[Guild Wars 2] Why are you still playing?

[gainesvilleg]

I'm creating this not to flame, it is a question for those who have played from the start to explain what makes GW2 have longevity. I personally got bored fast, but am curious to understand the mindset of the fans. What is the catch for you? What specifically keeps you playing? Only positive comments requested! And only from those who have played since launch...

[Karizee]

I don't know, it's just crazy addictive fun.

It's like I go into each gaming session with some very loose goals which I may or may not accomplish since I usually get sidetracked doing something completely different. It just feels very fresh, I don't have to get the next piece of gear or min/max a particular stat. No pressure, no guilt, yet there's lots of things to shoot for. Plenty of challenge when I want it and lots of fun in between.

Even though in the true sense of the word it's a theme park it has some very sandboxy elements. Patches aren't ptr'd and datamined to death before release, there's a lot of surprise at what each month will bring.

Tonight I went in game thinking I would run as many jump puzzles as I could (trying to collect Continue Coins), before I knew it a group of us were running, falling, dying, laughing our asses off. Then we ran a Fractal and I got the last relics I needed to make this:

http://i.imgur.com/8ARxLHq.jpg

Something I'd been shooting for since November. Minimal stat increase so it was no biggie if I didn't get it right away but with a very cool, desirable look so it was something special to shoot for.

Earlier this week, I couldn't even begin to tell you how it started but it ended up with half our guild playing costume brawl at the polymock arena on the beach in Lion's Arch. It was a riot! The littlest thing can trigger these kinds of spontaneous events. It feels very OK to just screw around and have fun without a gear treadmill. It's not like I have to get a certain amount of VP or JP or w/e before the next raid lockout - no guilt, no pressure, it doesn't feel like a chore.

There's a lot I love about the game. So many people playing, you meet new people all the time. The shared node and player rezzing stuff has lots of good feels to it, you are playing with people, not against them (unless you are in WvW or PvP of course).

My fave activity in WvW is the Eternal Battlegrounds jumping puzzle. I've spent many a night in there. Not a single solitary "reward" to be had but fun. Not grinding towards more pvp gear to stomp some player to move up a ladder, just playing for the fun of controlling the top of the arena and keeping the other teams from getting control.

There's a good balance between the silly and the profound. When your gear gets broken it gets knocked off and you get progressively more naked if you don't repair. Yet there are deep, beautiful and sometimes disturbing stories all around. There's lots to discover, I've been playing almost every day since launch and I'm still finding new things all the time.

The combat is flat out fun. Very active and situational. Not solving a math problem on a spreadsheet before going into an encounter. Sure, there are things you can do to maximize your dps but that's often not the best way to play, it really depends on the encounter and what's happening with your teammates.

There's so much room for creativity, people come up with the most amazing combinations of looks with the gear, dye and weapon choices. No two people look the same, your toon is very much your own and feels a part of the world.

Non linear. It's awesome. All the content, all the game, all for playing, where ever you want, whatever you want.

I use to raid pretty hardcore, was in a world 200 guild at one point. Could be I was burnt out on raiding or just ready for something different. This is kind of a ramble and my experience is my own. People play the game for all kinds of reasons, the game can be played in lots of different ways.

[Exroyal]

Well, i won't say i played the living shit out of this game because i didn't, but still, i remember having 150 hours on 1 character when i first hit 80 on it, this was back in september. Then it was on and off on and off. Now, this last month i joined a new guild and i have to say the game has been fantastic. I'm logging on, doing 3 runs of CoF p1, doing all the meta events when they are up, my dailies and some part of the monthly. Then i farm Orr for some time. It all becomes better when u have goals. Currently i really want Volcanus. It costs like 400g just for mats, for some that may be nothing but for me thats a long challenge so it keeps me playing.

[Ailyn]

Doing events is something i really love, even the low lvl ones. I have levelled 6 of the proffesions to 80 so far. Everytime i reach lvl 80 , i start wondering what other profession are like. Currently playing a mesmer. Jumping puzzles are a huge laugh to. The fact that you are not forced to lvl in a specific way, and can go back and visit low level content without being to overpowered is great. Havent tried pvp yet, and stil got alot of dungeons and fractals to try out. My favorite part though is the transmutation. This means i can grind for some awesome looking armor, and make my next toon look like a boss from lvl 1

[Fencers]

What is the catch for you? What specifically keeps you playing?

It's pretty fun in small doses. Very easy to pick up and play as most of the Guild Wars games have been.

I don't necessarily play games for enjoyment alone though; I am interested in how/why they work, the social, business and evolutionary aspects.

Guild Wars 2 is very interesting to observe. Decently fun to play occasionally. Kinda like League of Legends or Starcarft 2; super interesting games in many aspects, I don't derive much personal enjoyment from playing.

[Rhywolver]

Why not?

If you have time to log in for a couple of hours at nights, there is alway enough to do. Still have 25% left of tha map completion, haven't seriously played PvP or Fractals yet and never entered a dungeon.
Better gear isn't my goal, I just like to go somewhere while things happen. Maybe this game is perfect for my affinity to play, while others need that carrot on a stick or the need to get the next needle in their arm.

[Deleted]

uhm it simply still makes fun... thats all ^^

[Lolsteak]

WvW, it's like old school AV in WoW only better.

Yesterday my server was surrounded in the middle room of Stonemist, with enemies attacking from all sides (plus the ramps leading upstairs) and we managed to slowly fight them back.

[Deleted]

Because it's fun and I'm not 100% done with content. I like to explore every nook and cranny, and GW2 gives me that possibility, it gives me the option to find hidden stuff, it gives some rich lore if I talk with all the npcs, it gives great fun to be had with guildies and so on.

Some people took it as in "let's get 100% map completion as fast as possible, do this hear, get this WP, do a few events and done". This is not how you play this game. You don't just rush through it like through other games, you take your time, you explore, you do events, you wait for events, you do jumping puzzles. If you just want 100% completion as the number given to each map, of course you'll be bored fast.

I remember when I was exploring the Black Citadel a few months ago, I went there and started talking to every npc I could, so a guildie was also exploring the capitals. I had already been exploring the Black Citadel for 1 hour when he came there. In 15 min he was done... I stood there for 1.5 more hours. Why? Because he just went there to get the region completion, he didn't really care about anything in there. Guess which one of us no longer playes GW2.

This game isn't for everyone, if you just want to rush to max level then do something there, it's not for you. If you just care about a random number that only shows you you have the basic exploration of a zone, it's not for you. If you don't care about the story, it's not for you.

[Raeion]

I want an mmo where my lvl doesn't scale down when i go to different places ! its an mmorpg,
I want to feel stronger as i lvl and get better gear ! rawr

[Oragan]

I only play now when new content is added, nothing else left in the game to interest me, gona have a look at the living story stuff that came out this week today, then prob not play till another content patch is added. Played 800+ hours so yeah most things in the game that you can do I have done, and Id rather play other games now with my time.

[Lane]

Alts. :P Maybe not the only reason, but a significant portion of it.

I need to get back to actually having fun though. I have literally done nothing but farm gold for the past ~2 months. I miss roaming the world and doing DEs for the enjoyment and not because there's a chest involved or a daily requirement.

[Deleted]

I want an mmo where my lvl doesn't scale down when i go to different places ! its an mmorpg,
I want to feel stronger as i lvl and get better gear ! rawr

Good, play WoW, play SW:ToR, play Rift, play 9592 other MMOs that do that. We'll play GW2.

[Cyclone Jack]

I play a few times a month because the core game is still quite good. I have a number of characters I can play, so I just run around and do a few events or redo one of the jumping puzzles I enjoyed. I still have hopes that they'll someday redo the trait system to allow for interesting and fun builds, and that they'll add new weapons to make some of the professions more interesting. But until that happens, it's only going to keep my interest for a few hours at a time.

[Deleted]

I wish I could play. If they had managed to pull spvp off I would never leave. However, they havent managed to pull it off yet and it's sad. I want to play this game, but I dont want to spend my limited gametime on something that's broken.

[arukas]

WVw mostly. I really like it. Apart from that I still have most explorables to do for the first time and fractals too. Until now my focus as been on WvW and leveling 5 chars to 80

[Arrowstormen]

Because it's fun. More after "Why?"

[Zeek Daniels]

I have been playing since start, have played at least once a week, never taken longer than a week break, when i did it was because of Borderlands 2 and SC2 HotS. Other than that i have been playing almost everyday. Im mostly a PvE player so i started with my thief when the game started doing mostly PvE but once i got to 80 i did some spvp and some dungeons but quickly figured out my thief wasnt very good at surviving, so i made an Ele. I got my ele to 80 and started farming CoF gear for her. After mostly completing it i knew i needed to start gathering mats for a legendary. I thought i was gonna do the dagger for my thief but since i wasnt playing it much i thought maybe dagger for my ele. So i started farming Orr shelt/pent so i could sell crap to make gold. After a while a few friends started playing so i went and leveled my Warrior. I got him to 80 and decided recently that i would do the hammer legendary instead. So i have been working on world completion on him and using my ele who has a full Magic find set now to farm events. I then decided that my Warrior would look best in CoE armor. So thats what i have been doing recently.

During these months i have played i have spent gold that ive earned from farming with my ele to buy the last 3 character slots, im like rank 27 in spvp mostly playing a a sword/dagger with shortbow thief. I am fractal level 13 on my ele want to go higher but have been spending time doing other things. Got a 49 gaurdian, 33 Ranger, 12 necro, 15 mes, 19 engi. So i got plenty to still do while working on my legendary and i still have not done Arah exp or any of the HotW dungeons.

[Jaroko]

I have not played this game yet. I was dying on playing it but was then talked out of it by friends saying "LOL NO END-GAME". Odd now that i think of it because 1 of my major rules is to never listen to people who complain about games.

( Due to the fact that most reasons are invaild EXP : My friend told me running stuff sucks cause of bad players messing stuff up because there is no tank/healer roles, After wacthing him playing i nocticed it was him fucking up and was bad lol )

I'd rather play and make my own judgement. Based on what i have read here seems i will pick it up. I enjoy games with a good story/lore thats got tons of stuff to do.

[Gadgette]

I'm still having a lot of fun. I can see if some are into rushing to the end and ignoring everything thing else there is to do it will be dead end, but for me GW2 is about enjoying the journey. There are still many events I've never seen even after passing through a zone a few dozen times, tons of achievements to finish, vistas, etc.