What will keep here......want a change from SWG, EQ2 and WOW

Hi,

To add to a previous post I done.....Thinking of starting to play GW again as I bought it when it first came out but then went to play EQ2, WOW and SWG which in total have took the past 3-4years of my time.

But what will GW offer me to keep me here and I will not get swayed back to playing the above games.

You already own it so it costs nothing to play. There is nothing to lose but some time to try it and see if you enjoy it or not.

Well there isnt any grind...I say that is its biggest offer.

Quick PvP

The note about there not being any grind is innacurate. You don't have to grind to level up, that comes pretty quickly by just playing through the game. However to earn gold for the highend fancy armor, you will need to grind a bit to get it or the materials required by the crafter. This is not a requirment though so it's your choice as to whether or not you want to do it.

Fix'd

Usually, when people talk about grind, they're talking about required grind. If you don't have to grind away to get what you need to survive, then the game has minimal grind or none at all. Obviously, you work harder for nicer stuff, but that's just a give.

Yes, but some people want everything just handed to them.

Along with the grind topic...

One huge flaw in the game is in fact the grind. A sizeable emphasis is placed on joining an Alliance with your guild, and working up Faction points to donate to your alliance. When your alliance has a large sum of Faction points, you'll be rewarded with control of an outpost - which results in small discounts at traders, some eye-candy...and if your alliance is #1, access to Elite Missions.

The problem with that is grind. The only way to have a shot at any of the things mentioned above is indeed to spend much time "faction farming", whether that be through Alliance battles or repeatable quests. For me at least, it gets boring after doing a quest 5-10 times. That honestly is the biggest flaw in the game; everything else runs smoothly, or at least near it.

Many of the landscapes are breathtaking (Mourning Veil Falls in the Echovald Forest), many of the new skills simply rock, and playing through the storyline is actually somewhat fun (and rewarding ).

As you've probably seen around the various fansite forums, there are many flaws in Factions. But there are also many great things (if not more) to keep you occupied for a long time.

And that is Factions related, playing Prophecies only doesn't make one do that, and according to Gaile, ANet is working on a second route for getting into the Elite missions, so I'd expect atleast the hardcore factiongrinding dissipate some

From an EQ2, WoW, or SWG there is no grind whatsoever. From the point of view of UT2kX there is tons of grind. You can't simply turn on the game and play top level, you have to play a game (and thus - the "RPG" part of the descritption - online competitive RPG with no grind - which too many PvP players seem to forget is in there). But, this has been hashed out a lot and some like to complain and push to new players there is tons of grind. I reached max level, max weapons, max armor, and 90% of the skills I want unlocked in about 6 hours. Unlock all skills takes quite a bit longer, but many are not really used (some are PvP useful, some PvE, some not really useful at all), the vast majority unlocked for all professions in about 15-25 hours depending on how focused and how good of a guild you get. This also depends on the ratio you use PvP and PvE to unlock things.

Suffised to say unless you get instant unlock all skills a certain portion will be angry as they consider playing for 5 hours "grind". Amusingly enough, to teach anet a lesson they will go play WoW - given that you come from there I am sure you can see the irony in getting angry that GW takes ~5-7 hours to reach nearly full competitive status (even if you are slow) so , in order to teach anet a lesson and get less grind, you will go play WoW for high end PvP. I find that complaint amusing to no end.

Now, factions currently has quite a bit of grind to get access to elite missions along with the requirement that you belong to a top end guild/alliance (well, access depends on either that or one of those alliances being nice and letting others in - and how many online gamers are like that?). In that, I agree - though it's still better than other options and is a PvE issue. Supposedly some of that's being changed, plus there are only two elite missions. I don't know how important those will be to you.

I doubt you will view playing the actual game as grind (IMO it is not enough, but then I'm mainly an RP'er who dabbles in PvP), nor do you consider it grind for better skins (same stats as the cheap armor - like the FoW armor listed). However, many people from the games you list like the grind part, so it's your choice.

The game cost nothing past the initial cost, nor has it really changed that much from Prophecies. IMO it's worth the 40-50 dollars for a play through, I've payed that for much less game in single player games (which I view this game as in a lowest case scenario - anything above that I get extra). In that sense, I would say get it. As for long term - eh - personal choice.