I find it so immensely tragic that there will likely never be a true successor to this game…our best chance, GW2, threw away everything that made its predecessor so great in order to, ironically, become another generic mmo, the very thing that GW tried – and succeeded in splendidly, too – getting away from at the time when the old Anet, formerly part of Blizz, decided to make a game that could rival the giant of the era that was WoW. So they worked magic, and we got the best no-fee b2p team-oriented (“mmo”)rpg which had huge emphasis on pvp, yet was incredibly social because of its emphasis on team play (although admittedly, the bar to pvp entry could be an issue at times).
The Anet of 2005 were true pioneers, they created something that is, to me, an unrivaled online pvp experience when it comes to team games. If only they hadn’t been so ahead of their time, and esp so ahead of the whole e-sports scene going global, not to mention the bloom of streaming and casting…. hell, they virtually pioneered e-sport too outside Korea with the world championships in Cologne, but alas it was still too early.
The guys at Anet worked magic back then, and anyone who was somewhat involved in the pvp heydays knows how incredible an experience it gave.
At the same time, pve too was a one of a kind thing, where you could make your own bars and farm specific zones using builds you’d never see in any other game (hello 55hp/605hp monk tanks, wammo droks runners, obsidian warrior or ele tanks, oh the memories).
And then that music … all hail Jeremy Soule. And the character design, so beautiful (GW2, go hide).
What a blast the game was.?
Below are some of my opinions on GW2
Pvp is always in a horrible state here, and pve is… well, it’s boring. No substance in its combat, no interesting rotations, build options, or customization.
In the end, while GW2 feels like it is a copypasta of all the other MMO’s trying to be cool and edgy, it actually lacks more features than other MMOs to the point that I would rather just play WoW or whatever because at least they aren’t afraid to admit what they are and commit to most of their design choices from day 1 therefore design that structure much much better than GW2, is actually enjoyable rather than feeling of grind.
They don’t use the players as beta testers on live servers and they surely don’t try to push esports to the point it is unhealthy for the game & its playerbase when the game simply will not achieve it.
You can’t throw money at a problem and it just fix itself… not even your top pvpers take the game seriously! It’s a free paycheck to them, and who could take it seriously with the lack of the most basic esports tools in the game?
But most importantly, it is not fun to watch & more times than not it is more frustrating than fun to play with all of the so eloquently dubbed ‘cancer’ in the game.
I blame the fact that the ANet team grew much too fast, with too many new blood and with most of the original team “leaving for other projects” that things got too messy during development, visions were blurred and design structure is just whack. If you watch manifesto now it just blows my mind lol.
I’ve said my peace, bid you all farewell and goodluck!
