Guild Wars 2

I’ve seen some “i quit” threads, along with other complaining about HoT, and yet others just complaining about the state of PvP, or PvE, or WvW, etc.

One advantage of GW2 is that if you play GW2, it’s either free-to-play, or you’ve already done the paying (no monthly sub).

It is perhaps wise to take advantage of that at times. You can leave the game, and pick it back up later if you choose.

However, I’m not suggesting that people leave the game. I do suggest though, that if GW2 has lost it’s shine, that you try other games for a short bit. Trying other games (most recently B&S), has allowed me to see the places where GW2 still shines. True, it exposes some of the downfalls as well, but when I play other games, I make a mental note each time I find myself thinking “wow, GW2 does this a lot better.” or “They’d have done a better job if they’d coded this similar to GW2” etc.

It’s these little experiences that can, at times, pull me back. Admitedly, I’m in a lull right now with GW2. I’m not finding much to do for various reasons, and I’m a bit fed up with some other things, but playing B&S has shown me some of the mechanics and structure that GW2 has really is better thought out. This adds value to GW2 for me. It creates a small bit of loyalty based on things that make the game stand out.

That, to me, is how you bring the shine back.

If GW2 lost it’s shine, go play one of the newer F2P MMOs. GW2 shines up pretty quickly.

People don’t appreciate what you have until you lose it. I’ve been trying out that new F2P MMO and you will quickly appreciate Dynamic Events, simplified systems, an uncluttered UI You miss the larger zones in GW2, the lack of popup players around you, the standing in queue to cash in certain types of loot. Then of course the game’s “it’s not a subscription” perks like not paying for using certain features, like mail delivery that F2P must bare.

But of course some people don’t like simplicity in their games and that MMO may be for them. But once the Twitch streamers I follow stop playing when their paid to play on stream deals elapse, I doubt I would continue to play it. I’ll just add it to my list of MMOs I keep up to date on a weekly basis because I have minimal broadband and it’s easier in the long run to keep it installed and updated that downloading it from scratch all over again.

GW2 is easy and fun for me. Looks good enough even without nostril size sliders.

As someone that’s been hopping from one MMO (particularly Asian developed) to the next for almost 10 years now, I’d say Guild Wars 2 (although not an Asian MMO) is better than anything I’ve ever played. There’s no market shop pay to win incentives, and that alone makes it infinitely better (opinion).

I don’t know how many times I’ve been disappointed when a game comes out that shows so much potential, but requires some sort of payment in order to compete in end game or make your life 100x easier.

I understand that F2P needs some sort of income and this is why, in my opinion, GW2 B2P model plus microtransactions work so well.

I agree OP. Taking breaks really shows how great GW2 is. The combat alone is amazing and the only combat systems that are better is Vindictus/Black Desert’s hack and slash combat (opinion).

Edit: just out of curiosity, anyone ever played 2moons? #represent

It lost it’s shine for me when people started adopting the fricken WoW mentality about gear. It does help, but it’s not necessary.

I can’t freaking get into a raid without being Gear checked by some kittens that can’t understand you can survive without it. “You have crafted Exotics but you’re not in full ascended? Kick.”

Plus the speed runners and the HORRID grind for material. I didn’t mind that in the past, killing enemies at low levels gave you gear for that level. That made getting materials easier. But now they SCALE to your level. So I either have to wait for the oh so rare drop chance of garmets, hides, and other crap…. while I collect gear that I no longer need. Or… make a new character, grind up to the level I need, then start the grind.

Don’t even get me started on how some classes were just made utterly redundant now with the introduction of the revenant.

Or how some classes have been dead locked into a single role.

Still I love the game… I just don’t like some of recent design decisions.

I can’t imagine another MMO I’d be willing to play, but I’m very dissatisfied with that expansion. Thanks God for Netflix. Soooo many good shows to watch. Criminal Minds, NCIS, Supernaturals, The X-Files. The list goes on.

Guild Wars 2 is the worst form of MMO.

Except for all the others.

I can tell you where it shines:

Graphics
Race lore
Character creation
Map

It fails everywhere else – where it should keep our attention.

I think they tried to make a game for “everyone”.

Daniel.4763:

I can’t imagine another MMO I’d be willing to play, but I’m very dissatisfied with that expansion. Thanks God for Netflix. Soooo many good shows to watch. Criminal Minds, NCIS, Supernaturals, The X-Files. The list goes on.

In the same boat as this. See the HoT section thread about GW2 no longer being casual friendly. Anyway I won’t go on about that but OP is right. Best thing to do when something irritates you about the game or you simply burn out is to just stop. Go play another game. Been playing Witcher 3 and Rocket league lately.

Yet here I am still check the forums, waiting for things to be a bit more sunny for how I like to play the game, then no doubt I will be back.

Majic.4801:

Guild Wars 2 is the worst form of MMO.

Except for all the others.

Winston S. Churchill sees what you did there…

I think part of the reason I’ve never gotten sick of GW2 is I’ve never been playing just the one game. I can’t imagine any game that could keep my attention if it was the only thing I played.

Currently, in addition to GW2, I’m playing Elder Scrolls Online, Dragon Age Inquisition, Dragon Age Origins, Twilight Princess and Majora’s Mask. I’m thinking of going back to Skyrim as well and I keep meaning to get Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition.

I’ve also got a bunch of other games installed on my PC, and more console games than I care to count so I’ll switch between them as and when I feel like it.

Admittedly this does mean I’m a lot slower to get things done in GW2 (coupled with the fact that I have 6 permanent characters and numerous temporary ones), but that’s not a problem for me. I’d much rather have things available to do that I will get around to eventually than be one of the people who has completed everything, re-played most of it and gotten sick of doing it.

I don’t think the complaints about PvE are valid at all, as PvE in this game isn’t meant to be challenging or taken seriously (well, not until HoT anyway…). Gripes about PvP and WvW, however, are real concerns that have lost tens of thousands of players because of a lack of dev communication and development.

Especially WvW. There’s been basically 0 communication on future updates with the community from developers at all. They don’t get any feedback from the players about their ideas and implement horrible changes that causes huge exoduses from the game. That’s not a “GW2 is free, they’ll be back later” deal. That’s a permanent loss.

Enjoying for " it could have been worse ", is a sad joy

It fails when it comes to competitive play. I’m pretty sure that there’s no better game out there right now (GW2 “shines” in other areas than balance, user interface, control and all the other stuff) – but know what? I can just quit playing instead of being frustrated 24/7.

Selling point for me was gameplay. There has yet to be an MMO that feels so free, and the animations are so well-sync’d. I could cite a few other points like graphics and ambience (this includes background music and effects), but mechanically it’s just so powerful.

What does make me sad is how they balance the whole game because of PvP, disregarding well-stablished PvE builds. This is a steel slap on the face that starts to make me tired.

There comes a time, Tyrians, when the jewels cease to sparkle, when the gold loses its luster, when the throne room becomes a prison, and all that is left is a father’s love for his old wvw maps.

movie? anyone?

Manu.6078:

Enjoying for " it could have been worse ", is a sad joy

Was gonna do a huge reply but you said everything I was gonna in 11 words, so I’ll just quote you instead. >.>

Akkeros.1675:

There comes a time, Tyrians, when the jewels cease to sparkle, when the gold loses its luster, when the throne room becomes a prison, and all that is left is a father’s love for his old wvw maps.

movie? anyone?

Calm down King Osric.

When I get tired of GW2 I personally play some classics like chrono cross, lufia 2, breath of fire III, etc.
Sometimes I rather just go fishing in real life though
By the way…. why don’t we have fishing minigames on gw2? (specially the way breath of fire 3 & 4 mechanics work on the fishing is awesome!!)

I play Hearthstone and Clash of Clans. But I still log in for my dailies and a little character progression.

As an old Diablo2 player i have gone more or less back to the roots now, and
started with Marvel Hereos .. at the moment i don’t miss GW2 at all.

I’m a bit fed up with Anet’s complete inability to give me five Thief P/P skills that are generally useful and balanced; so have returned to TSW and messed with a few other MMOs that have dual pistol as an option.

TSW still holds up well (especially their world-beating skills system), except for the clunk-factor, but the others are just dire compared to GW2.

Everything from the cookie-cutter questing [‘You want me to what?!’], other players being a PITA who stop me doing what I need to do (kill/loot/node stealing or breaking my quests), horrible animations [nothing anywhere is a patch on my ‘LOL… dawww’ Asura] to horrible controls/camera and jerky chop… GW2 has thoroughly spoiled me.

There’s a fairly recent one, not doing very well, that does potentially have a few nice touches, but is so choppy, with such bad questing and UI, that I constantly think, ‘How dare you think that you can get away with this in a post-GW2 market?!’ I’m sure you know which one I mean.

Please Anet, fix my skills so I don’t have to play these other, drastically inferior [except for TSW], games for my ‘Slinger done right fix. Won’t someone think of the Asuras?!

I came back to GW2 with HOT and it lost every shine again after just a few months.

Why?
- Boring very short story of HOT
- Forcing us to play completly unbalanced arcade games,the so called “adventures.”
- completley unbalanced achievements (some are easy but some require more luck then skill or exercise. This can be extremly frustrating. Like some of the “adventures”.
- time required to balance classes. It took them several months after release to finally nerf sword autoattack of revenants and buff thief damage. I mean everyone knew this since release and it took them so long???
- Legendary Journey….. I rather call it legendary grinding like almost every “collection”. Everything special you want to have is about grinding collections. You want some winterday shoulders? Drink 10k alcohol and complete 20 collections. You want to have your specialisation weapon? Complete 20 collection and subcollections by grinding every new hot map again and again and again for hundreds of hours.

Asia MMOs are nothing compared to the grinding in GW2.

After so many years of playing many, many games (and even being a “professional” beta tester for quite a few) I’m always returning to GW2 (as I did to GW1 before GW2 came out).
Why? Because, even with the frustrations that are inherent – as no game developer will ever be able to satisfy the demands of all types of players – it is still the less frustrating game of all.
Most game developers (and absolutely ALL Asian ones) go by the Asian gamer mentality – that you have to work hard – REAL hard – to get something that will help you advance in game, or that you have to pay RL money for that. While in GW2, even with the grind necessary to obtain ascended/legendary, or gems to buy various cosmetic changes in the TP – the truth is that you don’t NEED them to advance in game. It’s all a “oh I would like to get that for my toon because it would look awesome” but by no means not having that item will influence your capacity to play and enjoy the game.
Beautiful graphics? check
Gorgeous combat effects? Check
Ability to customize your character for your own style of playing? Check
Nice community (for the most part, and here I am sure we all agree)? Check
Free to play after you buy it? Check
Can PvE or PvP or WvW at your heart’s desire? Check
Enough stuff to keep you entertained if you’re a casual? Check

Yea with everything that’s in the market right now there will be a LOONG time before GW2 will lose any “shine”.

And this comes from someone who had innumerable “banned from forums for x days” for criticizing too loud lol.

Lahmia.2193:

Akkeros.1675:

There comes a time, Tyrians, when the jewels cease to sparkle, when the gold loses its luster, when the throne room becomes a prison, and all that is left is a father’s love for his old wvw maps.

movie? anyone?

Calm down King Osric.

Rubies, jewels, take them all, as many as you can carry. JUST GET MY WVW back!

gw2 core game obviously has many charms-it’s expansive, the maps are gorgeous, the creatures are well done, character models look so kitten good! and the movement…deserves it’s own thread (the fluidity of character movement simply cannot be matched in other mmo’s).

now all that being said…gw2 has obviously benefited from the death of the ‘aaa’ mmo, at least in the west. nothing has been released in the last year(or is going to be released) that looks intriguing. certainly there are smaller games(albion etc..) but nothing with the production values of gw2.

but gw2 at its core is ultimately empty- a fantastic open world solo player experience that hasn’t been expanded on in 3 years in any real way. the game has no ‘stickiness’ to it. the systems present in other games (crafting, dungeons, housing) either do not exist in gw2 or are left for dead.

gw2 is the rush to 80…the pacing is off-it’s both too fast and too slow(too fast for crafting but too slow to think about leveling an alt without tomes) . and the problem is once you hit 80 you are finished with game…i mean done…there is nothing else but farming for weapon skin(err…legendary).

horizontal ‘progression’ is probably the worst idea ever introduced..it handcuffed the developers thinking(and colin isn’t ambitious to begin with). instead of playing to 90 or 100 and having new masteries and a new class and 3 or 4 new regions-we got grindy masteries and 4 tiny event maps….

now this a problem all mmo’s face…we made game now what the hell do we do ? in gw2’s case they just gave up . updates now read like patch notes. the expansion only highlighted the shallowness of gw2 and added nothing in the way of replayability/armor skins/housing/crafting/emotes etc.

so what to do? me im playing ff14 and loving it. graphics are gorgeous (nice to meet you dx11)…it has systems, you can actually craft useful things !, housing, mounts. story is hands down better…it just is-this isn’t even up for debate.

but dat subscription fee! ^^; …:D. if your paying any money at all to gemstore each month your basically already paying a sub anyways-without any of the benefits of a sub game…depth.

(admittedly ff14 has its own flaws..if you hate anime ‘style’ you will hate this game..the combat feels very slow and coming from gw2 it definitely takes some getting used too..it’s very old school in feel-this might be a plus, it is for me)

tldr gw2 core great if shallow game..hot is garbage…play ff14

While I understand what you’re saying. The problem with topics like this is that they
make it very easy for the party in question," GW2", to hide it’s flaws outright wrong doings. I hate comparisons like this they justify mediocrity and poor ethics.

While for a time I wanted GW2 to be the best game out there, currently I could care less what happens to the game. It’s just…constant missed potential left and right and outright lying.

People will argue real quickly: Since the majority of other mmos out there don’t get it right then Guild Wars 2 MUST be good and suddenly all the bad that the game does have get’s completely ignored.

Classic misdirection.

To be fair, there were a lot of “I quit” and complaint threads the first few weeks after GW2 came out (and pretty much every week since). It is just what happens on online forums (for pretty much any game).

Reality is, even though I disagree with a development or design decision from time to time (recently even), GW2 is still the best MMO playable today (because it is fun, simple as that – and, imo, some of the HOT content – especially DS – is some of the best content they have designed to date) – and can still boast one of the greatest communities in gaming (love my guild and the people I play alongside).

Well i think the value of the game is even if you quit…you haven’t really quit. You can sit on the sidelines for months or years and not play. It isn’t like a subscription model where you are losing money by not playing.

But the disadvantage is you can really feel the lack of content with the b2p/f2p models…they simply cannot afford to provide the content a subscription game can (for a variety of reasons 1)the initial game takes up all the money (or the majority of the funding) and 2) b2p/f2p cannot make sticky content if they wish for gemstore sales).

so gw2 is just in that place right now. floundering with nothing new coming out (announcing the compact inventory button as a feature in an update is just depressing). so it works both ways…you can always come back but will you come back?

notes- for instance, gw2 cannot make a rewarding crafting system for armor sets. let’s say hypothetically that at level 80 you could craft 10 sets of armor that were great looking…that would mean anet gets zero gem store sales.

so what suffers? well the crafting systems are empty and broken(gold and time sinks…as opposed to sub mmo where crafting systems are mainly just time sinks). and players are left with that empty feeling that there is nothing they can do to make their characters individual…if everyone can just buy it off gemstore.

Its all a matter point of view. Short term casual play it hits the mark but longevity is questionable.

Sure gw2 may have eye pleasing graphics but caution is needed as to what game is being compared against. That being said graphics do not make up for rather lackluster gameplay. There is little to no depth to builds, just spam once off cd.

With balance going from one extreme to the next pvp is just an esport dream. I cracked up laughing when they brought the failure of the wvw tourny to spvp as if they expected players not to cheese their way to the top ( bunker mes and rev).

Wvw was a +1 before all the updates only issue being coverage differences – either a sever have total coverage that the others couldn’t compete against or if in a lower population tier taking turns night capping each other. With the condi update and class imbalances … now its just zzzz….

Global reward system lowers area replayability. Outside of node running, daily, guild mission or mapping theres not really any reason to go to lower maps when you can make more gold on the farming maps. The chance to fail is so abyssmally low theres not really any reason to put effort in past gold reward status, so often I just end up trolling the group with illusion of life when the only enemy is a world boss at 75% hp.

I fired up gw1 for some nostalgia and finish up titles, naturally I had to join a new allaince. I started crying from laughing when one of the allaince members asking for help after wiping on a mission. It wasn’t because im mean by nature but instead because its been years since I last saw a request for help after repeatedly failing.

I personally like grinds for rewards its shows dedication and effort unlike this " talk to this npc who you are required to talk to in the quest…..GREAT JOB you mighty hero here is a reward".

Yes currently many of the new mmos are plagued by pay to win systems or subscription fees that make gw2 a better option right now but that still doesn’t take away from the fact that your looking for something new….

I’ve never played an MMO I could keep playing indefinitely before Guild Wars 2. If you’re not competitive, that is interested in hard core PvP or hard core raiding/dungeon running, you can’t keep playing most MMOs.

This MMO gives me more to do than other MMOs at end game for my play style. Yes, even more than subscription MMOs. Because I don’t really care about dungeons and I don’t want to have to raid.

I’m going to be raiding soon in this game and I’m not happy about it. We’ll see how it goes.

I still have plenty to do without raiding though, and there’s no other MMO I can say that about.

Behellagh.1468:

If GW2 lost it’s shine, go play one of the newer F2P MMOs. GW2 shines up pretty quickly.

People don’t appreciate what you have until you lose it. I’ve been trying out that new F2P MMO and you will quickly appreciate Dynamic Events, simplified systems, an uncluttered UI You miss the larger zones in GW2, the lack of popup players around you, the standing in queue to cash in certain types of loot. Then of course the game’s “it’s not a subscription” perks like not paying for using certain features, like mail delivery that F2P must bare.

But of course some people don’t like simplicity in their games and that MMO may be for them. But once the Twitch streamers I follow stop playing when their paid to play on stream deals elapse, I doubt I would continue to play it. I’ll just add it to my list of MMOs I keep up to date on a weekly basis because I have minimal broadband and it’s easier in the long run to keep it installed and updated that downloading it from scratch all over again.

GW2 is easy and fun for me. Looks good enough even without nostril size sliders.

the thing i like most about gw2 {coming from wow} is that i dont have 1-0 plus mouse buttons and shift+1-0 as skills you need to use. its so many buttons it makes gameplay suck plus no dodge button.

If you want to see if a game has lost its shine, go to you’re guild panel and have a look at non active players, and you will realise just how many people quit this game. Its not the game itself, its the changes with every patch.
Go to Verdant Brink, get 200% participation and see how many airship parts you get, or how many hours you have to grind on 1 map to buy one part for an achievement. (not worth the effort ^^).
Go to the mystic and pour out vast amounts of rares and get nothing other than another rare. I have noticed a change in drop rate with every patch, after 3 and a half years, I notice these things because I do them every day.
I know their is a community of players that wont leave due to the amount of time and effort they have put in here, but in all honesty, WvW borders are dead, PvP is a map of toxic players, and PVE has become nothing more than a marathon grind for a few pixels more.
What I cannot understand is that real issues that are killing this game are not taken seriously enough. So, I will still play, but my eyes are scanning the horizon for something better, and if map chat is anything to go by, I’m not alone.

I think this has been said already, but I come from 17 months of Final Fantasy 14. That game was fun for REALM REBORN, but everything after is terribly bad. The other MMORPGs are not my thing (mostly due to the lack of an awesome diminutive race, such as the Asura). I just came from the FF14 forums RIGHT before entering this thread. And boy, each time I see how terribly executed FF14 is, I realize that I should’ve never waste like 7 more months on that game. That was the time where Square Enix put up waiting games, timers for EVERYTHING and the game was designed NOT to be played (sitting and waiting for parties, groups, dungeons, random events). The treadmill is RIDICULOUSLY executed they could slam a sign in your face reading: “We want your subscription to be endless so we stretch out dumb content month for month to keep the carrot-on-a-stick up even harder while not actually offering any fun content”.

Plus FF14 is utterly “unrealistic”. All characters look WAY to photoshopped. They are all in the perfect age, perfectly healthy, all are happy, the races do not rival, people say FF games have story, but nope, check the race lores of GW and FF. It’s just a description what they are like right now. And they are all happy and everything’s fine and dandy. There are no kids, no elderly people. When I saw the first old Asura that look like the old Halloween pumpkin I forgot in the backyard I was remembered how stall and overly-perfect the FF14 look is. And how much I got disgusted by it. I got tired of full-boobed Mrs. Universes, and cat people which look like they have cat ears and a tail attached to their human bodies. Not even a single freckle or spot on their skin. All comes with some sort of “We are all perfect, WARRIOS OF LIGHT” sort of bullcrap. Their is no character behind them. There are no kids, no adults, no elderly people in FF14. In GW2 however, it feels way better, not utterly perfect super models, people pick fights, NPC are actually moving and doing entertaining things, events are dynamic. In FF14 in contrast, NPCs are rooted, when they talk they wave around their hands, your guy waves around his hands too as if they had a conversation.. That’s so poor (yet entertaining on a sad level to see characters trying to explain an epic enemy by just playing Charades) Zero immersion, Zero effort. The engine is dumb (getting hit while in cover) and the fights are a memory game. You could play DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION, that’s cheaper than FF14. “But it looks good. DirectX11!! And it’s Final Fantasy”. Yeeeeeaahh, no. Just no.

I do not play GW2 everyday. But when I do, I enjoy it from the soundeffects to the jobs over the voice acting to the skills and look. The gameplay of GW2 as Engineer fills up the MMO and the Third-Person-Shooter slot for me. Perfect match. It feels and plays good and fun! It caters me the best, and I am a “new player” (June 2015), so I do not know about the “initial shine”, but guess what, I DO NOT CARE since what I am getting right now is what I love.

MarkBecks.6453:

If you want to see if a game has lost its shine, go to you’re guild panel and have a look at non active players, and you will realise just how many people quit this game. Its not the game itself, its the changes with every patch.
Go to Verdant Brink, get 200% participation and see how many airship parts you get, or how many hours you have to grind on 1 map to buy one part for an achievement. (not worth the effort ^^).
Go to the mystic and pour out vast amounts of rares and get nothing other than another rare. I have noticed a change in drop rate with every patch, after 3 and a half years, I notice these things because I do them every day.
I know their is a community of players that wont leave due to the amount of time and effort they have put in here, but in all honesty, WvW borders are dead, PvP is a map of toxic players, and PVE has become nothing more than a marathon grind for a few pixels more.
What I cannot understand is that real issues that are killing this game are not taken seriously enough. So, I will still play, but my eyes are scanning the horizon for something better, and if map chat is anything to go by, I’m not alone.

Maybe you should have some patience. Changes don’t happen overnight. I believe Anet is aware of the frustration and will make changes to improve the game. The stuff people were complaining about two years ago, at least in PvE, are different than the stuff people are complaining about now.

But every change has to be implemented and then tested. So it takes time.

I remember a slew of complaints about having to complete WvW to get world completion but that’s not the case any more. I remember people complaining about random precursors and not wanting to buy them. It took a long time, but that’s now in the game. People complain about PvP rewards, you hardly see that at all anymore. People complained about the crafting UI and Anet altered that. People wanted first person view and Anet finally added it. But it all took time.

The wave of complaints your seeing, are on the expansion and some of the complaints were addressed right away. I see far less people complaining about how hard the TD meta is now. They even made changes in the last patch to the map in TD to try to make it less confusing for people.

Stuff changes in this game for the better quite often but people are only thinking about the last six months of complaints instead of the last two years.

Give it six months and I bet you many of the complaints you see to today will be addressed. Not all, but many.

All I know that I will be playing wow legion when it comes. Played in alpha as Shaman and this game have like 5,6 months to fix their issues and problems or I am out. Guess giving us minis and wings and all other pixel crap for 800 gems every week take too much resource for everything else. I am not happy about balancing of classes cause I haven’t even seen any balance except removing of amulets (in pvp). Core classes bad issues are ignored once again. I am seeing lots of white knights saying “oh I have sooo much fun running around doing stuff…” – well I guess fun is doing nothing and running around in my new Gem store item or legendary bought with real cash showing off…

After playing Blade and Soul for 2 days, Gw 2 is shining more bright than ever for me. In my opinion miles ahead in every way. Anybody else got a headache from the terrible camerashake in B&S? Not to talk about the incredible immature toxic crowd in the chat? After many queue time, client crashes and server downtime i ran back fast as i can to gw. Have to appreciate the no downtime maintenance instant access of gw.

Ragnarox.9601:

All I know that I will be playing wow legion when it comes. Played in alpha as Shaman and this game have like 5,6 months to fix their issues and problems or I am out. Guess giving us minis and wings and all other pixel crap for 800 gems every week take too much resource for everything else. I am not happy about balancing of classes cause I haven’t even seen any balance except removing of amulets (in pvp). Core classes bad issues are ignored once again. I am seeing lots of white knights saying “oh I have sooo much fun running around doing stuff…” – well I guess fun is doing nothing and running around in my new Gem store item or legendary bought with real cash showing off…

Minis take almost no resources and artists aren’t people who fix bugs. Just saying.

Edit: Not everyone that disagrees with you or is having fun is a white knight. Using a term in a derogatory fashion to try to prove your point doesn’t prove your point at all. Plenty of people are running around having fun that aren’t white knights and don’t even come to the forums. That’s a fact.

Zedek.8932:

I think this has been said already, but I come from 17 months of Final Fantasy 14. That game was fun for REALM REBORN, but everything after is terribly bad. The other MMORPGs are not my thing (mostly due to the lack of an awesome diminutive race, such as the Asura). I just came from the FF14 forums RIGHT before entering this thread. And boy, each time I see how terribly executed FF14 is, I realize that I should’ve never waste like 7 more months on that game. That was the time where Square Enix put up waiting games, timers for EVERYTHING and the game was designed NOT to be played (sitting and waiting for parties, groups, dungeons, random events). The treadmill is RIDICULOUSLY executed they could slam a sign in your face reading: “We want your subscription to be endless so we stretch out dumb content month for month to keep the carrot-on-a-stick up even harder while not actually offering any fun content”.

Plus FF14 is utterly “unrealistic”. All characters look WAY to photoshopped. They are all in the perfect age, perfectly healthy, all are happy, the races do not rival, people say FF games have story, but nope, check the race lores of GW and FF. It’s just a description what they are like right now. And they are all happy and everything’s fine and dandy. There are no kids, no elderly people. When I saw the first old Asura that look like the old Halloween pumpkin I forgot in the backyard I was remembered how stall and overly-perfect the FF14 look is. And how much I got disgusted by it. I got tired of full-boobed Mrs. Universes, and cat people which look like they have cat ears and a tail attached to their human bodies. Not even a single freckle or spot on their skin. All comes with some sort of “We are all perfect, WARRIOS OF LIGHT” sort of bullcrap. Their is no character behind them. There are no kids, no adults, no elderly people in FF14. In GW2 however, it feels way better, not utterly perfect super models, people pick fights, NPC are actually moving and doing entertaining things, events are dynamic. In FF14 in contrast, NPCs are rooted, when they talk they wave around their hands, your guy waves around his hands too as if they had a conversation.. That’s so poor (yet entertaining on a sad level to see characters trying to explain an epic enemy by just playing Charades) Zero immersion, Zero effort. The engine is dumb (getting hit while in cover) and the fights are a memory game. You could play DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION, that’s cheaper than FF14. “But it looks good. DirectX11!! And it’s Final Fantasy”. Yeeeeeaahh, no. Just no.

I do not play GW2 everyday. But when I do, I enjoy it from the soundeffects to the jobs over the voice acting to the skills and look. The gameplay of GW2 as Engineer fills up the MMO and the Third-Person-Shooter slot for me. Perfect match. It feels and plays good and fun! It caters me the best, and I am a “new player” (June 2015), so I do not know about the “initial shine”, but guess what, I DO NOT CARE since what I am getting right now is what I love.

Sorry but I had to laugh when you generously explained your disgust of the " perfect anime (bwebs)" art style seeing that you seem to be mostly unfamilar with it (that’s nothing bad). There’s always a huge controversy behind the anime-cartoony look and that some find it too childish, which is perfectly fine(!), of course.

To be honest, I stay mostly with GW2 because it’s for free. Not because of the awesome gameplay, not because of the oh-so challenging HoT maps or similar common reasons but it’s free and I don’t need to feel bad for my money when I quit for a few month out of boredom, “burnout”, or other reasons. I spend most of my time to level characters to 80 or to experience the elite specs, despite that I haven’t maxed any elite so far. I did the same with WoW as I had no interest in any form of forced group content, or for PvP. Hence, why I also didn’t mind to replace my gear each expansion as I had nothing important to lose. In reality I’d love to take another look at WoW or SWToR but monthly fees are simply no option for me currently. No matter how much worth or “cheap” the fees are.