Guild Wars 2 Impressions

Ok, I've played for 5 days, which is a story in itself, here goes...

The game arrive on Friday 24th from Amazon UK without a 1 day head start. I did quite a bit of anxious research and in the end bought a 1 day head start key for £1.50 from an on-line store called Gamesrocket (German I believe) which seemed to combine with my boxed game account ok so I started playing on Bank Holiday Monday which was a big relief.

It's good. It's very good. So far my general impressions is that its every bit as involved as WoW, Rift, and SWTOR and without the subscription fee that quite an achievement. I did play Aion for a while which was F2P but in order to access things like the Auction House you basically have to pay the equivalent of a sub so I felt kind of cheated. Now, the AH isn't working on GW2 so far, but I am willing to wait a week more to see if that feature is part and parcel of the business model and how good it is.

I have started a tiny guild with four of my old mates from WoW, which is really nice as we all seem to be a little more mature in our approach and in no particular rush to get to level cap so we are enjoying idle chit-chat and the crafting system as much as the game itself. One thing I have noticed is that, except for one or two personal quests ("Rumors of Trouble" Norn level 11 quest that means you) we have not really needed to help each other or play together. Its kind of a new experience being in the same chat room as your mates but playing extensively alone.

Overall I like the game a lot and can see that the cover price is more than justified. It's not feeling like a grind at all, it's really fun. Lets see what the next 50 levels has to offer...

Yay... GW2 Despatched!

Just got back from work and was quite surprised to see that Amazon has dispatched my pre-order/purchase standard edition of GW2. It says it will arrive tomorrow so at least I will get to register and install before the 28th. I still can't find much with reference to the 1 day head start and if that is pre-order or pre-purchase, or indeed, what the difference is. Well I'm not complaining I'm very excited and will continue to read as much useful and useless information over the weekend. Good luck to those of you that are starting tomorrow and see (some of you) soon!

Oh, I Really Hope Not..

I was working reading older blog posts at work today and I read this from Tobold's blog posted in the comments at the end of May...

"MMO players have a career. They get into it, they play for a few years, burnout, spend another couple of years looking for a new MMO that will do it for them again, and then they wander off and play other games"

Oh dear god I really hope not. It's true that I do sense great pessimism in the force and I can feel that pessimism myself but surely GW2 will be refreshing enough? Won't it?

Fresh Start or Hold on to the Past?

I got a bit nostalgic for the WoW days last night. Started looking up who was still playing out of the players I spent so much time with. I looked at the couple of videos of my old guild that are still knocking about on youtube etc. I didn't go as far as contemplating pre-ordering MoP, although it's possible I may if GW2 doesn't turn out to be what I hope it will...

Why was I Ginger in Caverns of Time?

So today I sent an e-mail to one of my closest ex-WoW guildies (whom I did dabble in SWTOR with earlier this year) asking if he is considering GW2. After I sent the e-mail I started to wonder is that the sensible thing to do. I'll try and tell you why.

The reason I am worried are the answers to these questions;
What do I hope GW2 will mean to me?
What experience do I want?
Who do I want to meet?
How do I want to play GW2, and for how long?

So here are the brief version of the conclusions I came to;
I want GW2 to be an exciting voyage of discovery.
The experience I want is the same as it was playing WoW for the first time.
I want to meet a new version of the interesting and intelligent people I met in WoW and join a guild of friendly, like-minded players.
I want to play GW2 casually but with commitment when I have the time, and for a few years if possible, anything less than 3 months would be dissapointing (again).

Now, I think the answers to the above, for me, are that Ideally all my memories and experience of WoW (and the others that came after Rift, Aion, SWTOR) could be deleted so that it's all new and I would be much more likely to achieve all of those goals. I know, it's not going to happen, but perhaps I can help my self by not carrying over all the preconceived idea from the last 5 years of MMO gaming and should that mean the people as too?

Don't get me wrong, I would love to play with my old WoW guild mates again but am I worsening the likelihood of GW2 being the scratch to me itch?

Guild Wars 2 - Ordered

Well, I could resist no longer, pre-ordered a couple of copies of GW2 for me and the other half. As I missed the beta's and am not really bothered about a 3-day head start I was pleasantly surprised to find Amazon has the Standard Box version for pre-order for £35, much more reasonable than £50 for the Standard Digital version on the official Guild Wars site. Any idea why that is?

Now, lets get back to scouring the tinterwebs for and possible scrap of information to feed my child like anticipation...

SWTOR going F2P

Exactly http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/08/01/the-old-republic-and-the-revenge-of-the-payment-model/#more-118412 . Couldn't have put it better myself