As stated, it adds a somewhat realistic touch to the world.

It COULD feel like moving in a realistisc world with monsters (lol).

No one puts a gun to your head if you decide to run the Norn zones from 1-20. You could go human, asura, or charr area.

Actually even the zones within the same area are very very different. Take Wayfarer, Snowdrift and Lornar. Sure, they're all "snow area" but look closer and you'll realize each of them have a distinct characteristic. Wayfarer is much more rolling and tamer, while Snowdrift really gives you that wilderness, the landscape more broken, untamed edge of civilization. While Lornar is very winding, truly a high mountain range.

The texture might be similar, but the way they're used is brilliant.

I don't see why people are getting so worked up about this.

OP clearly has no education in any sort of game design.  Ignorance really is bliss.

What I think the OP means is that GW2 areas follow geographical patterns instead of the wide variety of WoW (Where you pass from the gloomy Countryside of Duskwood to the colorful Jungle of STV in the blink of an eye for example).

So the Ascalon areas all share the same basic characteristic of brownish grass, certain type of hills and stuff like that. The human lands are green, fertile and "tame", the Sylvari areas are a jungle and so on.

From that point of view, it is absolutely true.

BUT I feel that the areas are quite different in the details. In the Charr areas you go from smoke grilling next to the citadel, to the ruins of Ascalon on the other side. There is a marsh south of the ruins, there are lakes, hills and so on.

In Diessa plains, you get the mills, the cattlepult, ranches of cows and stuff like that. So there IS variety, it is just more subtle variety than in WoW. In both games I remember getting that sense of wonder of "what is over that hill?".

To the OP, I think you'll find that it's fairly difficult and time consuming to sit and make thousands of rocks and other small pieces that tend to get repeated in worlds. Arenanet has done a fairly good job of keeping a large variety of assets. I also think its a bit condescending to refer to things like The Black Citadel as set pieces. They're not some things just placed there to do nothing more than look pretty. They have a use and a purpose. In most cases they represent something very important(lore-wise) and are a symbol of something much bigger than the player and their size and magnitude are well deserved.

As the rest of the comment. Take away some of the arcitecture and "set pieces" and you still have an expertly crafted world. Its not just hills and valleys and a bit of water here and there. Go up on a large hill or on a mountain and look out onto the vista. It's quite breath taking. Most other MMO's that I've played (my opinion) don't come close to capturing a scene the way Arenanet has. Sure theyu have a few nice views, but Guild Wars 2 is wall to wall beauty. Even the areas that are dark/dreary and are meant to bring about some chaos have their own unique beauty.

So OP, I disagree. Technically GW2 is a bit underplayed in the pixels department. They could've gone with DirectX10 or 11 and more shaders could've been utilized, but the texture resolutions on terrain, characters, and objects do not disappoint. For a game that's squeezing the last bit of life out of DX9 it pushes alot of the right boundaries. Granted, it's no Age of Conan or Tera, but it most definitely has a beautiful collection of scenery.

Let's not discredit Arenanet for it's art direction and uniquely charactered environments.

Originally posted by bluefunk

I assume you think GW2 is the second coming and will defend it regardless?

We assume you think the opposite, and will do the opposite?

Originally posted by Xiaoki

Hey, look a snow zone.

Oh, another snow zone.

This is also a snow zone.

And ....another snow zone.

Some details, set pieces and land marks change but there is only a handful templates they use.

Yeah, its more "realistic" but much less entertaining for a video game.

I will say that the variety of enemies is very nice(though some are repeated endlessly ie the horrible Dredge). Theres different graphics for different types of the same mob type. Like a normal version, snow version, jungle, undead, Destroyer, Branded and aquatic. Theres also undead versions of nearly everything. Even chickens. You ever run for life from a horde of zombie chickens? I have.

Have you also run from skritt?

Originally posted by Volkmar

What I think the OP means is that GW2 areas follow geographical patterns instead of the wide variety of WoW (Where you pass from the gloomy Countryside of Duskwood to the colorful Jungle of STV in the blink of an eye for example).

Note that I'm a big fan of "Azeroth", but GW2's distribution of ecosystems is indeed way more "realistic" than WoW. The example you give illustrates this perfectly.

Originally posted by bluefunk

I was out leveling and generally messing about with my level 36 Necro and started to realise something was a miss in the landscapes and world I was exploring.  To me if you take away the undoubtably fantasic looking set pieces (Black Citidal  for example) then the normal world itself is very generic and plain.  The same gradd hills and rocks are there over and over again.

After I relaised this it does take the shine off and I started to see it everywhere.  Gratz to Anet for drawing and fooling the eye somewhat with their map skills creating the set pieces.

Great game though. :)

It changes a lot after a few more levels - it gets pretty dark and dreary actually

OP is just wrong, no ifs or buts, just absolutely trolling for attention it seems, he cant provide any proof, or any pics to support his theory, he probably tried and when he saw every single rock is different from every single other rock due to 99% of the game being hand crafted, and individually painted, he just gave up. 

Congratulations OP, your jab at GW2 is having the opposite effect, its gonna make more people play the game because your thread made publicity, and publicity is good bad or otherwise, people will come in this thread read it, see that 99% of the people in the thread disagree with you and point how you are wrong, and then they will do the opposite of what you made the thread for and go buy the game :).

End of Story. Ty for advertising GW2 OP you're being a valuable asset to the sales of the game.

Originally posted by bluefunk

I was out leveling and generally messing about with my level 36 Necro and started to realise something was a miss in the landscapes and world I was exploring.  To me if you take away the undoubtably fantasic looking set pieces (Black Citidal  for example) then the normal world itself is very generic and plain.  The same gradd hills and rocks are there over and over again.

After I relaised this it does take the shine off and I started to see it everywhere.  Gratz to Anet for drawing and fooling the eye somewhat with their map skills creating the set pieces.

Great game though. :)

I'm sure the game has its problems, but graphical variety out in the world certainly isn't one of them.  I've been in moors, swamps, forests, icy mountains, glades, weird fairy veg places, various very different types of building style, etc.

It sounds like you haven't really seen much of the game yet.  Have you got an alt in each race?  You'll see a lot of variety that way.  But even with one race, the progression through landscapes is very varied.

Originally posted by 13lake

OP is just wrong, no ifs or buts, just absolutely trolling for attention it seems, he cant provide any proof, or any pics to support his theory, he probably tried and when he saw every single rock is different from every single other rock due to 99% of the game being hand crafted, and individually painted, he just gave up. 

 

Congratulations OP, your jab at GW2 is having the opposite effect, its gonna make more people play the game because your thread made publicity, and publicity is good bad or otherwise, people will come in this thread read it, see that 99% of the people in the thread disagree with you and point how you are wrong, and then they will do the opposite of what you made the thread for and go buy the game :).

 

End of Story. Ty for advertising GW2 OP you're being a valuable asset to the sales of the game.

You can think I am wrong that's your opinion, sure.  I stick by my opinion, I am not flaming or trolling, out of the cities GW2 just isn't that varied.

Seems like you can't handle someone not liking GW2 the same way you like it.

While Fanboys are annoying, the opposite isn't any better.

Pretty much every post you've made on these boards is trashing the game. So after while it gets kinda hard to take anything you say seriously. I personally think you're just baiting people into stupid arguments to start a flamewar.

I don't see anything wrong with the variety in the zones or the game's gorgeous art direction. 

Seems like you can only do "ad hominem" and not actually even try to counter any of my arguments, ty for proving without a doubt to me that you have no idea what you're talking about here, you're just arguing for the sake arguing, just trolling for the sake of trolling, posting for the sake of baiting. I'll just say it again:

Proof or stop trolling.

Oh and if you dont know what ad hominem means, its latin, google it, it describes what you've been doing in this thread since it was conceived. Also replying to someone, and not even connecting to 1 word from the post of the person you replied is just spamming.

Originally posted by bluefunk

Originally posted by Toxia

Best sceneries and overall graphics ive ever seen in an mmo.

 

Your arguement is invalid.

That's a bit of a disapointing comment to be honest.  My argument is not invalid, I assume you think GW2 is the second coming and will defend it regardless?

The graphical variety in GW2 is rather low in any area which isn't a city or set piece.  I am not attacking your opinion on the game or you just stating that's the way I see it.

Honestly some people just can't take anything critical against a game they like.

/sadface

Originally posted by XImpalerX

Originally posted by bluefunk

Originally posted by Toxia

Best sceneries and overall graphics ive ever seen in an mmo.

 

Your arguement is invalid.

That's a bit of a disapointing comment to be honest.  My argument is not invalid, I assume you think GW2 is the second coming and will defend it regardless?

The graphical variety in GW2 is rather low in any area which isn't a city or set piece.  I am not attacking your opinion on the game or you just stating that's the way I see it.

Honestly some people just can't take anything critical against a game they like.

/sadface

 

Why don't you back up your claims with screenshots, I would love to see what your talking about. Personally I have never seen the same thing twice, but I have only made it as far as Metrica Province and Brisban Wildlands. I have been fascinated by the sheer amount of variety in the scenery and textures.

Why do you need screenshots?  I don't mean places/maps are identical , as in copy and paste.   I just mean out of the cities the landscape is very similar and nothing is that varied.

I would mention that in my original post I did say "I" for a good reason.  It's just "my" opinion".  GW2 gfx are ok at best considering it's 2012.  AoC had better gfx 3 years ago (and still does).