Oh, Dogs! A Gaming Entry! (Part II)
Okay, so...before the cons. I do want to stress not only how much I, generally, like GW2's character design (and creation), but the overall art direction. It's good.
But, now, the cons (in which I do not complain about this game being different, but complain about it being bad):
1) Mounts. WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THERE BEING NO GODDAMN MOUNTS? Seriously. It's bullshit. I'd love to hear the developers' logic behind this bold and innovative move. The result, of course, is endless running. Yeah, the waypoints, I guess, are supposed to offset that. But in Rift we get porticuli and mounts and soul recall.. In WoW you get hearthstones and mounts (and flying mounts, and zeppelins, and ships). Are there no animals on Tyria humans can ride, or are humanoids on Tyria just too stupid to ride? It's gotta be one or the other. Regardless, removing a standard for MMO fantasy games, that's not a plus. It's an inexplicable minus.
2) It's even harder to make money in this game than in Rift (and it's much harder in Rift than in WoW). Eight days of playing, spending very little, and I have earned ~50 silver (that's on a copper/silver/gold progression.
3) Professions: Again, what the fuck. There are no gathering professions, only crafting professions. And I always gather (Rift, WoW), because I find crafting tedious. Guess what, it's even more tedious in GW2. The crafting stations are few and far between, which means precious bag space gets clogged with crafting materials (which are multitude). Leveling crafting is excruciatingly slow, and when you're done...well, I've never much seen the point in crafting. Even in WoW, which has, in my experience, the most robust MMO auction economy, raw materials were far more profitable than crafted materials. Sure, in GW2, I can spend karma points (little purple triangles), but this only makes the pretend money that much more useless, making me ask, again, why bother crafting?
4) Now, it's not that you can't gather in GW2. Obviously, you can. By default, everyone can. But, of course, you need axes and picks and whatnot. But. Unlike WoW and Rift, where you get a pick or an axe (or what have you) that lasts pretty much forever, in GW2 you need increasing hardier picks and axes, etc. Each of which is good only for about 100 uses. More tedium. Think this makes sense? That silver or iron is harder to mine than copper? Wrong. I've had the same RL rock hammer since 1982, and it's seen crazy heavy use on everything from granite to iron ore to chalk to clay. Diamond? Okay, never tried that.
5) Achievements: Now, on the one hand, in all MMOs, there's an absurdity - and a pathetic sort of absurdity - about achievements. Oh, look! I killed 1,000 cultists! I get a virtual badge saying I've killed 1,000 cultists! Whee! Still, I like achievements. They provide us gaming geeks with the false sense of accomplishment we so crave. Well, not so with GW2. Yes, there are achievements. But there's a sort of ho-hum quality about them, and you can, in fact, entirely miss scoring them if you blink. Big fail on achievements.
6) On the one hand, combat looks good and the animation's good. I love being able to fight on the run. However, what the FUCK again is up with only being allowed a single row of 10 skill slots. The first nine unlock by Level 20, and the tenth unlocks at 30 (in an 80 Level game). Now, this means that, though you rapidly become more skilled, you only have access to ten skills (including healing) during any given encounter. You can rotate sets of skills, but, again, tedious, hard to remember, and I have found I tend not to bother. This is one of the games most grievous flaws. In Wow and Rift you're allowed 1-12 skill bars, center, left and right, permitting access to all skills at any given time. Even in Cox, you're not forbidden access to you skills. Even in SWotR this is not the case. It's utter bullshit.
7) All right. Here's a use for your useless currency. Training. In WoW, yes, training costs money. same thing in Rift. But, beyond that, no big deal. Not so in GW2. Here, we have trait points (beyond skill points, and I haven't mentioned skill points, because those are sort of simple). Trait points begin to unlock at Level Eleven, if you go to your trainer and invest in increasingly expensive "manuals." Even then, training up in traits is excruciatingly slow.
8) Here's some major nonsense: the Black Lion Trading Company. This is part is, to me, somewhat stupefying. It combines the traditional auction house with an opportunity to spend real-world money on...junk. Now, some of this junk gives you an unfair advantage on the battlefield, as regards those people who are not willing to handover (or can't afford to hard over) real world money on junk. Like aviator sunglasses. Which really have a place in a fantasy world of this sort, right? Or you can buy all sorts of skill boosters and add ons and stuff...again, unfair advantages for those unwilling to pony up the moolah.
9) Oh, my, isn't leveling in GW2 just a little weird? First off, you can level all the way to 80. Which sounds like a lot. I thought, upon hearing this, I'll be leveling one character for a year! Um...no. It takes no longer to make Level 20 than to make Level One. Again, no clue as to why anyone thought this was a good idea.
10) So far, though I've been looking, I've encountered almost nothing in the way of RP, though I'm on the "unofficial" North American RP server. On the GW2 RP fan site, lots of grousing about this. But no RP. I hear things are better on the European "unofficial" RP server. All of this despite being told for years that GW is where all the good RP goes on. Basically, since 2008, when I began playing WoW, I have concluded that American players a) simply fail to grasp the concept of RP, b) find it distasteful, c) are too cool for school to lower themselves to that level, and d) fear it makes them look like "sissies" (ironic, considering most of those female avatars you see are male players). Which actuality makes me miss Cox. Soon, I'm going to write an entire entry on the inability of Americans to RP, so enough of this for now.
In fact, enough. I could go on, but this is a fairly damning summation. Not sure how much longer Spooky and I will continue with GW2. Yeah, I've named the good points, but they are largely crushed by the bad points. All of which undermine the suspension of disbelief I need to enjoy an MMO (even without RP). And we have a WoW expansion in September, and a (woot!) Rift expansion in November. So, only so much time to fuck about with inferior games. Yeah, even inferior to WoW. Which is just...sad.
Not Really Sad,
Aunt Beast
But, now, the cons (in which I do not complain about this game being different, but complain about it being bad):
1) Mounts. WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THERE BEING NO GODDAMN MOUNTS? Seriously. It's bullshit. I'd love to hear the developers' logic behind this bold and innovative move. The result, of course, is endless running. Yeah, the waypoints, I guess, are supposed to offset that. But in Rift we get porticuli and mounts and soul recall.. In WoW you get hearthstones and mounts (and flying mounts, and zeppelins, and ships). Are there no animals on Tyria humans can ride, or are humanoids on Tyria just too stupid to ride? It's gotta be one or the other. Regardless, removing a standard for MMO fantasy games, that's not a plus. It's an inexplicable minus.
2) It's even harder to make money in this game than in Rift (and it's much harder in Rift than in WoW). Eight days of playing, spending very little, and I have earned ~50 silver (that's on a copper/silver/gold progression.
3) Professions: Again, what the fuck. There are no gathering professions, only crafting professions. And I always gather (Rift, WoW), because I find crafting tedious. Guess what, it's even more tedious in GW2. The crafting stations are few and far between, which means precious bag space gets clogged with crafting materials (which are multitude). Leveling crafting is excruciatingly slow, and when you're done...well, I've never much seen the point in crafting. Even in WoW, which has, in my experience, the most robust MMO auction economy, raw materials were far more profitable than crafted materials. Sure, in GW2, I can spend karma points (little purple triangles), but this only makes the pretend money that much more useless, making me ask, again, why bother crafting?
4) Now, it's not that you can't gather in GW2. Obviously, you can. By default, everyone can. But, of course, you need axes and picks and whatnot. But. Unlike WoW and Rift, where you get a pick or an axe (or what have you) that lasts pretty much forever, in GW2 you need increasing hardier picks and axes, etc. Each of which is good only for about 100 uses. More tedium. Think this makes sense? That silver or iron is harder to mine than copper? Wrong. I've had the same RL rock hammer since 1982, and it's seen crazy heavy use on everything from granite to iron ore to chalk to clay. Diamond? Okay, never tried that.
5) Achievements: Now, on the one hand, in all MMOs, there's an absurdity - and a pathetic sort of absurdity - about achievements. Oh, look! I killed 1,000 cultists! I get a virtual badge saying I've killed 1,000 cultists! Whee! Still, I like achievements. They provide us gaming geeks with the false sense of accomplishment we so crave. Well, not so with GW2. Yes, there are achievements. But there's a sort of ho-hum quality about them, and you can, in fact, entirely miss scoring them if you blink. Big fail on achievements.
6) On the one hand, combat looks good and the animation's good. I love being able to fight on the run. However, what the FUCK again is up with only being allowed a single row of 10 skill slots. The first nine unlock by Level 20, and the tenth unlocks at 30 (in an 80 Level game). Now, this means that, though you rapidly become more skilled, you only have access to ten skills (including healing) during any given encounter. You can rotate sets of skills, but, again, tedious, hard to remember, and I have found I tend not to bother. This is one of the games most grievous flaws. In Wow and Rift you're allowed 1-12 skill bars, center, left and right, permitting access to all skills at any given time. Even in Cox, you're not forbidden access to you skills. Even in SWotR this is not the case. It's utter bullshit.
7) All right. Here's a use for your useless currency. Training. In WoW, yes, training costs money. same thing in Rift. But, beyond that, no big deal. Not so in GW2. Here, we have trait points (beyond skill points, and I haven't mentioned skill points, because those are sort of simple). Trait points begin to unlock at Level Eleven, if you go to your trainer and invest in increasingly expensive "manuals." Even then, training up in traits is excruciatingly slow.
8) Here's some major nonsense: the Black Lion Trading Company. This is part is, to me, somewhat stupefying. It combines the traditional auction house with an opportunity to spend real-world money on...junk. Now, some of this junk gives you an unfair advantage on the battlefield, as regards those people who are not willing to handover (or can't afford to hard over) real world money on junk. Like aviator sunglasses. Which really have a place in a fantasy world of this sort, right? Or you can buy all sorts of skill boosters and add ons and stuff...again, unfair advantages for those unwilling to pony up the moolah.
9) Oh, my, isn't leveling in GW2 just a little weird? First off, you can level all the way to 80. Which sounds like a lot. I thought, upon hearing this, I'll be leveling one character for a year! Um...no. It takes no longer to make Level 20 than to make Level One. Again, no clue as to why anyone thought this was a good idea.
10) So far, though I've been looking, I've encountered almost nothing in the way of RP, though I'm on the "unofficial" North American RP server. On the GW2 RP fan site, lots of grousing about this. But no RP. I hear things are better on the European "unofficial" RP server. All of this despite being told for years that GW is where all the good RP goes on. Basically, since 2008, when I began playing WoW, I have concluded that American players a) simply fail to grasp the concept of RP, b) find it distasteful, c) are too cool for school to lower themselves to that level, and d) fear it makes them look like "sissies" (ironic, considering most of those female avatars you see are male players). Which actuality makes me miss Cox. Soon, I'm going to write an entire entry on the inability of Americans to RP, so enough of this for now.
In fact, enough. I could go on, but this is a fairly damning summation. Not sure how much longer Spooky and I will continue with GW2. Yeah, I've named the good points, but they are largely crushed by the bad points. All of which undermine the suspension of disbelief I need to enjoy an MMO (even without RP). And we have a WoW expansion in September, and a (woot!) Rift expansion in November. So, only so much time to fuck about with inferior games. Yeah, even inferior to WoW. Which is just...sad.
Not Really Sad,
Aunt Beast