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On the fence.
The_Gambles
Member Posts: 25
I was really, very interested in Guild Wars 2 for a long while now. Although I wish I could have gotten into the weekend beta I just couldn't buy a game for that reason alone.
And now I guess I'm sorta glad I didn't. I watched some streams and nothing really stuck out to me too much and made me say "Wow, that is cool". Now, I never really played guild wars, I believe I bought it around when it first released but it felt too "confined" for an mmo to me at that time. So I moved on.
Then GW2 started talking about an MMO revolution and I was hooked.
Anyway...I came on here to see what people were reviewing the beta like as it's always a good indicator of how things are coming a long. Unfortunately all I see is rapid fanboyism and then the exact polar opposite. A lot of the streams I was watching people didn't seem that engaged in the game itself, even the gamespot stream was underwhelming. I actually enjoyed the Tera stream more.
But you just can't get a feel for a game by watching it.
Problem is I'm having a hard time finding an actual decent beta review anywhere from a neutral party. It seems like everyone has an agenda on this game. Those who have already bought the game and refuse to see any real flaw at all, and those who bought the game and are super pissed cause it didn't live up to the hype.
I suppose thats what you get when the beta is really only offered to those who bought a product before testing it.
They are of 2 kinds: Denial and Anger.
Comments
Since there is no release date yet I think its safe to ignore all 'reviews'
The only possible reason there is no release date is if the game is still under some heavy development that hasnt been finalised yet.
Tera has also under gone some fairly dramatic changes from its early beta's to the current release, again some good some bad.
As with GW1, there can potentially be huge changes... both for the good and for the bad.
But your right, there do seem to be more fan bois than usual considering how early this beta phase is.
My experience? Amazing game, stopped playing at 2 a.m. and I had to work today
That is all.
Remember... all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more.
I guess I could be considered a fan boi.
Anywho so far the majority of the people who are angry, root themselves in 2 points: 1 there were bugs and 2 they had to pay for the game. I saw peple pissed and angry because of lag, or because the server was down, or because of this or that but never because the game itself was bad. And the ones who did say that they actually hated the game, they usually sound raving and crazy making points that don't make sense. bu each and every person who 'hated' GW2, use the "Paid Beta" propeganda to insite and enflame readers, if you remove that element, their review is bare and unfounded and overly critical of an early beta.
I haven't found anyone who actually played the beta who "hated" the game. i've met several who were like "meh.. it's just not pulling me like I thought it would." But these people, quit playing the beta within the first 10 levels, didn't explore the PvP zones, and were holding themselves back for fear of "spoiling" the game for themselves come release.
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Live a life less ordinary.
Well thats the thing I was trying to get around. The 'moronic' haters. Yeah the games in beta, there will be lag and performance issues.
But unfortunately it goes both ways. For every hater there is 10 fanboy nuts making crazy claims (that even watching some of the streams) can be refuted.
I also see no consensus on anything. One person will give a review and say the combat was clunky and the next will say the combat was amazing. Then someone will say the animations feel wrong and another will say they are perfect. It's hard to pick up on these things just watching it on a stream.
I guess the problem is, usually after a beta weekend like this you have some consensus on these things but there's no much rampant fanboyism and hate going around you can't tell anything. And I know it's only going to hurt the game in the long run because you don't get constructive criticism like that. Same thing happened with SWTOR.
Why were you interested and what did you fail to see?
If you are looking for facts and not opinions then ask a factual question, otherwise all you're going to get are opinions.
Yea I pretty much dismiss any negative thoughts about performance, bugs and animation. That really isnt enough, its not a reason its just venting.
Whilst I'll definatly not be buying guildwars because of my beef with Areanet I'm genuinly interested to see how it performs on release, the beta reviews are either excesivly positive or dont have enough foundation to presume this is what the full release of GW2 would be like.
Tera is out, and is a classic full subscription MMO which is brave in this world of free to plays and again, with GW2 being so far off and public opinion always being against cash shops and f2p models, Guildwars 2 success will be down to the cash shop.
Whilst I dont want to, or cant say if Tera is 'better' or not its a full sub mmo and I'll play it along side diablo 3 and not have to think about a damn cash shop
As to your question why was I interested. Well I started seeing GW2 stuff pop up a long time ago. They were saying they are doing away with questing as we know it and were going to revolutionize the genre. I then seen some clips where the combat looked entertaining and was interested in this world where things happen around you constantly.
What did I fail to see in the stream? well that which I just mentioned above to start with. I seen streams where things would happen, those dynamic like events. But they just seemed to be the kill x, gather x, and then 10 minutes later they would repeat. As for the combat I couldn't really get a grasp of that from watching but maybe reading someone explain it could help.
And you don't look for "facts" on games. That's just silly. I'm just looking for unbiased neutral opinions on the first weekend beta of a game I have some interest in. I believe I made that pretty clear. In addition, a factual question only has 1 right answer, ex: "Do you walk in the game?" "yes you walk in the game". Any question that I could ask that would be factual and would not be based on opinion I would probably already know or would gather from watching streams, previews, etc.
I could have asked how is the combat? but that would have made my other concerns on the game as a whole null because I asked said question. Also it wouldn't be factual because it's based on opinion. Which is why I'm asking for an unbiased review or take on the beta.
Those two categories that you clump people into are not all inclusive. There are plenty of players who issues fair reviews, and you can usually discern them from fanboy/hater comments.
It should be noted that a "neutral" review does not mean it will not be negative or positive. Neutrality simply applies to the approach one takes in making an assessment. The conclusions drawn from that neutral assessment may then be either positive or negative, usually including a bit of both in the form of pros and cons. However, this process will always be subjective, and almost everyone will have a predisposition toward the game in one direction or the other prior to playing it; but this doesn't make fair reviews impossible for everyone--some apparently, yes, but not everyone.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I was hoping for. Just having trouble finding. I'm not looking for a positive or negative review or even one that falls in the middle. I'm just searching for one that doesn't wreak on BS after the second paragraph. It's very easy to tell when someone is biased one way or another, even more so when you can look at there post history and see all they have been talking about is GW2 for the past year. Sometimes I wish people wouldn't stake so much in games and actually invest themselves into it. That way they could give back good criticism. Actually I'm reading one on the review section now that seems pretty level headed
.
I don't think a player being extremely excited for the game before hand (as indicated by a year's full of posts about the game) necessarily has to skew his review of the game, and I don't think it should necessarily skew the credibility you give the review. I have personally been very excited for GW2, but I also consider myself perfectly capable of finding flaws where flaws exist. There have been plenty of players on these boars who have been actively and eagerly following GW2 for some time who have also voiced a rather large list of conerns. You can be excited and still grounded in reality.
Again, unfortunately it seems not everybody is capable of this, but many certainly are
As for your other post about conflicting reviews on the same exact aspects of the game, such as combat, all I can really say there is you will eventually have to try it yourself to form your own opinion. Also look for players who actually give reasons why they claim something is good or bad. So many posters are great at forming opinions and stating what those opinions are, but aren't necessarily the most articulate and can't adequately express why they feel that way.
Yeah, there are basically three types of folks who've critiqued the game:
1) Rabid, hivemind fanboys who believe the game is perfect and without blemish. You can identify them from the constant phrases they keep uttering on every thread critiquing the game: "Strange, that never happened to me. " Or "Odd, I never experienced that issue." Or, "That's weird, because I kind of liked that feature." These folks have convinced themselves ahead of time that this game is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and have deluded themselves to the point that they just gloss over or totally ignore any real issues with it.
2) Equally-as-rabid haters of the game. They pop up as a result of the overzealous and arrogant attitude of the first group of folks, who have spent the majority of their time pre-beta infesting the forums of other games and letting everyone know that Gw2 is superior to their game. As a result, these haters go into the beta and find any little flaw in the game, trump it up to some game-breaking feature, and decry the game as D.O.A just to give the first group of folks some much needed humility and comeuppance. Chances are that even a few of these folks never even played the beta, but just claimed to have to give their criticisms more weight.
3) And then you have the third group of folks, who believe that GW2 is a good, solid game, with some flaws that ArenaNet is going to need to iron out pre-release. These folks will tend to shade more towards the positive, since there are more positives than negatives with the game, but also acknowledge that this game isn't going to be the MMO Savior that the fanboys in Group 1 were trumpeting it to be, and may not be for everyone. Some of thee folks may even acknowledge that the game won't be for them, while still giving it its due praise. The give specific examples of things that ArenaNet did right, and specific examples of things they did wrong. The things they did right won't be genre-changing, but will lend itself to a very good, fun game for them. The things they did wrong won't be game-breaking by any means, but are things they'd like to see changed.
Obviously, the truth most likely lies with group 3: It's going to be a very good game, but has its flaws. It won't be for everyone, and it's not going to turn the world on its ear.
If you came to mmorpg.com for "reviews" of the game to get a feel for it, that was a stupid choice.
Everyone and their sister who didn't have a good CPU computer had horrible lag. And they all made threads to complain about it.
Yes there were login problems, It Is a BETA thought isn't it?
I seen a thread on how the que was the worst ever? It put me in an instance and i got to keep playing, with about 30 others who were in that qued instance, so best que i've seen yet.
You won't seem immersed until you touch the combat, or feel the DE's.
Saturday morning i logged in to my thief, he was only lvl 5. And i ran over to a keep that was being taken by Centaurs, there was about 15 people trying to defend bu ti couldn't get there in time, they lost it. So they all respawned, and we went back to the keep, we knocked the gates down and flooded the courtyard, it was epic, for PvE that is. I've never been immersed by PvE, i like DAoC PvP where it's hectic, and that is what this felt like, people weren't assisting but were focusing all in the same area of mobs, taking the right courtyard first, the move over to the left. In other words, i had more fun at level 5 in PvE than i have in just about any game at endgame PvE.
I will admit, the first 10 levels are rough, you are learning your guy, what weapon sets work best, how they work, that kind of stuff. When i hit level 8 i decided to do my personal story quests, which the dialogue is kind of cheesy lol, that i have to admit, but the story is good. Any ways i had to infiltrate a merc camp, disguised as them, gain their trust, then turn the over. I had to kill this water mob, i forget the name, but it took me like 3 tries and about 15 minutes. He was my level, and a boss, so it was rough. I had to equip my shortbow and keep evading away, and shadowstepping all while putting constant dps on him, it was fun, challenging, it wasn't easymode for sure, which is what i like. Every game i play now the first 1/2 of the game is like a walk through some daisy field killing butterflies and leveling up, this wasn't, i had to work for my first 10.
The problems people are complaining about are ALL BETA related, the combat is smooth (if you didn't get lag), the log-ins sucked, i got kicked out saturday night, but whatever i was kind of tired haha, The CS is a load of BS, it isn't P2W, because there isn't anything special you can buy with either gems or in game gold, it all does the same thing but looks different.
The outfits in the cash shop looked lame too haha, chefs outfit? Really? Anyways, i hope this kind of helps, once they optimize the game, and put it more GPU dependant, half these threads will become nonsense. And don't take someones word for it being JUST LIKE WAR! Because on the server i was on, one server wasn't even WvWin, so it was team v team, which was intense in itself, they way outnumbered us and we held them off 4-5 times.
In my opinion, launch isn't going to be pretty, and neither will the first month of the game, atleast for WvW. You will have your large guild servers dominating the smaller servers, or less organized ones. But once they start to even out, and you get similar playstyle servers, or numbers, that is where the fun is at. Or if you like running in large 80+ guilds, Join one of those servers. Cause when they start moving up the leaderboard, they will have more even fights as well, just at a larger scale.
$60 well spent for me, i see atleast a year or two of playing, (unless these new DAoC patches are awesome!)
The "Youtube Pro": Someone who watches video's on said subject, and obviously has a full understanding of what is being said about such subject.