Guild Wars 2

I’m curious to see what people’s gaming backgrounds are and to see if there is any correlation to liking GW2 or not.

So, I’ll start…

My gaming background…
I only played WOW for a grand total of 45 minutes before I got bored and closed it. Granted, I never really gave it a chance, but open world MMO’s were never really my thing. I’ve tried others like AION, Aika, Silkroad, etc and never made it far before getting bored…I lasted the longest on Aika online for a whopping 4 days of half hearted gaming. Though I played GW1 for over 6000 hours, that’s not really a open world MMO. It’s a cooperative team based, online RPG game and as such it is very different from the likes of GW2 or WoW. My real background in gaming are the action type games. FPS, 3rd person shooters, action combat games etc… My first game I’ve ever played was wolfenstein 3D (the early 90’s original not the remake), then street fighter series, tekken, soul calibur, doom series, halflife, counter strike, half life 2, call of duty 1-5. I also really liked many of the sandbox games like simcity, and mainly the sims 1-3 and downloading all kinds of mods that I can find to customize my sim’s looks and style. I was also a big fan of the baldur’s gate series, fallout series, and even fallout 3, morrowind, oblivion; with the latter 3 being so moddable you can make you character look like anything you want with any clothing combination possible. But now I’m currently playing two action online RPG’s called Vindictus and Dragon Nest.

Do I love or hate Guildwars 2?
I don’t hate it but i’m really disappointed in it. It is a game that I really wanted to love but at least for me it turned out that I’m not really into GW2.

Gaming background: UO, casual WoW, Aion, GW1. Except maybe for WoW which I didn’t play a lot since it annoyed the heck out of me, a whole lot of hours in all. Non-mmorpg games I probably started around the same time as OP (Doom, Wolfenstein, Hexen, X-COM, etc).

Do I love or hate Guildwars 2?
Neither. Decent game with great potential. There’s still a great deal of work to be done in my opinion to have it reach that potential. Right now there are things in it that are downright disappointing. We’ll see what the future holds. I’d like to believe (even tho it’s hard) that ANet is not turning a blind eye to the community.

How I feel about GW2 – I loved GW2 up until November 15th. I still like it, but I do not like the direction it has started to head in. I will not quit just yet, despite that, as I want to see how bad the damage is when the full set of ascended gear is released. But, for now, I can say that my enthusiasm for this game has dropped grandly.

My background – My first games were on Atari, just before the NES released. I was exclusively a console gamer until ’99. I started playing Ultima Online in 1999. I tried Everquest but it was simply not for me, so Ultima and MUDs were my primary MMOing experience until the release of Anarchy Online and eventually Shadowbane. I quit UO in 2004 when I began playing World of Warcraft and then Guild Wars. For the next 5 years or so I focused on playing WoW, Shadowbane, Guild Wars and Planetside simultaneously.

Eventually SB died, Planetside’s population declined and I grew tired of WoW, so I began bouncing MMOs for a while. I began and still play EVE online, tinkered with Age of Conan, tried TERA and got a level 53 in Aion… tried Warhammer but it wasn’t for me. I finally settled in, upon its release, with Rift while continuing to play EVE and GW1.

Currently I play Planetside 2, Rift and GW2.

Gaming background? Lets see. I played a MUD first. Got into it with a school friend. Only because I liked chatting with people I met there. That’s what hooked me to the whole gaming stuff. The community. I played 4Story for almost 3 years, started a mere couple months after opening on Global. But again, that was more for the community and friends I had made. Played GoA for a very short time and mostly on a friend’s account, some private servers on 4Story. Played DragonNest. That game sucked. Think I quit at level 10 or something. For those who know it, you know how easy level 10 is. Played Aion for about 2 years waiting for this game. Oh, and I played WoW for all of a day somewhere in there and also RoM for like 2 days because of a friend. GW1 for a few days. My computer didn’t like the game. It was weird. Oh yeah, and Atlantica or whatever it is called. Lol.

Love or hate GW2? Love the game, very much dislike the newest patch and what it has done to the game and the community.

How I feel about GW2 – I really, REALLY liked GW2 until FotM started crippling global participation in the rest of the game by compelling everyone who wanted a “complete toon” to play for the stupid gear. I will not quit just yet, despite that, as I want to see how bad the damage is when the full set of ascended gear is released. But, for now, I can say that my enthusiasm for this game has dropped grandly.

My gaming background – All kinds, on both console and pc. RPG’s include zelda, ffcc series, phantasy star series, wow, rift.(I came to this game specifically because I hated the treadmills on the latter half of this list, and ANet promised me this) FPS includes the mainstream greats. A few classic puzzle games like tetris, zoop, catrap.

My gaming background

Started really getting into gaming with Unreal Tournament and Diablo 2. Got into Warcraft 2 and Red Alert Command and Conquer. Played loads of all those games. Then Neverwinternights 1 (didn’t like 2) and got into GW1. Played as many hours as the OP. Tried WoW and lasted less than 45 mins. Tried Lotro, didn’t like it, tried STO and also didn’t like it. Tried DDO…didn’t last. Rift Beta…whatever. Aion for 18 months, left hating NcSoft. Played SWTOR…well actually I play it again after quitting GW2.

Do I hate GW2?

No, I don’t hate it but I do hate what they’ve done with the latest patch so I quit playing. In any case though, I still think GW1 was and is a better game than GW2, although GW2 did add some nice items like jumping puzzles.

If GW1 had real content updates like the expansion before I’d play that again before GW2 in its current state. SWTOR and GW1 have a better world than GW2 so I prefer leveling there and well SWTOR, with its flaws, is just the better choice for me.

Lets see. I’ve played a lot of different F2P mmos and mmorpgs, realm of the mad god, Warhammer online age of reckoning, Rift, SW:TOR, but i’ve never played WoW(probably never will). Now i have played GW2.

I really like the buy to play aspect of GW2 with no monthly subscription. I find that the content and patching given to gw2 is very adequate. The combat is okay for me. The PvE story however, is probably one of the worst aspects (trahearne stealing the spot light from the main character is a big no-no). I will give credit that the start of the story is good, and the factions portion is great, but the third part(trahearne and orr) is terrible. The PvP is this game is okay, it still needs improvements which will come in time. Overall I guess i have a nice soft spot for GW2 in my heart, but i don’t fully love it since it could use some fixes and more work.

Gaming background:
Not much, but mostly MMOs: Rohan, WoW, Aion, DoW, i like online multiplayers as u can see, for me the games are funner the more people there are, I hate grinding and Im a casual gamer but if i find a group of enthusiastic players i can get very realinto raids, ranked gaming and others, but only if it invloves skype or continues chat, if it is with random people it wont happen, Im a friend gamer.

My take on this game:

I was VERY hyped, bought the game as soon as available, started playing asap, but im currently disapointed at the state of professions on sPVP, specially on how weak elementalists are if you are not D/D which you are pretty much forced to be to be on “par” with other classes which do the same and more better. Also very frustrated about mesmers to the point they have made me completely avoid PvP and therefore the game, until i see mesmers tone down (not in power, but in the kitten frustration vs fun ration and their copies crap) I wont be playing this game very often, if at all.

My gaming background: Well, it’s pretty long, have been playing about 100+ different MMORPGs throughout my whole life. But talking about all of them would become a major wall of text so, the one that I did stick to the longest was Guild Wars, World of Warcraft and Aion. I only played WoW because all my friends whom I played GW with left it for WoW, if I didn’t have friends who played WoW I would’ve never touched it. But at least I had some good memories from all that.

How I feel about GW2: I love it, I really do, the gameplay and movement are so connective and smooth, you can almost say it runs like silk. It’s a lot more solo friendly than GW ever was and it has so many unique features like level scaling, sharing gathering nodes, sharing loot, big epic battles, gaining exp from everything, exploring, no trinity and a lot less grind than other MMORPGs. You can almost say it’s perfect!

Oh and another big plus I also have to mention is my favorite voice actor “Troy Baker” as “Logan Thackery”. (fan girl squeee) <3

Doesn’t mean it doesn’t have flaws though. There are a few frustrations for me, like the game not wanting you to make money, almost everything is a money sink. (waypoints cough) Crafting is worthless for making money and the gear you make is useless as well, unless maxed. Not enough variety in weapons and armor graphics. You can pretty much look the same throughout 40 levels.

Dungeons are frustratingly annoying that I am forced to skip them because I don’t feel good enough for them. Last dungeon (Twilight Arbor) I did my group wiped too many times on the last boss that I almost wanted to bash my head in the wall. Not an enjoyable experience at all. I just want to do dungeons for the story, all I’m interested in.

Anywho, that’s my feelings towards GW2, I will keep playing it and have faith in ANet like I have since GW. I’ve been so spoiled of GW2 that I cannot play any other MMORPG. xD

Live long and prosper!

My gaming Experience: (PC only)
Baldurs Gate, Ultima Online, Kingdom Hearts, All Final Fanatasies up to 10, Neverwinter Nights 1, GW1, GW Factions, GW Nightfall, GW Eye of The North, Rise of the Dragonian Era(I got a free RL pizza just BETA testing it) Two Worlds, Runes of Magic, Last Chaos, Shaiya, Perfectworld, Forsakenworld, Dungeons and Dragons online, MapleStory, Cabal, Dragons of Atlantis, Talisman Online, 4Story, Evony, RF Online, Ace Online, World of Warcraft from BETA to Cataclysm, Rift, Eve Online, tried Aion, but liked Souls of the Ultimate Nation more(or SuN for short) Unreal Tournament, Halo 1 and 2, Fallout 3 and all Expansions, Fallout New Vegas, Battlefield 1942, BF Secret Weapons, BF Road to Rome+Expansions, BF2 and expansions, BF Badcompany, BF3, tried BF 2142, Medal of Honor 1, Call of Duty 1, Joint Opperations, Hidden and Dangerous, ArmA 2 (sweet combat sim) paitently waitng on ArmA 3, Battlestar Galatica Online, Star Trek Online, Tera. Tried Second Life, tried Planet Calypso, Dark Prophecies, Vindictus. Star Wars old Republic I did not bother with, because Battlefield had a Star Wars Mod useing the old Battlefield 1942 engine.

There are probaly a few I missed, and I did not get into Console games from Atari all the way up to Xbox 360. Don’t worry I will not list them.

How I feel about GW2:
I do not like the direction it is going, was great, until the Factal Dungeon got implemented and Ascended Gear.

Background:

My 1st MMORPG was Everquest 1 and in many ways that is still my favorite atleast as far as the community and my guild (very little drama and EVERYONE helped everyone else out).

I then moved on to WoW and played that for several years and then tried SWTOR for a while. Currently I play GW2 and Rift.

As far as other games… I was into first person shooters dating back to Quake 2 and Tribes and also played a lot of console RPG’s such as Final Fantasy and Zelda. I currently play Halo 4 but still love to play any GTA/Saints Row type games.

How I feel about GW2:

I LOVE all of the new things GW2 added to MMO’s such as dynamic events (although Rift has those too), shared loot on kills and no kill stealing, shared nodes, jumping puzzles, vistas etc.

I like the idea of horizontal progression for a change but I feel that finding a balance between vertical and horizontal is the only way GW2 will ever work.

Having said that, I can see why people are upset over the changes.

I think new tiers of gear with better stats should only work in certain dungeons/raids and when worn outside of those areas the stats become no more powerful then exotics.

Overall, to me the good things that GW2 has brought to MMO’s far outweigh the bad.

UO, EQ, EQ2, WOW, CoH/CoV, Aion, AOC, PotBS, DDO, CO, STO, SWTOR, Vanguard, TSW, GW + of course GW2.

My gaming history predates personal computers and started with skirmish wargaming and pen-paper RPGs (mostly Runequest and Chivalry and Sorcery) I played pong when it first came out. My first PC was my Apple IIe back in the late 70s. I’ve bought every game I ever took a fancy to along the years.

I was both happy and satisfied with GW2 from the moment I first played it. Stopped playing the moment this patch of the 15th came out and will not play again unless that patch is reverted, if it isn’t I’ll ask for a refund. I can live with bugs in a new game, they all have them. I can live with the early class balance dancing that occurs too. Those are normal MMO teething issues. What I can’t live with is a complete reversal in the games stated governing principals.

I’m just waiting for Anet to state emphatically what their plans are concerning adherence to their manifesto. If they continue with what they have done I’ll simply get my money back and wish all the folks staying good luck.

I wouldn’t have bought the game had it not been for the Manifesto. I dislike the changes but maybe could have lived with them had I not been lied to during the pre launch marketing phase of this game.

Gaming Background
My first gaming experience was that of the gameboy/nes era.
I loved playing games on the nes and snes.
I also grew up in asia so I grew up on the arcades.
So it was in my belief that playing a game should be its own reward, not numbers. And from my arcade background, that skill should be rewarded not time spent.

MMOwise my first one was Ragnarok Online, the concept of grinding for gear was new during those days and I enjoyed it. I also played other online RPGs such as Phantasy Star Online, Diablo 2, and other games here and there that was very grindy like Dungeon Fighter Online, Mabinogi, etc.

Then came Guild Wars 1. As I grew older the amount of free time I have diminished, I had little free time to begin with as there are plenty of other great games to be played, not just one. I enjoyed Guild Wars despite its shortcomings in the combat system etc. But its core concept stayed the same, grind was cosmetic, skill won vs time spent. I gladly bought whatever I can from the online shop to support the game and bought all releases and expansion.

Do I love/hate GW2?
Before November 15 I absolutely loved it, I bragged about it to friends whoa re reluctant, I offered to pay half of the game’s full price for friends who have little money to be able to enjoy this game and play. I bought things from the online store even If I knew it wasnt a necessity to support the game.

But now, I dont know, I didnt ask for a refund because Arenanet has a 7 year good reputation to me. I still have a tiny hope they dont go through all the way with this.
For now Ill keep the game installed, no motivation to play. Definitely not buying expansions or gems.

Background:
Consolle: started to play at 6 yo, with my uncle’s sega master system , but my first consolle was an old psx when i was 15, and then with my beloved Ps2, played every kind of jgdr, but my favourite saga here is shin megami tensei.
PC :western RPG usually. I love the Fallout, TES, and the mass effect sagas. Morrowind is absolutely my favourite game.
Online:

• Played and Modded on Neverwinter nights for about 6 years, i played on every kind of shard. (full rpg, action, pvp)
• 1 years and 6 month on WOW (WOTLK) with a Pally Tank
• Played GW + Factions
• i played others MMO, but its a long list

Before the 15\11, i really loved this game, and i was planning to play on this game for years, now i log only 10 minutes in a day, only to chat with my friends.

Background:
Atari
PC fps: doom, heretic, hexen
Playstation fighter/racing/rpg
Aardwolf Mud
Ragnarok Online beta, Rose beta
Runes of Magic
Diablo3
very minimal GW1

Impression of GW2:
Didn’t live up to the hype. I was very disappointed. As a once-buy game it is very solid, but it seems to try to do too much to attract the population, but once attracted, can’t keep them. Basically is three sections of the game, and two of them are screwed in the last patch, so…

Gaming background:
Cal-Main Counter Strike 1.5 (Muslims killed CALeague)
Cal-Open First Season DotA (Muslims killed CALeague)
Diablo 1-2 release, still playing D2
DAoC release to two months into Trials of Atlantis
FFXI Online release to Treasures of Aht Urhgan
GW1 release to still playing it

Thoughts on GW2:
Everything becomes better with time right?

General gaming background
Grew up with old school Sega. Also played some of the old school DOS games. Later had a Gamecube with my favourite game being Super Smash Bros. Melee. Nowadays I like games like Orcs Must Die! and Minecraft, although I don’t play so much anymore.

My online gaming background:
Played RuneScape for several years after my friend invited me to it. Played Guild Wars 1 for a few years after another friend invited me to it. Tried out a few other random MMO’s, but couldn’t get into any others. Tried SWTOR final beta and thought it sucked badly.

Thoughts on Guild Wars 2
I love Guild Wars 2, but it’s going into the wrong direction. I’ll quit if it keeps getting worse. I did quit RuneScape after years of playing once they went into directions I didn’t agree with, I’ll do the same with GW2.

I truly started multiplayer with Unreal Tournament, then went wild for it when UT2004 came out. I run my own game servers for over 9 years (including 2 different WoW servers) now and many of them are still up and running. I started with GW1 with my UT clan and we all fell in love with it. We started with it at the beginning, and survived the many updates and game changes. Some things we did not like, but nothing was game breaking and the good changes far out numberd the bad. We have also tried most of the free MMOs out there, but all paled in comparision to GW1.

I “want” to love GW2, I really do, but I am finding myself logging in, doing my daily achivments, then logging off. I had more then enough karma to get my exotic gear, but held off. I finally broke down and purchased it, and crafted myself an exotic weapon. Last night, finished all the PvE world mapping. I already had a large portion of the WvW map done, but I really have no drive to even attempt to finish it. My guild that has been together for over 8 years has pretty much died in Gw2 as most of the players have finished the story, gotten thier exotic gear, then found it boring and left. I am now the guild leader of a dead guild, with only 3 or 4 people who actually play at all. The fotm dungeons hold no interest for me as I will simply not deal with the elitist attitude of the pugs, so ascended gear is pretty much out of the question. Legendary gear has never held any interest, execpt maybe as a long term goal. In GW1, I never even got my FOW armor until it was really needed to get the 50/50 in the HOM.
Honestly, I am sad. I waited for GW2 since it was first announced, watched all the trailers, read every article, purchased the collector’s edition as soon as it was possible then loaded up on gems so I could max out my storage and bags. I purchased MANY minis to and hoped to try to finish that collection as another goal. I WANT to love GW2, I WANT to spend more money on the game, I WANT to see all the expansions they promised, but day by day, hour by hour, I want to play it less and less. :-(

I…. have played so many games, man. In MMO’s alone, I went from Ultima Online, to Asheron’s Call, Dark Ages, the OTHER Dark Ages, 10six, Mechwarrior’s online thing, WoW, RIFTS, Final Fantasy, tried Everquest 2, a bunch of Sci-Fi MMO’s including both Star Wars Incarnations, City of Heroes, Mud’s and so on.

I think my MMO beginnings in Ultima Online and Asheron’s call are the biggest indicators out of the bunch of what I really want in a game – I got into those games to explore a big open community that was able to do some great things. In Ultima Online, the focus was just in becoming another role and going on whatever adventures you wanted, though the lack of restrictions led to a lot of terrible people ruining the community (by actually murdering everyone all the time), until they “fixed” that. In Asheron’s call, it was mostly about exploration, discovery, and events, which eliminated the “ingame societal” aspects of Ultima, for better or worse, but it had this huge game world to explore, spells that you could discover on your own (sort of like the crafting system in GW2), and it tried to hold onto some societal intricacies with an expansively large guild system.

I think Guild Wars 2 has been the only game I’ve played in recent memory to even try and recapture the feel of what MMO’s were originally like – I think I’ve been looking for that for a long time. Back when the internet was revolutionary to gaming, there was no sterile, homogenized formula to follow – Gaming companies didn’t even really have any idea of the golden rule of making online games; “If players can get away with something, they will do so.” There was just this idea – “Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could interact with a community of folks as a wizard/sword-mongering barbarian/whatever you want – and be an integral part of that fantasy?”

For the most part, these games throw away anything “integral” about ingame player input at all. Sure, you’re still a warrior or a wizard, but its a stolen, hollowed-out concept bereft of anything that makes that a cool thing. You’re usually just a tide of people spamming to death an unnecessarily large enemy with a giant pool of hitpoints, and adventure beyond that is pretty few and far between.

Guild Wars 2 puts some of the community and all of the exploration back into the game, for me. I compare it to Asheron’s Call, and that was one of my favorite games. Its pretty great to have an expansive universe to be a part of, a personal story, creative PVP combat, and a sense of “What am I going to do in this game today?” that doesn’t bring to mind four mini-game-like options (Like Capture The Flag, or Dungeon Runs, or A to B to C questing, or whatever other limited activity). I like that goals in this game can be long term or short term, and its very sandbox and self-motivated, for the most part. While I’m wary of some of the new additions, I don’t really feel like ascended gear threatens this concept so absolutely as some other folks, but I think it would be pretty terrible to be “locked” into the mini-game of dungeon-running like some theories have suggested might be on the horizon.

If I could really have anything at all added to Guild Wars 2, I’d just love to see something like player-run cities with their own diplomacy. I’ve seen this happen in some other games, and while it is complex, it seems the simplest way to reach back toward that sandbox concept of a fantasy “community” that was the inspiration for many of the first MMO’s. I think it would be fantastic if the later-story factions, like the Order of Whispers, could somehow be given over to player management in some compelling-but-not unbalancing way.

But I think GW2 is a great game that single-handedly puts something back into the industry that it had lost.

My gaming background is really ’’low’’ i am not a gamer, i play some games now and then and i like them, i have fun and its a good way to enjoy some days, but i dont have much to post as a background.

Gw2? Extremely disappointing. I started playing the game because 2 friends indicated it to me. First thing i noticed wrong was the combat, nothing special and nothing memorable, a little diff then other games but thats it. Only after a little playtime i actually saw the Guild wars commercial ‘’ NO auto attack! Combate action similar to a first person shooter’’ pff what a joke, that same moment i said to myself ‘’ if i have seen this before buying i would totally ask for a refund’’ But i sticked to it, the game itself is not bad, but every day i came to see the forums, and more and more i saw some things being requested EVERY SINGLE DAY and more and more i saw people pointing out how wrong something is and Anet just stood silently. Worst is assing new content when the old doesent work ( and the new is just as broke ) In many aspected Gw2 looks like a Beta game. I wont get into much details as it would bee a 3 pages long post. But thats it guys and girls, i had my share. Emailed anet today asking for a refund, i am done with this. Good luck to all of you who remain.

My background:
I’ve played quite a few mmo’s. EverQuest, EQ2, WoW, LoTRO, Vanguard, DAoC, Aion, Rift, and probably a few others. Several of the free to plays like both Maple and Asda Story. The longest one I played though was EQ2 followed by WoW. I started playing EQ2 six months after launch and played for too many years. I played WoW from vanilla until just before Pandaria launched. I didn’t quit because of the pandas, I quit because it seems every expansion is the same exact content with a different look and a few new monster skins thrown in. Its always been (and probably always will be): Grind dungeon, get gear, grind dungeon, get better gear, grind raids get gear, lather, rinse repeat. It just got old.

Do I love or hate GW2?
I’ve been playing for nearly two months now and have enjoyed every minute. I was a little disappointed in the legendary grind. The fact that its all about how much gold you can amass makes me sad. I’ve always felt things like that mean more when you’ve ‘worked’ for them and buying my way into a legendary seems so wrong to me. That said, I figured it up and I’ll never have the amount of money required to make a legendary anyway so that point is mute.
I was hoping when the ascended came out it would be basically an aesthetic change or it would depend on questing or finding the items instead of being another money grind. It makes me really sad to see that it is all about the money. Guess Anet has decided to cater to the player who has hundreds of golds. Ah well. I’ll stick with my exotic weapons and gears and have fun anyway.
Some disappointments but over-all, I love the game.

Instead of adding to my list of games I will also add the systems I played games on.
Atari-Loved pitfall, adventure, defender, and asteroids just to name a few of my favs.
Atari 7800-Karateka, pole positon, pac man, spy hunter to name a few favs.
Intellivision
Comadore 64
Turbo Graphix 16(is a console type)
Nintendo
Super Nintendo
Nintendo 64
Gameboy
Sega Genissess
Sega Dreamcast
Playstation 1
Playstation 2
Xbox
Xbox 360

I started with pong. Then it was on to the Atari 2600 (asteroids!!!) and played a lot of stuff on there (yar’s revenge, missile command, berserk, etc..). Then it was the C64 and played a lot of the gold box AD&D games like Pool of Radiance and Secret of the Silver Blades. Then the PC with the Doom series and then things like Quake, Quake 2 and Half-Life, etc. Then Morrowind got me hooked on The Elder Scrolls! Played lots of RPG’s and FPS’s and some neat games like Thief and Heretic 2 and Blade of Darkness!!! I also designed levels for Doom 2, Hexen 2, Half-Life and Quake and made a few mods for Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim….. a lot of stuff needs finishing. haha.

Bought Guild Wars shortly after it released. Played some 5500 hours with it. Bought all the expansions and really loved Nightfall and Eye of the North. Played a lot of hard mode and went through all the dungeons. Slaver’s Exile in hard mode…. seemed insane at the time.

I’m really enjoying Guild Wars 2. I have one level 80 and have a couple other characters I’m messing with. I love the exploring aspects. I think the art direction is excellent. There’s a few things id change or add, but overall I’m really loving Guild Wars 2.

My gaming background:

I bought my first own computer when I was 25 (an Amstrad CPC 464 with cassette drive). My first game was Elite by David Braben. But I played a lot of other games, too (Bard’s Tale, Wasteland, a lot of action games…). With 28 I changed to a PC with staggering 1 MB memory and a 20 MB hard drive. Nethack was my first game on it. When Civilization came out I took a 14 day holiday, bought several pounds of white bread and butter and did nothing else than playing Civ. But of course I played a lot of RPGs, too. Especially the AD&D RPG games I remember quite fondly. And Wizardry 7, a master piece.

MMORPG-wise: I played Dekaron for 4 years, then Atlantica Online for another 4 years. Now I went over to Guild Wars 2 because I was fed up by the evil greedy company which runs Atlantica Online (Nexon), by the clunky interface and by the never ending gear treadmill.

I love GW2 so far. But I really wish they hadn’t introduced another gear tier. So far I can ignore it. I hope that remains a viable strategy.

My (Relevant) Gaming Background:
I started in the MUD/MUSH scene. Ultima Online was my first full-fledged MMO. I was very interested in the genre, but most offerings didn’t grab me. I’d check out a title, decide it wasn’t for me, and then move on. This routine went on for years until City of Heroes hit the scene. Friends of mine roped me in about 3-4 months after its release, and I stayed there for eight years. During that time, I still dabbled in other MMOs here and there (I played World of Warcraft for about 2 weeks), mostly out of what I guess could be called academic interest. I played Guild Wars a fair bit, but never got very deep into it, due to its shortcomings.

My (Current) Feelings About This Game:
There is a lot about the game I like. There is also a lot about the game I don’t like. Going in, I actually expected a certain degree of the latter, but ANet has recently surpassed a tolerance threshold that almost guarantees a loss of my long-term commitment.

While that’s a bit of a disappointment, I can’t complain much about the short-term. Right now, for the most part, I’m having fun. And I’ll no doubt continue to have fun for a few more months yet. From my initial investment, I’ve gotten more than my money’s worth.

If ANet would rather I stick around, though, there will have to be some changes. Targeting mechanics, and the game’s responsiveness in general, will have to be improved. The AI will also need an upgrade, so the whole ‘invulnerable’ nonsense can be done away with. And I’ll have to be provided something I can invest myself in, other than vertical progression. ‘Cuz that whole scene just don’t flick my switch.

UO 1 year
DaoC 1 year
Lineage II 4 years
GW1 8 years
WoW 1 month
insert every other MMO on market 1 minute to 1 hour before disgusted uninstall

Mostly happy with GW2, it’s leagues above anything on the market.

Games I’ve Played a Lot: Diablo 1+2, Guild Wars 1, Neverwinter Nights 1, Quake 1-4 + Quake Live, Call of Duty 4, Starcraft 1+2, Knights of the Old Republic 2, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight 1(Dark Forces 2)-3, Warcraft 1-3, Descent 1-3. Most of these games I still play today.

Games I Tried But Quit: WoW trial, Silkroad, Runes of Magic, Vindictus, Diablo 3, Neverwinter Nights 2, Aika, Eudemons, League of Legends, Rohan. Some games like Silkroad and Rohan had rediculous grinding requirements and after I would get about 1/3 to max level I just realized it was never going to happen and uninstall. Other games like League of Legends are full of kitten that cuss you out every game, so I decided to uninstall and save myself from the verbal abuse. Thirdly, games like Runes of Magic and Aika have very high gear dependence plus full open PvP which means I get one shot constantly by stealthed characters even while doing something like talking to an NPC to finish a quest; uninstall those games out of frustration.

Guild Wars 2: Good music and interesting gameplay, but needs a lot of work. I was mainly interested in PvP which is crippled compared to what you got with GW1, and if it continues to keep adding more difficult dungeons with more powerful gear I won’t be buying any expansions for it. I quit playing PvE after they added Ascended gear till I see how far they are taking this thing, so right now I just log in and play sPvP for a little every now and then.

@Claudius
Nexon hey. Guess what there is talk, maybe rumor, that Nexon, May buy out ArenaNet, or NcSoft. GW2 will probaly turn into that Clunky Interface, and that never ending gear treadmill, So just want to throw it out there. GW2 may have some dark days ahead. Just saying.

My gaming backround
I’ve played runescape since i was little, occasionally uninterrupted looking into other MMORPGs in the last two years. The longest was a 3/4 year DDO f2p fad and Guild Wars 1 for a year and a half. I quit Runescape for good when they re-instated ‘free trade’, which compleatly destroyed the game and made even the simplest activities much harder due to the suddon massive increase in bots. I played Guild Wars primarily after that, up until a year and a half of LOTRO online, beginning as a f2p membership then eventually P2P then premium up until around the beginning of the GW2 betas, after which i switched back to GW1 primary until GW2 came out. Runescape was once good, LOTRO was pretty awesome until the ‘loot bound lockboxes’ (pretty much black lion chests with better drops and rarer non-microtransaction keys) turned it pay-to-win. Guild Wars one was awesome, period, but lacked significant endgame progression major if you didn’t have Eye of the North. I have never played, nor ever wanted to play, WoW

My opinion on Guild Wars 2?
This game was incredible. Everything you want in a MMO, plus more! Then came The Lost Shores. I havn’t seen a community turn this hostile since Runescape, A raid system this horrible since LOTRO (no offense to all the LOTRO fans out there, the raids and multiplier dungeons themselves are incredible, beautiful and creative, but after fan made channels and ‘kinships’ its incredibly difficult to find a group for them, two tools that are scarcer in GW2. The rewards were also more ascended-like play to win idiocy. ) and a gear grind this ridiculous since DDO. And no single MMO content as generally horrible nor monsters are degrading and repetitive as the Karka, Southsun Isle, period. Lost Shores aside, my main problems with the game is how nearly all equipment is a large money sink. I didn’t expect it not to be, but what i was expecting is pay a lower amount to get max stat, but then further progression like skins. Legendary items are a good, if extreme, example of what i expected from end game progression. Also, the lack of reputations as a endgame progression tool is disappointing. The gems to gold, while a good concept, has turned into a pay to win over time. There is simply not enough time in the day to compete with anyone who fuels $ into this game. I’m also dissipointed how the existing legendaries, ascended and even exotic progression is based around mind numbing amounts of gold. The money effort requirement should be comparable to the karma effort requirement, period. There should also be some means of progression and requirement complatly unconnected to any form of currency or tradeable commodity.

My opinion on what must be done
Sink Southsun to the bottom of the sea! remove all the karka, set in a placeholder for use in crafting until you can put new relivant activators in future update. Ascended gear should have no more stats than exotics, but should possess increasing amounts of agony resistance that progress as the equipment does. Of course, that would eventually fall into the same pitfall that LOTRO did, with their horrible radiance system. Scrap the whole thing? Possibly. Probably. And create more ‘scavenger’ hunt with lots of semi-randomized components. Make non-currency non-commodity endgame progression. Also, your crafting system is useless unless every profession can craft items with all possible stats currently released. Rabid is a good example. Karma within (the broken) Orr is the only non-group way to obtain it. Also, trading should have a way to be profitable. Add special recipes that have cooldowns.

I’ve played many MMOs. From OPvP sandboxes to little niche indy games to World of Warcraft.

One thing I’ve always been is a mostly solo player. I pick my moments to be social. In GW2 it was WvW, in WoW it was dungeon finder and pug BGs. In older games it was open world grind team. But most of the time, I prefer to solo.

I loved GW2 until this change, now I hate it. I’ve finally realized that devs hate solo players. Even when they tell us it’s okay, we can play, they punish us every chance they get for going solo. And this game turned out to be no different.

I’m about done with MMOs, just wandering around solo on my alts in GW2 and probably will sample some free to plays, but no more getting all happy and excited about new releases and new expansions for me. I get it, guys. I finally understand that you hate us solo players. I don’t know why or what we did to you to make you hate us, but you do.

I hope you all go broke.

Background…..

Ive played pretty much everthing there is to play…im even old enough to have played the first space invaders machines when they hit arcades.
I was ranked in the top 5 in the world in BF2, ranked number 2 medic and ranked number 3 assault rifles…have played competitive pretty much where ever i go and whatever game i play…i have or have owned pretty much every console ever made, and still have a box full of cassette games :/

My opinion….

This game is like SWTOR…over-hyped and under delivered, graphics aside, there is nothing this game does better or even as good as any other MMO out there…i would much rather play LOTRO for exploration, i would much rather play DDO for dungeon and gear grinding…i would much rather play WoT and EVE for pvp.

….you know what, i had more to say, but i just dont care enough, i kinda feel obligated to play as i have spend the money…but i would happily watch this game fold right now and would not care one bit…the game tried something different and failed, badly in my opinion.

background,

Spectrum,C64,amiga,PC

All games pretty much since the spectrum was first released..

I love the game but was very dissapointed with the lag in the events, i was also dissapointed i got nothing for participating for two days of crap lagfests just becausae i missed the final event because the fiorst two awful attempts put me off. (lagwise)

Background : Guild wars 1 (thats really all, tbh)
How i feel about the game?
- I loved it when it got released and i love it still. What more can I say? i like the game and am not bothered at all at what has happened in recent patches.

My gaming background, in no particular order:
Guild Wars 2
Guild Wars 1
WoW
EQ2
DDO
Warhammer
Rift
Shadowbane
CoH
WoT
LoL

Absolutely love GW2. Until this last patch. But prior to that, I enjoyed all aspects of the game, pvp and pve. Was having a great time advancing my pvp gladiator title track, playing some wvw, and working on alts in pve after having more or less finished my main. Oh wait, not finished anymore…I guess the fun stuff I was enjoying can all go out the window while I grind get my main finished…again…until next time when it’s no longer finished.

I suppose I’m just waiting for the big discussion on monday to delete the game and let hope die.

Background:

D&D starting in the late 70’s when it was 3 pamphlets in a box with some low impact dice, followed by many other tabletops such as Top Secret, Traveler, Runequest III, Flashing Blades, etc. Most recently Ad&D 4th ed online tabletop and L5R using a custom world.

LARPing (theatrical style) starting in the late 80’s and going to a few years ago.

Computers: Began those with an Atari 800 (cartridge and floppy games, including Star Raiders and Crush, Crumble, & Chomp), moved on to a Mac 128 (yeah, 128K, that was a LOT in 1984), dabbled in a MUD or two once there was an Internet. I enjoyed things like 7th Guest, Zork, and Riven.

MMO’s: DaoC, Horizons, WoW (7 years or more), LotRO, Aion, Rift, AoC, etc.

Opinion of GW2: Best thing ever! I love this game. Mechanics, philosophy, community, RP, aesthetics, it shines all around. I’m 47 years old, I’ve lost the impatience of youth (what I had of it, I was always a bookworm and fairly calm), and I don’t mind errors made by devs that are working so hard to craft Tyria for us all. I’m sure they’ll fix things up — none of the MMO’s I’ve played had all their features in at launch, or kept everything with which they started.

Gaming Background :
Any mmorgs. I’m not bias towards any type of mmos which consists of -
WoW, Souls of The Ultimate Nation (S.U.N), Aion, AIKA, Loong: Power of Dragons, RIFT and ofc GW1.

Among all i love Loong the best. Why? Due to the Hardcore Pvp kinda gameplay.
No PvE server. Nope. Zero. Only PvP Servers. You could even be attacked in towns! Imagine that. No mercy kinda gameplay. Totally insane!
O i met Dj Tesla and her BF there too. She played for a while i guess
But its too expensive due to Gamigo being too greedy with the Cash Shop. I quit!
Here is the trailer with a few shots of gameplay http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94_snQStqZs

I’m a more Pvp focus kinda player. Ofc i do PvE but i get bored of it real fast.
To me GW2 is more to PvE kinda game. And with the latest patch they had proved me right.
Combat in GW2 even without GDC is still too slow for me.
I’m into faster combat gameplay that made my adrenalin pump up sky high in secs!
Even RIFT Pvp does that to me and im still playing it. Cause the combat is really fast!

I still love GW2 due to the Good ol’days of GW1.
Even if its nothing like GW1 no more.
Really miss me ol’friends and enermies lol!

I hope someday, Anet will realise that they had Killed The Legend… that they create.

FF11 was my first mmorpg in the times before WoW i tried it once and hated it but i love ff11 and to this day it one of my favorite. The game aged some what badly and every one i knew in it quit so i been with out an mmorpg for some time. Btw you ppl know nothing of what a true grind is until you exp in ff11 before they made it super easy.
I love GW2 its a great place to find very nice ppl to play with and if you can find a good guild (which i did) its becomes so much fun.

“I was ranked in the top 5 in the world in BF2, ranked number 2 medic and ranked number 3 assault rifles…”

I thought Black_Jesus had them ranks in BF2. Medic and assault rifle.

My gaming background starts back when Arcades were it. First game was the original Star Wars in the arcade. Then there was the atari and the colecovision and then the color computer 2 and then all the rest of my computers. The PS1,2,3. The X box and the 360. The Wii and various handhelds. I’ve played just about every type of game you can think of. Single player and multi player.
Got hooked in a big way on PC role playing games when I played Planescape Torment and then Icewind Dale. Diablo and Diablo 2 shortly thereafter. Baldur’s Gate was another. My wife played Diablo 2 with me and that was the “gateway drug” I used to get her involved in playing a game I was messing around with called Everquest She fell in love with that game and we played it until EQ2 came out. We played that mainly and played others during small breaks from EQ2 for about 7 or 8 years. We tried WoW and Rift and Aion. Star Trek Online. We played swtor just before this game and messed around with some ftp offerings.
I’m currently messing around with Planetside 2, and really like it. Do I Love GW2? I really do like the game, but there is something I can’t really put my finger on that makes me not want to play it as much. I didn’t burn through all of the content or race to 80. I just don’t know for sure what it is. Maybe it’s the fantasy setting that I’ve been looking at for basically the last ten or more years in games. Probably not, I really do love good fantasy. Maybe it’s the current lack of players I’ve been seeing in between events. That last event really wasn’t that great. I had more fun doing the Hunger Games thing they had at the end of the beta weekends. Lots of little things but I really can’t say I hate the game. I’ll play it off and on, but I doubt I’ll be logging in regularly.

Gaming History Background:

• SWG
• WoW
• Rift
• EVE
• SWTOR
• Planetside
• Guild Wars 1
• Numerous games of other genre’s, too many to list.

Do I hate GW2?

I don’t hate it. Do I believe it’s worth playing after the patch with it’s rock stupid “progression” system that alienates the player base in two different ways (Fractal levels and Ascended gear)? Do I believe the sudden abandonment of the max level zones for this one instance is healthy for the game’s future, a game based mainly on open world content?

The answer to both is a firm no.

Online Gaming Background
Neverwiner Nights was my first online game and what I really liked was how on the harder worlds you had to know your role very well to be successful. The hardcore ruleset made it very exciting. I also liked that once you got your +5 gear you could basically do any of the content. You could slowly progress up to +7 but +5 was all you needed to take on the content from lvl 25-35.
I tried WOW and could not believe how easy the game was. Felt the whole game was kinda childish and frivolous. Played maybe 12 months total.
Went onto Warhammer, but couldn’t live with their class balancing.
Aion found it unnecessarily grindy and the world too small.
Rift too much gear discrepancy. Healing was wayyyy OP. Felt they were adding grinds and not content to the game.

Thoughts on GW2. Best levelling experience I’ve had in an MMO. Enjoyed the personal story. Love the art. Love WvW but feel its due some new content. Tbh I feel they have made a wrong turn with the new gear grind. Immersive stories and dynamic events were what made this game great. Why not build on them? The new gear tradmill is affecting other aspects of the game negatively and has been like a cancer dividing the community and eatin away at Anet’s goodwill with it’s customers. I understand the game may hve needed some form of progression, but gear treadmill seems like the lamest and cheapest option.

Nice to see that other people here played NWN, I always thought I was in some odd-ball group of gamers that played that. The amount of time I spent thinking up character builds for online dueling in that game is rediculous, but with around 20+ classes, triple classing, and 40 levels to do what you want with there are a lot of combinations.

My gaming background: I’m one of those old school gamers that started out playing the countertop games like DnD ADnD (had all 4 versions thru the years) and then moved on to GRPS, Shadowrun, WoD etc. Always being vividly imaginative I enjoyed these games throughout the years.

When MMO’s came out it offered me a chance to actually see clearly what other’s imaginations had come up with. Right before this I had started to play common games like RTS, spRPG games but no mmo. My first mmo experience was with the launch of WoW, My first character was an undead warlock named Bitsnpieces.

I then made a hunter. I was in the game so early that they hadn’t added pets to the hunter class yet. Loved it. I found they had just recently added engineering as a profession and picked that up since I liked the idea of having explosives.

It worked out well until somewhere after BC was released, a man named Ghostcrawler (a marine biologist I found out later) took over the project. Since then the game went downhill. More and more problems arose, the only time ideas from other games were updated in WoW were implemented was after losing a large chunk of subscriptions (which has happened off and on four times already over the course of years.)

Do I like the game?

I love GW2 core concept as demonstrated by the manifesto. Having been there done that when it comes to plenty of years of dungeon running I find dungeoneering tedius and annoying. Since I became sick and could no longer work, GW2 offered me a home. A place I could relax without worrying over numbers, gear, or other people’s expectations. I could finally have fun exploring, gathering the mats necessary to make the items I wanted (as an avid crafter) and finding the secrets in the game that lead to rewards.

That being said. I have a big BIG concern over where this game is heading. The general malaise from their most recent patch aside, there’s a ton of things that have been reported in bug reports, in the forums, and I’m sure via support tickets that are affecting this gameplay. The things I hate about the game have only recently come thru that have made this game unplayable in any other way other then one single dungeon. I’m sure that’s not what the devs had originally planned for this title.

1. DR, MF, lowering drop rates of globs, lowering of the drop rates in the open world.
2. RNG for items from the fractals
3. Ignoring many of the problems the adventurer classes face in pve (which was one of the reasons I left WoW originally because every week something was nerfed about my favorite class, I had to relearn the thing all over again and had to change gear multiple times over a three month period. I fear this is occurring again with the adventurer classes in this game)
4. Trying to force the community to play in a single play style. (Many of us who came from other titles came to GW2 because it offered us a change from the dungeon only play style. If people want to play that way fine, let them but don’t force the rest of us to do that.)

All in all this game is great. I’ve not had this much fun until recently with the changes they’ve made. I was doing fine gathering the things I need (I don’t speed thru anything) while leveling and running with my guild in open world events, always having enough people out there to handle the events effectively. Now tho with their Nov 16th patch changes, they’ve scared my section of the community. I hope they tell us their plans soon.

My gaming background:
Everquest for 1 month, but I had a life and couldn’t play that game.
Guild Wars 1 for 5 months straight when it released, and then off and on for several years after that.
World of Warcraft from January 2005 to January 2008
LOTRO for about 3 months after it released
AoC for 1 month after it released
Aion for about 2 months after it released
Tabula Rasa from open to close (November 2007 to Feb 2009) greatly miss this game
Champions Online for about 3 months after it released
Warhammer Online for about 3 months after it released
SWTOR 6 months after it released (would have quit earlier, but paid for 6 months on release day)

Do I love or hate Guild Wars 2:
I love Guild Wars 2, by far the best MMO I have played. The only complaint I have so far is the 1 time event for Lost Shores, should have never been a 1 time event. Other then that, loving this game.

Gaming background
Oddyssey, Texas Instruments, Atari, Amstrad, Silicon Graphics, playstation2, PC games.

MMOS:

WoW classic since launch, BC, lich king, Cata, Pandas.- addicted for 7 years. Dont play it anymore.
Swtor since launch— love it for two weeks… got tired after two months.
DDO— love dungeons and dragons but the game wasnt good for me.
Lotro— clunky interface for me.
Eve Online— its excel.
Warhammer— played for two months. Boring after initial zones.
Guild Wars 1— fun gameplay but I was addicted to WoW at the time.

love or hate: I love GW, even with the new direction (I stayed at FotM lvl 3 for the moment), I have been left behind in the leveling curve in WoW and other games, and really its not the end of the world as some people want us to believe.

Very short version of history (Ive been playing computer games since the 80s).

Played WOW for 5 years before Rift, than sunk enother year into that. Ive played
all aspects of both games (end game raiding guilds, plus PvP high ranked).

How I feel about GW2

Definitely has potential, and the reason I came here was the “non raid” setting. Even
though I enjoy raiding the most, its was ruining my real life. With that said,
WvW needs allot more attention to make it long lasting. Think about it. You are
fighting for a week to get what? Recognition? At the very least change the rewards
to bonus Karma/badges based on 1st, 2nd, 3rd place (outside of making the dang
loot bags some REAL auto loot system).

Ive thought allot about MMOs in general. The truth of the matter is, Arenanet can
never keep up with enough new content to keep people happy. Face it. So spend
more attention on what you have that will keep the game long term. I cant help
but think about BGs in WOW. It was so fun to log in for a few hours, and really feel
like you did good for the night. The downside of that was the neverending struggle
to get top PvP gear, which GW2 took care of.

As its stands, one of the 3 sides in WvW is losing so bad, they quit trying for the week.
How do you fix this? Im not sure, but I do second guess the week long battle in WvW.
IMO the shorter scaled battles is what makes a game real fun for the night (based on my hundreds of hours in FPS games, Leagues of Legends, BGs in WOW, etc).

Just my 2 cents.

I’ve been playing online RPGs since the early MUDs, when “massively multiplayer” would have meant fifty players online at once. The list of MMOs I haven’t played is probably shorter. (AC2 and STO are the only ones that come to mind.)

As for GW2, despite concern about where the game is heading, (I’m really over grindy games, despite having enjoyed a few in the past – I think Aion was my last gasp for that playstyle) I’m still enjoying the game. The art (particularly the landscapes) is often spectacular, and the combat is challenging enough to be fun without being punishing. Almost everything about the game is engaging – NPC conversations, dynamic events, huge world to explore, lore items in unexpected places, jumping puzzles, (which seem like a celebration of the ability to jump, after being glued to the ground in GW1) etc.

Perhaps ironically, one of the few things I’m not too fond of in GW2 is the central storyline. I keep wanting to whack the members of Destiny’s Edge upside the head, and I’d really like to give Trahearne a hotfoot, or aphids in his bed, or something.

Aufero.2893:

I’ve been playing online RPGs since the early MUDs, when “massively multiplayer” would have meant fifty players online at once. The list of MMOs I haven’t played is probably shorter. (AC2 and STO are the only ones that come to mind.)

As for GW2, despite concern about where the game is heading, (I’m really over grindy games, despite having enjoyed a few in the past – I think Aion was my last gasp for that playstyle) I’m still enjoying the game. The art (particularly the landscapes) is often spectacular, and the combat is challenging enough to be fun without being punishing. Almost everything about the game is engaging – NPC conversations, dynamic events, huge world to explore, lore items in unexpected places, jumping puzzles, (which seem like a celebration of the ability to jump, after being glued to the ground in GW1) etc.

Perhaps ironically, one of the few things I’m not too fond of in GW2 is the central storyline. I keep wanting to whack the members of Destiny’s Edge upside the head, and I’d really like to give Trahearne a hotfoot, or aphids in his bed, or something.

I like the story, I just think it needs a heck of a lot more engagement. It should not just be something that you visit. If you’re not grouped and out in the world, it should visit you. Some NPC should come flying across your path chased by a horde and “pull you in”.

They should continuously add more dynamic personal events in addition to world events.

My Gaming Background

I’ve played online FPS games for about 12 years. Mostly RtCW and then switched to RtCW:Enemy Territory. In between though, I played the following:
- Call of Duty series (switched to it from RtCW:ET)
- Command and Conquer series
- Track Mania
- Doom
- Counter Strike
- Many other FPS/RPG/Driving games

My Opinion on GW2

This is the first time I have attempted to play an MMO-RPG. Perhaps some might ask me – why the switch? Well I still have the swiftness/accuracy/reaction of an FPS player, however, I got fed up with the childish and haxor infested CoD community. Furthermore, my lifestyle changed and I could not afford to put so much time/effort into FPS games anymore. So I decided to try a more recreational/casual game.

I never really understood the hype about WoW and I got turned off from trying a MMo-RPG due to a simple reason – why the kitten would I pay for the game and on top of that pay a monthly service fee?! So I decided to try GW2. GW1 got a good response from the community and thought this might be even better – so here are pro/cons on the game.

Cons

- Game bugs. Yeah, some of them are annoying more than others, but wish that ANet representative put little more incentive/effort in addressing the issue(s). I’m sure they are busy and are doing what they can, however, the biggest issue within a gaming community is LACK of constant communication between them and the game developers/representatives. Overtime players tend to feel left out and thus tend to vent their frustration/rage/QQ on the forums. Which is not good for either party – it’s what happened with MW3 lol.

- Camera movement. This perhaps is my major gripe with the game – Nothing more annoying than the camera zooming erratically. Example – battling a mob in the field with some bushes – turns around and suddenly camera zooms because it moved over a bush…like what the kitten?!

- Probably others but these are common amongst players and really don’t need to be posted.

Pros

- Game design is beautiful and the overall gameplay is really cool. I enjoy questing and doing objectives/achievements. There is so much to do within the game. Because I am a completionist, I tend to get drawn in and try to do all of it at once; however, I know that with this game I don’t have to because the tasks are spaced out well.

- Gaming community behaviour is really good thus far. I enjoy seeing team work (it’s why I enjoyed/played RtCW:ET so much). The events within the game are great and it caters for players with different gameplay focus.

- This is a good game for me because it fits with my lifestyle (which is important), there are aspects that want me to play it for a long time (completing/achieving), and I enjoy being amongst this community, which MMO-RPG games heavily rely on.

My Background
I go all the way back to Pen and Paper D20 RPGs including AD&D 2E ,Star Wars Wars, and Rifts

My online history has too many to count as does my off line computer game RPG and i still enjoy hex based strategy games every now and then .

As for my option of GW2

Well its hard for me to say this having played GW1 from the beginning but im not entirely impressed with GW2. I dont hate it but i dont exactly love it like i did GW1 either .I’ll go point by point

Story
By far one of biggest disappointments . It could have been so much better on so many levels .I’ts just way too disjointed ,you go from being in a circus to saving Tyria? Really? The transitions could have been a lot smoother here and mr monotone could have been more convincing too.

Music
I bought the soundtrack …do i even need to say more?

Character Creation
Pretty good here . You get some decent options without overkill . There are a few more options I’d like but not many .

Community
This has always been big for me and i find myself wanting in this department a little .Still better than most MMOs but not as great as it was in GW1 . This may be in part because there aren’t any set in stone missions where one can go to help a random out like THK or Hell’s Precipice .

Gear
Love the transmutation aspect but hate finding stuff with the right stats and not having the level or stuff to craft it .

Crafting
Ok i get that some people enjoy crafting but it can be a bit of a grind when you have several crafting professions on the same tier and cant progress any f them very far

Unintended Consequences ?

We’ll start with the level cap increase . It went from 20 to 80 so now there are a lot of people who end up being that guy/gal that gets left out because they have excessive work hours or other RL things that prevent them from leveling as quick . This same person dident have the issue in GW 1 because of the low level cap and relatively small world but is now more oft than not stuck doing stuff on their own .

anyway thats the rundown as it stands now . If i think of anything else ill be back