What Keeps You Playing?

Hey guys, I'm new around here, and new to Guild Wars in general, just picked it up in the past few days and decided to give it a try!

Something I like to do when I pick up a new game (that's already been out for a while) is ask all of the veteran players what's kept them playing (or coming back) after years of playing.

Hopefully this is the correct place for this sort of topic! There's no need to sell me on the game, as I've already purchased it, but as a veteran player of other online games, I know how a few simple mechanics or quirks can keep a game interesting for years.

Answer however you like, but here are some ideas if you're drawing blanks:

• What are some mechanics or gameplay systems you find really compelling?
• What is it about the game world that keeps you interested?
• What makes Guild Wars a unique experience (in it's genre) for you?
• What about end game, PvP, what makes those experiences unique/compelling?

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to respond, I like to get an idea of what the good, the bad, and the awesome of a game with an established community before I jump in, that way I know what to expect!

For me, Guild Wars has always been about the experiences I've had with other people. The best memories I have of the game involve goofing off with guildmates and my friends in game.

While many of these people have moved on to other games, I still catch a few of them and we chat a bit. I've also made new and interesting friends at this point in the game as well. Even if we're all just sitting around afk-ish blabbing about say Mass Effect 3, or just today about the merits or disadvantages of the Collector's Edition of Guild Wars 2, I enjoy interacting with the people. For me, this game has and will always be about the interesting people I have met and continue to meet.

I'm still going for 50 points in my hall of monuments. That's what is keeping me playing. However, I still see myself playing this until GW2 even if i get 50. Whether it's starting collection of certain weapons or going for more titles, I'll still be sticking around.

One of the things that keeps me playing are players who run builds like this.

It's a party or group based game that doesn't require PvP. Builds are more like deck building in card games.

Well personally what keeps me going is getting GWAMM (you get it by maxing 30 titles). But what I think I would play as much if it weren't for my guild. We do all sorts of stuff together mainly helping out our members who are either new or returning (and this helps me get my titles finished). It keeps the magic alive for us old timers in the guild That and I love smack talking in JQ, I demoralize my enemy physically and verbally

I bought the game and never again had to pay anything else for it, AND I can play with my husband --or other people when he is not around.
I LIKE the game, the mechanics that keep me around are: level 20 is max level-and easy to get to, max weapons are easy to come by (skins are what people pay extra for--and those dont change the damage of the weapon), basic max armor is very cheap.

as a causal gamer you can play for a while and not miss much if you have been gone.

to be honest with you, you started a a few years late. You missed out on those good guild wars days. Now Guild Wars, is all about chasing HoM. should have waited for GW2.

Friends, anticipation for GW2, boredom.

At first pvp was my bread and butter in GW but since then the game has died down quite a bit. Now I just log in to VQ with guildies and do zaishen quests.

The friends I've made through palying in game, addictive personality, used to be collecting stuff.

It's visually stunning, even by todays standards. You can play with people or play by yourself. You pay once and play all you want. It's easy to get the gear you need, but hard to get the gear you want. It has a diverse storyline and interesting creatures can be found within the world. (Charr are awesome. I love to hate them!)

etc.

Just something endears me to it. I've gone off and played other games and lost interest because they were the same rehash of other games. I've played GW since the beginning and it was my first big online game experience so that could be it. Even after 7 years I still have places I haven't been. I play strictly PVE so for me its the exploration and adventure. I am a GW tourist, LOL. Every once in awhile I learn a new trick or a build that opens up something I haven't been able to do before. I'm a casual player that logs on like I'm opening an old favorite book that reunites me with my little family of characters. OK this is just getting sappy sounding now. Big world, enduring storyline, lots to do if you don't go nuts and stress on getting everything done as soon as possible. Enjoy!

Very little keeps me logging on. After 50/50 HoM and one GWAMM doing anything in PvE now causes me to go insane from the feeling of repetition. WiK and WoC was incredibly short with bleh rewards. JQ is ridden with bots, RA has degenerated, FA gets boring, AB is dead, GvG is same old boring camp the flag stand then kill GL and HA sucks due to LF R11+ groups with zero updates to the format.

I started playing mid 2005 and seeing the game now just makes me sad. Only reason I log in sometimes is nothing else sounds better atm.

At the moment i'm playing on an off, currently on the off because of time constraints. (work, finally released a fan translation for another game so my little free time is there)
To me GW is simply one of the best MMORPGs.
1-No grinding required for most of it. You can get max lvl (20) pretty fast and max armor/weapons too. (No 0,00000x% drop rate for effectiveness)
2-If you like to grind you can get nice/rare skin weapons as reward
3-It's a team strategy game. The team must function as a whole and you should look for advantages everywhere you can (terrain/positioning/agro control)
4.1-No jumping, no infinite skills on my bar and bodyblocking.
4.2-Versatility
I grouped this two since they're what i noticed after playing wow for a few months.
To me it was weird how people kept jumping aiming for that backstab on the the other guys back, the gnome that could jump through the tauren (was he made from aether?) and how i looked at my skill bar and had so many skills that i didn't know what i should use.
Versatility since i can just play whatever role i want and can change whenever i want. I make fun of how i run SF nuker on my necro, the next day i'm playing rt healer and after that i'm MM.

This was about right about what i think about the game and game mechanics
What really keeps me going:
-don't like being idle while watching tv series, so i just pick an easy farm and watch (also keeps my english from getting rusty while relying mostly on my hearing)
-having fun to see how many things of the extended hom i can make before gw2 comes out

Hope you have fun with gw.
Sad you'll probably won't group much for the regular content but you'll never face the nightmare of being in the outpost looking for that monk at THK.

reason I still play gw.. I got mass effect 3, finished it in 15 hours, and tried to play it again, and it was pointless - and the ending pisses me off. with gw there are tons of things to do, even though I have finished everything - I always seem to find some loose end I can tie up. I will say though, I am one of "the last men standing" from my guild of over a hundred people, who have gone on to other things years ago and havn't been back.

Alliance Battles. Too bad the format is dead most of the time nowadays...

Simply cause it's the best game around, for me. Once in a while I try a new game, i play for a while, then always return to gw. And it's also the reason why I bought, it seemed the perfect game to be played forever without having to look for other things, and it never lets me down. And you can return to it anytime and it's always there, you retake things from where you left them and don't feel like you are penalized for inactivity - also very casual player friendly for this.
I love the lack of grind, you only grind if you want to.
The huge world all to explore (and the stunning landscapes), the game mechanics that award the player more than the character and the ability to put together a build instead of the "I have those items so I can roll through content".
The fact that after years I redo the same things and still they look different, and seeing how much I got better as a player (what takes you much time and effort at the beginning, you can do with ease when you know the game better).
The fact that you always have something to learn, no matter how long you played.
Being able to either play alone, with just friends, or with casual strangers, as you like better, and being able to change this anytime (I don't have much time/I just wanna stay on my own?fine let's grab my heroes. I wanna soend some time in company?fine, let's look for people).
The choice of armors, purely based on estetics instead of stats. Other than making your char look more unique and the way you like it, it also helps immersion: if you have many armors all woth the same stats you can wear one fitting to what you're going to do. And that's also good if you like roleplaying.
A very important thing is that no choice is irreversible. you can toy wit your build as much as you like, you can make all the mistakes you want, you can change completely your build everyday. You're never gonna do the wrong choice. I really hate it, when I start a new game, that you have to go and look for builds, decide how you want your char to be, all from day one, otherway you're screwed.
The ability to have a lot of chars without being too penalized for this. You get to max lvl quickly, and can complete all the campaigns (thus having access to every zone of the world) in short time. So when you want to..dunno, help a friend out, do something random, etc...you just pick the char you feel like playing in that moment, or the one that's needed the most, instead of always playing the same old one, or having to choose the most useful profession as your char instead of what you like or else you're screwed. Also, playing all professions helps understand the game (if you know how to play your mesmer, you'll also know how to counteract to mesmer foes for example).
I don't play pvp, but a pretty neat thing about it is the possibility to make a pvp only char, which already has everything you unlocked, so you can jump right into pvp with it without having to "build the character" before.
As I said at the beginning it's totally unique. Not cause I think it's good, but simply cause there's really no other game with the same mechanics around.
I made a too long post, and yet I don't think I said everything :P

This game.. particularly for the low resources it takes to run it.. is one of the best visually I have ever played, if not the best.(among mmos)

It is casual. I can take a break, come back, and not have to buy expacs, grind levels or jimmy AA's and gear around to deal with some fundamental and needless change in gameplay (Im looking at you EQ2)

For me it is endless tinkering with group synergy.. its my group totally.. and I can. I have yet to visit any pvx build sites..I enjoy reading skills, putting builds together and testing them. I rarely run the same builds/heroes on different prof chars of mine.. each group is tweaked to work with the char I am running.

I like that it is not gear or level driven. It is all about a myriad of skills and 8 slots only to put them in.

GW is a game every developer needs to look at. Its not crafting, fluff, housing, mounts, uber gear, etc. It is solid gameplay and solid mechanics. I abandoned games with all of the fluff to play this.. time and time again.

And I concur with everything Mintha.. above post. said.

Game Updates.

I'll keep playing for as long the game keeps having updates.
I like to try new builds when skills change.
I like to play new content.
I like to find new drops.

I generally like new things, and this game never gets old.

For me, this. Content updates don't happen very often, but I always log in and play when they do. Also for most festivals, particularly if there is new stuff to do. Other than that, I mostly log in to play with friends and guildies, or to help other people (mostly helping them get HoM points).

Meek Shall Inherit