Guild Wars 2

This is nothing but my own humble opinion. It has been 5 days since HoT has been released and I have a very strong feeling about HoT. Here is my take on it after 5 days.

HoT feels more like a very large living story update more so then an expansion. If you stop and compare an expansion from GW1, you are taking dozens upon dozens of new zones, multiple new classes, hundreds of new skills, etc. HoT, to me, is nothing more then a very large living story with content, for a change, that is permanent. You can look at it even more like this. HoT is nothing more then 4-5 very large “feature” updates that we used to get before the living story. Guild Halls could have been one, New World vs. World maps could have been another, new zones to kill a new dragon another, new class another and so on. In a nutshell, HoT is nothing more then a glorified mega update/living story that we had to pay for.

With all that being said, I have enjoyed what HoT has to offer so far. I am just disappointed that there wasn’t more and I don’t get the “this is a whole new expansion to the game” vibe. To me as a GW1 veteran, an expansion will always be a new standalone game within the game that provides you many new areas and many new sources of content that will last for a very long time. I just don’t get that feeling from HoT.

Please feel free to post your agreements or disagreements below.

Thanks

Story wise i would agree, but then again i like the constant living world updates so you won’t ever get me complaining about that, we got so much free story, and will get free story again after, as you buy HoT you buy the next living world stuff aswell, so i don’t mind at all.

I don’t agree with the maps tough, i think this expansion has added maps that can be played, instead of just maps that you breeze trough and never see again. I like the overall flavor.

Proffesion based i think you are nuts, this is the biggest class overhaul i’ve ever seen an mmo do in just 1 expansion. Elite specs for every class, and a new proffesion, that is insane. The best part about it is that GW2 builds on it’s existing classes instead of revamping whatever is underpowered, like wow does for example.

Guildhalls imo are the best thing about HoT, and i don’t agree they could have been a living story update, this has been worked on so long, and it’s awesome.

Wvw, pvp and fractal updates are just an added bonus, but you don’t even need HoT for em.

Although I really like almost everything about HoT, I do agree with Wiseguy. HoT is much too small to really be considered an expansion. When HoT was announced I was expecting it to be similar to Eye of the North Expansion of GW1; encompassing all (or at least most) of the maps surrounding Tyria.

The events are fun, the maps are beautiful, but there’s not enough variety and it has become a “grind fest” repeating the same events over and over and over…and over. Which I find gets quite boring quickly.

I think that was the main point in Wiseguy’s post. Heart Of Thorns is just too small to really be considered an expansion.

I have to agree it feels like very large living world updates, at the same time, I’m glad it was released. I can only hope it does well enough to warrant future expansions.

To be honest, I thought I might get just another “living season” type of content for the expansion (and worse, you had to pay for this one), but feel the opposite-as if they outdid themselves.

The few maps argument is easily debated by the following-they are the most in-depth maps in the game. MUCH better than all of their living season maps (I never enjoyed Silverwastes/Dry Top, as much as people love farming there.)

Finally, in order for them to open up more maps-that I really assume are under construction-they have to focus on the other dragons, and this was all about Mordremoth. There’s big WAYS to go to cover all the continent, and I wonder if GW2 will survive for the many years of development time we would theoretically need to cover these (perhaps a GW3 comes first?)

I think of it the other way-think how lesser an expansion this would have been if they had limited themselves to provide us more of the same Living Season 2 kind of content (I mean no disrespect to ANet, but I personally didn’t enjoy it that much.) This has much more depth than just adding a few more recipes (along with required new mats), and achievements every few months, with a few minor trait updates.

Not a “fanboi” or anything (not a fan of how very small guilds appear not to be as relevant in their big game picture), but I don’t think we were “shortchanged” or given just more “Living Season” type of updates.