638 replies to this topic

[thehotsung]

I'm curious to see what old Guild Wars 1 fans (before Nightfall was released) think of all these new changes to Guild Wars 2


I'm left wondering who are these rabid GW fanboys that attack anyone who bash their precious games, because it sure ain't GW veterans?  So how can you be a fanboy if you aren't GW veterans, considering that majority of us are disappointed with this game?


Now that I got most of everyone thoughts, what changes do you think is needed to improve Guild Wars 2?

There are 3 factors that would improve GW2 by a lot in my opinion.

1. Get rid of downscaling.
2. Get rid of weapon skills and bring back duel profession and the old guild wars 1 mechanics and combats
3. Bring back holy trinity.  

As for PVP

1. Guild Hall, Guild vs Guild Alliances
2. Guild cape

Edited by thehotsung, 07 September 2012 - 06:05 PM.

[Dulu]

Better graphics.

Worse in every other regard. Although, WvW has a lot of potential.

[Harrison Gold]

I like it, though I do miss some of the aspects like the superior story missions. I love all the references to the first game, I really think GW1 players will have a completely different experience than the general MMO players.

[Sieran]

I really miss co-op story missions.

Aside from that, it's much improved. GW1 turned into a single-player MMO after Nightfall. Vastly more player interaction and community in 2.

[mentalvortex]

The change from a CORPG to an MMORPG was a jarring one, but it was one everyone expected. The elements they transferred between genres were pretty minimal as far as game mechanics go, it's mostly the lore of GW1 put into an MMO. They abandoned their catering to a competitive PvP environment for a more casual themepark MMO "pick up whenever you feel like it". I'm talking in mumble right now with another GW vet where we're talking about the distinct change of PvP roles in the two games. The builds you make for your player have less of an impact on how you play in GW2 rather than serving a certain purpose for your team. The primary purpose of a domination Mesmer in GW1 was to completely shut down enemy casters and strip enchantments, for example. To be successful in GW2 you have to balance your skills so that all of the roles are functionally the same but with slight differences.

The dramatic change in the two games was way too much for me and I personally ended up not liking it. That's my opinion.

Edited by mentalvortex, 07 September 2012 - 03:32 AM.

[rukia]

Not Guild Wars at all, but a good game regardless. Disappointing, but refreshing.

[thehotsung]

Dulu, on 07 September 2012 - 03:25 AM, said:

Better graphics.

Worse in every other regard. Although, WvW has a lot of potential.

100% agree!

Harrison Gold, on 07 September 2012 - 03:27 AM, said:

I like it, though I do miss some of the aspects like the superior story missions. I love all the references to the first game, I really think GW1 players will have a completely different experience than the general MMO players.

The think the experience for GW1 players is more negative than positive.  

wilarseny, on 07 September 2012 - 03:28 AM, said:

I really miss co-op story missions.

Aside from that, it's much improved. GW1 turned into a single-player MMO after Nightfall. Vastly more player interaction and community in 2.

So much fun in co-op instance!

mentalvortex, on 07 September 2012 - 03:31 AM, said:

The change from a CORPG to an MMORPG was a jarring one, but it was one everyone expected. The elements they transferred between genres were pretty minimal as far as game mechanics go, it's mostly the lore of GW1 put into an MMO. They abandoned their catering to a competitive PvP environment for a more casual themepark MMO "pick up whenever you feel like it". I'm talking in mumble right now with another GW vet where we're talking about the distinct change of PvP roles in the two games. The builds you make for your player have less of an impact on how you play in GW2 rather than serving a certain purpose for your team. The primary purpose of a domination Mesmer in GW1 was to completely shut down enemy casters and strip enchantments, for example. To be successful in GW2 you have to balance your skills so that all of the roles are functionally the same but with slight differences.

The dramatic change in the two games was way too much for me and I personally ended up not liking it. That's my opinion.

Thank You, that is all I wanted to hear.  I was afraid I was the only GW1 player to feel like this, now I know that is not the case.

[Syntak]

better in every way, ESPECIALLY combat which no longer reminds me of runescape

[thehotsung]

Syntak, on 07 September 2012 - 03:41 AM, said:

better in every way, ESPECIALLY combat which no longer reminds me of runescape

Care to explain in detail?

[Syntak]

click to attack

thehotsung, on 07 September 2012 - 03:42 AM, said:

Care to explain in detail?

click to attack and watch it auto follow

[Azure Skye]

Can i give my two cents? I just came along in 2007 three or two month after the announcement of GW 2.

[Uhhsam]

I am a bit disappointed in the story so far, although I thought the Prophecies campaign was the weakest of the original stories.  I look forward to the expansions and finding out what is going on in Cantha and Elona, and hopefully their stories will be as enjoyable as Factions and Nightfall.

As far as mechanics go, I wish there were more weapon skills and you could continue to unlock more and customize your weapon skill bar.  I like what they did with having the weapons have their own skills, sort of like sword/axe/hammer for GW1 warriors, but I miss the extra bit of customization.

Edited by Uhhsam, 07 September 2012 - 03:50 AM.

[thehotsung]

Azure Skye, on 07 September 2012 - 03:44 AM, said:

Can i give my two cents? I just came along in 2007 three or two month after the announcement of GW 2.

Yes but I just want you to be aware that GW was amazing before Nightfall release.  If you play Guild Wars after Nightfall release, your experience may be different from the rest of us.  

So tell us what your opinion is.

[Laibeus Lord]

I like it.  But if you want to hear something like "I like GW2 better than GW[1]" or "I like GW[1] better than GW2", you won't hear it from me.  I like GW2 as GW2.  I like GW[1] as GW[1].  Two different games with two different concepts implemented.

If both were CORPG as ANet coined GW's genre, or both were MMORPG, then I will make a comparison and say which is better than the other.  

[mentalvortex]

Azure Skye, on 07 September 2012 - 03:44 AM, said:

Can i give my two cents? I just came along in 2007 three or two month after the announcement of GW 2.

Haha, you don't have to ask to voice your opinion. Although your mindset will probably be much different if you used GW1 simply as hype for GW2.

[Inraged Twitch]

I really hate downleveling, the armor repair, the 80 some levels it sucks I hate putting time into leveling and gear and it seems like i'm constantly struggling to stay alive even though my armor/weps are "so called" getting better.

So over all not good 5/10.

[Azadaleou]

To me Guild Wars 2 has better pve but significantly worse pvp. I like the persistent world of gw2 and the personal story, but as some one else mentioned, I do miss the coop missions. However we do have story driven dungeons which feel sort of similar. In regards to pvp, right now it just feels to bursty and defense doesn't feel as strong as offense.

[Desild]

Worth the wait.

It is a beautiful game with a different set of established rules that evolved from the fist game. Played the first game extensively, and now I'll do the same with the sequel.

Maybe WoW destroyed my standard for MMOs, because even with its weaknesses, as a whole Guild Wars 2 is a brilliantly crafted game.

[Vlnom]

I like it a lot, few things I miss from GW1 such as the guild caps it was a good way for players to represent their guilds other then the tags. When I played the BWE GW2 still had a GW1 feel to it which I like. Like that Anet still kept the small skill bar instead of making it unlimited places to put skills, makes it more challenging.

[mentalvortex]

Azadaleou, on 07 September 2012 - 03:51 AM, said:

To me Guild Wars 2 has better pve but significantly worse pvp. I like the persistent world of gw2 and the personal story, but as some one else mentioned, I do miss the coop missions. However we do have story driven dungeons which feel sort of similar. In regards to pvp, right now it just feels to bursty and defense doesn't feel as strong as offense.

It's because they balanced the professions to all be effective in solo PvE. Your point makes complete sense since GW1 was all about the PvP - there was GvG, Alliance Battles, and ELOs attributed to guilds. They realized quickly that PvP was the main attraction to their game and rolled with it. In GW2 they're trying to make up for that and make PvE the reason to play the game and then have PvP be an option.

That's how I see it, at least.

[Lord_Ironmane]

I prefered how stories played out in GW1, no doubt. It was simply put together better with less fat.

PvP wise I believe GW2 is better. GW1 was one giant broken fotm fest even from it's onset. I hated it because unless you used one of the two or so useful specs that min-maxers found out, you'd be useless. Worse, some classes were just plain always crappy compared to others.

It was horribly unbalanced, and just generally felt haphazardly done to me in GW1. GW2 does have some problems right now PvP wise, but it's no where near the unbalanced broken build fest that GW1 was.

Dungeon wise, I like that they're challenging in GW2. They never really felt hard in GW1 save for a few exceptions. I came back to get a last few points for my HoM, and even using crappy set ups I just plain blazed through things. I blazed through content prior to that too, back in vanilla GW1 where I was most active. It was no doubt fun to do the dungeons, but my god, it was a face roll.

In the end though, they're two different genres sharing the same series. It's hard to compare them fairly.

Edited by Lord_Ironmane, 07 September 2012 - 04:15 AM.

[LIVESTRONGG]

I have an attachment to GW1 that no game will ever surpass. I really like GW2 though.

[Word Of Madness]

They are so different it's hard to determine a 'best', especially in these early stages of the game. But here are a few thoughts comparing the two.

I find the minimal amount of skills a little dull. It's be nice to see 3 skills available for each weapon skill slot. That way it allows some choice, but it's still possible to maintain balance (It seemed like 70% of skills in GW1 were useless).

While I do enjoy the more action focused combat, it feels a lot less tactical than GW1.

PvP feels a lot more casual. I really enjoyed the GvG format in GW1. However, it was difficult to get into, so I can understand them removing it for a more accessible PvP format.

Boss events feel a bit bland, where everyone just zergs on the boss for 5 minutes. Whereas with the tougher end-game or dungeon bosses in GW1, you had to put thought into how you were going to tackle the boss, in terms of both skills and tactics.

I feel a lot more immersed in the world in GW2, with all the NPC chatter, random events, other players and so on.
However, I feel a bit disconnected from the story. The story missions feel too short, and with jumps of 3 or so levels between each mission, I need to head out and spend some time doing more events and hearts before I can get back on track with the story.
The shorter story segments probably come from the fact that there are so many story options, with 5 races, 3 orders, several biography choices and then further choices during the story. While the choice is an element I enjoy, I still feel the story lacks some substance.
However, these different choices may increase the longevity of the game for me. I completed Prophecies twice, Factions once, NF twice and EOTN once across 10 characters. Most of the time I found it repetetive completing the same story again. However, with GW2, I'm curious about how the different races, their biography choices and the order I select will change the story. So I think I'll be doing a large chunk of the game on at least 5 characters,

I enjoy the challenge GW2 offers. Apart from the high end areas in GW1, you could steamroll through everything pretty quickly, especially after NF's power creep and hero additions. Playing solo, GW2 is a challenging game, but it seems too easy when there are large amounts of people (I'm glad there's a 5 person cap on dungeons).


Both games have their ups and downs. I'm defiantly getting a large amount of enjoyment from GW2, but I'm unsure if the slightly more simplistic nature of the game will hold my interest as long as GW1 did.

Edited by Word Of Madness, 07 September 2012 - 04:26 AM.

[Shiren]

Personal story is a huge let down and vastly inferior to missions. I found it was often confusing and kept leading me to random far off parts of the world with little progression (from Diessa Plataeu to Gendarren Fields to the middle of the Shiverpeaks). The zones I was exploring were very rarely the ones I would get personal story in, and that really bothered me. The ongoing relevance and continuity of the GW1 plot lines was vastly superior to what we got in GW2 personal story. GW1 plot lines were divided into zones (Ascalon, Northern Shiverpeaks, Kryta, Maguuma, Crystal Desert, Southern Shiverpeaks and then Ring of Fire) and these zones all had their own part of the story and progression which felt important. Most of my personal story (and I mean most of it) felt like side quests rather than the core experience. I even found map DEs to be more relevant to the main plot than my personal story. I also freqently came across character that were totally forgetable or weren't with me long enough to care about. I liked Dinky a lot. I haven't seen him since level 10 or something like that. Apatia was a big character with a lot of fanfare but I don't even remember why she was with me or anything much about her let alone any strong feelings about her part in my story. Characters in GW2 are generally weaker than in GW1 (although Trahearne is a very strong character). I think is was a huge mistake to separate the Destiny's Edge group from the vast majority of the personal story. Why did they do that?

To me, personal story was a huge let down and significanly inferior to GW1. I didn't care much about choice, too often it was transparent and I ended up making decisions based on the kind of gameplay I predicted rather than story motivations. I also strongly dislike the idea that I'm missing huge parts of lore and the story. It seems like I have no idea what's going on around me despite being fully willing to play through them on my main. I guess I have to grind toons for the story of GW2.

As far as the build customisation and gearing goes. I love that gear matters, I love that it's part of my build and there are so many options. I hate, absolutely hate the significant grind I have to go through to get good stats in PvE. I still don't know how to build my character properly and which traits and stats will be best for him, so its really confusing to me what kind of gear to grind to support my build. When I'm so frequently changing my builds around it's frustrating for me to have to work so hard to find gear to support one build, let alone the several I'm trialing. Experimentation in GW1 was a lot more fun and free than it is in GW2. So the grind in GW2 is really bad and it's much worse than GW1.

There are other things I could compared but I don't want to go on forever. I do feel exploration is dramatically more rewarding this time around. Some areas begin to feel very shallow and repetitive (oh, another generic frog, Seraph, Wyld camp with nothing unique or memorable about it) but there are some nice things to be found outside of the NPC world, GW1 had this to an extent but it's been improved upon for sure.

[StormDragonZ]

I have no valid opinion about GW2. Never played it, don't intend to play it any time soon, however there is a small glimmer of hope I may decide to try it out on my own.

What I can say is this: ArenaNet died back in 2010. This new, modern ArenaNet lost their imagination and intelligence and substituted it for a combination of candy, shiny diamonds and the lost art of beauty through poetry and wisdom.

GW1 is, truly, one of a kind. GW2 is nothing more than an attempt. If there's anything that changed the way we look at MMOs, it was GW1. I'd be damned if there is, or ever will be, something like it.

Exactly.

[RabidusIncendia]

Dumbed down, but fun.

[Craywulf]

I've tried to make the comparisons but they are truly different games.

RabidusIncendia, on 07 September 2012 - 04:56 AM, said:

Dumbed down, but fun.

I really dislike that analogy. I prefer to think of the game has been streamlined. There's more action and less preparation.

[Biowarp]

It is the most beautiful MMO right now if you can run it on full settings. That alone is worth something. Not much though because wPvP is a lagfest for anyone without a super duper premium elite computer, and wPvP is the only end-game I'm interested in.

WPvP has a lot of potential. I think this has already been said.

Haven't tried sPvP, have no interest in it.

GvG can be added so that's not a problem.

The sense of interactivity in this game is superior to any other MMO I've ever played. You actually get laughs from listening to some NPC dialogue. When was the last time that happened in an MMO?

Personally I like the persistent world. The old GW1 didn't really feel like an MMO, and I don't suppose it was if you want to be technical. I enjoyed GW1 for what it was, and I don't intend to nag about GW2's combat system since it's not the same AT ALL. I knew it was going to be entirely different when ANet announced that skills would be tied to weapons. Didn't believe the hype because I didn't plan on buying the game. I got it off a random draw on Twitch.tv.

No subs. Win. Seriously guys, there's no subs, it's like you all forgot about this. Stop complaining about how ANet has changed or whatever, it's still better than WoW, Swtor, Rift, and every other cookie cutter MMO out there. They're not out to steal your money.

[Own Age Myname]

Been playing GW1 since '06.

Guild Wars 2 will NEVER replace Guild Wars 1. But from a fundamental standpoint Guild Wars 2 is like Adrian Peterson is to the RB position, a physical specimen, just like AP really does everything you can ask from a RB expectionally well; GW2 does everything you want from a MMO really well. Guild Wars 2 is a great game, and it will be the defining point of this new generation of MMOs and will be largely popular for many many years to come. Compared to GW1 though? Hogwash, nothing will bring back those memories I had, the last night GvG. GW2 will never outshine those memories. No other game offers what GW1 offers. That being said, it's time to move on, those 2.5k hours were all well spent, and I will continue my MMO gaming again with GW2. It may never give me as much enjoyment, but I know that as a game GW2 is just better then GW1 ever was.

One thing GW1 is just exceptional at though was it's underrated story, I'm pretty dissapointed in the personal story and wish we had missions like GW1. Also I really don't like sPvP, and I much prefer GW1's format. Too bad ANet stopped giving a shit. Oh what could of been if the proper support was given *sigh*. Like a poster said above me, ANet really has changed since late 2010, early 2011. I've noticed it, and they are slowly becoming greedy, and I really don't like it. The downfall of GW2 won't be the game itself, it will be the devs behind it. They were pretty incompetant at times in GW1, and I can see it happening again in GW2. I don't know where ANet becoming the messiah stemmed from, they really haven't proved all that much. A lot of the creative minds that were originally behind GW2 are long gone now (Jeff Strain being a HUGE member with his visions)

Edited by Own Age Myname, 07 September 2012 - 05:18 AM.

[Ritualist]

1. Poor classes. Everything from weapon skills to a low number of utilities to an even lower number of elites to the removal of some insanely fun GW1 mechanics, while replacing them with some absolutely moronic ones.
2. SPvP has the potential to be a VERY nice casual mode. The problem is that what should be considered glaring flaws, A.Net seems to consider as "features" and as a result I am hating it more and more each day.
3. WvW is too PvE oriented.
4. Way to grindy.
5. Land combat is enjoyable. Underwater one is hell.
6. The lack of bank access is killing me.
7. The focus on the economy is taking A LOT of fun out of the game.
8. Guilds are better than GW1 ones, but the lack of features that alliances offered makes the system worse.
9. Servers are archaic.
10. Worse chat system.
11. Too many buttons. I still long for click to move and c+space. Especially c+space.

If GW2 was the original GW, I wouldn't be around for the sequel. But right now I am still clinging onto it, hoping that it will have some of that old GW magic.