Guild Wars 2?

[gurugeorge]

Also, forgot to mention - standing on uneven ground!!!

How cool is that? It’s been one of my growing bugbears as videogames have gotten more and more “realistic”. That on its own would be worth the price of admission :)

[evildoc]

Curious if people are seeing a profession selection bias or if its still too soon to get a sense?

Found the John Smith economy infograph and some /r/ polls, but haven’t stumbled over anything showing per server/guild/whatnot distributions. Maybe its a bogus question in general with the skill swapping blurring profession boundaries. Hard to tell from where I’m sitting in the spectator seats.

[bandidoquest]

So I’m trying to login now and the game is saying that I have activated e-mail authorization (which I haven’t) and that I can’t login until I receive a verification e-mail. Of course the e-mail never comes, so I’m stuck unable to play the game. Really, ArenaNet? I didn’t activate the e-mail authentication exactly because I was sure that they would have lots of problems in these initial days and didn’t want any hassle, so I’m pretty disappointed at this to say the least.

[Mark_Asher]

They’re there to point you towards areas with dynamic events (the real meat of the game) and provide you with a quick objective that results in rewards + a new karma vendor.

They’re also a little bit more varied than just “kill things”; usually there are multiple ways of filling that bar.

Having said that, if you’re not enjoying the combat and/or the exploration, then you probably won’t ever enjoy the game.

Mark, I’ve never played another MMO where I had several events chain into each other and take me halfway across the zone, with something different happening on failure. The problem is failure is rare at the moment with a critical mass of players, so we’re only seeing one branch.

For example, in the zone I’m in at the moment, there’s a lake which spawned an event to collect Dwarven Artifacts for an innkeeper nearby. After collecting these, he ran off to his inn. I followed him.

He then had a conversation with a Charr about the artifacts, with some background lore inserted in, and discovers one of them is a summoning stone.

A pirate captain turns up, demands the return of the artifacts, then launches several waves of pirate attacks against the inn. We fight them off, and the innkeeper decides the artifacts need to be taken to a nearby outpost, so he grabs some Asura dudes (who have some funny lines as they’re skint after blowing up their lab) and an escort mission spawns.

The escort mission takes us to the next “heart area” and involves several different types of beasts attacking us en masse. It doesn’t take too long and we get to the new outpost.

Another conversation. One of the Asura points out it’s a summoning stone and that the recipient needs to be very careful when destroying it, so he gets roped in to help out, and they all run off outside the outpost to do it. Apparently the great plan involves releasing the summon, who turns out to be a really hard bastard Champion demon of some kind, drawing in players from all over the place to put down.

I could’ve just done the first event and moved on - there were plenty of other things to attract my attention. But this level of detail is fantastic, and I’ve seen nothing like it in other MMOs.

All that sounds cool but I haven’t seen anything like that yet. The most I’ve seen by level 8 is a dynamic event spawning another event in the same spot. The first event was destroy some bad dynamos or something underwater that were protected by (cultists or something, can’t remember what they were called) and after we did that it caused a giant shark to frenzy.

So I’m all for what you describe but haven’t seen it yet. So far the events have been just like the public quests in Warhammer with one or two stages.

I think my issue is I just don’t care about anything in the game world. It’s all generic fantasy to me. I don’t care if a village survives or gets overrun. I don’t care if the trade caravan makes it or gets robbed. I don’t care if the farmer loses his pumpkins to rabbits. All I care about is if pitching in and helping is going to advance my character.

[geewhiz]

So I’m trying to login now and the game is saying that I have activated e-mail authorization (which I haven’t) and that I can’t login until I receive a verification e-mail. Of course the e-mail never comes, so I’m stuck unable to play the game. Really, ArenaNet? I didn’t activate the e-mail authentication exactly because I was sure that they would have lots of problems in these initial days and didn’t want any hassle, so I’m pretty disappointed at this to say the least.

I received that email but never did what it said (I suspect that it may not be from Anet because Anet stated that they would never ask anyone their login password through an email).

My account was having problems one night but the next day it was fine.

[triggercut]

Guild Wars 2 ‏@GuildWars2
Email authentication is up and running again. We do apologize for the inconvenience. ^MK

Guild Wars 2 ‏@GuildWars2
We are sending out A LOT of mails atm, so it might be a bit before you get yours. ^MK

[triggercut]

All I care about is if pitching in and helping is going to advance my character.

Working as intended.

[JM1]

All that sounds cool but I haven’t seen anything like that yet. The most I’ve seen by level 8 is a dynamic event spawning another event in the same spot. The first event was destroy some bad dynamos or something underwater that were protected by (cultists or something, can’t remember what they were called) and after we did that it caused a giant shark to frenzy.

So I’m all for what you describe but haven’t seen it yet. So far the events have been just like the public quests in Warhammer with one or two stages.

I think my issue is I just don’t care about anything in the game world. It’s all generic fantasy to me. I don’t care if a village survives or gets overrun. I don’t care if the trade caravan makes it or gets robbed. I don’t care if the farmer loses his pumpkins to rabbits. All I care about is if pitching in and helping is going to advance my character.

Everything you do is going to advance your character. Now that’s out of way, find which bits of the game you actually enjoy doing beyond making numbers on a sheet go up and do those.

Level 8 means you’re still in the tutorial, such as it is.

[Chris_Gwinn]

I wouldn’t say I’m concentrating on it. I run around a bit and do some things but then that little green spot on the mini map beckons me back because it’s a quest.

The found quests so far haven’t been all that interesting. Go collect a bunch of rabbits. Escort a trade caravan (though “caravan” is a bit grandiose when all of one one goods-laden animal is in it). Some centaurs are fighting on at this spot so go and kill a bunch of them until they stop respawning. Kill a big bad fish in a lake. There’s nothing really about them that makes me say, “I haven’t seen this before in an MMO” and in fact I get the sense that they will be triggered and repeat over and over again so they don’t feel any different than questing in WoW.

The best part about exploring is finding the vistas and just discovering the little things in the world, but it’s probably a one-time experience. And I don’t really like jumping puzzles so having to jump to get to a vista was a bit annoying.

I’m sounding more negative than I am. I like the game. It’s clearly very sharp in a lot of ways, and seems to have a lot of depth to it. I haven’t even tried the PvP and WvWvW yet, which would ultimately be what would keep me playing.

Best of all, it’s different from the standard DIKU so that in itself is interesting. I just wish the setting, story, and questing in GW2 were as good as those in Secret World.

The opening areas are very different in tone. Humans are heavy on help farmers & kill rats, but the Charr and Norn starting area are a little more dramatic.

[AlanSmithee]

I think the game tickles the aspergerish tendencies of many players, allowing them to engage in parallel play without the obligation to form deep or long term relationships. Everyone helps each other and there are no drawbacks or handicaps for being generous and kind to other people. We are all on the same team in the PVE world.
For people like me with frequent disruptions to my gaming time it’s ideal- I raided for a while in LoTRO but finding 3 hours twice a week clear for gaming caused hassles along with the personality issues that arrive in a workplace like a raid.
Like Mark, the generic fantasy background and story hasn’t drawn me in because it pretty well drags in every cliche and I’m over the whole teenage right-of-passage story telling that goes with this stuff.
But the gameplay? It works great for me. There’s enough rapid progression to never feel like I’m grinding a timesink and the game’s generosity in handing out XP and activities never makes me feel that the designers were holding something back out of fear that I would finish content too soon.
I love Secret World but I’m spending more time in Guild Wars 2. Maybe if Secret World had as much content out of the box as Guild Wars I’d still be there, but it hasn’t by a long shot.

[gurugeorge]

I think the game tickles the aspergerish tendencies of many players, allowing them to engage in parallel play without the obligation to form deep or long term relationships.

Yeah, this is spot on.

It’s not quite grouping and it’s not quite soloing, it’s somewhere inbetween, it’s more like pack behaviour; a way that your instincts to help out can be costlessly satisfied, with no wedge for interpersonal drama to interfere with the fun.

It’s actually a lot of fun. Ironically, it’s almost like a super-streamlined version of the kind of fun CoH used to have, with its “PUG Heaven” feel, only minus the banter (although I have noticed some banter in Say during DEs, but then I’m on one of the unofficial RP servers), and minus the need to even form a group.

[Sean_Tudor]

Still enjoying the game immensely. I have almost hit 40 and the dynamic chained events have become more epic and dramatic. It pays to hang around once you complete an event as 90% of the time it will lead to a new event.

Some quibbles.

Lack of money. I have all of 2 gold and can’t even afford my lvl 35 cultural armor without complete draining my bank. I wish there was a way to earn extra money without resorting to becoming a travelling salesman like some of my guildmates have done because of the trading house which is perennially broken.

I have yet to see a world boss spawn. They are definitely rarer than what I experienced in the beta weekends. In fact no one in my guild has yet experienced a post-release world boss spawn. Is this game mechanic broken?

The difficulty of the 5-man dungeons. I still haven’t been able to finish an Ascalonion instance successfully. The best we have done is kill the king next to the sword. From that point on it becomes a whole series of long death runs and there do not seem to be any respawn points after the entrance. Also not very happy with getting one shot over and over again without even getting a chance to heal.

The extreme lag during primetime on the Sea Of Sorrows server. Casting spells/actions that take 2-3 seconds to activate and seeing players and enemies warp all over the place. This is probably why we have had so many problems with the 5-mans. It has become so bad that I often force myself to stay on the overflow server where the lag isn’t as bad. The server is severely overcrowded. Once the masses go to bed (Aussie evening times) the lag is almost non-existent.

[Contrai]

Still enjoying the game immensely. I have almost hit 40 and the dynamic chained events have become more epic and dramatic. It pays to hang around once you complete an event as 90% of the time it will lead to a new event.

Some quibbles.

Lack of money. I have all of 2 gold and can’t even afford my lvl 35 cultural armor without complete draining my bank. I wish there was a way to earn extra money without resorting to becoming a travelling salesman like some of my guildmates have done because of the trading house which is perennially broken.

I have yet to see a world boss spawn. They are definitely rarer than what I experienced in the beta weekends. In fact no one in my guild has yet experienced a post-release world boss spawn. Is this game mechanic broken?

The difficulty of the 5-man dungeons. I still haven’t been able to finish an Ascalonion instance successfully. The best we have done is kill the king next to the sword. From that point on it becomes a whole series of long death runs and there do not seem to be any respawn points after the entrance. Also not very happy with getting one shot over and over again without even getting a chance to heal.

The extreme lag during primetime on the Sea Of Sorrows server. Casting spells/actions that take 2-3 seconds to activate and seeing players and enemies warp all over the place. This is probably why we have had so many problems with the 5-mans. It has become so bad that I often force myself to stay on the overflow server where the lag isn’t as bad. The server is severely overcrowded. Once the masses go to bed (Aussie evening times) the lag is almost non-existent.

About the spawnpoints for dungeons, each time you defeat a main boss encounter, it spawns a new waypoint. As for doing the actual dungeons, I’ve only done Ascalonian Catacombs, Caduceus Manor, and the Flame Temple mini-dungeon so far. You’re definitely right that the Catacombs are hard, and it doesn’t help that you’re experiencing all that lag. I can say though, the Manor is much easier than Catacombs, so might want to try that instead when you’re at level.

[JonRowe]

Holy hell was that authentication loop just horrible.

[Mark_Asher]

Everything you do is going to advance your character. Now that’s out of way, find which bits of the game you actually enjoy doing beyond making numbers on a sheet go up and do those.

Level 8 means you’re still in the tutorial, such as it is.

To tell the truth, I actually like questing at this stage of an MMO because that feels like the most efficient way to level. I don’t want to feel like I’m wasting time. I know I sound jaded, but it’s a generic fantasy world so far. Exploration isn’t any kind of a thrill beyond racking up XP when I find some new area.

I like PvP so I want to learn my character and get all the bells and whistles for him – make sure he has all the abilities he can have, I mean – and then just do WvWvW most of the time.

I guess what I’m saying is I want the shortest path to the end game, as long as that path is long enough for me to learn how to play my character. GW2 seems quite complex.

[AlanSmithee]

I don’t think WvWvW is where you play your character most efficiently. You are either zerging or running from a zerg there.
PvP matches are probably the most skill dependent format due to the equal numbers and gear.

[gurugeorge]

Getting a wee bit deeper into it now, main at 8, settling with a Norn Ranger (female - bouncy! :) ). Game’s a masterpiece, sooo well made. You can take it at your own pace, you can tool around or do things systematically, either is fine. That alone is brilliant.

Again, coming off the back of TSW, I really wasn’t sure about this game in the sense that I’d been ultra-immersed with TSW’s great story and atmosphere, and I was never very fond of GW lore. But the difference in quality of gameplay between the two is quite striking. Not that TSW is bad, it’s pretty solid. But the gameplay in GW2 is addictive as heck. You really get into a trance state being one with your avatar, and time just flies.

Or to put it another way, the immersion in TSW was immersion in the virtual world, the immersion in GW2 is immersion in the gameplay.

Some superb music too, here and there, very reminiscent of Oblivion (I think it’s the same guy).

Still a bit irritated by the anime influence in the avatar/armour design, but you can’t have everything, and it’s pretty well done for what it is :)

[Kyle700]

I’ve never played TSW, so what would make this world more engaging? Is it possible? I’ve found I rather like the Asura and the quests you can do in their area because it’s sorta like all these wacky mad scientists. They’ve got character because they do experiments without regard for others.

From what I’ve played of the Sylvari area, I also like them, although I haven’t played that enough to enjoy the charactars yet.

Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, the only race whos dynamic events I truly cared about and thought were interesting are the Skritt. They have such character, for some reason. I think I really like the idea that they get smarter in groups and form their own society. Random bandit camps and pirate raids don’t really do it for me in that regard.

Oh, and is there anyway to change the design of armor? Or does it already change whenever you put on a new piece and I just haven’t noticed?

[Razgon]

To tell the truth, I actually like questing at this stage of an MMO because that feels like the most efficient way to level. I don’t want to feel like I’m wasting time. I know I sound jaded, but it’s a generic fantasy world so far. Exploration isn’t any kind of a thrill beyond racking up XP when I find some new area.

I like PvP so I want to learn my character and get all the bells and whistles for him – make sure he has all the abilities he can have, I mean – and then just do WvWvW most of the time.

I guess what I’m saying is I want the shortest path to the end game, as long as that path is long enough for me to learn how to play my character. GW2 seems quite complex.

What will you do at the end game then?

[Murbella]

I’d have to agree.

The world events are pretty well done, and every so often there is some really impressive boss coming out of the ground but at the end of the day, this is just the next evolution of mmorpg “go kill 29 boar” kill quests.

It also doesn’t feel like there is very much character progression. A lot of this has to do with how few abilities you can have active at once. So i am getting abilities that i don’t have much interest in and don’t plan to use just to be able to get the next tier of abilities. Traits are mostly hit or miss, being only interesting when you actually get to a milestone. This feels like diablo 3 all over again, character progression wise.

The gameplay is generally fun, but ability loadout is likely too limited for long term play.

The one thing guild wars 2 does REALLY amazingly well is reward greed. I don’t mean this as a bad thing. Guild wars 2 does what no other online game has done before and convinces selfish asses to help out their fellow man because it is in their own self interest through things like shared quest credit, experience for reviving people and quests that gather nearby players in a single place for a shared objective.

Warhammer tried to do this but failed because it led to less powerful characters not getting any reward when other players “helped them out.”