Still a "side MMO"?

[Bobzitto.8571]

It's a side MMO for me because I'm a sucker for vertical progression. So I spend my days progressing in WoW and FFXIV and come here to relax a bit and do open world stuff.

[Kaliwenda.3428]

GW2 is my main MMO that I'm currently playing like a side MMO in that I log in to do dailies every day and a key run once a week but right now I don't have any other major goals I'm working towards. So my play time is a lot less that it has been in the past. The best thing about it to me is that I don't have to worry about my gear going out of date when I take it easy, that's no small thing in MMO-land. I love this game for many things, but that is one of the top three reasons for me. :)

[Excursion.9752]

This game is what you want to make it. I started out super casual. For the first 5 years I think I maybe had crafted 2 legendary items. Never raided, dabbled in fractals and dungeons but kept a just for fun mindset. Then ever since equipment and build templates and the announcement of the Legendary Armory I started to ramp up my dedication to try to obtain legendary items. Approaching 30 now...

So basically what I am saying is as you grow older your priorities will more than likely change and what you may not find interesting now you will later or vice versa. This game automatically tailors to where you are at as a player.

The one knock of have on this game is that people who are playing the end game content feel neglected because most content in raids, pvp, wvw, and fractals rarely if ever get any updates worth mentioning. Anet seems to think living world stuff should suffice but it does not.

[Carnifex.3275]

@Mortifera.6138 said:At launch, Guild Wars 2 was advertised as an MMORPG you could play alongside other ones. It was very casual-friendly and sub-free. Since HoT, however, they introduced hardcore stuff. Now there's ridiculous grind. Is Guild Wars 2 still a game you play with other games, or has it taken up most of your time now?

It's actually just a side MMO these days for me. Since PvP/WvW and balance got out of hands i just login to do dailies or to get some AP during festivals. Still waiting for some meaningful changes of the game but i dont keep my hopes up for this MMO to become main one. These days i even feel lazy to even login for dailies.

[Redfeather.6401]

Someone here said that eso has a system like gw2's wardrobe but for stats. The system is different than that.I won't spend time describing it. There is articles and videos talking about it. It is referred to as ESO's Stickerbook. That system was created to give people tons to do and make dungeon running relevant again. That system did not require a new currency, vendor, mini game or collection for a particle effect. I just think GW2 could use systems like that to feel less grindy and keep people engaged.

[lezbefriends.7516]

@Redfeather.6401 said:Someone here said that eso has a system like gw2's wardrobe but for stats. The system is different than that.I won't spend time describing it. There is articles and videos talking about it. It is referred to as ESO's Stickerbook. That system was created to give people tons to do and make dungeon running relevant again. That system did not require a new currency, vendor, mini game or collection for a particle effect. I just think GW2 could use systems like that to feel less grindy and keep people engaged.

I love Guild Wars 2, will I love ESO?

[Firebeard.1746]

@Kaliwenda.3428 said:GW2 is my main MMO that I'm currently playing like a side MMO in that I log in to do dailies every day and a key run once a week but right now I don't have any other major goals I'm working towards. So my play time is a lot less that it has been in the past. The best thing about it to me is that I don't have to worry about my gear going out of date when I take it easy, that's no small thing in MMO-land. I love this game for many things, but that is one of the top three reasons for me. :)

This basically. i'm chasing leggies, but it feels really good to have some characters fully fleshed out for particular roles you can always pick up and come back to. I can do less like I did yesterday, and it doesn't matter.

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

@ said:

@Eloc Freidon.5692 said:The game is very unfriendly when you try to get into HoT without knowing how masteries work. Especially when you try to play without doing the story. For new players, it is especially bad with what they give you with the lvl 80 booster.

That has nothing to do with friendly. That's end game content. It was introduced 3.5 years after launch. It's expected people play the core game before proceeding to HOT in the same way people go to 6th grade before they go to 12th. A lot of people, not just a few, asked for most challenging open world content. Anet obliged them. Let's not pretend HoT isn't one of the most highly populated open world areas of the game to this day. Some people love it.

People who say it's unfriendly are people who want to master end game content quickly. And HOT really isn't that hard. It just requires a bit of learning to master.

I'm not talking about the content itself, but the Core Masteries not being unlocked after getting to 80. Being punished when wanting to explore the HoT maps without realizing you need to do the first story part to get the full game Masteries unlocked is not explained. This has nothing to do with difficulty, but poorly implemented unlocking method to just get started.

[Joote.4081]

For me GW2 was always just okay nothing more. Since I returned to the game last month it has become my top mmo. I think the addition of mounts had something to do with it, it's a whole new game now.Now if they would only work on a few quality of life additions.....

[Dondarrion.2748]

It's my main MMO, but I take breaks whenever I feel like it and play other games on the side, even MMOs. But only GW2 has me coming back and enjoying it every time. Other MMOs seldom hold my attention as much as GW2 when I return. Might be back to try a new feature or such, but then rest of the MMO loses its appeal and I'm back to GW2 again.

Kind of nice how this is with GW2, but at the same time I'm a bit disappointed GW2 sends me on these breaks.

[Pyriin.3291]

GW2 used to be my main MMO for years, and everything in HOT introduced made me love it to no end but for the past years with ANET constantly forgeting or taking a very long time to update, PVP, WVW, raids and fractals, in favor of story, open world, drms, strike missions and everything useless they can put on the gem store made me go back to WoW, up to the point i havent login in months, if anet puts a decent patch with decent content, i might return

[Darketh.2304]

This is mine and my wifes main game and MMO. We were very big WoW players since it first launched but that game has seriously gone down hill fast. We started Playing GW2 at the end of January and we both just fell in love with this game. Its everything we wished WoW was. GW2 is just a joy to play and were just loving everything about it. Were still only in the core game areas and very much looking forward to HoT and PoF areas as well as when EoD comes out.

[Astyrah.4015]

@Mortifera.6138 said:

@Redfeather.6401 said:Someone here said that eso has a system like gw2's wardrobe but for stats. The system is different than that.I won't spend time describing it. There is articles and videos talking about it. It is referred to as ESO's Stickerbook. That system was created to give people tons to do and make dungeon running relevant again. That system did not require a new currency, vendor, mini game or collection for a particle effect. I just think GW2 could use systems like that to feel less grindy and keep people engaged.

I love Guild Wars 2, will I love ESO?

if you like horizontal progression system, ESO might be your thing too.

honestly, in my opinion, the combat in ESO is inferior to GW2's but still better than FF14's -- but your experience might be different :)

[Rauderi.8706]

@Mortifera.6138 said:Now there's ridiculous grind.

Thankfully, most of the grind is just in the achievements needed to do things like . . get mastery skills. Or cosmetics.

I had GW2 on main for a long time, but that grind pushed me into games that reward my time investment. So now, side game, and I just kinda stopped caring about chasing 50-hour achievements.

[Clyan.1593]

@Dawdler.8521 said:I think I have 8000+ hours in GW2 now.

I still havent done a single raid. Or gotten past T1 fractals. Or done any strike missions for that matter. I think I've unlocked 10% of all available skins. I feel no need to grind any of it.

I have 7k+ hours, envoy title and every character on 80, almost all of them have world completion and all specs unlocked, plus almost 6000 skins unlocked, grinding fractal cms and T4 almost daily... how did you manage to put 8k hours into it without ever touching end content? Im honestly wondering, what does your gameplay consist of?

[Pacificterror.7805]

@Tukaram.8256 said:It is the only MMO I currently play, but very casually. I have never seen a dungeon, and do not know what fractals are. There is no grind if I just bash critters for fun. ?

There's nothing more satisfying, or that makes you feel more powerful, than pressing 1 as you run by a mosquito and whacking it for 200k damage.

EDIT:

This isn't a side MMO for me, although I barely get time to play currently. Even if I got more time to play it'd be my main game though as I love it.

[voltaicbore.8012]

@"Joote.4081" said:For me GW2 was always just okay nothing more. Since I returned to the game last month it has become my top mmo. I think the addition of mounts had something to do with it, it's a whole new game now.

Indeed. For all the complaints we might have about how things are going at the moment, I think it's fair to say that GW2's mount system is the absolute best in MMO gaming thus far. I was actually really skeptical about how mounts would work (they're really one dimensional in every other game I've played), but ANet really knocked it out of the park.

Now if they would only work on a few quality of life additions.....

I guess this depends on what you'd consider QoL. In general, I think GW2 is quite generous with most mundane aspects of QoL like inventory space (reasonably easy to get 100+ inventory slots, gear loadouts reduce the strain on inventory even further, and affordable infinite salvage kits and one-click mat banking/selling directly from inventory to market make bag management pretty smooth). Permanent dye unlocks, easily accessible transmutation charges, and account wide wallet and masteries are all things that other games either don't have at all, have in a limited form, or force you to re-grind on each character. Also having the option of fast travel is great for when you're doing group stuff and don't want to hold people back, but at the same time the world is nice enough that normal travel is still fun enough to be worth doing.

IMO GW2 is dropping the ball on issues that I'd call far larger than just QoL. Granted, leaning into grindy and unrewarding achievements does reduce my quality of life, but I'd consider that more like "fundamental gameplay" more than "quality of life."

[Danikat.8537]

@Clyan.1593 said:

@Dawdler.8521 said:I think I have 8000+ hours in GW2 now.

I still havent done a single raid. Or gotten past T1 fractals. Or done any strike missions for that matter. I think I've unlocked 10% of all available skins. I feel no need to grind any of it.

I have 7k+ hours, envoy title and every character on 80, almost all of them have world completion and all specs unlocked, plus almost 6000 skins unlocked, grinding fractal cms and T4 almost daily... how did you manage to put 8k hours into it without ever touching end content? Im honestly wondering, what does your gameplay consist of?

I'm not the person you asked but I'm in a similar situation. I've played for somewhere between 6k and 7k hours and I've never gone beyond T1 Fractals, I've done 3 or 4 raids once each and maybe 2 strike missions.

Some of it is just different priorities. I haven't gone beyond T1 Fractals because when I'm playing them I want to see each Fractal and occasionally get a specific item or achievement for a collection and I can do all that on T1. I don't see any need to spend time and gold putting otherwise useless upgrades into my equipment and getting an established group together to complete the same Fractals again with slightly different mechanics. Instead I focus on things which interest me but I suspect a lot of 'end game' players have never done, like doing every personal story instance. Not just each storyline but every variation of them too. At one point there's 30 possible variations, so that needs 30 characters levelled up and reaching that point, which takes quite a bit of time. (Although it goes down after that, you only need 9 at level 50, 6 at level 70 and 3 at level 80.) I've also done all the dungeon paths at least once.

But I think the biggest difference in my case is that I play slowly. Completing one map can take me hours because I don't just rush around the points required to get the chest as fast as possible, I take my time and actually explore everything. I go through all the buildings to see what's inside, I talk to heart NPCs both before and after doing the heart, I talk to any other NPCs who are around and listen to them talking to each other, partially to see what they say and partially in case an event starts. If I see an event I'll join in and follow through the chain even if I don't need to (although there's some which are annoying, so I'll skip those).

When I can I also like breaking out of the map (or into normally inaccessible areas) and I've spent hours doing that and then exploring the other side of the map. There's no rewards for doing that. You won't get any XP or items or a title to say you've done it, but I find it fun so I do it anyway.

[Kondor.2904]

@Clyan.1593 said:

@Dawdler.8521 said:I think I have 8000+ hours in GW2 now.

I still havent done a single raid. Or gotten past T1 fractals. Or done any strike missions for that matter. I think I've unlocked 10% of all available skins. I feel no need to grind any of it.

I have 7k+ hours, envoy title and every character on 80, almost all of them have world completion and all specs unlocked, plus almost 6000 skins unlocked, grinding fractal cms and T4 almost daily... how did you manage to put 8k hours into it without ever touching end content? Im honestly wondering, what does your gameplay consist of?

You'd be surprised how loyal the WvW playerbase is despite the extreme levels of neglect.

[coso.9173]

any MMO can be a side MMO if you play casually, and most MMOs I've played can be played casually.