Guild Wars 2

I agree with the OP.

I didn’t get a ticket. I am terribly unlucky with things like that. Am I happy they’re now being sold? Of course I am. Do I feel bad for those who worked so hard and spent so much to get them? Yes, I do.

Another game, [name redacted] had a unique item that was incredibly expensive to obtain, and could only be obtained through in-game means. Then, one day they decided to offer it in the cash shop to anyone at what would be considered a much lower price. I quit the game not long after that, because they began to do it with a lot of so-called “rare” things (among other reasons.)

Why? Not because I was kitten (which I was) but because it was just another in a long line of homogenizing moves. At one time, that item was a symbol of hard work and effort. Now it is a symbol of who has the most disposable income.

While the BL tickets are pure RNG, it is still a status symbol of sorts. It’s just not fair to those who got them already.

I truly hope Anet doesn’t continue to roll down that path.

um…can’t see too many people blowing up the tail end of a chicken….WTF were they thinking with that warhorn??

The Champion Ogotl Priestess in Brisban Wildlands just SW of the vista that you have to get to through Skrittsburg Center. I haven’t seen anyone in many times visiting

I don’t know about anyone else, but I was a GW1 maven. I came into this game knowing it wouldn’t be GW1.5, and I am happy that it isn’t.

The thing that really grabbed me when I came into GW2 was the fluidity of grouping for DE’s. Nobody gets toasted for not being in “the group”…show up, do the event, go your separate ways. Nobody gets ALL the credit for being the “first tagger.”

Silly, I know, but it beats the kitten out of scrambling for credit so you can have a pittance for a reward.

Dear Scarlet:

I’m so sorry about your breakup with Trahearne. I know it was rough. We all know he was away “Saving the World” (or so he says) all the time, but we also know he was really just finding excuses to hang out with Eir. Not only that, Jennah and Logan conspired to help him hide things from you!

So, when the divorce goes to court, I’ll be there to wintess for you. After all, I was there with them through the whole fight to kill Zhaitan. I saw it all!

You should get much more than half… I am thinking you should get at least THE WORLD!!!

Your ever loyal Elementalist,
Ashabhi

P.S.:
Can I haz Anise’s armor when you skin her?

I saw “Yet Another Alt” in LA this morning

better solution:

Don’t tie the event to Arah…. Then we know that there won’t be any legitimate progressionists that are completing the event. Easy to tell the griefers from the players that way.

As I said…griefing is griefing. Doesn’t matter which side you’re on.

Copestetic.5174:

lol GW2 is hard. You want hard? Go buy Guild Wars Prophecies, ( only Prophecies ) and make your way to this nice little Dwarf outpost named “Thunder Head Keep”. For more fun, get some of your real life friends involved. To make things fair, don’t use Wiki ( we didn’t have that in 2005 ) and restrict yourself to only Prophecies skills.

Now, do that about 20 times and report back here. We’ll compare and contrast the difficulty level of Guild Wars vs. Guild Wars 2.

Enjoy.

(shivers) WTB Run…Full Shiverpeaks tour…Paying…um…nothing cuz I don’t play GW1 anymores…lol

I do remember.

Cheers!

aspirine.6852:

The bad thing is I have to pay money to transfer to a server where I can play one of the game modes. WvW on my home server is almost dead, bottom of the list.
Ok it can be in game currency but it does have an real money value. So to play the game I have to pay for the move. :/

…Or you can play other aspects, start your own WvW zerg guild, or simply stand around in LA looking bored. It’s all up to you.

Personally, if WvW is what you want to do, now’s your chance to pony up and transfer. Otherwise, risk finding that the server you wish to be on is full when you get ready to move.

Good luck to you

Wolfheart.1938:

Completing a Dynamic Event constitutes a violation of the ToS?

No, it does not. You missed the whole point of my text.

What I was saying is that those who grief are in the wrong, no matter which side of the coin they’re on.

All I said was that the “anti farmers” are not better than the farmers. I said nothing about those who are legitimately trying to progress through the event.

There is another nerdrage thread about Ember Farming, so we don’t need to start all over again here.

Uruz Six.6594:

Today I Learned: That trying to complete the event gets you labeled a ‘troll’… /snip

Unfortunately, the ratio of those who are doing it solely to spite farmers and those who are legitimately trying to progress has made it so that the farmers will automatically label you a troll. Did you try communicating your desire or did you just run in and try to kill cauldrons without saying anything, or worse yet, did you “poke the bear” and say something nasty to the farmers?

Many times, you make your own bed. Don’t be afraid to lie in it.

I have always thought that hardcore was more a style of playing instead of time played.

If someone plays in a way to be the best they can be, and are willing to do whatever it takes to get there as quick;y as possible then I would say yes, they are hardcore. To me, it doesn’t matter if they play 10 hours a day or 1 hour a day.

On the other hand, if the player wants to hang out and admire the aesthetics or run a dungeon here and there, and don’t really care how long it takes them to get to max level with max armor and max stats, then I would consider them casual, again, it doesn’t matter if they play one hour a day or ten.

This game has always had content to appease the casual player. They are now adding some content for the more hardcore player base, and I am happy to see it.

The nice thing about it is that the content isn’t like it used to be in other games (not so fondly remembering the 8-hour long raids of yore.) If I want to log in for a couple hours, I can work toward something, or not, and it’s my choice what to do.

So, in my opinion, having played since Headstart, Anet has made a game that is both. But, if I had to say one or the other, I would say that until recently, the game was mostly casual.

I followed the zerg here and there, and it was some fun, but it’s not my preferred way to play.

Besides it ceased being any fun at all when the “anti-farmers” showed up and violated the ToS by doing exactly what they were decrying…disrupting the game for others.

Good Job, kittens.

Alas, some community people will always be kittens, and will place more emphasis on “what you got” as to “what you bring.”

I almost never join farming groups.. if one happens t zerg by, I will follow for a time, but rarely do I join a group. I still get the same rewards, but I can wear what I want, do what I want, and leave when I want.

The same goes for anything else in the game. If group X kicks you for not being uber enough, find group Y or do it yourself. The game is big enough for you (and me.)

Yes, some people are toxic. If they are privately taunting you, they deserve a report. Screen capture the chat in case ANet asks for it and go on.

Good luck to you.

I’m not sure, but I think I saw Fippy Darkpaw in the champ zerg this morning…

@Colin: The whole of the game is to get other people together and have fun. Not just the Ember Farm. It’s just that this particular spot is so overloaded with farmers, many from other servers, that the few who actually want to complete so they can move on (trolls not included) simply can’t unless they guest to other servers in some cases.

If they guest, then yes, they can complete the event and go on, but there are issues with influence and guild things (small, I know,) that some people don’t want to give up.

Add to that, the fact that so many of our community attack the poor sots who want to finish makes it simply “not fun” for some people. I am ashamed of the way some people treat legitimate “questers.”

This is the gist of the thread, although it seems to have been a bit derailed with the pros and cons of farming.

Nobody is saying that farming is a bad thing (ok, well, maybe some people are.) Some of us are just saying that farming shouldn’t be allowed to get in the way of legitimate progression.

aside to the trolls who are farming the farmers: What you’re doing is no better than anyone else involved. Trolling is trolling.

CreativeAnarchy.6324:

Failing to complete an event is not an exploit. You can continue to try and label it as such but it is not and just make you look foolish no matter what kind of spin you are trying to put on it just to make yourselves look right.

Correct. Failing to complete an event is not an exploit. Many people have been unable to complete events for many reasons.

Deliberately failing an event to farm shouldn’t be categorized as an exploit, per se, but it isn’t playing the game the way it was originally intended either.

Regardless of whether you farm or not, it’s the toxicity of the players toward someone who is playing the game as intended that has become the problem. We could get into a lengthy conversation about entitlement and loot tables, but the simple fact is that [insert derogatory name] will be [repeat name] as long as they think that their right to farm is more important than someone else’s right to finish their event.

@ Duke Blackrose: A martial staff would be great! I can see in my mind’s eye a thief running around and whuppin up on some mobs with a melee staff a la the Chanter class in Aion.

Otherwise, halberds, two-handed axes, throw-able spears, and two-handed orbs are good suggestions.

I was going through my inventory one day, happily salvaging all my “lowbie” weapons I had picked up, when I had forgotten that when I change from Staff to daggers on my ele, one dagger replaces the staff and the other one goes to the first open slot in my inventory… I salvaged it with a “regular” salvage kit…got mats and realized that not only did I salvage the dagger for a pittance, I lost one of my main weapons, and had to go buy the darned thing again, along with the sigil and skin…all told about 10g worth.

BUT…the truly sad thing is that it happened twice…DUH…

ok…I started in head start… so does that mean my birthday gift will be given on the anniversary of head start or release day?

I know this has been said before, but it bears repeating…

Please, help us administer our guilds better than we can now?

My wishes:

1. Last online, or at least last time represented – help us to see inactive players!

2. Guild Email – Let us email everyone in our guild list (Leader Only maybe) so we can get the word out about special events or activities…People will read email before they check the MotD. Not only that, but email can convey more information than the MotD. It’s hard to fit a lot of info into 3 lines or less.

3. Separate “Invite Other Players” from “Administer lower players” – I would like to be able to have person [X] invite someone else, but I don’t necessarily want them to be able to kick someone else…

4. A guild Calendar would be nice, but it’s just a wish, right?

5. Sorting of members – we could sort by length of time in the guild, last online, or rank, but on a global setting, so that everyone who logs in will see the same sortation unless they set a local sortation for their own purposes…

Most of these are simple wishes from someone who wants to be able to see at a glance what is going on with their guild, and send guild-wide information quickly and efficiently.

Anyone else have requests or sugesstions to make guild administration easier?

With all the availability of minis, skins, and mats/armor sets/fluff stuff, my dream b’day gift would be a reward that doesn’t involve RNG or something that’s already available in-game. It wouldn’t really be a “special” gift if it were something I could get by gems or gold.

So, my dream gift would be something like maybe an account bound UNIQUE set of armor (so I could use it on any character without soulbinding it) or UNIQUE weapon skin (account bound like the armor) so that when someone sees it, they know it can only be obtained with age. I would hate to get my special birthday gift and then see them on the trader for [insert gold amount here.]

oh, and if it HAS to be a mini, the same would apply…something you can only get with age, and not ever see it for sale or obtainable in game.

Actually, having Anise be both the leader of the Shining Blade and the Aetherblades would be a cool twist.

Throughout the PS, she would be working toward protecting the Queen. If she lost her position through the removal of Queen Jenna, then she would also lose a large block of power for herself. I would bet that she wouldn’t want that, so as long as protecting the Queen and the Queen’s holdings are in her best interest, she would continue to do so, all the while commanding a horde of Aetherblades and gathering her supporters for an overthrow of the government (just speculation on my part; kind of a “what if” scenario.)

Nothing quite like political intrigue to make you wonder if a supposedly “good” character could have a dark side. It’s a standard mechanic of many movies and novels.

On a personal note… I wish I had her armor…it’s great!

There’s a lot of funny lines…leave your sound up and wander around the Black Citadel and Meatoberfest events…I keep hearing humans refered to as “Mice” (a.k.a. Cat Food)

In my somewhat limited experience in WvW, I get a lot more grief from poke-and-hide thieves than any other profession….

I don’t know if they’re actually any better (i.e. more damage) than any other profession, but it’s terribly hard to hit any foe you can’t see. Besides, they have decent damage.

Of those choices, I would pick Tengu as well… We already have way too many quaggan things in the world, and the Hyleks just don’t appeal to me except as NPCs.

All I can say is Thank You!!!

Been waiting for account-wide pool like this so I could stop running to the bank [insert number of characters here] times to rotate currency.

Kudos to a much needed feature!

I think this was great. Even if ANet had the outcome planned from the beginning, it made us (the players) believe that we have something to add to the game. Good Job, Devs!

…oh…and for the record…I don’t think Evon is gone… I think he will be back…just maybe not so “friendly.”

Actually, I think there is a somewhat PvE “cash” reward…if i remember correctly, you get gems for 5K achievement point (thereabouts.)

Alas, it’s not much, and many of us may never see 5K.

As for PvP…what cash rewards are we seeing? I am curious, as I have not heard this before.

I still run away because I know there will be a zerg of green names following….they scare me…

I had a funny thought this afternoon….

The Svanir champ spawns about every 5 minutes in Wayfarers… It might be nice to see him drop something other than T1 mats and the occasional blue

I never said I didn’t respect those who have legendaries. I said I wasn’t impressed with them.

When people get a legendary, it takes time and effort, unless they bought a kittenload of gems and converted them in order to buy one. The fact that they CAN be bought is what makes them less than impressive. Not the fact that people may or may not have bought them.

The biggest thing for me was the idea that we can share stuff.

What I mean is that if I am harvesting a node, you can harvest as well, instead of worrying about you stealing my node if I am busy fighting a mob.

If I am fighting a mob, or doing a required task, you’re not going to steal what I need by hitting the same mobs.

If I am fighting something a few levels above me, and you come along to help, we both get credit and loot.

Regardless of what anyone thinks about anything else, this, to me was epic!

The most prevalent opinion I see among my friends about running around Queensdale is that it is accessible (no waypoint fees if you come from LA via Divinity) and easy for higher levels to run around (two hits to kill trash mobs.) Especially since the rewards for riunning Queensdale far outweigh the effort. As long as this is true, then there will continue to be champ trains in Queensdale.

If the rewards they put in place with the new system outweigh the effort that one puts in to get them, then the rest will gain “followers” as well. For instance: if the Champion Krait at the top of the tower in Nonmoa Lake in Timberline Falls has a higher rate of dropping precursors or drops a unique Uber Weapon Skin of Krait Uberness then I see it as being farmed more.

I used to farm the SB in Queensdale, but only because I wanted Final Rest. Once I got it, (and then it was through a friend) I stopped farming. I didn’t like the “cham train” so I didn’t follow.

It might be that others are looking for the same uniqueness, and adding things like that will spread the trains out.

Seeing someone with a legendary is becoming the fastest way to tell if:

a. the player has more time on their hands for RNG crafting
b. the player either bought/earned/farmed/flipped until they had enough cash to buy it
c. the player is a lucky sunny beach.

I repect those players for doign whatever it is they did to get the legendary, but I would have rather seen something like that be the reward for something epic, and be soulbound so that it can’t be resold for more money than I will ever have.

So, the answer is no… they don’t impress me…at least not as much as something that valuable should. Would I be more impressed if they were harder to get? It all depends upon what you mean by “hard”…if you mean “more expensive” or “More RNG” then no… but if the only way you could get one was to reach a certain point in your player’s evolution (i.e. EARN them) and not be able to sell them, then yes..I would be.

Wow, Zrix… the Warrior looks awesome…but black/red has been done to death.
I like the Guardian. The gold sets it off nicely.
Your thief looks nice, but again with the black and red?

They do look great, tho.

Here’s my necro….

I am very attached to my characters. I am not an RPer, but in a way, the 7 that I have are all individuals, and have even developed their own “personality” as I develop them.

One is a girly girl Ranger. She names her pets cute names, and tends to wear pink and purple and white.

One is the stereotypical stoic norsewoman (mesmer) who believes power and hunting prowess is more important than what color her armor is.

My main (and namesake) is the dignified “old lady” human ele. She’s the one who will jump into the middle of an argument and try to see what she can do to break it up.

The rest are just as important to me, and for different reasons.

Am I going to /slashwrists if they’re deleted? No, but I won’t be happy. I find that I am more attached to these characters, whom I have had almost a year, than I ever was to the ones in GW1, some of which are now almost as old as the game itself.

As far as grind goes, yes, there is grind…if you want to grind. I am in no hurry to max my characters, and as long as I do hearts, DE’s and craft a bit, the levels stack themselves. I don’t have t grind. In fact, my main is 80, and she leveled so fast (relatively speaking) that I didn’t notice that she had maxed until a guildie said “Grats on 80!”

SynfulChaot.3169:

Ashabhi.1365:

This whole thread is sounding more and more like “QQ I can’t make money on the trader as well as Uber Business Player B can…”

I don’t see that at all. I see a valid argument by people who refuse to flip on the TP for a multitude of reasons, some of those reasons being dislike of the practice. I’ve not seen a single person hinting at ‘I can’t do it so you shouldn’t be able to either’. So I’m really not sure where you’re getting that from, unless you’re just meaning to insult others. In which case, job well done.

Ashabhi.1365:

There is absolutely nothing on the trader that one has to have. Everything necessary to play the game is available by simply playing the game. Limiting the amount of profit one can make is no more effective than it would be in the real world.

We are limited in profit we can make from all other sources in the game. Why should the TP be immune from the limitations ANet has been quite free with applying to all other money-making methods?

What I was trying to say is that to ME, it sounded like the respondents are arguing over why it shouldn’t be so profitable to flip on the TP. These people are made out to sound like they’re farmers who are hurt over having their farms nerfed, and don’t want people who play the trader to make more money than they can. That’s why I said what I said. If you go back and read this whole thread objectively, that is what you will see as well.

As for making money in the rest of the game, there are ways to do it. Farming is not the be-all, end-all way to do it.

I will restate what I said before: There is NOTHING in the game that can not be had by means other than the trader. All it takes is effort and time. So, if the prices on the trader are that insufferable, don’t buy.

In the meantime, since we’re all screaming “Let people play the game THEY want,” let the flippers flip. There will always be someone who will choose to take the other side and complain. I could launch a wole argument about why farming is unethical too, becuase it keeps genuine players from accessing content that shouldn’t be meant for lvl 80 zergs in a level 15 area, but it’s already been done to death in other threads.

So sorry if I insulted you by stating MY opinion about it.

@everyone who think flippers are stealing – What the kitten are they stealing?

This whole thread is sounding more and more like “QQ I can’t make money on the trader as well as Uber Business Player B can…”

There is absolutely nothing on the trader that one has to have. Everything necessary to play the game is available by simply playing the game. Limiting the amount of profit one can make is no more effective than it would be in the real world.

In my opinion, the only thing I would do different, is have a limit on the length of time one could have an item posted on the trader. If you don’t put a reasonable price on something, it won’t sell within the alloted time and you get it back. Then, if the prices go up, the consumer will have been to blame.

In truth, I wish I knew how to play the market better. I definitely would be way farther along in getting a legendary.

As long as the demand is there, the potential for profiteering will increase. The only way to hold down costs would be to not buy the goods. That isn’t going to happen.

All I can say is to put in the work. Go gather the things that the people need and sell them. It’s slow, it’s tedious, but the potential is there to reap good rewards for your efforts. Don’t penalize the people who play the trader well.

While I see your point, I somewhat disagree. We have been playing the game for almost a year. The challenge of some of the content is worth every death, as far as I am concerned. I would hate to see “easymode” come through and ruin the challenge, even if they gave us a choice of “checking the box” for easy or hard.

The content isn’t “too difficult” imho. It is challenging, yes, but a group of appropriate level characters can make it through, as long as one doesn’t make it a speed run ala CoF.

Instead, I would rather see a bonus or “special” reward for the one level 80 to help a group of 35’s through th story mode.

In short, no. Please don’t.

I am all for account-wide skins unlock, but no, no, no, not with gems. I would rather that they be either achievement oriented or task oriented such as clearing a dungeon or gathering (not buying) one of everything in the game.

There’s enough in the gem shop. How about some shineys for actually doing something?

Better in-game guild menus and tools. Even something as basic as seeing when the last time your guildies have logged in or represented would be a BIG improvement.

Being able to mass email your guildies/friends list without being supressed after 2 or 3 emails.

LFG tool that actually works.

Contrary to what a lot of people have said, GW2 is a rgeat game…for what it is.

They brought to the table some truly innovative ideas. Others are somewhat meh.

Has it ruined other MMOs for me? Yes and no.

Yes, because everything els that’s out there are copies of the same old mechanics doing the same old thing. GW2 brought some things to the table that are fresh and different, and put some of the more “usual” mechanics together in such a way as to be entertaining.

No, because in truth, there will be something come along some day that will blow GW2 out if the water. Whether it be this year, next year, or next decade, there will be something better some day. It’s the nature of the game, no pun intended.

For now, I am enjoying GW2. With all of its problems and issues, it is still hands down the best out there RIGHT NOW.

I have seen one hanging out in DR every once in a while.

Back in Beta, I had one in my guild for a few hours. She (I think it was a she) asked us pertinent questions and thanked us for our time, and then quit the guild.

Nice to see they’re still playing the game they made.

sinzer.4018:

So necromancers are emo mesmers?

Alas, no… this is the only skill that mimics a mesmer…

besides, with all the minions floating around and totally borking the culling issue in PvE, could you imagine how bad it would be with more than one mesmer, all the minions, and 3 clones apiece?

…ew….just…ew

The life cycle of an MMO:

1. Hype and excess high hopes follow announcement of release date.
2. Open Beta – a few problems, but they’ll fix it before release, right?
3. Release – Yay! Fun! so may people and so much new stuff to do!
4. Six months after – OMFG The game is DYING! Nobody ON!
5. 1-year anniversary – All the tirekickers and tryouts are gone or complaining online but the core base is still here..We’re not as big as when we started, but we’re loyal, and we’re having fun in-game… which is why we’re not on FB, or in the forums posting about how bad the game is.

From here, there’s two ways to go… either the game slowly gains more people over time and becomes a mainstay ala GW1

OR

Server merges, big incentive announcements and eventual F2P (not applicable in the GW franchise) with HUGE cash shop, and then eventual closure.

It’s the same with any game. Why should GW2 be any different?

So what if they didn’t get the 1 Million “likes”? not everyone uses facebook. It doesn’t mean that the game is dying.

See you all later… I’m going into the game and have some fun. kthxbai

Actually, blowing the warhorn hypnotizes everyone into BELIEVING that the locusts spawn somewhere in the warhorn or the necromancer’s body. They’re actually an illusionary spell. When the illusion wears off, they disappear. The more people we hynotize, the bigger the swarm. The same mechanic is used in making people belive that when you drink certain potions you turn into animals or monsters. I think they call those potions Mystery Tonics….lol

Kreslin.6832:

My friend didn’t play GW1, but even he said, that GW2 is not worth wasting time. He said that GW2 is just like Perfect World, the same grinding and RNG game.

-The talentless developers, the talentless game.

That’s what he said. And I’m starting agree with him.

Having played PWI for a considerable time between GW1 and GW2, I can tell you that GW2 is most definitely NOT “just like PWI” nor is it “just like” any other game.

About grind:

PWI gives you enough quests to make it to the next level…up until about level 60, in which the rest of the levels may have one or two quests associated with the next tier, the rest is mindless mob killing until you amass enough exp to get to the next level. Once you progress beyond a certain level above the area you’re in, the mobs don’t even drop anything for you. The only other way to gain exp is to “help” other people through the required dungeon every 10 levels or so.

GW2 gives you plenty to do to level to the next “tier” or zone, in fact, sometimes, you’re way ahead of the game, so to speak. Not only that, there are many areas that leveling to 80 is not necessary, as you are either boosted to 80, or the content is designed to be playable by everyone. The is also absolutely no content that is “required” for leveling. You don’t have to go to point A to kill mob B in order to progress.

Grinding for gear/upgrades is a choice. literally, almost EVERY other game out there has the same mechanic. Unfortunately, it’s how the vast majority of games provide “progression” in their system.

About RNG:

RNG is a fact of gaming life. Some is ok, some stinks. Items that are “rare” or “Unique” are not meant to be had by everyone. If they were, then a lvl 1 could simply buy it and go on, and everyone would be the same as everyone else.

Admittedly, the RNG in GW2 is inconsistent at best, and there are some things that might drop once out of 782190874 tries, but still, I have seen worse. There are some things that I believe should be guaranteed, such as crafting something with hard earned (and expensive) mats, but random drops should be random, not guaranteed every time.

One other thing about PWI that is VASTLY different than GW2… There’s really no story…at all… I played that game for over a year on and off, and to this day, I cannot remember what the overal theme or goal was, except to level to 150 (or whatever it is) and then hang out in Archisaur as a cat store.

GW2 has a story. It may not be a story you like, and it may not be an all encompassing, immensely engrossing story, but everyone knows that the basic theme is to defeat the elder dragons. Not only that, we’ve only seen ONE so far. There are more, and I hope to see them. In fact, I think it would be kind of cool for the next expansion to have more levels and another Personal Story to go through for the next Elder Dragon war. Kind of like “Ok, you’ve defeated Zhaitan (sp) now go defeat Primordus…” As long as that salad Trahearne isn’t in charge, I’ll be happy.

In short, if your friend is using RNG and Grind as his/her sole reason for not playing GW2, then he/she should maybe take a look at why they are gaming at all.

This is how I see it:

GW2 is an MMO. Quite simply, it is a tag that has been used for a long time to describe any game that can have more than 4 people log in to the same server at the same time and do the same things in an open world environment. (Anyone remember epic runs across the world with friends in EQ1?)

GW1, on the other hand was an IMO, which is a tag meaning that the majority of the content is instanced rather than Open world. Still multi-player, and still an online game, but there was no open world that you could actually see other groups running around in.

Yes, there are things I miss about GW1 (still playing occasionally, by the way) but, in truth, I would not want to “go back” and start it as a new game purchase.

GW2 is truly a great game. It is NOT for everyone. Some of the concepts that the devs have instituted are truly unique. While some may not be well-liked by many of the masses, it doesn’t mean they are any less innovative.

Cases in point:

1. Living Story – Yes, some people see it as filler material, but if you lok at it objectively, it is something new to do roughly every month or so. It may not be a full-on expansion, but, it’s better than running CoFp1 endlessly with nothing new on the map.

2. No Trinity – Before you flame, keep in mind that just because the PLAYERS have made certain professions less desireable than others, doesn’t mean that there’s a trinity of professions. There is not specific classes for healing or tanking. There are skills and builds that allow for those roles, but there is no “cleric” class. For the first time that I can recall, you could heal yourself WITHOUT potions. That in and of itself is a BIG advancement.

3. Guesting on other servers – Yes, you’re restricted by region, but how many other MMOs can you play and not have to pay to change servers for a while? GW1 doesn’t count, because the whole server set-up is different. You don’t choose a “homeworld” when you first log in. In most other games, you pick a server, and then it’s $19.95 (+tax) to change for any length of time, and then another $19.95 to change back. At least here, you can move around your region.

4. Finally, the cash shop – While the cash shop itself isn’t new, the fact that you can use game funds to convert to real funds for cash shop purchases is HUGE! In all the MMOs I have played over the years (and there have been a LOT) there has only been one other where I could convert in-game gold to cash shop currency and vice versa. Every other game I have played has made the two mutually exclusive aside from buying the items with real money and selling them in-game (if possible) for game funds. There may be more out there, but GW2 and PWI (Perfect World International) are the only games I have played that allow you to do this. I won’t go into what a mess PWI is…that’s a whole other thread…

TL;DR version:
Yes, GW2 has issues and problems that some of the general playerbase doesn’t like. It also has some pretty innovative features that will keep me playing for a very long time. All I can say is that if you don’t like it, and you hate things that badly, why are you still playing?