Well my gaming habits really haven’t changed at all this week which is a rather different change. I usually dabble in the side project of getting through my steam library but this week it has been nothing else but Guild Wars 2…Not even any towns of yet which I’ll probably continue with on the weekend.
Playing one game extensively brings out the inner critique as without any other influences you often can’t stop being critical off its different parts. You get to know the ins and outs of just about every part of the game some bits you like, some you don’t. It is the good things that keep you in game, content and quiet, and the bad you want to complain about.
As you can tell by now I complain a lot, but at the end of the day I’m still playing so that definitely means something. I’m not the sort of person to continue playing a game when I’m utterly over it either.
It’s funny in a way though as I really don’t like the PvE side of the game that much yet I keep playing for the pvp yet for most people that seems to be the opposite. Wuv Wuv has actually been moderately popular for a pvp mode, it is very easy to jump into and not as punishing as open world types but the PvE side is still where the majority of players reside
The rest of the world is beginning to feel bland to me for some reason, the painterly charm has kind of lost that sense of novelty. I no longer marvel at the buildings or rolling plains, the scenic vistas get skipped over, the hidden areas left unexplored. I used to love it but know really couldn’t care less and I don’t know why. For the most part I think it’s because the environments are rather forgettable , yes they are beautiful constructed but it is only the rare point that makes me stop and go wow.
The other part that seems to have lost its charm is the dynamic event system which have become nothing more then checkpoints on the way to somewhere else. Many other people have started to critique the nature of dynamic events and how poorly constructed the system is, it was a great concept and felt more refined then War but seems far too reliant on it.
For some reason I actually preferred the clear outlined goals of formal questing or even the system in some games were I would just grind mobs. I knew where I stood and what to expect, yet here your relying on a system that is unreliable to level. It is probably the reason why I have yet to level another alt extensively, once was enough but 2 and more is tedious.
And woe be too the dungeon crawler side of the game. I actually really enjoy well crafted group PvE experiences, I know that might sound odd but I do. It isn’t just killing my fellow player that gets the blood pumping. Here is not the refined teamwork I have come to expect, in fact it is almost it’s opposite. It is chaotic and unstructured, bad ideas and bad design all rolled onto one. The system works well during normal PvE but even then I preferred the open world group combat nature of Rift’s rifts then any zone event.
For a game claiming to be the evolution of the genre I’m not actual very sure as to the way it did. They abandoned ideals that were working well, and created solutions to problems no one was having. I have read people feelign similar feelings then this before but it seems now its my turn.
All I have to say is thank god for the PvP side of the game. I have iterated on a lot of mmo forums just how much a well constructed pvp experience can help retention. It is not the static gameplay we get tired of but a near endless pool of player created dynamic content. Wuv Wuv has given the guild 100s of hours pf great content, I have had a lot of fun playing but sometimes it feels like somethings missing from that as well. My interest is flagging and I can’t do the back to back days of play I used to.
As the game stands right now if an mmo comes out that has a better constructed world and extensive PvP I would probably quit GW2 straight away for it. I have learned not to wait for a game to get better as that often doesn’t happen.. at least not in the ways you want. There is promise in their development plan so I am not just going to dump it and float around mmoless.. that would be a travesty but i think in the coming month and months GW2 won’t just be my sole focus and i will play more of the other games I have never gotten around to.
7 thoughts on “State of my game: GW2”
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Healing the masses 
I think maybe it’s more realistic to say that GW2 will greatly contribute to the evolution of MMORPGs, rather than it BEING the evolution. It does a lot to further the genre, but as you say in many areas it has considerable flaws that just haven’t been addressed up to this point.
And I get the same as you – I tend to go through big spates of playing GW2 and nothing else, and then I become cynical and burn out. I then tend to not play it for months. It’s weird!
yeh that’s very true, the btp micro-transaction system has already been taken on by a few companies and it’s good to see payment styles evolving more. Then there are many other mechanics that will be iterated upon by others. One thing I’m very happy about is the popularity of WvW as it’s good for developers to see that pvp can be popular if developed well.
This has actually been one big spate until now, not many breaks in between in these months so I think it was kind of inevitable to satrt feeling a little jaded, a little break and recharge will have me back in fighting form
I sunk a solid month of hardcore playing into GW2 before all the charm wore off for me. I think EXP’s point that GW2 might be important as a step in MMORPG evolution rather than a floor you want to spend significant time on is a really good one. There is a lot to love and that should be loved about the game, but despite its extreme polish, I don’t think it is the ‘second coming’ that most experienced MMO players really wanted.
I think GW2 does have a long future ahead of it, though mostly of re-installs and periodically jumping back in for updates. And honestly, that might work out best for the game given the way it does make money past initial box sales. After all, what’s better to speed up a quick return after a long break than a little cheap gold?
I said from the start that gw2 was going to be a great casual game and more an iteration of the genre rather then evolution, still doesn’t make me feel any better about the expectations i had as I always seem to want that “something” like many others.
GW2 may survive on their model but it’s hard to say, they still have the overhead of an mmo so they must need some regular income. The expansions could be enough but I really don’t know. In the end it is usually a bad thing to let your population leave for any extensive period, it is much harder to entice back especially the longer an absence is.