Guild Wars 2

Menadena.7482:

Katalos.5038:

Hooray!!!! I finally got my first level 80 character after 130 hours (129 hrs 33 mins to be exact) of gameplay. I leveling through exploration, a little sPvP and a little WvW. I didn’t use any booster or any tome of knowledge. Judging from the forum posts, I might be the slowest level 80 EVAR (among the actively leveling players). However, I learnt that “level” in GW2 is not the same “level” I used to know from other MMORPGs, so I am going to share some other parameters of my character.

That is right in the ballpark. Figure about an hour and a half per level (more or less depending on your play style). That is for ‘normal’ play and not doing things like tomes or any other power leveling technique. Since GW2 has dynamic downleveling in the PVE content (and everyone is pretty much the same in WVW and PVP) there is less of a reason to be at max level than there is in most MMORPGs. The result is it is as much about the journey as the destination.

That will probably change though. With HOT requiring 80s, having a new profession out people are drooling over, and getting 10 (or 16) tomes per month I suspect you will start seeing a lot of level 80 revenants within minutes of the release.

A lot of people will go on and on about not being a ‘serious’ player if you take the amount of time to level that anet expects it will take. My normal response to them is ‘lioness you’.

I am collecting all the tomes and I will use them on my 4th or 5th character one day (when I am bored).

Randulf.7614:

Some of your points are good, especially the aimless of some events. Some tell amazing stories, some are just too random. And yes, small world bosses seem out of place amongst huge zergs.

I disagree with a lot though. Monster Hunter has an abominable combat system. Utterly unintuitive and every bit the opposite of the fluid, fun system I enjoy here. I also disagree with your dislike for casualness. I find it to be an overwhelming selling point and strength to the game. I understand your sentiment, i just dont think it applies to this game.

I also find the number of skins for weapons and armour huge. The sheer variety of combos i see daily is still something that impresses me daily.

I understand your sentiments on levelling being useless. But that ship has sailed. It isnt worth the resources to change it to be honest 3 years on

Good point on story dungeon. But the speed run issue is something that needs addressing rather than the story itself. Im ambivalent on whether they should be soloable

Thank you for your reply. I was wondering if anyone will read such a long post.

Thank you for your agrees and disagrees (everyone should have their own taste). I love MH combat system. I also understand how people like the casualness of GW2. It’s just my preference is a little bit different. I dislike the leveling, but not demanding it to change. I am a programmer myself. I know my suggestion will never be implemented in the game. I am just saying.

I am collecting dungeon armors recently and that is what I observed. I can hardly find a team that can bear with me reading the story. I happened to ran AC with a clueless team yesterday. I had soooo much fun with them figuring out things and solving puzzles. When I run AC with the speed run team, what I get is, “stand here”, “stack here”, “wait here”, “go there”, “come here”, “nuke it”, and etc.. Sometimes they don’t even talk. I agree it is very effective, but it is sooo boring.

Hooray!!!! I finally got my first level 80 character after 130 hours (129 hrs 33 mins to be exact) of gameplay. I leveling through exploration, a little sPvP and a little WvW. I didn’t use any booster or any tome of knowledge. Judging from the forum posts, I might be the slowest level 80 EVAR (among the actively leveling players). However, I learnt that “level” in GW2 is not the same “level” I used to know from other MMORPGs, so I am going to share some other parameters of my character.

Profession: Elementalist
Achievement Points: 952
Map completion: 47%
Wallet: ~60 golds

CRA (Common Replies & Answers)

Before I start sharing my opinions, let me first answer a few common replies I got from my previous posts.

R1: Are you trolling?
A1: No, I am not. I do not troll. I share only my truest opinions and want to see how others think.

R2: Leave/This game is not for you/You should play xx
A2: I am old enough to walk away from something I don’t like. It takes some love to come to a game forum; it takes more love to write a post; it takes a lot of love to write such a long post. Look at how organized my posts are. So, stop asking me to leave. I love GW2. I know almost every mainstream MMORPGs in the market so stop asking me to play other games, which I have already decided not to play. Given that xx=WoW too often, I think I need to say something about WoW. I don’t like WoW’s graphics, combat system, artwork (especially this), subscription based, and it’s too old. I will never play WoW.

Review

Finally, the review. I am going to talk about three things in my review: things I like, things that I have a love/hate relationship, and things I don’t like. I will list things I like/dislike the most first, so order matters. If I have suggestions about that particular topic, I will mention it at the end of that topic.

Note: When I say I don’t like it, I mean I don’t like it. I didn’t ask it to change (well, I will be happy if it changes) nor complaining about it. I am not your gf or your wife. I don’t hide meanings in my words. I mean what the words mean.

Pure Heart.1456:

Also, a bigger difference between Exotic and Ascended/Legendary equipment statistics.

Easy leveling is fine, provided that there truly is difficult, challenging content for max level players afterward. There isn’t enough at the moment.

+1

Reverence.6915:

Katalos.5038:

Ha, someone that agrees with me. But both of us have to agree those old days are gone. Not only GW2, even in some other hardcore-er MMORPGs, it’s much easier now (PvE, PvP…) to retain players.

I love WvW but suck at it. Please don’t kill me :-( I am just a assaulter T.T

There’s a few games on the horizon that appeal to me, such as Blade and Soul or Black Desert. Having no challenging content isn’t a big turn off for me, but there needs to be a variety of content, which GW2 lacks.

Like I said in my previous post, you need to join a hardcore guild to get good at WvW. Doing it otherwise is just asking to be killed again and again, or just tag along with the giant zerg mindlessly karma training

Thank you for your advice. I am already in a guild that is very active in WvW (I actually got invited while running with a zerg in WvW when I was only ~lvl 20).

GreyWraith.8394:

Did you know that less than 5% of vanilla WoW players ever saw the inside of Molten Core (not completed, just entered)? That’s a lot of wasted development time. MMORPG design philosophies have changed as a result.

No, I did not know that. I don’t even know what Molten Core is. However, that sounds very exciting to me. Only 5% of the players saw it and no one has cleared it yet. It feels very prestige. It feels like Raftel (if you watch/read One Piece). According to my play style, I will probably never reach it, but I still like to have such a place exists in the game. So, after a few months/years, a forum post with the title “Molten Core is cleared!!!!!” will be posted. It will be on the news, on reddit, and on everywhere. That player will be a legend. That’s what I would like to see, even without me involved in it (of course it is much cooler if I am).

You bought up a point from the developer perspective. Yes, I agree. I am a programmer too. That is a waste of time. They could have developed other contents for the majority of the players instead of this content that meant only for hardcore players, who are the minority. You are right from this perspective.

However, I am viewing this issue as an adventurer of Tyria. When I am playing an MMORPG, I actually role-play my character and immerse myself into the world (that’s why I don’t like the idea of multiple characters). I wish there is a place that all adventures wish to reach, but only very few did. The very few did came out with the most prestige loot you can ever get in land of Tyria. This is what I wish to see.

Behellagh.1468:

@Relshdan, Katalos’s perspective is that PvE among players is a world of rainbows and unicorns (sometimes literally) compared to many other MMOs with defined factions as well as a hyper competitiveness toward mat nodes/critters and to him it’s odd to see an MMO world where this isn’t occurring at all.

He’s not asking for KSing but is pointing out that this world is a very different place than they ones he came from and seems empty because of it. It’s the old SciFi trope of someone from a kill or be killed world suddenly finding themselves in our relatively peaceful world and needing to cope.

Thank you!!! Thank you!!! * Cry in Japanese *

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

Katalos.5038:

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

I want to feel that I’ve “completed” a game within 50-80 hours(not 100% it. just completing it. in gw2 terms it would be reaching 80 and getting a full set of exotics, for me). and yes, I realize that’s not typical for mmos, but it’s still what I’d prefer.

50-80 hours to 80 and full set of exotics??? and yet here I am, 120 hours, level 70.

it just depends on what gamemode you play I ’spose. it took me about 40 hours to reach 80, and since levels 40 through 80 were done via wvw, i already had the currency for exotic gear

and i’m not saying you’re wrong because it’s an opinion. subjective things are never wrong in my eyes. I can state that I dislike your viewpoint (i would be frustrated if gw2 had these changes made) but i wouldn’t say you’re wrong :P

I am leveling through exploring. I WvW for fun and die quite often so not too much leveling there :C

Relshdan.6854:

Katalos.5038:

Relshdan.6854:

asking for kill steal makes me want to kill OP

I did not ask for kill steal.

“No KS
Another reason Tyria is so peaceful. I am having a love hate feeling with this setting. I have played enough MMORPGs to know how annoying KS can be. However, without KS, the PvE gameplay feels empty. I don’t have to find a group, I can just drop by any events and walk away anytime I like. I even saw a lot of players in the forum say they simply AFK and auto attack the world bosses. Where is the fun in that???”

go away…leave

You clearly can’t comprehend what I said in there and I am not going to explain it either because no one seems to have problem understanding it except you.

Bye.

Relshdan.6854:

asking for kill steal makes me want to kill OP

I did not ask for kill steal.

heartless.6803:

The market hasn’t changed, it’s as polarized as ever. Even back in the day some people played runescape and everquest and others played dark age of camelot and other pvp centric games. There always was a huge massive polarization in gaming between competitive player versus player and player versus environment.

The high competitive players shifted to games like LoL and DotA where skill is the prime factor as those high competitive players would rather actions speak for themselves. Settle it on the battlefield types.

The high environment types choose to do away with the whole ordeal, there has been huge success in games that mixed the two. Games like WoW where there was a fairly even focus on both which catered to the mass middle crowd but was disliked by both extremes.

Guild Wars was a game favored by both extremes and not the middle. The high competitive crowd never liked leveling and always complained about needing gear in other games and here they don’t need any of it. They don’t need to level and gear doesn’t matter. They like it, and the pve side extremes always hated world pvp and all that other stuff that they felt “forced” into. Which this takes all that away, it offers a large and diverse game and community without feeling forced to pvp.

Thank you for categorizing the gamers. I have not thought in this way before. Sounds like I am the middle guy, but I still enjoy GW2 :-)

Huggywuggles.2814:

Katalos.5038:

Halan.7931:

Katalos.5038:

Mob training? Grind mobs to leveling?

From what i remember, it was possible (many years ago), to gather a giant pack of monsters without tagging them, then lead them to someone who accidentally attacks whem with AoE, they aggro at that person, he dies and loses EXP.

Yeah, I call it “luring”. It was a very important thing to learn in those old MMORPGs. I tried to do it in GW2, but I can only lure a few. The mobs either run back after a certain distance, or I die because I lured too much. LOL.

Or you end up being this guy:

http://www.notaddicted.com/fansythefamous.php

Sorry, didn’t read. Too long and the website is simply too ugly to bear with.

Behellagh.1468:

Katalos.5038:

Behellagh.1468:

AreanaNet chose to make an MMO where in PvE, co-op play and it’s casual nature was the number one thing. This goes hand in hand with the no subscription requirement. They wanted an MMO where players wouldn’t be compelled to compete with one another except in PvP, which is a level playing field for gear and stats, or WvW.

And that underlying idea means any open world content (VS instanced party content) doesn’t require finely honed skills or elite gear to participate. ANet was looking to attract all the players who left other MMOs because of the compelling need to play every night usually doing objectives that weren’t their choice to do but was required to do simply to qualify to do the next big thing. And the more people they can get, people who don’t have time to play because, life, the more likely those players can drop a few bucks toward gems.

And unlike F2P MMOs, this game doesn’t have the same kind of restrictions that almost requires you to drop cash simply to get a functioning character.

It’s the non-casual players who are upset and annoyed at the “bland” nature of the game. The easy leveling, the lack of KS, mat node racing, the gear grind, open zone “dueling”, etc. They were attracted here by the lack of a subscription, not the casual nature of it. Maybe the rep of GW during it’s peak as a PvP oriented game made them think they would find the same thing here.

Thank you for your explanations. They are very detail and answered all my questions regrading to why Anet has developed GW2 to be this casual.

I have to emit I was attracted here because of free sub and I am the non-casual player you are talking about, lol. However, my life does not allow me to a non-casual player T.T

That’s all my perspective from playing the game. I too was drawn here due to it’s pay once nature. I am not casual from a time spent playing perspective but casual because I physically can’t play when quick reflexes are required.

admit*

I am casual from a time spent perspective, but not casual from the gameplay perspective.

Dante.1763:

I am honestly so glad that the game isnt like what you say you want in your OP(Well most of it!), im here because i played GW1, and if it had half of the stuff in it, that is in your OP, i would have left after the first day. GW1 was my first MMO And honestly i cant bring myself to play any game that has open world PVP, PKing, or anything like those systems. Its part of the reason i dont go to WVW, i do not like PVP games very much!

I do however want more challenging PVE on content, way way more challenging. Liadra the Dark was hard for me to do, but i did it after trying for days. Thats the stuff i want!

I wish to see more PvE contents too (saying from someone that is not even lvl 80 yet).

Reverence.6915:

I agree with most of your points. As an old school, previously hardcore MMO player, I really miss some of the competitive aspects of the genre, such as fighting the KS (doing most damage, last hit etc.). It encourages people to grind more or get better, whether through theorycrafting (or copying) a good build or spending a few more hours to get that piece of armor that fits what you need for stats.

I don’t miss PKing though. Like you, I have a love/hate relationship with it. I wish there was an option to activate it so I could classes other than what’s the FOTM meta and get some trash talk going with the people I kill or get killed by. I do this in WvW though

WvW is one thing you need a good hardcore guild to run with. Casual guilds don’t do WvW for a good reason, is that you need to grind gear and ranks, and spend a lot of time improving your skill. Otherwise, pugging it with that huge group there? You’ll get wrecked every time you’re found solo trying to run to your group.

I HATE how GW2 promotes casualness. There’s so SO many people out there who don’t know how their classes work and only know the skill rotations they see in youtube videos, without understanding why those rotations give the maximum damage output. When they come into WvW, I am able to kill them with a bunker guardian build that’s meant to absorb damage, not deal it, even in 1v2, 1v3 situations. In other games, they’d be punished pretty heavily for being so bad – losing EXP or items from their inventory, but here, they aren’t punished at all and can continue to stay bad. So sad…

The only reason I’m still playing GW2 is for the PvP and WvW. This is coming from a previously PvE only player in other games. There’s no challenge in PvE in GW2 unless you purposely handicap yourself, which is just absolutely silly.

We’ll see what HoT brings, but I’m not too hopeful based on what’s been revealed so far

Ha, someone that agrees with me. But both of us have to agree those old days are gone. Not only GW2, even in some other hardcore-er MMORPGs, it’s much easier now (PvE, PvP…) to retain players.

I love WvW but suck at it. Please don’t kill me :-( I am just a assaulter T.T

Belzebu.3912:

Katalos.5038:

Can the Guild Hall attacked by opponent guilds in GW1?

Nope.

EDIT: Guild Hall in GW1 was more of a place for the guild to meet, it didn’t have any real game mechanic attached to it.

I wish we can in the Guild Hall in HoT :P

Behellagh.1468:

AreanaNet chose to make an MMO where in PvE, co-op play and it’s casual nature was the number one thing. This goes hand in hand with the no subscription requirement. They wanted an MMO where players wouldn’t be compelled to compete with one another except in PvP, which is a level playing field for gear and stats, or WvW.

And that underlying idea means any open world content (VS instanced party content) doesn’t require finely honed skills or elite gear to participate. ANet was looking to attract all the players who left other MMOs because of the compelling need to play every night usually doing objectives that weren’t their choice to do but was required to do simply to qualify to do the next big thing. And the more people they can get, people who don’t have time to play because, life, the more likely those players can drop a few bucks toward gems.

And unlike F2P MMOs, this game doesn’t have the same kind of restrictions that almost requires you to drop cash simply to get a functioning character.

It’s the non-casual players who are upset and annoyed at the “bland” nature of the game. The easy leveling, the lack of KS, mat node racing, the gear grind, open zone “dueling”, etc. They were attracted here by the lack of a subscription, not the casual nature of it. Maybe the rep of GW during it’s peak as a PvP oriented game made them think they would find the same thing here.

Thank you for your explanations. They are very detail and answered all my questions regrading to why Anet has developed GW2 to be this casual.

I have to admit I was attracted here because of free sub and I am the non-casual player you are talking about, lol. However, my life does not allow me to a non-casual player T.T

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Every guild should have access to their own hall. It will likely be easier for larger guilds to achieve the complete building of their hall than it would be for a smaller guild. However, from my understanding, the general thought in the CDI was that all guilds should have access to halls. This is how it was in GW1 as well. Even the smallest guild could eventually achieve a maxed out hall if they desired to work towards it, and I feel that’s as it should be.

Can the Guild Hall attacked by opponent guilds in GW1?

Sarisa.4731:

Katalos.5038:

Belzebu.3912:

Katalos.5038:

I did not play GW1 so I can’t say much. 8v8 or 10v10 in instances or open world?

In GW1, GvG was 8v8 in an instanced area.

Argh, instanced area :-/

In GW1, everything except towns was instanced (there were districts in towns, like overflows). It’s how everyone playing could be on the same server, but the network and server resources were low enough that it could function like that in 2005.

We have megaserver now. I am actually very impressed by this idea and technology.

Leon Derge.5239:

The problems you have with sPvP in this game are the exact things I like about it.

As someone who has PvPed and still does PvP in WoW one the things I dislike most, actually, is the gear gap in PvP. It’s not just that it’s not fun to get curbstomped by someone in better gear, but it’s also that it’s simply not fun to curbstomp someone in bad gear. I never found it satisfying or awesome to beat an undergeared opponent in a stunlock on my paladin. In fact, my most memorable PvP moments in that game are from fighting equally or even slightly stronger geared opponents and beating them by simply playing better.

Also, having to “buy” gear is a huge hassle for players like me who like to experiment with different stat combinations to find what fits them the best. Admittedly I’d like more options for mixing and matching stats in sPvP then having a single stat item via amulets… But ah well, beggars can’t be choosers I suppose.

lol. We don’t have a lot of choices in gear for sPvP right? Correct me if I am wrong, I am still fairly new.

Conaywea.5062:

i bet this guy gets bullied in real life

Nope. Not even once in my life. A few times in MMORPG T.T Then I joined a big guild and few top players helped me. Good old times, memories.

shaman.1938:

Great you don’t mind KSing and being basically farmed by higher levels BUT the first MMO I played was Ultima online and I hated it and stopped playing within 2 weeks of it coming out as it was a serious drag to spend time building up just to be flattened by someone WAY beyond you.. TOO many players would get to the apex of levels or skills and then think it was great fun to beat on the nubes which quickly stops being fun and you quickly have fewer new players and the game quickly dies off.

GvG I would myself like to see implemented BUT so far not much call for it and even then I would hate to see it in open world unless limited for the same reason as posted above that you end up with “big dogs” killing nub characters just because (and honestly it often feels like trolling the newer players after a while and might be why this game has a much friendlier atmosphere compared to others)
Fast leveling has been a common practice SINCE WoW did it with Wrath xpac and GW1 it was pretty fast getting to max level BUT then the work really began anyway.
to the idea of world channels IF you mean world chat channels

No No and NO..
any kind of open channel ends up sometimes spammed by stupidity and frankly the idea of being apmmed by stupidity for someone NOT even in the same zone is just a BAD idea and guaranteed to be abused on a regular basis by some.

Honestly I don’t know if you will find HUGE PvP/GvG/WvW changes with HoT and I think even if there are there could be very well and exodus from the game with large changes as the players who are comfortable with the present set up find THEIR Tyria gone.

Maybe this game isn’t for you OR maybe we all just need to occasionally accept than NO game is ever everything we want it to be and learn to like tose things we like and try to ignore the things we don’t.

GL with you travels in game and elsewhere .. see you around (I am a terror for trying new games and i don’t think i have missed a title of an MMO since ultima online came out in 1997 and before that i played a text based game called genie).

FYI I hate the forum limitations

The game is for me, practically. It is not for the child living inside me though, lol.

What forum limitations?? You want to punch me in the face?? No, we are talking about technical limitations here.

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

I want to feel that I’ve “completed” a game within 50-80 hours(not 100% it. just completing it. in gw2 terms it would be reaching 80 and getting a full set of exotics, for me). and yes, I realize that’s not typical for mmos, but it’s still what I’d prefer.

50-80 hours to 80 and full set of exotics??? and yet here I am, 120 hours, level 70.

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

note that I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just saying the reasons I’m glad A-Net made GW2 the way it is. It’s done so many things that other mmos don’t that i’m extremely thankful for as a solo/casual player.

It’s okay to share your opinions. You can even say I am wrong. I won’t get offended. I started the post to see what other players think, not to look for comrades.

Ralanost.8913:

Play the living story. At the end of dragonsreach pt II it’s pretty obvious they are barely getting along as it is. Each faction is only worried about their own borders for the most part and try not to work with others unless they have to. They are reluctant neighbors at best. I mean, when sylvari first awakened, no one knew how to react to them. Asura didn’t think they were actual intelligent life forms and used them as testing materials. Of course there was the war between humans and the charr. It’s hardly nothing but smiles and sunshine.

But they won’t fight each other. Why? they all have enough enemies bothering them as it is. They are smart enough to not pick on a major faction for no good reason. And they have to save their resources for when they do have to team up against common foes, like the elder dragons.

Basically, if you bothered to follow the story it would be pretty self evident why things are the way they are.

I follow all the stories. I didn’t even miss a word in it (but I can’t remember all).

I like how you explain my concern with the lore in Tyria, lol.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Katalos.5038:

I get flattened often too. I can’t even survive in 5v5 sPvP, lol. I like big scale PvP like WvW though, so I will keep working to get better.

I dabble in all modes now and again. I am getting better at the sPvP side. I don’t think I died at all in my last unrated match (running staff ele). I was very proud of myself.

Staff Ele??? That’s what I am using. I often change to a wrong attunment or not changing at all because I am too panic T.T

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Katalos.5038:

I did not play GW1 so I can’t say much. 8v8 or 10v10 in instances or open world?

In GW1 Guild Halls were the maps used for GvG battles. They were 8v8 instances, similar to Stronghold in many ways (which is partly where the devs took the inspiration from). You can youtube it if you want to watch some of the old battles.

Are the Guild Halls limited to top guilds? Or every guilds will have their own guild hall?

Belzebu.3912:

Katalos.5038:

So KS is not often used here? I am sorry that I used it assuming it is understandable.

Since KS simply doesn’t exist here, no one uses it, the people that know that therm are the ones that have experience with other MMOs.

I see. Sorry for that.

Belzebu.3912:

Katalos.5038:

I did not play GW1 so I can’t say much. 8v8 or 10v10 in instances or open world?

In GW1, GvG was 8v8 in an instanced area.

Argh, instanced area :-/

It’s better than nothing though. I can’t wait for HoT, hopefully it’s not too expensive.

Zanshin.5379:

Surely this must be a troll thread.
You basically want GW2 to not be GW2…

You want a MMO like that? You’re gonna have to go try something like Archeage or any other korean MMO.

Nope, not a troll thread. They are all my true opinions. Look at how many words I have typed and how serious I reply to all the replies (except those I want to ignore).

I want an action MMORPG and I am actually waiting for Blade & Soul. still waiting………..

Teon.5168:

Katalos.5038:

So, here are what I have noticed after playing GW2 for 120 hours and consistent visit to reddit and this official forum.

You’ve only played for 120 hours? You have barely scratched the surface of the game.
Sounds to me like you’re forming your opinions about GW2 based more on forum chatter than actual play time.

Plus, you mention enjoying PvP and WvW…..that is the beauty of this game. Some people like all elements of it, and some people just like certain elements.

Since you enjoy PvP and WvW, then just concentrate on those for now and have fun!

I have not really started “enjoying” PvP and WvW yet because I got stomp too often T.T

I play them everyday though.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Katalos.5038:

Coulter.2315:

Katalos.5038:

Cornish.8472:

This is your view after only 120 hrs ive been playing for over 3k hrs and I took a break of a year so some players will be on 6k and still enjoying it gw2 is a strange place that you can enjoy all if you chose or non.

The last bit of your post is your answer its not a game to be hardcore in its a game to enjoy at your leisure.

IF! you want the best gear ect you will need to work at it a little. Or non if you want to buy it with gold / buying gems, and in turn that keeps the game going for other players.

I did notice that you didn’t put WvW maybe what your looking for is there, if your not on server that dose alot of wvw sorry! as for gvg that is also in wvw but you will need to look for it your self and find a guild on your server that dose it.

Like I said after only 120 hrs your just starting out in the game and maybe even change server a time or too b4 you find a place that fills your needs

I didn’t list WvW because WvW has nothing for me to say. It’s perfect.

Yes, I know I haven’t seen much. It’s just my current view about the game.

Well you’ve answered all your own fears, you have a part of the game that is perfect for you. Other parts are what other people like – though I think we can all agree on needing some good PvE encounters (but I heard they got a Raid Dev so maybe thats on the cards).

Raid? Dungeons that are world boss scale, but with parties instead of “dropping by”? I definitely look forward to that.

This is a possibility. We do not know what their “challenging group content” entails as yet for HoT. They have not addressed that point, and the most recent post from Colin is that it is not [necessarily] the open world content (which they want to make that harder too) and that we will get more information “when its ready”. Yes, they did hire a raid designer a while back, as well as brought on a guy for better AI as well.

I saw that on reddit too (which leads here). I did’t expect “challenging group content” will be taken this serious though. Hopefully we will get something huge. * throw money at the screen *

Cyninja.2954:

Get in, play, enjoy, get out. Repeat until bored. Take a break. Return and get in, play, enjoy, get out.

Noted.

Belzebu.3912:

Yes, GW2 is very different from other MMOs, and that is why it is going well.
If GW2 was yet another “hardcore” MMO, it would be a failure like Wildstar was.

I didn’t like the artwork in Wildstar, but I heard it went f2p recently. It is failure?

Danikat.8537:

All of the things you listed are reasons why I, and many other people, prefer this game to other MMOs.

Especially easy levelling meaning everyone can get access to all the content. Why would you want to play a game where you will most likely never get access to most of the game? What’s that point in the developers making it if only a very small number of people will get to play it?

I understand the idea of having progression, having to complete some parts of the game to access others, but I don’t understand making it with the intention that most people will never be able to do that.

Especially if the only reason is it takes so long they’ll probably get bored and move on to something else before they get there. Whether it takes 5 minutes or 5 years if most people get bored and quit before seeing everything on offer that’s bad game design.

Erm, to have a goal and something to “whoa at” maybe? By not having all the contents, I mean only a very small portion. For example, the floating castle in Tera. Only the best guild in the server can claim it. In that case, only members in that guild can access to the contents in it. It is only a very small part of the game and it does not affect anything. I didn’t mean not having some dungeons or maps accessible to all players.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Katalos.5038:

Oh, I love WvW (although I die so often, lol).

Not big into wvw personally. Tried it a few times, get flattened often. Not my cup of tea..

I get flattened often too. I can’t even survive in 5v5 sPvP, lol. I like big scale PvP like WvW though, so I will keep working to get better.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Katalos.5038:

KS is kill steal. It is basically a system that determines who get the loots. Some games let the player who first hit the mob get it and some games let the player who get the last hit get it. GW2 is the only game I played with no KS. Is GW2 the only MMORPG you played?

Oh, that’s what it’s short for. Yeah I know what kill stealing is. And node stealing. It also makes me want to hunt that person down in real life, string them up by their toes and beat them like a pinata with a wooden baseball bat with steel spikes driven through it. (Yes, I’m a vicious person)

I have played WoW, SWTOR, Rift, and TERA, but wasn’t overly fond of them. Again, kill stealing and node stealing were intentionally not put into the game. It was an intentional design decision, and a big part of the original marketing platform for the game. Right up there with no sub fee. It made many of us quite happy.

So KS is not often used here? I am sorry that I used it assuming it is understandable.
Thanks god I never kill steal anything in my MMORPG life.

I like the idea of no kill stealing too, but it kind-of removes the need of party in the game. I have never looked for a party in GW2, except for dungeons.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Katalos.5038:

In HoT, you can officially form a team representing your guild, play in sPvP and get ranked. It’s not the whole guild vs whole guild type of GvG though.

So I’d heard, but we’ll see how it goes. I’d sort of like to see GW1 style gvg return with the return of guild halls. 8v8 or 10v10 teams. I don’t think they’ll do it though.

Editing: My terrible spelling and such. So hard to have a forum convo and an actual work related database convo at the same time lol.

I did not play GW1 so I can’t say much. 8v8 or 10v10 in instances or open world?

Coulter.2315:

Katalos.5038:

Cornish.8472:

This is your view after only 120 hrs ive been playing for over 3k hrs and I took a break of a year so some players will be on 6k and still enjoying it gw2 is a strange place that you can enjoy all if you chose or non.

The last bit of your post is your answer its not a game to be hardcore in its a game to enjoy at your leisure.

IF! you want the best gear ect you will need to work at it a little. Or non if you want to buy it with gold / buying gems, and in turn that keeps the game going for other players.

I did notice that you didn’t put WvW maybe what your looking for is there, if your not on server that dose alot of wvw sorry! as for gvg that is also in wvw but you will need to look for it your self and find a guild on your server that dose it.

Like I said after only 120 hrs your just starting out in the game and maybe even change server a time or too b4 you find a place that fills your needs

I didn’t list WvW because WvW has nothing for me to say. It’s perfect.

Yes, I know I haven’t seen much. It’s just my current view about the game.

Well you’ve answered all your own fears, you have a part of the game that is perfect for you. Other parts are what other people like – though I think we can all agree on needing some good PvE encounters (but I heard they got a Raid Dev so maybe thats on the cards).

Raid? Dungeons that are world boss scale, but with parties instead of “dropping by”? I definitely look forward to that.

Hidori.3472:

Katalos.5038,

humans are what they are and if they are shrouded in anonymity it gets really ugly.

if you talk trash to some guy on the street out there you would be probably concerned about the feedback you get. aka getting your face smashed to pulp. well at least if you don’t lack the necessary brain power to figure out consequences of trash talking to someone who’s in a group of five and you are a pity lonely nerd, just to fill this cliche.

in game ppl live out their fantasies and as humans are, some of them ain’t social at all.

trying to make a long story short, GW2 has a non griefing policy and they try their best to minimize these negative and unwanted behaviors in their virtual environment. that means also suppressing things which lead to negative behavior like for example kill-steal or someone taking your loot, camping nodes, etc.

GW2 PvP is perfect for competition, tho. if you think you have the balls and are the guy, go there and prove yourself. this is virtual sport as good as it can get. pve will stay casual and not competitive. no bullying of ppl who just want to enjoy the game in peace after a stressful day irl.

Finally someone who doesn’t shoot at my face and answer my question seriously, thank you.

I do sPvP everyday but too noob to survive, not to mention winning :-( I will keep practicing and get better :-)

Cornish.8472:

This is your view after only 120 hrs ive been playing for over 3k hrs and I took a break of a year so some players will be on 6k and still enjoying it gw2 is a strange place that you can enjoy all if you chose or non.

The last bit of your post is your answer its not a game to be hardcore in its a game to enjoy at your leisure.

IF! you want the best gear ect you will need to work at it a little. Or non if you want to buy it with gold / buying gems, and in turn that keeps the game going for other players.

I did notice that you didn’t put WvW maybe what your looking for is there, if your not on server that dose alot of wvw sorry! as for gvg that is also in wvw but you will need to look for it your self and find a guild on your server that dose it.

Like I said after only 120 hrs your just starting out in the game and maybe even change server a time or too b4 you find a place that fills your needs

I didn’t list WvW because WvW has nothing for me to say. It’s perfect.

Yes, I know I haven’t seen much. It’s just my current view about the game.

James Quall.6029:

I usually don’t say this sort of thing because opinions are subjective and they really can’t be bad or wrong, but all of your opinions are bad and wrong.

Why bad and wrong?

RoseofGilead.8907:

Katalos.5038:

Why? GW2 can easily achieve things I mentioned right? I think they are doing it in HoT. The only thing that I mentioned will not be fulfilled in HoT is open world PvP.

The only things from your list in your OP that are definitely being added are guild halls. I don’t see a “world chat” coming to the game. And open world pvp will likely never happen, same with kill stealing. GvG may come, but we don’t know how it’ll be implemented. I also can’t see them changing the way spvp has everyone on equal ground as far as gear goes.

Opps. I am sorry. I wasn’t referring to all the bullet points in my post. Sorry for the confusion.

Things I really want to see in GW2 are GvG and open world PvP. World chat is preferred but not required. I don’t want to see KS. I love the current system with no KS, but the problem of players not being serious and still get awarded should be fixed.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Katalos.5038:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

RoseofGilead.8907:

lordkrall.7241:

So.. basically why isn’t Guild Wars 2 a completely different game? Have you ever thought that Guild Wars 2 was simply not for you?

This is what I was thinking as I read the OP, as well.

Same here. I know a lot of people get all up in arms where people use the argument that the game might not be ideal for someone, but in this case, I feel it really fits. Not all games are for all people.

Based on what he desires, there are games out there that meet some of his desires, if not all of them in one game. GW2; however, is not that game.

Why? GW2 can easily achieve things I mentioned right? I think they are doing it in HoT. The only thing that I mentioned will not be fulfilled in HoT is open world PvP.

Many of the things you desire are things Anet has specifically stated they would not do. For example, Structured PvP is intended to be fought on even terms, but you desire more of the WoW style gear grind ownage. The closest you’re going to come to that is WvW, which is intentionally allowed to be imbalanced.

Open world pvp is something many of us do not want to see. Please visit the very long multitude of dueling threads for further details.

I’m not sure what KS is (don’t recognize the abbrev?), but some of us like the social aspect of just ‘dropping in to’ an event and leaving when we want. We like not having to group up to do content unless we desire to. Could we use some more challenge to the open world foes, so that world bosses and such aren’t AFK fests auto spamming 1? Sure. I won’t argue there.

GvG – this one I am hoping to see return. I don’t play it personally, but I know it would make some people happy. Perhaps with simply better implementation of guild support (pvp rosters and such) we could see it work into existing pvp somehow, but I think even that would need some additional overhauls.

Oh, I love WvW (although I die so often, lol).

KS is kill steal. It is basically a system that determines who get the loots. Some games let the player who first hit the mob get it and some games let the player who get the last hit get it. GW2 is the only game I played with no KS. Is GW2 the only MMORPG you played?

In HoT, you can officially form a team representing your guild, play in sPvP and get ranked. It’s not the whole guild vs whole guild type of GvG though.

Halan.7931:

Katalos.5038:

Mob training? Grind mobs to leveling?

From what i remember, it was possible (many years ago), to gather a giant pack of monsters without tagging them, then lead them to someone who accidentally attacks whem with AoE, they aggro at that person, he dies and loses EXP.

Yeah, I call it “luring”. It was a very important thing to learn in those old MMORPGs. I tried to do it in GW2, but I can only lure a few. The mobs either run back after a certain distance, or I die because I lured too much. LOL.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

RoseofGilead.8907:

lordkrall.7241:

So.. basically why isn’t Guild Wars 2 a completely different game? Have you ever thought that Guild Wars 2 was simply not for you?

This is what I was thinking as I read the OP, as well.

Same here. I know a lot of people get all up in arms where people use the argument that the game might not be ideal for someone, but in this case, I feel it really fits. Not all games are for all people.

Based on what he desires, there are games out there that meet some of his desires, if not all of them in one game. GW2; however, is not that game.

Why? GW2 can easily achieve things I mentioned right? I think they are trying to accomplish those in HoT. The only thing that I mentioned that will definitely not fulfilled in HoT is open world PvP.

Halan.7931:

It looks like you want to play Lineage2, with PKs, clan wars, trash-talking, mob training and so on.

It’s too old, crappy graphic, and no action combat. If I want to play old MMORPG like this, I will rather go back to RO or Maple Story.

No, I don’t trash-talk. I like watching others trash-talking though.

Mob training? Grind mobs to leveling? I don’t mind it, but the exploration leveling in GW2 wins my heart.

lordkrall.7241:

So.. basically why isn’t Guild Wars 2 a completely different game? Have you ever thought that Guild Wars 2 was simply not for you?

The last second paragraph answers this question.

So, here are what I have noticed after playing GW2 for 120 hours and consistent visit to reddit and this official forum.

Tyria is too peaceful. There aren’t arguments between players and there aren’t big guilds fighting against each others. After slowly learning about the system of GW2, I am shocked by how protective the system is.

• sPvP
  All players are scaled up to level 80 and equipped with the same gear in PvP instances. It feels like a sport or board game here, seriously. So fair, so boring. I like games that require player skills, like Monster Hunter. However, I dislike games that require only players skills, like DotA, LOL and CS. I prefer to be destroyed by some old players with good gears rather than having so much fairness in PvP. Low level or weakly geared players are supposed to be defeated by older players easily (even I am the low level guy here). That said, sPvP is a perfect platform for competitions or leaderboard.

• No open world PvP
  Probably the main reason why Tyria is so peaceful.

• No KS
  Another reason Tyria is so peaceful. I am having a love hate feeling with this setting. I have played enough MMORPGs to know how annoying KS can be. However, without KS, the PvE gameplay feels empty. I don’t have to find a group, I can just drop by any events and walk away anytime I like. I even saw a lot of players in the forum say they simply AFK and auto attack the world bosses. Where is the fun in that???

• No GvG
  WHY??? I am looking for something like the Band of Brothers war in EVE Online. I want big guild wars (it’s fine even I am not part of the war, I want to at least see something like this!!).

• Easy leveling
  I learnt this from my previous post, “GW2 leveling is way too fast”. Now I understand why leveling in GW2 is so fast. “It unlocks all the contents for all the players quickly, so every players can play all the contents in the game.”. That’s my conclusion from my previous post. I am actually pretty shocked by this answer. “Access to all the contents”?? Isn’t this an MMORPG? From my previous MMORPGs experience, only top ranked or top level players can access to “all the contents” in the game. Why make all players accessible to all the contents in the game? It makes GW2 feels like a Single Player RPG with multiplayer feature enabled.

• No world channel
  This is one of the features I like the most in MMORPG. This is where the arguments happened and where the guild wars started. I love watching those fights. However in GW2, world channel is not there. I guess the reason is “players will spam here and argue here, we don’t want this to affect other players”. Yeah, I can play Single Player games if I don’t want to affect by other players.

• Conclusion
  All these settings make me feel like Anet is trying their best to make the game as easy as possible for the players. They don’t want players to feel any discomforts throughout the gameplay. You can have access to all gameplay, no one can disturb you, you won’t be bullied by old players, you can play casually and still get stuffs. In short, have fun.

If I am still a hardcore player like I used to be, I have probably quit GW2. I am a semi-casual player now because of my work and study, so I don’t really mind the peacefulness in Tyria. However, it still bothers me sometime during the gameplay. GW2 is easily the most protective MMORPG I have played or even heard.

ps. I am looking forward to Guild Halls in HoT (limited guild halls to be claimed only by strong guilds??). I hope it will turn Tyria into a war zone. * evil laugh *

From the replies, I think I need to clarify my post here. I am NOT complaining. I am sharing differences I observed in GW2 compared to the older MMORPGs I played and wondering has the MMORPG market demand shifted. If I don’t like GW2, I would have left. I won’t even bother typing so many words.

Hannelore.8153:

“I’d rather never be lv80” guys who like to take the game slowly and enjoy every last bit of content to its fullest.

My ele is now lvl 70, played for 113 hours. I approved this.

MrWubzy.3587:

I think the leveling is just right in GW2. It’s not too slow, not too fast, and there’s always stuff to do at each level to keep you entertained. If you ask me I think you’ve gotten your money’s worth already OP, putting in around 60-80 hours to level 60 is pretty kitten good value for your dollar. That’s not even counting the various other activities you can try, like PvP, WvW, mini-games, Silverwastes, Fractals, Dungeons, etc.

Got my money’s worth? I have never thought of that while playing any game.

I do PvP everyday for daily quest. I do WvW everyday too because I find GW2 too peaceful (and thus, boring) and WvW is the only place that is not so peaceful (still, quite peaceful). I have done some jumping puzzles. Can’t go Silverwastes and Fractals yet. I ran AC a few times.

aliksyian.7642:

Hannelore.8153:

Khisanth.2948:

Danikat.8537:

I don’t know, my first campaign was Prophecies and I got my first character to level 20 just before leaving Kryta (in fact I think it was during the Divinity Coast mission). I still had the Maguuma Jungle, Crystal Desert, South Shiverpeaks and Ring of Fire to go, had barely started the ‘real’ storyline (I still thought it’d be all about the charr).

It wasn’t as fast as Factions or Nightfall, but still pretty quick compared to other games. Even in non-grindy single-player RPGs you usually won’t hit the max level until very close to the end of the game.

That does not sound very “normal”. Mobs outside of LA is lv11. Mobs outside of Sanctum Cay is lv17. Arriving at LA a character should be lv15 +/-2. If the level difference is more than 6 mobs give no experience. A 19 character would not have gotten any exp from the mobs in Divinity’s Coast. Completing the mission and bonus would have given 2k exp but you would have had to somehow get within 2k exp of leveling from even lower level mobs.

Going back on to the topic of the thread though. I have yet to see any reason given for the benefit of loitering about at lower level. “Too fast” implies there are reasons to not level. The only benefit I can think of is for opening champ bags and even that is only slightly useful.

The reason to not level is that the horrible downscaling system renders all pre-80 content childs play for a player with even a mediocre skill level. It completely ruins the fun of exploring the world, map completion, etc. because what is a serious threat to newbies turns into “kill 20 mobs at once with my whirl -sunglasses-”.

Fixing the scaling could help, but ultimately there is far too much pre-80 content in this game (most of it, in fact) to justify the current levelling speed.

And as I pointed out earlier, levelling is something that can provide alot of value to a game, despite how many people do not like it. When properly implemented, it encourages socializing, teamwork, and can even be relaxing.

ArenaNet clearly realized this with HoT, or we wouldn’t have masteries… :P

I’m pretty sure downscaling used to be more aggressive. I remember seeing a lot of people whine about how they couldn’t faceroll through low level content with their level 80 characters. My reaction was basically “if you can’t faceroll through the starting area, you’re bad at the game.” That was not received.

I’d be happy if they got rid of levels. It’s an archaic concept. Of course, some people are a bit reactionary in their game tastes and think an RPG isn’t an RPG without levels. (Hope they never see a whitewolf game. their brain might explode)

RPG isn’t an RPG without levels. No, based on your description, I am not going to see any whitewolf game in my life.