How did you come to Guild Wars 2?

Just curious. How did you find Guild Wars 2 and start playing?

I had quit my previous game, and when I was ready to look for a new one, I just googled something like 'Best free fantasy mmorpg' and ended up here. Since it looked interesting, had cool non-human races, and rangers got to collect pets, I decided to try it out.

"Advertisement" is probably closest. Actually, I think it might have been an article first, then the trailers. anyway, I never played GW1 and I think it was on Tom Chick's blog that I read about his beta experiences and was interested enough to check some trailers. I liked the one showing the Sylvari and other races, I thought it looked pretty and interesting, so I pre-ordered and the early beta hooked me.

Free trial weekend.GW2efficiency says "Created Sep 27, 2013 14:17"So whenever weekend that free trial was.

About 2 months after GW2 release, I got a 100 euro gift card as a present for working for my employer for 20 years. I liked GW1, but was worried about needing to group to get any further in game (I prefer solo). Didn't really know what dynamic events in GW2 etc. meant.But I was so curious about GW2, and receiving this gift card was a good moment to try it out! Never regretted my purchase! :)

Saw friends playing it on discord, sounded like they were having fun so I gave it a shot. In 7 nights, I had a level 80 Elementalist. I even went ahead and purchased both Path of Fire and Heart of Thorns after I finished leveling.

My brother and I played guild wars 1 for about a few months when it first came out and we both kind of dropped it. I really like progression and I wasn't feeling that after hitting the cap(which felt super low). I tried one of the betas for guild wars 2 and really liked it, so I went back to the original because I wanted the things you could unlock. I remember that I unlocked what I considered to be quite a bit. While doing this, I became addicted to the pvp in the original. I only stopped once gw2 launched. I got my guardian to 80 and traded any coin I got for gems. I bought enough slots for all of the professions at the time and, after that, my interest petered out. I returned once about two years ago. I remember that I reinstalled just because I didn't want to lose my character names and I knew I'd want to play it again at some point. About 2-3 months ago, I returned again. PoF masteries really kept my interest and now I mostly just do meta/exploration/crafting.

I've been in GW's since beta 2005 and when they announced 3 years later there was going to be a 2 me and mine celebrated big time. And built our HOMs before it was a cakewalk to do like in the last 8 years or so. No regrets since!

@"Cragga the Eighty Third.6015" said:I had quit my previous game, and when I was ready to look for a new one, I just googled something like 'Best free fantasy mmorpg' and ended up here. Since it looked interesting, had cool non-human races, and rangers got to collect pets, I decided to try it out.

That's me, too. I played WoW up until WotLK, then spent several years away from MMOs. I got the bug again and went back to WoW briefly, but I just wasn't feeling WoD. So I left and started searching for whatever else was out there. Since I sort of burnt out on hardcore raiding in WoW, GW2 being advertised as a casual game caught my eye and they had recently released their first expansion. HoT was so awesome, I was hooked from the moment I stepped into the jungle! The combat, the crazy vertical layouts, the events - it was all so much better than open world content in WoW. I didn't even miss raiding! And then they released raids, too!

@AliamRationem.5172 said:

@"Cragga the Eighty Third.6015" said:I had quit my previous game, and when I was ready to look for a new one, I just googled something like 'Best free fantasy mmorpg' and ended up here. Since it looked interesting, had cool non-human races, and rangers got to collect pets, I decided to try it out.

Heh, I didn't have HoT at first, I worked up from Level 1 in central Tyria...and I remember running through Metrica Province and the Caledon Forest, amazed at how beautiful everything was.

I got a new computer and looked at several games that my old one couldn't handle. GW2 came out on top.

My husband bought me the game 3 months after first release of Guild Wars 2. I now play a lot more than him, and haven't really taken any breaks from my game time apart from the usual holidays/rl stuff etc. Yeah, I still enjoy what I do in Tyria. There's a few problems, but nothing right now that makes me think I want to stop playing.

      I was just getting out of my junior high years of Runescape when I started Gw.  Factions came out and My friend had the god awful dialup, and let me borrow his version. Took me a weekend to be sold and went and bought prophecies and faction the end of that weekend too. 

I've never taken a break, I've only missed days here and there because of life. But, over a decade veteran, and the Guild Wars franchise will be my only and last Mmo

graduated from gw1

My brother's friend got Guild Wars, got my brother into it and he got me into it. (Or rather seeing the charr and hearing that it was an MMO with no subscription got me into it.)

They both stopped playing a few months after I started, I stuck with it. When GW2 was announced it actually took me a long time to get interested and start looking for info on it, but then it took a long time before there was anything to find (I think they first announced it when they'd literally just decided to make a new game). I started reading about it, watching peview videos etc. reading the hype during the build up to each new profession being announced, followed by the rage that it was obviously over-powered and would dominate everything else...

Very unusually for me I decided to pre-purchase it and so got to play the betas (which I mostly used to decide my first 4 characters) and I've been here ever since.

I came as a refugee from City of Heroes after it closed down, distraught and disoriented, desperately and forlornly searching for my inspiration window and confusedly trying to slot sigils into my attacks

Read a review in PC Gaming magazine.

Never played an MMO before but it sounded great and I tried.

I initially did not like it. I was so confused lol. I didn't know what to do...I didn't understand that I couldn't level via just following story (yeah, I'm a dunce.)I took a break of a few months. .came back just before, we fought scarlet in Genderran (I wish they'd bring that back as meta event ).

Why do people have to make a poll out of everything? Just ask...

I don't remember specifically how I found out about gw2 but considering it is an ncsoft game and the game I had been playing before gw2 released was CoH, that might have had something to do with it. At the time, I liked to try out new (to me) f2p games so I would take a week break here and there from CoH and seeing that gw2 was kind of similar to Tera, I bought it. And probably a few weeks later, CoH was closed down and I took a few months off gaming. When I came back, I wasn't sure if it was right to support ncsoft since at the time, CoH was still fighting to exist. After some reflection, I came to the conclusion that none of it really matters. Who makes a game, their practices, its value, and your spending is all individual and contextual and my main goal is attaining enjoyment from a virtual experience. Putting ideological goals in that defeats the purpose of virtual entertainment.

And thus, I continue to play gw2 because it is entertaining, particularly the distinction between its races, especially when compared to other MMOs.

@"Leo G.4501" said:Why do people have to make a poll out of everything? Just ask...

The main reason is that you can compare responses proportionally. For example, it seems like by far the most responses are from people who played GW1. I find it interesting to compare without having to go through the thread and count.The other good reason is because there's no point in creating a thread where thirty three people (the count at this time) simply post 'I played GW1." People who have more to say are free to post whatever they like. People who don't have more to say can click a button and move on. Fast and easy.

The boyfriend I had at the time saw it on sale and bought it for us both to play. There was a very high chance it wouldn't even run on the crappy laptop I had at the time but it did! 4-5 years later I am still playing and engaged to my old WvW commander who moved countries so we could be together!

I actually got a code for in game items from Humble Bundle a while back and finally installed the game when I was looking for a new MMO.

friend of mine played it i played solo most of the time was hooked for a year and then quit once i realized how boring the game can be.

I searched for a MMORPG without monthly fee and GW2 seemed to be the best choice.

My brother told that a cool MMO will be available and so launch myself into the MMO games style with this one, was very happy during the 2-3 first years but now, i'm more "meh". Also as other stated, don't want any fees.

Saw some beta info and some screen shots on ign. Looked amazing and liked the info I read about it. So I was sold.