What's the rush?

Apparently the majority of guild wars players have the shortest attention spans in the world. They play the game through, make a new character, but decide to skip all of the content. Get some runner, guildie, bam get a level 20 ascended character through "power-leveling" or whatever term you wish to use for it.

It bugs me because I made a new character (monk), and I'm having a harder time getting/forming groups than my warrior in the ToA. At least 1/3 of the people in the ascalon areas are level 20 w/mo offering their 'taxi' services, another 1/3 looking for runners, and the rest looking for groups or trading. When I went through the game the first time with my warrior, I played alone to get a handle for the game and not be branded as a newb with endless questions and comments. But as a monk I don't want to play through the game with henchmen because I need to get the feel for taking care of compotent players (or least breathing players). Were it not for the fact that a few other guildies decided to also start fresh I'd be going solo again.

I know that partying up in the early stages isn't necessary, and I figured when I got into the mountains the problem would go away somewhat. Hardly the situation, more people looking for runners, even fewer doing missions, just pathetic. I'm hoping now that I'm into Lion's Arch this situation will rectify itself.

To all the people who do get runners and what not, consider a few things. Have you ever played a console game through more than once? Did you get bored halfway through and just give up entirely? Do you ever read a book and skip a bunch of chapters because you already know whats coming up? Do you constantly go skip scene on a DvD till you get to the good parts? Hopefully one of those analogies will get through.

If you're so bored with the PvE content, just make a level 20 PvP character so you can avoid all the hassle. Need to unlock skills? Just switch your secondary and buy the skills you need.

It's also displeasing to know that Anet doesn't oppose runners, and that Lornar's Pass is meant to be a challenge.

FYI in Lion's arch i couldn't find anybody at all willing to party, but at least i had some luck in Piken square and Ascalon.

I've almost finished the game with my primary (Iere) and I'm working at playing it with a necromancer, a mesmer, and an elementalist.

I don't understand why people want to be ran; I don't mind replaying missions, if only because it's a different role. I can understand if you want to make another W/Mo and don't want to play through the game AGAIN as a tank, but whatever.

I don't really MIND people running- I wouldn't- except those people who run, get a capture signet, and bring all their drok's armor and end-game skills to Ascalon. I mean, it's an empty victory-- so you managed to pay quite a lot of platinum in order to get your fancy armor and in order to get yourself ran everywhere, but it's not bragging rights because you beat some person just out of Pre-searing with your Droknar's armor and your elite skills. Argh.

/rant.

Edit: I've never had problems with finding a party; I actually find that it's easier in Ascalon, even if you don't really need to. It's harder to find a party as a necromancer the further you get in the game =( Until, that is, you get to about Ring of Fire and people start needing faster energy regen.

I have started a new game with my third character and so far haven't seen need to skip everything I can and rush to level 20. It is so fun to play with new main professions. Each profession defines different role in the party which keeps it interesting at least for me even I have completed the game.

On top of that, the newbies in the game haven't a clue and with all this spamming of running, it's easy to be lulled into believing that it's the only method of getting around. The fun is then taken out of the game for those newbies and they soon get the mentality that money will get you everywhere in game.

Then it comes back full circle and hurts everyone else when you get these players on your team who have no idea how to get through Ascalon properly and screw up YOUR play time because they ruin the mission for you.

they need to beat the game before school starts so they can breg to their school friends, I beat GW!!!11omgone

Yes
Only with one, out of the hundreds of RPGs I've played.
Nope, defeats the purpose of rereading a book, and I can't see how you could possibly skip chapters in a book you're reading for the first time (talking narratives here, how-to's etc don't count ).
Only when watching the most recent Star Wars movies.

My point is, yes, you buy an RPG to play it through. It's a genre in which the journey, not the end result, is the most important thing. However, Guild Wars somewhat fails at this level. After playing through its transparent plot twice, I would have either gotten a runner or stopped playing altogether. If I hadn't gotten a runner at that point, you wouldn't have gotten one more potential teammate. Instead, you'd have gotten a person who put away the game and probably forgot about it (not to mention any future expansions).

The very fact that I can play my favorite parts (pre-sear, all shiverpeaks, and the desert) and somewhat skip the agonizing parts is a giant plus.

Before anyone takes this as a flame or a post meant to be combative, let me stress that I do understand where the OP is coming from. I sympathize with your point. Its unfair that people coming late to the game are having trouble finding groups to play through it with. However, there is a reason that people who have thoroughly gone through the plot multiple times stop coming back to that particular aspect of the game. If you've seen it once, you've seen it a million times. You're not likely to find some new insight, some new perspective on the world, by your 3rd or 4th time through.

Telling someone to just go play PvP instead of hiring a runner is somewhat short-sighted. Just because I don't like playing a certain area of the game, doesn't mean that I don't like playing other areas. I loathe Kryta and Meguuma, but adore the desert. What do I do with my runners? Use them to get me to the desert faster so I can enjoy the stuff there and beyond. Once I get to my destination, that's when the journey begins. That's where you'll see me asking for groups or joining in groups asking for help.

Just because someone uses a runner doesn't mean they're diminishing PvE play.

PL'ers are the most annoying breed of human on the earth. They RACE to get to the level cap and then complain that there isn't anything to do.

not all PL'ers. only the PL'ers that whine

I finished my first character completely and did every single quest I could find. I didn't want to do the exact same stuff over again so I never grouped once on either of my other characters going up.

I didn't hire runners though. I think that wastes as much time as it gains over all. I did all the skill quests in every area and then the missions with Hench. I'm not saying it's good for the game but I'm not willing to fail at missions that I've already done on my own character and helped others do for theirs or re-do quests that are exactly the same.

Well I made my way through with my first character... with my second I got run from ascalon to droknar so I could buy the armor, then I went back and continued on doing all the missions in order. I must be the only one.

But everyone plays differently. I moved my 4th character, a warrior from Pre to Post Searing last night. Was grouped with 3 others in that PvP event against 4 others, so 4 on 4. I was lv 8 with my warrior, everyone else was lv 3-4. we won 7-5. I was killing them easy till they ganged up on me while the others on my team were being res'd. People seem to be in a hurry to get out of pre-searing. I'd have stayed there if there was more to do but I had done all the missions...

Do I plan on getting run to Droknar? you bet! Will it diminish the game for me? Nope.

I have 3 characters that have essentially finished the game, covering all 6 classes -none of whom were run through the game.

That was to unlock stuff - having finished up, they have run out of skillpoints, though I have done all the quests that grant skills. 3 full characters through the game and I am still missing points for skills. That's a good reason to rush a character. I can have a character levelled up and in Droknar's in no time with a rush, earning me a ton more skillpoints on the way, and then I simply buy the skills I need. I want all my skills unlocked, as it stands I will be short about 50? or so when I spend all my skillpoints on these 3 characters. That's a fair number to bother grinding for, given that I could simply run a character out to Droknar's, then whip through the missions for more skillpoints and spend those in far less time.

So I haven't done it yet, but unless they add a pile of skill points suddenly that's what I'll be doing.

Running is not the problem, if a newb with their first character is dumb enough to waste their first few hundreds of gold to be rushed places, that's their own damn loss. Running your 2nd or 3rd character through by guildies or "pro runners" is another thing though, and I can see why some people do it. Unlocking skills so you can be flexible in PVP is a pain in the ass once you realize what exactly it entails.

Still, I don't like when people go into Ascalon arena with their twinked out ubar lvl 10 Mr. Platemail W/Mo and beat newbies around with skills they've probably never even heard of. I just disagree with that on principle.

You think you can get all the skills through experience and skill points before doing the skill quests? Most of the skill quests are quick and easy and you keep all your skill points and get more while they give you a free skill.

I'm not complaining mind you. To each his own and all that. I know I finished the game on my 2nd and 3rd characters so fast and did the skill quests and then had a bucketfull of skill points to use on skills when I know I want them.

I don't want to wait 100+ hours to reach droknor Forge, so for both of my PvE Character (level 20 w/e, and level 14 mesmer/necro, i pay someone to run me from beacon perch to forge for 2k each)

But as for quests/missions, i usually play them through without running it with either guildmates or with random players.

Ractoth, did it ever occur to you that some people enjoy the game in different ways?

did it ever even pass your mind that, just maybe, being ran and playing the game with the upperhand (as opposed to playing it through and doing each and every mission) might make the game more enjoyable for some people?

Sure it might not be enjoyable for YOU, but for others it might be the only way to enjoy a game properly. I personally have the attention span of a 8 year old when it comes to games and unless i can do things really quickly, it simply gets boring far too fast.

different strokes for different folks mate.

Unlocking, so you can play PvP, is the rush.

My-excuse: Yup, it has occured to me that some ppl enjoy having things easy. The ones who lack skill. Maybe you should drop by a local kindergarten and play basketball with them and feel good about yourself.

Skullcrasher: Why do you need to get to Droknar's? It's easy enough w/o the best armor. I was running around beating missions and bonuses on the first try with henchmen or PUG when my armor was 31 in places where towns were selling 50+ armor and ppl in mission outposts were complaining they've failed multiple times. I'm guessing you fit into excuse's category of liking games with no challenge. Maybe reading a book or watching a movie would be better for you two since there's no challenge on your part at all.

For unlocking purposes only after having played through is arguably ok though.

I don't have an issue per se with runners, it's up to the individual how they want to play the game. It's much the same with groups that insist on doing the bonus missions, it's changed quite a lot from what it was like at launch.

I actually enjoy seeing how the missions play out differently as the different classes, some that were hard with an E/Mo are incredibly easy with a N/Me and vice versa. Doing thirsty river (or whichever one the crystal shards one is) as a W/R is a completely different experience to doing it as a E/Mo.

not everybody is a complete dork and has tons of spare time, alot of people beat the game normally and now want the most fun out of what time they spend playing the game.
being rushed is a 1000x faster way to unlock skills then going through the game normally