Guild Wars 2

Gaming Background: Wolfenstein 3D, DooM and Quake series of FPS’s. Also loved the old SSI games like Curse of the Azure Bonds and Death Knights of Krynn. I participated heavily in the Quake 3 community in particular as a model skinner/texture artist for mods and the like. Also served as a moderator for the Quake3World forums back when id Software cared what happened there.

Quake 3 would be the last FPS I’d ever play with any seriousness. I got hooked on Everquest and that was my first stint into MMO’s. Six years in that game, five in WoW and two in the original Guild Wars (which I still play lightly). I also have about a month in on Lineage II, but that game stopped being fun right after level 30.

Feelings on GW2: I love this game despite some of its failings, faults and problems. There can come a point where my tolerance for some of the broken and flailing things not being addressed will send me elsewhere. That limit hasn’t been reached yet. I survived Everquest man. It’s going to take a lot more than recent events here to make me switch mistresses.

I’ve been playing home video games ever since I got a ZX Spectrum 48K back in ‘83.
I’ve had a variety of systems, although I was never an 8 bit / 16 bit Nintendo player. My first exposure to Nintendo was with the N64.

Favourite games on a per platform basis are many, but things like Rebel Star & Laser Squad on the Speccy, Target Renegade on the C64, Dungeon Master on the ST, Blood Money / Shadow of the Beast on the Amiga, Micro Machines 2 on the Megadrive, Doom / Tempest 2000 on the Jaguar, Wipeout 2097 / Resident Evil / Tekken 2 on the PS1, Goldeneye / Zelda OOT / F-Zero X on the N64, Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube / Wii, Fable 2 on the 360, Demon’s / Dark Souls on the PS3 and too many games to even think about on the PC, as it spans decades.

In competitive gaming, I played a lot of Quake 3 and was a moderator over at Quake3World; my high point was leading a Return to Castle Wolfenstein clan that got to number 7 in the European Clanbase ladder. Not a massive achievement, but one that I’m proud of. RtCW streamlined the class-based, objective style gameplay pioneered by the original Quake’s Team Fortress mod, and was a much more pure experience than Splash Damage’s Enemy Territory.
I did burn out a bit on RtCW, and since then have taken a much more casual approach to competitive gaming.

My FPS experience over the years, especially prior to the concept of unlocks in online shooters, has coloured what I find acceptable in esports and any form of PvP, and in that respect, I cannot and will not take any game seriously where factors other than a player’s skill contribute to a game’s outcome.

This is why I enjoyed Guild Wars 1, my first experience with an MMO (I know it’s not really an MMO before the pedants get warmed up). It was always a level playing field, although I did resent the rock / paper / scissors style of gameplay which tended to favour certain builds depending on that month’s skill balances.
In PvE, maximum level and gear was easily attainable, and everything after that was achieved was pure content, to be explored and enjoyed.

And this is why whilst initially loving GW2, I’ve been feeling rather uneasy about recent changes in direction. I have played various other, more traditional MMOs, including WoW, AoC, DDO & DCUO, and every single one of them devolved into holy trinity, raid-bound gear hunts at top level, completely invalidating any previous content, and purposefully locking out players with less time on their hands.
I really didn’t expect GW2 to go in this direction; after all, increasing a few numbers every now and again is the easiest, laziest way of implementing “Content”. I thought ArenaNet were above this, yet the AMA and everything uttered by developers recently has made me realise that they’re not as interested in actually pursuing original, hard-to-implement ideas any more.

I’m thinking of stopping playing GW2 and heading over to Planetside 2. And the sad thing is, because they’re implementing vertical progression, I doubt I’ll come back that frequently, as the idea that I’ll be falling further behind the power-curve the longer I leave it dissuades me from revisiting.

@Mungrul – Who were you on Quake3World?

@tasaunders: I’m one of those with my personal name as my user name, so I hope you’ll forgive me for not revealing it here. However, I used to mod id Legends. I still post over there, although not as frequently as I used to

Gaming background:

Games I played the most: Guildwars, Everquest 2, Guildwars 2

Games I played a moderate amount: Aion, Lotro, Wow, Anarchy Online, Hellgate London (while it lasted).

Games I just dabbled in a little: Age of Conan, Secret World, Everquest, Vanguard

Am I enjoying GW2?

Yes, there is much I like about it.

I’m concerned about the direction they may be taking with gear. One of the things that I thought would be unique here is that you wouldn’t be obsolete with your gear constantly. One of the appeals of GW1 was the fact that you could reach maximum level quickly and the gear stats weren’t an issue. One of the reasons I left EQ2 was boredom of working for gear just for it to immediately be outdated and useless.

To be honest though, I miss having quests. The personal story was good, but I miss the part of questing that tells little stories in a game.

I do like that they have you naturally find things to do and you don’t have to run back and forth across the map to turn in quests and pick up the next one. I like the DE, hearts, mapping, etc.

But honestly, I don’t remember a lot about each area I’ve mapped other than they are fighting their particular enemy (centari, nightmare court, blood legion, etc.). I hope that they develop each area more.

Funny thing is, I remember the story from each of the areas of GW1 and I completed those years ago. I can’t remember a story from an area in GW1 that I completed a couple of days ago.

my gaming background:
I’m very passionate about gaming and am currently studying to be a game programmer. I own over 200 games. My MMO experience consists of Runescape (it was good when the internet was bad enough that loading every 2 steps did not annoy you), Perfect World (surprisingly because I was in a good guild I was able to enjoy playing that game. It has good music, I’ll give it that, but it’s grindy grindy grindy) and WoW (far less grindy than PW, but it has its own problems. Classes are unbalanced (they keep on nerfing the wrong type of druid), there’s that OP gear that you can give to your lower level characters to make them OP in PvP and there’s the grindiness of the higher levels where the drop rate of a needed item goes down to what? 5%? Making questing really hard)
My opinion of GW2:
I love it. Leveling is relatively easy, getting good gear requires work, but not too much work, the world is big and there’s always something to do.
What I dislike about it?
Some minor inconveniences that could be changed but not necessarily have to be changed. For instance when a person orders something on Trading Post I wish that they would be forced to order it at least at the base price. I hate as a level 400 Tailor to see orders for exotic gear that costs 2 gold to make suggesting me 20 silver for it. No. Just no. I would also like people to not be able to order account bound items, because that just looks silly. How many orders for apples are issued by now that will never be delivered? Dueling in the game would be a nice thing to add and I would kind of like a dungeon finder, but neither of these problems are game breaking. They’re all minute inconveniences and even if they would never be solved the game is not really worse because of them.

My Gaming Background :
First i didnt play games that much i played Counter Stirke with my friends evry night like 5 of us vs someone we had like a clan…Than we got bored of Counter Strike. I stopped playing games and than Skyrim came out evryone was like i took an arrow to the knee and something so i boutht it. I played Skyrim and than started playing all sorts of rpgs(All elder scrolls, fallout, dragon age etc…) But i wanted to play with somebody rpgs so i started playin mmorpgs…I played ton of f2p games bt after some time it just gets boring grind grind and grind. And then i found GW 2… I found awesome guild and i am playing with them slowly leveling my thief exploring evrything.

GW 2 I love gw 2 since when i am in the house i am not so bored anymore…

Most MMOs I play fall into two categories. Those that I both love & hate and those I don’t care for at all. If I play a game more than a few months, and there’s only been a few of these, I end up both loving and hating it. All other MMOs I try I just get sick of too quickly to care much. And many I look at the features/mechanics and know there’s no reason to even try.

My love/hate games: Shadowbane (my first MMO), GW1, SWG (sacrificed for its evil WoW-clone younger sibling), and Pirates of the Burning Sea. GW2 might make the list, its currently a love/hate, but it could just fall to the discard pile of not caring anymore depending on the next few months.

My first love was DAoC. And to this day, nothing has come close to being as fun. I must have played it for at least 5 years.

Since then, I have also played Warhammer, World of warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, Age of Conan (briefly), City of Heros, Rift and a bit of Tabula Rasa. (in no particular order)

Guild wars 2 has potential for sure. I have fun when I play but it doesn’t hold me playing for hours and I could go days without logging in. I think they pushed the game to the shelves to fast and the sheer amount of bugs clearly reflects that. Probably also because I chose a ranger…

Well not meaning to necro an old thread but it seems like people who were more die hard fans of open world MMO’s tended to like GW2 more, of course there were some outliers. FPS, action game fans not so much it seems like.

Long time FPS and other action games player here. I’ve been around since robo-Hitler exploded in Wolfenstein. Shooters are my oldest love, but I’ve played everything from platformers to hack-and-slashes like Diablo 2.

GW2 was my very first MMO RPG. I was interested in the talk about it being more complicated than just moving up to an enemy and then spamming the mouse buttons or keys until it died and the absolutely amazing art.

I’m more than a little disappointed in the game because a few weeks after its release the multiplayer element has completely vanished from not one, but three different servers I’ve played on. Being in two different guilds hasn’t helped either.

I don’t even really care about the new “ascended” items half as much as anyone else – I just wanted to try a MMO that wasn’t a WoW Skinner box. And at first it was great – when I was able to play it as a MMO and not a single player game.

My gaming goes back to the mid 80’s. (Yes I am an old fart.) Ultima series on an Apple IIE for example, I ran my own BBS before the general public had internet. I remember 1200 baud modems when they were a speedy beast.

With MMO’s Ultima Online was my 1st where I maintained 10 accounts for about 8 years, WoW, LOTRO, GW, AoC, DDO, AoE Online, toyed with a few others and now GW2.

I no longer think of just one MMO as having to be my only MMO. I no longer understand those who demand that type of dedication along with the thinking every other MMO is the enemy.

If you are having fun and have the time to play something then do it. If the reality parts of your life are suffering or any game is no longer fun then maybe you should do a rethink. It is only a game after all.

Been in MMOs (MUDs) since 1993 so 20 years in a couple of months. Been a guild officer and leader.
closed and open beta tester for over 20 MMOs.

Consider this game to be a return to what MMOs should have stayed like, which WoW caused not to happen.

best launch of a game I have ever encountered

Anet really does listen to folks but I wish they would do more surveys either via email like they did for lost shores or ingame.

This game is great and perfect as is. You have to actually do something to get get something.

Hate ascending armor. wish it would go away but it won’t.

Gaming background:
Loads of PC games like Hitman, GTA, MoH etc.

MMO Gaming background:
Started out with DAoC til WoW killed it off in EU, then ended up in WoW with some LotRO thrown in for good measure with a dashing of SWG, then on to Rift (cus WoW Cata was a load of kitten), from Rift to SWTOR (lol), onto GW2… Event… Back on LotRO til something better comes!
(Thank you SWTOR and GW2 for making me into a MMO locust in such a short time, 4 or 5 years with every other game but yours! wd!).

Thoughts on GW2:
Disaster movie! Starting to think MMOs are a dead horse!

Either was in Beta or played everything since UO including FTP games. Logged the most hours in DAOC. Didn’t like GW1.

I played over 500 hrs and have 3 80s in GW2. I even bought an extra char. slot. I thought this would be the game. I have not logged into GW2 since the patch. I drop by here to see if they have communicated any new plans or made any of the needed changes. Sooner or later I will stop doing even that.

Let’s see.. addicted to video games since Ms PacMan. Started on atari, graduated to playstation where my fantasy type game craze started. First mmo though was TSO, played that a couple years then fell in love with UO, post-trammel. Couple years there, then Second Life. Spent way too much money in that one over a 3 year period, then played EQ2 and loved that. Hopped into LOTRO when it came out and played that for 5 years, with breaks for AoC, GW, and most noteably, Rubies of Eventide.. loved that game so much, but alas, it is no more. Many, many other mmos I tried and disliked. I have never, and never will, try WoW. It’s ruined the industry imo.

GW2? Love everything about it. (what is a female version of fanboi called?? Well that’s me) The single thing that drags it down for me, is I feel like there is no community. If a person is not in a big guild, they are just playing alongside strangers day in and day out. No familiar “hey I know you” feelings about that random Norn who just helped you clear your way through a cave, no server section on forums…. I kinda just feel like I am all alone in this big ole world we live on, surrounded by strangers. But hey, at least it’s a cool world