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Welcome Back Commander – Why You Really Should Return to Tyria - MMORPG.com

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
edited March 2019 in News & Features Discussion

imageWelcome Back Commander – Why You Really Should Return to Tyria - MMORPG.com

“Welcome Back, Commander”. That was the opening salvo to our Path of Fire review here on MMORPG.com. The second expansion in a long lineage of updates, Path of Fire’s quest to take on a god dropped on us five years after Guild War 2 launched and it’s been almost 18 months since we first spotted the Crystal Desert. But what about those who missed the boat to Amnoon? Recently, ArenaNet announced a campaign to return many of its lost heroes to the world but should you consider jumping back in after a short, or long, break?

Read the full story here



¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 


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Comments

  • alkarionlogalkarionlog Member EpicPosts: 3,584
    you know most of you said make this more the reason to not even bother to return.

    plus sorry unless tehy do return to let you make the builds you want like it was before the locked down skills cookie butter thing
    velimiriusLokeroUngood
    FOR HONOR, FOR FREEDOM.... and for some money.
  • AeanderAeander Member LegendaryPosts: 7,991
    Give me Cantha and we'll talk. Until then, I'm on extended break (weekly raids aside).
    poporitoloCitizenX007
  • Siris23Siris23 Member UncommonPosts: 388
    edited March 2019
    I made a post here several months back that inventory management was one of the big reasons I stop playing and was basically told that I was "doing it wrong"

    I guess I wasn't doing it so wrong after all.
    velimiriusRueTheWhirl
  • 3dom3dom Member RarePosts: 889
    I just cannot stand those strange round-faced female characters with red noses...

    Thank you for your time!

  • ValentinaValentina Member RarePosts: 2,092
    edited March 2019
    I always loved GW2, the story is one of the best you'll find in an MMO but they take forever to release new content
    Octagon7711
  • XiaokiXiaoki Member EpicPosts: 4,001
    Been noticing a lot of GW2 articles since the big lay off.

    Is MMORPG.com trying to drum up business for GW2?

    Other companies have had lay offs too, wheres the "Why you really should return to Azeroth" articles?
    Rain_Deathraven
  • Heatsink00Heatsink00 Member UncommonPosts: 60
    I got tired of the goofy character graphics and oddball mechanics of character skills. Not to mention my characters never felt as if they progressed to become powerful since everything scaled with them.
  • HovdeHovde Member UncommonPosts: 11
    GW 2 is a game I have played since launch. I will play for a couple of months and then go play something else but I always come back to GW 2. I love the stories and I enjoy reading the dialog and watching the cut scenes. I might be in the minority but I read all the text of my quests and story missions. It makes me feel like I have more of a stake in what is going on. I have each character at 80 but I only play my mesmer beasue it is my favorite. I might not play each story mission when it releases but I do get around to it which is another thing I like about GW 2 you don't have to be the first to do something. I get to it when I get to it.
    alkarionlogexile01Buschkatze

    The journey is more important then the outcome

  • alkarionlogalkarionlog Member EpicPosts: 3,584

    Xiaoki said:

    Been noticing a lot of GW2 articles since the big lay off.



    Is MMORPG.com trying to drum up business for GW2?



    Other companies have had lay offs too, wheres the "Why you really should return to Azeroth" articles?



    that was last month
    FOR HONOR, FOR FREEDOM.... and for some money.
  • HatefullHatefull Member EpicPosts: 2,503
    Xiaoki said:
    Been noticing a lot of GW2 articles since the big lay off.

    Is MMORPG.com trying to drum up business for GW2?

    Other companies have had lay offs too, wheres the "Why you really should return to Azeroth" articles?
    There are also articles on desks, chairs, many other games, personal interest stories, opinions, computer upgrades, etc. 

    Ford just had a round of layoffs, so did a few other companies, should they cover that? I mean it has as much relevance as what you are saying.

    If you want a new idea, go read an old book.

    In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.

  • ArglebargleArglebargle Member EpicPosts: 3,445
    Since I'm not going to give NCSoft any more money ever, this article tells me to avoid coming back to GW2 to play with my original characters. Oh well, I'll check in every so often to get some new screenshots of my Charr....

    If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.

  • Asch126Asch126 Member RarePosts: 543
    Now give people a reason to STAY.
    UngoodBuschkatze
  • LokeroLokero Member RarePosts: 1,514
    you know most of you said make this more the reason to not even bother to return.
    That's kind of how I read this article, too.  It seemed like he was just listing all the things wrong with the game, rather than offering any incentive to return.

    The reason I used to enjoy playing GW2 off-and-on was that I enjoyed the hybridized action combat, well enough, on certain classes...
    PoF all but ruined combat in this game, IMHO.  The game was always spammy, but after PoF they just took it to a whole new level -- that level is pure tedium.  I can't stand the fights since PoF appeared.

    The story?  It's alright.  There's a few characters that are really awesome, such as Canach, but some of the characters you seriously just want to see die... and I don't mean in the good "that dastardly villain!" kind of way.
    I guess, if we compare it solely to storylines in other MMOs, then it's pretty good... considering most don't have much of a storyline.  But, it's not exactly the amazing work of legendary writers or anything.  It's certainly not going to win any awards.

    The classes have become such a mess, it's almost laughable.
    Some of the specs are just completely unwieldy and awkward.  Trying to cram new square-shaped mechanics into the same round holes can make for some really clunky controls.
    Others are so overpowered it's ridiculous, at times.  This game has always had an issue with broken classes, though.
    That being said, some of the elite specs can be a lot of fun and add a totally new playstyle to their classes.  So, they can offer a new experience.

    New zones:  This is both the best and worst aspect of GW2.
    --Good:  Level design in GW2 is fantastic.  The best thing this game has ever had going for it is beautiful environments.  They also did a great job designing zones in such a way that they really uplift their travel mechanics(gliding, mounts and such).

    --Bad:  Every new zone is just another repetitive carbon copy experience.  New zone, new currency.  New currency, same old grind.  This game has always been just one giant repetitive grindfest, and every time they add a new zone they throw it in your face all over again.

    The new zones are fun to run through and explore for a couple days, but they are almost always really small zones that feel pretty disconnected from the overall world.  In fact, they deliberately disconnect them from the greater world to force people to buy episodes to unlock them.

    Living world...  This reminds me of the TV show Monk... "It's a gift... and a curse".
    My honest feeling is that the whole LW storyline has largely hamstrung this game. 

    It's good that it offers them a goalpost and a semi-continuous overarching story.  Unfortunately, they seem to have placed all their eggs in this one basket, for years, and it's not the most well-made basket.
    They have tied every aspect of the game to the LW stuff in some way or another, which was a rather narrow-vision, imo.  They are piling bricks and lumber on top of the eggs in this sketchy little basket and with every new content update, you see more yolk spilling out.
    alkarionlogThuplitirwenBuschkatze
  • truewarlordtruewarlord Member UncommonPosts: 78
    edited March 2019
    Ow boy, you had the guts to put THE MANIFESTO in the article, the biggest fiasco in MMO history ever. They made exactly what they said they won't, it's hilarious.
    GW2 is not terrible, don't get me wrong, but the manifesto... Ow boy, that is the most absurd thing ever.
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,449
    Maybe I should give GW2 another go.  It's been several years since I played it.  My big complaints at the time were:

    1)  The whole Living World mechanic was a catastrophic disaster.  As content, it was bad.  As story, it was incoherent.  It seemed to be instead of creating real content, as in the year or so that I played, the game had about as much content at the end as it did at the start.  And you couldn't even just ignore it, as it would sometimes drop super powerful mobs on top of whatever other content you were trying to do that day.

    2)  The play balance was rather lacking.  Dynamic events seemed to have some implicit number of expected players, and then would scale up in difficulty if you had more than that.  The problem is that the scaling was far too shallow.  If you had enough players, the event was trivial.  If you had far too few players, it was impossible or nearly so.  It would chain events and make it so that later events in a chain commonly expected more players than earlier ones, but that sometimes meant that you got to the end of a chain and the final event expected 10 players, and you only had two there, so you couldn't finish the event chain.

    3)  Crafting was awful.  It's not just that it was the gather materials and click to craft something junk.  It's also that for most crafting professions, you couldn't actually craft an item until you had leveled way past wanting to use it.

    4)  The game world's graphics didn't match its physics very well.  There were lots of places that you could stand in mid-air, or walk into a wall, or whatever.  In a lot of games, that wouldn't be a big deal.  But Guild Wars 2 wants you to do jumping puzzles, and in a platform game, graphics that don't match the physics are a showstopper.

    5)  The level scaling was such that you had to either skip most of the content or do it far below your level.  It would automatically scale you down to some degree, but a level 80 character scaled to 40 was still a lot stronger than a true level 80.

    From looking through the wiki, it looks like (1) is fixed.  Newer Living World content has its own zones and is accessible later, rather than being removed at the end of a two-week event.  Season 1 seems to have been thrown in the garbage, which is where it belonged all along.

    It also looks like all newer content is level 80, which is a fix for (5) at least in the newer content.  That also means not implicitly deprecating older content the way that expansions so commonly do.  That's one thing that GW1 did right and most long-lived MMORPGs seem to do horribly wrong.

    That said, it's not all bad news.  Complaint (3) means that they added a fairly useless mechanic that probably shouldn't have existed, while (4) really only wrecks a minor side mechanic.

    And the game did have a lot going for it.  Combat was pretty good, and it was very alt-friendly.

    The issue with a "buy to play" game is that there can be a ton of stuff to buy in order to catch up.  From the wiki, it looks like buying both expansions and all living world content to catch up would be $90.
  • maskedweaselmaskedweasel Member LegendaryPosts: 12,193
    Quizzical said:
    Maybe I should give GW2 another go.  It's been several years since I played it.  My big complaints at the time were:

    1)  The whole Living World mechanic was a catastrophic disaster.  As content, it was bad.  As story, it was incoherent.  It seemed to be instead of creating real content, as in the year or so that I played, the game had about as much content at the end as it did at the start.  And you couldn't even just ignore it, as it would sometimes drop super powerful mobs on top of whatever other content you were trying to do that day.

    Eh... well yes you get new areas, but as a person just now coming back, YOU won't get a bunch of new areas, you've missed a lot of content so, you won't have areas open that you missed until you get those story instances. I'm not even sure if you can be pulled into them by other players, I think you still have to purchase them with gems. Personally, I still dislike the story aspects. I just played through the latest living world, and it was like pulling teeth slowly listening to every little story aspect that really interests me very little because.. it's an overarching story that everyone experiences.. I'm not unique, so it's not unique.
    2)  The play balance was rather lacking.  Dynamic events seemed to have some implicit number of expected players, and then would scale up in difficulty if you had more than that.  The problem is that the scaling was far too shallow.  If you had enough players, the event was trivial.  If you had far too few players, it was impossible or nearly so.  It would chain events and make it so that later events in a chain commonly expected more players than earlier ones, but that sometimes meant that you got to the end of a chain and the final event expected 10 players, and you only had two there, so you couldn't finish the event chain.

    Good players can do most "group" types of world content alone. There are some champions and "group" events that can be soloed, albeit, at a greater time investment. But overall, it's unnecessary as the vast majority of completion things in the newer areas have "trains" run by commanders, so it makes it a lot easier to catch up, and your time investment is very minimal.
    3)  Crafting was awful.  It's not just that it was the gather materials and click to craft something junk.  It's also that for most crafting professions, you couldn't actually craft an item until you had leveled way past wanting to use it.

    This hasn't changed much. Get ready to craft your way to 500 if you want to make ascended stuff, but you can craft the majority of legendaries at 400. There are guides out there to help you craft faster, but, theres a gold cost involved, and it's not worth it if you're a casual player.
    4)  The game world's graphics didn't match its physics very well.  There were lots of places that you could stand in mid-air, or walk into a wall, or whatever.  In a lot of games, that wouldn't be a big deal.  But Guild Wars 2 wants you to do jumping puzzles, and in a platform game, graphics that don't match the physics are a showstopper.

    This isn't really an issue, at least for me. I don't think I ever really experiences this in a real, gamebreaking capacity and I've been playing since launch. That being said, I would suggest trying again, I don't really have this issue.
    5)  The level scaling was such that you had to either skip most of the content or do it far below your level.  It would automatically scale you down to some degree, but a level 80 character scaled to 40 was still a lot stronger than a true level 80.
    Yeah, level 80s are going to be stronger, you don't get your abilities taken away or your traits nerfed, or anything. You just get a power level adjustment. In comparison at level 40 you don't have all of your traits and skills. You're woefully underpowered by comparison. Getting to 80 is pretty trivial at this point though. You can get an 80 unlock token, or level by doing.. pretty much anything, receive tomes... just by logging in after so long, you'll get birthday boosters. It's kind of confusing why they even have a leveling game at this point.
    Buschkatze



  • gunklackergunklacker Member UncommonPosts: 247
    edited March 2019
    Unfortunately "The Silverwastes" was there best expansion and i think it was free, and even after doing it , 30,40 times it got old with no rewards except green or blue items.


  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
    I have to chime in because i am usually just turned off by almost every crappy developer but maybe i'm not totally fair.How can any developer aim for something positive if gamer's themselves all want something different?

    There are people who simply want loot,the easier,faster the better.There are people who want a mmorpg to play like an ARPG,people who want crafting,soloing,grouping,pvp it never ends.

    All i have asked for many years back was CHOICE,give me a choice and if enough DIFFERENT designs popup we should all see something that caters to each individual,no game will ever please everyone,absolutely impossible.

    That is why i became very disappointed game after game because i was seeing the EXACT same design in every single mmorpg,some better than others,but mostly  the same with a different skin and a different pay model.I don't feel Arena.net did anything to be creative or give myself and others choice outside of the pay model and to me...not good enough.

    So if you hear me complain about Arena.net,Blizzard yada yada ,it is because NOBODY is being creative,i feel FF3 was a better design than MOST mmorpg's 15-20 years later just because it was maybe the first rpg ever to have the multi class system and elemental properties.Most games just shove Fireballs into the mix because they see it as a must have in a rpg,they shove yellow markers over npc heads...just because they see everyone else doing it,please just be creative ,design YOUR own game and quit giving me other developer's work and  done poorly.
    cheyane

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • LokeroLokero Member RarePosts: 1,514
    Wizardry said:


    That is why i became very disappointed game after game because i was seeing the EXACT same design in every single mmorpg,some better than others,but mostly  the same with a different skin and a different pay model.I don't feel Arena.net did anything to be creative or give myself and others choice outside of the pay model and to me...not good enough.

    So if you hear me complain about Arena.net,Blizzard yada yada ,it is because NOBODY is being creative,i feel FF3 was a better design than MOST mmorpg's 15-20 years later just because it was maybe the first rpg ever to have the multi class system and elemental properties.Most games just shove Fireballs into the mix because they see it as a must have in a rpg,they shove yellow markers over npc heads...just because they see everyone else doing it,please just be creative ,design YOUR own game and quit giving me other developer's work and  done poorly.
    Heh, @Wizardry :
    That reminded me of this Extra Credits video I watched the other day that you might like.  They basically talk about how playing too much of other people's work can cause a lack of originality in your own.


  • exile01exile01 Member RarePosts: 1,089
    I always said it: gw2 is a piece of garbage for people with a barby dress syndrom. Watching the crowd on the first xpack release, made me realise that i dont want to be part of that fatso culture.
    maskedweaselViper482SequriemAeander
  • Viper482Viper482 Member LegendaryPosts: 4,095
    I came because of WvW……..I left because of WvW. You missed the boat ArenaNet, not me.
    ShizuharaBuschkatze
    Make MMORPG's Great Again!
  • MaeMooMaMaeMooMa Newbie CommonPosts: 2
    I really wanted to like GW but I was completely unable to do combat at all.  After like level 20 I was just getting clobbered by everything, it was disheartening.
  • xybedoutxybedout Member UncommonPosts: 58
    "that you might of missed "

    Bad enough that commenters do not know how to use "have" but I expect better from a writer.
  • R3d.GallowsR3d.Gallows Member UncommonPosts: 155
    Are greatsword mesmers still crap? If so Ill pass.
    Buschkatze
  • WarWitchWarWitch Member UncommonPosts: 351
    Umm, guild wars 2 has no guild wars, ??? only mass zerg 3 way 80 man fights in wvw.
     
    It's like buying a 150k car that goes 0-60 in 10 seconds.

    Wvw is fun though.
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