What keeps you playing GW2?

[Sohalia]

What keeps you guys playing GW2? I got it as soon as it released and it kept me occupied for a little while but I always felt like it lacked that gripping quality WoW has. Maybe I've sunk more time into WoW but I was just curious to know what keeps you interested?

Ah, I remember WoW's gripping quality well. The need to constantly gear grind just so that my character could be relevant for the next bit of content.. Personally putting in as much time as possible into the game to "Get the most" out of my sub fee. e.e (That's what gripped me anyway, I can't speak for others.)

Mainly for GW2 though, what keeps me interested (beyond the frequent updates) is just how massive the world is, honestly. I've played since the closed beta, and participated in the head start, yet there's still little bits in the world that I've never explored or discovered yet. Also, the community is relatively great over-all. Of course there will always be assholes, but I've personally found GW2's community to be one of the nicest I've experienced in my MMO history. And finally, the lore, I looove lore in games, and the whole Scarlet debacle aside, I just love GW2's story. (Yes, this includes GW1's)

I take breaks every now and then, go and play other games sometimes. Helps to keep you from getting burned out. But for now, anyway, it's the one game that I keep coming back too. Much like how I played WoW, only now I have more freedom with playing other games!

[Deleted]

There is a lot of stuff for me to do. Right now I'm working on a legendary, want to do every jump puzzle, doing missions with my guild and I want to level my thief to 80 while following her storyline. The community in this game really helps and I often just talk with random strangers about random stuff. I've also played WoW and that only happend on rare occasions.

[DeleteThisThanks]

I don't get the chance often to play GW2, but when I do, I enjoy it. It's different compared to other games. It's fun.

[worprz]

I enjoy playing it, but I haven't played in 2 months or so. I'll log in everday for the reward, but I logout right after.

I'm not the type of person who can play video games all the time though. GW2 is one of two games I play so I guess I am just taking a break. I'll continue playing again once I feel like it.

[Fadewind]

1. Asura. I only intended to make my first Asura to play occasionally and do just a bit of RP on the side with him. While waiting for GW2 to launch, I did some GW1 to try to get the heritage armor set...and met Vekk. The first Asura you EVER meet is voiced by the Brain from Pinkie and the Brain. All the voices of the Asura at that point (from the Asura week stuff) that I had heard had them with high-pitched voices. The deep, snarky voice of Vekk sold the Asura...and watching some of the animations sealed the deal.

2. Elementalist. While I play staff ele right now, when my keyboard worked properly I played either Scepter/Dagger or Dagger/Dagger. It felt like I was the freaking Avatar wailing on some poor soul. Even staff now is more fun than I originally thought. It feels like a traditional mage, but with a lot of fun twists to it.

3. Horizontal Progression. The gear treadmill is a boring concept to me now. After playing the Guild Wars games, I enjoy the progression that's reliant on how your gear looks rather than the stats. Sure, various other games have a transmog option, but once I get the best gear in these games, I don't have to worry about the next tier...and the next tier. It shows more respect to the players and the game (IMO) when the work you've done in the past isn't going to be nullified by future releases. The worst you might have to do is change your runes.

4. Fractals of the Mists. While I've gotten all the non-RNG rewards from Fractals *glares at weapons*, I still like the system as a "hardcore" PvE experience. Some people compare World Bosses to traditional raiding, but I only agree with that in terms of scale. Fractals have varying degrees of difficulty that reward players (arguably this does need fixing, but it's better than their release) without locking players out of their reward for helping their friends on lower difficulty. I really hope that Fractal Mastery focuses more on rewards or that the reward system gives players like me something else to spend relics and pristine relics on.

5. Community. While the usual elitism exists, the majority of players seem to be much nicer and friendlier in GW2.

[Gray_Matter]

I have played 1800 odd hours. I go through phases. I will do PVP for a bit (admittedly not too well), then WvWvW, then world boss train, then some of the jumping puzzles that I haven't completed, level some alts, one of the Orr trains and more recently I have been doing some fractals and dungeons. I also tried to do some of the personal story variants. Long term I have been slowly working towards a legendary.

[Deleted]

It's just fun to run around and do some stuff for a bit. Couldn't say why I keep coming back to it. I suppose the desire to finish each piece of content for the reward, and the huge backlog I have to work through is at least something to do with it.

[Deleted]

the only reason i don't play the game is because none of the people i play games with plays it
they all play WoW as the only MMO and they play it non-stop

i hate playing by myself so i don't play at all, even tho i think the game is good

[Ytlayol]

I continue to play it because of the design decisions. I like instanced nodes, personal loot, travel system, combat, story, global AH, gem conversion, and content updates frequency.

I also enjoy seeing the devs being innovative in the genre, its neat to see what they will come up next.

[Kazgrel]

the only reason i don't play the game is because none of the people i play games with plays it
they all play WoW as the only MMO and they play it non-stop

i hate playing by myself so i don't play at all, even tho i think the game is good

I've faced the same issue, yet now I simply find I have way more fun in GW2, even if none of my long time wow friends bother with it. I've gotten a few other folks to pick GW2 up, and while they aren't on as much as me (for RL reasons generally), we do team up and knock stuff out when possible.

On a related note, since the game is on sale this weekend, now's the perfect time to try and recruit some of those friends you mentioned. There's a buttload more content to be had for 10-15 bucks than a month of WoD can provide.

[zed zebes]

There's always guilds recruiting. The game is so much better with people to play with, as are most MMOs. I would wander around popular zones and see who is recruiting. Ask in LA or Silverwastes. Good guild will expose you to more of the game.

[Torgent]

As others have said, I can come and go as I please. There's really always something to do, and every WvW fight is unique. Getting into a well organized WvW battle is a lot of fun. Granted it seems as though certain classes are required to play certain ways in the serious ones, the fights are still a great amount of fun.

[Deleted]

On a related note, since the game is on sale this weekend, now's the perfect time to try and recruit some of those friends you mentioned. There's a buttload more content to be had for 10-15 bucks than a month of WoD can provide.

I tried that before, even bought it to one of my friends when the game was on sale a few weeks ago, but he still haven't created an account

And to be On Topic as well, I love the fact that you can just jump in the game whenever you like, even after a half year hiatus, and you will still be able to participate in the world events/boss trains etc. You don't need to catch up in gear before you can join these activities.

[ro9ue]

Game is casual friendly where I can basically do whatever the hell I want wherever the hell I want and I'm earning something relevant. Unlike other games where at each level or gear level you only have a limited option of things you can do.

The world is relevant, dynamic and always populated with players. And the community overall has been one of the better ones.

Also PVP I can just jump into with out any grind beforehand and just have some fun.

This is my top MMO right now. (Only really rotating between this and ESO anymore, left the rest behind)

[Eveningforest]

What keeps me playing is mainly the fact that I don't feel pressured to play. When I do play, I decide what's fun at the moment and do that until something else seems more fun.
Then there is also really good Pvp, interesting combat worth experimenting with and crafting I actually enjoy. In a nutshell, I play this game exactly for the reasons I cannot play Wow anymore.

[Zervek]

Making Gold in the Trading Post is addicting. I have now able to make over 30 gold a day from playing it. It's satisfying to see how much profit I make daily as I work toward an Incinerator.

[Deleted]

I've faced the same issue, yet now I simply find I have way more fun in GW2, even if none of my long time wow friends bother with it. I've gotten a few other folks to pick GW2 up, and while they aren't on as much as me (for RL reasons generally), we do team up and knock stuff out when possible.

On a related note, since the game is on sale this weekend, now's the perfect time to try and recruit some of those friends you mentioned. There's a buttload more content to be had for 10-15 bucks than a month of WoD can provide.

what's with the saltiness towards WoD? your whole sig is dedicated to shit talking an expansion that isnt any where near as bad as you make out. each to their own I guess.

i find it hard to 'get into' gw2. i have spent quite a few hours on it and I enjoy WvW on my thief and mesmer. probably play more if i didn't play wow. it's nice i can just pick it up whenever 'cause no sub.

[Fencers]

Please keep conversation in this thread on Guild Wars 2 and not the specifics of other games in discussion. We have entire sub forums for robust conversation of all sorts of games. This is the Guild Wars 2 forum.

It is wholly unnecessary to defend the honor of any video game here. Stay on topic.

- Fencers

[Restors]

I'm fairly new to GW2, but I tend to play until I have full Ascended armor gears (and trinkets), Twilight legendary and clearing Fractal scale 50. Until that point, I refuse to lay down the game.

GW2 and this current state reminds me so much of old MMOs where the endless grindfest for materials were highest priority. Let's only hope I get to make it before next expansion arrives.

[Sohalia]

I'm fairly new to GW2, but I tend to play until I have full Ascended armor gears (and trinkets), Twilight legendary and clearing Fractal scale 50. Until that point, I refuse to lay down the game.

GW2 and this current state reminds me so much of old MMOs where the endless grindfest for materials were highest priority. Let's only hope I get to make it before next expansion arrives.

You literally chose the top 3 grindiest parts of GW2 for your goals. Of course it will feel grindy. o.o Those were put in so that people like us will have something optional to grind for. But you don't need to grind for ascended/legendaries/fractals. You can participate in all of the content without any of those. (Sans super high level fractals, of course.) That's what separates GW2 from those good old grindfests, instead of needing to grind for relevancy, you can just choose cosmetics to grind towards.

Then again, I love grinding too, so you should try to keyfarm as well, that can get pretty grindy! I'm the opposite, to me GW2 is one of the least grindiest MMOs out there, so much so that I have to quit from time to time just so I can play a kMMO to feel like I'm grinding again.