"It’s been a really fantastic year for MMO gamers so far. I know that there have been rough spots, but on the whole, there have been a lot of excellent games to play this year."

That made me laugh too, it is like something you would say about solo games, where you need a batch of good games each year to have a good gaming year. This is the MMO genre the games should last longer than a month, in fact one 'excellent game' should be able to last you more than one year.

Or at least they used to, have the industry pundits at last given up on the pretense MMO's are now anything other than dressed up solo games?

I find comments like "Let the hype die down" and "when the hype dust settles" to be a little ignorant and naive to the fact that the "excitement", not hype, about guild wars 2 is from hands on experience.

People are excited, and rightfully so, because they have proven the game has thus far provided things they didn't think were possible.   The game is NOT over hyped and claiming it is, well is simply ignorant.

If you have tested the game as much as some of us have, 160+ hours, then you would see that Guild Wars 2 is the total package.   Unless ANET is comlpetely hiding all content past level 40, which I highly doubt they are, This game is everything the players are excited about, "Hyped" about.

If you can look at Guild Wars 2 with a logical, reasonable and mature view you'll see it for what it is completely revolutionary, providing a AAA game with tons of features all rolled into one game WITHOUT A MONTHLY SUB!!! 

The game might not be your cup of tea but any reasonable person can be mature enough to give respect where respect is due.  You don't stand on a street corner and see a Ferrari drive up 1 foot in front of you and think, "What?? its just a car, nothing special, same ol same ol.."  if you do, thats pathetic....  Yep its a car, has four wheels, and you use a steering wheel to direct it.... Guild Wars 2 is a Ferrari in the gaming genre.  Its pulled up, showed off its muscle and people are saying "its nothing new, same old same old" "its over hyped..."  lmao

-- The return of bright eyed exploration and adventure --

it has been a very long time since I've had that excitement within a video game. That feeling of, what are we going to find around the next corner? Treasure? a big boss monster? or maybe some amazing awe inspiring view?   In the last few years I've started losing my interest in games because they all felt the same even with a few of the current releases...

Bad character animations, or same old quest systems with choppy combat... or fancy cinematic style covering same old questing system - BOOOORING!!!!

I went into Guild Wars 2 feeling like this was it, the last chance I have before throwing in the towel on something I had loved so much for so many years, MMORPG's.

Previously I'd tried other games and really tried to find something to hook me, up to 40 hours of testing and nothing.  Guild Wars 2 I found myself lost in wonder, amazment and adventure from the first minute.  160+ hours later and I'm more excited about the game then I've been in 10 years about any other game.  The game has thus far proved the "Manifesto" true which is why people are seeing "HYPE" and can't believe everyone can honestly be this realistically excited about the game.

The way everyone is reffering to Hype is a negative thing when it comes to GW2.  It is indicating that the excitment people are feeling for the game isn't realistic.  Let me tell you this, for the most part Guild Wars 2 fanbois, myself included, have good reason to be as "hyped" about this game, it is everything they said it was in the Manifesto!!

See you in Tyria!!!!!!!!

Can't wait!

Less than 17 hours now!

I have not been this excited for a launch since EQ/AC1/Camelot days!

See u all in game .

All i have to say is thank u ANet for this wonderfull game , and my hopes for a great launch in a few hours .

Can't wait

For me personally I feel that this is a game I can get behind. This game allows the more devoted gamer to be able to play with his less devoted friends.

Enevitably I would not progress at the same speed as my friends and I would end up with 5 or 6 characters, each at a different level of progress to try and play with my friends. Now I can just have one character and play with them without ruining the experience for them. 

This is the first game that I feel comfortable promoting to my non-gamer friends because I can stick with them and not feel like I am missing out. 

I hope that they are able to capture and channel the sense of co-operation instead of competion that has appeared to be the case in the BWEs. This for me personally is the major difference between GW2 and other MMOs that I have played.  

This is why I want to play this game: not for the graphics, not for the combat, not for competitive play (in terms of PvP) but being able to hang out with friends and feel like we are accomplishing something. 

My thoughts on GW2:

The first thing that made me look into to this game more was WvW. That was the main thing I was looking at, I was looking for open world pvp in previous new titles but failed to show it since the game is so instanced. GW2 is a good game overall I've done the pve content with a bunch of other players and its fun working together and that hasn't happened ever. It is like 100 percent guaranteed you will be working together with people doing content. That percentage of guarantee isn't like that in the other mmos.

The issues i have with this game which is all minor is UI customization, like I at least want to change the UI color theme. I'm not a fan of GW lore or fantasy games but I can care less at this point I really have no choice since other mmos do not have what I really want. In my opinion the combat animation needs to improve, the first default attack you get is repetitive, same with the other attacks, so basically if they add more animations it wouldn't be repetitive and everyone comes home happy.

On a side note, I'm sleeping as much as I can to at least play for an hour and a half before I go to bed.

I wish them nothing but the best, Arenanet appears to be dedicated towards it's customers and their product.  I hope this game is very successful and I will be playing the ^&%&^%&^ out of it.  

Cheers,

Faulkner

First, people forget that WoW was a continuation of Warcraft II and III, one of the most popular PC games of their times. This was one of the most important factors that contributed to WoWs succes.

This is what GW2 is for me; continuation of original Guild Wars, a game that I had a ton of fun with. It's not some next big AAA MMO that everybody are waiting for.

Sure, SWTOR was also a continuation of KotOR I & II, but for it to be succesful, continuation has to actually be better than its predecessor. It has to be an evolution of original ideas from the prequel as well as popular features and ideas from other games. Evolution, not a copy-paste.

Blizzard has build its name on Warcraft and Diablo, ArenaNet can do the same with Guild Wars.

Originally posted by MMOwanderer

I'm not blown away by it personally. It doesn't fit my tastes so i can't justify paying 60$ for it right now. If it drops the price, i may pick up later on.

But i hope you guys enjoy yourselves, aswell as the rest of the GW2 community.

BTW, is it just me, or do i have a feeling the mmorpg.com staff as decided on the final score their official review already?

I feel the same and despite the forums here being completely infested with fanbois there are a great many MMO gamers for whom GW2 offers nothing at all.  I do however hope that the game is a success but not to the extent that every developer and his grandmother copies it for the next ten years.

Originally posted by MMOwanderer

I'm not blown away by it personally. It doesn't fit my tastes so i can't justify paying 60$ for it right now. If it drops the price, i may pick up later on.

But i hope you guys enjoy yourselves, aswell as the rest of the GW2 community.

BTW, is it just me, or do i have a feeling the mmorpg.com staff as decided on the final score their official review already?

well ive never seen the MMORPG staff and writers so excited about a game like this before...so yes its a little obvious what there score might be lol.

GW2 really looks like it will going to be great.

I remember the betas of a great variety of MMOs and there were always concerns (not ready to be released, performance issues, bad content, etc.). This is the first MMO since WoW, where everything seems to be ok.

Of course there are some negative remarks in this and other forums, but they are full of missinformation and blatant lies. And do not forget that testers have been able to play and speak about GW2-content for about one year now. The only reason for scepticism is the fact, that we have no clue about what happens after level 30 - in most MMOs this part of the game tends to be worse than the stuff in the starter-areas.

The comparsions to SWTOR are absurd. GW2 is hyped, because it does everything differently, so it is the complete opposite of SWTOR, which was just WoW in space with voice-overs.