Guild Wars 2

I write here why i won’t be playing this game anymore, because as there is no monthly abonment, it’s the only way for me to give my feedback to Arenanet.
It’s one thing to sell 2 millions boxes on promesses and massive advertising, it’s another thing to satisfy your customers with the real product you give them.

Basically, what i don’t like in GW2 (but in fact it’s the tendency of these last years in PC games) is that it’s not anymore a mmorpg, but it’s an mmo"action game".
Fast fast fast, always faster, always more action, “fast-paced” fight, “dynamic” gameplay which in fact very soon fail to hide a chronical lack of richness and depth, just like these zillions of hollywoodian movies where there is always more action, faster action, shiny effects, and the scenario is always poorer…
I’m not a teenager, and i don’t want to play console type games on my PC. I don’t want to be permantly under a frustrating stress. Maybe this game is mainly made to attract the new generation, but for my part i find absotutely no pleasure in it.
It’s not too hard by its cleverness, it’s artificially too hard by unfair and unpleasant mechanisms based on reflexes over reflexion.
If i want such a game i buy a console. On my PC i want to play something more intelligent, more interesting than endlessly and aimlessly fighting monsters in such a chaotic way.
Of course, i don’t have to play GW2 if i don’t like it, and that’s why i have removed it from my PC. But as paying customer, i have the right to give my feedback as much as the ones who like this game, for i have payed the same price.
I could just forget it and go play something else, but the problem is that it’s not an isolated case, most PC games nowadays, be it online or not, tend to become console games-like.
Then what’s left for people who don’t enjoy this hysterical gaming experience and prefer something more slow paced, but with a deeper content and richer mechanisms ?
Really not much.
But my question finally is : are we really such a small minority who don’t enjoy the way the new PC games are designed ? (and all entertainment and cultural products in general).

- No sens of group while playing with other players. Each person has to take care for himself, and there’s no tool to organize strategies, to support each others concretly (i come from Lotro where teamwork means a lot in dungeons, and we really have there wonderful tools to create strategies and coordinate our actions).
- There are theorically some skills and combos for that, but their effects are usually ridiculously short and their cool down ridiculously long. so basically you can’t really CC for example.
- The way the agro is managed is a total mystery, so there’s no way to build any strategy on this aspect neither. It feels random.
- The fights feel messy, and the targeting system unfinished. For example “nearest target” often doesn’t select the nearest target, the camera is often getting mad when my char is fighting many ennemies, and then when i want to rotate, sometimes it rotates in the wrong direction, making me lose precious seconds to be again able to have a correct view of the battle. It all feels clumsy and not enough tested.
- When there are many monsters, many players, and many skill effects, it becomes impossible to see what in happening, or even to select the right target manually if the other targeting systems fail to select the right target.
Personally, the camera issues are a game-breaker for me. There should be at least an option to always align the camera behind the back of my character, and the rotation issue should be fixed asap. They give you skills which last 2-3 seconds, but you need more time to just have a correct view of what is happening…
- I’m aware that the game is not yet balanced in difficulty, some events/stories episodes/dungeons are easy and some very frustrating because unfair (sudden apparition of legions of mobs out of nowhere for no reason nor warning while you are already engaged in fight, larges zones of deadly conditions endlessly spammed by some monsters…), but i feel like it will take long before they can balance everything for every classes.
- They advertised a great number of skills, but in fact for each class, there is only a very limited number of them. The main difference after the baby levels will be in the traits, but it doesn’t make the gameplay richer. If there was not the exploration, i would have already given up.

And that will be my conclusion : i find the gameplay poor compared to the many mmorpgs i have regulary played since 1999. Of course compared to the F2P trash clones we are flooded with nowadays it may feel richer, but compared to the “real” mmorpgs, i’m sorry to say that i find the gameplay very shallow and boring, for after the few first levels nothing will evoluate.

This is just my opinion, my review. I’d be very glad to read your own experience and feelings about the game. But please, if you are going to write steril and dismissive comments such as “learn to play” or “go back to WoW” then just forget this threat, for it’s not the point and just a matter of taste.

I won’t speak about pvp here simply because i never pvp.
I also am a roleplayer, but i won’t take that into account, for the majority of players don’t roleplay.
In bold are the key sentences if you don’t feel like reading all

I will start with what i enjoyed so far :

- I like how the races look different, ie the Sylvary are not just classical elves, they have something different, i like how the cultures, the ambiances of these races feel different too. There is a lore, a background which makes you feel that you are not in another of these generic fantasy worlds.
- I find the world beautiful, the zones are quite various and fun to explore. I especially enjoy to reach the vistas, some are really tricky and it adds a very welcome change to the classical mmorpgs activities.
- I enjoy to gain xp not only for killing and completing quests, but also for exploring, gathering materials, crafting and even reviving npcs or other players.
- I like how the personnal story will vary, depending on which options you have choosen while creating your character (even if i must admit that this part has not much to do with an mmorpg, but more with a solo game).

Now here are the points i didn’t like, and which make me feel that i won’t last long in this game :

- After the first 5-10 levels (depending on which class you play) i have all my weapon skills. Then basically i will be playing all the same way until 80. No sens of progression for my character, which is one of the biggest incentives in rpgs, be they mmos or not.
- Really not much variety in weapons, armors and civilian clothes, meaning that my character will also pretty much always look the same all the way to 80.
- They have cheated us with the quests system. In fact the hearts are nothing else than a quest, except than you don’t have to talk to the npc before to start the quest. So basically there is 1 quest by level !!!
- The “dynamic” events are not changing the world at all, (wait, let’s be fair : sometimes a waypoint won’t be available, that’s all what it can change). They are just normal quests which are not always dispo. I like them, but they are nothing revolutionary. In fact this game is not different than the classical mmorpgs. But despite the way they present it, there is less content in terms of questing, and the higher you climb in levels, the worse it gets (to be fair, that is not really a surprise for a release, i must admit).

LucidCrux wrote : “MMOs HAVE to take lower skill players into account, other wise there would be no MASSIVE about it”.

I totally agree with that, and the “hardcore” players who spend their time on this forum to tell to stop to whine and to learn to play should remember that very basic truth.
We too are customers, and we don’t want to waste the content of the hardcore players, we just want to have some content too.
In what does it annoy you if the devs add some easier modes, with of course less reward ? They won’t remove your hard mode, so where is your problem ?
Why do you always look down at us and repeat this stupid “L2P” ? There are tons of things i know better than other people, but i don’t feel the need to throw that in their face at the first occasion, for they certainly know better or do better than me tons of other things too. And even if not, in what is it a crime to be less talented ?
Why do you fear that your game experience will be destroyed if they add some adapted content for people who have not had the luck to be wonderfully gifted by the nature like you (me, ironic ?).
Yes we are less skilled, yes you can think that we are stupid or whatever you want. You can despite us as much as you want, but in the meantime, if you want GW2 to be populated only with hardcore players, then i don’t know how the devs will get their next pay.

I’m happy to hear that dedicated and experienced players who have a trained and regular group are finding some challenge and fun in the dungeons.
BUT :
You all must remember that GW2 is supposed to be for every kind of players, not only very good raid specialists. Meaning that everykind of people should be able to get some fun in game.
While the challenging dungeons are great for some, i think that the other ones, the casual players, which represent in fact the major part of the population of a popular game such as GW2, should have access to some adapted content too.
Yes maybe we are dumb, slow, losers or whatever you think, but we are customers as much as you.
So concretly, keep the dungeons as they are for the ones who like it and can dedicate so much time and skill to it, but add an easier mode for casual players, with shorter sessions adapted to family life, with of course less reward etc…
WHY NOT GIVING SOME CONTENT TO EVERY KIND OF PLAYERS ? After all the dungeons are already here, it shouldn’t be that hard to add some easier modes, and yes some harder modes too if there are enough people enjoying it.