GW2 did so much right but does indeed have one MASSIVE fatal flaw. There is no loot... well mostly. Path of Exile proves players will retread content endlessly for loot. GW2 can create an endless amount of story content but it will never compete against a great loot engine. Farming for those perfect drops just doesn't exist in GW2 which IMO is its biggest drawback.
Guild Wars 2's problem isn't no loot. There is lots of loot - even too much. Bag management can be a pain. Guild Wars 2 suffers from the Warframe problem - everything is crafted through dropped materials or exchanged from grinding currencies. Very little in the way of exciting rare prestige drops from enemies.
You are talking about inventory management not actual loot. Loot is a valuable item taken from a defeated enemy. GW2 has items that drop from an enemy but the value is in accumulation not the items themselves. Virtually all drops are trash. There are some exceptions but they are incredibly rare. Generally most if not all player usable gear is purchased or crafted with none of it being "dropped".
Essentially GW2 has no loot engine as in valuable gear dropped on the death of an enemy with enough regularity it is farmed by players since players rarely if ever use the drops they collect as gear. Nobody is going to play a slot machine if it never actually rewards a player with anything meaningful.
I actually just returned to GW2 myself, bought all the newest expansions and have already become bored of the game less than a week in. Something about knowing there's virtually no vertical progression (gear grind/enhancement) makes me feel like nothing's being achieved.
I don't particularly care about stories and content without meaningful rewards are boring (I don't care about cosmetics). Unfortunately for me, that means the entirety of GW2 past level 80 is not my kind of game.
But I'll be slogging through the content until August 31st (New World release!), as I just spent 50.00 dollars on the expensions in GW2 and I don't have many other options at the moment.
Well met, and I am going to start off by saying I like the honesty of your post.
You know what you want from an MMO, total respect, you are the kind of player that wants that very traditional WoW style MMO, with continual level cap increases, endless gear grind, and truth is, GW2, was originally designed for exactly NOT that demographic.
They even went so far as to say their MMO was for the "Everyone Else" meaning the people that didn't want the traditional WoW system, and were looking for a more casual, easy, game.
While they have moronically done an about face to some degree and put in Raids and tried to make some asinine hardcore content changes, which I would bet, for someone like yourself, ended up being weak sauce lame content, to the point of being downright pitiful, and failing miserably to be a real game changer and gripping aspect of the game for someone like yourself, that is looking for real, meaningful challenge, the reality is the game from day 1, was never really suited for your demographic, so it will never correctly scratch that itch for you, all they did was pretty much fuck up the game, and piss of a lot of their core fan base.
Anyway, I hope you at least get your $50 worth from the expansions, I hope you find New World to be more your vibe, as a good Traditional MMO that does not feel like a Cheap Knock off of WoW, is in fact hard to find.
I wish you well in that endeavor.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
I have to agree, wasn't able to get into this game either, tried various "classes", found nothing at all interesting. Everything felt soul-less, generic. Felt very much "console-centric" which is a thing I utterly despise.
"Journalism" in 2021. It's like a 13 year old child wrote this piece.
What an absolute joke.
To be fair, and far be it from me to defend today's "journalists," but I don't think this website is intended to be journalism.
IGN, on the other hand...
I actually just returned to GW2 myself, bought all the newest expansions and have already become bored of the game less than a week in. Something about knowing there's virtually no vertical progression (gear grind/enhancement) makes me feel like nothing's being achieved.
I don't particularly care about stories and content without meaningful rewards are boring (I don't care about cosmetics). Unfortunately for me, that means the entirety of GW2 past level 80 is not my kind of game.
But I'll be slogging through the content until August 31st (New World release!), as I just spent 50.00 dollars on the expensions in GW2 and I don't have many other options at the moment.
I understand what you mean when talking about vertical progression, back in the days coming from WoW that was a huge problem for me as well. However, when I returned to GW2 a few years after, I found my old characters still wearing decent gear which would work well also in the latest content - and I fell in love with the system
The GW2 ascended gear is quiet some work to get, and is about 10% better than the "easy to get" exotic version. The legendary gear takes A LOT of effort to get and has equal stats to ascended, but looks badass and gives huge convenience advantages regarding respecs, role changes, build diversity etc. So, I would say GW2 got it's gear progression all though it's not about watching an item level rise.
This brings me back to my WoW example again, which is vertical in its progression yet has imo the worst loot system and boring gear progression mechanics among all AAA mmos. Seriously, secondary stats hardly matters at all, main stat > everything = just wear the item with the highest item level. Zzzzzzz.
GW2 is the most polished game that I just can't get myself to give two shits about. I played it quite extensively trying to get into it with class after class and I came to the same conclusion every time. That it's great on the surface but not very deep in any way.
I'm all about character progression via a deep skill system and diverse loot. The skill system is horrible and loot is as non-diverse as any game I've ever played.
I want to like it but it just offers nothing that I enjoy.
So - what's been your mmo home the last couple of years?
Not surprised by the journalism being done so poorly. They play till like lvl 20 and then write a review.
Seen many complaints from writers that don't understand that the early game lvl's are supposed to be easy to get to end game content faster. Where the real content is at. Like they never played an mmorpg b4.
Not surprised by the journalism being done so poorly. They play till like lvl 20 and then write a review.
Seen many complaints from writers that don't understand that the early game lvl's are supposed to be easy to get to end game content faster. Where the real content is at. Like they never played an mmorpg b4.
Personally, I'm surprised that this doesn't skew the review more positive. Guild Wars 2's leveling experience is really fun. I'd know. I've only done it a couple dozen times.
The user and all related content has been deleted.
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
The user and all related content has been deleted.
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
You need at leat 400hs + of deep gameplay to properly make a review off a game that have like 9+ year, all people talking about how bad is the game, just scrach the surface of the game, the most common in all mmos, so all this opinion even the mmorpg one are without foundation,they are only based on personal tastes
Personally, downscaling has spoiled me. It's so good for world design, content relevance, and replayability that I'd never want to go back to a strictly linear experience. Guild Wars 2 expands, other MMOs merely shift.
It was a spot-on Reroll, at least from my perspective. I have the very same struggle when it comes to GW2... when talking about the game with fellows who play GW2.
As Theocritus said, can't really put the finger on the issue, and usually end up in similarly widespread, all over the place conversation about everything related to the game.
(there's one difference though, the end of the article's "Hell, I’d rather play some Genshin Impact than load back into GW2." - Genshin? fuck no )
GW2 just doesn't click to me, I guess. Looks great, some mechanics are fun, I still used to go back sometimes (SAB, you nostalgia-filled event, you), but I never last more than a couple weeks.
There ain't a clear reason for that (sure I hate forced scaling, but that usually kicks in after some longer play for me, I used to leave GW2 before its scaling starts to really bug me), it's more of a general feel...
Mitch used a fitting term in the story section of the article: "It was all very uninspiring."
Pretty much that's the case with me. When I'm back (and it ain't SAB time) I hunt down some vistas and challenges, running around and clear some more hearts, and after a while I just notice I don't feel the urge/need to log in.
(footnote to the build section, weapons and skills, weapon swap, etc.,
"For me, this style of skill assignment is much more intuitive than a regular skill tree."
If that's the case, you'd be blown away by late TSW's Wheel... )
GW2 did so much right but does indeed have one MASSIVE fatal flaw. There is no loot... well mostly. Path of Exile proves players will retread content endlessly for loot. GW2 can create an endless amount of story content but it will never compete against a great loot engine. Farming for those perfect drops just doesn't exist in GW2 which IMO is its biggest drawback.
Guild Wars 2's problem isn't no loot. There is lots of loot - even too much. Bag management can be a pain. Guild Wars 2 suffers from the Warframe problem - everything is crafted through dropped materials or exchanged from grinding currencies. Very little in the way of exciting rare prestige drops from enemies.
You are talking about inventory management not actual loot. Loot is a valuable item taken from a defeated enemy. GW2 has items that drop from an enemy but the value is in accumulation not the items themselves. Virtually all drops are trash. There are some exceptions but they are incredibly rare. Generally most if not all player usable gear is purchased or crafted with none of it being "dropped".
Essentially GW2 has no loot engine as in valuable gear dropped on the death of an enemy with enough regularity it is farmed by players since players rarely if ever use the drops they collect as gear. Nobody is going to play a slot machine if it never actually rewards a player with anything meaningful.
I'm a huge Gw2 fan but I can't agree more with you on this one. There's nothing worse than doing high skilled encounters that take map-wide coordination or a 50-man squad that has to work perfectly in sync and end up with bunch of blue trash items. This just kills me.
Thing is, most themepark MMOs fall for this. How do you drop meaningful drops without throwing the economy into the gutter? EVE does it but one moment you have the best ship the next moment you are imploded and you just lost all your shit.
I actually just returned to GW2 myself, bought all the newest expansions and have already become bored of the game less than a week in. Something about knowing there's virtually no vertical progression (gear grind/enhancement) makes me feel like nothing's being achieved.
I don't particularly care about stories and content without meaningful rewards are boring (I don't care about cosmetics). Unfortunately for me, that means the entirety of GW2 past level 80 is not my kind of game.
But I'll be slogging through the content until August 31st (New World release!), as I just spent 50.00 dollars on the expensions in GW2 and I don't have many other options at the moment.
GW2 is one of those games that I can't put my finger on what's wrong with it, but I can't really tell anything that I like about it either.....I guess that just makes it lukewarm so I move on quickly....I know I found the quests to be boring (as I do in most MMOs) and the events get old after you do the first few.
The main problem with GW2, if you must know, was that it was intended to be another short term run like GW1, and no doubt their Vaporware Hidden Project™ was GW3, so they were willing to throw all kinds of mismatched ideas into the game as they never viewed it as a long haul game, I have 100% faith that Anet was expecting to Maintenance Mode GW2 by 2017, and not be saddled with it this long.
Some players really feel that, they see the game as just lacking something.. and that something being Long Term Vision and Direction, which no doubt is why it feels hollow and lacking to those players.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
I actually just returned to GW2 myself, bought all the newest expansions and have already become bored of the game less than a week in. Something about knowing there's virtually no vertical progression (gear grind/enhancement) makes me feel like nothing's being achieved.
I don't particularly care about stories and content without meaningful rewards are boring (I don't care about cosmetics). Unfortunately for me, that means the entirety of GW2 past level 80 is not my kind of game.
But I'll be slogging through the content until August 31st (New World release!), as I just spent 50.00 dollars on the expensions in GW2 and I don't have many other options at the moment.
GW2 is one of those games that I can't put my finger on what's wrong with it, but I can't really tell anything that I like about it either.....I guess that just makes it lukewarm so I move on quickly....I know I found the quests to be boring (as I do in most MMOs) and the events get old after you do the first few.
The main problem with GW2, if you must know, was that it was intended to be another short term run like GW1, and no doubt their Vaporware Hidden Project™ was GW3, so they were willing to throw all kinds of mismatched ideas into the game as they never viewed it as a long haul game, I have 100% faith that Anet was expecting to Maintenance Mode GW2 by 2017, and not be saddled with it this long.
Some players really feel that, they see the game as just lacking something.. and that something being Long Term Vision and Direction, which no doubt is why it feels hollow and lacking to those players.
While I am one of many that feel it is lacking something, I'm not sure it's the long term vision. I think their short term vision/design was what was lacking for me. The lack of vertical progression and the minimization of instanced dungeons/raids was made more problematic thanks to disappointing WvWvW with massive maps and boring zerg strategy. The same goes for the zerged world bosses.
I felt like they had a solid foundation but they just never improved it enough. I quit for good when I bought the HoT expac a year later and the final story fight bugged out. I just had no interest in redoing the mandatory fights before it and I found the zone design to be tedious.
I never really felt the combat worked well either.
Comments
Essentially GW2 has no loot engine as in valuable gear dropped on the death of an enemy with enough regularity it is farmed by players since players rarely if ever use the drops they collect as gear. Nobody is going to play a slot machine if it never actually rewards a player with anything meaningful.
You know what you want from an MMO, total respect, you are the kind of player that wants that very traditional WoW style MMO, with continual level cap increases, endless gear grind, and truth is, GW2, was originally designed for exactly NOT that demographic.
They even went so far as to say their MMO was for the "Everyone Else" meaning the people that didn't want the traditional WoW system, and were looking for a more casual, easy, game.
While they have moronically done an about face to some degree and put in Raids and tried to make some asinine hardcore content changes, which I would bet, for someone like yourself, ended up being weak sauce lame content, to the point of being downright pitiful, and failing miserably to be a real game changer and gripping aspect of the game for someone like yourself, that is looking for real, meaningful challenge, the reality is the game from day 1, was never really suited for your demographic, so it will never correctly scratch that itch for you, all they did was pretty much fuck up the game, and piss of a lot of their core fan base.
Anyway, I hope you at least get your $50 worth from the expansions, I hope you find New World to be more your vibe, as a good Traditional MMO that does not feel like a Cheap Knock off of WoW, is in fact hard to find.
I wish you well in that endeavor.
To be fair, and far be it from me to defend today's "journalists," but I don't think this website is intended to be journalism.
IGN, on the other hand...
I understand what you mean when talking about vertical progression, back in the days coming from WoW that was a huge problem for me as well. However, when I returned to GW2 a few years after, I found my old characters still wearing decent gear which would work well also in the latest content - and I fell in love with the system
The GW2 ascended gear is quiet some work to get, and is about 10% better than the "easy to get" exotic version. The legendary gear takes A LOT of effort to get and has equal stats to ascended, but looks badass and gives huge convenience advantages regarding respecs, role changes, build diversity etc. So, I would say GW2 got it's gear progression all though it's not about watching an item level rise.
This brings me back to my WoW example again, which is vertical in its progression yet has imo the worst loot system and boring gear progression mechanics among all AAA mmos. Seriously, secondary stats hardly matters at all, main stat > everything = just wear the item with the highest item level. Zzzzzzz.
So - what's been your mmo home the last couple of years?
Seen many complaints from writers that don't understand that the early game lvl's are supposed to be easy to get to end game content faster. Where the real content is at. Like they never played an mmorpg b4.
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
Thing is, most themepark MMOs fall for this. How do you drop meaningful drops without throwing the economy into the gutter? EVE does it but one moment you have the best ship the next moment you are imploded and you just lost all your shit.
Some players really feel that, they see the game as just lacking something.. and that something being Long Term Vision and Direction, which no doubt is why it feels hollow and lacking to those players.
While I am one of many that feel it is lacking something, I'm not sure it's the long term vision. I think their short term vision/design was what was lacking for me. The lack of vertical progression and the minimization of instanced dungeons/raids was made more problematic thanks to disappointing WvWvW with massive maps and boring zerg strategy. The same goes for the zerged world bosses.
I felt like they had a solid foundation but they just never improved it enough. I quit for good when I bought the HoT expac a year later and the final story fight bugged out. I just had no interest in redoing the mandatory fights before it and I found the zone design to be tedious.
I never really felt the combat worked well either.