I selected "several years", and am quite confident that this is accurate.
Seeing as there seem to be some skeptics regarding that choice, I will attempt to explain why.
I have been playing video games since the early 80's and MMOs since before the term MMO existed. I'm as old as MUDs, basically.
In all that time there have been only a handful of engaging online games which I played for "years", but I always knew within a short time of starting the ones that I did play for years that I would do so. And never once did a game strike me as one that I will play for such a duration incorrectly.
In terms of MMOs, there are only 2 which I played long term, Everquest and WoW. (Before that, my long-term MMO-like game was the original NeverWinter Nights game. Not the Bioware one, which came out many years later, but the one that ran through AoL).
Looking at what I most enjoyed in those games is why I am confident that GW2 will go into the same category. I enjoyed playing a character and experiencing the world, plain and simple. If the world is engaging, as it was in both of those games (for me), I will play for a very, very long time provided the game mechanics themselves don't turn me off. Provided the game mechanics make multiple classes interesting to me, I will literally play every single class that I find interesting and enjoyable through the entire available content of the game. It is how I like to play MMOs.
Two key points are basically all I need to keep me going:
1. A world I enjoy exploring and adventuring in and
2. Game mechanics that I enjoy doing it with.
I admit to being guilty of hopping from one MMO to another like mad over the last couple of years, but it is not because there are so many more to choose from, and it's not because my attention span is shorter, and it's not because I ran out of "content". In most cases it is because the game worlds were not very interesting to me or because the mechanics weren't enjoyable to me, particularly combat...I have not liked the "feel" of the combat in most MMOs. I should also point out that some of the ones I tossed on the junk pile felt too much like playing WoW (to me). Although I enjoyed the hell out of WoW for years, once I got sick of it, I got sick of it and a game that feels like I"m just playing reskinned WoW isn't going to "stick" for me.
GW2 has the two key points that I need in an MMO as well as having 8 classes, all of which I enjoyed playing. That means that I will want to go through the available content with all 8 classes. The dynamic event system adds something no other MMO has had to make this even more enjoyable for me. When I go through the same areas for the 2nd time (and 3rd, and 4th, etc.), I will actually experience some things differently than when I went through them with a previous character. No other MMO I have ever played long term does this to the extent that GW2 does.
I'm a person that plays MMOs for the journey, not the destination and I have no doubt that it will take me several years to get through what I expect I will want to do in this game. I also enjoy helping other people immensely and spend a lot of time side trekked from my own goals to do so, which further extends the game for me.
The lack of the gear grinding treadmill (which some see as a negative mark in terms of long-term play) is actually another positive for me. As I said, I played WoW for years. And yes I did get on that gear treadmill. But not for the power progression, I just wanted to experience each of the areas at least once. Of course, you couldn't just do that in WoW. You had to get into a progression guild, and you had to spend countless months grinding one tier of content before you had any hope of going through to see the next tier. Ultimately, I QUIT wow because of this treadmill. Sometimes I just wanted to level an alt through some lowbie areas for a few weeks, but I couldn't. I had to log in on my main on raid nights or give up raiding (and hence the chance of ever seeing the next area of content). It was frustrating, it was annoying, and it drove me to hating the game. I will add, however, that I didn't quit entirely until I leveled one of each character class to the cap (at that time, which was pre-WoTLK).
So there you have my story, and why there is no question that I will be playing GW2 for years. Unless they make the horrible mistake of listening to those of you who are complaining about the very things that make GW2 the first game in many years that I actually want to play long term.
Edited for a few spelling errors & sure that I missed others.
The question is irrelevant IMHO, simply because after you buy the box you can log whenever you want, for the end of times... theres nothing stopping you from doing so...
How do you define a player that plays for 2 months, and then 3 more months the next year, and again 1 more month on the years after? Did he play 6 months, or 3 years?
Originally posted by Fondel I am shocked about the amount of fanboyism this game is having... Several years?? cmon...
I find it ironic that Darkfall: Unholy wars fanboy is poking fun at people who appear to be Guild Wars 2 fanboys.
Hello pot, meet kettle.
Oh, and I believe you are the first person to call Guild Wars 2 a "WoW clone". Or atleast the first person I have seen. It would appear you might be rating a game you have not played.
I see myself playing activly for a few more months then ill come and go,depending on other games i want to play. Right now im haveing a blast in Bordeland2 with a buddy.
Unless people I know get into the game as well or I find a bunch to join and play with, I don't see myself logging in for long to do much other than tool about on a character solo for a while.
If I were more outgoing socially and more apt to seek other people to play as a group with I'd probably be playing this or other games more adamantly. No fault of the game that I don't play it more.
"The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners." - Thomas B. Macaulay
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel J. Boorstin
I think I'll end up having played something like between a month and six weeks. So it's probably gonna be just shy of Rift and SWTOR. Those two I put in two months each at their respective launches.
I've done most of the exploration I like. Then I went for an alt, but I don't think I have the drive to do it again. Didn't enjoy dungeons, didn't enjoy PVP and didn't enjoy dynamic events and hearts... Just loved the exploration which kept me playing.
I stopped almost 2 weeks ago now. This is the first mmo that I've played that I have not reached and do mot have the desire to reach level cap.
The devil is in the details. It's the little things that's hurting the game. Things like queuing up for Spvp, and seeing a server list. How about "Battle 1" or something? Idk, but I still remember that shocking me, mildly at the time though. It was an emersion break. Little things like this all over the game.
Whenever I feel like it. I don't feel obligated to have to play it constantly unlike a Pay to Play game, and I don't have to worry about content being gated off if I don't pay unlike some F2P games. Granted whether I will buy a future expansion pack will depend on my financial situation, but eh, that's for the future.
It has the no sub on its side so I am happy I can jump into it whenever. It will only be an "I am bored of other games" game for me. It just rubs me the wrong way. Not in an I simply HATE this game way but in a subtle harder to define way. It just feels, repetitive maybe. The Hearts and over-recycled DE drive me mad. They have very, very few formulas for DEs. Exploration is good for one time through and after that, not so much.
Hoping a month or two (though a month passed so I guess thats forfilled) though with so many releases out, its really drowned the game out for me. It just isn't all that fun to me, and once the Rift expansion comes out, I'll probably not pick up GW2 at all. Its one of those games for me not worth paying monthly for, which luckily its not monthly fee so that helps a lot at least.
So much new stuff releasing. So hard to stick to one game. Most of my guildies are already planing to go to Rift's new expansion and MOP. I will most probably go back to EQ2 when the new expansion releases and play GW 1. I have started to appreciate GW1 even more after playing GW2. I will never take so many skills and two profession system for granted ever again.
Comments
Several years. Like most others here.
It's just a natural progression in life. We move onto other things. Video games included. Though there are exceptions of course.
I selected "several years", and am quite confident that this is accurate.
Seeing as there seem to be some skeptics regarding that choice, I will attempt to explain why.
I have been playing video games since the early 80's and MMOs since before the term MMO existed. I'm as old as MUDs, basically.
In all that time there have been only a handful of engaging online games which I played for "years", but I always knew within a short time of starting the ones that I did play for years that I would do so. And never once did a game strike me as one that I will play for such a duration incorrectly.
In terms of MMOs, there are only 2 which I played long term, Everquest and WoW. (Before that, my long-term MMO-like game was the original NeverWinter Nights game. Not the Bioware one, which came out many years later, but the one that ran through AoL).
Looking at what I most enjoyed in those games is why I am confident that GW2 will go into the same category. I enjoyed playing a character and experiencing the world, plain and simple. If the world is engaging, as it was in both of those games (for me), I will play for a very, very long time provided the game mechanics themselves don't turn me off. Provided the game mechanics make multiple classes interesting to me, I will literally play every single class that I find interesting and enjoyable through the entire available content of the game. It is how I like to play MMOs.
Two key points are basically all I need to keep me going:
1. A world I enjoy exploring and adventuring in and
2. Game mechanics that I enjoy doing it with.
I admit to being guilty of hopping from one MMO to another like mad over the last couple of years, but it is not because there are so many more to choose from, and it's not because my attention span is shorter, and it's not because I ran out of "content". In most cases it is because the game worlds were not very interesting to me or because the mechanics weren't enjoyable to me, particularly combat...I have not liked the "feel" of the combat in most MMOs. I should also point out that some of the ones I tossed on the junk pile felt too much like playing WoW (to me). Although I enjoyed the hell out of WoW for years, once I got sick of it, I got sick of it and a game that feels like I"m just playing reskinned WoW isn't going to "stick" for me.
GW2 has the two key points that I need in an MMO as well as having 8 classes, all of which I enjoyed playing. That means that I will want to go through the available content with all 8 classes. The dynamic event system adds something no other MMO has had to make this even more enjoyable for me. When I go through the same areas for the 2nd time (and 3rd, and 4th, etc.), I will actually experience some things differently than when I went through them with a previous character. No other MMO I have ever played long term does this to the extent that GW2 does.
I'm a person that plays MMOs for the journey, not the destination and I have no doubt that it will take me several years to get through what I expect I will want to do in this game. I also enjoy helping other people immensely and spend a lot of time side trekked from my own goals to do so, which further extends the game for me.
The lack of the gear grinding treadmill (which some see as a negative mark in terms of long-term play) is actually another positive for me. As I said, I played WoW for years. And yes I did get on that gear treadmill. But not for the power progression, I just wanted to experience each of the areas at least once. Of course, you couldn't just do that in WoW. You had to get into a progression guild, and you had to spend countless months grinding one tier of content before you had any hope of going through to see the next tier. Ultimately, I QUIT wow because of this treadmill. Sometimes I just wanted to level an alt through some lowbie areas for a few weeks, but I couldn't. I had to log in on my main on raid nights or give up raiding (and hence the chance of ever seeing the next area of content). It was frustrating, it was annoying, and it drove me to hating the game. I will add, however, that I didn't quit entirely until I leveled one of each character class to the cap (at that time, which was pre-WoTLK).
So there you have my story, and why there is no question that I will be playing GW2 for years. Unless they make the horrible mistake of listening to those of you who are complaining about the very things that make GW2 the first game in many years that I actually want to play long term.
Edited for a few spelling errors & sure that I missed others.
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The question is irrelevant IMHO, simply because after you buy the box you can log whenever you want, for the end of times... theres nothing stopping you from doing so...
How do you define a player that plays for 2 months, and then 3 more months the next year, and again 1 more month on the years after? Did he play 6 months, or 3 years?
I find it ironic that Darkfall: Unholy wars fanboy is poking fun at people who appear to be Guild Wars 2 fanboys.
Hello pot, meet kettle.
Oh, and I believe you are the first person to call Guild Wars 2 a "WoW clone". Or atleast the first person I have seen. It would appear you might be rating a game you have not played.
As long as it stays fun for me.
I will probably have one of every class, not neccesarily all at 80.
Also, I don't play it every day for 8 hours straight, so I guess I won't get burned out on it soon.
It will certainly have a place on my hard drive for quite some time.
???????????
Why torture yourself?
Well since I have no sub fee I will probably play off and on forever.
Depends on expansions / updates. If they keep the game fresh, I'll keep playing / buying stuff.
On and off for a few months.
Unless people I know get into the game as well or I find a bunch to join and play with, I don't see myself logging in for long to do much other than tool about on a character solo for a while.
If I were more outgoing socially and more apt to seek other people to play as a group with I'd probably be playing this or other games more adamantly. No fault of the game that I don't play it more.
"The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners." - Thomas B. Macaulay
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel J. Boorstin
I play most MMOs for a month. Then the tedium gets to me. There have been some exceptions, but mostly a month.
This one is going to one of the rare long-termplay MMOs.
I think I'll end up having played something like between a month and six weeks. So it's probably gonna be just shy of Rift and SWTOR. Those two I put in two months each at their respective launches.
I've done most of the exploration I like. Then I went for an alt, but I don't think I have the drive to do it again. Didn't enjoy dungeons, didn't enjoy PVP and didn't enjoy dynamic events and hearts... Just loved the exploration which kept me playing.
Been a good run, though, no remorse.
I stopped almost 2 weeks ago now. This is the first mmo that I've played that I have not reached and do mot have the desire to reach level cap.
The devil is in the details. It's the little things that's hurting the game. Things like queuing up for Spvp, and seeing a server list. How about "Battle 1" or something? Idk, but I still remember that shocking me, mildly at the time though. It was an emersion break. Little things like this all over the game.
I have seen a ton less of people logging on. This game is just too candy land softcore and the PvP gets old fast.
Not to mention the ridiculous lag and PvP player culling.
So much new stuff releasing. So hard to stick to one game. Most of my guildies are already planing to go to Rift's new expansion and MOP. I will most probably go back to EQ2 when the new expansion releases and play GW 1. I have started to appreciate GW1 even more after playing GW2. I will never take so many skills and two profession system for granted ever again.
GW PVP over GW2 any day.
I'm sorry but a few weeks is the most! Only a few weeks....
The gameplay just don't hold me...