Anyone playing GW2?

I was playing it for a while. But finally I returned to WOW.

Originally Posted by Roq
…grouping versus solo…so games started to allow the whole game to be played solo. …… No game has managed to solve this grouping/solo dilemma the least bit satisfactorily.

I heard GW2 had dynamic encounter scaling and would throw more at you if you were grouping? I haven't seen that yet. The only scaling I've seen in LOTRO is isolated to skirmishes. I think this is a must feature!

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
I heard GW2 had dynamic encounter scaling and would throw more at you if you were grouping? I haven't seen that yet.

The event scaling add more creatures mostly. They are testing a new algo right now for a few events that add veterans and champions if there are lots of people around.

I'm good with the more creatures approach. Apparently it's on sale this weekend so I grabbed it. $39.99 seems like a good deal.

I play it and I enjoy it, but I still prefer DDO!!

I would play this if you didn't have to pay $40-60 up front. I'm sure the game is good and all, but I'd rather play it for awhile and spend money as I see fit, rather than dish it all out before I've even played one minute.

Counterpoint: I've paid over $1,100 for Lotro over the years!

Oh, there's no doubt a game like LOTRO is way more expensive, with the subscription based cost plus other enhancements, but I'd still rather pay as I go rather than do it all up front. I've spent $50 on LOTRO thus far over the course of 2 months, in 3 incremental payments, whereas GW2 I'd have to pay more up front without even playing the game at all. Now, if they offered a one week free trial to see if you'll like the game, then that would be cool, but I haven't seen that if it does exist.

Originally Posted by Fluent
Oh, there's no doubt a game like LOTRO is way more expensive, with the subscription based cost plus other enhancements, but I'd still rather pay as I go rather than do it all up front. I've spent $50 on LOTRO thus far over the course of 2 months, in 3 incremental payments, whereas GW2 I'd have to pay more up front without even playing the game at all. Now, if they offered a one week free trial to see if you'll like the game, then that would be cool, but I haven't seen that if it does exist.

They did a free weekend April 19th to 21st.

I watched Angry Joe's video review and that was enough for me. The production values are very high end and the thoughtfulness in design is obvious. I'm not going to assume this is a perfect game by any means but it sure has great promise. Not sure when I'll try it though… Lotro still has my complete attention.

Originally Posted by Fluent
Oh, there's no doubt a game like LOTRO is way more expensive, with the subscription based cost plus other enhancements, but I'd still rather pay as I go rather than do it all up front. I've spent $50 on LOTRO thus far over the course of 2 months, in 3 incremental payments, whereas GW2 I'd have to pay more up front without even playing the game at all. Now, if they offered a one week free trial to see if you'll like the game, then that would be cool, but I haven't seen that if it does exist.

They sometimes do free trial weekends - in fact I think you've just missed one unfortunately.

Fun game. Beautiful game as well. I love the mobility in combat and I can see constant movement is a hallmark of combat. Very actiony in a good way. Trying the Engineer - although I have no idea what I'm doing yet and I keep dying on higher level mobs. The challenge is cool though.

Some of the underwater vistas are stunning such as in Lion's Arch.

Well it was nighttime when I started and I was thinking "Lotro looks just as good" and then the sun came out and I was like…. whoa. Lotro is no slouch but this is an obvious step up. What is really impressive is how incredibly smooth it is given the raw number of entities and LOD. I've got view distance at ultra and its perfectly smooth.

Jury is still out if the game is "better" but it certainly has my attention.

Haven't played LoTRO, but I play a LOT of DDO and the actual DDO content is, I think, much better than GW- there's more quests and dungeons and puzzles and humour, etc; it's more like a tabletop DnD game than GW is, but GW is certainly better looking.

Since I am struggling to get Age of Wushu to download at a decent speed, I'm thinking about trying GW2.

Todd, feel free to list more impressions about the game as you go. I'm going to go back and watch Angry Joe's review and pay closer attention, too.

I'm finding that high level Lotro is very social. Now that I've joined a Lotro kin and tend to get a stream of (non kin) tells asking for help I find myself wanting a quiet refuge… So either roll a new Lotro toon or play GW2. GW2 is nice and new and shiny and very different. Heck I didn't even realize I had a heal pack. No wonder I keep dying! I do feel the nagging draw back to Lotro though so we will see. No way am I paying monthly for two of these things so GW2 is perfect as a second MMO.

OK Impressions after several hours of play… these are just *initial* impressions and my early observations which may change as I get deeper into the game. I'm sure this will rub some the wrong way but here we go:

Pros:

• fast and mobile combat keeps thing interesting
• graphics are very impressive, very high production values
• never boring and gameplay is certainly challenging. Very challenging really.
• playing solo as an engineer is pretty tactical and fun. Many build options!
• Events are a nice mechanic, makes the world feel alive
• mobs scale in number (quantity) based on number of players present, so its never too easy

Cons:

• So far there is a total lack of tactics in group play. The mobility works against class based role play so it turns into a free for all brawl. There are no real tanks vs. DPS vs. healer.
• too many magic flash effects hinder group combat tactics (if any) in close quarters
• Its very much an "action" based rpg
• The quest system is very streamlined. You get quests based on proximity to the quest area so there is no quest log per se. Your progress is tracked but if you leave the proximity the quest vanishes until you return. The bad side of all this is that by necessity you get very simplistic MMO cookie cutter quests. They have to be that way, because you don't have a log to browse so the game doesn't challenge you to remember anything. Forget about multipart quests. Interesting approach however…
• Not much of a story

Overall I think the game is fun and serves as a fun diversion so I'm glad I bought it. That said it is no replacement for the older established best of breed MMO's such as Wow, DDO, Lotro etc. It just seems to lack depth on a broad range of stuff (story, quest complexity, group combat tactics) compared to the older established MMOs. It is however, simply cool sh*t.

Thanks Todd. I think I'll be skipping this. At least for now.

Fluent, since you enjoy LoTRO, why not grab DDO and give it a try too. It won't cost you anything but time and it would be interesting to hear how you think it compares as they are both Turbine games.