Camp out
With Guild Wars 2 there's no grind! All the back-tracking to hand in quests to NPCs and fetch quests are gone, replaced by 20-plus zones and a multitude of fun and creative goals represented by hearts pulling me around the map. The traditional MMO linear quest grind is replaced with an amazingly natural feeling open-ended journey.
If Big Daddy and R2-D2 had a baby...
Collaborating with friends, who are sure to be playing too or even just random people on quests with multiple facets makes me feel that what I am doing has real purpose. Camping is a thing of the past, and now I look forward to other players showing up to help me out.
Grouping is automatic and inherently social; the bosses and quests change difficulty, particularly how many people keep showing up to join the fight. Everyone gets their own loot and experience so there’s no difficult silence when you all roll for BoP goodies.
Sense of direction
Guild Wars 2's dynamic event system isn’t new but it’s been refined and improved from such games as Rift and Warhammer Online. While I am exploring, my UI will alert me to nearby events that I can join or ignore. Try not to miss these events as they reward massive XP bonuses and loot. Win or lose, these events reshape the world around me.
Contested areas, easily traveled to by teleportation gates make intense battlegrounds where if I don't help out and my side loses my lovely gate access closes and I have to tromp back through the lizards.
Playing in the corner on honeycomb
Guild Wars 2's basis lies in the EverQuest MMO model. Discovery is key; I am rewarded for being part of my own complex narrative. This game is a clever intuitive concentration of what makes a great MMO. Arenanet understands that’s why I play MMOs and rewards me for everything I do, from chopping down trees to mining and gathering. The fact I'm giving the game my time is appreciated.
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Next page: She's got the loot
COMMENTS
Re: Hmmm
Grind isn't grind unless you're repeating the SAME content because you have to. If you're playing, and enjoying the tasks you're doing, that is by definition, not a grind.
Good example of a grind is doing WoW heroics over and over to get the correct number of badges so you can ride into raids. Not many different pieces of content, but the same pieces of content over and over.
Loving it at the moment
I'm a casual 'casual mmo'er' and I'm loving GW2. While the main game is fun and they've cracked the whole 'other people being in the area is a good thing', it's the little things that have hooked me. Being able to gather all materials is a great start, automatically storing crafting goods in the bank from anywhere is a great point and crafting materials don't use up bank slots is the icing on the cake. They've sat down, looked at the hoops people jump through by creating 'bank alts' and removed them. Very little gets in the way of enjoying the game.
As I get bored of mmo's very easily, the little distractions they've added are great. My aimless wandering now earns XP woot. There may even be a chance I'll have completed the story by the time the first expansion comes out, it's that good. I was only 55 when the burning crusade came out for WoW and I had been playing since day one.
For the more casual player, end game content just isn't an issue. Life is too short to grind away at end game content, and making a continuous chunk of my time available for a raid is not something I'm prepared to do. I want to be able to stop for a cuppa/go to bed when I need to.
For me, the vast majority of my time would be spent on the main game content (before the end game content). It took me at least three months of playing WoW to level a single character to around 60, at which point I stopped playing because it's just too expensive to justify a monthly subscription if you are a casual gamer. Not to mention the fact that everyone else I played with seemed to have levelled way faster, because they put more time in.
When you look at the cost of GW2, and the amount of content it has, it seems like a great proposition for the more casual gamer. It solves a number of problems with the WoW model for me. I just want to have a chat with my brother while mucking about smashing monsters once in a while.
Very tempted (all I have to do now is tear him away from his new panda - he's more dedicated).
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