Guild Wars2: The only MMO for casual players
If you have been following me for a while you probably recall that I used to go on and on and on about how great Guild Wars 2 is compared to other MMO's. I still believe this to be true, especially for casual players like myself.
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I'm old enough that I don't easily become addicted to a game because but young enough that I am still interested in them. I think that a very large part of the video game demographic is in the same category as I am: We like them, but they are not what our entire life is all about. I almost never watch Twitch gaming videos and most of my life revolves around not playing video games. I do, however, still really enjoy them.
This is where MMO's can be a bit tricky. The entire system is built around addiction because whether you play the game or not, you are going to be charged for them.
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There is something really exciting about teaming up with a big group of people and going on quests (although the people in the elite category are a pain because they take the game entirely too seriously IMO) and GW2 "group-finding" system makes this even easier.
Now onto why this game is perfect for a casual gamer like me: There is no monthly subscription. If you walk away one day and come back months later, all your stuff is exactly where you left it and although you might have to refresh your knowledge on the controls, this all comes back pretty quickly.
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Plus, if you spent a long time away (I once left and came back a year later) you probably missed a lot and there will be tons to explore that you have never seen. I once returned only to find that everyone had gliders now and this was a real game changer because previously you just fell to your death when you made the wrong steps.
When I was playing Dark Age of Camelot and Anarchy Online there was always this feeling of "I gotta get my money's worth!" because you were going to be charged $20 a month (or thereabouts) whether your played the game or not. There were many free-to-play games out there but for the most part they kind of sucked or had necessary micro-transactions that kind of negated the whole notion of it being free-to-play. Guild Wars 2 is the ONLY MMO that I have found that charges no monthly fee and all the stuff you can buy with cash is completely optional and mostly aesthetic.
A new "Living World" feature was released a few days ago and it encouraged me to log in after nearly 4 months of inactivity... How much did I have to pay to take part in the new story? Nada. You never will have to pay for any of it either.
Any MMO eventually becomes a grind no matter how much the developers try to make it not so. How can you make a game that never ends be anything but? I just think that GW2 has done a fantastic job creating a game for people like me that are not going to make their life all about a game. I can come and go as I please and that really appeals to me. For anyone out there that doesn't like paying monthly subs, but also enjoys MMO's - GW2 is going to be tough to beat.
Technically the first mmo I ever played was Ultima Online. However, GW1 was the first I ever owned myself. Despite the fact that at the time everything was individually instanced it really sucked me in. GW2 was very much a life event for me. I waited for the sequel for years, grinding out the quests to transfer achievements to the next game. When it came out it was exactly what I hoped for at the time. I haven't played since Heart of Thorns but I am always tempted to start again. Having played GW1 I was always the guy commenting on lore as we came across ruins and artifacts from the time of 1 (250 years) or even more ancient. Glad to see it still has a following.
Heart of Thorns was a real game changer with the introduction of gliders and the new maps were some of the best in the game. I haven't played in months but was thinking about firing it back up to see what I missed.
There is a diminishing userbase and this becomes quite evident on massive maps where you very rarely encounter another player. People have determined how to get to certain world events on a timer and they simply do trains for that in the hopes of getting better loot. The LFG is also so effective that people don't even camp locations for this anymore either.
I think that GW2 would have been a lot better if there were class specific abilities (the trifecta). There are a ton of options for stats for your character, but none of them seem to be terribly effective except for the ones that the community has determined to be the best ones. For one thing I like the idea of being a support class with a ton of ability to heal others and also take damage myself by speccing in Toughness and Healing, but it really doesn't seem to matter how much you up these stats, the difference it makes is negligible because the power means solo batttles last long (zero sum result) and heals in a team dont generally impact the rest of the group since most heals are not shared.
They can't change this now, the game is too old and the community would cry foul if they tried.
GW2 has already survived a lot longer than most MMO's but i suspect that their days are numbered as most people simply log in for the daily rewards, complete a few items to get the daily bonus, then log out for the day.
It is still a wonderfully designed game, but the players have figured out how to "cheat the system" using massive groups and unfortunately no one really simply explores anymore. I suppose this was going to happen eventually no matter what they tried to do.
I hear you when it comes to MMO's. I once bought a guitar thinking I was going to learn how to play it and be super cool with the ladies. Then I started playing WoW and things kind of flew out the door at that point. I actually used to get in quite a lot of trouble with my wife because I was playing it so much. This was well after I had my guitar dreams and it didn't help that her brother played too so he and I would have mini LAN parties. I might have to dig into GW2 to see if the gameplay style is something that I would enjoy. Things like League of Legends never really appealed to me.
I would say the only thing GW2 did "wrong" was eliminating the Holy Trinity. I always enjoyed being a healing class and in GW there is no healing class. There are no tanks etc. It was meant to be highly customizable so that any class could be one of these things if you wanted them to, but everyone went for "glass cannon" if that means anything to you and to me this was a bit boring.
Yep, I understand what you are saying. Thanks for the info!
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