What do people enjoy about this game? (the base game)

[Calico_Magica]

I've been playing several different MMOs the past 7 years ever since i started using Steam, but I still find myself occasionally looking for more experiences. I hear some good things about this game and have a friend who refuses to play any other MMOs than this one, but I'm not sure if this is fitting for someone like me. I'm still trying to figure out what I enjoy about some MMOs and what I don't like about others, and this game appealed to me since its f2p and from what I've heard doesn't have p2w. MMOs are somewhat a hit or miss with me but there are a few I've enjoyed in the past such as Wizard101 which I played a ton as a kid (before I had steam), Maplestory 2 except I never had enough time to play it before it shut down but I loved it a lot, ArchAge, and Final Fantasy XIV which has been my all time favorite and most played game since I tried it out.
The exploration and world completion is a feature I loved in another MMO that did it similarly, however in GW2 it isn't very rewarding at all for the time it takes. Also the story doesn't have any big interesting hook, and travel times seem way too long after losing my mount.
I always give each MMO I try a decent chance, but I think it would be helpful to get some thoughts from other players who enjoyed the base game and why. Are there any fun things to do or work towards that are maybe not known by that many people, or something that new players should do? I may buy the full game because there is fishing, but if I can't enjoy the base game I wouldn't feel confident in spending any money and risk still not liking it.

[Rhapsody]

Well, for one thing, the base game is not dead. Most MMOs I've tried over the years have barely any activity on vanilla content.

Secondly, the base game is free to play, so you can see for yourself.

Thirdly, no maintenance, downtime or queues to log in the game... ever. Okay, maybe about half times a year?

Fourthly, you can play with whomever you want, whenever you want, outside of WvW, so long as you are on the same server region (EU or NA).

[Krofinn]

The Guild Wars 1 references

[cogvos]

Try it its free - for a given definition of free, which here basically means no mount other than a short trial one and only 2 char slots. Both limitations are removed if you buy an expansion, so kinda treat the base game as a very big demo with loads of stuff to do.

What do I like? Well in places it is very silly, especially if you play an Asura toon. The base game is fine, some parts are a little abandoned (Dungeons can be tricky to get a group for), but the world events generally have players around and the big world bosses are a blast, though can be fps killers.

Oh yeh - it doesn't crash much - unlike say ESO.

[Awakened Gamer]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Captain_Crabcake:

I've been playing several different MMOs the past 7 years ever since i started using Steam, but I still find myself occasionally looking for more experiences. I hear some good things about this game and have a friend who refuses to play any other MMOs than this one, but I'm not sure if this is fitting for someone like me. I'm still trying to figure out what I enjoy about some MMOs and what I don't like about others, and this game appealed to me since its f2p and from what I've heard doesn't have p2w. MMOs are somewhat a hit or miss with me but there are a few I've enjoyed in the past such as Wizard101 which I played a ton as a kid (before I had steam), Maplestory 2 except I never had enough time to play it before it shut down but I loved it a lot, ArchAge, and Final Fantasy XIV which has been my all time favorite and most played game since I tried it out.
The exploration and world completion is a feature I loved in another MMO that did it similarly, however in GW2 it isn't very rewarding at all for the time it takes. Also the story doesn't have any big interesting hook, and travel times seem way too long after losing my mount.
I always give each MMO I try a decent chance, but I think it would be helpful to get some thoughts from other players who enjoyed the base game and why. Are there any fun things to do or work towards that are maybe not known by that many people, or something that new players should do? I may buy the full game because there is fishing, but if I can't enjoy the base game I wouldn't feel confident in spending any money and risk still not liking it.

I have other issues with the game but core is an amazing experience as others say focus on events and story, make sure your enjoying the class it makes all of the difference you have to look at gw2 more of an mmoadventure since there is allot of platforming and unique movement mechanics with moutns later. The expansions add allot of course.

[Hefutoxin]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Captain_Crabcake:

The exploration and world completion is a feature I loved in another MMO that did it similarly, however in GW2 it isn't very rewarding at all for the time it takes. Also the story doesn't have any big interesting hook, and travel times seem way too long after losing my mount.

It's a bigger game than you think. Aside from the Dungeons, Vista's, Hearts, Hero Points, and Points of Interest clearly marked on the map, there are also mini-dungeons, diving spots, jumping puzzles, hidden areas, sunken chests, etc.

You get exp for pretty much everything you do, including gathering plants and mining ore. Enemies also gain bonus Exp the longer they have been alive. So killing enemies outside of well traveled areas, especially underwater areas, can give a ton of exp per kill.

Outside of the personal story, each zone has its own story, told over events, NPCs talking to each other, and bits of lore scattered around. It doesn't just beat you over the head with it.

Then there's around a bajillion achievements, which come from all aspects of the game and have varying amounts of rewards.

Mounts cause people to miss the majority of the game. I believe they were a mistake.

[Tuathaqin]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย RotherHans:

People just don't get the event mechanics in this game,
because everybody seems to have become utterly autistic and cannot wait for 10 frikken seconds.
I've given up on calling people back after they ALL run away like ADD bunnies on coke, when an event finishes and the NPCs keep talking to each other, clearly on the way to the next one.

Based on streamers new to the game, most players don't read the UI or pay attention to ingame dialogue, not even story, let alone random NPCs. It's amazing how much of the game is actually explained if you take the time to read and listen. But unless it's flashing across the screen in 80pt font, it's likely to be missed. And GW2 doesn't have many of those.

[coures]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Captain_Crabcake:

The exploration and world completion is a feature I loved in another MMO that did it similarly, however in GW2 it isn't very rewarding at all for the time it takes. Also the story doesn't have any big interesting hook, and travel times seem way too long after losing my mount.

I played this game for 2 years on a free account. I'm not sure how rewarding other MMOs are with exploration, but Guild Wars 2's reward system for exploration mostly involves only leveling experience. You can probably explore the whole world, not do much mob grinding, and still gain experience through discovering Vistas, Point of Interests, and Heart NPCs (which is what I liked when I started, I wasn't much of a grinder, I just explored and completed maps for months while raising my level). If you complete a map, you do have a chance at gaining a Black Lion Key to open Black Lion Chests. I think some maps will give you a 100% key drop rate too. If you really need rewards/gold as a F2P, (which would be a bit surprising since you can't use trading post that much) then Silverwastes Meta and Fractals are the way to do it.

As for having no mounts, just look through your profession skills. Some professions have several movement skills that can give you faster speed or teleport. I had a guardian when I started and I always used Advance or staff skills to give me swiftness. It was the way to do it before Path of Fire brought mounts.

If you need end game content as a F2P, there's always Fractals, WvW, PvP, Silverwaste Meta, Core World Bosses, 1 Strike Mission in Lion's Arch, and tons of achievements to collect. Fractals are basically updated dungeons and if you do enough of them, you can get ascended rings and recipes there. WvW is a massive player vs. player in open world maps, which is fun because you don't have to be good at PvP to play it. PvP is self explanatory. Just a 5v5 man bash. The Silverwaste meta is an age old gold farming method that's still being done today. World bosses drop ascended gear and give gold too. The strike mission in Lion's Arch is the closest you can get to experiencing a raid as a F2P.

Also here's a free tip about equipment for F2P (in case this is why you want better rewards):

Don't think much about equipment until you're level 80 (just settle with what the game gives you). If you buy the game, a set of berzerker gear in Trading Post is just 5-6 gold. As a F2P, you can't get equipment easily because you're restricted in the Trading Post but you are able to buy/sell crafting materials there. Leveling crafting as a F2P is more expensive, but you can craft runes/sigils and exotic/ascended gear to get equipment you need (note: ascended only if you have the recipe). Getting the recipes from fractals are random drops and getting laurels to buy recipes are next to impossible as a F2P, so crafting ascended can be hard but overall still possible. If it's too much for you, there's also the exotic/ascended gear from WvW, PvP, Fractals (ascended items drop at random/ascended rings can be bought from a npc), and dungeons (only exotics) bought using their own specific currencies.

[mysaga]

What I like about the game in general is:

• Exploration - go where you want and you often find something interesting. I tend to do this in every game, but it is rarely worth the effort.
  
• World building. The artistic style, the random dialogues and text pieces. There is a lot of background story, lore and other that you might miss if you don't pay attention. You can feel that the map designers love the game in many places. The music is also adding to the atmosphere, and although I like the new music (of Macleine Diemer among others) more then Jeremy Soules work now, I liked that back then.
  
• Story. And yes, I know some people disagree. It get's better, though this might not apply to everything in the core game. I still like the branching storylines, but I also understand the problems it caused.
  
• The fact, that this game encourages you to play with strangers cooperatively without placing any barriers. Especially back when this game launched it was the default to race for ressources and tag mobs, so you can get the credit for killing it. You could group up to avoid it, but it was an extra step.
  
• The previous point is probably the reason why the GW2 community is considered to be among the most friednliest and welcoming communities within the genre. (There may be exceptions, of course).
  
• The whole world stays relevant, even for the endgame. I really hate it, when other games narrow down to a fancy 3D lobby for dungeons and raids as the only valuable endgame content, while the beautifully designed open world becomes completely irrelevant once you hit max level.
  
• The combat system. Granted, there are other action combat systems or hybrid systems available now, both within the genre as well as within close and distant relatives to this genre, but back than tab targeting was still pretty common, including being locked in place while casting your skill.

I probably forgot some very important aspects I like about the core game. This is just all I came up with right out of my head.

[gameshogun]

For me:

1. NPC with quests actually travel around, instead of waiting in one location with an exclamation mark, and you come back to them multiple times.

2. Quests rotate instead of players activating it for their character only. This allows participating by everyone.

3. Quest items are per-character, instead of finders keepers.

4. There is no such thing as kill stealing. Just hit the mobs, and it will count once it is dead.

5. For quests/missions where the NPC stays in one place (a.k.a. Heart), all of the above applies. And you only have to do it once per Heart. There is no running around, come back, run around again, come back, and so on. It's within the area of the Heart NPC, too. Nothing will send you all the way to the other side of the map, or to another zone.

6. Dynamic events. These are events wherein the next phase depends on the result of the current phase. In Core, if you fail, a different phase is triggered. Outside of Core, it is rare, if you fail, the entire sequence ends, you have to wait for the next round. (Which is sad, they should bring the multiple path dynamic events.)

7. Map/zone events. These are events with a fixed schedule/spawn. Some every hour or so. Some once a day. These events garners a lot of attention, and you will see a lot of players participating (and multiple instances of that map is generated because there are thousands of players doing it).

8. Jumping puzzles. I still remember when Guild Wars 2 launched ten/eleven years ago. Everyone were crazy about it. Everyone is helping everyone. Map chat is filled with people helping each other. Some will go out of their way to show the ropes.

9. Level scaling. If you are a high level character, your level will scale if you go into a zone meant for low level characters. This prevents godmode-like gameplay. Even to this day, if a high level character is not careful, they can die in low level maps.

10. Not gear oriented. I went on hiatus sometime 2013/2014 and only came back in late 2020. I only bought the HoT+PoF expansion bundle sometime in 2021 (so no mounts). My existing characters are just fine. I started to play the second class I meant to play, and it was just fine. I enjoyed the Core game as is with my second class. After completing it, like my first class, it was only then that I bought the HoT+PoF expansion bundle. Then I played HoT as it was meant to be, without mounts. I finished HoT with my original class and my second class that way.

11. When they release new content, they take advantage of old content. This ensures players are still everywhere, and maps are not left empty.

12. Dailies. Dailies are everywhere, which again ensures no map is left empty.

13. Best of all: The community. Overall, the GW2 community is friendly and helpful. You won't see people asking for payment before doing anything. A donation/tip is appreciated, but beyond that, it's free help. Need a portal to a JP you can't finish? Just ask. Need Hero Points? Just ask, or wait for a Train. Can not find something, or need help with mob? Again, just ask. In fact, when it comes to mobs not meant to be solo'd, you don't even need to ask, just tell everyone mob X spawned and where you are. Wait a little while and players will start arriving. Oh, and everyone will wait for others to arrive. Rarely it happens someone goes Leeroy. And if someone did a Leeroy, the mob will spawn again, and same thing, just inform everyone.

That's Core GW2, and GW2 in its entirety. ^_^

[Rudel]

I have asked myself the same questions over and over again, owning the game since 2012 but never got really into it. I restarted a few weeks ago and now it's fun. My main reason why it wasn't fun earlier:

The base game is ♥♥♥♥.

Yeah that's basically it. The first 80 levels are a tutorial. The game is super easy, the story is bland with the strange cutscenes in between and the build crafting is dumbed down and more or less bound to the weapons you use. As soon as you hit 80 though and as soon as you start playing with elite specs, when you hit the Xpacs maps with way better stories and really tough and engaging battles, the game is really fun.

[Awakened Gamer]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Rudel:

I have asked myself the same questions over and over again, owning the game since 2012 but never got really into it. I restarted a few weeks ago and now it's fun. My main reason why it wasn't fun earlier:

The base game is ♥♥♥♥.

Yeah that's basically it. The first 80 levels are a tutorial. The game is super easy, the story is bland with the strange cutscenes in between and the build crafting is dumbed down and more or less bound to the weapons you use. As soon as you hit 80 though and as soon as you start playing with elite specs, when you hit the Xpacs maps with way better stories and really tough and engaging battles, the game is really fun.

I dont understand whats so bad about the core game maybe its the environments people are starting in. You gotta go out and do events and level, the nordic area is allot of fun as well as others. The human one is a little more bland.

[Triassic Wee Woo Wagonsaurus]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย FrequencyOfTruth:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Rudel:

I have asked myself the same questions over and over again, owning the game since 2012 but never got really into it. I restarted a few weeks ago and now it's fun. My main reason why it wasn't fun earlier:

The base game is ♥♥♥♥.

Yeah that's basically it. The first 80 levels are a tutorial. The game is super easy, the story is bland with the strange cutscenes in between and the build crafting is dumbed down and more or less bound to the weapons you use. As soon as you hit 80 though and as soon as you start playing with elite specs, when you hit the Xpacs maps with way better stories and really tough and engaging battles, the game is really fun.

I dont understand whats so bad about the core game maybe its the environments people are starting in. You gotta go out and do events and level, the nordic area is allot of fun as well as others. The human one is a little more bland.

never really got turned off by the core game. i instantly fell in love when i started in HoT launch days. maybe 7 years later im not living in those maps sure, but id give anything to be brand new and experience the maps for a first time again. I also feel like mounts ruin that experience, rushing through places, not stopping to check out lore, some maps have little hideaway lore, its great, i dont need core tyria raids , the dungeons work fine.

Power creep will ruin any of these " tough" battles in the expac or era of game. Stories are well...too opinionated to determine factual or not if they get better or worse , Post core tyria story has changed directions so many times and flip flopped into a rush to end it just to start a new story.

[Rudel]

Well obviously it's highly subjective, but I tried getting into the game in 2012 and bounced of it. Restarted now with the Xpacs in place and it's so much better and meaningful. There is progression on several levels, a way better story than the cringe cutscenes from the base game and everything just feels way better. Leveling from 1-80 is so boring, I can understand why there are not that many players on Steam. You have to crack that nut first to really enjoy the game.

[Triassic Wee Woo Wagonsaurus]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Rudel:

Well obviously it's highly subjective, but I tried getting into the game in 2012 and bounced of it. Restarted now with the Xpacs in place and it's so much better and meaningful. There is progression on several levels, a way better story than the cringe cutscenes from the base game and everything just feels way better. Leveling from 1-80 is so boring, I can understand why there are not that many players on Steam. You have to crack that nut first to really enjoy the game.

"theres not that many players on steam" gee, most certainly doesent help people ran around for 2 years on steam -and still are- spouting nonsense about how the game is bad.

while being subjective- post core has not always had its brightest days- some darker than the core game. IBS was rushed halfway through, Every Dragon had a story Arc, Zhaitan had from level 30- to 80. Mord had a Bit of LSW1 and alot of LSW2 and HoT. Primordus had some in LSW3 but nothing major. Bit of jormag in core game and LSW3. Then Kralkatorrik in Pof along with Balths story line from 3 into PoF, along with entire story arcs for Joko from PoF and LSW4 along with kralks ending (probably the best Dragon personality). Then IBS with Primordus and Jormag "clashing" Primordus gets heavily undershadowed with just his minions existing while Jormag creates an entire new faction out of an existing race on top of the sons, taking over an important character- all to be rushed by 2 dragons kissing- one lucky enough to have arms while one is a giant useless head where they both suddenly dissipate. Onto the Rushed EoD expansion where you spend more time listening to gorrik talk about whales on a tour and listening to a "genious" with half the IQ of taimi and her daddy issues (and we thought the "supposed" cringe left the story) now a new map introduced thats just dragons end with a ceiling on it.

TLDR: Core game was unique, with the feeling of passion and multiple routes of character building taking place. while post game loses the feel of being different, less intricate maps (thanks to mounts) Abandoned/rushed stories that have changed direction back and forth every few months (following via release time not game world time). Simply put They might aswell be for two different audiences, the cultured can appreciate the roots, while the other half simply just wants a single player open world with instanced mmo aspects.

[Aredgard]

Core is ok, nothing special but gameplay wise, imo much better than any of its competitor, but still okayish, not great.
While expansions and living world.... They're a whole different beast, the expacs are great, and I dare to say, if you only play the base game, you miss out 80% of what the game truly offer.