So, I'm looking into either returning to a MMO that I already own, or buying a new one.

I never liked GW2 from the very start. The reason? The vicious, smartassed community on the forums. It is a huge turn off. Game of the Universe Awards mean nothing to me, because it's all political anyways. "No sub fee" doesn't impress me either.

However, I am curious about the game. Nothing really stands out from the rest out there except that it's new, at least in my opinion. It's the ONLY reason I'm giving it consideration.

I have been keeping an eye out on livestreams on Xfire. Seems that only a very few livestream the game. Those end up revieling nothing special at all. Just some guy playing a short-skirt wearing female character in an empty place. In fact, I didn't see 1 other player in the livestream videos I watched. It was a bore.

So, I'm asking the people that have quit playing:

Why did you quit?

What's the pop?

Where are all the players (I saw none on the livestreams)?

Is it like SWTOR in that you max level and get the best gear within 2 weeks, then bored to death?

Is PvP a CC spamming joke?

Is there something else bad that I'm missing that I should know about?

Did you go to the official forums or are you going by these ones? There are a lot of brainwashed players who were sucked in by the hype of Guild Wars 2, that is a serious issue.

To answer  your question, is it's questionable if this game is worth $60. The story was written for kids, it's so simplistic. The only adult thing is that sylvari tend to ignore "Gender" in relationships because they're plants *Cough*. Outside of that, it's pretty empty. It USED to be populated when they limited how much we could access the game and when the game JUST came out. Once people realized the dungeons were just monsters with HP x 10 that you attacked for 5 minutes each, everyone stopped unless they wanted an armor set.

The game is an empty shell of what it once was when it was new. Once the newness wore off, people left. PvP is unbalanced and the PvP rooms are not empty, there are about 16~ rooms that are full, compared to the WHOLE list being populated. Lots of empty space now.

I quit because it was boring and they overhyped the game. No end game content and the story is paper thin. And the dynamic events, they're anything but. If you watched their "Gloat about a game that's not out yet" video, aka the guild wars 2 mannifesto, they talk like events actually matter and what happens effects the world. No they do not. They just repeat regardless of your existance.

Originally posted by NorseGod

So, I'm looking into either returning to a MMO that I already own, or buying a new one.

I never liked GW2 from the very start. The reason? The vicious, smartassed community on the forums. It is a huge turn off. Game of the Universe Awards mean nothing to me, because it's all political anyways. "No sub fee" doesn't impress me either.

However, I am curious about the game. Nothing really stands out from the rest out there except that it's new, at least in my opinion. It's the ONLY reason I'm giving it consideration.

I have been keeping an eye out on livestreams on Xfire. Seems that only a very few livestream the game. Those end up revieling nothing special at all. Just some guy playing a short-skirt wearing female character in an empty place. In fact, I didn't see 1 other player in the livestream videos I watched. It was a bore.

So, I'm asking the people that have quit playing:

Why did you quit?

What's the pop?

Where are all the players (I saw none on the livestreams)?

Is it like SWTOR in that you max level and get the best gear within 2 weeks, then bored to death?

Is PvP a CC spamming joke?

Is there something else bad that I'm missing that I should know about?

That is the reason I don't play anymore. I think the game is fine, too bad the majority of the community I have dealt with has sucked.

---

Originally posted by Betakodo
Did you go to the official forums or are you going by these ones? There are a lot of brainwashed players who were sucked in by the hype of Guild Wars 2, that is a serious issue.

To answer  your question, is it's questionable if this game is worth $60. The story was written for kids, it's so simplistic. The only adult thing is that sylvari tend to ignore "Gender" in relationships because they're plants *Cough*. Outside of that, it's pretty empty. It USED to be populated when they limited how much we could access the game and when the game JUST came out. Once people realized the dungeons were just monsters with HP x 10 that you attacked for 5 minutes each, everyone stopped unless they wanted an armor set.

The game is an empty shell of what it once was when it was new. Once the newness wore off, people left. PvP is unbalanced and the PvP rooms are not empty, there are about 16~ rooms that are full, compared to the WHOLE list being populated. Lots of empty space now.

I quit because it was boring and they overhyped the game. No end game content and the story is paper thin. And the dynamic events, they're anything but. If you watched their "Gloat about a game that's not out yet" video, aka the guild wars 2 mannifesto, they talk like events actually matter and what happens effects the world. No they do not. They just repeat regardless of your existance.

---

Pretty much. Ive been trying to log in lately and lvl some characters - No one in sight lvl 1-25 zone(s)

Infact if you disagree, Come see me on jade quarry i want people to play with!

I think the in game community is way different than the forum community. For the most part, no one says anything. They don't have to because there's no kill stealing. The most I've heard people talk was during the clock tower mini-game during Holloween, and that was the high point of my Guild Wars 2 experience. PvP was fun, but when people figured out which classes were unbalanced, not so much. On top of that, the Developers seem to be in love with point capturing PvP and put that in the game instead of the much beloved deathmatch of Guild Wars 1.

There's not even Guild Wars in Guild Wars 2. The game was seriously rushed and has a F2P cash shop shoe horned in.

Originally posted by NorseGod

So, I'm looking into either returning to a MMO that I already own, or buying a new one.

I never liked GW2 from the very start. The reason? The vicious, smartassed community on the forums. It is a huge turn off. Game of the Universe Awards mean nothing to me, because it's all political anyways. "No sub fee" doesn't impress me either.

However, I am curious about the game. Nothing really stands out from the rest out there except that it's new, at least in my opinion. It's the ONLY reason I'm giving it consideration.

I have been keeping an eye out on livestreams on Xfire. Seems that only a very few livestream the game. Those end up revieling nothing special at all. Just some guy playing a short-skirt wearing female character in an empty place. In fact, I didn't see 1 other player in the livestream videos I watched. It was a bore.

So, I'm asking the people that have quit playing:

Why did you quit?

What's the pop?

Where are all the players (I saw none on the livestreams)?

Is it like SWTOR in that you max level and get the best gear within 2 weeks, then bored to death?

Is PvP a CC spamming joke?

Is there something else bad that I'm missing that I should know about?

NorseGod,

You can read the answers to your questions in the GW2 official forums. Its very easy to get to 80 and to get exotic armor and weapons. From there, you just have a Legendary weapon to get (right now is just a different skin from the normal exotics) and that skin takes you a long time to farm. Thats the end game.

Originally posted by NorseGod

So, I'm asking the people that have quit playing:

Why did you quit?

What's the pop?

Where are all the players (I saw none on the livestreams)?

Is it like SWTOR in that you max level and get the best gear within 2 weeks, then bored to death?

Is PvP a CC spamming joke?

Is there something else bad that I'm missing that I should know about?

I (mostly) stopped playing because I found WvW boring and then they added a new tier of gear which currently requires you to grind instanced dungeons to acquire. All that left was leveling alts or playing sPvP and those ceased being entertaining after playing the game for 3 months.

Population varies of course depending on server, zone, and time of day. I play on Maguuma usually at off hours and it can be pretty lonely except in the very low level and very high level zones.

The bored to death part is fairly accurate, but depending on how much gold you end up with when you ding 80, you can either get the best gear instantly or within a day or two. (This ignores the new Ascended gear since I am not sure how long it takes to acquire and only a couple of pieces are available now with more sure to follow.)

CC barely lasts any time in this game, so it's not the big deal that it is in many MMOs.

Here's a few bad things you don't mention:

• The personal story quest lines are pretty terrible.
• The dynamic event system is not all that dynamic and if you replay the same zones on an alt, the "been there, done that" feeling is about the same as for a standard quest hub MMO.
• If you like playing a support oriented class, stay away. There isn't one. They've replaced the healer-tank-damage trinity with every class has a self-heal and the only support abilities are weak AE healing fields.
• The combat system is designed for morons. You have 5 weapon skills, a heal, 3 utility skills, and an elite skill active at any given time. You will unlock all your weapon skills within an hour of starting your character. There are dozens of utility skills to pick from. Most of them suck or are situational. The elite skills aren't worthy of their name.

Originally posted by NorseGod

So, I'm looking into either returning to a MMO that I already own, or buying a new one.

I never liked GW2 from the very start. The reason? The vicious, smartassed community on the forums. It is a huge turn off. Game of the Universe Awards mean nothing to me, because it's all political anyways. "No sub fee" doesn't impress me either.

However, I am curious about the game. Nothing really stands out from the rest out there except that it's new, at least in my opinion. It's the ONLY reason I'm giving it consideration.

I have been keeping an eye out on livestreams on Xfire. Seems that only a very few livestream the game. Those end up revieling nothing special at all. Just some guy playing a short-skirt wearing female character in an empty place. In fact, I didn't see 1 other player in the livestream videos I watched. It was a bore.

So, I'm asking the people that have quit playing:

Why did you quit? I didn't quit, but I have played a lot less of late due to Finals, other games, and all of my R/L friends have stopped playing due to other games.

What's the pop? Not sure but I always see other people when leveling an alt and there are loads of people in the cities LFG for the latest dungeon.

Where are all the players (I saw none on the livestreams)? Not usre because I have never watched a livestream. I do know that there was a free trial going on at one point and there are loads of videos out there to get a better understanding of the game but these won't tell you about population. TBH it fluxuates a lot due to the events. 

Is it like SWTOR in that you max level and get the best gear within 2 weeks, then bored to death? This depends on playstyle so I cannot answer. Since the gear progression is a little different than traditional MMO's I can't honestly say what your carrot is. Peoples mileage varies. I have put in 458 hours and still haven't seen all the dungeons on storymode lett alone each dungeons other 3 paths.

Is PvP a CC spamming joke? Not at all since the debuffs and CC are realy short compared to any other PvP I have been a part of. 

Is there something else bad that I'm missing that I should know about? The only thing I can think of that erks me is that it is hard finding people to run the story mode dungeons. There is no LFG tool and no other system in place other than being in the zone of the dungeon and spamming chat. Most people have run the storymodes and are running the dungeons on explorable mode. Maybe a more active guild would solve this I don't know.

I am responding to give you the benefit of the doubt. You start off by bashing the community without speciying which one you mean (MMORPG.com, GW2 site, GW2 fans here in general, etc.), then ask for information from...... the community. The game is fun but it has it's downside as well. Without listing these other games you enjoy it is tough to make a comparison to give my best advice on whether the game could be recommended or not. You mention PvP once and that was about it. So I just answered your questions directly. I still play and find the game fun although many of my guild members went back to WoW. I have the bebefit of playing with my wife so I am never solo and that keeps any game somewhat interesting to me.

---

Originally posted by Eir_S
So don't visit the forums?  I never did on any MMO I played and guess what?  It never detracted from my gameplay experience and may have even added to my enjoyment if threads like this are any indication.

---

Have you not been posting on this forum, On the content of guild wars 2 for an extended amount of time?

Originally posted by Nitth

 

---

Originally posted by Eir_S
So don't visit the forums?  I never did on any MMO I played and guess what?  It never detracted from my gameplay experience and may have even added to my enjoyment if threads like this are any indication.

---

 

Have you not been posting on this forum, On the content of guild wars 2 for an extended amount of time?

And?  I never visit official forums, was my point.  Too many deeply involved sorts of people there.  You don't need to go to them to enjoy a game, it's just a suggestion not to.  Sounds like more hassle than it's worth.  In contrast, MMORPG is neutral ground..

Originally posted by Eir_S
So don't visit the forums?  I never did on any MMO I played and guess what?  It never detracted from my gameplay experience and may have even added to my enjoyment if threads like this are any indication.

Exactly.  I fail to see how a vast minority of the playerbase on a forum outside of the game can affect how much a person enjoys the game itself.

Now if the community inside the game is really bad that is another thing.  That can definitely kill your experience.  Mute or ignore or whatever the game might have is your friend.  But if there are hundreds of irritating assholes that can overwhelm your ability to mute them.

However, as others have said GW2 really doesn't have a ton of chat going on anyway.  Which in itself can be annoying, if you are into being a chatty kathy.

Personally I can't tell of the current state (got a refund thank you!) but as far as I seen its not a game you grind up to max quickly. Its something that can get stale pretty quickly as you won't feel progression at all as you play. So... pros and cons list! 

Pros

1.) Stylish Graphics, focusing primarily on characters as well as some fancy environmental graphics. This does a great job. 

2.) Questing: Changes up the questing formula to be different. Events are more ephasized as a means to leveling. 

3.) Crafting, particularly the discovery system is quite an inivative way to handle crafting. It is quite an interesting system that, while not used to its maximum potential, is a good step in the right direction.

Cons

1.) Combat: Combat is... bleh. Quite clunky and feels like it decided to change to action combat last minute. Really begging to have aiming with mouse. Can't emphasize this flaw enough, a major flaw in the game. Its a very very simplistic combat system, as dodge tends to be the replacement for a good chunk of skills being taken away from use. With 1 being an auto attack, you will find yourself doing nothing but dodging. 

2.) The quest format, while different, becomes quite boring quick. Its essencially quests hubs compressed into one giant quest, as such you might be grinding MORE on it due to attempting only one or two objectives of the total. Events aren't dynamic much at all and appear in a quite static pattern, making them more fun then regular heart quests but still becoming tedious and extremely predictable. High levels expect to do zerg laps around a zone.

3.) Lack of progression. This is a glaring issue, particularly while leveling up. You don't get the feeling your doing any progress at all with your character. Virutally from level 1-2 you have a good idea what you will be doing the whole way through, with level 30 getting your last skill and having all of what you will be doing before you. Talents don't feel that much of an impact and just feel tacked on. 

4.) Grind: For having no gear treadmil, it does have a very long grind, even showing up some traditional games. To do good in wvw, your going to likely have to farm which involves tediously farming mobs. There is very little variety and this farming is very 'mindless' in terms of being done with minimal effort. Dungeon gear will take a good deal of time.

5.) Dungeon Difficulty: And by difficulty I mean more so 'very group specific'. Its actually mostly getting difficulty off trash in which you need the GW2 trinity. The problem here is they love preaching 'no trinity' yet they basically enforce having the damage/support/Crowd control model. Without it you will wipe far more often. Even with it, your going to likely have some trouble sometimes just due to how chaotic it can be and difficult to adjust. It doesn't feel like difficulty based off skill as much as just having a group doing stuff at the right time and to the right mobs. Bosses are in many cases a joke, its just the trash that really suffers for the group.

6.) Fanboys: I know, its not part of the game but seriously... SHUT UP. Your making me hate this game and have even more negative bias against it due to how ignorant you guys are. Blindly listening to devs preaching stuff... seriously stop your making it hard to even think posative things about this game!

7.) Game environments: Graphics are nice on this game but unfortunately the zones are quick to become dule. There is no real determining factors for each area. This bothers me mostly since its graphic style cries out for a unique feel to zones, yet it fails to deliver that. The graphics have a cartoony edge so it SHOULD capitalize on it to really give zones a more unique feel to them. Instead you basically enter generic snow area, generic jungle area. 

The actual community in game is superb. I get that people who decided to dislike the game before playing it don't like people on game forums who defend the game and thus challenge their under-informed view of the game. However, to use the enthusiasm of the game's fans as a reason to not try the game seems pretty silly.

I'm getting close to 600 hours played and I'm still going strong. I am not a player who latches onto a game remains a vocal fan and prolific player in spite of the actual quality and state of the game and the play experience. I've had a few promising starts that have fizzled and if it's time to move on, I accept it and move on. For me and many others, this game is most certainly not some flash in the pan.

So, a big reason that the game's community is so quick to defend the game is that it's actually a game, the first in some time, worth playing for hundreds of hours and most certainly worth defending.

Nothing anyone can say is going to convince the hold outs that this might be the game for them. If you can put aside the anti-GW2 mindset and you think you can actually approach the game with a truly open mind, go for it. If you are just looking for GW2 haters to validate your decision not to play the game, then just take a pass and save everone the drama.

As to populations, there are still tons of people playing the game on a regular basis. Lion's Arch, the defacto hub city, is just as busy as it has always been and I can't head there with out ending up in the overflow. The population distribution is much more spread out, so the density in any given game zone is lower than when the player base was compressed into a narrower level range. That's to be expected in a game this massive, espescially when there are additional outlets for play, like sPvP, WvW and Dungeons.

The world is massive, PvE content is broad and deep. sPvP, WvW and Dungeon play are compelling for some people. Professions are versatile and distinctive, so pretty much any MMO player should be able to find a match to their playstyle, (probably several matches). There is almost too much to do in the game, so the $45-$60 box price on a Buy to Play title is honestly the best bet the cynical MMO gamer is going to find on the market. If you give it a real shot and don't like it, well, you aren't out any more than you were on all the other MMOs you've purchased and found wanting.

I quit because once you hit level 80 I did not see anything wortwhile to do. I was hoping for the PvP to be special but there is no point to it and little reason to do it besides just to be able to do PvP. I got LoL for that so dont need to play an MMO for some casual PvP.

PvE did not impress me much either. It was fun up to 80 but kind of anti-climactic after that. So same with PvP, not much reason to do PvE after you reach the cap.

However the game is fun for a month or two but so are many single player B2P games out there...

If you listened to people that posted on forums, you would never play any game. But I had fun in GW2 for almost 800 hours, you need to join a guild and pick a populated server so there is always some WvW going on unless your into PvE which is a barren waste land now for the lower level areas.

I do not play it anymore, burnt out from it until they do something with WvW because it is stale right now.

I stopped playing because:

The heavily instanced gameworld doesnt work for me.

I never warmed up to the everyone take care of themselfs class system

Dungeons constisted of tumbling and running away from the mobs

I LIKE gear progression, GW2 doesnt have one

I actually missed a gamworld with a story and purpose and not the level by attended outdoor event concerts with other people

There is no reason to really work with other people while leveling, everyone just shows up does their own thing and quitely moves on.  There is no social interaction in this game.

It plays more like an arcade game or a console game then a true MMO.

Not enough depth in skills or abilities.  IN other words my ability bar doesnt have enough meanfull things on it

There are other things but this list is long enought