Guild Wars 2: THAT'S NOT A MOUNTAIN

[Namboto]

Well, I know what some of my money is getting spent on now

This and skyrim look pretty cool, and its been a while since I've played an MMO (lol, runescape)

The plant people look ok, but I'll probably either roll a human or Norn first.

[Onamar]

I actually like humans in GWs universe. They were basically dicks to everyone, including each other, for hundreds of years, and now they actually need to work together.

[kholhaus]

Gee, that sounds oddly familiar to a more tangible universe.

HMMM-- Okay I won't do it.

But yeah, Guild Wars 2. Seems like an actual action mmorpg instead of click to kill.

[Softspoken]

But yeah, Guild Wars 2. Seems like an actual action mmorpg instead of click to kill.

I think the essential ingredient here is the bounty of location based abilities and the evasion mechanic. Position-heavy gameplay is much harder to plan extensively / theorycraft / calculate, and rewards fast-thinking players, in comparison to strategy that can be easily copy/pasted from a guide.

I'll admit I'm more excited about the 'proper RPG' aspect. I haven't played many RPGs by virtue of being cheap and owning the wrong consoles for it, but I really enjoy the stories and key characters in them.

[tibialoconcupiscent]

I'll admit I'm more excited about the 'proper RPG' aspect. I haven't played many RPGs by virtue of being cheap and owning the wrong consoles for it, but I really enjoy the stories and key characters in them.

I agree, and unlike another MMORPG in development, Arenanet won't charge you 15 a month for what plays as a single player RPG with an online component.

[Softspoken]

I agree, and unlike another MMORPG in development, Arenanet won't charge you 15 a month for what plays as a single player RPG with an online component.

This I will admit is also a key selling point. Subscriptions have always scared me off, because it creates an artificial imperative for me to play as much as possible during the subscription period, further destroying my poor excuse for a social life. Not to mention the eventual cost aspect. I'll admit I'm willing to put down a good chunk of cash for this thing because I know I'll only have to pay it once.

[tibialoconcupiscent]

I agree, and unlike another MMORPG in development, Arenanet won't charge you 15 a month for what plays as a single player RPG with an online component.

This I will admit is also a key selling point. Subscriptions have always scared me off, because it creates an artificial imperative for me to play as much as possible during the subscription period, further destroying my poor excuse for a social life. Not to mention the eventual cost aspect. I'll admit I'm willing to put down a good chunk of cash for this thing because I know I'll only have to pay it once.

Well... plus expansions (whenever they come out), assuming you're still playing.

[Namboto]

So as excited as I am for this game, I never got to play the first one so I have no clue what, exactly, to expect.

Anyone want to give me a synopsis of what the gameplay is like?

[Nocturne]

So as excited as I am for this game, I never got to play the first one so I have no clue what, exactly, to expect.

Anyone want to give me a synopsis of what the gameplay is like?

Quests are mostly assassination/fetch with the occasional escort quest; sometimes these occur in tandem. Missions are like longer quests. Instanced worlds can get pretty lonely when you play solo a lot like I did. Auto-targeting, space to attack, mouse/click to use skills 1-8. I always either floundered due to bad skill sets or, when I started playing Assassin, settled comfortably (if monotonously) into the same skillset & rhythm (which I still remember: cast Critical Eye (1) and Critical Agility (2) just before entering range while sending in tanky CPU characters to soften targets, call targets to draw all CPU fire towards one enemy, then Leaping Mantis Strike (3), Fox Fangs (4), Death Blossom (5), Mobius Strike (6), 5, 6, 5, 6, repeat until dead. Use Sprint (7) to break aggro; use Resurrection Signet (8) to revive any downed healers). The fact that I haven't even opened the client in over 6 months and yet still have that committed to both mental and muscle memory should be indicative of something.

To be fair, though, a lot of the issues one might have with the first GW are ones ArenaNet is (apparently) addressing in the sequel. Namely, no more devoted healing class, more importance on positioning, better skill system... My interest in GW2 waxes and wanes, but on the whole it's probably something I'll buy, just for the legacy of it (over 1200 hours in the past 5 years, and I only started playing seriously from about 3 years ago to 1 year ago)

[Onamar]

So as excited as I am for this game, I never got to play the first one so I have no clue what, exactly, to expect.

Anyone want to give me a synopsis of what the gameplay is like?

Quests are mostly assassination/fetch with the occasional escort quest; sometimes these occur in tandem. Missions are like longer quests. Instanced worlds can get pretty lonely when you play solo a lot like I did. Auto-targeting, space to attack, mouse/click to use skills 1-8. I always either floundered due to bad skill sets or, when I started playing Assassin, settled comfortably (if monotonously) into the same skillset & rhythm (which I still remember: cast Critical Eye (1) and Critical Agility (2) just before entering range while sending in tanky CPU characters to soften targets, call targets to draw all CPU fire towards one enemy, then Leaping Mantis Strike (3), Fox Fangs (4), Death Blossom (5), Mobius Strike (6), 5, 6, 5, 6, repeat until dead. Use Sprint (7) to break aggro; use Resurrection Signet (8) to revive any downed healers). The fact that I haven't even opened the client in over 6 months and yet still have that committed to both mental and muscle memory should be indicative of something.

To be fair, though, a lot of the issues one might have with the first GW are ones ArenaNet is (apparently) addressing in the sequel. Namely, no more devoted healing class, more importance on positioning, better skill system... My interest in GW2 waxes and wanes, but on the whole it's probably something I'll buy, just for the legacy of it (over 1200 hours in the past 5 years, and I only started playing seriously from about 3 years ago to 1 year ago)

GW2 is going to be basically nothing like the first one as far as gameplay goes. The world's no longer instanced, you don't pick up most quests from quest givers, you just see stuff happening and go help. There's a lot more, but I'm not going to bother to type it since you can find basically all of it in the links in the first post.

[Akazani]

Absolutely looking forward to this.

The races look great! I'm hoping to start with one of the little tree people.

GW2 is going to be basically nothing like the first one as far as gameplay goes. The world's no longer instanced, you don't pick up most quests from quest givers, you just see stuff happening and go help. There's a lot more, but I'm not going to bother to type it since you can find basically all of it in the links in the first post.

Not to mention the whole dynamic background thing, this can't come soon enough.

[Primal Zed]

Terribly excited about this. The dynamic event system, the active and mobile combat, the world-vs-world PvP.

Press are in the closed beta this weekend, and will be releasing their articles and videos about it on Monday.

For people unfamiliar with or skeptical of the game, I like this article.


Aaahhhh, what am I doing out of the Comic Discussion forum!?

[Softspoken]

I'm very excited about this as well. As soon as it's available for pre-order, I'm buying it. I don't know if I'll try and get into one of the more open betas or not.

[Onamar]

The NDA officially goes down on Monday, so we should be getting a whole lot of info then.

[Softspoken]

While I bet that everyone really concerned with GW2 has already heard about it, signups for a few rounds of betas have opened! They're open for the next day or so, and apparently there's no priority in terms of order of submission. The only thing required is a scan to get your hardware specifications.

Signup page can be found here: https://beta.guildwars2.com/

[Primal Zed]

Woo beta signups! And of course lots of good articles and videos from the press beta last weekend. Very much looking forward to playing it, either in the closed beta or when it's released.

[Primal Zed]

Ok, let's try to get some actual discussion on here (which does mean responding to what other people say too!):

What part(s) of GW2 are you most interested in, and why? What are you least interested in or think they should have done differently?

[Onamar]

What part(s) of GW2 are you most interested in, and why?

The whole event system mostly, I spend a lot of my time in games going "OOOH, WHAT'S THAT OVER THERE?" and wasting time exploring. Now, when I run out to the middle of nowhere, there will probably be something to do even if I didn't pick up a quest from an NPC somewhere.

What are you least interested in or think they should have done differently?

At the moment, there's not much. Then again, I haven't actually played the game yet at all so yeah. Maybe a few more options on the character creator, but really the only thing that they're "missing" is an option for eye color. It's already better than most MMOs, but more options is never a bad thing. Well, as long as there aren't TOO many options. Just look at what happened in AION.

[Softspoken]

Honestly I'm most interested in the way pretty much every class is a hybrid of some sorts. In a couple MMOs I've played, there's a set of 'pure' classes: pure tank, pure healer, whatever. But then there's also hybrid classes that are a mix of, say, healing and close-range damage. But in my experience, the 'pure' classes completely overshadow the hybrids: why would you take a close-range dps healer when you could just take a healer that does way more healing, and a seperate close-range damage type that destroys things twice as quickly?

But with the intention of making every class be able to fulfill multiple roles, and especially making them be able to switch between roles frequently / quickly, I won't be stuck doing the same thing with a character from level 1 to cap.

As for things I wish they were doing differently... I'm still concerned about the crafting / harvesting systems. They look a little dry still, and it looks like you'll need to rely on a wiki and an external guide to get the nice items.

[Onamar]

The issue with crafting is, there isn't really any way to make it less boring. You could stick a minigame in there, but that would be entertaining like twice and then it would just be a nuisance. I think the fact that a node doesn't vanish for other people if you gather it is a nice improvement though. No more having a guy swoop in and take the herbs you were clearly headed for before a monster got in your way and delayed you.

[Namboto]

Ok, let's try to get some actual discussion on here (which does mean responding to what other people say too!):

What part(s) of GW2 are you most interested in, and why?

The dynamic changes to the world, most definitely. I've always felt that MMOs are way too static. Sure you've killed this tyrant, but so have thirty thousand other people, big woop, and he'll just respawn in a few seconds. Here, on the other hand, you can change your world and it will actually change. Centaurs taking over a keep? You can be the one to stop them, or you can be the one to sit idly by and let it happen.

It's not perfectly dynamic yet, I know, but it is a step in the right direction.

[Softspoken]

The issue with crafting is, there isn't really any way to make it less boring. You could stick a minigame in there, but that would be entertaining like twice and then it would just be a nuisance. I think the fact that a node doesn't vanish for other people if you gather it is a nice improvement though. No more having a guy swoop in and take the herbs you were clearly headed for before a monster got in your way and delayed you.

I think I agree. Although, from the preview videos I saw, they did at least make two major steps in the right direction. The actual crafting of an item is fast, and you probably won't need to craft 20 copies of the same useless item just to get to the next tier.

Oh, here's something else I am hoping for: I want it to be easy to craft items that are a little more powerful than you can equip at the time. My limited experience with MMOs has been that if you can harvest resources in an area, any gear they make will be too low-level to clear content in that area.

Dynamic events look really fun though, because I like a game that encourages me to think on my feet. (It's also why their frequent role-switching combat balance system looks so fun to me.)

[kickan]

This thread hasn't been posted in for a long time! LET'S RECTIFY THIS.

So who's prepurchased their game and is excited for the stress test on Wednesday? Only four hours long, but I'm jonesin' for more playtime.

[Softspoken]

I'll admit, when I am craving GW2 discussion, I lurk a different forum*, but I can change that habit.

I kind of refuse to prepurchase the game until there's a release date though. I just can't reconcile the thought of paying money for a product without a clear date for its delivery.

*However, that forum is full of people who are actively theorycrafting a game still in beta, and complain about balance issues they can't actually test! So it's kind of a shitty place to lurk.

[unjudgedInsomniac]

Oh man a guildwars 2 thread! Been hoping for one forever
Having played the last 2 beta weekends and the stress test, I daresay this game is the most fun I've ever had in an mmorpg. There's a short adapting period to how different this game is from standard RPG fare under the surface (such as level 3 things being perfectly able to kill you if you aren't careful) but once you "get" it it's like the fun train never stops
There are a ton of neat little hidden areas all about too, and you are always rewarded for exploration, filling the map gives you a lot of exp for example
Played till level 30 warrior in the beta events, I'd say the crowning moments of awesome were getting my elite skill (CHARRTILLERY BARRAGE) and finding this neat place:

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Oh and also taking part of this fight:

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I'm surprised this thread isnt more active considering how great this game is!