Guild Wars 2 is two. Two years. I don’t even need to really look at my /age, and honestly I don’t really care. ArenaNet has made a pretty good thing. Not the perfect thing, but Guild Wars 2 is starting to get pretty comfortable. We’re at the point in this relationship where things are a nice burn instead of all hot and firecracker’y, intense and sometimes caustic.Â
I feel like the sophomore year of the game ended very well. I am very much enjoying Season 2. The story is good. The story delivery is good. The instances are good, and the boss battle at the end of Episode 4 was fantastic. I especially liked creating back piece (except for the Fractals part) because it took me through some out of the way places in Tyria that I had only ever been to once or twice for map completion.
You know what I like best about Guild Wars 2, and why I have continued to play? It’s nice to me. I can go play Assassin’s Creed, work on Conjecture Games, have fun with the family in Windborne, or binge on War of Omens, and that’s okay. I don’t need to log in every day. It’s probably a large part of why I keep coming back.
It’s better in Season 2 now. I just finished the achievements for all of Episode 1, and am slowly working on Episode 2 achievements. I like that there are two more episodes worth waiting for me, when I want. I can play the market when I want. Work on long term projects when I want. Even joining a Fractal is a very easy endeavor with the LFG tool. I apologize in advance for bringing my necro.
As great as Guild Wars 2 is, sometimes I worry. I guess that’s natural. Things will change. People I believed to be ingrained in ArenaNet leave (fair winds, my Germanic friend). Focuses will shift (dungeons are better in other MMOs where it is the game). And then China alone will probably fund the game for a couple more years.
Still, Guild Wars 2 is comfortable, and with two years below it’s belt, it is starting to feel reassuringly lasting. I guess that’s why I am not that upset with the next feature pack being… okay. Things feel like they are straightening out for the better with each update, and with China hopefully in the swing of things now, things moving forward will keep getting, err.. more better.
–Ravious
“I guess that’s why I am not that upset with the next feature pack being… okay.”
Isn’t it a bit hasty to be dismissive of the Feature Pack considering there’s still another week of announcements coming?
I am probably a lot less hasty than a lot of the feedback I’ve seen. And, I’m not being dismissive. I’m just not edge-of-my-seat excited for it. Big difference. I’ll welcome the changes, especially the necro weak-cleave.
“I am probably a lot less hasty than a lot of the feedback I’ve seen.”
That’s for sure, the community has taken a turn for the ugly these last couple of weeks. All the same, I think by the end of next week the doom and gloom brigade will have quieted down again.
I’ve never been more dissapointed by the failing of an mmo as with Wildstar. Now I have to tolerate the doom and gloom brigade in GW2 again…
They’re now in full swing until the next new-and-improved MMO is released and hopefully we’ll have another 6 months of relative peace and quiet (and until that release we will most likely be spammed to death by “this game will be dead once xyz has been released”).
What would you say was/is Wildstar’s issues?
Not sure, and not really interested (never played it).
It’s not that I’m sad it failed because I used to play it and now it’s empty. I’m sad because it’s failing brought back a lot of players to GW2 who are mostly interested in complaining about what it lacks and will be moving on regardless of updates.
This creates a toxic atmosphere even on the subreddit (which is at about the same level as the official forums atm). Anet is most assuredly not above criticism (removing downed state before level 5, what?) but being bitchy about everything is just irritating.
And yes, I’m fully aware all of this is based on the assumption that the surge of returning player topics exactly at the subreddit are all players who left for Wildstar… nothing to base this on. It just fits my agenda ;-).
I do play every day and have done for the entire two years. My /age on my original account is just under 2.500 hours. On my second account it’s probably abut 1500 hours (I’m not logged in on that one right now) so in toatal I’ve got around 4,000 hours under my belt. That’s an average of over 5 hours a day for the life of the game.
It’s an exaggerated figure because I tend to log into the game when boot up the PC and then leave it running while I do other things. If there’s not a new Living Story or a tense match in WvW I will be afk far more than I’m actively playing. These days I’d say that. most weeks, I rack up 15-20 “active” hours actually playing GW2.
Clearly, then, it’s a game that’s been able to hold my attention long-term and I would say it’s in my top five favorite MMOs of all time. None of that excuses the dismal lack of ambition we have seen over these two years, however, and I feel quite strongly that for all the complaining players we see there are just as many who are far too quick to make excuses for GW2’s many shortcomings and flaws.
I’m not as disappointed as some players because I never bought into or believed the flood of hype that ANet deluged willing believers with for the best part of two years prior to launch. The fact is, however, that the MMO we have, comfortable and enjoyable though it is, bears little resemblance to the MMO they claimed they were going to make. Not only that, I am certain-sure that they have given us less post-launch content by a significant margin than most comparably-successful MMOs I’ve played.
Just because GW2 is a comfortable, enjoyable MMO after two years is not sufficient reason to sit back and feel satisfied. Yes, that’s admirable and an achievement in itself but it promised so much more. As they say, however, it is what it is.
I just hope that, when we reach the five-year anniversary, there’s something a LOT more substantial to look back on, something that deserves more convincing praise than “it’s comfortable”.
Well and just like ArenaNet clearly has, so must we continue to review the game as it is, and as it could be. There are clearly things that I feel Guild Wars 2 may never become (e.g., a place for hardcore dungeon runners). There are things it may yet become (zone wide meta events that really change things).
I feel after two years it is time to move on from launch promises.
Anyway, I don’t like games that push me. It being “comfortable” is one of the best compliments I could give it. Or, I could rail on how uncomfortable it is pushing me every two weeks…. but that was then…