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Worth buying GW2?
ImperialSun
Member Posts: 212
Hi all
Just wanted to see what the general feeling is towards GW2 these days?
I have been following the game tentaively for some time and am still undecided about taking the plunge. I did have lots of friends who left left their current MMOs to play GW2 however they have all since gone back to their old games and/or moved to new games since GW2 is allegedly dying already.
I am genuinely thinking of buying a copy of the game, the graphics look great and some of the game mechanic seem very interesting to me. The casual nature of the game would suit my play style and available game time.
Despite the very underwhelming financial performance confirmed in the recent NCSoft reports, depsite the stories of servers being ghost towns already and even despite a growing number of people claiming GW2 tanked quicker than SWTOR I am still interested in what this game has to offer...
So come on guys, restore my faith and give me a reason to go buy GW2 
Driz
Comments
I still play it... But if you are unsure they will release 3 buddy keys to each player next week so you can try it out for yourself.
ha ha
Thanks for sharing but I was hoping for a bit more substance
Main things that are putting me off currently are:
Dead servers
Too much grind and fetch this and carry that and water these plants and stuff
Im told that all abilities are slottesd by around level 10 and the game does not change from that point on
Whats the end game like?
Driz
Honestly, to much trolling on this forums.
In my oppinion the game is worth its price. Next week between 15 and 18 you will get a chance to play free trial.
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/11/07/guild-wars-2-is-getting-a-refer-a-friend-free-trial-weekend/
Give it a try, this is one time chance, for now, they may add permanent trial.
Still I think you need direct invitation from a friend. I tend to post mine here or on Guru forums.
Dead servers wont be a problem in this game, once they implement server guesting.
Grind is still optional, but its part of the game, same as in GW1. Fetch this and that o.O, this is BS. There are "Heart Quests" optional again, that present similat options, but you either ignore them or they can be dont in few different ways. You can "fetch" things, or kill enemies or comlete it in different ways.
At lvl 10 you can have all weapon skils, yeah, but not all utility or elite skills. In the end you have as many skills as in your usual MMO or even more + traits(similar to skill tree).
"End game" is not what you expect. Its what you decide to d from what the game present to you. Or do it all. Its same as in other games, but without Raids.
In short, GW2 is the ultimate casual mmo with some interesting PvE content that is very different than other mmo, it feels much more alive. If you like cosmetic progression (finding better looking gear insted of just stronger gear at end-game) you will play this game a lot. If you don't, you can still make new characters, choose different race, make different choices and story and experience will be quite different because story is non-linear.
For you PvP needs GW2 offers a lot of fun, some play it just for PvP and you even don't need to level up your character, you get max gear in PvP and you can just hop into action. Arenanet is trying to improve PvP to the level of an e-sport so that's good.
If you want epic huge scale PvP battles with forts, towers, siege weaponry, then WvW is your place. And again you are bumped into max level, however you still keep your newbie gear. Player kills drop gear, so you can completely level up only in World vs World vs World, week-long battle in the 4 big maps to conquer.
People say GW2 doesn't have any longetivity. It all depends on you! Do you prefer never ending gear threadmill or getting nicer looking armor for your invested time?
Guild Wars 2 Youtube Croatian Maniacs
My Guild Wars titles
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Err...thanks, I think
Driz
Could you tells us what you enjoy in mmorpgs? What do you consider most important? Is longevity important to you, or, since it's B2P, don't you care about it? What type of pvp do you like? Character progression? Questing, dunegon running, exploring, story, combat, etc? RP?
If all you care about is the game still being populated, i don't think that's a problem. As as others have said, there's a trial coming up.
All that said, personally for me this is the best 60$ spent on a video game ever. The amount of content this game has is simply stupefying. As bangs for buck go, this is the real deal. Others might not like the game's style or systems, which completely valid and understandable, so I recommend you take this new promo offer first and check whether the combat and the "feel" of the game appeal to you.
I had high hopes in GW2 and unfortunately, they were not statisfied. This game failed to be a "savior" for me, I stopped playing about a month and a half after it came out. However, I totally got my worth of money, in my opinion, so even if the game didnt statisfy all my high hopes, I cannot say I "Wasted" money - not at all, I got my money's worth.
Why GW2 didnt do it for me?
1) In outdoor PVE, you're very limited at what you can do and what you should do, basically, it very quickly becomes boring and stale
3) WvWvW had so many problems it became unplayable for me.
WvWvW is AMAZING! Its so cool, its self-balancing, and awesome. It gives you this full-scale war experience, you get to support your troops with long range trebuchets, you get to mow people down with ballistae, you get to backstab people or sneak into enemy lines, all sort of stuff. However, it is NOT fun to play:
a) Game engine can only display fucking so many people on screen. In any reasonably sized battle (its 166 ppl per side, 166v166v166) you will fight INVISIBLE ENEMIES throwing PARTIALLY VISIBLE attacks at you.
b) Night capping. Now I know, "get your server organised, get people from other timezones"... NO! This is stupid bullshit. Night capping either has to go, or division of severs to NA and EU has to go. Otherwise, its not fun. You capture 2/3 of the map, fighting against PLAYERS and then during night they capture it back, fighting against NPC's. Who arent even hard NPC's - you can solo most of them. Nonsense. There is no point to upgrade your castles (costs gold and karma and shit - real game currency!) because enemy will take it while you sleep.
c) Queues. On a good server, you just cant play. I live in Russia, I have a huge advantage of being GMT+4 means I come at home about 4 hours before an englishman comes home. Even I have problems with queues. I have to wait up to 30 minutes to join WvW. I can only imagine how it is to europeans and english/french/spanish people. You schedule an event to a time when everyone can join after coming home from work, and only 1/4 of your guild can come, 3/4 sits in queues. Nice!
d) Afkers and bots. ANET is really slow on dealing with botting, surprisingly. You can have about 1/3 of the slots of your server be taken by bots if it's your home realm (there are four WvW realms - 1 for each sever and 1 central, in your server realm there's a nice spot for bots to farm so they come and stay there forever). You can afk by just running into a wall or setting something to autocast. Makes queeues even worse
e) QUEUE is fucking bugged till this day. Its how many months since release? They still cant fix it. Zoning (changing location) can reset your queue! So basically you cannot do anyting while waiting for your WvW queue because you fear to lose it. You think staying in one location is fine? NOPE! Loot locked for farming same mob type! Cant do shit now.
f) Transfers. Good servers get shitload of people transfer to them. These people dont care to join guilds, to regularily PVP, to try hard and fight for their team. THey're there to level their alts in WvW and have the buffs in PVE and to tell everybody how their server is better than your server. Thus, good servers are corrupted from inside by such people. Because TRANSFERS ARE FUCKING FREE STILL BY THIS MOMENT! Its ridiculous and just nonsense. Worse than that, you can transfer to enemy server and spy on them, block their siege weapons, waste their supplies and ANET officials say THIS IS A VALID TACTIC!!!!! Omg...
4) I'm not a fan of structured PVP
If you are, buy this game. I heard its good, you get tournaments and stuff, they are ramping up the esports momentum, getting in spectating, good prizes, there are websites growing etc. You also get a whole lot of cosmetic loot game in it, where you combine, transmute and construct items, or just take your chances to get something, yeah, its fun both to play competitively (everybody is on even grounds, everybody gets max level char of any class and any gear for no cost) and gather all this loot (its not as bland as just "get level X in competitive PVP - get ability to wear level X's gear).
PS: All that said, this game is fun until all those problems get to you. I only got to this big list after playing for about three weeks. Really, modern games for this sum they ask for GW2 often have like 10 or 20 hours of gameplay, this game gave me two weeks NON STOP gameplay (from morning to evening) and one week of normal (all evening and weekend) gameplay until I started getting bored and annoyed by the problems. So yeah, can never say it was a "Waste" of money.
The game isn't worth playing more than a month or so. It levels crazy-fast, the content becomes repetitive in record time, and endgame is meaningless.
It's a soulless game, with very little longevity or lasting appeal.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/60797-refunds-available-thru-nc-soft/
Seems you have nothing to lose.
To answer the question asked by the OP, for me, the answer is yes.
I already have 4 characters at 80, all of which are full exotic, I have all crafting professions to 400, I am working on my 5th level 80, which is currently 41, and still finding the game fun.
I tend to spend the majority of my time in WvW these days, but I do at least one dungeon a day (all three paths), switch to an alt and I level for an hour or two, then jump on one of my level 80's and spend the rest of my playtime in WvW.
A creative person is motivated by the desire to achieve, not the desire to beat others.
With all the info (good and bad) on this and other sites about GW2, and with all the videos on youtube, if you can't decide if this game is worth a one time fee of $60, then don't bother.
In fact, if you are so worried about spending that $60 for something you may not like (is there not risk involved in every purchase?), you should do yourself a favor and put that money into your savings account.
I personally think the game is the best I've ever played. Some people think it sucks. Much like any other game out there, MMO or not.
You want me to pay to play a game I already paid for???
Be afraid.....The dragons are HERE!
To address what you ask there...
Dead Servers: As far as I know, yes, servers are relatively dead in the low level areas which isn't to much of a surprise though a lot more of the attention is likely on WvW or high level areas. Really though its dependant on how you look at it. If your looking for people to play with leveling up your not going to see remotely close to as much at launch.
Too much grind: Yes... the new feel of quests and all is nice at first but it wears out and brings a feeling of grind quickly depending on how long your able to over-look it. Dynamic (which aren't all that dynamic) quests do change this up, and if your like me your quickly going to be hoping for dynamic quests to break the tedium of heart quests, which for myself were one of the worst quests in an MMO to do making me feel like I accomplished less in often taking a lot more time to do.
Abilities: Try level 2, or 7 if you want to consider weapon swapping. By far I feel one of the biggest 'enthusiasm killers' in the game. You feel like you don't progress, and the talent system feels so lack luster with its effect it doesn't help at all as many of the effects are barely noticable and typically don't change up much in terms of gameplay in how you play.
End Game: If your meaning what you can do at end game different from level 1? Basically nothing outside a few zones that don't offer all that much except more 'dynamic' events. WvW becomes more viable (higher the level and gear the better you do) but otherwise it has no real end game. The 'end game' essencially becomes you WvW or you farm. No other activities to do otherwise added at the 'end' unless you want to be the fan boy and list off stuff every mmo in existance has you able to do.
Given how you pointed those out those points... I feel your probably in the same boat as me and I think you will be disapointed with GW2. None the less, I was able to get a refund so if you want to try it out, feel free. If you play for a while and don't like it, just ask back for a refund and there won't be any harm for you. Its the only way to 'try before you buy' with GW2 sadly.
I don't play GW2 anymore, but I think it was worth the box price. If you do pick it up, don't expect more than a month or two of entertainment out of it. That way, if you end up with a longer run, it will be a pleasant surprise. If you take your leave after a month or two, it won't be so disappointing.
Edit: If you're going to pick it up, I would recommend doing so during the upcoming refer a friend trial weekend. That should add a lot of life to the early zones and make for a more fun experience.
Sorry, but the game has changed somewhat since you left, especially with regard to population spread (I suppose lower level areas might have gone a bit bare initially with the leveling wave moving ever upward). Nowadays, if there is a population gap, it is in the mid-level areas with very healthy population at the top and the bottom. Nevertheless, I'm currently completing maps in the 40-60 range and never had any serious problems with finidng a group to take out a champ or two.
As for the other points... sorry you felt that way, different strokes for different folkes..
However, there is grind in the game only if you look for it. The only point I ever felt like grinding is when I went all out to earn as much gold as soon as possible to purchase gems for the halloween goodies... an even then I earned as much money by playing ah than by gathering... For me the current endgame is exploring and completing the world and that is as far away from the concept of "grind" as possible. If, on the other hand, you consider powering up your character as speedily and efficiently as possible as the endgame, then I can see how the game can feel grindy and ultimately without much to offer.
I haven't seen dead servers, maybe at specific times but people DO need to sleep.
Not as grindy as Rift or other MMO's.
There are only 10 slots for skills - yes. but you havle can switch weapons which give you weapon specific skills (and those need to be unlocked). It makes for more interesting play as you need to pick your skills and there is no UBER build - all builds can be defeated (all professions have their strong and weak points).
If you want dungeons like Rift, where you get UBER armor - this game is not for you. If you like expoaration, you might like this game.
(Warning, opinion incoming again... =P)
Best MMORPG released since WoW 8 years ago. Definitely worth the purchase, even more since there's no monthly fee to keep you enslaved to the game.
Respect, walk
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
- PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
Not quite true - I have 3 different race, lower level characters and the lower level areas, on my server (EU Gandara) are pretty full.
there will be free trial comming soon so its good way to tryout game if you are not sure
more info on
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/news/Refer-a-Friend-Free-Trial-is-Coming
If you're unsure the upcoming refer-a-friend program is coming up in just a matter of days.
As for me though, I love it still. Worth every penny to me. Of course, each person has different opinions. Your millage may vary. I think it's the best mmo for a working adult though. Very time friendly.
personally I find it very boring. it has less of a "log in and play because you want to" hook than even TSW did (and that game was dead in the water from launch to me, couldn't get into it).
I leveled 2 characters to 50s and gave up. plus, none of the classes appeal to me in the least.
just my opinion.
Like everyone's saying, take someone up on the 3 day trial next weekend.
Enslaved? I'd understand if you felt that way about a wireless phone service. But a game? I played many sub based games. Some good, some not so good. But never once, would I have used that term.