Should I play this game again?

Several years ago, in Lion Arch. A ranger's wandering around, looking at the nice masks sold there, and wondering if he could afford one "to look cool" before sunday night. A total newb, yes. That was during the LA Beta.

I got completely addicted to this game during this Beta Week End. The graphism were great, the game wasn't the kind of game you have to play 16 hours a day during one year to reach the max level, the missions and quests looked like fun. So I purchased Prophecy soon after its release. And I loved it. I made a char, spent a lot of time on it, and that was fun during a few months. I completed most of the quests, explored the different areas, went to place where players didn't use to go, and I enjoyed that. I met a few nice people and we used to do raids in Tombs or FoW.

But that was quite limited. We had all beaten the game, and we weren't insterested in PvP - at least the kind of PvP GW offers. So we kept doing parties in Tombs and FoW. And nothing else, because there was nothing else to do. At this point, yeah, the game became kinda boring. And my attemps to make solo build for silly places - just for the fun of it - didn't change that.

At the begining of the game, we had at least one thing to do in PvE: "grinding" (in a positive way) to get the best equipment possible. An absorb rune was worth 80k, a +30 mod for bow 40 or 50k. Most of the players didn't have perfect stuff, and trying to get it was a great motivation for playing this game.

But the players started b*tching about it. "It's not fair: PvP toons have perfect stuff and we can't", "It's too hard", etc (no kidding - just play other games where you have 1 chance out of 10000 to find what you're looking for on a boss that spawns every 12 hours :/). Nevertheless, ANET introduces the Green Weapons. Perfect pieces of crap dropped by bosses. The first few weeks players used to sell them for a lot - but I really mean a lot. But farming them was way too easy, and they lost their value. So instead the players sticked on gold items, for the prestige.

Later on, the drops were increased, and everybody got high-end equipement. Consequence: the economy is now ruined (1 or 2k for a +30hp mod - isn't it a joke?) and PvEers have lost one thing to do.

Then Factions came out. We were all waiting for this new continent, that we expected to be as full of surprises as the original campaign. And the first few days, yeah, I really enjoyed the place. Just because it was new. But that was also small, really small. And kinda boring, again.

With Factions, Anet changed the game in many ways. First, the game became a lvl 20 only game. Low level characters are confined to a tiny place where they can reach the higher levels in a few hours. They took out all the fun we could have had from the missions designed for low level characters in Prophecy. Leveling has never been hard in GW - and I like that - but it became ridiculously easy in Factions. And obviously the campaign wasn"t designed for low level characters, and the designers wanted to save them the trouble of balancing the game.

2 new dungeons came out in Factions: the Deep and Urgoz. But ANET had decided to make them private dungeons, reserved for the alliance owning the town, which excluded 99% of the players of the game. A few players thinking it was injust decided to form a new alliance to take control of Cavalon and open the Deep to everybody, in "ferying" people in. I joined the Crusaders alliance, that kept me entertained for a while. That was pure grinding. Farming Factions most of the time. But we had a goal that motivated everybody. Finally ANET decided to open Factions' Dungeons to verybody, and the alliance collapsed. Everything's left now is the grinding of this period.

But that's not all. Titles were also introduced with Factions. And THAT was the purest form of grinding. My first thought was it was a great idea. We finally had something to do. But for me, it took out all the fun of the game. Simply because I wanted to show "how good" I am in flashing fancy titles. Stupid.

You see, before titles, I used to do most of the things required for the PvE titles. I had explored most of Tyria, completed most of the bonus of the missions, etc. And I really enjoyed that, but only because I was doing it for thr fun of it, and not to get anything. With titles, I went to explore the places I had missed not because I wanted to, but because I HAD to, in order to show my uber skillz with a 100% cartho title or a protector title. So I did it. During several months. I got KOBD level 1, then lvl 2, and lvl 3. And retrospectively, that sucked.

The release of Nightfall brought a new surprise: heroes. These highly customizable henchies were much better than the average PuG and definitely killed the cooperative gameplay. PuGing is a problem since the beginning of Guild Wars. I won't talk about the behaviour of a lot of players (noobs if you want), because ANET can't change that. But the simple fact of creating a PuG is a problem. That was ok in Prophecy because everbody was playing the same campaigns, so the outposts weren't empty, and you had the choice between a PuG and often sucky henchies.

Don't get me wrong: I think heroes were a great addition to the game. But they also changed it. Before, GW was a multiplayer game that could be soloed with henchies (most of it at least). With heroes it's a single player game where you can eventually party with other players. That's a huge difference.

The new high-end areas of Nightfall were a failure. The very same thing that happened when the Deep and Urgoz were opened: everybody realized that they required a very experimented team to succeed, which showed two huge problems in the game: making a PUG is hard, and PUGs generally suck.

The game becoming larger, the outposts were getting empty. For normal missions, hecnhies could replace PUGs. But try to find 12 players for the Deep. You spam around for players, invite a few, then you have 8 or 9 players in your team and someone's shouting "lf one monk for the deep, 11/12", and your monk leaves. After one hour of people leaving for joining another team or because they were bored, you finally have your team. Once inside, you realize it's their first time in there, and they have no clue. The pary is whiped, and every body rage quit. That's not the kind of thing I enjoy in a game.

The release of GWEN didnt change my feeling about the game. I had a lot of things to do, but these things were boring. Because that was grinding. Grinding for your titles. So I quitted, regreting the time when I was a total newb in LA fancying a simple hunter mask.

I play this game again since a few days - I still don't know if I will stay or not. But many things may have changed since I left. So my question is simple: is there ant reason for me to play this game again?

join a good guild with a good alliance and you won't have most of those problems.

no.

The game is old, people have been replaced by heroes, and anet's main focus is no longer GW1, but GW2. You can pick it up again for a little while to try and enjoy it, but a lot of those problems you mentioned still exist, and some have even worsened.

GW was an incredible game, but it's old, and since it's conception has had some critical design flaws =(

I agree, GW is old, the addition of MOX and his quest did help out alot, kind of reminds me of WoW with the bosses being pretty difficult and entertaining to defeat. I think Anet needs to incorporate a new boss monthly for guilds to hop on and defeat, or something of that nature to keep the game kinda fresh

Well to the OP the question you ask?..play or stay

This can only be answered by yourself....nobody else...

If its fun not farming your looking for then a guild will help you have fun

As it seems you did mostly farming hence the boredom ,you mabe weathly but nobody cares about wealth only the greedy guys who want more and more............

So in reality the question remains yours and your alone to decide

Sounds like you got your moneys worth on the GW games. Maybe finaly give the PvP a try.

If I was you I would considermyself done but very satisfied with GW, at least until GW2 comes out.

Always remeber that the no monthly fee feature of GW makes taking a 3 month break refreshing. After all your not forking out $15 a month to maintain an account you are not using. If you decide to come back start a new toon in a class you have never used as a primary.

tl;dr

prolly not imo

no dont play this game. izzy is a pathetic dev. people (as stated before) have been replaced by heroes. the economy is fail. and izzy cant balance competitive gameplay.

theres not much good left in GW. pretty skins thats it.

Gee Whizz riceCream, you should have derailed this into a i hate izzy thread!! ahemmm anyways, should you play? i dont know.. maybe? mybe not? i read the entire OP and i noticed one repeating theme. it seems your not fond of "noobs". you reference the ineptness of people like 10 times in the thread. when Sorrows Furnace first came out we use to do random pugs and it was a hoot. granted some people would do goofy crap that simply floored ya but there PEOPLE. people do dumb crap all the time. bottom line was we had fun we talked, people were much easier to deal with.

if you go to elite areas and dont want to have new players mess up your elite run then bring only experienced players. ot heres a novel idea. help someone. ask teamates if they need help with anything B4 going into the deep. meh screw it. this topic is tired. im hittin the track!!!!!!

Peace

Cronk

oh btw, someone needs to invent a new word to replace noob. id love to nuke that effin word.

Other than some of the economic timeline, you got it exactly right... and nothings changed. So unless you are willing to push your way into the PvP sector or start the grind machine, theres nothing new gw can offer you.

PS: I suggest Last Chaos, its pretty good for a free download/play game...

Wow. You just sent me on a reminiscing trip.

With all you've been through, no. The game now is a repetitive, mind-boggling slog through absolutely nothing with no point to it.

Honestly, I don't know why I keep at it.

Yes, there is many flaws...
Yes, theres rarely anyone to play with now...

But, after a long while of not playing GW, it's easy to come back to it, and squeeze the last bit of juice. To keep you entertained during the wait for GW2

Eh the game got the same way for me about 6 months ago. I took a long break tried out several other MMO's, replayed some single players games that hadn't seen day in a couple of years. And now I'm enjoying GW again.

So my advice is take a long break and then when you come back you'll be less apt to title grind and remember what was fun about GW in the first place.

Just buy something else, I recommend a single-player game with lots of mods or something that's just more fun to do. I want to tell you a secret about every MMO: they're absolute garbage that resort to blatant trickery, bait, and deception to make money.

Have you done everything that you want to do in GW?

If your answer is no, then hop back on and play until you reach your goals.

If your answer is yes, then don't bother. The balance issues are still issues, the economy is trash, and there are still n00bs running around anywhere you think you will be free of them.

Personally, the reasons stated in the OP are why I have played CASUALLY for the last 2 and a half years. I began my time in GW in January of 2006, almost a year after release. My wife and I began playing, got a few of our friends involved, and then got swept into the glorious realm of Tyria, followed in a couple short months by Cantha.

While we were still enjoying making our way through Tyria a couple quests and missions at a time, our Alliance mates were wanting us to hurry up and finish so we could go hit the Elite Areas. We blew through 2 alliances this way - they split because casual gamers couldn't deal with the impatience of the hardcore-don't-have-a-job-play-all-day-cuz-Mommy-and-Daddy-pay-my-bills gamers who only wanted to be 1337; they didn't enjoy the game for the same reasons as we did, namely because if they didn't have the RAREST skins, the PERFECT mods, every set of Elite Armor, and weren't pwning someone's face 24/7, they couldn't handle the fact that they weren't the bestest thing to GW EVAR!!1!!1!

That being said, if you are having a nostalgic moment, remembering GW when the only campaign was Prophecies, why don't you just replay the game? Either with that same Ranger who wanted his fancy Mask in LA, or with a new character. Don't rush it. Take your time. Do quests as you get them. DON'T use your cash to buy max weapons, use what you get as drops, or from collectors along the way.

Don't let others mandate how you play, or enjoy, GW. If you are in a Guild that prefers Vanquishing or Elite Areas, go do that with them, but take some time for yourself to revisit the GW that you know and love. Sometimes that's all it takes to get more enjoyment out of the moment.

Hope it helps some.

~ Nihilist, Leader of The Hounds of Grenth [PWN]

Unless you plan to making some extra cash off whatever tourneys are left in this game, no.

Only farmers care about the economy. Farmers also rush the content to get to the money-grounds and then spend their time doing the same thing over and over. And over. And then some more.

Finally they get bored, and spend their time moaning about how boring Guild Wars is.
Then they go back to farming.

...

I'm sorry, what was the question again?

Once you have been liberated from video games, I do not recommend you coming back to any games. I know that this game is somewhat entertaining, but the entertainment factor will soon diminish after 1 or 2 years. There really is no beneficial values in this game besides the sere enjoyment of grinding to attain titles. So...

Do yourself a huge favor by not coming back at all. I know it takes a while for any gamers to quit a game, but thank yourself if you have successfully quit this game. You have gotten your life back.

Now thats only true if you play this game waaay to much! I dont play this game that often, and I play this game only when I'm bored.... you're taking games way to seriously, almost like its an addiction, like drugs... When you "play" a game, you don't do it 5 hours a day, cause thats not playing, its working.

on topic:
I think you should give it a try again. Just think to yourself, that if you're bored one day, you can just start up GW, and do some quests, and then you can see if you still like it, or if you don't want to play it!

Only reason to play this game would be if you actually enjoy it. Example, if you like doing elite areas (FoW/UW/The Deep/Urgoz's/Warren/DoA), playing for the storyline, grinding titles, etc. If you like you can be a part time player. For instance, I only log on when Anet has a weekend/holiday event that I actually enjoy for more than a minute.

nah its dead i stopped playing about 6months ago i check the sites still to see if anything isnt shit but no luck.

play wow its better

Hmm actually the question is biased: I posted this topic because I decided to give GW a new try a few days ago. Yet it seems things didn't change that much in like 8 months and if it's the case I probably won't stay. So I wanted to know what at can expect from this game.

Just to be clear, the guild stuff isn't a problem: I have rejoined my old alliance and I still know many people in-game (well.. a few). And ya the PvP is generally what you do in a game when you're done with the PvE-side. Unfortunately, despite the fact I'm an addicted PvPer on other games, I dunno... it's not my thing in GW.

And replaying the whole game - it's too late I think. I was really addicted when I played GW. I have 16 chars, most of them have completed at least one campaign, and half of them ent through the 3 campaigns.

Yes there are still things I may want to do - some fun things like clearing again FoW or UW, and other things less enjoyable like grinding a title again.

Yeah that's right. Yet I'm a bit disappointed. No game is perfect, and GW had many flaws since the begining. . After several years they seem to have ruined it. At least that's how I see it.

Thanks for the answers. I see things didn't change in about 8 months :/

Funny how everyone is saying that they quit but they're still hanging around on the forums. Not its a different atmosphere in game...

First, I was kinda like you by getting titles before they came out. I did all the mission bonuses and I had nearly 95% of the map explored before the title came out. Now that they are out though, I still kinda enjoy getting them. At most I'll probably only do like one vanquish a day. I also started chest running, and too my surprise, its actually a lotta fun and not grind. I still think you should try pvp though. At least AB because thats not as competitve. I spend a lot of time in RA though just because its a lot of fun. Doing the actual quests isn't too bad either. I don't care what everyone else says on this forum, but GW:EN is awesome. If you haven't done all the quests, then do them. They're much better than nightfall of factions quests. Actually reading the dialogue kinda makes it more interesting. There's just some of the small things that make it fun. Like when I was doing one quest, I ran into this field filled with swarms of bees like in pre-searing. I also find it funny when henchies get owned by boulders, the secret-op char battle plan missions seem kinda fun, although I tried only one and failed it haha. The graphics in GW:EN are quite amazing too, so vanquishing those areas might be fun.

I dunno I still have fun it GW after playing over 40 months, so I would say yes, play the damn game lol.