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

[WoWDoItLive]

I’ve quit twice, once 4months after launch when there seemed to be a lack of planning for end game content and a lack personal enjoyment in the PvP and the lack of inter guild combat from the original.

I came back for HoT which enjoyed especially the new first raid tier, however the lack of a community feel and the feeling that ALL of the progression had become tied to the cash shop instead of playing the game.

I’d possibly come back for:
- friends playing again or a good guild to join
- Cantha

[Kyranna]

I love GW2 since its launch, for me the exploration coupled with the map events and the storyline is enough to get me hooked. When I feel bored, I stop for a while then go back later. It's an amazing game for my taste, which is solo playing. I met a lot of nice people in game, so I'll eventually join a guild and do fractals and raids.
WoW is probably better as a whole, but BfA is a pile of garbage, so I'd rather play my thief and catch up with the story and craft some armor on the way.
Combat is... satisfying, always in solo and often in groups.

[Raakel]

While I liked the aesthetics of the game I never could adjust to how combat felt. Also, no jumping....

[Liftinmammals]

When it first came out my friends and I maxed out and were excited as heck to jump into it. The endgame felt...boring. There was no real indicator on what we were really supposed to be doing and coming from an MMO like WoW where we were so used to the method and what to do it just seemed confusing. The appeal of the game drew us in and we really liked the leveling and all the new characters, but we just fell off almost immediately upon max level after running a what seemed to be dungeon. It just wasn't for us.

[Morgaith]

Nothing to do without paying for the expansions and the "living story" removing content and adding it behind a paywall.

[Dragonhawk]

For the two big things that drove me away were that content seeemed to devolve into log on for latest LS chapter, follow zerg till achievements were done, log out till next chapter. The other was that I like playing range and it seemed that if you were in a raid or dungeon/fractal you couldnt. It was all group up in a stack so all the buffs would hit you and spam melee abilities. If those two things havent changed then there seems to be little reason to come back.

[schwank05]

Survival games have gotten their teeth in me, I am currently playing 7D2D and loving every minute of it, I also play ARK. Not a lot of room for an MMO that has no real end goal. You can literally buy the 2nd best gear from the auction house, kind of defeats the purpose of an MMO for me.

- - - Updated - - -

I haven't played in a while, so I don't know if it's gotten better, but the thing that drove me nuts was how many builds simply didn't work at end game. It felt that every build I thought was cool just wasn't part of the meta and would get shit all over.

p/p Rogue? Hahahaha.
GS Mesmer? Nope.
Engineer running around with a Flamethrower and tossing down turrets? OH DEAR LORD NO!

I hate it when a game gives me cool options but then doesn't balance the mechanics to allow me to play them, and seems uninterested in ever making the options viable.

I also love GS Mesmer, I liked Melee Mesmer in general. I like the idea of a lot of the specs, but then I see their rotations and I instantly lose interest, I want to play a Turret engineer, but I don't want to have 10,000 abilities I have to use in a specific order in order to be viable.

[LarryDD]

Honestly I prefer GW1 by a large margin. The story, the landscape, the quests, it was all sort of unique. I didn't get that feeling when I tried GW2.

[Binaris]

GW2 these days is a different animal. I was resistant to returning for 6 years but buying the new expansions for 15$ bundled right now got my attention. Im now playing through the living story season 2 heading into the first expansion. Maybe it is rose tinted but I am definitely reminded how much they care about story. Doing the first step of PoF expansion for the mount helps a LOT too. Just did it muted for spoiler reasons.

[Heavens Night]

What's preventing me, is that it's way too complicated now, I don't understand anything from when I last played around 3 years ago and I can't be bothered to try and learn because there is so much "stuff".
Also, I play WoW and can't fit 2 MMO's in.
I never really liked GW2 that much either to be honest.

[Azsune]

When I look back to the part I enjoyed most of GW2 it was when people were still learning the game. I played a Necro and people started to try and find out what classes did the least damage and of course Necro was put at the bottom of the list. It became hard to do none guild groups even though our damage wasn't even that far behind the top we were just the bottom. I loved how damage over time was handled in the game as well with dots effectively stacking.

What drove me away originally was I did all the content and had all the gear I wanted and almost all the dyes. I mainly kept playing because I enjoyed playing with friends and PvP. I took a break and didn't come back till fractals came out.

Fractals became the best thing the game had ever come out with. I spent so much time in them even got the legendary back piece the first time I felt like getting a legendary. But even this got repetitive and I quit again.

I think back and sometimes wanna get back into it. But I am worried the content will be repetitive and guilds will be not required to play. Content was always better done with friends. It is still a game I look fondly back at and wonder why I quit sometimes as there was still stuff I wanted to get done. I still have it installed and have not played it in a long time.

[Jibjub]

Game hasn't had a cohesive direction/vision since it began. And it shows. Plus, they are WAY TOO slow to update things.

[Mirishka]

Greetings champions, good to see you, as always.

This is a question for those who do not play Guild Wars 2 - either people that have already played it, or those who didn't try the game yet and lack something to try it.

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

I tried it and it honestly did nothing for me. It was a high-quality game for sure, great visuals and such, but I had no attachment to the world or the lore and nothing I saw in my first week or so of playing helped me form one. That prevented me from feeling a connection with my character, which is basically a death sentence in terms of 'will I play this game or not?'.

For people who are intimately familiar with the story, setting etc, I imagine GW2 is a top-shelf game. I've tried several times to come back to playing, but always end up feeling utterly indifferent about the whole thing, and ultimately uninstall it.

[FlubberPuddy]

To me it feels abandoned and in maintenance mode. Continuing to come out with expansions doesn't mean it's not in maintenance to me, as EQ2 shows that

[Svifnymr]

To me it feels abandoned and in maintenance mode. Continuing to come out with expansions doesn't mean it's not in maintenance to me, as EQ2 shows that

I mean, GW1 is a perfect example of maintenance mode. Not sure what you consider it to mean if GW2 qualifies, so do almost all games I'd think.

[Protar95]

I remember being super excited for it back when it was first coming out. But I was still playing WoW a lot so I didn't get round to trying it till it went on sale a few years. Didn't get very far at all before I got bored. It was a gorgeous world no doubt and I quite liked the more actiony combat system. And I enjoyed what I played of the personal story, liked having that kind of directed content. But the World Quest system I'd been so excited about ended up being it's main flaw. It just ended up feeling very directionless. You'd wander into an area and just get a notification to kill some mobs without much explanation of why you were doing it.

[ryanmahaffe]

To me it feels abandoned and in maintenance mode. Continuing to come out with expansions doesn't mean it's not in maintenance to me, as EQ2 shows that

Continuously releasing quartely content updates and expansions with new content consistently as well as balance updates...is maintenance mode?

That isn't how it works...at all.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Its a great game. Just don't have interest in picking up another MMO. I stick with WoW mostly because I have played it since 2004. If it wasn't for that singular reason I would probably be done with it as well. Not to mention when I say I still play WoW it is mostly just on expansion launch for about a month or two. Then maybe a month or two at the end of an expansion unless something like covid-19 happens and I suddenly found myself with a month of "working from home" and not a lot of stuff to do.

For me personally MMOs just soak up to much time. The novelty of them has also worn out for me. Big worlds. Go here. Click that. Kill 10 of those. Numbers flash. Levels go up. Repeat for 20 hours until at max level and start the real game. Bah, just not for me anymore. So guild wars suffers.

[Halyon]

I love the dodge rolling, I hate the stance dancing rotation so much, and combat can feel heavy due to mobility feeling heavy. Not saying it's bad per say, I just don't like much, and I'm really done with the whole 'Chosen one' storytelling. It irks me with FFXIV as well, but you have some op friends there at least.

Yeah the companions are strong in GW2 as well, but I liked it way more when it was the organized army with Trahearne and feeling part of the larger whole to accomplish something, not that everyone else have to be incompetent so you have the spotlight. I realize that's an unpopular opinion though.

[schwank05]

I got into it a fair bit last Fall and got my characters all leveled and geared and found myself with an extreme lack or incentive to play. With no gear to chase and no real direction for the game it kind of kills it for me. I tried the big WVW PVP? type battles and found myself running around and never seeing another player. I think the lack or defined roles and the lack or a real direction kills it for me. That and I have been playing WOW since 2005 and have so much time invested in it, it is hard to just walk away and play another MMO. The only other MMO that has captured my attention was TSW, but alas not enough people got into it so that one died as well.