Guild Wars 2

I’m not new to MMOs of all styles. I have played FFXI (not quest based), WoW, EQ2, ESO, Rift, and a bunch of others. My “main” MMOs were FFXI for a few years, WoW on and off (and will probably go back to it again eventually) and EQ2 on and off over the years. I know how to play both quest based and non-quest based MMOs, so let’s get that out of the way. I like to explore in MMOs. I love to RP in MMOs. I like little things like readable books and housing (absent from this game, sadly) and deep, interesting and well written Lore. Pretty graphics are nice, but not the main thing I look for in a game.

Which brings me to this game. I’ve had it for a year now. I’ve tried a few times to get into it, and I just can’t. It looks pretty, there seems to be attention to detail, but … not much you can do with that detail, I guess. No readable books. The writing seems a bit juvenile or maybe badly translated? No housing. I am told WHERE to explore instead of just letting it happen organically. Dynamic events really don’t seem much more dynamic than repeatable daily quests, just …not daily quests and on a fast timer, rather than a daily timer. I haven’t tried PVP as PVP is only something I did at “end game” in WoW, but was never very interested in it otherwise in most games. The Lore seems a bit…generic? I guess. It doesn’t seem like there’s much thought to the culture or cultural differences to any of the races, beyond the surface aesthetics. Or, if there is, it doesn’t seem to translate very well via the NPC texts or generic “everyone wears the same thing” armor, everyone on the same side, everyone wandering around everyone else’s city without any hostility or comments even from the NPCs, etc.

What am I missing? I want to like the game, everyone else seems to like it, but it just feels “meh” to me. I don’t care about my character enough to want to RP him because the Lore just seems half-baked and generic, the lack of character customization in the character screen is kind of a killer for me too.

I just can’t seem to “get” this game, beyond the combat (definitely not my favorite style, but I can adapt to it if I could just get INTERESTED in the rest of the game enough to bother).

Any insight here? Anyone have the same problem? Anything that can help the game “click” or is it just not going to happen?

Well the only thing that can change that is if you join a guild that will show you the game. Good luck with that. Its not that is hard to do. You just need to be lucky enough to find the right guild for you. A guild that focus on the right content for you and with people that you like to play with. Other than that, i don’t think that there is anything that we can say about the game that will change the way you view it. Not after a year.

I never really click with the game Skyrim, but I still acknowledge that its a great game. Sometime it just don’t click.

Other than stating the obvious (that not all games are going to “click” with all players), I guess I can only answer for me. No. I do not have the same problem you do with this game.

I think a large part of being “INTERESTED in the rest of the game”, may be related to having played GW1 for 7 years. If you did not, the lore might not be a “hook” for you.

The few things you mention that you like (readable books & housing) are NOT something MMOs do very well (or at all)….I don’t see Skyrim being made in to an MMO (tried ESO….talk about “meh”), and that sounds like what you are wanting….good luck to you in that search.

I haven’t tried to find a guild yet, mainly because I typically try to “get into” a game before I try to find the right guild for me. Right now I only have an hour or three to play a day, as I have a 16 month old toddler and she keeps me pretty busy until she’s sleeping for the night or taking a nap. So my play time is pretty limited, which can be a barrier to finding and bonding with a guild, from my experience in other games. It’s a bummer but RL is definitely priority right now. Truth is, I’d be playing WoW but I want to save some money and I already own this game, so I’m trying to give it another shot.

Also – in all honesty, I found Skyrim only “ok”. But actually some MMOs do readable books quite well (EQ2 comes to mind, readable AND writable books). Even Rift and WoW have it to some extent, and it’s just a nice little added thing to do to help get into the Lore if you aren’t entirely familiar with it. Which I’m not, with the GW setting.

Edit: Are there any plans that Anet is going to bring this sort of thing (housing or lore books or the like) to the game at any point? It would probably go a long way with me enjoying the game more and wanting to stick around instead of feeling so empty about every time I log in.

Housing has been “asked” for, but I’ll be honest….I find that level of RP in an MMO, unnecessary (at least for me) and I hope the Devs put their limited resources into something that everyone can potentially benefit from (like Guild Halls or some additional LVL 80 areas).

While readable books CAN relate lore well, it is considered an “old school” (translated…“bad”) method to do so in modern gaming (not that I agree with that). I’m quite aware of how EQ2 and WoW did the things you “like” and if you think they did those better than Skyrim…..not sure my opinions on these things will mesh with yours….at ALL.

SijjvraVisz.7159:

I haven’t tried to find a guild yet, mainly because I typically try to “get into” a game before I try to find the right guild for me. Right now I only have an hour or three to play a day, as I have a 16 month old toddler and she keeps me pretty busy until she’s sleeping for the night or taking a nap. So my play time is pretty limited, which can be a barrier to finding and bonding with a guild, from my experience in other games. It’s a bummer but RL is definitely priority right now. Truth is, I’d be playing WoW but I want to save some money and I already own this game, so I’m trying to give it another shot.

I don’t think that should be an issues. In my guild we have a lot of different people. Some have kids not much older that your little girl. Some only play once or two a weeks, but that doesn’t change anything, they are still more than welcome and they part of the guild. We also get people that play several hours per day to the game and are in the guild for more than a year and they are still no really included in the guild. But that their choice. If the guild is active with a basic leadership, then its simply about your attitude. When I go into the game, I’m always on our VOIP and I play with my guildmate to the game. We decide together what to do next and when someone want to do something specific they need, we usually get together to do that.

On one side you have people that don’t come into the VOIP unless they are ask and play alone unless they have an offer to come join us.

and on the other side you have people that come on the VOIP first (even if they only chat because they don’t have a mic) and simply play with the rest of the guild.

That make all the difference. And for the second kind, we all always more than happy to show them all the things that we love about that game and why we are still playing it, almost two years after the release.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Housing has been “asked” for, but I’ll be honest….I find that level of RP in an MMO, unnecessary (at least for me) and I hope the Devs put their limited resources into something that everyone can potentially benefit from (like Guild Halls or some additional LVL 80 areas).

While readable books CAN relate lore well, it is considered an “old school” (translated…“bad”) method to do so in modern gaming (not that I agree with that). I’m quite aware of how EQ2 and WoW did the things you “like” and if you think they did those better than Skyrim…..not sure my opinions on these things will mesh with yours….at ALL.

Actually, I think you are misreading my reply. I never likened the book part of Skyrim to EQ2 or WoW or Rift – I was replying directly to the statement that it seemed I wanted a Skyrim MMO – hence my comment that I only thought Skyrim was “ok”. The book part of Skyrim was great, the housing was half-baked, though.

Now, I replied to the comment that MMOs can’t do readable books well – that was my comment about EQ2 having a good system for readable and writeable books. I wasn’t comparing it to Skyrim’s system of book Lore, but for an MMO it is pretty decent and book collecting is popular in that game. This is the first time I’ve EVER heard the opinion that book collecting or reading in game is considered too old school for new games. That, to me, makes no sense, considering many new MMOs that come out still have this and a lot of players seem to enjoy gleaning Lore from readable books in game. What’s the alternative? No Lore, or very shallow Lore that seems to play very little part in the MMO world itself?

Unfortunately that’s sort of the feeling I get from GW2, initially. It’s a pretty package, but seems pretty shallow in terms of “things to do” once you get past jumping puzzles, combat and guided “exploration”.

Again, either I’m missing something or the game just really isn’t for me, but…yeah, that’s the impression I get. I’d like to get a different one, hence my asking what I’m missing and if they are adding features like most MMOs have for “other things to do”. And no, I’m not a raider. I don’t have time, so don’t misunderstand me comparing “end game content”.

Now, on the subject of housing – again, this is more than just an RP consideration. Most MMOs have a housing option, actually, and many people (not just RPers) enjoy the achievement of getting or crafting “stuff” for their houses, either to show off, use as a utility hub for crafting, or yes…RPing. Rift has Dimension/housing, LOTRO has it, ESO will be adding housing apparently, FFXIV ARR has housing, FFXI has housing in some capacity, EQ2 has a robust system, Wildstar will have it, SWTOR has it (or is adding it very soon, as I understand) and even WoW is adding a form of housing, Archeage uses it as a major mechanic, EQN will almost certainly have it considering it is one of the most popular features of EQ2 and EQ:L… you get my point.

So, if done right, I think Anet could only PROFIT by adding housing. And more stuff to do to make the game feel less “shallow”. The pretty graphics are great, but…where’s the beef? Am I missing the beef? Or is the beef just not to my liking?

@Thaddeus – thanks for the offer, but if I do decide to find a guild and stick around, it will be with my spouse and very likely an RP guild. I do appreciate it, though.

You are looking for beef in a Tapas restaurant. You need to create a little on your side from the many offerings available. You want a steak dinner with everything on the plate and no decisions to be made then you may not like what is on offer.

Well, I have less time to play each day than you, and I think that it is difficult to “get into” a game with very limited playtime.

I am pretty easily entertained, admittedly, but I found that certainly my engagement with the game – that is, my desire to play and the realisation that I am having fun while playing rather than just spending time in game – ramped up exponentially once I found a guild I liked. They don’t mind that I don’t log on every day or that sometimes I can only log on for an hour in a particular week, and they’re always chatting, running dungeons, giving advice, grouping up to get map completion out the way etc.

So that makes a huge difference – and this is coming from a solo player.

The other thing I found is getting over my initial hesitations about WvW (I shy away from PvP at the best of times, but thought this might present a happy medium) opened up hundreds of hours of playtime for me. So maybe you might want to try testing out the other modes available to you. I’m even considering PvP now they’ve changed the way rewards work in that mode.

The most important thing I find for getting me back into the game is setting a goal. It doesn’t have to be a legendary or anything that seems like it’s too much for you. I decided at the beginning of the WvW Spring Tournament, for instance, that I really wanted a Mistforged Hero weapon skin and so spent hours upon hours (to the amusement of my guild) in WvW grinding out the achievements. I don’t even mind that my server isn’t even placed high enough to get me a skin because I enjoyed myself so much that I’ll be there next time ready to add to my token count. Or maybe you fancy the new backpiece skin that is rewarded for PvP? Just having a reason why you’re playing the game helps to get you started – sometimes “it’s fun and I just want to play” isn’t enough, and sometimes not enough people realise that.

But absolutely, GW2 is, more than any other game I’ve played, really a game where you have to create the boundaries for making your own fun. That can be a good or a bad thing, depending on who you are and what makes you tick. One other thing – don’t feel you HAVE to like it. If you’re anything like me, thinking you really should and ought to like something makes it harder to!

OP, if your friends like food X but you find it meh or bleh, do you try to understand why your friends like it? Why are you trying to disregard your feelings just because others like it? Stop trying to conform. Maybe this game just isn’t for you. It doesn’t float your boat; light your fire; light your boat on fire; whatever. It’s okay to disagree.

What I like about the game is it’s free to play after purchase and it’s extremely solo friendly. That’s it for me.

SijjvraVisz.7159:

The Lore seems a bit…generic? I guess. It doesn’t seem like there’s much thought to the culture or cultural differences to any of the races, beyond the surface aesthetics. Or, if there is, it doesn’t seem to translate very well via the NPC texts or generic “everyone wears the same thing” armor, everyone on the same side, everyone wandering around everyone else’s city without any hostility or comments even from the NPCs, etc.

This, especially the bit in bold, makes me think you maybe haven’t explored enough, because this definitely does happen. There are charr and human NPCs in Divinity’s Reach who will argue about whether charr should be in the city at all, and a lot of humans in The Black Citadel who will tell you how nervous they are to be living there, or even visiting. (Particularly the suddenly freed ex-slaves.)

Exploration in this game is a bit strange because it goes almost completely from one extreme to the other. Either you’re told to go to a specific place, speak to a specific person and given a little bit of lore that relates directly to what you’re doing or you will never be given any indication there’s something to find beyond an NPC being named and it’s entirely up to you to find it. (And sometimes not even then, some generic named NPCs actually have full dialogue trees too.)

It’s the same with other things like jumping puzzles, mini-dungeons, easter eggs like hidden NPCs (the judging quaggan in Snowden Drifts is my favourite)…you could quite easily go through the whole game and never even notice they’re there. But once you start looking there’s a lot to find.

If you’re interested in the Lore though I recommend speaking to every named NPC you find, especially in Labyrinthine Cliffs while you have the opportunity to get there. Also get a character into the Order of Whispers because then they get extra dialogue options with some NPCs who are undercover agents. And do all the story dungeons and watch the cut scenes, the overall story is a bit dull but they give you a good insight into the area the dungeon is in and it’s lore.

SijjvraVisz.7159:

Now, on the subject of housing – again, this is more than just an RP consideration. Most MMOs have a housing option, actually, and many people (not just RPers) enjoy the achievement of getting or crafting “stuff” for their houses, either to show off, use as a utility hub for crafting, or yes…RPing. Rift has Dimension/housing, LOTRO has it, ESO will be adding housing apparently, FFXIV ARR has housing, FFXI has housing in some capacity, EQ2 has a robust system, Wildstar will have it, SWTOR has it (or is adding it very soon, as I understand) and even WoW is adding a form of housing, Archeage uses it as a major mechanic, EQN will almost certainly have it considering it is one of the most popular features of EQ2 and EQ:L… you get my point.

So, if done right, I think Anet could only PROFIT by adding housing. And more stuff to do to make the game feel less “shallow”. The pretty graphics are great, but…where’s the beef? Am I missing the beef? Or is the beef just not to my liking?

EQ2 housing .. i would die for that -sigh-

Makes me nearly wish to reinstall EQ2 and have a look if my Baby Dragon is still there

SijjvraVisz.7159:

…….What’s the alternative? No Lore, or very shallow Lore that seems to play very little part in the MMO world itself?
…..

The truthful answer is YES. While there is a solid group of hardcore RPGers out there, their numbers are tiny compared to casual gamers that purchase a product, play it for a time and move on to the next “flavor of the month” game (that can be properly “hyped up” to garner the knee-jerk purchase no matter the actual quality of the game itself). There are plenty of players out there that are absolutely turned off by having to read ANYTHING in a video game….much less page after page of lore to understand a story in any depth.

Unfortunately, that casual gamer has significant buying power and will continue to influence game development choices for any future I see. It’s a shame and gamers that tend to gravitate to well made games for a longer period of time will find their choices continuing to dwindle because of that economic fact.

Ok, let me try to make you like this game. When you are right story is not as interesting as it could be, our story quest arent what story of game is about. As you didnt reach end game I think you didnt get too much into living world which is chain of events since almost start of game that makes this world change(recently most noticeable was la destruction, rebuil, and zephyrite events + queens gauntlet). Also when in many other games PvP is end game in this game PvP could be done by lvl 1 player who can solo 4 80 lvls if played good. Only thing you keep from pve character is class/race and looks. And if you dont like pvp in samll arenas go to WvW, you get much to do here and a lot of ppl playing. EoTM is farming version of WvW so if you want to grind ranks jump here before WvW. Join guild, some guilds arent just about bonuses from being in one, they make missions, and even their own events(My guild did hide and seek recently with some gold reward for winner ) Well, housing is missing for sure, but what would you need housing for? And how much more they would have to invest into servers to let you have house where you just let it look nice. Well, and talking about game, pve game rly starts since 80 and before its just grinding lvls mostly, get here and your joy my start. Explore whole world, craft legendary weapons, become rich by manging to trade at TP or just aim for #1 at pvp. Theres tons of things to do and tons of ppl to play with. Have fun and try to look for nice sides of game

SijjvraVisz.7159:

Which brings me to this game. I’ve had it for a year now.

Took me about 5 months to get into GW2. I picked it up and put it down a few times. Honestly, if you’ve had the game for a year and still can’t get into it, then it’s not for you. Luckily there are many other games to play.

SijjvraVisz.7159:

I’m not new to MMOs of all styles. I have played FFXI (not quest based), WoW, EQ2, ESO, Rift, and a bunch of others. My “main” MMOs were FFXI for a few years, WoW on and off (and will probably go back to it again eventually) and EQ2 on and off over the years. I know how to play both quest based and non-quest based MMOs, so let’s get that out of the way. I like to explore in MMOs. I love to RP in MMOs. I like little things like readable books and housing (absent from this game, sadly) and deep, interesting and well written Lore. Pretty graphics are nice, but not the main thing I look for in a game.

Which brings me to this game. I’ve had it for a year now. I’ve tried a few times to get into it, and I just can’t. It looks pretty, there seems to be attention to detail, but … not much you can do with that detail, I guess. No readable books. The writing seems a bit juvenile or maybe badly translated? No housing. I am told WHERE to explore instead of just letting it happen organically. Dynamic events really don’t seem much more dynamic than repeatable daily quests, just …not daily quests and on a fast timer, rather than a daily timer. I haven’t tried PVP as PVP is only something I did at “end game” in WoW, but was never very interested in it otherwise in most games. The Lore seems a bit…generic? I guess. It doesn’t seem like there’s much thought to the culture or cultural differences to any of the races, beyond the surface aesthetics. Or, if there is, it doesn’t seem to translate very well via the NPC texts or generic “everyone wears the same thing” armor, everyone on the same side, everyone wandering around everyone else’s city without any hostility or comments even from the NPCs, etc.

What am I missing? I want to like the game, everyone else seems to like it, but it just feels “meh” to me. I don’t care about my character enough to want to RP him because the Lore just seems half-baked and generic, the lack of character customization in the character screen is kind of a killer for me too.

I just can’t seem to “get” this game, beyond the combat (definitely not my favorite style, but I can adapt to it if I could just get INTERESTED in the rest of the game enough to bother).

Any insight here? Anyone have the same problem? Anything that can help the game “click” or is it just not going to happen?

With “doors that don’t open” and other static items in the game that glow or move – I have to agree with you.

The game they should be looking at for “depth” is now shelved but Star Wars Galaxies had all the elements ever needed in a game – except for WvW – and this game has that even though it’s been ignored, not fixed nor improved.

WvW could be the end game of all end games but anet is stuck in static mode for some reason.

With homes to host parties, bartenders who actually work, and having all things that move able to be moved – the immersion happens.

PvE is lonely.

PvP is lonely.

WvW is less lonely.

And now we wait.

atheria.2837:

PvE is lonely.

PvP is lonely.

WvW is less lonely.

And now we wait.

?? I have no loneliness in this game.

In PvE, I play dungeon, guild missions and world bosses with my friends and guildmates and even when we need pugs for dungeon, I usually enough fun encounter to more than compensate for some occasional bad pug.

In PvP, sometimes I play alone, like I would on a Multiplayer FPS. But most of the time i play with friends, going in the same server and either playing together or against each other.

I raid with a specific guild in WvW where we have a lot of fun playing the game while we joke and talk.

The only reason for loneliness in this game is the player itself.

Lore seems to be the main thing that you find lacking in GW2. The world of Tyria is actually very heavy in lore. One of the most lore heavy games I have played. Most of that lore comes from GW1 and not GW2 sadly. The way lore is presented in gw2 for some reason makes it seem utterly dull and shallow, when in fact there’s so much to it and so much potential. If you want to find out more scan through the lore forum section or go on the gw1/gw2 wiki and look up lore around it (or go play gw1).

There have been books written (3 books actually) that are supposed to link the 250 year gap between the original GW and this one. I found them quite enjoyable actually some more than others but were decent reads. The game itself is not based on a novel like some of the mmos out there are but the books themselves were written AFTER the universe was set in place.

i think the OP was guided in the game by a wrong person.

I know how you feel.

I won Guild Wars 2 through a contest, and I’ve been jabbing about it for several months before I got it. When I finally got it, I was excited, but I found myself bored after a while. I guess I’m not the MMO type, but more the solo RPG type. Anyway, I was lucky enough to join a nice guild who offered me a LOT of gold even though I was a beginner. They’re really nice and I felt like a scumbag leaving them behind, so I started playing GW2 and since then I’ve been playing it on and off. After my exams, I intend to go kitten this game.

What I’m trying to say is that you need to get the “right” introduction to the game. I was lucky that I joined such a cool guild, but it seems that you weren’t as lucky. You should go find some mates on GW2 and make them show you the true spirit of GW2.
Make them show you all the fun puzzles, boss battles and the wonderful enviroments.
You said that you weren’t the graphics type of person, but more the story type. In that case, there’s nothing to do really. If you don’t like the story, you just don’t. You can’t change that. You claim that there isn’t a lot of lore in GW2, but I’ve heard others say the exact opposite thing. Just try to get into a nice guild and then tell us what you think about GW2. (Or ask them to tell you a bit more about the lore in GW2)

atheria.2837:

PvE is lonely.

PvP is lonely.

WvW is less lonely.

And now we wait.

I’m not sure we are playing the same game…..I was rarely lonely before the Megaserver patch and have trouble finding a lonely location in the game now.

Wanting to play the game and wanting to RP are 2 different things (tho they CAN be combined).

Well I tried. It still hasn’t clicked. Mostly, I kept asking myself “Why would a necromancer be collecting rabbit food and picking flowers for some random NPC they haven’t even TALKED to about why this is happening?”

I think that’s a large part of the problem for me – the heart quests seem so random and have no story or lore to them. They’re just there. As are most of the events. WHY are these things happening? WHY am I being asked to collect rabbit food or chase off squirrels, etc? And why would my character be compelled to do such things?

So, at the end of the day, the game still feels remarkably shallow because of the immense lack of Lore beyond the living story and rather bland personal story, unless I want to sit all day on the Wiki. Which I don’t. I want to experience the lore in game, as my character. Couple that with the lack of RP-fluff-stuff to do, such as housing and books and even a viable emote list, and it just feels like an ARPG rather than a full fledged MMORPG to me.

Oh well.

I guess it is what it is, and this game just isn’t for me.

This may be too little, too late, as it seems you’ve already made up your mind, but regarding the ‘randomness’ of the heart tasks, this may help. Make it a point to talk to the NPC first. They do offer up some dialog pertaining to the task, which changes once the heart is completed. It may help to give you a sense of why you’re doing what you’re doing. It also sounds like you might be in a starter area, which is kind of like the ‘help your neighbour’ phase of the game, which is why you’re doing these mundane tasks. You’re the hero of your race, as per the events in the tutorial, so you’re tasked with helping out the less fortunate in your own backyard before setting out on your adventure.

They do have story and lore but you have to speak with the NPC to get that. The instructions are available on screen for those that don’t WANT or CARE about the story.

It’s an attempt to please to a wider audience (I personally think it’s rather successful), but if that is a major issue for you, then maybe this just isn’t the game for you. Being FORCED to speak with the NPC in order to start performing the task feels like a linear path I’m being forced down (tho doing the task without the back-story ends with the same results).

SijjvraVisz.7159:

Well I tried. It still hasn’t clicked. Mostly, I kept asking myself “Why would a necromancer be collecting rabbit food and picking flowers for some random NPC they haven’t even TALKED to about why this is happening?”(…)

The question for me would be – why did the necromancer pick flowers?

And if he did pick the flower, why would the omniscient “quest giver” not know about it?

Traditionally they have always been able to tell how many creatures I killed from miles away.

Now they are not even asking me to kill 10 creatures. Or collect 10 tails. Or pick 10 flowers.

Why would the “quest giver” only appreciate you killing the creatures or weeding out flowers after the talked to you?

You came, saw, weeded.
(Edit: Veni, vidi, weeni.)

Obviously from a practical standpoint I am happy that I don’t have to run back and forth anymore.

Just my thoughts, totally fine with it not clicking with every one of course.