Guild Wars 2

Okay I was very excited when I read that GW2 now allows free accounts with no game purchase necessary because I wanted to experience the game as it was when it launched in 2012. Players didn’t have gold, powerful weapons or armor and had to figure out how to play the game with only one bag. Now players have tons of gold, outfits, transmogs, specialty bags, gliding and other cool stuff.

But it was fun leveling a toon with no guild or connections, no items, gold or bag space. The classic GW2 game was challenging! Does my toon jump off the giant building in Queensdale? No? There is no gliding? I can’t craft or gather anything until I reach a certain level? Yes! This was how all players started off when GW2 originally launched. Exciting, challenging even felt like real adventuring! Couldn’t even kill a Skritt with my starting weapon! Ah five minutes taking one down struggling to survive!

Unlike my main account where all my toons are spoiled with fancy outfits, legendary weapons, cool gliders, never ending gathering tools and crafted gear!

However, as the title of this post states “Free Aint’t Free!” The free account is fun to play but toons are restricted on what they can do. Unlike classic GW2 (before Heart of Maguuma), toons can not use guild services, send mail, use the trading post or commune to receive hero points. Bummer! The free account is really to get friends and family to join because as soon as they discover how much fun GW2 is to play of course they will buy the expansion Heart of Maguuma and gain instant access to all the cool stuff and instant level their first toon to 80!

I would consider renaming the “Free Account” to “Starter Account” or “Trial Account” because that’s what it really is and not a classic version of GW2 at launch that many dedicated players would love to experience all over again!

I liked the previous version better because everything flowed together whether you were on the first, second or third tab. Now the first tab has a big ugly blue text button that says “Buy Gems”. Only the first tab was updated where players spend real money in the store. Granted, being able to see what a glider or mini looks like without pressing “H” to see how it looks in your hero tabs is a plus. Should help sell more outfits and stuff in the store.

The second tab is completely unecessary. You can add a big ugly button on the first tab next to the big ugly blue one and call it “Gold Exchange” that opens the exchange rate information.

The third tab works just fine but would be even be better if it had a built in preview of visible items like armor, weapons and skins instead of right clicking and choosing preview that opens yet another window that gets lost in all the window layers on the screen. Attach a preview in the Trading Post where you can see how something looks on any of your account toons without having to log out and select different characters. A little drop down list with names of all your account toons in the featured preview menu with the toon that is logged in as the default preview.