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Once upon a time, I could honestly say that Guild Wars 2 had a lot of potential as one of the top MMORPGs on the market. Back in 2012-2015, when the game was just getting started, a lot of the material was fresh, new, and revitalizing to play. It had a very competitive WvW / PvP scene, massive server wide rivalries (Worlds) and a thriving community / GM spotlight.

Unlike many other MMOs, it was different back then; it was an MMO with no raids, healers, or tanks because everyone had their own built-in ways of staying alive through passives and items like Healing Seeds and many other things, and a lot of the open world content was genuinely difficult due to the limited styles of combat available like with PS Warrior Greatsword Banner metas, press (2) to win (Guilty.) It's 2024 now, and the game has only deteriorated over the years into little more than chores and spoon fed content for the mass of casual players who didn't have the time to actually learn how to do content because they just want their free achievement / collections without so much as lifting a finger.

This may not appear to be a big deal until you consider that thousands of players, like myself, would make PUG (Pick Up Group) runs for open world content, WvW, PvP, and Raids just to have the material we loved so much completely destroyed because it wasn't fun for your grandmother who just couldn't keep up or have time to spare for a 2 hour run. It may sound toxic, but in reality, if the community whines and complains about something, even if the real issue is simply the player's refusal to participate in order to get it over with so they can go collect something else, they always get their way.

The Chalk Garent, Twisted Marionette, and Dragon Stand (add in more open world encounters) have been gutted to the ground, which I completely understand. The encounter was completely broken upon release of Garent, with Nuhoch Lane permanently poisoned, everyone dying, and the run wrecked for the following 2 hours. Even with the patch, they gutted it and all of the techniques we used to bring them down as a community, only to turn it into AFK gameplay with no effort.

That is probably my greatest concern with the game these days. It simply requires no effort. Press (1) or (2), or do an F2, hold, and press (1) rotation depending on your class, but it's basically the same boring, time-consuming gated progression no matter what you're trying to do. Did you just return from a one-year break? Begin farming EXP for your locked mounts, plot progression, skills, traits, and everything. That is going to be your desire to continue playing the game and acquire access to things, which is simply not fun at all, when 90% of the content requires those upgrades to do it efficiently.

Assume you wanted to access some of the new expansions you missed. You must farm those maps, which, while still live, are mostly empty and dull. The rewards you will receive are literal coppers, which are worthless, and you are obliged to do so until you acquire further access to the story "Complete map objectives to continue" which is just not worth it at all.

What made GW2 such a fantastic game in the past was the world itself; everything was constantly changing, with events taking over entire cities and destroying the world itself, as well as Waypoints, Hubs, Refugee camps, and Repair Donations, which took months, if not years, for us as players to progress through. Many developers, artists, and story writers left the game over the years, leaving it empty, dreary, uninteresting, gated, time-consuming, and bland. These days, a large city will never be under siege; it's all a separate instance or a completely new or reintroduced map (GW1) because, once again, they catered heavily to gamers who are frustrated by their time being wasted when all they wanted to do was sit in their hub and craft, flip and get rewarded for doing absolutely nothing.

I'd say that the base game is fine, boring for someone that has seen it a million times, but still pretty good, up until the expansions, once the expansions hit, raids unlocked and everything started to become farm, grind, repeat... It burned me out. Many individuals continue to enjoy the game and, sure that's perfectly fine, owing to the fact that they still have access to content such as PvP or WvW, or they simply like wasting time with their Legendary Collections and Achievements. But a lot of the content that I found fun was gutted to the ground and rewards were cut to the point of not even being worth the farm.

These days, just like the players I hate (what a hypocrite I am) I don't want to play GW2 itself, but I would want to continue the recent expansions story and then leave, but unlike all of the content created back in the day like Scarlet Briar (Love her), I'm being restricted and forced to play the game for hours upon hours to get fragments of the story while being blocked behind gated unlocks, and with new expansions, they're still unfinished. It's essentially a piece-by-piece progression that unlocks every few months, with a new area with new mounts and effects to unlock as the plot and game progress.

In short:

GW2 used to be unique. These days Guild Wars 2 forces you to farm the same content for months, it plays similarly to other MMOs since they added depth and raids and healers and tanks, nothing is really worth the rewards besides particle effect infusions that get added every new holiday / major event that people go crazy for. It's a huge waste of your time.

[quote] Please consider following my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41005226/]Curation page[/url]. I cover a wide range of genres both paid and unpaid, providing unbiased opinions as well as regular giveaway events. [/quote] [h2]I hate that I've over 10000 hours off-steam[/h2] Once upon a time, I could honestly say that Guild Wars 2 had a lot of potential as one of the top MMORPGs on the market. Back in 2012-2015, when the game was just getting started, a lot of the material was fresh, new, and revitalizing to play. It had a very competitive WvW / PvP scene, massive server wide rivalries (Worlds) and a thriving community / GM spotlight. Unlike many other MMOs, it was different back then; it was an MMO with no raids, healers, or tanks because everyone had their own built-in ways of staying alive through passives and items like Healing Seeds and many other things, and a lot of the open world content was genuinely difficult due to the limited styles of combat available like with PS Warrior Greatsword Banner metas, press (2) to win (Guilty.) It's 2024 now, and the game has only deteriorated over the years into little more than chores and spoon fed content for the mass of casual players who didn't have the time to actually learn how to do content because they just want their free achievement / collections without so much as lifting a finger. This may not appear to be a big deal until you consider that thousands of players, like myself, would make PUG (Pick Up Group) runs for open world content, WvW, PvP, and Raids just to have the material we loved so much completely destroyed because it wasn't fun for your grandmother who just couldn't keep up or have time to spare for a 2 hour run. It may sound toxic, but in reality, if the community whines and complains about something, even if the real issue is simply the player's refusal to participate in order to get it over with so they can go collect something else, they always get their way. The Chalk Garent, Twisted Marionette, and Dragon Stand (add in more open world encounters) have been gutted to the ground, which I completely understand. The encounter was completely broken upon release of Garent, with Nuhoch Lane permanently poisoned, everyone dying, and the run wrecked for the following 2 hours. Even with the patch, they gutted it and all of the techniques we used to bring them down as a community, only to turn it into AFK gameplay with no effort. That is probably my greatest concern with the game these days. It simply requires no effort. Press (1) or (2), or do an F2, hold, and press (1) rotation depending on your class, but it's basically the same boring, time-consuming gated progression no matter what you're trying to do. Did you just return from a one-year break? Begin farming EXP for your locked mounts, plot progression, skills, traits, and everything. That is going to be your desire to continue playing the game and acquire access to things, which is simply not fun at all, when 90% of the content requires those upgrades to do it efficiently. Assume you wanted to access some of the new expansions you missed. You must farm those maps, which, while still live, are mostly empty and dull. The rewards you will receive are literal coppers, which are worthless, and you are obliged to do so until you acquire further access to the story "Complete map objectives to continue" which is just not worth it at all. [h2]What ever happen to Living World?[/h2] What made GW2 such a fantastic game in the past was the world itself; everything was constantly changing, with events taking over entire cities and destroying the world itself, as well as Waypoints, Hubs, Refugee camps, and Repair Donations, which took months, if not years, for us as players to progress through. Many developers, artists, and story writers left the game over the years, leaving it empty, dreary, uninteresting, gated, time-consuming, and bland. These days, a large city will never be under siege; it's all a separate instance or a completely new or reintroduced map (GW1) because, once again, they catered heavily to gamers who are frustrated by their time being wasted when all they wanted to do was sit in their hub and craft, flip and get rewarded for doing absolutely nothing. [h2]Conclusion[/h2] I'd say that the base game is fine, boring for someone that has seen it a million times, but still pretty good, up until the expansions, once the expansions hit, raids unlocked and everything started to become farm, grind, repeat... It burned me out. Many individuals continue to enjoy the game and, sure that's perfectly fine, owing to the fact that they still have access to content such as PvP or WvW, or they simply like wasting time with their Legendary Collections and Achievements. But a lot of the content that I found fun was gutted to the ground and rewards were cut to the point of not even being worth the farm. These days, just like the players I hate (what a hypocrite I am) I don't want to play GW2 itself, but I would want to continue the recent expansions story and then leave, but unlike all of the content created back in the day like Scarlet Briar (Love her), I'm being restricted and forced to play the game for hours upon hours to get fragments of the story while being blocked behind gated unlocks, and with new expansions, they're still unfinished. It's essentially a piece-by-piece progression that unlocks every few months, with a new area with new mounts and effects to unlock as the plot and game progress. In short: GW2 used to be unique. These days Guild Wars 2 forces you to farm the same content for months, it plays similarly to other MMOs since they added depth and raids and healers and tanks, nothing is really worth the rewards besides particle effect infusions that get added every new holiday / major event that people go crazy for. It's a huge waste of your time.