I'm not sure where the love for GW2 comes from, but I'm going to give my 2 cents of the game after getting 80 multiple times, dungeon running, crafting, world PVP and more.

Guild Wars 2 had a great deal of potential. It has beautiful artwork and great concepts to stem from. They had ability to tell a story to engage the player and do wonders for immersion, but it just seems undone.

First, there is no Guild Wars in Guild Wars 2. You don't fight other guilds, so you might as well just called it "Fantasy Land". You have no guild bases, so there is no rading of guilds, you can't even duel in the game.

The quest system of running around and exploring engaged me right away. Do a heart and get experience and rewards, seems great! At about level 40 you really never want to see another heart again, ever. They are no longer enjoyable and become even more repetitive than a normal quest system, because at least in a normal quest system you can follow a story.

The level capping so you can do whatever content you wish seemed like a great idea to play with friends when I'm lower level, but then I realized every zone I run through all the enemies want to kick my ass the same. This made me question the whole concept of leveling to 80! What was the point when at 80 all the level 30 content is near as powerful.

Realm vs Realm was annoying. Essentially it was Zerg vs Zerg, and PVPers know what I'm talking about. Bigger zerg pretty much always wins, and tactics are nowhere to be found. You sit beating on keep walls and doors for entirely too long and hope nobody kicks your ass while you do. It felt very much like the late Warhammer Fantasy MMO (RIP) which was dry in that regard. Only difference is you can setup seige equipment anywhere and it's a little more effective. It's also required for seige breaking. Yet the gameplay offered nothing over this. People sit on walls, shoot down at you, pour oil, you beat on keeps, kill keep lord, and it's yours.

The lack of class roles and variation is literally the most annoying part of the game and when you run a Dungeon this is where it becomes clear. Dungeons are sooooo much chaos due to this idea. A person pulls aggro and can't really take the damage so you end up getting knocked on your butt, pulled up, constantly running in circles and what not while your party attacks and waits their turn to do the same.

I could go on, the gear management and longevity are lacking as well. Especially when getting top gear takes a week.

Overall, lots of potential, but the devs don't seem to want to interact with the player base too much to get feedback and change things.

Opinion filed with others in over-stuffed cabinet! :)

Thank you!

edit: also, if you have multiple 80s you need to read the lore associated with the game next time. Read up on why the game is called Guild Wars. It might be more fun if you understand the world you are playing in rather than just going around bashing things to level! :) 

You, like many of us, have graduated from "themepark" to "something else".   Themeparks are basically all the same once you play for a bit, and it's no longer enough for a lot of people.

I suggest you start playing / following some of the many hybrids and sandbox games coming down the line for 2013 /  2014.  Things are about to change in this market.  I've been waiting about seven years for this change, and it's finally coming.

Originally posted by MindTrigger

You, like many of us, have graduated from "themepark" to "something else".   Themeparks are basically all the same once you play for a bit, and it's no longer enough for a lot of people.

I suggest you start playing / following some of the many hybrids and sandbox games coming down the line for 2013 /  2014.  Things are about to change in this market.  I've been waiting about seven years for this change, and it's finally coming.

No many of us just want a game that delivers endgame content worthy of months & years of play time.  Plus the deep character progression systems that games of yesteryear had.  Has nothing to do with Themepark vs sandbox especially considering sandboxes are a niche endeavor and players who prfer themeparks greatly outnumber sandbox fans at least 10 to 1.

I still like GW2 but it does not have the 2 things I look forward to in an MMO and as such my play sessions have dwindled to once or twice a week for an hour or 2.  Those 2 things?  Deep Character progression and Endgame content worth sticking around for or at least worthy of repeating.

Originally posted by RevenantBob

I could go on, the gear management and longevity are lacking as well. Especially when getting top gear takes a week.

Actually the top gear is ascended and if you calculate what you will need to gear your toon with that system it will take about 10-16 months. Just wanted to make a minor correction there. Carry on.

OP try to play a toon with "map completion" turned Off in your map (icon is found at lower left corner)

Game is A LOT more interesting with the handholding off ;) It plays a lot more like an open world like Skyrim...like

Try it & let me know how it feels ^^

BTW Wellcome on the forums :)

Originally posted by azzamasin

Originally posted by MindTrigger

You, like many of us, have graduated from "themepark" to "something else".   Themeparks are basically all the same once you play for a bit, and it's no longer enough for a lot of people.

I suggest you start playing / following some of the many hybrids and sandbox games coming down the line for 2013 /  2014.  Things are about to change in this market.  I've been waiting about seven years for this change, and it's finally coming.

No many of us just want a game that delivers endgame content worthy of months & years of play time.  Plus the deep character progression systems that games of yesteryear had.  Has nothing to do with Themepark vs sandbox especially considering sandboxes are a niche endeavor and players who prfer themeparks greatly outnumber sandbox fans at least 10 to 1.

Considering that themeparks out number sandboxes 20 to 1 while at the same time there hasn't been a AAA Sandbox since SWG. If there aren't any quality sandbox games available, it will be quite hard to generate fans. IMHO the great majority of players haven't even experienced a sandbox MMO so they in a way live in ignorant bliss.

My prediciton is that TESO will hit, peeps will be dissapointed yet again and burn out in mere months but this time around they will have a sandbox to try as an alternative (Archeage). Once some of these player get to experience what a sandbox really is, they wont want to go back to themeparks.

Originally posted by Zzad

OP try to play a toon with "map completion" turned Off in your map (icon is found at lower left corner)

Game is A LOT more interesting with the handholding off ;) It plays a lot more like an open world like Skyrim...like

Try it & let me know how it feels ^^

BTW Wellcome on the forums :)

Yeah, tried to do this as well...but it's nothing near Skyrim's experience. You roam around without markers and in just 15 minutes you end up in a zone that is 10+ levels above you. Yes, because GW2 is absolutely not like Skyrim. It's still plagued by the same "WOW LIKE" zones restricted by level range. You have to complete a zone / levelup before you can take the portal to the next. Now of course you can always visit zones from other races, no offense but it's nothing like what you are trying to describe...not an "open world experience like Skyrim"

I agree with OP about the hearts system...in the end they just replaced the " ! " over NPC's head by " Heart " symbols and althought you don't have to speak to the actual NPC to get the quest and get the reward, you're still spending your time chaining these. I really miss side activities in this game...like, Fishing for example?

Crafting is awesome tho (really liked it and the fact you can level up crafting things)