My Two Cents for the Starting Player

AlBQuirky

Background
I am an "old school" player. I don't consider myself a gamer, by any means. I enjoy fun games. I don't buy everything that comes out, like people I consider "true gamers" do. I don't enjoy PvP or Raiding, instead finding my fun in PvE. I am not combat oriented, looking for realism in my combat experience. I enjoy the tab target key punch skill way of fighting. At the time of this writing, I have 3 characters levels 18, 16, and 13.

I made an effort to NOT read/view all I can about the game beforehand, wanting to experience it for myself when I played. I probably handicapped myself, but I am learning the game as I play it and having fun

Overall
To get this out of the way. I am enjoying GW2. I am finding myself having an "oooh" moment from time to time as I discover different things about the game. I don't think GW2 is anywhere near "the perfect game" for me, but it is fun and enjoyable. I would recommend buying it. I am sure you can find something in game to justify it's cost. There is a lot there.

I like the completionist aspect of completing all the heart quests, finding all the Points of Interest (PoI), getting all the skill point challenges, and observing all the "vistas" they offer in an area. You get a nice reward for doing this, besides seeing all the maps have to offer.

General
In general, I have to say GW2 is fun and interesting. The overall design is good. The "new and shiny" things may dull after a bit, though. Most usually do. Anyone recall the "spacebar" jokes around SW:TOR?

Combat
I am not a melee type of combatant. I cannot keep up with camera position and targets, so I play ranged characters. My respect goes out to those who can do melee I find the combat quite "busy." During the common zerg-fests that are the Dynamic Events thus far it is: Tab. Fire an ability. Mob dead. Repeat. Maybe throw an AoE if you have one. In your personal story lines or just out hunting (ie: by yourself), it is more of an engaging experience for me. Then I use my abilities in a more organized and strategic fashion. I am finally getting a feel for the dodge ability

I feel the need to mention that I dislike using my mouse during combat. I use "WASD" for movement and my numpad for skills/abilities. It's weird, I know, but that is what I am comfortable with and why I suck at PvP

I have noticed that sometimes my character says something in combat, such as "Hey! Now there's a good combination!" My problem is not knowing exactly what I just did. Sometimes, while running for my life waiting for my heal to pop back up, I am hitting whatever is off cool down. I know. It sounds like a personal problem

Personal Storyline
I am not expecting a Grapes of Wrath experience here. Neither should you. If you want that kind of experience, read a book authored by a real writer. That being said, I am enjoying the storylines, thus far. I find them engaging and in some cases have me laughing at my character's exploits (My Norn had a drunken night which he needs to piece back together).

Quests/Events
Let me get this off my chest first. Where in the heck is the corn you are supposed to water on Dalia's(?) farm for her heart quest? I know it is only 1 of the things you can do to help her out, but I have looked everywhere around her farm! I can feed her cows, put out fires on her bales of hay, and fight off worms and bandits just fine Where is the corn?!?

Ok, with that out of the way... I find the events/quests are fun and engaging. They span the usual fare from "Help me gather grapes." to "Help me defend my fields from bandit attacks." Some even have a touch of humor to them like "Bring me my bunny feed while avoiding hungry bunnies. Don't kill my bunnies!" In a sense, GW2 could have kept the exclamations above the NPC heads, but instead used hearts. They serve the same purpose in guiding you. The big difference is that you don't actually have to talk to the NPCs. If the heart quest is "active" when you get there, just jump in. The info you need is on your screen, on the right hand side where quest trackers usually reside.

Dynamic Events are a bit different in that You usually happen upon them while traveling around Tyria. These seem more combat oriented, though I could be wrong on that account. While they are fun and engaging now, I find myself wondering what they may be like in the future, once all the excitement slows down. I'll be creating another character in a month or two to see what it is like in the newbie zones. I am curious to see what differences there will be, if any. I have yet to "fail" a dynamic event. I know some have been in on them. There are just so many players all over the place that zerg-fests happen quite a lot so far. Again, I point out I do not have a character above level 20 yet. I hear they get "more strategic" later on.

With Heart Quests and Dynamic Events, you get rewarded for participation. These rewards are a gold medal, a silver medal, and a bronze medal. I am unsure about what exactly constitutes these rewards. I have jumped in on the final fight of an event and been rewarded gold. Most of the time, I just get the bronze reward in those cases. I have done more in an event and received a silver or gold. I take time to help revive fallen allies instead of spamming DPS. I don't know what is taken into account for the rewards.

Exploring
Exploring is amazing. The world seems huge to me. I have just gotten past the starter zones. These zones take awhile to traverse. There is a lot to see and discover while playing. Just sitting near some NPCs can be fun, listening to their conversations.

Crafting
I have not done much with crafting yet. Just the basics in Huntsman, Leatherworking, Tailoring, and Articifying (new word?). I was pleased to see that both leatherworking and tailoring gives you bigger bags recipes right from the start. Yes, I made 4 bags worth of each for my characters Gathering goes into a communal pool which is accessible by all of your characters. No more need to "send" your stuff to your differing characters. I have not found any recipes, but have come across some which you can buy from some karma vendors throughout Tyria, or some of the heart quest NPCs once you have done their quests.

I like that when you make a stack of something, the progress speeds up so you don't sit and wait for a long time to finish. I did do some easy "experimental crafts", just to try it our. I took a basic item and added a modifier to it for the easy win. Such as: I put the ingredients to make a cloth cloak and added an item that added vitality to it. I did notice that many items became "red", or unusable as I added items in. Like I could not place a staff head in my tailoring cloak experiments This could get very interesting the more I play with it.

The best thing about crafting? *I* am the one crafting, not some "pet" doing it for me. It is something you make time to do, not something in the background while you do other things. I have not visited the sites to show how to "maximize" your crafting skills as I want to play with it on my own I don't know how the end game crafting stacks up to in game drops, so won't comment on that.

Vistas
A developer, I think, was enamored with Assassin's Creed and the vistas you found in that game It does add some jumping puzzles to the game, which I normally suck at, but have found success here. I have taken falling damage, but have not died yet

Gripes
Camera.
I am constantly fighting against my camera. My toon will turn, but my camera will not. This causes all kinds of difficulties for me in combat and even gathering resources for crafting.

1st Person View.
There is none. Your character will be in all your screenshots and/or movies. When your view is blocked by, say, tree leaves during jumping puzzles, you cannot get "in front" of said leaves to see what is going on. I have heard rumors that ArenaNet is working on this. I don't know.

Magic or Gunpowder.
For me, having both magic and science ruins the atmosphere. I have never enjoyed mixing the two. It breaks the feeling of high fantasy for me.

No Tutorial.
The beginning scene is to set the tone for your character, not learn what is what. It really does need a tutorial for players.

Instances.
You come across in your wanderings, these glowing barriers, quite like GW1. You have no idea what they are or where they go to. Sometimes, you end up in a place where everyone is 20-40 levels above you. Other times, you end up in the next map area. On my Human, I followed my "personal story marker" to the next map area. Being level 16 at the time, I was ready for the next scene of it. I ended up in a place where people were well into the their 20's. I was only level 16. I was worried. As I followed my marker (trying to avoid the mobs), the area became more to my level. Was this intentional of GW2? Or was there a better way to come into the next map area? I don't know.

Cash Shop.
I am trying to get my mindset around the cash shop idea, but find myself having trouble here.
1) Chests that need keys to open them as rewards in game and not being able to open them without buying keys in the cash shop rubs me the wrong way. So far, I have received 8 chests and 3 keys from adventuring. That's 5 unopened chests for my "rewards" going to waste without paying for said in game rewards.
2) Character Slots. In the simplest terms, $10 = 800 gems = 1 character slot. I realize that "buying in bulk" gives a better price, but just keeping it simple here. On one hand, that is kind of steep for me. On the other hand, it really isn't for the amount of time I'll get playing another character. Thus is my struggle. I am used to many characters on ALL servers. Here, I get 5 on one server. I can purchase 3 more to make the total 8. That's all I'll get.
3) Bank Slots. You get 30 slots PER ACCOUNT. You read that right. NOT per character, per account. If you use all 5 character slots, that is 6 bank slots per character to hold your dyes, your crafted basic pieces (needed to craft actual useable items), locked chests you cannot open without paying to do so, other rewards you may be saving to use at a later time (like XP boosters that are wasted when you are gaining 2-5 levels early on), and other "collectible" items you may want to hold onto. On the positive side, it makes transfers between characters a snap. All those resource materials you gather go into a common pool, useable by all your characters. You can purchase more space, of course. 30 total slots just seems awfully low, in my opinion. I have 5 of the above mentioned chests sitting in my bank, luckily stack-able.

Praises
*There is no subscription. You can come and go as you like. Since nearly ALL games today have cash shops, all the better with no subscription.
*There is a LOT of content, if you want it.
*It caters to many different playstyles. You can reach max level by PvP (I believe, but do not know firsthand), crafting (as was proven by the first level 80), or by PvE content.
*The artwork fits for me. It has beautiful landscapes and dark, gloomy ones as well. The racial areas seem to capture the feeling for each race.
*It has day/night cycles! YEA! The world turns and there is a sense of time
*I like that you can see "fallen allies" on your map. I enjoy helping other people out, so I will go help if I can. Sometimes, they are NPCs or the player is AFK. I still fix 'em up, though I do wish you could send them a /tell and let them know you're coming.

Conclusion
I never bought into the hype. I read praises, questions, and bashes all with a grain of salt. I almost ran out of salt Therefor, I am not disappointed with GW2. I am having fun and it is enjoyable. It is not the perfect game for me, bane to all others. I think it is money well spent for months of enjoyment. Just don't expect the real world to take on whole new look just because you played GW2. Approach the game as a game and you cannot miss.