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[Coxswain]

Well the core currency in GW2 is still gold, but you do collect things that are traded in for other things. I never got too deep into GW1, but my friends who've been playing that since launch say there's tons of those collectable currencies. *shrugs*

Guild Wars 2 is different in that most of the currencies are very specifically designed to either not interact with, or have extremely limited interactions with gold. In Guild Wars 1, the concept of 'bind on pickup' didn't exist, so everything could be exchanged for gold.

In Guild Wars 2, you can't directly exchange between Gold, Karma, Ascalonian Tears, Seals of Bettletun, Deadly Blooms, Manifestos of the Moletariat, Flame Legion Charr Carvings, Symbols of Koda, Knowledge Crystals, Shards of Zhaitan, Fractal Relics, Laurels, Skill Points, Guild Merits, or Badges of Honor.
And in addition to that, there's also Influence (one-way conversion from Gold of Influence possible), Gems (two-way conversion between Gold and Gems, although you lose a certain amount of 'tax' in the conversion), and Mystic Coins (two-way conversion possible).



Your friends are probably thinking of the Collector items in Guild Wars 1. And while there are a ton of those, nearly all of them are zone-specific, are common drops from the relevant enemy type, and you almost never need more than 5 of them to buy an item - and all of the relevant items you can trade them in for have equivalents that are easily available to be traded for gold.

 

[flyinpiranha]

I think it has. While WoW has tried to streamline, GW2 is inflating its core with too many "things".

I enjoyed it, feel I definitely got my money's worth as I got to level cap, got some pretty cool gear and played WvW every now and then.

It just was another time sink though. That's NOT what I wanted. I needed gold to WvW and their sPVP where non-paid tourneys randomly put you on either side during a match was idiotic.

So many things it could have been, but in the end a lot of the quests were buggy or the same, it was a very definite pattern to each zone and you could tell if you were near a good spot because it would be packed with botters.

I think it made a great game to play for a couple months, but I'm not sure if I'm going to go back to it at all. It just became a Fractal grind by the looks of chat when I did login. I wanted to play WvW all the time, but the way the matchups were you were either getting stomped or stomping ... when it was "even" it was a lot of fun but I'd die a lot so my repairs were costing more than I was bringing in because I don't enjoy farming.

And like many have mentioned, you'll have your bank full of shit you don't even know if you'll need it.

I personally think they took a great game and just kept adding complexities in order to make it seem "complicated". It shouldn't be, it's why I wanted it to work in the first place! They have everything in place and it's like they just want to make a PVE game where I was hoping the WvW would be the main aspect, yet it isn't. I don't even think there have been many changes or additional gametypes or maps (been a couple months so I could be wrong).

Hell, WoW had more PVP options and it wasn't a PVP game. Now GW2 has a ton of PVE options with a few PVP options yet it's supposed to be a "PVP game".

Still 8/10 for me, but they missed the mark with keeping me interested. It's another farming game which is not what I was hoping for.

 

[Kade]

I haven't played in months but is the game still heavily guided and controlled? I remember it being one of the most closed and linear MMOs I've ever played. Even moreso than post-TBC WoW.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

actually you might be right on the levels. iirc this was originally slated to not have leveling. was really disappointed when they put that in. leveling is a dated concept. skill base or go home

I love leveling and think it's just fine when the game is designed around making it give a sense of meaningful progression.

It's just that Guild Wars 2 didn't have that. There was no sense of progression or getting stronger. Just a bunch of levels to grind for little apparent reason.

 

[Lunar15]

Also, if you played before and didn't join GAFGuild, you were missing out.

 

[Won]

The game sure has too many currencies and vendors for said currencies. Though I don't think it makes it too complicated, it is just stupid. So does all the "daily" and "weekly" stuff. This needs to die already. :/

 

[Murder. She Wrote]

If you're ever bored you could hang out with the GAF guild for an evening or so. Dungeon or fractals or WvW (GAF has 2 commanders I think), world event mobbing, Guild Missions, lots of content for max levels. The benefit of no sub

Thanks, that would be fun but I'm in a weird position. I hate playing my lvl 80 mesmer, but I don't wanna level another class to cap.

I don't really like the combat, and I find the party combat to be even worse.

 

[docbon]

If skilled players weren't clustered on top servers, it would be different. The skill gap between good guilds and the rabble is enormous. So there is a good foundation for a great mode, but the reality of servers makes it a bit difficult for everybody to experience that.

Word. Having free transfers for so damn long, while guilds established cross-server reputations and herds of coattail riders, turned a bunch of servers into wastelands overnight. I'm glad the hodge podge of small guilds left on SBI have made a great effort to coordinate with each other, at least.

 

[Sothpaw]

Remember when this was hyped as the second coming of MMO games?

Big time. But I have been through Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and SWTOR. I knew damn well GW2 wouldn't be anything special. Absolutely done with mmo's until (which may never happen) something truly different comes out.

 

[Lunar15]

The game sure has too many currencies and vendors for said currencies. Though I don't think it makes it too complicated, it is just stupid. So does all the "daily" and "weekly" stuff. This needs to die already. :/

Best part: You don't have to do any of it! Wow!

Still want ascended gear? You can do fractals or get guild commendations through guild quests! That's the whole idea BEHIND all the different currencies. And frankly, after all of that if you don't want to do any of that to get your prize, it basically just means you don't want to play this game, in which you already have your solution.

I was extremely skeptical of this game before it came out. I usually dislike MMO's and I don't like grinding. But I've been loving this game, and I'm absolutely stunned at how much post-launch content there is. Every time I've had a major issue, it's been addressed by the team, and usually alongside a new piece of content. Anet means business. But if at the end of the day, you just don't like MMO's at all, then why are you looking at MMO's to be the next game you get? What are you looking for?

 

[Grinchy]

Big time. But I have been through Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and SWTOR. I knew damn well GW2 wouldn't be anything special. Absolutely done with mmo's until (which may never happen) something truly different comes out.

I'm still really pumped to see what Final Fantasy 14 offers. I know that might sound like a joke around here, but I think it could be exactly what some of us "old school MMOers" have been looking for for years.

 

[blitzcloud]

GW2, complicated?

Lol.

It can be complicated, but the cool thing is that you can be an average player and not feel like you're a complete tool who can't do anything, thanks to WvW, for example. The currencies are great (<3 laurels). it's the first "mmo" where I feel that the quality difference between hardcore and casual is very important in 1v1, but thanks to the new scope of the game it's negligible and very enjoyable.


Really enjoy every moment i play it.

 

[ProtoCents]

Also, if you played before and didn't join GAFGuild, you were missing out.

Oh, you mean the guild that kicked people if they weren't on for three days? Fuck that. Go away for a weekend, get kicked

 

[Celegus]

We didn’t want to get into a gear-grind scenario, so what we did was add a new tier rarity called “Ascended items.”

Um, what?

 

[Durante]

It's interesting to me that neither in the interview nor in this thread so far the (IMHO) currently biggest problem in the game was mentioned: client/server culling in WvW.

However, this will apparently be fixed completely in the next patch. I for one think that this is infinitely more important change than some new area, quest line or currency.

Big time. But I have been through Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and SWTOR. I knew damn well GW2 wouldn't be anything special. Absolutely done with mmo's until (which may never happen) something truly different comes out.

I tried most of those, and I think GW2 is a far better game than any of them. The end-game content -- or at least the parts of it I engage in, which are WvW, fractals, and the occasional large scale group event -- is far more diverse, entertaining and well-designed.

 

[Lunar15]

Oh, you mean the guild that kicked people if they weren't on for three days? Fuck that. Go away for a weekend, get kicked

I wasn't there when that was happening, nor am I an officer. But I do know that we had an extremely full guild with people wanting to get in every day, so if they didn't see activity, they would boot. We don't have that issue any more, and if you'd like to join, you should be fine.

 

[Coxswain]

Um, what?

Yeah, I almost pointed that out. The doublespeak ArenaNet did on the entire concept of Ascended equipment was absolutely mind-boggling. Especially since nobody actually wanted it in the first place. Even when the uproar was at its greatest, the argument was between "I don't want this" and "It won't be that bad", instead of between "I don't want this" and "I want this".

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Um, what?

"Yes, but that's not grinding. It's just a reward for playing the game!" but if WoW does it... yeah that's grinding, cos it's bad, mkay.

 

[etiolate]

I think the systems they have in place are designed in such a way to keep their concurrency numbers up, (filling up more XP bars, collecting rare materials for crafting special equipment, and completing daily achievements) and the hardcore players will no doubt, eat that up.

The core game itself is VERY simple to convey and organic in it's design.

I agree that many of the recent changes are done to keep concurrency numbers up. I just dislike that sort of behavioral stuff. The only real adjustments I like are the pick-your-daily and the improved meta-event rewards, but I like those for the way they spread people out into the world. I don't like that they're trying to condition player behavior. I don't feel that stuff belongs in a MMO without a sub.

Yeah, I put a good 250 or so hours into it in about 2 months. The average MMO makes me quit within a week from massive boredom. It certainly felt like it was on the right track, but ultimately certain design choices undermined other parts of the game.

Each area is so large, detailed both artistically and technically, but you can get 100% in them then never come back. Feels like they had some missed opportunities.

One thing discovered due to the recent changes is a bunch of stuff that existed in zones that were not widely known. People are doing all the meta-event bosses and I've found like two or three that I never knew about. I also discovered a hidden mini-dungeon in Calderon Forest that I never ran into despite spending a lot of time there. Even areas that Ih ave 100% in, there's new events and hidden away things being found.



AS PER THE ARTICLE

I don't know how to address the issue of complex. It's not overly complex for me, but judging from responses in this thread, the combat alone was too nuanced and complex for many to grasp. (If you think the combat sucks then I assure you that it's a L2P issue on your behalf.) The currencies aren't complex really. You get something and you exchange it for something. They are just redundant. They should roll Laurels and Guild Commendations into one currency and have more karma sinks for those not going after a Legendary. They say they want to make Ascended gear to be attained in multiple ways and yet you can't buy it with either universal currency, be it gold or karma.

 

[docbon]

Oh, you mean the guild that kicked people if they weren't on for three days? Fuck that. Go away for a weekend, get kicked

This was at the time where our guild numbers were easily capping, and there was no accurate way of telling how long someone was inactive. If you got kicked for inactivity mistakenly, all you had to do was ask for a reinvite. I can understand the frustration though.

 

[Levyne]

The guild has had some wiggle room under the cap for a while. No one should be getting kicked anymore.

 

[Jest Chillin]

I love the combat personally. Fast paced, reactive, and not based on cycling cooldowns more efficiently than the other guy.

And what I find most interesting about this whole "there's too many currencies so it's complicated" complaint is that it's still nowhere near the amount of currency in WoW and no one complains about WoW's currency abundance. WoW also lacks a tutorial to help players understand the currencies. People learn it the same way in both games. Reading forums, guides, and asking other players. I don't see how that's a bad thing either.

Complaining about grind for Ascended, Legendary, or Unique gear is equally odd. They don't provide a nominal stat boost and they aren't required for the vast majority of the content.. so what does it matter? With the exception of very high level Fractals (which are NOT endgame content), every encounter is designed to be able to be completed with a set of Rare gear, not even Exotic! What players need to do to successfully complete the content is adapt to the gameplay and mechanics of enemies and boss encounters. What I really love is that I can step away from the game for a few months, come back, and I don't have to grind new dungeons 30 times to get new gear to participate in the current content like many, many other MMO's do.

Don't get me wrong. Everyone has different tastes and if someone doesn't like it, then they don't like it. But arbitrarily pointing out things as "wrong" when they work just fine seems extreme.

 

[massoluk]

Hmmm Haven't jumped into Guild Wars 2 for a long time, last time was when they added fractal instances missions.

Have they added some good LFG functionality yet? That's the one thing that turned me off the game. Thousand of players, impossible to get a group for one out of the way task.

 

[Lunar15]

While it's not clearly explained in the article, my understanding of ascended armor is that they were supposed to be tied to fractal progression. The idea with fractals is that, after a certain level, there is new condition mechanic called Agony. Ascended armor was a new tier of armor that included the ability to mitgate this, while also having infusions so you could replace the accessories you already owned with ascended gear. The idea was that this streamlined progression through the fractals so that there was an overall goal to fractals: "get ascended gear so you can go farther and get other rewards".

THEN what happened is that people freaked out that a new tier of armor was added, and were afraid that, God forbid, they didn't have the absolute best armor possible, despite the fact that ascended gear adds very little in the way of stats. So, Anet decided to increase the ways people could get ascended gear in order to assuage these fans. The main way was laurels, which turned dailies (which you could already do for karma and gold) into something you could do if you wanted Ascended gear. Then, to yet again give more options to get ascended gear, Anet made the Guild Events, which allow guilds to do special quests that give guild commendations that can also be used to get ascended gear.

Most of this has been fairly unnecessary, but it's EXACTLY what people have been wanting. Frankly, I haven't been actively trying to get ascended gear, so it doesn't bother me. But if by a certain time I have enough laurels to get some nice ascended gear, maybe I'll grab some. Often times I don't do my daily just because I'm having too much fun doing something else with someone. The game really is made to be a lot of whatever you want it to be. If you want to focus on the grind, it's gonna be a grind.

 

[Jest Chillin]

Hmmm Haven't jumped into Guild Wars 2 for a long time, last time was when they added fractal instances missions.

Have they added some good LFG functionality yet? That's the one thing that turned me off the game. Thousand of players, impossible to get a group for one out of the way task.

They have not and this is a legitimate complaint. Unfortunately there's no timetable for the fix yet. Still just "working on it." But as always, you're welcome to join Gafguild. People are running Dungeons all the time and are happy to group.

 

[curlyfriski]

All the currencies are definitely annoying, but it's really a symptom of the deeper problem for me--the core game isn't all that fun, and definitely not fun enough to justify spending MMO like hours in it. So in order to get people to keep on playing, they invent all these different reward systems hamster wheels to try and get people to forget the mechanics on a basic level just aren't really that great and instead focus their time on grinding it out til the next reward. The dailies are a case in point--they give you a reward for dodging as an incentive to make use of that mechanic, when the ability to use that mechanic should be the only reward you need to make consistent use of it. All of this is pretty typical MMO fare, and reinforces the lesson I've learned in my time with the game: GW2s basic design philosophy is really quite traditionally MMOesque, with a few of the rough edges smoothed out.

 

[Lunar15]

All the currencies are definitely annoying, but it's really a symptom of the deeper problem for me--the core game isn't all that fun, and definitely not fun enough to justify spending MMO like hours in it. So in order to get people to keep on playing, they invent all these different hamster wheels called currencies to try and get people to forget the mechanics on a basic level just aren't really that great and instead focus their time on grinding it out til the next reward. The dailies are a case in point--they give you a reward for dodging as an incentive to make use of that mechanic, when the ability to use that mechanic should be the only reward you need to make consistent use of it. All of this is pretty typical MMO fare, and reinforces the lesson I've learned in my time with the game: GW2s basic design philosophy is really quite traditionally MMOesque, with a few of the rough edges smoothed out.

It is pretty traditionally MMO-esque. But there's also no monthly fee, and in general, I've found events and combat more fun than other MMO's. If it's not for you, it's not for you, and I understand.

 

[KePoW]

I don't know how to address the issue of complex. It's not overly complex for me, but judging from responses in this thread, the combat alone was too nuanced and complex for many to grasp. (If you think the combat sucks then I assure you that it's a L2P issue on your behalf.)

Completely false. There are many things in life that someone can be an expert in, but not find *fun*. GW2's combat is not all that fun.

 

[Jest Chillin]

I'd actually argue that things like dailies for Healing and Dodging and Havesting Nodes are there so that they can be completed during the normal course of play without thinking about it. You're just playing and boom a little Achievement pops up that you've completed X. Cool.

Some of the others, specifically ones that require you to do events or kill Veteran or Champion mobs is specific zones, are definitely made to condition the player. But the goal is to help encourage the player to get out into the world. Something that many other MMO's have moved away from in a quest to become more convenient. So you're out killing stuff instead of sitting in town waiting for Queues to pop or spamming for Endgame parties.

 

[erpg]

Completely false. There are many things in life that someone can be an expert in, but not find *fun*. GW2's combat is not all that fun.

Spend most of my time as a Guardian cycling through my auto attack animations. Every 5 seconds when using a hammer I can press 2 for extra damage.

What a riot.

 

[curlyfriski]

It is pretty traditionally MMO-esque. But there's also no monthly fee, and in general, I've found events and combat more fun than other MMO's. If it's not for you, it's not for you, and I understand.

Nvm you edited.

 

[inky]

While it's not clearly explained in the article, my understanding of ascended armor is that they were supposed to be tied to fractal progression. The idea with fractals is that, after a certain level, there is new condition mechanic called Agony. Ascended armor was a new tier of armor that included the ability to mitgate this, while also having infusions so you could replace the accessories you already owned with ascended gear. The idea was that this streamlined progression through the fractals so that there was an overall goal to fractals: "get ascended gear so you can go farther and get other rewards".

THEN what happened is that people freaked out that a new tier of armor was added, and were afraid that, God forbid, they didn't have the absolute best armor possible, despite the fact that ascended gear adds very little in the way of stats.

People freaked out because that same system was added to LOTRO (armor with radiance) and other games, and the only thing it produced was elitist jerks doing gear-checks to kick you out of PUGs to do the very same dungeons. I understand is not exactly the same implementation, but the fear was coming from a very real place.

For my part, I enjoyed soloing, especially the long chains of dynamic events that happened to have a compelling storyline. too bad that during my time with the game, the latter part of these didn't work so well.

 

[alphaNoid]

I'm playing this nightly still with friends

 

[Jest Chillin]

Fun is subjective, so let's not let the thread devolve into whether or not it's "factually" fun.

Also, there's very few MMO's that aren't tab to target and hit hotkeys in a cycle. So if that system isn't up your alley, look for another one. It's not a bad system simply because you don't enjoy it.

For my part, I enjoyed soloing, especially the long chains of dynamic events that happened to have a compelling storyline. too bad that during my time with the game, the latter part of these didn't work so well.

This has been fixed for the most part. On the odd occasion that an event chain does get bugged out, with the guest system, you can just hop over to another server temporarily, rock out the event chain, then hop back. It's similar to changing instances in Eastern MMO's.

 

[Levyne]

I don't really buy that the two newest currencies (laurels, commendations) are grindy. The fact that the rate you can obtain them is very limited, they are impossible to grind...

I'm not defending that they are needed, but I don't find them grindy.

Now the "Pristine Relics" that you get from fractals to trade for ascended rings? Those are grindy. You have to tackle very specific content to get them and they are not nearly as limited in how frequently you can obtain them.

 

[lamaroo]

I put a ton of time into the first GW, through the expansions, but I still haven't picked up GW2, nor have I even paid attention to the game since release.

It just bothered me that they switched from the almost perfect team based play in the first, to the COD type of team based play. Maybe it's not as bad as I'm imagining, but all of the PvP videos I watched pre release looked dull. It's a shame they'll had to change it to appease to the PvE players.

 

[dorkimoe]

I havent played since the like 2nd or 3rd week of launch. And even back then I thought the currencies were confusing..the tokens and stuff. Thats why i hated rift. I couldnt keep up. We need 2 currencies. PvE and PvP and stop it

 

[etiolate]

Completely false. There are many things in life that someone can be an expert in, but not find *fun*. GW2's combat is not all that fun.

I would say the combat gives to you as much as you are willing to engage it. Basic PVE can be done with pretty simple approaches, and according to that, success can be achieved with an uninteresting approach. There's more you can do with the combat though, and learning the depth adds to the fun. It will also reward you once you get to the higher difficulty stuff and the pvp.

If there is a problem then it's that not enough PVE encounters demand you to learn more about the combat and that there is not a PVE community that puts up detailed class guides and concepts.


Legit complaints is stuff like Ascended gear and the game, its design and the devs being unfocused at times. The combat and the world are the game's biggest strengths.

 

[Kai Dracon]

While it's not clearly explained in the article, my understanding of ascended armor is that they were supposed to be tied to fractal progression. The idea with fractals is that, after a certain level, there is new condition mechanic called Agony. Ascended armor was a new tier of armor that included the ability to mitgate this, while also having infusions so you could replace the accessories you already owned with ascended gear. The idea was that this streamlined progression through the fractals so that there was an overall goal to fractals: "get ascended gear so you can go farther and get other rewards".

THEN what happened is that people freaked out that a new tier of armor was added, and were afraid that, God forbid, they didn't have the absolute best armor possible, despite the fact that ascended gear adds very little in the way of stats. So, Anet decided to increase the ways people could get ascended gear in order to assuage these fans. The main way was laurels, which turned dailies (which you could already do for karma and gold) into something you could do if you wanted Ascended gear. Then, to yet again give more options to get ascended gear, Anet made the Guild Events, which allow guilds to do special quests that give guild commendations that can also be used to get ascended gear.

Most of this has been fairly unnecessary, but it's EXACTLY what people have been wanting. Frankly, I haven't been actively trying to get ascended gear, so it doesn't bother me. But if by a certain time I have enough laurels to get some nice ascended gear, maybe I'll grab some. Often times I don't do my daily just because I'm having too much fun doing something else with someone. The game really is made to be a lot of whatever you want it to be. If you want to focus on the grind, it's gonna be a grind.

This has generally been my observation re: ascended and matches what I've heard from friends playing through the times these "controversies" have flared up.

My problem with the situation is that at a certain point of reduction, it's easy to rationalize that practically anything is a "grind". Some people play Monster Hunter, which literally doesn't have experience points or character levels, and complain that it's a grind because they've got to play the game to get components to craft gear.

What do you do when playing the game, period, is seen as grinding? GW2 is already so casual it's crazy. Personally, I define significant grinding in a game design as something meant to keep the player from getting to the "fun part" too quickly. Going with the Monster Hunter analogy, hunting to get gear parts isn't grinding because the hunting is the fun part. Ascended stuff in GW2 is not a gate to "the fun part", locking it away behind a grind.

Even basic leveling in GW2 isn't a grind; it's way too easy. You can't play without leveling by accident. It's not actually pointless IMO. Aside from the fact that you keep gaining xp to get skill points to use for the forge, it seems mostly a decent way to make players spend at least some time in an area learning about it and how to make use of their current build. (To think about where to put trait points next.)

 

[Lunar15]

Nvm you edited.

I had originally said something to the extent of "oh god, what have I been enjoying all this time then", and realized that was definitely too snarky. But this was, in general, what I meant. Just said in a less snarky way.

 

[Devilgunman]

Just started playing it. This is my first MMO since FFXI and I feel like it is really hard to find someone to join a party :/

 

[Levyne]

Just started playing it. This is my first MMO since FFXI and I feel like it is really hard to find someone to join a party :/

I initially had that feeling too. I mean, there's no kill stealing and sometimes it seems like party-ing up may not be needed when as many people as the map can hold can work together anyways. Luckily, when playing with guild members, party-ing up is beneficial and we do it all the time when we tackle the world events.

Party-ing up also makes it easier to tag enemies for their drops so it's actually beneficial to everyone, guild or no, but some people either don''t know or feel they can adequately tag the enemies without help.

 

[BrokenSymmetry]

If there is a problem then it's that not enough PVE encounters demand you to learn more about the combat and that there is not a PVE community that puts up detailed class guides and concepts.

Why is this? Guild Wars 1 had a very active PvE community, with several wikis that were updated extremely thoroughly with strategies and builds.

 

[Prezhulio]

gw2 scratches the infrequent mmo itch i have, and relinquishes me from paying a monthly fee or f2p-ing it to death (even though there is quite a bit of microtransactions going on). i've had it for ~6 months and get a few good hours out of it a week. i'll never get enough investement to obtain legednary gear but i'm ok with that.

the compromise being a non-continuous world with minimal load screens is well worth it. arenanet should make some improvements to grouping up, viewing othyer peoples gear, and other minor things that mmos have mastered for sometime, but overall it's really well put together. WvW is great, and the PvE has some genius stuff implemented that every mmo forward will probably copy, so i don't see how the game is "bad" by anyones standards. if you hate traditional mmos of course you are unlikely to like GW2. the only point of contention i can see is if you were coming to it for the story, and not the general world being presented to you. the story is some of the most trite shit/fantasy garbage i've ever witnessed.

i haven't really invested into the guild system all that much, but when i have more than hour at a time to play that fits into GAF guilds or my brother guild scheduled dungeon runs i look forward to doing that.

 

[etiolate]

Why is this? Guild Wars 1 had a very active PvE community, with several wikis that were updated extremely thoroughly with strategies and builds.

Eventually it did, but for the first year or so I would say the GW1 community was intensely PVP focused. The game became a good PVE game later on, but initiually the PVE was very basic. It used to be you just send your w/mos up front and everything aggroed to them and you just AoE'd everything. They then improved the PVE by changing the aggro mechanics and making the PVE more demanding like the PVP was and the PVE community and PVX build sites took shape.

I would say that the average PVE encounter in GW2 isn't that demanding to make it casual and new player friendly. They have been improving various encounters to up the difficulty, but then you get the same people complaining that things are too hard. =/ ArenaNet needs to learn that you can't please everyone.

 

[Retro]

even though there is quite a bit of microtransactions going on.

i haven't really invested into the guild system all that much, but when i have more than hour at a time to play that fits into GAF guilds or my brother guild scheduled dungeon runs i look forward to doing that.

To your first comment, there are micro-transactions, but none have any effect on gameplay. They're either expansion items (larger bank space, more character slots), convenience items (boosters to help you level specific parts of the game quicker) or cosmetic items. Getting that stuff is completely optional, really. I'm not saying you're wrong, just explaining how GW2's micro-transactions work for the benefit of those who see that term and assume the worst.

To your second command, GAFGuild doesn't have any demands or requirements for playtime, and if you're curious about the new guild missions, they only take an hour or two, usually on the weekends (and advertised well in advance). If you're not a member already, whisper any of the officers (names can be found in the OT) or send them an in-game mail. You can also PM me your name.#### and I'll invite you directly. There's no reason not to belong.

 

[Jest Chillin]

Eventually it did, but for the first year or so I would say the GW1 community was intensely PVP focused. The game became a good PVE game later on, but initiually the PVE was very basic. It used to be you just send your w/mos up front and everything aggroed to them and you just AoE'd everything. They then improved the PVE by changing the aggro mechanics and making the PVE more demanding like the PVP was and the PVE community and PVX build sites took shape.

I would say that the average PVE encounter in GW2 isn't that demanding to make it casual and new player friendly. They have been improving various encounters to up the difficulty, but then you get the same people complaining that things are too hard. =/ ArenaNet needs to learn that you can't please everyone.

Funny thing is I first play GW1 just 2 or 3 years ago. I made an Elementalist, and did exactly that. Sent my AI party up ahead and AoE'd everything down. Didn't work flawlessly but that's more or less how I progressed.

 

[Levyne]

And that's only "1 or 2 hours" for the total duration of the large scale bounty. If desired (or required, real life yo), you could get your personal reward in 5 minutes when the guild links a waypoint, help kill the boss get your commendations and get out.

 

[etiolate]

The grind with Guild Missions is the influence cost and unlock system. That and Ascended gear really have no good explanation for being the way they are. Like someone said, nobody was joyous over Ascended gear. It was either 'this sucks' or 'I can deal with it'. ANets explanations never made much sense either. That comment Celegus pulled out caught my eye, too. Like, seriously?

 

[Lady Bird]

GW2's combat is excellent, IMO. The problem is that pve encounters waste its potential. It only shines in PVP.