After the mess HOT made i can understand not falling for this expansion. We will have to do a wait and see on this and forget buying pre order. My hope is they learned something and went back to how fun the game was at launch.
Maybe it's because it's B2P and it's guild wars but this sounds very underwhelming for an expansion.
How many new open world zones does the rest of the games have in expansions? I seen P2P games having fewer (EQ2 for instance).
Sure, they could have added a new race as well but the amount of content seems pretty standard to me. Besides, they have also added 5 smaller zones in the living story the last year (they are still relatively large) so the open world zones isn't really a problem.
They didn't really say much about PvP so far though and if they didn't add anything there that is not good.
And don't say Guildwars is underwhelming, GW: Nightfall is by far the largest expansion I ever seen in any MMORPG so the IP certainly had larger expansions once.
What really matters though is what they add between the expansions, that is a huge difference and if they continue like the last year it certainly is no problem.
Ground mounts didn't exist historically to skip content. I'm not sure where you got that from but it's a fiction. In older MMOs the maps and worlds used to be so huge that traveling across the map could take a long time. In LotRO it could take more than 45 minutes to walk from one side of the map to the other.
If anything teleports like waypoints were invented as a way to quick travel and skip content. Ground mounts meant that you had to ride through the all the content, just not at such a slow speed. Typically old mmo mount speeds were only a 25% - 50% speed increase.
The problem with ANet is they always try and second guess how gamers play and control how they interact with the game. They've done this since they implemented anti-farming code into Guild Wars 1 because they wanted players to "experience all the content". They're doing it again with mounts.
Grounds mounts historically existed to make those 45 minutes of walking into 15 minutes of riding, which meant you would be doing something else and every couple minutes took a peak at the screen to see if you hugging the wall or if some mob hit you and made you dismount.
Second, historically in MMOs content becomes obsolete but it still takes 45 minutes to walk that map full of obsolete mobs that have no chance in hell of killing you.
So, yeah, mounts historically did exist to skip content (obsolete) and/or as a gold sink to remove a time sink (although the gold to buy a mount was generally a decent time sink).
The speed percentage increase is irrelevant - it is all about how fast your character can cross a map in the first place.
GW2 has no subscription fee, so it doesn't need to put in front of you 45 minutes of walking maps. You click a button and go do whatever you want and/or whoever you want.
Ah, and none of the content becomes obsolete.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
So I decided to give GW2 another shot, currently playing a Sylvani Necromancer. Any tips for a casual player without a high level main to help bankroll a newbie character?
They lost me with HOT, overly complicated navigation around areas, impossible to solo (yes, I LOVE to solo besides it is necessity for me as I can play usually late when impossible to get help; in past I loved to heal with many games), .... I do not have single max leveled alt, before I had nearly all. Original Gw2 was for me one of best gaming experiences, like Wow, Swtor, .... Probably at some time I will buy expansion, but I seriously doubt this will be before around new year. Not falling for preorder trap this time no matter bonuses. Untill then we will know if it is again disappointment as HOT is (for me at least and for many others as I have followed various forums). As I do NOT plan to level any of my alts through HOT torture, I will use one max level they offer and will have to select carefully among existing alts.
They really lost me with HoT for similar reasons. It's just a mess. For solo/casual player it was very off putting. I'm not touching PoF until it goes on sale. Maybe not even then.
I remember when GW2 launched and Colin Johanson promised nothing would be unfun. Well, the entirety of HoT was completely unfun.
They lost me with HOT, overly complicated navigation around areas, impossible to solo (yes, I LOVE to solo besides it is necessity for me as I can play usually late when impossible to get help; in past I loved to heal with many games), .... I do not have single max leveled alt, before I had nearly all. Original Gw2 was for me one of best gaming experiences, like Wow, Swtor, .... Probably at some time I will buy expansion, but I seriously doubt this will be before around new year. Not falling for preorder trap this time no matter bonuses. Untill then we will know if it is again disappointment as HOT is (for me at least and for many others as I have followed various forums). As I do NOT plan to level any of my alts through HOT torture, I will use one max level they offer and will have to select carefully among existing alts.
They really lost me with HoT for similar reasons. It's just a mess. For solo/casual player it was very off putting. I'm not touching PoF until it goes on sale. Maybe not even then.
I remember when GW2 launched and Colin Johanson promised nothing would be unfun. Well, the entirety of HoT was completely unfun.
I'm so happy it was torturous for folks. It weeded out those who felt they've always needed a clear direction. From the begin GW2 was supposed to be about exploration, but folks felt they need a fucking Duffy Guide so the tears poured in.
I really wish ANET would randomize the timers for event world boss timers, eliminating sites like Duffy to continue hand holding folks.
Fucking hell, we have enough of this already we don't need to continue to enable this behavior in a video game.
I'm so happy it was torturous for folks. It weeded out those who felt they've always needed a clear direction. From the begin GW2 was supposed to be about exploration, but folks felt they need a fucking Duffy Guide so the tears poured in.
I really wish ANET would randomize the timers for event world boss timers, eliminating sites like Duffy to continue hand holding folks.
Fucking hell, we have enough of this already we don't need to continue to enable this behavior in a video game.
HoTs problem for me was more the replay value of many of the new zones and the fact that the last one needed so many people online but that the megaservers worked badly for it. When there just is enough people to beat it in the weekdays no matter how well you play that doesn't exactly help.
It was certainly not the worst MMO expansion but all of the first games expansions were far better made.
The difficulty was just about right though, I can just solo the hero point mobs with my thief as long as I didn't get hit with about a minute to spare and fewer then 5 players still can't mess up to badly or they fail. There are a few exceptions with adds that I just ain't good enough to run solo but I usually run with my guildies anyways and solo the ones I can when I'm bored.
I also want a better randomized timer for world bosses but I want a message to the people in the zone and the zones next to it, you notice when someone like the claw appears even if you are a bit away and then I can do other stuff while waiting for it instead of just standing and waiting.
But HoT was still so-so for me, fun in the beginning but once I 100% all the zones the replay value was far less then the original zones. I hope this will be better (it looks good but that doesn't mean much.
Comments
Sure, they could have added a new race as well but the amount of content seems pretty standard to me. Besides, they have also added 5 smaller zones in the living story the last year (they are still relatively large) so the open world zones isn't really a problem.
They didn't really say much about PvP so far though and if they didn't add anything there that is not good.
And don't say Guildwars is underwhelming, GW: Nightfall is by far the largest expansion I ever seen in any MMORPG so the IP certainly had larger expansions once.
What really matters though is what they add between the expansions, that is a huge difference and if they continue like the last year it certainly is no problem.
Second, historically in MMOs content becomes obsolete but it still takes 45 minutes to walk that map full of obsolete mobs that have no chance in hell of killing you.
So, yeah, mounts historically did exist to skip content (obsolete) and/or as a gold sink to remove a time sink (although the gold to buy a mount was generally a decent time sink).
The speed percentage increase is irrelevant - it is all about how fast your character can cross a map in the first place.
GW2 has no subscription fee, so it doesn't need to put in front of you 45 minutes of walking maps. You click a button and go do whatever you want and/or whoever you want.
Ah, and none of the content becomes obsolete.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
They really lost me with HoT for similar reasons. It's just a mess. For solo/casual player it was very off putting. I'm not touching PoF until it goes on sale. Maybe not even then.
I remember when GW2 launched and Colin Johanson promised nothing would be unfun. Well, the entirety of HoT was completely unfun.
From the begin GW2 was supposed to be about exploration, but folks felt they need a fucking Duffy Guide so the tears poured in.
I really wish ANET would randomize the timers for event world boss timers, eliminating sites like Duffy to continue hand holding folks.
Fucking hell, we have enough of this already we don't need to continue to enable this behavior in a video game.
Bob
It was certainly not the worst MMO expansion but all of the first games expansions were far better made.
The difficulty was just about right though, I can just solo the hero point mobs with my thief as long as I didn't get hit with about a minute to spare and fewer then 5 players still can't mess up to badly or they fail. There are a few exceptions with adds that I just ain't good enough to run solo but I usually run with my guildies anyways and solo the ones I can when I'm bored.
I also want a better randomized timer for world bosses but I want a message to the people in the zone and the zones next to it, you notice when someone like the claw appears even if you are a bit away and then I can do other stuff while waiting for it instead of just standing and waiting.
But HoT was still so-so for me, fun in the beginning but once I 100% all the zones the replay value was far less then the original zones. I hope this will be better (it looks good but that doesn't mean much.