A little disappointed in the game

[HappyDeath]

If we compare the game with Korean MMOs, then Guild Wars 2 is very good. But, I've played TESO 700+ hours. And in TESO, the solo process and the exploration of the world seem to be somehow better for me. Now I'm in GW 2 only level 20. Does the game become more interesting in the exploration of the world? Or GW2 more fun only PvP and WvW?

[kalamari]

I play both of these mmos too. what is it you are exactly disappointed in?

[Darkrayne]

Core maps are kind of flat and to the point for most objectives. It changes dramatically once you start Heart of Thorns though which is a complete death maze and you might actually dislike it for being too 'explorable'.

I guarantee though that if all you are doing is following map markers in the core game, then you are missing most of the content. The jumping puzzles, hidden events and the mini dungeons. There's ways to start event chains that are not obvious. There's more than meets the eye pretty much everywhere.

[jcm2606]

It really just depends on what you want out of the open world. Both games offer experiences that are basically polar opposites to each other: while ESO's open world is a sandbox filled with rich stories, GW2's is a literal theme park with numerous activities for players to do and constantly rotating events to keep players occupied.

Personally, I vastly prefer GW2's open world. While I like ESO's focus on story telling, the distinct lack of engaging gameplay (especially for groups) turns me off from it. While I would prefer GW2's open world to include more traditional quests, the heavy focus on gameplay and events really keeps things feeling fresh and helps to keep me engaged with the game.

EDIT: It's also worth mentioning that GW2's open world gets much better once you reach level 80 and start getting into expansion/DLC maps. While the base game's maps are quite gameplay-driven with many dynamic events and some event chains, they can be quite disparate which leads to the open world feeling a bit all over the place.

The expansion/DLC maps cleaned up the dynamic events and event chains to be more cohesive, with some maps even straight up being designed around a central event chain that progresses the map forward (Dragon's Stand in Heart of Thorns, Dragonfall in Living World Season 4, Drizzlewood Coast in Living World Season 5, Dragon's End in End of Dragons).

The result is an experience that you never really get in any other MMO: 50+ players all participating in events in a semi or even fully coordinated fashion, to progress a map forward towards a common goal, often culminating in a single massive boss fight at the end. Dragon's End in particular is insanely good at this, pretty much being an open world raid.

[Nico]

I'd say the most interesting parets of GW2 open up to you once you are lvl 80, especially if you own the expansions. The central Tyria maps from the core game are kind of boring compared to the later maps. The 2 maps that got added with the second living world season, Dry Top and the Silverwastes, are probably the most interesting core game maps. The story instances also become a good bit more interesting in the living story or expansion missions.

The core Tyria maps mostly existed since the release of the game, so they probably simply did not yet have the experience and also the time to make really engaging maps back then. Though they still did add a few new things to them over time. But yeah, I can totally understand how walking around there can get a bit boring, especially when doing these heart quests.

Basically most of the interesting content in this game is locked behind lvl 80, which luckily is not very difficult to reach in this game. The difficulty also greatly increases once you step into any of the expansion maps.

With the expansions you also get access to new ways to explore the world, like the glider or several mounts. So yeah, I guess later on the exploration of the world certainly gets quite a bit more interesting. But it might take a week or so until you get that far (and you might have to buy the expansions) And I guess one earlier way to get a bit more variety when exploring would be going into a different part of Tyria, since you always have the starting waypoint of all 5 factions, so maybe a different region already helps a bit.

[Ifeelsane]

Well TESO is more like a singleplayer rpg with MMO elements I think

[Haze]

It's no denying that TESO is pretty solid in terms of the exploration. Fully voiced dialogue, even for mediocre side quests, and an immersive world as with all TES games.

But do remember, you're comparing a pretty small company to one of the biggest AAA ones. Funding from Bethesda would obviously help out any game.

I personally can't bring myself to play ESO for long periods of time. While it is true that, as you said, It can make for a pretty great solo experience - I feel like the combat is a bit meh and doesn't feel very gratifying. I also hate the stupid little systems they have in place for example how you have to speak to a stable keeper once per day to increase your mounts speed by 1%.

At level 20 you are pretty limited with the abilities you have, but when you reach level cap and start looking into specs you'd like to play, you can play around and find something that suits your style of play. Of course, more and more zones and events will open up to you as you level higher.

The core game has not been updated since it came out. So it is very dated, true enough. You will notice a pretty big increase in quality of content as you get into the expansions. Particularly from Path of Fire onwards.

Ultimately it's up to you though. Some like the game, others don't.

[Sustain]

Originally posted by Myst:

But do remember, you're comparing a pretty small company to one of the biggest AAA ones. Funding from Bethesda would obviously help out any game.

Arenanet is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Korean company NCsoft they are anything but a small indie company Dude.
And yes their budget could be way bigger if NCsoft actually wanted.

[Darkrayne]

Check out this video OP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS54uJmPo3k

It might be more helpful than just getting opinions from loads of different people on a forum.

[Haze]

Originally posted by Einherjer:

Originally posted by Myst:

But do remember, you're comparing a pretty small company to one of the biggest AAA ones. Funding from Bethesda would obviously help out any game.

Arenanet is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Korean company NCsoft they are anything but a small indie company Dude they make huge money.
And yes their budget could be way bigger if NCsoft actually wanted.

Where did I say indie?? And they're definitely small in comparison to Bethesda my friend.

[Sustain]

Originally posted by Myst:

Originally posted by Einherjer:

Arenanet is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Korean company NCsoft they are anything but a small indie company Dude they make huge money.
And yes their budget could be way bigger if NCsoft actually wanted.

They're definitely small in comparison to Bethesda my friend.

I kinda get the feeling you have absolutely no idea what you are even talking about.
Bethesda is just a studio under Microsoft now since the acquisition and they don't have anything to with TESO, it's a Zenimax online studios game and always was also owned by Microsoft now so if we are talking about Microsoft here then yes almost any company in the world pales in comparison.

But still https://www.forbes.com/companies/ncsoft/ NCSoft makes billions every year they are a huge company in Korea.

[Wanderer]

ESO does have better exploration. It's like an elder scrolls game. See a sword resting next to a table you can take it. See an armoire, you can open it. See a guard, you can pick pocket them. It's on another level really.

[calderek4421]

The exploration system is the same from the beginning to the end of the game. Only the maps change. Then there is only the content of making instances like dungs or fractals. In some maps you have more interesting events but very rarely

[Tiberius]

Exploration is not really the biggest selling point of gw2 (very few unique boss and loot). I think the game excels more in map-wide activity (aka meta event), which is imo one of the most innovative design i've seen in an mmo

[PacoXI]

OPs message is a gift to us all. Lete cherish it.

[MercAngel]

Originally posted by Tiberius:

Exploration is not really the biggest selling point of gw2 (very few unique boss and loot). I think the game excels more in map-wide activity (aka meta event), which is imo one of the most innovative design i've seen in an mmo

ture and some of the map events if they fail will change the map untill the event starts again
ex. bridge gets destroyed or a town is not full of bad guys