless grind pretty much describes all the achievements/titles in GW1 . . . plus Obsidian or Vabbian armors . . . not so much for progression here.

“Your mileage may, nay, does vary there, I think”.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

The required Faction farming in Cantha to progress the story

Nope, they didn’t.

They required you to do some of the quests in order to progress the story, but instead of giving you a specific set and order of quests to do, they allowed you to choose yourself. Doing the available quests was more than enough to get enough Faction to continue the storyline, as can be proved with very simple math. And, for the records, this was account bound.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

The required Sunspear farming in Elona.

Nope. Same thing here. When the game was released it did require people to farm when using characters from other games, but it was quickly fixed; after that, you only had to “farm” if you ignored more than half the quests in the game. Which was basically ArenaNet giving players an option of what to do.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Very likely not reaching Level 20 before the end of Prophecies.

Nope. You couldn’t not reach level 20 before the end of Prophecies unless someone had just ran your character from the beginning to the end of the game, but even if that were true, it would be meaningless – there was no level gate at the end of the game, and the henchmen there were not gated by your level either.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Now, I don’t know about you but GW2 by comparison has significantly less grind than people want to claim.

Nope, it’s more grind than people usually claim. Some of it has been known for a long time so it isn’t even mentioned often, but in comparison with the origina GW – which had a level cap of 20, usually reached at the end of the tutorial, and which had many vendors selling weapons with maxed damage and armor with maxed defense by very small prices at the main cities, and which had few tiers of gear, and in which crafting grind didn’t exist, and so on and on – GW2 is incredibly, massively grindy.

And to makes thing worst, ArenaNet has been dedicating a lot of their resources to grind instead of to real content. Their last additions to the core GW2 was basically nothing more than grind – see the Silverwastes -, HoT is filled with grind in order to try to hide how little content the expansion has, and so on. Instead of trying to make a finite but large amount of good content that people would be willing to come back to – like the original GW – ArenaNet is focusing on making a very small amount of content and to keep people around through sheer grind.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Honestly, anything is going to be a “massive disappointment” to some people and they’ll be the first atop the wall to cry it to the masses. “No, no don’t be having fun! This is terrible!”

And to some people everything is going to be “perfect” and they’ll be the first atop the wall to cry it the masses.“No, no don’t try to improve the game! ArenaNet is perfect and cannot make any mistake!”.

I wanted it to be GW1 with better graphics and QoL improvements. Most specifically, I wanted max tier armor to be bought from the NPC just like in GW1. Not the ridiculous soup of stats and tiers we have nowadays. Elite armor should have had the same stats as NPC armor, but epic skins. That’s how it worked in GW1 and it was just fine.

And… many other things but meh. Don’t feel like typing out words that will not be read, plus others have already been detailed enough.

More like Guild Wars instead of Sonic the Mario with gambling.

Simply put, a Coxless version of the game.

Paul.4081:

More like Guild Wars instead of Sonic the Mario with gambling.

Simply put, a Coxless version of the game.

I like the platforming, especially jumping puzzles it adds some fresh air to the gameplay. If you release your mouse button too soon or not soon enough you’ll miss the jump so a lot of it is learn to accurately gauge.

Agemnon.4608:

Paul.4081:

More like Guild Wars instead of Sonic the Mario with gambling.

Simply put, a Coxless version of the game.

I like the platforming, especially jumping puzzles it adds some fresh air to the gameplay. If you release your mouse button too soon or not soon enough you’ll miss the jump so a lot of it is learn to accurately gauge.

“Sonic the Mario with gambling”

Let me know when the rpg xp comes out

Paul.4081:

Agemnon.4608:

Paul.4081:

More like Guild Wars instead of Sonic the Mario with gambling.

Simply put, a Coxless version of the game.

I like the platforming, especially jumping puzzles it adds some fresh air to the gameplay. If you release your mouse button too soon or not soon enough you’ll miss the jump so a lot of it is learn to accurately gauge.

“Sonic the Mario with gambling”

Let me know when the rpg xp comes out

Sonic had a werewolf RPG and Mario has a famous RPG series. It’s really cool how the Mario crew slummed it in an RPG series. Action adventure games are the most popular and some RPGs were incorporating their elements for sometime. RPGs don’t really exists anymore in a pure form like the old Final Fantasy games.

Test.8734:

And to some people everything is going to be “perfect” and they’ll be the first atop the wall to cry it the masses.“No, no don’t try to improve the game! ArenaNet is perfect and cannot make any mistake!”.

Oh they make plenty of mistakes – Ascended was one, how they handle Fractals is another, and trying to make an MMO is their third and most heinous mistake at all.

But I’d rather they make the game they want to make, than the one the masses want it to be turned into – that is how Ascended got added as it did.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Is it worth noting that Metroid Prime also was more a collection of rooms strung together with doors, and not really an “open” world? It could render only one room and the doors functioned as “loading gates” to allow the Gamecube to load the next room before it opened. (And we hate gated content here, don’t we?).

Oh, I know. Metroid Prime is not something that be compared to an MMO (MP being the superior experience, IMO), let alone being on the dated Gamecube VS modern PC’s. I was merely trying to say that a very well implemented 3D mapping system was in place on said now-dated hardware, more than a decade ago. Technology isn’t whats keeping those sorts of things from being in MMO’s.

MrRuin.9740:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Is it worth noting that Metroid Prime also was more a collection of rooms strung together with doors, and not really an “open” world? It could render only one room and the doors functioned as “loading gates” to allow the Gamecube to load the next room before it opened. (And we hate gated content here, don’t we?).

Oh, I know. Metroid Prime is not something that be compared to an MMO (MP being the superior experience, IMO), let alone being on the dated Gamecube VS modern PC’s. I was merely trying to say that a very well implemented 3D mapping system was in place on said now-dated hardware, more than a decade ago. Technology isn’t whats keeping those sorts of things from being in MMO’s.

Yeah most games today are railed with too many cutscenes and exiting story modes instead of destructible environments and then you have those that aren’t linear enough like Skyrim (which is still a fun game overall, especially with mods and a controller). Focusing on the story is fine so long as the basics are taken care of. For example where it’d be good writing to kill a character off in a game where you can and have brought characters back to life needs to be reconciled somehow. You can simply not kill them off or change “death” to “knocked out” but that’s lame compared to a priest or white mage fully (or not so fully in the case of a basic life spell that doesn’t give full HP) returning someone’s body to a non-injured state so the soul could re-enter the body. When there’s a contradiction between story and gameplay the story should be rewritten to reconcile it. Does a certain fun but senseless dungeon not fit into the story? Make it canon and part of the lore, but still keep it secret for players to venture.

Fiennes.9568:

cam.6850:

Nika.3946:

Rpgtabbycat.5869:

Sadly GW2 isn’t as good as GW1 was and I’m not entirely sure what ANet can do to fix that.

Really ? Fix something that is great ? I hope Anet won’t “fix” our GW2 into GW1 , haha

If you enjoy gw2, great go and play it, read forums like this and laugh but leave it at that! Guild wars would be nothing without the fans from the original.

If the original is so different from the current iteration, then evidently the fans from the original had very little to do with Guildwars 2

If the original is so different from the current iteration, then evidently the devs from the original had very little to do with Guildwars 2.

Ftfy.

It was ANet’s success with GW that prompted NCSoft to support them for five years while they worked on GW2. That success had everything to do with what the devs built and the fans appreciated. GW2 is both similar and different than GW, and those differences have everything to do with the dev team that built GW2. Many of the devs who built GW were/are no longer with ArenaNet.

I want it to be what it is now.

There could be improvements ofcourse, better balance. Better story, and so forth.

But compared to other MMOs, this one is perfection.

i wanted my grind to mean more, i wanted to feel more powerful/wealthier than other players, i wanted trainable skills that took time and effort to level up so that we were not all hitting a wall within a few months cuz its way too fast to hit level 80

cam.6850:

So I would really like to hear from the rest of you (especially those who actually played gw1) what your expectations were, were they meet, why or why not, and what are your plans/expectations going forward (give it up, play something else, keep playing, etc).

I was a long time GW1 player. Loved it.

I heard a lot of speculation about GW2. Player housing, persistent giant world, immersive story telling, tons of non combat activities, etc, etc. All of which was way premature considering how little information was actually available back then.

I was a bit too trusting then and bought into a lot of it. I walked into this game expecting the king of all MMOs. Instead what I got was a solid game that is fun to play on and off. If you got cash it makes it even better but all-in-all it’s fairly enjoyable on its own.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed in where the game is today as to where I thought it would be in year 3. I’ll keep looking for that ultimate MMO experience and if I find it GW2 will have been a good experience, but just another game.

TLDR; Thought GW2 would be an A+ game but instead it’s a B-. Good. Not Great.

Another long time GW1 player here. I was disappointed in GW2 at release, but learned to stop comparing it to its predecessor eventually.

I was expecting something a lot more like GW1, and still think they made some poor decisions purely to appeal to people familiar with other MMOs. Now a days, my biggest complaint is probably the WoW influence in weapon size and design, and the tacky immersion breaking gem store items, but that mostly comes down to aesthetic preferences.

That said, I’m still playing it, and it’s not like I don’t have lots of other choices.

imsoenthused.1634:

Another long time GW1 player here. I was disappointed in GW2 at release, but learned to stop comparing it to its predecessor eventually.

I was expecting something a lot more like GW1, and still think they made some poor decisions purely to appeal to people familiar with other MMOs. Now a days, my biggest complaint is probably the WoW influence in weapon size and design, and the tacky immersion breaking gem store items, but that mostly comes down to aesthetic preferences.

That said, I’m still playing it, and it’s not like I don’t have lots of other choices.

Don’t deny it, you love dyable flames just like the rest of us ^_^

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

But I’d rather they make the game they want to make, than the one the masses want it to be turned into – that is how Ascended got added as it did.

Isn’t it too late for that?

As you said, they added ascended gear and Fractals grind because “the masses” asked for it. ArenaNet planned to make an expansion-less game based on the concept of a Living World that would change over time, but critical disappointment over the ephemerality of LW season 1 and the lack of finantial returns changed their mind (and thus HoT, here we are). They said they would periodically add new skins to the game two years ago, but the idea was then abandoned; they had said they would try to add many events to a single place so each event wouldn’t repeat often, and then we got the Silverwastes.

Meanwhile, a lot of important people from ArenaNet has left the company.

I’m not sure what game they wanted to make, but I doubt even ArenaNet knows it anymore.

Speaking of skins they need to add more achievement based skins, like a Stalwart and other unobtainable version of luminescent where it has the Stalwart set shape but luminescent effects where you can only obtain it from very tough PvP rewards on a leather armored class (same rules apply to other armor classes).

That’s just one example.

I wanted gw1 on a new engine and pvp balanced around 5 people (guild wars pvp not this garbage we have)