What do you like and dislike about Guild Wars?

The thing I like most about guild wars has to be...

The graffics. The first mmorpg i played was club penguin, then I played Runescape for about a couple of years, I always wanted to play world of warcraft but my mun says that it's too violent. I got guild wars and was really happy and liked it a lot because i had never played a game with graffics so good!

The thing i dislike most about guild wars has to be...

The fact that no-matter your profession, you way you play the game is exactly the same. i mean that I find it weird that if you were a warrior you would be playing through the storyline the exact same way as a monk, the only thing affecting you is the skills you have. For example, assassins don't go through the game assassinating anyone and would a monk go and fight hordes of creatures on the front line? No, a warrior would, but it's all the same...

To be fair, Prophecies had some different quests depending on your Profession.

Hopefully Guild Wars 2 will offer more variety with different starting areas, at least for the different races.

It is amazing how well the graphics have held up, even from 4 years ago. A true testament to Anet's artists.

I actually like the whole gameplay the best: 8 skill slots, max armor and weapons, level cap.

The storyline (especially in Factions and Nightfall) could have been improved. We keep hearing MMORPGs promise "choices", but can anyone deliver a MMORPG where your character feels unique?

Like: The concept that a near myriad of unique skill combinations can be crafted and effectively utilized in a variety of play styles.

Dislike: The reality that making your own builds somehow alienates you from most social spheres. Not that this is troubling with the common PuG crowd, but it's rough when even your own guildmates require a full party of perma-sins.

Like: The concept of the Dervish.

Dislike: The execution of the Dervish.

Completely agreed on this one...I'm still pretty blown away by EOTN at certain points. Not that graphics make a game better, but I'll shy away from that argument.

this
& shiny graphics ofc

I agree with you guys completely on the graphics front. Great graphics don't make a great game in and of themselves, but they sure help you feel integrated into a game that's good to start with.

I love Guild Wars' focus on story and plot - a game like WoW with generic quests really doesn't compare to that. The realisation and customisation of the characters is also a draw, particularly the 3D-ness of the armours and faces - if you look at WoW (it'sthe only other MMO i've actually played, and that only for a month or so coz someone bought it for me), the faces are all painted over a basic shape, and the armours work pretty much in the same way. But I guess that's more graphics fawning. Sorry.

The thing i don't like is quite petty actually. The big irritation for me is playing on games like Oblivion and Fallout 3 (and even WoW) and jumping over obstacles such as, say, rocks, then coming back to Guild Wars and feeling literally stuck to the floor. I can see why they're planning to change that with GW2 (don't start the debate about when or if it's coming out, this is about aspects of GW1!). I guess the slowing of updates and campaigns is an issue too inasfar as the longevity of Guild Wars is concerned, but again, I'm not delving into that argument.

Like: mission based anything.

dislike: RoJ, SF, anything that screams abuse me for easy wins.

I love everything about guild wars except the following things, which i absolutely hate.

the /report feature and how it lets carebears dominate guild wars and put the game's social aspect down the shitter, slowly transforming it into their utopian online world of rainbows, cupcakes, kittens and smiley faces.

The lack of attention HA seems to get as far as skill balances go... most of the big skill balances are mostly if not entirely based around the balance of the GvG meta, which is good but also blindsided, and has in effect let the garbage in HA linger into what is now a steaming pile of dishonorable filth.

Aside from those two things i still remain thoroughly impressed with GW and i love the game.

Likes:

-Graphics
-Variety of Professions (as with most games)
-Large World (all GW games)
-Private Instances
-The ability to also be private (DnD/offline) for those times you wanna be left alone and enjoy the game.
-The soundtracks (Favorite was Factions Loading Screen Music and Pre-Searing Intro Cinematic Music, also most presearing zone music)
-The fact that the mechanics and entire game system steers clear of other over-hyped MMO's *cough*
-That it's free to play and will always be there when I want to play (ex. Won't have to hassle with my credit card just to play after a long break)
-That even with 8 skills and level 20, the game is balanced that way (unique)
-Variety of builds with skills
-The graphics are improved in each later game (they all look nice)
-Easy to use In-game store
-With each character you have there are TONS of accomplishments and things to do (I have 11 Characters and 2 empty slots on my main account which has everything, and 2 chars [one perma pre] with 2 empty slots on my secondary Prophicies only account)
-PvP and PvE skills can be separately balanced
-Now your character looks aren't permanent (makeover credits)
-There are fast and slow ways to level and get accomplishments (ex. Prophicies still remains old school which i love, but if i want to race to level 20 I can make a factions character)
-Getting around is easy (clicking town icons to map)
-Addition of Nick the Traveler

Dislikes:

-Small Friends/Ignore list (ive maxed out my friends list and always have to delete someone to make a new one, same goes for ignore)
-Skill Balances over the years (a lot of skills aren't the same anymore)
-Report System (unfair bans and suspensions from multiple-friend grief reporting innocent people)
-People getting hacked easy (don't know about you, but it seems a lot of innocent long time players are getting hacked out of nowhere and this bothers me, sometimes they also get permabanned right afterward which is like a 2x kick in the face)

Like: GW was designed with actual production values...

Dislike: ...until 2007.

Dislike:

Being able to go offline/dnd and pm someone(to shit talk them without having them reply back because they might hurt your feelings). If you've ever done that, please do me a favour and die.

TARGET AUDIENCE!!!!!

WAY TO GO ANET!!!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!

HORRIFIC GAME DESIGN DECISIONS MOTIVATED BY WoW's MARKET SHARE, VALIDATED!!!!

Likes:
The graphics as mentioned above. The detail put into each explorable area. Even after nearly 4 years of play, I am still seeing things either forgotten or for the first time.

The ability to walk away from game for a few days, weeks, or months and pick up right where you were.

The ease with which any class can be learned and the variety you have with each class.

Being able to map from one place to another. Would be a major pain if you logged in Ascalon City and the ones you wanted to meet were in Riverside Province and having to run there.

This is only a partial list. There is so much to like about the game.


Dislikes:

There is not too much I do not like about the game. And it's not so much the game as it is some/many of the people. Because of the age of the game, I am starting to see a polarization of the players. I have seen several guilds trying to recruit only 'experienced' players (speed clears, dungeon runners, etc). When people ask for help, most of the time the reply is "/wiki". Use to be you could get a quick answer. When you ask for help with a quest, "Use henches or H/H it. That quest is easy." If it were easy, I wouldn't have asked for help. (And don't tell me to use such & such a build. I may not be that far along.)

One thing I would have liked to see, once you had completed the missions in Prophesies, you had access to the mission area without having to redo the mission. Having to trigger a timer to access an area to explore and running out of time before completing your exploration .........

IMO, this is the best online game I have played. Others were good, but not up to the level of this one.

Likes:

The gameplay: the level cap, the fact that you can only bring 8 skills at once, the fact that one profession has different lines that you can try out and mix and match. (Theoretically.)

The graphics. I love the scenery, it's so gorgeous.

As mentioned above, map travel.

Dislikes:

My pet peeve is actually found in Factions: for the love of all that is good and holy, why do half the primary quests take you right to the doorstep of the outpost you're supposed to go to and then hit you right in the face with Canthan bureaucracy?!

I mean, take the primary quest to Sunjiang. You run all the way to the outpost, you talk to the guy, who freaks out and panics because he doesn't have enough support. You head to Raisu Pavilion, where you get reinforcements... and then you run all the way back. And then you have to fill out forms in triplicate before they let you in. (How many times do you have to answer 'Yes, I'm sure!' anyway...?) Pet peeve. So many times I've done primary or side quests that take me to the doorstep of an annoying outpost, only to be denied entry due to Canthan bureaucracy. At least NF solved it.

I think that graffics are a very important part of any game, and I would nou have bought gw if the graffics weren't as good as they are. I like going back to an area I've been to before and seeing places i've never seen before, such as that dwarf encampment in bjora marches.

I dislike that they haven't nerfed Shadowform and 55 monks and allowed running through content from Beacons Perch to Droknars.

I like that when GW2 comes out that GW1 will die away and only the diehards that think it will last forever will still be playing and trying to sell something to a dead population.

I like a lot of aspects of the game. Graphics ofc, how easy it is to pick up & play, how you don't have grind for lvl after lvl (titles are a different story) and well theres just so much I like about gw. i always come back to it.

I don't know if there is anything I dislike...I guess the community has gone down the shitter since '07

Dislike:
all of the titles.
the failure of the /report feature
the majority of the updates over the last 2 years.
a-net

Likes:
That the grind is optional.

Like: all parts that I don't dislike.
Dislike: all the parts I don't like.

I guess that about covers it.

Like examples: I like the instancing - not having to worry about fifty other people coming along and killing the critter you need to kill to complete your quest. I like the overall 'look' of the game - the landscapes and the character models.

Dislike examples: I don't like not being able to jump. I don't like areas where there are pop-ups every ten yards. I *hate* being right next to the green star but still have to go to the other side of the map and back to get to it. I *hate* getting vendor trash out of the boss chest upon completing a dungeon.

I like GW because its free to play and im a cheap-o. I like GW because it takes more skill than "Uber gear/Play time" (although play time ive put more than my share in).
I love most of the people i talk to(regularly) on GW, they're all so nice!

Get annoyed and lose love for GW cuase,
After Sanctum Cay Mission the story line goes awry,
Trolls,nothing more to say about them
As said the friends and ignore lists could be much larger. Ill do a micro transaction for that, i have yet to but an extra storage pane.

This,
lol...whats to nerf?

Lets not forget assassins in general, SF or not i don't like them.

Likes: Festivals! Varied mission types (mainly in NF), Graphics, Instances, assigned drops, More Festivals! Heroes, skill quests (TYVM, Prophecies), The scenery in Prophecies, Nightfall, and Noob Island in factions, Nickolas the Traveller, Z-quests / missions, /report feature (for PvE, it's a mess in PvP), ease of switching builds around,

Dislikes:
1. Mesmer hate (in PvE, of course). A-net decided that a full cry-way party was OP'd and needed a nerf (it did), But a UWSC party of SF assassins DIDN'T need a nerf? WTF?
Talk about a double-standard!

2. The monthly QQ fest that erupts on fan-sites. (I know, that sounds kinda hypocritical after #1. )

3. Alesia

4. Kaineng City

5. Timed missions

6. factions "story-line"

Likes:
-The music. Across all 3 campaigns and EotN, the soundtrack is amazing.
-Graphics, which has been said countless times.
-The low level cap. While I will admit, when I started playing, I didn't understand it. After playing for so many years now, I love it.
-The lack of focus on statted gear.
-The story telling.
-The PvP; For all its current issues, I still love it.
-The ability to fully customize my interface. From size to location.
-The initial challenge. Sure, it's easy once you've played through everything more than once and know what to expect everytime, but those first experiences were a challenge for me that I oh-so-loved!
-No weekly server downtime.
-No "Server full" messages.
-Festivals and weekend events.
-Plenty of quests (Although I still wish there were even more!)



Dislikes:
-The rep grind for armors in EoTN.
-The inability to go anywhere you desire (fixed paths). I'm an explorer at heart and if I see a hill I want to climb, gosh darnit, let me climb it. If I see a cliff I want to dive off, let me do it. They're my own virtual legs I can break if I wish.
-Rubber banding like a human slingshot.
-Time limits (bonus requirement). Ugh..so frustrating.
-The amount of skills. That's not to say having a nice selection is bad, but at some point it becomes excessive.
-"reskinned" dungeons. While I like playing them and they were a good try, they just don't feel unique in any way.
-Lack of any in depth crafting system.
-Lack of focus on more in depth roleplay elements..



I'm sure there's more for both lists, but I don't have much time to sit here and debate with myself.

LIKES:
1) The fact that there are a variety of ways to max your reputations, from grinding, vanquishing for points, quests/missions, dungeons, etc.
2) The graphics are still awesome to me after all these years. Other competitive games in the online RPG world just don't compare.
3) The way the game is based more upon skill synergy and skill bar strategy, with an endless amount of skill possibilities in one team/party that synergize together.
4) The events, like Wintersday, etc. I love the quarterly events, and they spice the game up a bit, as well as bring in certain items that are valued by many, but only found during certain times of the year (like candy corn).
5) Large world.
6) Instance based, not persistent based. I cannot stand persistent worlds.


DISLIKES:
1) I'd like to be able to create alias's for my friends, instead of having them on my friends list by character name...I would also like to be able to create custom friends lists, like an IM program, to sort out my friends. And finally, the ability to have more friends on the list.
2) An alliance member list, so you can see who is online.
3) Needs nerfs to Shadow Form and Spirit Bond/Spell Breaker. I love farming..I love Perma...I love 600/smiting...but those are the reasons nothing has a value in this game any more.
4) Auction/trade house, where you can put items in for trade and leave the game...and they are still up for trade.
5) I can't stand Prophecies. Sure, it is a great looking game, but the missions are way too drawn out and you spend way too much time before you can get your attribute points. And the skill quests are annoying if you own the other campaigns. It would not be so bad if the other campaigns were the same way, but they are not. It makes me not want to play Prophecies ever, because I can work a character to level 20 with any skill I want in a matter of hours in Factions/EOTN/NF.

Likes: Pretty much everything, especially the art in general. (scenery, armor designs, etc) I also especially like that grinding is optional and that you can map travel. I also really like Vekk.

Dislike: That rank 5 is required for certain armors in GWEN, requiring grinding sometimes, and the awful voice acting through much of Factions.

Likes: map travel,guilds,gorgeous graphics and all the different skills which add so much variety of the game (even if only a couple skills are used, SF etc.)
Dislikes: When they said the adventure was made for u, i thought they meant (like in the first post) different storylines for each character. They dont have that >.<

haha.

Likes: The Ranger profession as a whole, and how versatile it can be. Also, festival games.

Dislikes: Lack of updates, lack of quality in said updates.

Likes: The graphics as has been stated, limited 8 skills.

Dislikes: No persistent world, It can be done without the kill stealing.

I like variations and new challenges
I dislike perma sins and how it seems the only way to play for some.
Heck, I even saw a Perma sin to run from Ascalon to LA.. what for!?

Just to prove they can, for some odd reason.

likes: 600 smite, graphics,music, z-quest pugs(most of the time lol), weekly traveler,nice people

dislikes: invincibility(sf), syncs at festival games & ra, no more free keys xD, lack of updates(fuels the people sayin its a dieing game),speedclears, BLOOD SPIKE, sins and monks farming everything and need to make one to get anywhere so u cant play your favorite proff as much, people that only ha so they think they can tiger you at every chance is u only have r3... i REALLY REALLY REALLY hate them soooo much would be sooo funny if they did that to a random person then they dragoned them & been like gtfo noobs like they do ha ha ha

I think next Thusday something good will happen, I am an optimist

These are just some things off the top of my head:

Likes:
- The soundtracks, especially the Eye of the North's music. Some of the best music I've ever heard in an MMO. Whoever wrote it, I want to shake their hand.
- The graphics. Beautifully rendered. I still am in awe whenever I go into some places, such as the Far Shiverpeaks, or Vabbi, etc.
- The concept art is beautiful and inspiring, too.
- The storylines. Yeah, they're hokey, but I enjoyed the characters, the environments, and the urgent feeling of being tied to the fate of the world or whatever. More involving instead of just doing mindless FedEx quests for seemingly no reason except for the next big tier-x armor.
- The lore. They have some interesting ideas and stories in here, and I had so much fun reading about and looking for new stuff, and theorycrafting. It makes me sad that they left some things unsolved before moving onto another game. Hopefully they'll pick it all back up again in GW2.

Dislikes:
- The terrible lag and rubberbanding.
- The induction of Heroes (and even worse, making them required at some parts).
- The induction of required grind to progress through the game (and it only getting worse from there).
- Locked gates/doors (no more free exploration).
- Invisible walls/fixed paths.
- Timed missions/bonuses, and even worse, having to beat a mission/bonus in a required time just to get a Master's difficulty.
- Whoever said having to say "Yes" three times to move your party to the next area, this!
- And whoever said those quests where you have to run around back and forth from beginning to end multiples times, this too. Routing fail; that crap's annoying and tedious. x___X

Likes: Pretty item skins, mix and match for your character so you can look different, some things still require effort to get even with all the SC stuff going on.




Dislikes: The fact that there are so many skills in the game, and yet so few of them are actually viable choices.

Likes:
-The fact that the only gear you truly "need" is rather afforadable and reached not terribly far into the game, and that all the gear after that is just making you look different.
-The PvP being the most enjoyable *and* bearable as opposed to all the other MMO's out there.
-Overall optimization.
-Wonderful art direction.

Dislikes:
-Overabundance of skills, and *waaaay* over the limits of what ANet can handle. Massive imbalance is seen in both parts of the game.
-Complete disregard for PvE balance, design and structure.
-Loss of "skill>time" thanks to PvE skills, title benefits, and consets.

likes:
-possibly one of the most revolutionary games of the decade
-awesome gameplay and combat mechanics
-excellent execution of graphics
dislikes:
-how all of the above are spoiled by shoddy management.

Dislike

1. Metagame - There are a bazillion skills and Guild Wars and I hated it when I was told I had to use these set of skills to be successful.

2. Titles - I just wish we could of had titles from the start because all the stuff I'm doing is repetitive content. I'm sorry but it is boring because I did this a gazillion times before for the past 3+ years.

3. Heroes - They are kind of cool but they really took the social aspect of Guild Wars away. Every mission area you goto these hardly anyone is lfg anymore.

Likes

1. Mission based instead of a million fedex quests. The dungeons were fun too.
2. Guild Halls - I just wish we had much nicer ones.
3. The game was just a ton of fun and I hope Guild Wars 2 is even more fun.

how good a game looks depends primarily on the skill and vision of its artists, not the kind of graphics API nor the graphic engine. it's like giving a world caliber artist crayons, and a 6 year old the most advanced imaging tech possible; the world caliber artist will still deliver better looking pictures with his crayons.

the same applies to GW. using a very limited (at least, by today's standards) selection of tools given by the game engine, anet's artists and graphic designers have created a world that's absolutely breathtaking. some locations can even rival those in oblivion. given that oblivion has 4x the graphics requirement of GW, that's really saying something.

Likes:

How streamlined the game is in its design. There's no clutter of skill debuff icons for your partymembers, just arrows and colored health bars. There's no unsightly "you hit X for Y damage" combat log scrolling by as you play, instead just icons of skills recently used against you.

The skill system. When I saw this game, and saw the mesmer skill list, it was like someone had got into my head and created the game I'd always wanted.

The game does not punish you with death penalties, repair bills, or endless trekking around (or stupid flight paths) to get from A to B.

PvP in this game is the best of any game I've played. GvG, when I was doing it a lot (in 2006), was an amazingly fun experience, probably the pinnacle of my enjoyment of this game.

PvP characters with max level armor, skills, etc.

Graphics, this game is amazing for its time. I remember when this game came out, they had to say "No, these screenshots are not retouched, the game actually does look like this." Can they do it again for GW2?

The music. Jeremy Soule is amazing, I've bought all his stuff.

How efficient the client is. I can double click the GW icon on my desktop, and within 10 seconds I am in game and controlling my character (I have my password as a command line parameter to gw.exe, so it logs me right in). Compare with, say, Warhammer Online, which took forever to start, had a whole load of logos/ads to get through, then *two* EULAs/Code of Conduct things you had to scroll down to to hit accept, and a large loading time for your character to enter. Probably 2 minutes from clicking the WAR icon to moving my character in game. Aion takes at least a minute.

Heroes (but also in dislikes). I've had a ton of fun messing around with PvE hero setups, it's like building magic decks.


Dislikes:

In game community is practically non-existent compared with other games.

Lack of interesting character progression on the PvE side of things.

Does not feel like a game world, due to instancing. No jumping helps to make everything feel even more boxed in and on rails.

PvP is missing some options; rated team arena, as well as the ability for me to just join up in some medium to large battle by myself -- and I don't mean random arena. There are no epic battles in this game.

Heroes are a blessing and a curse, they have made this game a single player RPG in many ways.

Huge complexity and steep learning curve of PvP to a newcomer kept many of my friends from getting into it.

PvE dungeons are not as immersive or interesting as in other MMOs. The EoTN dungeons felt very generic.

Ritualists, Paragons, and Assassins. Please die and don't come back in GW2.

That GW has effectively been abandoned, although the above problems aren't realistically solvable in GW1 anyway.

Like: the pvp gameplay and system's layout and clear execution.

Would-like: Izzy to be less incompetant in gw2, more pve options available (larger group sizes and areas mostly)

Like: No fees, hotties, get competitive in minutes if you somehow like to pvp, huge world, pve skills, heroes, ginormous pile of skills.

Dislike:No more campaigns in ages, whiny community that demands free stuff and throws it all into Anet's face when they get some,mandatory metagaming.

I hate whenever im in Doomlore and say "LFR CoF HM 3k" people say "its 2k noob", "your stupid", "lol your a nab" and pms. Though im pretty sure its my money and 1k more isint a big deal.