New Player Interested

[Radiss]

Hey everyone, I was recently looking at some Screenshots of GW2 and thought it looked pretty cool, so before I picked it up, I decided I would ask a few questions!

1. Is the game still strong and growing, or has it paused population wise?
2. End game, is there a scene and raid-like scenarios and environments?
3. Is the world open and free-flowing, like Wow, or is it more closed off like SWToR?

Thanks everyone

[tratra]

id like to know as well

[Asrialol]

Hey everyone, I was recently looking at some Screenshots of GW2 and thought it looked pretty cool, so before I picked it up, I decided I would ask a few questions!

1. Is the game still strong and growing, or has it paused population wise?
2. End game, is there a scene and raid-like scenarios and environments?
3. Is the world open and free-flowing, like Wow, or is it more closed off like SWToR?

Thanks everyone

I just got back to the game after a while so I might not be the best person to answer, but:

1. As far as I can see the game is still popular. I dont know how many people who play, but once you go out in the world you'll see other players more or less all the time.
2. I cant really comment on endgame as I have no idea what the endgame is. I think, and dont quote me on this, that they focus more on the experience of the game rather than the whole "upgrade your gear all the time" thing that WoW does.
3. So far the world has impressed me more than WoW. Things are changing, you are blowing up huge towers (At least I did once!), etc. There are no mounts in this game, but waypoints you can travel to at any time, making traveling a lot faster than any other games.

I also love the fact I can level in so many different ways. I got from level 2 to 65 in 2-3 hours from powerleveling all the professions from 1-400. So, I'm not max level yet but after having played it a bit lately I can recommend it. I'm having a bit of a hard time getting used to the game itself as I have played WoW for 7+ years though.

[Karizee]

1) Still extremely strong, it's kind of a phenomenom - there are players everywhere.

2) There is no 10 or 25 man instanced content, however people do raid (WvW, open world events like Tequatl and other world bosses). Endgame is varied depending on what you like to do, there is new content out every 2 weeks, Fractals, 33 dungeon paths, Guild Missions, scads of open world content - it just really depends on what you like to do. You are not locked into one instance only - it's really your choice on what way you want to play.

3) Never played SWToR so I cannot comment on that. Here is a map of what zones are in the game so far, you can zoom in to get kind of an idea of how big the world is.
http://gw2cartographers.com/

[lawow74]

If you're concerned about your money, give it time and see if they offer another trial weekend soon. If it's not such a big deal, go ahead and give it a go. The fact you can pick it up and put it down without a sub fee lets you play it in small bits over time, or long delves through if you prefer that.

IME there's plenty of people playing where you find farm spots, Living Story stuff and World Bosses. WvW can vary a lot, you'll just have to see how that goes on a server. Other zones, it varies wildly. Like any game, if you want people to always play with, seek out a Guild. You can join five on your whole account, so shop around and see what makes a fit for you.

In terms of gameplay, it's very different from WoW. There's no Trinity of roles. No tanks, no healers. Everyone is DPS and expected to be able to survive. A lot of people dislike the zerg-style approach to gameplay this can create, where you bulldoze through things in a large group of players. Dungeons and Fractals limit the size of the group, so it becomes much more focused in that sense and requires more coordination and teamwork to complete this content. Still, nothing really matches the complexity of things like raids in WoW.

[zed zebes]

1. Population is good and healthy.

2. No raiding endgame. Max level play, like the leveling experience, is a bit more open and you choose for yourself what you want to do. Gear plateaus at a point and there is currently no plans to add higher stat gear. Elongated play is based upon other things.

3. World is far more open than SWTOR, especially at early levels. The only difference between WoW and GW2 zones are that GW2 does have portals you go through between zones, and GW2 has a system of 'overflows' for when a zone is filled to its capacity, a clone instance of it is created. GW2 zones are rather large, both in the flat space of a map, but also in that they are vertical and often full of caves, nooks and crannies.

[Svifnymr]

3. Is the world open and free-flowing, like Wow, or is it more closed off like SWToR?

Each zone is it's own area, with loading screens in between, but nothing like the space port transitions. There are no flightpaths, but there are waypoints that you instantly teleport to for a cost.

[Radiss]

Cheers for the info everyone, probably going to pick it up later this week

[Fencers]

Hey everyone, I was recently looking at some Screenshots of GW2 and thought it looked pretty cool, so before I picked it up, I decided I would ask a few questions!

1. Is the game still strong and growing, or has it paused population wise?
2. End game, is there a scene and raid-like scenarios and environments?
3. Is the world open and free-flowing, like Wow, or is it more closed off like SWToR?

Thanks everyone

1. Yes. It's one of the most popualr MMOs of recent years.
2. No. There is no endgame in any of the Guild Wars games.
3. No. The game world is instanced by zone.

[Svifnymr]

3. No. The game world is instanced by zone.

I didn't want to phrase it that way since it made me think of GW1, where each zone was instanced to the group.