What's preventing you from coming back to/playing Guild Wars 2?

[Daffan]

It's really weird to me that it is so dead, actually. They did a lot of things right in the design, the reward track is pretty great --- maybe they need to do a bit more in game to push people towards it? Newer players might not even know it exists tbh.

WvW is actually really boring, just like big battlegrounds in WoW. Too much zerg, visual clutter (Big problem in GW2 overall) and alpha striking that makes it not fun.

You literally cant even tell what is happening on the screen and most people just run lootstick builds because it's that out of focus.

The only reason average people do it is for reward track + marks, or if your really good - roaming.

[Heladys]

The fact that I didn't fall in love with it at all while playing it. Yeah it did some things in an interesting way, full credit, but it didn't hook me. So why play something that didn't hook me when I had all these friends still playing WoW?

[PACOX]

Sold my computer to pay for my kids surgery otherwise I would. PoF looks really cool.

Thats understandable. Best of luck and well wishes to you.

[potis]

I didnt wanna come back but eventually did, bought both expansions and farmed the story this last week.

What i noticed this past week is:

1)There are too many things to catch up and its rather tedious to do so, aka Masteries, we all know World Quests were created by GW2 events with GW2 doing it better, but they really need to speed up the process of not certainly active areas.

Having to farm Central and PoF masteries and HoT ones, i will probably quit before i do half of that cause i will get bored and return to WoW for Antorus.

2)Apparently "Meta" exists now, which is even more cancerous than WoW logs and everything similar combined, i apparently have to play Chronomancer alacrity bot or i can fuck off from end game, which also follows the second part of my complain of "I already have a main MMORPG that i am 100% knowledgeable, i cant be arsed doing the same in GW2" mentality.

3)Apart from buying the expansions, i cant experience the previous stories to understand whats going on unless i pay something like 100e for Story 2 and 3, so magically i went from an egg, saving a baby dragon from a god because i never played Story 3, not to mention how a huge drill destroyed the city apparently in the cinematic right as i joined.

Basically quit 1 month (maybe two?) after the game came out after i was decked out in full exotic gear and after a couple of weeks 1 shotting 10 people in WvW at the same time got boring i quit the game.

Now it seems its gonna be the same if i stick it out to get Ascended gear, only problem is, the masteries farming will make me quit before that.

[Caolela]

Quit because PvP is a 5v5 MOBA-like playstyle, with a few meta builds dominating, weapon switching is not intuitive, clunky char control, no UI customization, GW2's MMR system is shit..and other reasons. The PvP is just not rewarding or fun enough to stick with.

Really can't see myself learning another MMO system for PvE after burning out on WoW.

[Eleccybubb]

I didnt wanna come back but eventually did, bought both expansions and farmed the story this last week.

What i noticed this past week is:

1)There are too many things to catch up and its rather tedious to do so, aka Masteries, we all know World Quests were created by GW2 events with GW2 doing it better, but they really need to speed up the process of not certainly active areas.

Having to farm Central and PoF masteries and HoT ones, i will probably quit before i do half of that cause i will get bored and return to WoW for Antorus.

2)Apparently "Meta" exists now, which is even more cancerous than WoW logs and everything similar combined, i apparently have to play Chronomancer alacrity bot or i can fuck off from end game, which also follows the second part of my complain of "I already have a main MMORPG that i am 100% knowledgeable, i cant be arsed doing the same in GW2" mentality.

3)Apart from buying the expansions, i cant experience the previous stories to understand whats going on unless i pay something like 100e for Story 2 and 3, so magically i went from an egg, saving a baby dragon from a god because i never played Story 3, not to mention how a huge drill destroyed the city apparently in the cinematic right as i joined.

Basically quit 1 month (maybe two?) after the game came out after i was decked out in full exotic gear and after a couple of weeks 1 shotting 10 people in WvW at the same time got boring i quit the game.

Now it seems its gonna be the same if i stick it out to get Ascended gear, only problem is, the masteries farming will make me quit before that.

1. While Masteries optional there is other stuff like builds.

2. Yep. Bring the meta and do the dps or get out basically. DPS meters have started to become a thing. Reason why I quit. I shouldn't have to play meta to be viable in high groups.

3. Story is cheaper than that. It's like £10 or something for living world. But I'm of the opinion you shouldn't have to pay for the story for missing it. Story should be there no matter what for free.

I think a personal reason I quit would be the community. It's nowhere near what it used to be since Megaserver. Nobody really says stuff anymore and the toxicity/fanboy crowd is starting to seep in.

[Ladyoftheforest]

What's preventing you from coming back or playing this game?

There are better games out there. Simples.

[kheath812]

the game is simply boring. there isnt enough content and it doesnt come out fast enough. one living world season comes out every like 6 months or something stupid and it takes like 2 hours max to finish

[Leyre]

the combat doesnt feel fluid like in wow

[Svifnymr]

the game is simply boring. there isnt enough content and it doesnt come out fast enough.

I think this is the problem with MMO's, has been for years. They can't produce content as fast as folks consume it. Coupled with online guides and stuff, posting solutions to puzzles within a week. I don't know that there is an MMO with content coming out as fast as you complete it, even with time-locked grinds and crap.

[Tackhisis]

The fact that I need to spend money on everything from character slots to bagspace, despite having paid $40 for the game itself.

[Eleccybubb]

Another thing now would be the consistent fiasco of RNG lootboxes.

Dye kits, Black Lion Chests and now mount skins.

Arenanet are taking it out of control.

Sure you know what CAN be in them but what you get is completely random. It's fine that it's cosmetic but it's over the top.

Most games have 1 loot box or a variant for holiday events.

- - - Updated - - -

The fact that I need to spend money on everything from character slots to bagspace, despite having paid $40 for the game itself.

This too. Unless I throw down and get character slots I cannot experience all 9 classes unless I delete characters.

[Deleted]

1. Boring and pointless leveling and world exploration system. There is absolutely nothing fun in just running around maps checking out PoI's, waypoints and stupid renown hearts. It feels as a total waste of time when there is no story to explore. Every zone seems exactly like the last one and the next one, after doing 3-4 zones i felt done with this game.
2. Purposeless endgame. There is no underlaying purpose or driver to keep me push forward. You hit max level, finish the storyline in a couple of weeks and then what is left is running after goals that in any other game would be secondaries (achievements, gear skins, most of the masteries in HoT). Sure they release a 1-hour worth of playtime "living story" episodes, occasionally patch in a new map to explore (meh), but this does not fill up the gaping pit that is this game's lack of direction or purpose.
3. Complete randomness of action. Many players state this as some sort of advantage this game has against others, where you can really do whatever you feel like doing and there's nothing funneling you to play specific content. This is so not true for me, as this way i see no reason doing absolutely anything in the end. I believe games need to be directed to a certain degree, they should put the goal somewhere high up and then show you the winding road leading up to it, and then leave you to your own devices. This game really offers no worthwhile goal high up on the hill.

[Deleted]

They need to change wvwvw to be less dependent on zergs, and optimize it.
Or they should add some additional pvp mode like 10v10 or 15v15 battlegrounds.
It's the medium sized battles that are missing.

The new expansion was quite content dry, little replayability value. HoT had awesome meta events with great rewards, which gave them high replayability value.
Like when I had done the story and unlocked gryphon there was nothing really interesting left to do, and returning to HoT meta events felt boring since I had done it for a while, and I was craving something new. It is a shame that they didn't make at least one of the new maps include a meta event in similar style like HoT.

[Personman]

HOT pretty much killed my interest in this game. I enjoyed the original so much because it was extremely solo friendly and I could treat it as an online sandbox to dick around at my own pace and have confidence I could complete the maps given enough time. HOTs map are a confusing nightmare to navigate and felt like they demand a group to get through without pulling your hair out. By the time I found out the skill point bosses were champions I gave up and just rushed through the story and shelved it. I understand its an online game so I should expect to play with other people but its just my luck the times I usually play I can't really find groups reliably and completing the maps is my favorite thing to do in the game and I can't even do that. Its been about a year and a half since I played so maybe the zones have been scaled to be more bearable? That would be nice.

Besides that I really don't like that they are shoe horning in things like raids and making healer classes when they had such a staunch stance against such things at launch. Thanks to those things people seem to be treating it like a traditional mmo and things like the meta are getting a little harder to ignore. In fact last time I was running around out in the world I had someone whispering and screaming at me for not having my engineer in the flamethrower kit 24/7 or the one time I decided to step into a dungeon the lead went all Asperger on me for not having the stealth gyro. One of the reasons I left WOW for a good while was due to constant harassment over how I mind my own business in a damn video game so I'm a bit sensitive to it.

That said I would like to check it out someday again. But thanks to how much of a mess HOT was for me I'm extremely hesitant. Maybe once POF goes down in price.

[Shadochi]

I tried out GW2 during the WoD drought for 2 or 3 weeks and the reason I didn't stick to it is that the community doesn't play such a big role while leveling. What I mean by this is that in WoW when I started out I got invited to one of those low level guilds really fast and through that I made some WoW friends (this was in early WoD when I switched to retail) from engaging in guild chat while doing mindless leveling. In Guild Wars I don't remember something like that happening, and in turn leveling made me feel like I was playing a DA-like Single player game.

Now this is probably drastically different on max level/if you put more time into it, but the initial feeling isn't there and thats why I didn't stick to GW2 even tho I really wanted to give the game a shot.

[Iseeyou]

Thell sell the best skins for real money.

Never playing it again.

[Saphyron]

1. Boring and pointless leveling and world exploration system. There is absolutely nothing fun in just running around maps checking out PoI's, waypoints and stupid renown hearts. It feels as a total waste of time when there is no story to explore. Every zone seems exactly like the last one and the next one, after doing 3-4 zones i felt done with this game.
2. Purposeless endgame. There is no underlaying purpose or driver to keep me push forward. You hit max level, finish the storyline in a couple of weeks and then what is left is running after goals that in any other game would be secondaries (achievements, gear skins, most of the masteries in HoT). Sure they release a 1-hour worth of playtime "living story" episodes, occasionally patch in a new map to explore (meh), but this does not fill up the gaping pit that is this game's lack of direction or purpose.
3. Complete randomness of action. Many players state this as some sort of advantage this game has against others, where you can really do whatever you feel like doing and there's nothing funneling you to play specific content. This is so not true for me, as this way i see no reason doing absolutely anything in the end. I believe games need to be directed to a certain degree, they should put the goal somewhere high up and then show you the winding road leading up to it, and then leave you to your own devices. This game really offers no worthwhile goal high up on the hill.

I could not have said this better

[Deleted]

Thell sell the best skins for real money.

Never playing it again.

I don't know, I still think that nightmare skin is one of the best skins =) And legendary weapons are the coolest ones (even though you can buy some legendaries for money).

[Raakel]

Liked the graphics when I played it but everything felt kind of meanlingless. Also the combat feedback and annimation doen't suit me. That was the nail in the coffin.