Opinions of someone who left in 2012

[Selminus.1490]

I noticed a few key improvements and other things that make this an appealing MMO in 2018. I bounce around a lot. I played on Stormbluff Isle with LoD at launch but we got very bored of farming people in WvW with no real reward system in place. Lately I have played POE and WoW as far as this genre of MMO so those would be my most recent comparisons.

A few points for people considering coming back -

The good -

• The gfx held up really well, game still looks modern and tasteful. No cartoony content, hate that.
• Shared mastery exp between characters is a big relief.
• I guess you added houses but I don't have one yet, good move. People love that shit.
• Very good in game atmosphere. Have not seen any trolling and random people answer game questions in chat pretty quickly. People seem to want to help.
• Dynamic outdoor events still have a place and that was always the right path. I believe this, Rift and Warhammer online were some of the first to really capitalize on how appealing those are.
• Readily available makeover tools and a skin wardrobe, those are huge.
• Mounts. We never had mounts.

The Bad -

• Huge pay to win component albeit it not effective in PvP. Credit cards -> Gems -> Gold -> Broker is going to bother a lot of people, I'm not one of them.
• Big towns are laggy even when rest of game is fine on max settings.
• World map completion on alts an impractical headache.
• Heavy moaning on forums regarding desirable classes in PvE. Probably not all just whinng if there's that much of it.

All in all I think ANet has done a very good job here. I also had a pleasant and fast exchange with CS to get my auth off and change some passwords.

Thanks,

[SkyShroud.2865]

The optimization is indeed bad and game performance dropped a bit by bit over the years. It seems like anet doesn't have a standard when come to performance.

[Blocki.4931]

There is no pay to win in the game. Sure, good gear is an investment but a full set of perfectly usable armor with berserker stats costs like 15 gold. Just the fact that you CAN bust out the credit card doesn't make it pay to win at all. You gain no advantage over others whatsoever besides that you've spent less time playing the game and farming or whatever. Rest is purely convenience.

[Holykitten.3064]

@Selminus.1490 said:The good -

• The gfx held up really well, game still looks modern and tasteful. No cartoony content, hate that.

I agree. Some things are overly flashy, but this game has remained beautiful.

• Shared mastery exp between characters is a big relief.

Anything account bound is always a bonus in my eyes. This not only goes for Masteries, but Ascended/Legendary items and anything found in the wardrobe too.

• Mounts. We never had mounts.

One of the best additions to the game by far.

The Bad -

• Huge pay to win component albeit it not effective in PvP.

Pay to win, means you can only buy upgrades and gain an advantage by spending IRL moolah. Gw2 is pay for convenience. Everything can be earned in game without spending a penny.

• Big towns are laggy even when rest of game is fine on max settings.Most big cities in MMOs are a bit laggy (lowered frame rate) I don't see Gw2 as being any different. I have Character Model Limit and Quality Limit set to medium the rest on high, so the game is still beautiful, but I see no issues in cities with my frame rate.

• World map completion on alts an impractical headache.It's the same as any other character you complete it on. It doesn't change, your feelings towards it may be tedius, but atleast you can, buy a Waypoint pack from the Gemstore (I begrudgingly tell you, because I don't agree with the decision that put it in the store to begin with)

• Heavy moaning on forums regarding desirable classes in PvE. Probably not all just whinng if there's that much of it.I'd love to see any game forum that contains 0 whining. That would be the day, right?

All in all I think ANet has done a very good job here.

Agreed.

[Sylvari.2953]

You have no idea what "pay to win" means.

[Fenom.9457]

They did not add houses. I really wish they would, but they didn’t. You probably mean guild halls

[Khisanth.2948]

World completion on alts is only relevant for people who want to make 3+ gen1 legendaries. How many people does this even apply to?

[Samnang.1879]

imo gw2 improved immensely. hence why i still keep playing the game, if it were stuck in core game i wouldn't. i do agree about the reward thing though, once u get something there's no further goals to keep playing. liike i have all 3 legedary armours, warbringer, the ascension, the fractal wings, all of 2nd gen legnedaries (excpet hammer and torch) and dont seem to have another goal besides doing achievements (and some of them are so gd tedious).

i also hate it when ppl compare mmo's to wow... wow is so poor in the graphics department that i'd rather play tetris or donkey kong... if i wanna play a game with graphics in the stone age...

[Odinens.5920]

Pay to win? Nope

ArcheAge would like to say hello.

[Nuka Cola.8520]

Nothing changed. Its the same game as we had in 2012. The only difference is that they've become very stingy with armor sets. We get a few every 2 years...

[Zaklex.6308]

What is this lag in towns you speak of...even on Max settings, I've heard this complaint before but I don't see it...and I have everything at Max, no problems here.

[Sylvari.2953]

@Zaklex.6308 said:What is this lag in towns you speak of...even on Max settings, I've heard this complaint before but I don't see it...and I have everything at Max, no problems here.

Same here! I'm an open world player and I don't even lag during meta events when there are 50+people around. OP must be playing on a potato PC.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I play on a potato, and I don't experience lag, in town or out. What I do get is lower frame-rate around lots of players. But, that's not lag.

[Despond.2174]

Welcome back :) Just some input on your bad list. Map completion is extremely easier now with mounts, and if you plan to support the game coming back then POF is worth the small fee of $30 which is cheaper than any other top MMO xpac. Mounts make map completion probably 50x faster and Xpacs are needed to fund future xpacs or we would have no game.

Gold? There's never been a more free richer time in GW2 for farming. Istan metas and events alongside the new bundles and karma/xp upgrades makes a free farming method for easily 20+g/hour. It's revolutionized gold earning potential. That alongside Doric leather farms, usual HOT metas, even SW, makes this game not even remotely P2W. Gear you made when you first left is still the same power as it is now, the horizontal gear system makes this the most friendly MMO to return to. It's never been a cheaper time to also buy materials, nearly all the prices in TP are very low due to more supply with POF. Alongside free trinkets with LW3 episodes, it will maybe take 1-2 months to get all character power related gear. After that you don't need gold other than fashion wars. ;)

Lag? Yes, I agree. The engine doesn't utilize modern PCs well and if you're SEA player the world lag is frustrating at the moment. But I doubt we will ever get Oceanic servers. Town lag, well that would be due to your PC, but major metas even good PCs will always drop to like 20-35 dps.

I hope you enjoy your new stint! Yes AANET were very fast a while ago when I needed help with my account. The game is incredibly much better than it was. If you want more details with farming let me know and I'll post again. :)

[Galaa.8475]

@"Mea.5491" said:You have no idea what "pay to win" means.

i agree, this dude doesn't have a clue when it comes to pay to win .

[Emprer.7256]

I'm sure you already realize, as others have mentioned, there's no pay to win. I'm just repeating and making sure new incomers aren't being misled just in case they miss the comments.

[Earix.5684]

@"Selminus.1490" said:

• Huge pay to win component albeit it not effective in PvP. Credit cards -> Gems -> Gold -> Broker is going to bother a lot of people, I'm not one of them.

You may not be wrong about credit card to gold being bad for the game. Tip: try to avoid using the word "pay to win", people won't read past it.

@Blocki.4931 said:There is no pay to win in the game. Sure, good gear is an investment but a full set of perfectly usable armor with berserker stats costs like 15 gold. Just the fact that you CAN bust out the credit card doesn't make it pay to win at all. You gain no advantage over others whatsoever besides that you've spent less time playing the game and farming or whatever. Rest is purely convenience.

@Haleydawn.3764 said:Pay to win, means you can only buy upgrades and gain an advantage by spending IRL moolah. Gw2 is pay for convenience. Everything can be earned in game without spending a penny.

@"Mea.5491" said:You have no idea what "pay to win" means.

@"Odinens.5920" said:Pay to win? Nope

No it's not "pay to win" but the Credit card to Gold conversion can potentially hurt the game and its economy. It depends on the amount injected in-game this way.There is also a huge emphasis on the "cash shop" (here is another bad word) but... but "it's only cosmetic, right?". Sure, and it's driving away resources from the real game development. Would you rather get new models added to the game via achievements / game rewards or via the cash shop?How many armor models have been recently added to the game? How many cash shop outfits?How many mount skins can you acquire from achievements? How many have been added to the "cash shop"?But to be fair, that's what we agreed on when we chose a "no sub MMO".

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:The only difference is that they've become very stingy with armor sets. We get a few every 2 years...

[Lord of the Fire.6870]

Sry there is no housing system in Gw 2 but there is a home instance you run through it when you making the story several times and every char has one by default.

Pay2win ? I would say Arena NET tries to push to the boundary as close as possible, skins are okay but they always give you something that is minimal more then skins e.g like the housing nodes , gold or the new gathering stuff out of the lion chests. Not really crossed the river but they pocking how far they can go.

Class discussion ? Besides I want my side better there is a confusion which path Arena NET wants to go with GW 2 they wanted originally dissolve the whole class system(like in PoE) after they had already had dual class system in GW 1 but with HoT they brought healers and support in also in some form tanks through the new elite specialization traits. With PoF this also changed a bit again Arena NET saw that some classes had no space in the raids because there is only one class which is the best at one roll. They didn't got rid of the whole system but toned it down, some are happy with this some crying.

I personally see the problem more in how many ways I can play my class now each of them needs other skills, trait and equip and this problem will only get worse with the next expansions's elite specialization. There is a solution but ANET needs to implement it

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

@Lord of the Fire.6870 said:Sry there is no housing system in Gw 2 but there is a home instance you run through it when you making the story several times and every char has one by default.

That's true, but overlooks / fails to mention the small point that the home instances (there are FIVE, all accessible on any character) are an inherent part of the game, in there from the very beginning. (It already existed when I joined Beta Weekend 2.)

[Gehenna.3625]

@"Mea.5491" said:You have no idea what "pay to win" means.

Unfortunately there are different definitions of pay2win, so who knows what he means with it...

My view is a bit more traditional so it would probably match your definition more since you don't have to spend money to get geared. However, I've noticed that not everybody uses that same definition. Same with things like "the game is dead" or "Anet doesn't listen to the players". Those are phrases that also have very different meanings to different people.

Language unfortunately is not an exact science but a living thing that constantly changes. You could say that he has no idea what pay to win means, but he could equally say that you have no idea what he means with pay to win...and the two aren't mutually exclusive.

My view is different on it because I feel that anything that you can buy with real money to skip or speed up game content devaluates the in-game content and achievements. A legendary weapon can be bought last time I checked, so having one doesn't necessarily mean much. I may not call that pay 2 win, but I do see it as problematic.

[Ashantara.8731]

@"Selminus.1490" said:The good -

• I guess you added houses but I don't have one yet, good move. People love that kitten.
• Very good in game atmosphere. Have not seen any trolling

The Bad -

• Huge pay to win component [...]
• Big towns are laggy even when rest of game is fine on max settings.
• World map completion on alts an impractical headache.

I'm only quoting the stuff you got all wrong:

1. No housing.
2. There are trolls, try the Dragon's Stand meta in the afternoon, when kids' school is over.
3. What "pay2win" component??
4. Towns aren't laggy. Adjust your CPU and graphics settings, as well as the in-game gfx settings.
5. World map completion is per character because of the legendary weapons.

[Ashen.2907]

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@"Mea.5491" said:You have no idea what "pay to win" means.

Unfortunately there are different definitions of pay2win, so who knows what he means with it...

My view is a bit more traditional so it would probably match your definition more since you don't have to spend money to get geared. However, I've noticed that not everybody uses that same definition. Same with things like "the game is dead" or "Anet doesn't listen to the players". Those are phrases that also have very different meanings to different people.

Language unfortunately is not an exact science but a living thing that constantly changes. You could say that he has no idea what pay to win means, but he could equally say that you have no idea what he means with pay to win...and the two aren't mutually exclusive.

My view is different on it because I feel that anything that you can buy with real money to skip or speed up game content devaluates the in-game content and achievements. A legendary weapon can be bought last time I checked, so having one doesn't necessarily mean much. I may not call that pay 2 win, but I do see it as problematic.

Solid point about the evolution of language, but I think that changing the generally accepted definition of a term after the fact and then attempting to apply it retroactively is a bit of a stretch.

[Selminus.1490]

Do I really need to explain the pay to win component for PvE? You can straight up buy gold from the game store then go on the trader and buy legendaries and whatever else you want. Come on dude.

[RoseofGilead.8907]

@Selminus.1490 said:Do I really need to explain the pay to win component for PvE? You can straight up buy gold from the game store then go on the trader and buy legendaries and whatever else you want. Come on dude.

Except that's still not pay-to-win. It doesn't give that person an advantage over any other player because every player with a level 80 character can craft a legendary without needing to even look at gems or the gem store.

[Selminus.1490]

@RoseofGilead.8907 said:

@Selminus.1490 said:Do I really need to explain the pay to win component for PvE? You can straight up buy gold from the game store then go on the trader and buy legendaries and whatever else you want. Come on dude.

Except that's still not pay-to-win. It doesn't give that person an advantage over any other player because every player with a level 80 character can craft a legendary without needing to even look at gems or the gem store.

After investing how much time? Are you really going to make this argument? The best items in the game can be bought with a credit card, right? That's called pay to win. You beat the other people to the best gear with your CC, thus putting you in a better position faster to play the rest of the game. I'm not complaining about it, I buy gold, I'm just calling a spade a spade.