Q:
How to motivate yourself to actually play?
I honestly feel the same way half the time. I have a 53 necro and a 30 warrior and it just seems like it’s all repetitive stuff with nothing new. Except the story quests. Those are neat. I started crafting to break the boredom to prepare myself for legendaries waaaaaay on down the road. That was fun for a few days. You could try pvp? Or level up with a friend. I’m down if you are.
What things do you find fun to do in games in general? The answer to that might help you find direction.
As far as repetitive tasks are concerned, don’t do them unless you actually find them fun. Seriously. I know it can be difficult to do. Don’t make the reward your motivation to do anything, only the journey… the game has many elements to try and appeal to as many people as possible, but that likewise means that there are many things in the game that don’t appeal to a wide variety of people.
I’m sorry you’re feeling discouraged. I hope you’re able to find your entertainment. But, if you become sure you can’t find it in GW2, then you ought to move on to another game… don’t waste time being miserable, and don’t feel bad about moving on.
Good luck.
~EW
What specific elements does the game have? I can think of PvE, PvP, crafting, and that’s about it off the top of my head.
Binx, I’ve tried to get friends into it. When do you normally play, I guess?
WvW dailys, fractal dailys, spvp dailys, any meta events I have time for…. the first two hot map ones so far. Need to do scale 1-100 fractal before new ones are added incase they get changed again.
Explore maps, dungeons, acheivment point hunting. ( working slowly on exotic hunter and mistward armor atm)
You have to look whats there and set you own goals mate
Let me just give you a few of my 600 tomes of knowledge. Oh wait, Anet is mean.
I have to agree that playing with a friend is much more enjoyable than playing on your own. I have about six level 80s, and I can say that leveling alone is probably the most boring bit.
I find it helpful to break up all the leveling with personal story chapters, as the game intends you to. Along the same lines, I think you can make playing the game a lot more enjoyable if you try to focus on immersion. Instead of running around clicking on things for experience points, you’re a thief, sneaking around, stabbing your enemies in the back and helping people out from the shadows.
Or you’re a necromancer, traveling the world, consuming death as you pass it and occasionally, begrudgingly, helping out helpless passerbys.
To me, it’s all about your characters. It all about giving them a personality and a look that matches, working through the story and trying to think what your character would think and see it through their eyes.
Or you could look into alternative methods of leveling – crafting gives a good few levels. PVP and WvW also give tons of Tomes of Knowledge.
(edited by Roam.5208)
As others have said, it depends on what you find “fun”.
As for fun, try looking at some of the RP guilds. Although I haven’t gotten too involved, it certainly adds a different aspect to the game that largely gets ignored.
Try setting a goal for yourself. Instead of focusing on leveling, try instead of working toward a particular build you want to have and the type of gear you’ll need. That way, by the time you reach level 80, you will be well on your way, if not already there. Then focus on something else and work toward that (i.e. getting specific masteries, specific gear, achievements, etc.). This way your play time is goal oriented, and more specific and not so much randomly wandering around looking for something to do.
It’s the chain I beat you with until you
recognize my command!”
Well a lot of players get tunnel vision on heart quests and think this is what they have to do until they turn lvl 80. This is not the case at all. Heart quest are more of a pointer on the map were you can find a area to move in, but what you should focus on is the events in the area, which you can do whilst making the heart quests.
But this is just a small part of leveling. You can also do map completions, world bosses/world events (http://gw2timer.com/ this link shows you were they are and when they are), you can do jumping puzzles, mini dungeons, normal dungeons (story path start at lvl 30). There is also something called activity were you play small mini games such as Sanctum Sprint and Crab toss and others.
Your story quest give you loads of xp, gear, buffs, keys and what not.
Gathering give you xp so pick anything on the map. Crafting give you lots of xp. 7 lvl for each crafting profession you pick.
You can do pvp at lvl 2. You will not gain xp inside of the matches, but through the reward track you will gain Tomes of knowledge. Consume them and you gain a lvl for each tome. The reward tracks can also give you exotics and dungeon tokens (if you done story dungeons you can pick them as reward tracks in pvp and wvw) Same goes with world verses world (f2p stats at lvl 60, core accounts and HoT accounts starts at lvl 2). The reward track in wvw give you Tomes of knowledge.
So there is really not reason to only do heart quests. Focus on events first hand and make the hearts mean while you doing events. And then mix it up with a bit of everything above, and you will hit lvl 80 and end game in not time
What specific elements does the game have? I can think of PvE, PvP, crafting, and that’s about it off the top of my head.
There’s also exploration, narrative (like personal story, LW, or lore), meta and world boss events, role play, build experimentation (my personal favorite), AP chasing, wardrobe chasing, collections, resource farming, tutoring new players (and new guild members), running a guild, guild events, WvW zerg, WvW solo and small party shenanigans, raids, fractals, dungeons, jumping puzzles…
…that’s what I’ve got in addition to your list off the top of my head.
~EW
(edited by EphemeralWallaby.7643)
Those are all really helpful, so I thank you all, but to be honest, it’s hard to really feel interested in any of that when the idea of just booting up the game is a stressor and something that seems more boring than exciting for me.
I really do appreciate the suggestions, and I will try world bosses, exploration, RP, and PvP especially, as soon as I can get myself to (which, honestly, could be today or in two months.)
The beauty of GW2 is that just about everything gives XP/Tomes, so do whatever you enjoy. And if nothing is working for you then take a break for a while.
Those are all really helpful, so I thank you all, but to be honest, it’s hard to really feel interested in any of that when the idea of just booting up the game is a stressor and something that seems more boring than exciting for me.
I really do appreciate the suggestions, and I will try world bosses, exploration, RP, and PvP especially, as soon as I can get myself to (which, honestly, could be today or in two months.)
Sounds like you need to give yourself permission to take a break from the game. Just make sure to pop in when each living story chapter goes live so you get it for free.
It may be you don’t like those classes. 7 months ago both those characters were level 14.
I don’t have to “motivate myself.” I just find the game fun to play. If I found myself in a position where I had to “motivate myself,” I would just stop playing.
I understand. For me, my motivation to play a toon dwindles the closer to level 40 I get. Hence why I then keep creating new toons or work on lower-level ones!
Guild: Moonlit Renegades (Moon)
Highest-Level Toon: Markus Emmerich, 80 Human Scrapper