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This has got to be the most underrated MMO ever...why?


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I just did a quick search for 'Best MMO 2021' and all the articles I found mention GW2, including one which put it at number 3, behind only WoW and FF14 and ones which recommended it variously as the best free option, the best for playing with friends (specifically because you don't always have to progress together, so if someone is away or wants to play solo as well it doesn't mess things up for the group) and even the best choice for PvP.

 

One thing that stands out is that the same games come up again and again in these articles, many of which I already knew about because they've been around for years and my understanding is that they're all quite different from each other. I suspect part of what's happened is that in recent years the MMO market has settled down a lot and each game has attracted and largely held a different audience.

 

So people who don't play GW2 aren't avoiding it because it's a bad game (although they might phrase it like that) but because it's not the right game for them. Just like us choosing to play GW2 instead of WoW or Final Fantasy or Elder Scrolls Online or whatever doesn't mean those are bad games, they're just not the right game for us. (And yes I know a lot of people do play 2 or more MMOs, but even then the same applies - its likely they chose which ones those are rather than simply playing the first ones they came across.)

 

I have a lot of friends who play World of Warcraft, including some who love it. But I decided before it came out it wasn't what I wanted from an MMORPG and in however many year's it's been (17, really?) nothing they've done has changed that. I didn't expect it to either because it's not that Blizzard are trying to make a game for me and messing it up, the game they want to make and have made simply isn't a game I want to play and that's fine. Especially since there is a game I do want to play and I can pick that one instead.

 

We're way past the point where the total global market for MMOs was thought to be small enough that only 3 or so games could survive and they'd all be competing desperately for the same players. At this point asking why one specific MMO, even a really good one, isn't the single most popular game is like asking why everyone doesn't only play one genre of games.

 

23 hours ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

Being number 8 on most played MMOs is considered low? 

Under rated is subjective. I think my favourite song is under rated even though it's extremely popular and commercially successful and still gets played on the radio, in pubs and clubs and all kinds of other places in multiple countries. But I think it's the best song I've ever heard and I know there are people who don't like it, therefore in my opinion it's under rated.

 

Likewise if someone thinks GW2 is the best MMO ever made and doesn't see other people or articles saying it is they could say in their opinion it's under rated.

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Well for one their advertising has always been horrid, when the woke police were here drama was seemingly every other month and we were featured in entertainment weekly a ton over it. So between the fact the game had a terrible rep from launch when so many mmo-players came and said "ThErE Is nO EnD GaMe! REEEEE"

Expansions don't hold the power to change perception when compared to a launch, the game suffers from horrid mismanagement and a terrible reputation that over time has never been addressed or shown to have changed or be willing to change. Plus the core, HoT, PoF and now EoD will always likely feel as if they are COMPLETELY different games which while good in some respects is a nightmare for a new player. 

And with the doom-saying it doesn't help, the community turns on itself and cannibalizes anyone who dares to ask for anything more. You want a specific fantasy niche filled in a class? "Go Play WoW" is what you're given or "Id rather the resources be put into fishing!" Paired with things being account bound, many players hating crafting and the fact that the game is dated in some areas of gameplay it just makes it hard for new players to stick with it in mass. 

But it really, really, really comes down to their marketing for the game which has and always seemingly will be horrendously bad. Don't make me go look up the launch trailer for this game.... It was.... sooooooo bad.

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LOL, it's not underated, anet got themselves into this mess, have you seen the high rating gw2 got on release?

thats the rating, game gives you.

but it's up to anet to keep up.

but they failed that.

anet clearly, isnt organized, keep changing plan, gives no attention to other modes.

also clearly lacks funding, which resulting them milking with over the top skins in cash shop, it would be fine,

if skin isnt gw2's end game, because gw2 doesnt have gear grind, but instead it's skin grind for end game, but it gets canceled out by them milking the cash shop. then basically make the all content pointless cuz you can get better skin with cash. (basically you can get best gear in cash shop if it is in other mmo), skins are the only thing that keeps the player going, but they just give the worst skins in game and best in cash shop.

like after legendary, there's literally no point of doing anything. and they are literally giving out legendary because they know how screwed they are, and it is the only way to keep player for this duration till expansion then they probably will just stop caring after they sold the expansion.

 

and how they keep shifting plan from expansion to sage to expansion again, made some worst pve content in gaming history, with how rushed and unfinished it is.

 

and the on going lore is so non sense

 

and that they pay no attention to pvp, because all their balancing design are made for pve which screws up pvp balance, then have pvp devs to wipe up the garbage for them by tweaking numbers only, which will obviously not work as the core problem is the mechanics.

Edited by felix.2386
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On 6/1/2021 at 4:44 PM, CokerOne.6179 said:

I played this this briefly when it launched and decided to try it again a couple weeks ago.

 

I can't believe how good this game really is now that I have given it an honest try and it's left me really surprised.

 

I heard on a video I was watching that it's number 8 of most played MMOs right now.  That seems crazy to me.

 

So what is it that keeps this game so low on the list?  That is if it really is #8....

 

Also is there confirmation on a guild wars 3 in development?

number 8 of ALL played MMOs, if that is correct, that is certainly not crazy low. Quite the opposite.

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I have to preface what I am about to say with the disclaimer that it is simply my own opinion. I played WoW since it began. Played it for years. Always always ALWAYS it was explore the new expansion, level up and get better gear, and then raid forever and ever as there was nothing left to do until the next expansion shows up. All of this could be done in a VERY short period of time as there was really not that much content in each expansion. Organized PvP added a bit more to this but not much.

 

When I first started playing GW2, I suddenly realized that there was a WHOLE HELL OF A LOT MORE TO DO than I had in WoW. MUCH more map to explore. Puzzles to explore. Dungeons, Fractals and raiding were also available. So was PvP. Personal and Season storylines to explore. Crafting in GW2 actually meant something. Now that I am back, there is even MORE map to explore. A sophisticated mount system that makes nearly every type of mount useful throughout gameplay. And of course, more storylines. Added to all of this, fashion in GW2 is not a clown car fiasco like it was in WoW. Fashion means something in this game. Fashion earns this company oodles of cash as we all go chasing new fancy looks.

 

To be honest, there is SO much to do in this game that for the very first time I found myself realizing that I couldn't do it all without giving up real life, so I simply stopped caring about the treadmill and finally learned to just enjoy the ride and do bits of it as I wanted, when I wanted. I am so happy now. If this game is really rated at only number 8 on the list, it really IS an underrated game.

Edited by Eraden.8740
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I really wonder why they haven't started the news cycle for the expansion, also why aren't there any of the big "gaming" news outlets notified (and by that I mean given money to promote the game) giving the LW seasons for free is pretty big deal as it goes for news.  

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On 6/2/2021 at 12:44 AM, CokerOne.6179 said:

I played this this briefly when it launched and decided to try it again a couple weeks ago.

 

I can't believe how good this game really is now that I have given it an honest try and it's left me really surprised.

 

I heard on a video I was watching that it's number 8 of most played MMOs right now.  That seems crazy to me.

 

So what is it that keeps this game so low on the list?  That is if it really is #8....

 

Also is there confirmation on a guild wars 3 in development?

First of all, no one knows what the most played MMOs are but I'm pretty sure Guild Wars 2 is higher than the #8 game. For one thing the list might include games like League of Legends as an MMO or Path of Exile, neither of which I'd call an MMO.  Add in a bunch of other games and you just don't know.


WoW, Final Fantasy XIV and ESO are definitely higher on the list. In the case of ESO and Final Fantasy that's because they also have a console version. Not everyone plays the computer version of the game and that means they have a larger pool to get people to play from. 


My guess is Guild Wars 2 is the 4th or 5th most popular MMO, not the 8th.  A lot also has to do with location. Guild Wars 2 is more popular in the West, but games that have more players in say China or the far east have a much larger population to pull from.


This game isn't underated. There are dozens of MMOs. If we're sitting around five or six, that's pretty kitten good. 

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This game is not underrated. It’s rated exactly where it should be.  Middle of the pack.
 

This game has great potential, but cannot execute them properly and always falls short on delivery. Best QoL out of all mmos, but far behind in everything else.

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GW and GW2 have a very low ceiling for gear/vertical progression and is maybe too casual in providing meaningful Endgame content to those who come from a traditional vertical progression based MMORPG...

On the other hand, those who play vertical progression MMOs and haven't adapted to how Guild Wars has always done it, will struggle with their own MMO after a while and be fed up with the endless gear/power grind, and then they run to the next MMO providing the same approach and eventually will be bored of that too, and then you have the "grass is greener" effect with the next big MMO that will save the genre... which is really a joke; neither New World, AoC or Elyon etc will do that.

 

In that respect, Guild Wars maybe has a better opportunity to find that key to what will excite us and retain us as players if they find that endgame content to replace the "addiction" to vertical progression.

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The biggest problem to why GW2 isn't number one is that it takes too long to get access to build customization (level 20) likes skills and trait, thus never getting far into the game to see how elite specs really change the game.

 

Not only having to wait until level 20, but heaven help you if you accidentally buy skills and traits that don't work well at low levels.

 

Options that don't work:

Go into WvW to try full builds? Majority of players don't like competitive games.

Easy reset to purchase skills and specs? Players already have trouble knowing build composition even exists.

Edited by Eloc Freidon.5692
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On 6/2/2021 at 7:44 PM, felix.2386 said:

LOL, it's not underated, anet got themselves into this mess, have you seen the high rating gw2 got on release?

thats the rating, game gives you.

but it's up to anet to keep up.

but they failed that.

anet clearly, isnt organized, keep changing plan, gives no attention to other modes.

And by "other modes" it's easy to guess that you think PvP is the messiah that will save the game as soon as anet stops "wasting" time on the actually (more or less) successful mode that PvE is. That excludes raids since it's far from successful.

 

Quote

also clearly lacks funding, which resulting them milking with over the top skins in cash shop, it would be fine,

if skin isnt gw2's end game, because gw2 doesnt have gear grind, but instead it's skin grind for end game, but it gets canceled out by them milking the cash shop.

You don't need to lack funding to milk your playerbase for money. In fact, milking the playerbase is the norm in free to play games.

 

Quote

and how they keep shifting plan from expansion to sage to expansion again, made some worst pve content in gaming history, with how rushed and unfinished it is.

 

and the on going lore is so non sense

The story hasn't ever been anything special, but it just keeps getting worse. A downward spiral if you will.

 

Quote

and that they pay no attention to pvp, because all their balancing design are made for pve which screws up pvp balance, then have pvp devs to wipe up the garbage for them by tweaking numbers only, which will obviously not work as the core problem is the mechanics.

You need to specify what PvE changes have screw up PvP since changes thanks to raids screw over PvE just as much as anything else. PvP changes on the other hand always end badly for PvE players. Solution: Different scaling, balance and abilities between modes, and i truly mean it when i say "different".

Edited by Yggranya.5201
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The game is possibly the best mmo on the market to date, none of this raiding nonsense being the only way to progress and play. You can play GW2 anyway you like, map farm, event farm, wvw, pvp, raiding, fractals, fashion wars. 

 

New expansions come out and you can play it competitively right away. 

 

But I think people just have a problem with their being no gear progression, some people like hoarding numbers over other people. They like knowing they are "exclusive" due to stats and like the superiority complex they have. Plus, tbh, GW2 requires more skill quite often then other mmo's which again, can be a downside to other people. You have to actually try to beat some champions even in open world. Compared to other mmo's where you are so strong you can beat anything even if you are utterly garbage at games. 

 

In Rift, for example, from the start of the game right out of the tutorial you can insta que into a raid boss encounter (that's been weakened a lot) pug with a single press while you macro all your abilities to one key and use commands like /target so you don't even have to look at what you are fighting. Imagine 1 being 20 different abilities instead of just the basic attack.  

 

Making gold to people not in the know is also a lot harder in gw2 then other mmo's. Basically, this is a mmo for skilled people who do their research, which does alienate a lot of people. Because I do think GW2 right now, is the best mmo out of all of them. 

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On 6/4/2021 at 2:25 PM, Eloc Freidon.5692 said:

The biggest problem to why GW2 isn't number one is that it takes too long to get access to build customization (level 20) likes skills and trait, thus never getting far into the game to see how elite specs really change the game.

 

Not only having to wait until level 20, but heaven help you if you accidentally buy skills and traits that don't work well at low levels.

 

Options that don't work:

Go into WvW to try full builds? Majority of players don't like competitive games.

Easy reset to purchase skills and specs? Players already have trouble knowing build composition even exists.

 

Combine that with no inspect option to help others, (its honestly hilarious sometimes when you see what gear other people are using, it could cause good players to physically lose limbs in real life) and you get bad specs with the wrong abilities being used in terrible gear. They lose all combat in pve, complain, then leave the game. I think most of us has forgotten what the new player experience is actually like, as we just level to 80 instantly on a new character we want to play and already know the game. 

 

It should come earlier, and there should be tips in game to help players learn what works for their class, for a better start without needing to do their own research, which a lot of players won't. Give players a starting build to work towards that is a great levelling build, while telling them to look out for certain stats would go a long way. 

Edited by Gorem.8104
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I've been playing for about a year. Came here from a closed-world MMO that is really behind the times in terms of story and artwork. When I started, everything looked deceptively like WoW. I didn't really start getting into the game (as in looking under the hood, I mean) until I hit lvl 80.

I was looking forward to dungeons and raids. Well, dungeons seems to be a relic of a bygone era that people don't touch very often. Raids seem to be confined to established groups. I was looking forward to fractals, but outside the rush, it's hit and miss.

Crafting is excellent up to a point, but I have no desire to ever touch a WvW map, so legendaries are beyond my reach. There go about 100 collections of things.

The stories are excellent (imo) and one of my favorite things to complete (other than open world stuff), but there are consistent problems with disconnects at cut scenes, so I'm reticent to do them unless I need to because it's too frustrating to get to the end of one, get disconnected from the servers, and have to start over.

Detonator Tonn has been bugged for 8 years, for pete's sake.

I stay here because I still think the open world stuff, including metas and world bosses, is excellent. Though, once you've maxed out the specializations for your class, having a ton of collections to complete but not much else in the way of game direction means I spend a lot of time repeating events I like, then getting bored with them.

It's the artwork, the main story characters, and the community that keeps me here. For all the complaints about elitists on one end and leechers on the other, there are some really good people, and the cooperative nature of open world lends itself to helping each other out, rather than swooping in to steal the kill.

GW2 kind of feels "established" in the sense that it's inevitable. It's going to continue being what it is because it has enough of a player base that it doesn't have to make changes to stay profitable. So I suspect I'll continue on with about 65% love / 35% don't ever touch these parts relationship with the game. That's fine for now. The parts I enjoy I really enjoy.

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I loved the first Guildwars and tried to get into Guildwars 2 for a few times. I still like the atmosphere of the game and see the subscription (buy to play) as a big plus. However what i don,t like:

 

- No dedicated healers. This makes the game unplayable for me. I miss this so much from the first game. There are no real healers in the game.

- Almost everything is aoe. This means everyone is spamming spells on the ground. There are no real single target spells and this playing style doesn’t attract me, it is just spamming spells on an area.

- The game engine feels so old and slow. I tried playing on my old and new pc. It just feels so off.

- I don’t like the mechanics in arena. I prefer the more Battleground style and arena play (3 vs 3 and 4 vs 4)

- For a competive pvp player with the lack of dedicated healers and the lack of good pvp arena. There just isn’t enough to stay.

 

However is still have a weak spot for the game and hope it does well.

Edited by 12032934-22E3-6DF6-4D33-9F4052F8C695.5703
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That was in the past, the game does have dedicated healers now, you can play pure heals if you want, also there is classes like Deadeye, which have mainly single target abilities, however the main reason is aoe spam helps with the tagging of mobs before they die so you can get loots! 🙂

 

Also for wvw, there is ways to get the rewards without even going in there (Black lion chest, for example, right now can give you enough to complete entire tracks if you open enough of them after saving enough keys). It is nice how the game is growing that you can still get stuff from other sources without needing to do said sources 🙂

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One thing that keeps GW2 back is that the very thing it was built around and sets it apart from many other MMOs, WvW/guild wars/realm-vs-realm, is one of the least supported game modes at this point.  Now they focus on PvE content that all other MMOs already have in spades, so they are trying harder to assimilate rather than stand out.

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6 minutes ago, Sylvyn.4750 said:

One thing that keeps GW2 back is that the very thing it was built around and sets it apart from many other MMOs, WvW/guild wars/realm-vs-realm, is one of the least supported game modes at this point.  Now they focus on PvE content that all other MMOs already have in spades, so they are trying harder to assimilate rather than stand out.

Perhaps their data shows that WvW type of game-play is not as popular as some might think and to maximize profits they need to appeal to the PvE crowd?

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11 minutes ago, Sylvyn.4750 said:

One thing that keeps GW2 back is that the very thing it was built around and sets it apart from many other MMOs, WvW/guild wars/realm-vs-realm, is one of the least supported game modes at this point.  Now they focus on PvE content that all other MMOs already have in spades, so they are trying harder to assimilate rather than stand out.

As a PvE player uninterested in WvW I stay clear of it. But it sucks that it isn't getting good support as a game mode from the people who prefer it. You'd think that more supported game modes would mean more diverse experiences from which potential players could choose, but I suspect another poster has it right when they suggest this is a profit driven decision based on a cost benefit analysis.

 

As an aside, one of my pet peeves with the game is that in order to complete legendary weapons, I apparently *must* do a WvW rewards track to obtain the Gift of Battle, which doesn't appear to be something I can purchase ingame, nor can I otherwise purchase a gift that already has Battle as a component of it. Are PvE players invading WvW maps to complete a single reward track having any effect? On one hand, I can see how having a whole bunch of people only set on one goal then leaving being disruptive. On the other, are people stopping by for the achievement and staying for the gameplay?

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1 hour ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Perhaps their data shows that WvW type of game-play is not as popular as some might think and to maximize profits they need to appeal to the PvE crowd?

 

Probably, but again, now they're just like any other MMO...

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On 6/2/2021 at 10:00 AM, Danikat.8537 said:

So people who don't play GW2 aren't avoiding it because it's a bad game (although they might phrase it like that) but because it's not the right game for them.

 

Every time i think that i have heard and seen everything someone comes up with another gem.

 

So people, who perceive the game as bad are wrong because you say so.

Problem with that is, that people decide to not play GW2 because they feel it's bad.

Whatever you have to say to judge them, is not of their concern.

 

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1 hour ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Perhaps their data shows that WvW type of game-play is not as popular as some might think and to maximize profits they need to appeal to the PvE crowd?

That's a little short...the missing support for WvW will have the most impact on its population. On the other hand...taking into account how little they had to invest into it it is most likely the most profitabel game mode over all.

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