3581

While I don’t believe they’re making good on the numerous, lofty promises they made with the game, I still think it’s a very solid and enjoyable alternative to the monthly subscription and F2P offerings in the world of MMORPG’s available right now.

I’ve leveled a human thief to around 37 and I’m surprised that I’m not yet getting the feeling that I’m just grinding to level. Yesterday, for example, I discovered that you get a nice little achievement bonus for completely exploring an area (I’m sure it’s common knowledge, but I’m still woefully uneducated in the finer aspects of GW2). So off I went to complete all the previous maps I’d explored. That only took about an hour and I really enjoyed it. That I was leveled down to make it a little bit challenging was not an issue for me…and proved to make it a little more fun even.

Then I jumped back to Divinity’s Reach and focused on my leatherworking. I really had a blast after I hit 75 and could start making some good stuff. I was pleased to find out that I could even send them straight to the trading post from my inventory after making a bunch of test stuff. That gave me a nice little return on my endeavors I discovered this morning.

It’s too early to say if this game has legs like the first Guild Wars does. I kind of miss the way skills were acquired in that game. But I’m having right now, and that’s all that really counts I guess.

3582

Nooo, don’t tell me HepC has followed me here?!

Oh man

I am kidding! :-D

3583

I’ve actually been a lurker for a while.

3584

I ordered a copy for my son on Thursday last week and I think I got the last one left at Amazon - sorry! I really did look around locally to pick something up immediately from a brick and mortar shop, but everyone in Calgary is sold out. Good for Arenanet!

Loving this game. I have 90+ levels spread in 4 characters, and the only problem I have is choosing which character I want to play when I sit down to play as they are all equally great to play, and the classes play significantly different.

I’m saving that last slot for when my son Alex and I start, but then I still have 3 more classes that are calling out to me. I’ve only fully explored three maps. And crafting, lots and lots of crafting. And I haven’t even touched the PvP or WvWvW yet. So much to do still.

Just put me down in the ‘never needing another game again’ camp.

3585

I just gotta ask, wtf did you expect? :) Every single game is pretty much a combination of “wander around”, “click on shit” and “kill stuff”. After playing games for so many years, I’ve done all that gazillion times. Should I stop gaming now? :) Or should I wait for a game that doesn’t involve wandering, clicking and killing?

IMO it’s all about what you encounter when you wander. About the way you kill stuff and the way stuff ganks and kills you instead sometimes. Hell, that’s why people roll alts - to get to experience a different way of killing stuff, why else? Even in the same game.

Besides, if you really don’t want to, you don’t need to do any of the stuff that you described. Just ignore all the heart icons on the map and do just dynamic events. This is the most common mistake new GW2 players make - thinking the heart “quests” is the meat of the game or what makes it unique. Far from it.

3586

I’m definitely not having framerate/quality issues (aside from a weird tearing issue when panning sometimes). The game looks great, it just seems to be making both my wife’s and my computer run hotter than normal (like some others have commented).

3587

Wandering around, clicking on things, and killing things where what you click on actually matters.

Again, I’m enjoying the game. But I’m feel like I could completely ignore all of the text dialogue that everyone presents, just go to little hearts or dynamic events, and interact with/kill everything and get the same result.

So far, I’m not seeing any story or dynamic events where my decisions actually matter. I’m Asura. So I go up to some Skritt where I’m apparently supposed to give them an IQ test. There’s no interaction in the true sense of the word. I’m literally just clicking on them, and then clicking the follow up dialogue button until my little quest bar fills up a little further. Hell, I wouldn’t even have to know I’m supposedly testing them - it would work the same if I just wandered up to them completely unaware, “interacted with them,” and clicked through the linear dialogue tree that results. I don’t even have to know why I’m there or do anything remotely intelligent or interactive. Just click.

It’s the same thing with the “check on these objects that we have planted around here” quests. Click on the object. No real decision or thought involved. Then click on the nasty thing that pops up because I’ve clicked on the object, and kill that.

It’s basically glorified whack-a-mole. Now I like whack-a-mole, it’s fine. I just thought, based on the gushing that I’ve seen over this game, that its PvE was somehow different. And so far at least, it really isn’t.

3588

To be fair, an MMO that would change according to each player’s choices is just not possible (in my opinion). That’s just a fact of life in an MMO. Perhaps this genre is just not to your liking.

3589

I’m not asking it to change according to my choice. I’m asking for some form of strategy, tactics, interaction, or something similar to be involved in making progress and resolving the quests. Hell, even something that gave me a different reward, depending on how I resolved it would be okay (and wouldn’t require changing the world based on my choices, just changing what my character gets). Right now, it is literally just, “Go to this spot, and click on this thing.” If I get a choice in rewards, skills, etc., it isn’t because of how I interacted or decided anything, it’s just built into the game as the reward for that event (finishing a quest, leveling up) that I get to choose among a couple of things. What I actually did to get the reward has no impact whatsoever on the reward. And I don’t have to even make a single intelligent decision to get the reward.

There are other things that you could do that wouldn’t change the game world, but would make your decisions in the course of playing the game meaningful. Make a choice that leads to some quest giver being slaughtered? Fine, so now you lose a skill option with respect to some aggressive attack but gain a different one with respect to healing/defense. Again, at least it is forcing you to make choices, etc. I’m not trying to get back into the Diablo III debate about ability to respec or gimp your character, but I assume these games are not intended to be quite as simple as Diablo, where it’s “click on the monster, take it’s loot, level up.” Maybe that is what people are looking for in these games.

Perhaps it gets more involved at higher levels.

3590

The good thing about a company like Arenanet is that they’re willing to try something different. I don’t doubt that if enough folks bring up those kinds of thoughts in their forums and in game, they’ll listen and try to implement it.

3591

Did you do the whack-a-mole heart quest in the Molensk area? Fun!

3592

With every other MMO I’ve played (save for UO), I’ve found myself attached to the ‘ding’ of a new level to see what new toys I would get. With this, I’m so focused on either the story or pvp or just climbing to the next vista/skill point that I am halfway through the next level before realizing the little red exclamation point on the top left corner. To me, this is the sign of a quality game, less about the treadmill and more about the seeing what is next around the corner.

3593

I’m glad to hear that later dungeons are easier, because most groups are going to be randoms without voice coordination.

I am curious to see how it works without the trinity though. I don’t have a good sense on aggro since there is really no way to taunt or dump it.

I’m thinking melee classes should always have a ranged weap equipped to kite if things get too hairy. I was doing a personal quest yesterday that was overwhelming me in melee until I switched to ranged and just kited everything.

3594

Somebody call the evening news, this asshole doesn’t like a game that is popular!

3595

Crap, I called The View by accident. Sorry.

3596

Yes. This is a good thing the game has going for it. Though I don’t think the individual activities are particularly meaningful, the game does do a good job (so far at least for me) of creating an interesting and epic feeling whole. It does a much better job than other MMO’s I’ve played of letting you feel like you get to pick what activity you want to do to progress, where if you get bored of clicking on foozles to level, you can go climb some building to level.

3597

Sure I’d like that. They’ve done a decent job of adding map-specific elements to the control point system to provide the flavor of these different game modes though. Battle of Kyhlo, for example, has the Trebuchet mechanic with the repair kit working CTF-style - each team’s repair kit spawns on the enemy’s side of the map, and must be picked up and carried back to your trebuchet position to function.

No complaints from me if they add some new maps later though or introduce new game modes, but I don’t really have a problem with what they’ve gotten already.

sPvP rewards Glory instead of XP. You begin at Glory Rank 1 and XP Level 1, and when you’re in the Mists you have a purple Glory bar at the bottom instead of the golden XP one. Most people focus heavy on “leveling” as simply meaning gaining XP in WvW and PvE and ignore the sPvP aspect of development, but it’s there and it’s just another form of progression. It’s also not tied to your character - your Glory Rank is for your entire account and is shared for all your characters. Go ahead a roll a new character and just use them for sPvP if you don’t want to spoil yourself on your PvE main - who knows, by the time you reach Level 80 on your main you may have accumulated some cool sPvP gear for them to wear.

For anyone who’s played an MMO that tied character level to PvP performance, I think you’d have to agree this is a much better system. I have no interest in getting rolled by someone who’s level 80 because I’ve only got half the time to play as they do, and I have no interest in having to spend 200+ hours playing “XP grind PvE” on an Alt class just because I like they way they play in sPvP. I like being able to jump into tournaments with friends and guildies and have everybody be on the same page without worrying that so-and-so isn’t leveled or geared enough and is dragging the team down.

3598

Yeah it’s so easy to play way longer than you intended to because it has that “Just one more POI/Vista/Heart” effect. The way they are placed is brilliant.

3599

Well as a LONG time lurker and a very occasional poster, I will say the game has a lot that keeps you hooked. Just some of the scenary is breathtaking (especially around structures and towns). This game ENCOURAGES alt-itis, so it has enabled me (in every sense of that word) to experiment. Thus only to level 25 on a guardian and maybe 23 on the engineer. I am on Jade Quarry – I believe that was the server you all were going to, so i may look somone up to an invite.

Endgame? eh who cares. This game is fun to play as I roll along trying to builds and abilities for the foreseeable future. I’ll go to my wow raid team after pandas drop, so GW2 couldn’t have hit at a better time. In fact – I am dreading the conservative nature of the Blizzard quest dynamic compared to this event-explore-group dynamic for leveling.

That said: PVP wait times. I won’t complain about the auction house because every patch that improves. But pvp wait times are crazy and I must say I would have hoped they had that down a bit better. Maybe it is because our (or my) server is very populated, but whatever --I am sure they are working on it.

Best new MMO launch --uh --ever inmhop – smooth as silk in almost every respect and amazing for what it accomplishes. It has that “just one more heart-blue thingy -poi” feel that keeps you up (too) late!

3600

It was a smooth launch in my opinion as well. Although I have been having issues with frequent disconnects since mid week last week. Not sure if that’s on my end though.