Guild Wars 2; Not just another MMORPG

[Kaosadvokit]

I decided to make this post due to seeing a *LOT* of people on these / other forums discussing (I use "discussing" loosely) whether or not GW2 is worth playing/is a "good" game/whatever.

From my point of view I really don't take Guild Wars 2 to be another run of the mill game, and I think that is either bothering people, or people just don't get it.

I honestly look at this game as more of an open world RPG (like Skyrim) that *could* be played in a multi-player setting than just another standard MMORPG. This game is classified as a "MMORPG" but honestly, that doesn't mean it has to be like any other MMORPG out there. Some people talk about how the questing system in WoW is better, and others prefer GW2 dynamic events. Preferences aside, they are two completely different things, and shouldn't even be compared to each other. Dynamic events are made the way they are to give the world a little bit of life. It actually feels like the world is just changing around you all of a sudden. They are also not meant to just be handed out to you, this is why the game feels like it has more life than other modern MMORPGs in my opinion, because you are actually forced to explore to find out the story and see what is going on.

I've also seen people for and against the "no end game" thing. In the current ideal of end game, it would be correct that GW2 has no end game. As I stated before, this game isn't like WoW, or any of the modern MMOs.. this game is made to just be a game. People still played Skyrim and KoA without promise of an end-game. If you want to raid competitively, this game is NOT for you. There will be things in game that you could consider "raids", like max level DE's that are lore centric and difficult... but it will not be competitive at all (at least in a "world ranking" type of way). The one thing that you could consider the "end game competitive thing" is PvP. It will be *mostly* balanced (as no game ever could dream of achieving perfect balance), and everyone will *mostly* be on an even playing field... and in turn, it will make the most skilled PvP players shine. There are a TON of games out there that are built on PvP being the thing to do, and they are doing just fine.

In other words, this game isn't just another gear treadmill at max level, nor will it be. GW2 is different, and it is meant to be.

[Zeek Daniels]

GW2 is actually the first MMO i have played where i did my races starting zone and then on that same character did another races starting zone. I am pretty sure im going to do every zone to see and experience all the dynamic events. Compared to WoW where i avoid zones entirely and have no desire to do those zones ever. But i was level 17 and was like hey lemme go to the norn starting area and get more copper ore since i had already done most events in the human area. And bam i was in the norn area doing low level dynamic events while mining copper.

[Lumocolor]

It's F2P so i assume they just want people to buy the box and don't really care if they leave in 2 months because of nothing to do at max level.

[Loaf Lord]

I don't get it. So because GW2 doesn't have indoor raiding, end game is non existent? Nevermind the explorable modes and elite dynamic events, nope, ZERO endgame.

[Allanon the Mystic]

It's F2P so i assume they just want people to buy the box and don't really care if they leave in 2 months because of nothing to do at max level.

It's not F2P. Learn the facts before posting, it's B2P.

I don't get it. So because GW2 doesn't have indoor raiding, end game is non existent? Nevermind the explorable modes and elite dynamic events, nope, ZERO endgame.

He's just saying that the current idea of 'end-game', where endgame is inside zones and normal raiding, is nonexistent. Not that end game itself is nonexistent.

[Deleted]

I don't get it. So because GW2 doesn't have indoor raiding, end game is non existent? Nevermind the explorable modes and elite dynamic events, nope, ZERO endgame.

This. By the time you have completed all that the world has to offer, including DE's, dungeons (both modes), ronown hearts, exploration and collectible items collection, you'll:
A: Want to go and redo it on another character and enjoy doing everything again in a completely different style
B: Want to PvP and redo some PvE endgame
C: be buying the next expansion

[Loaf Lord]

He's just saying that the current idea of 'end-game', where endgame is inside zones and normal raiding, is nonexistent. Not that end game itself is nonexistent.

Bleck, I read it more carefully. My apologies, I jumped the gun.

[Deleted]

ITT: People who didn't play WoW at its release.

[Loaf Lord]

ITT: People who didn't play WoW at its release.

Care to elaborate? I most certainly played WoW at it's release.

[iCandy]

It's F2P so i assume they just want people to buy the box and don't really care if they leave in 2 months because of nothing to do at max level.

Guild Wars 1 just called. It says "you don't know wtf you're talkin' 'bout, boy"

If you knew a single thing about ArenaNet you would slap yourself for that comment.

[Ashnazg]

Compared to WoW where i avoid zones entirely and have no desire to do those zones ever.

WoW's starting zones ( at least post Cata ) actually have interesting and involving quests. I'd say they offer more of an incentive to re-do them than GW2 starting zones do (where only your personal quest presents any real narrative). But to each his own I suppose.

A: Want to go and redo it on another character and enjoy doing everything again in a completely different style

What exactly is a "different style" when it comes to dynamic events? While you're going through a zone, odds are you'll do each quest more than once anyway before you move on onto the next zone.

[vilhelm1992]

and for people thinking DEs are just a zergfest.. you try that and people dont know what they're doing you drop like flies, one good hit from one of these DE bosses and thats it, unless more people can show up and get you up it'll just chase everyone down and mow em to the ground :P

[zito]

I was just standing around the human area and all of a sudden some random npc runs up to me and ask for help killing some bugs or something and then he directs me to the DE.

I noticed that the villagers were also sick, talking to one they told me their water supply was poisoned and asked me to go to the water pumps and see whats up, turns out some bandits poisoned the water supply so I had to help clean it up.

Shit gets real when quests effect the world.

[Deleted]

What exactly is a "different style" when it comes to dynamic events? While you're going through a zone, odds are you'll do each quest more than once anyway before you move on onto the next zone.

'Different style' may take many forms. You have 3 options in combat, supportive, defensive and offensive. Different professions and weapon combinations may also affect the way you engage the encounter in a dramatic way. In participation you have even more options. Many DEs allow you to do various jobs to support the event such as defeating minions, helping NPCs, helping towards a tactical advantage that makes a fight easier or takes a chunk of health off the boss and much more.
I am not talking about the renown hearts, although they provide plenty variety themselves if you actually stop and think for a minute.
Your point of doing a DE many times over... if you are not moving to other parts of the zone to find other things to do, then it is your fault not the game's. There are plenty of things to do without repeating one DE over and over (which is hard to do since on release, they won't be happening so frequently as they are testing them on the beta).

[Ashnazg]

Your point of doing a DE many times over... if you are not moving to other parts of the zone to find other things to do, then it is your fault not the game's. There are plenty of things to do without repeating one DE over and over (which is hard to do since on release, they won't be happening so frequently as they are testing them on the beta).

Its possible to go through a whole zone and do every single DE and still not outlevel the zone, meaning you have to repeat same DE's or go to another race's racial area. (Taking the human hills area for instance (the one after the starting zone)).

[Reignfire]

Ok I never knock MMO's nor have any bias against other MMO's. I currently have an active sub to WoW and SWToR and like many others have been playing online games since GWARS, DiKU, and Merc MUDs. What makes me laugh are some of the comments I see. Regardless of F2P or B2P certain things effect all MMO's. Problems occur when there is no sub income that directly affects resources allowed to be reinvested into a game.

Claiming you can do everything and that go back and do it again....Welcome to creating any alternate characters to any MMO in the universe. The difference is many people will be doing it in a "Fresh" environment all over again in a new atmosphere.

People aren't looking for a revolutionary game...they are just looking for a "New" game. It's a vicious cycle and will just continue to occur. If you haven't found the right one, whether sub based, B2P, or F2P you will eventually. If you have to ask if it's good or ask others to tell you the difference, just play it. You'll know when you find the mold for you.

[Eggoman]

I decided to make this post due to seeing a *LOT* of people on these / other forums discussing (I use "discussing" loosely) whether or not GW2 is worth playing/is a "good" game/whatever.

From my point of view I really don't take Guild Wars 2 to be another run of the mill game, and I think that is either bothering people, or people just don't get it.

I honestly look at this game as more of an open world RPG (like Skyrim) that *could* be played in a multi-player setting than just another standard MMORPG. This game is classified as a "MMORPG" but honestly, that doesn't mean it has to be like any other MMORPG out there. Some people talk about how the questing system in WoW is better, and others prefer GW2 dynamic events. Preferences aside, they are two completely different things, and shouldn't even be compared to each other. Dynamic events are made the way they are to give the world a little bit of life. It actually feels like the world is just changing around you all of a sudden. They are also not meant to just be handed out to you, this is why the game feels like it has more life than other modern MMORPGs in my opinion, because you are actually forced to explore to find out the story and see what is going on.

I've also seen people for and against the "no end game" thing. In the current ideal of end game, it would be correct that GW2 has no end game. As I stated before, this game isn't like WoW, or any of the modern MMOs.. this game is made to just be a game. People still played Skyrim and KoA without promise of an end-game. If you want to raid competitively, this game is NOT for you. There will be things in game that you could consider "raids", like max level DE's that are lore centric and difficult... but it will not be competitive at all (at least in a "world ranking" type of way). The one thing that you could consider the "end game competitive thing" is PvP. It will be *mostly* balanced (as no game ever could dream of achieving perfect balance), and everyone will *mostly* be on an even playing field... and in turn, it will make the most skilled PvP players shine. There are a TON of games out there that are built on PvP being the thing to do, and they are doing just fine.

In other words, this game isn't just another gear treadmill at max level, nor will it be. GW2 is different, and it is meant to be.

I would say GW2 is a MMORPG and the other games out there are more like dungeon crawls with heavy multilayer capability. I also felt the Skyrim like feel where you could just wander about and things come together natrualy. I really like the lack of breadcrumbs and I actually explored the map. Not like hey open map and uncover the world but I saw icons of caves and it looked like something might be there. So I ended up going into those caves and there would be events that would pop up. I actively looked around for something interesting going on and would just walk towards it. I really enjoyed that feel of the game.

[Grognard]

Ok I never knock MMO's nor have any bias against other MMO's. I currently have an active sub to WoW and SWToR and like many others have been playing online games since GWARS, DiKU, and Merc MUDs. What makes me laugh are some of the comments I see. Regardless of F2P or B2P certain things effect all MMO's. Problems occur when there is no sub income that directly affects resources allowed to be reinvested into a game.

To say that a game requires a subscription fee to continually crank out new content is, in my opinion, short-sighted and naive. I assume you've never played the original Guild Wars. It still has no subscription fee and, since the cancellation of future campaigns, has still released new content for free in the form of the Adventure Pack (where you take on the role and of certain heroes intrinsic to the world's lore in some of their greatest moments), Hearts of the North which explores the hinted romance between Keiran Thackery and Gwen, and, most recently, the Winds of Change in the second campaign's Asian-themed continent, Cantha. Not to mention the annual holiday-themed events that always have new cosmetic rewards for participation, and the fact that ArenaNet patched monthly to rebalance various skills to keep PvP and PvE interesting; for example, I remember when the Necro elite Aura of the Lich was rather weak, but now is an instant army of bone minions (or was, last I played).

[nocturnus]

It's F2P so i assume they just want people to buy the box and don't really care if they leave in 2 months because of nothing to do at max level.

Outta curiosity, what end-game do other mmos have if you don't raid? (fyi ~90% of wow's player base doesn't touch raids)

I'd argue that gw2 has most end-game content, compared to other mmos, since 'old' content is never trivialized by newer content.

[Hockeyhacker]

1) WoW's starting zones ( at least post Cata ) actually have interesting and involving quests. I'd say they offer more of an incentive to re-do them than GW2 starting zones do (where only your personal quest presents any real narrative). But to each his own I suppose.



2)What exactly is a "different style" when it comes to dynamic events? While you're going through a zone, odds are you'll do each quest more than once anyway before you move on onto the next zone.

1) Eh cata zones once you have done them a few times you lose that sense, but then again that is true of any game, it isn't that one game does the system better or worse then the other, its that some people have played WoW for 6, 7 years and at this point its stagnant for them personally because despite it being much better now then pre cata its still boring combat at those levels and the story is only really good the first few times before its just going through the motions to get to where combat isn't just having 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 (but that's an RPG issue in general of being a genre that's a slow burner). I think the appeal to people of not caring as much about having to redo content in GW2 in the long run is that combat is more involved right off the bat even if you only have 1,2 skills you can not just stand there and take it...but only time will tell as far as that goes.

2) Agreed and disagree at the same time, the intro zones had minimal DEs in them but where on a quick reset timer, but that may have just been because they are tutorial and there just to teach the mechanics of the game, but again only time will tell once we start getting access to the 30+zones where it would be more likely to have more in depth progression to the DEs.

Point being if say both games had been out 5 years and where just as overplayed odds are the combat involvement in GW2 would make rolling a new toon less boring, not because of the story delivered but because you don't just stand there and auto attack or you get killed real fast. And as the the DE system it is still to early to tell since we only got tutorial zones and the reset rate was probably speed up to allow everyone to see said event rather then feeling more "random".

But either way I do not disagree with your points, just saying its a bit early to try to make said points.