Tags
Dynamic Events, Ermergerd Let Me Take Proper Screenshots, Events, grindfest, Grinding, Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, Lore, Mobs, Questing, Screenshots, Tyria, Warcraft is awesome
I haven’t played enough of Guild Wars 2 to really form a solid opinion on the game. The following are some observations that I’ve made so far – over maybe four play sessions, total.
1. This game is gorgeous. The lighting is spectacular. But taking screenshots of the beautiful scenery is stupidly annoying. I have to /sleep to get my character out of the shot, and that doesn’t always work too well. My character’s shoulder often gets into the frame.
2. Dynamic events are spiffy. Imagine masses of people swarming a world boss, coming and going as they need to. They are like mini flash mobs. This is exciting to watch and be involved in, but is a little … unorganized?
Without dedicated roles everyone really does their own thing. When a player falls, he can be rezzed in combat by other players. Very cool.
I kind of … like organization, though. I like being a healer. I like parties and raid groups, where you meet other people. For dynamic events, nobody is really in a raid group. It isn’t planned at all. You just join in and start smashing.
3. It feels fairly grindy. I kind of feel like I’m playing a Korean grindfest, somehow. Even though I’m not chain-killing a single mob or repeating a farming circuit in one zone, it is very repetitive.
Filling in farts hearts throughout a zone is different from questing. Sort of. You can do various activities to fill a heart instead of following a quest chain. I do like this.
4. Guild Wars is charming. But not as charming as Warcraft. Maybe this is because Warcraft is significantly more established?
I’m also not into the lore as much yet. Warcraft has this massive history behind it. The characters and places I’ve known since childhood. Tyria never had this place in my life. I never played the first game (even though I had wanted to!) so I never had that backstory going in.
There are novels about Tyria coming out now. I do plan on reading them if I am able to get more into the game!
I need to give the game some more time. I’m sure it’ll grow on me as I continue playing it – especially because I am playing it with people I know IRL. 
You forgot the best thing about Guild Wars 2 –no monthly sub!
TRUTH. My little brother bought the game for me for Christmas, and I got the game for him.
The thing I find interesting here is your comments on the Lore and how you come to it compared with your experience of WoW and Warcraft.
I never played any Blizzard games before WoW and I didn’t play WoW until more than five years after it launched. The lore meant (and largely still means) absolutely nothing to me. Consequently when I played WoW that layer of meaning was absent and I never really picked it up in the three months I played. I had no idea who anyone was or why they were doing what they were doing and mostly I never learned to care.
On the other hand, I played Guild Wars at launch and on and off several times in the ensuing years. I completed the original campaign twice and parts of the others and much of the lore is still quite fresh in my memory even now. I see echoes, resonances and fragments of it everywhere in Tyria and yes, it makes a huge difference.
This, perhaps more than anything, may be why it’s so hard to prise players away from whichever MMO they began in or where they have spent many years.
As for the grindiness – don’t follow the Hearts, don’t strive for map completion, don’t rigidly pursue your personal story. Just wander the world like the Littlest Hobo, helping anyone in need as you find them and the grind will vanish.
WvW makes a great change of pace too!
Yes! I’ve read quite a bit about about WoW VS GW lore. I think that Warcraft’s history and established lore is significantly stronger, but that is something I suspect comes with age. They have novels, card and RPG games, comics and short stories, and years worth of the video games to back up the world. Azeroth has been written about and expanded upon since 1994, so it makes sense that there would be slightly more depth – and more convoluted, haha!
You can go the entire MMO without getting too into the story behind it, if that’s how you want to play. I’ve grown up with the Warcraft series so I’d obviously be more tied to story from the get-go. It’s very true that you get attached to your primary MMO! (See how I defend my dear old game, oh boy.)
I know that there are excellent stories in Guild Wars that I am VERY excited to discover and learn. I’m starting with Wiki pages and blogs about it and working my way through the personal stories.
WvW looks crazy awesome, though I’ve yet to try it. It’s a bit intimidating. I’ll probably wait and gather some family members to join me before the first attempt. I’ll be sure to take your advice on wandering around, too. ALSO: LITTLEST HOBO FOREVER.
Bhagpuss comment about wandering is very important to enjoy GW2. Forget the hearts. Just go and wander, discovering little gems everywhere. Take part in event that seems interesting. Everytime my ming went back to completionist mode, trying to fill heart or gain level, this game starts to become boring. Everytime I forgot objective to just see what’s over there, the hours wen very quickly !
My advice : @lvl20 to 30, try to go to Lion’s arch from your city by feet. And forget it ! Just one rule : do not use Teleport Point to advance. Follow you desire to discover. When you no long know where to go, start again to advance to Lion’s Arch.
That’s interesting, I’ll have to watch for the novels, I think it would make a big difference to me. I was ALL about GW2 until MoP launched but do plan to go back at some point because you’re right, it is gorgeous.
Mhmm, I read about them on a blog somewhere.
http://www.amazon.ca/Guild-Wars-Ascalon-Matt-Forbeck/dp/1416589473/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357592277&sr=8-1