Is GW2 the best free MMO in the market?

[Deleted]

I spend 35 euro to try it out (bought 2 expansions cause I didn't like the f2p limitations) but didn't really like it. It was during the time where bless online was launced and people saw what a huge failure it was. GW2 wasn't a bad game, just not for me.

Turns out everything after playing wow feels so lesser and boring.

Or maybe it's just me (:

[Deleted]

Yes and no. The only one that MAYBE beats GW2 for me would be WoW, but although you can play WoW for free, I'm fairly sure we'll all agree on the fact that it simply isn't free-to-play. Guild Wars 2 is not really f2p either, but the experience you can get just from playing the base game has currently few contenders imo.

[Jinpachi]

swtor is boring as hell, ive quit it after 3 days. in gw2 all the good content is gated by paid LW "DLC", and bank space is so tiny, you fill it up in less than a week

I couldn't put more than 8 hours into gw2. TERA Online kept my interest longer.

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I spend 35 euro to try it out (bought 2 expansions cause I didn't like the f2p limitations) but didn't really like it. It was during the time where bless online was launced and people saw what a huge failure it was. GW2 wasn't a bad game, just not for me.

Turns out everything after playing wow feels so lesser and boring.

Or maybe it's just me (:

None of them are as polished from a graphical or narrative standpoint. WoW is THE number 1 mmo for good reason

[Rogalicus]

None of them are as polished from a graphical or narrative standpoint.

Are you for real? WoW's narrative is the worst among all the current mainstream MMOs.

[PACOX]

I couldn't put more than 8 hours into gw2. TERA Online kept my interest longer.

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None of them are as polished from a graphical or narrative standpoint. WoW is THE number 1 mmo for good reason

Eh. Wow has the best cutscenes barring SWTOR. It's story is either stretching the shadows of WC3 or a rehash of what they've already done.

I never really feel like my character matters despite doing 99% of the work. You still have to read a lot of extra stuff to get a general idea of what is going on..

They slow walk plotlines over what? A decade? How many old gods and uldxxx are there in Azeroth.


GW2 relies on the dragon trope so eh, not exactly noteworthy either. I

[Jinpachi]

Are you for real? WoW's narrative is the worst among all the current mainstream MMOs.

Nobody gives a shit about those other games

[Morgaith]

It's not free since it has no content if you don't buy the expansions but i'd guess it's one of the best b2p mmos out there for sure.

[Sinaa]

"You can enjoy PvP in it's entirety."
You cannot, because most vanilla classes are completely garbage for pvp, no amount of skill can overcome that.

You can enjoy the original game solo, that's all you can do, you cannot even pm ppl, or invite them into a group I think.

Ppl above talked about the narrative being bad, I agree with this. Yes WoW had some real cheesy narrative mainly starting from Cataclysm, but even so GW2's narrative is the worst one I have ever seen in any game that has a narrative and is worth playing. It's slightly above Teletubbies, but most cartoons aimed at 6 years olds are not worse really...

source: I have 10k hours in GW2

[Rogalicus]

Nobody gives a shit about those other games

You obviously do, since you bothered to visit subforum of one of them.

[Eleccybubb]

Nobody gives a shit about those other games

Who is nobody?

Speak for yourself. Not for others.

[Rogalicus]

Honestly, I don't think any MMO has particularly outstanding narrative, but I still wouldn't say that WoW's is at the bottom of the pile.

It's not fabulous, sure. And it's largely juvenile with very simplistic, direct handling of most topics. But most games - especially MMOs - are that way.

In the end I'm sure we all could name many MMOs right off the top of our head that have worse stories or storytelling, though. GW2 especially, if we're really being honest here. Even when the story is ok, the storytelling is often just absolutely abysmal.

Presentation in WoW is still very lacking, they are getting better, but too slow. There is mostly no single story that goes through all zones and all expansion, just a number of subplots, most of which are just dropped and you'll be lucky to see them completed several years later. Lore gets retconned around every corner to the point where I just stopped following it, since they'll eventually render all my knowledge useless. Big parts of the story are still told across youtube cinematics, short stories on game site, books, random tweets or quests that get deleted later, it's one big incoherent shitpile.

GW2 story might not be anyway near stellar, but at least it doesn't take itself too serious, I just watch it as a sitcom about the world on the brink of Apocalypse. Also the amount of fillers is much lower and I like that you can listen to ambient dialogues for small additional details.

[Eleccybubb]

Honestly, I don't think any MMO has particularly outstanding narrative, but I still wouldn't say that WoW's is at the bottom of the pile.

It's not fabulous, sure. And it's largely juvenile with very simplistic, direct handling of most topics. But most games - especially MMOs - are that way.

In the end I'm sure we all could name many MMOs right off the top of our head that have worse stories or storytelling, though. GW2 especially, if we're really being honest here. Even when the story is ok, the storytelling is often just absolutely abysmal.

To be honest the worst story I remember was Wildstars.

Most of it was boring and just meh.

GW2 just reuses the same old dragon trope, tries to pretend it's funny sometimes when it's just cringeworthy and has some pisspoor written characters like Taimi.

[Edge-]

and has some pisspoor written characters like Taimi.

YOU STAY AWAY FROM TAIMI. She's the best.

[Svifnymr]

To be honest the worst story I remember was Wildstars.

I didn't get far into it, so can't say, but don't remember much originality to what I did see.

GW2 just reuses the same old dragon trope, tries to pretend it's funny sometimes when it's just cringeworthy and has some pisspoor written characters like Taimi.

I know folks didn't like the Original Story's method of scenic dialogue (and it had it's bad moments), but it did have some really nicely woven plot lines and characters. Maybe not up to SW:TOR, but it wasn't bad. WoW's leveling story was much more disjointed.

WoW's expansion storylines were pendulums really, good and bad swinging all over the place. The core story for GW2's expansions were good enough, though I still think the mechanics/ boss battles get in the way of telling it. (Fighting in the Mind of Mordremoth was a nice setup, but then you're gliding in updrafts in some tedious game of "the floor is lava" and stuff.)

Really, WoW and GW2 both suffer from the "I don't want to do that, that is stupid" problem with plots. SW:TOR may get you to the same place in the end, but at least sometimes it lets you say "that's just stupid" or whatever.

[Thelxi]

It's far from free but I would rank it 2nd after WoW.

[Eleccybubb]

I didn't get far into it, so can't say, but don't remember much originality to what I did see.



I know folks didn't like the Original Story's method of scenic dialogue (and it had it's bad moments), but it did have some really nicely woven plot lines and characters. Maybe not up to SW:TOR, but it wasn't bad. WoW's leveling story was much more disjointed.

WoW's expansion storylines were pendulums really, good and bad swinging all over the place. The core story for GW2's expansions were good enough, though I still think the mechanics/ boss battles get in the way of telling it. (Fighting in the Mind of Mordremoth was a nice setup, but then you're gliding in updrafts in some tedious game of "the floor is lava" and stuff.)

Really, WoW and GW2 both suffer from the "I don't want to do that, that is stupid" problem with plots. SW:TOR may get you to the same place in the end, but at least sometimes it lets you say "that's just stupid" or whatever.

I wouldn't mind the story if it didn't try to think it was funny.

Those "funny" moments just aren't. It's like Destiny 2 in a way where they thought Cayde-6 was a funny character for example. He just wasn't. It was pure cringe.

[Svifnymr]

I wouldn't mind the story if it didn't try to think it was funny.

Those "funny" moments just aren't. It's like Destiny 2 in a way where they thought Cayde-6 was a funny character for example. He just wasn't. It was pure cringe.

My problem is more the attempts at pathos and emotion. A lot of things assume you're invested in the characters, that you will care that Marjory and Kasmeer get togethor. They assume you care about Eir, or her son, and Eir's death is supposed to be this emotional thing but... meh, who cares? Nobody really liked Trahearne, but I liked all three of the NPCs that die at Claw Island for instance. Many of the other minor characters also had some investment if you were familiar with them. But Braham?

Granted you can't always predict if the audience will like this one or that one, but RPG's have the issue that the player is central to a lot of things, so don't hinge your entire story on the 'excitement when Caithe shows up!" because most of us don't care.

[Jinpachi]

Who is nobody?

Speak for yourself. Not for others.

sales numbers confirm nobody gives a shit. and less and less people give a shit about WoW each xpac

[Lotus Victoria]

Been playing a lot of GW2 with my GF recently. I have all the xpacs, and she's a f2p player. We're still enjoying the game a lot, even with the limitations, which is cool. Hopefully it will stay that way.