My recent return to Guild Wars 1 and some reflections

[Hashar.6082]

> @"Cedric Ambidexter.9174" said:

> The GW2 Necromancer is WAY too dark in my opinion: I actually felt uncomfortable playing it and ended up deleting it after just a few minutes. The spells and descriptions of the skills are way too serious and edgy for my tastes. GW1 never took itself seriously with any of its fantasy elements, and playing a necromancer with a blood drinker spell didn't make me feel uncomfortable, or that I was summoning demonic spirits in real life.

 

Huh, that's surprising. My reaction was the exact opposite: I couldn't play the GW2 necromancer because its skills were so cheesy and looked like SFX from a Halloween show, compared to GW1' raising of bloodied skeletons from dead bodies and draining people's blood. Oh, and looking like an undead creature with nonhuman eyes and discolored or even mummified skin.

 

 

[zealex.9410]

> @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> > @"googel.3278" said:

> > ( really, a dog whistle? is that what they have been working on for few months?)

> Really, no. They have a gem shop team that works on stuff that goes into the gem shop, which ultimately helps fund everything else. It's a small team working on the shop. Most of the work is devoted to the rest of the game, which has had all sort of other updates (you might remember a dragon, a lich, and a wardrobe).

 

I would be fine with the more agressive monetisation we've seen simce pof but the content drops and the update cadence doesnt reflect that.

 

Raids are droping almost one every year, fractals went from every 5 to 8 months with cm to an almost 8 month wait with no cm kind of content. Living world S4? Lul, a more apropriate name would be Delayed world S4 compaired to the somewhat consistent 2-3 month cadence we saw in se3.

 

Bottom line is, monetisation has increase but the game hasnt grown to reflect that imo.

[Deaths.9165]

@"Hashar.6082" said:

 

I feel the same. Gw1 nekros sucked enegry from dead corpses and lost life through skill usage. U had an army of zombies rolling over entire groups of mobs or players (in pvp). U could use ur minions as bombs with death nova even ur team mates u could use as bombs. U could use up ur hp with blood skills and cast over urself death nova and bomb the foes with eoe bombs. Their appearience were half dead half alive and their elite armore specs were creepy.

 

U could suck up with soul reaping energy from dead corpses and spent life (hp) to the living ones as monk secondary.

 

While in gw2 the entire necromancer is more like errupted from a cartoon for 3 to 4 year old kids.

[Randulf.7614]

I found the campaign structure, the neater lore and the way map distances felt greater a strong part of the game. the writing itself was pretty abysmal early on, but it hung together and felt more consistent in terms of difficulty curve and pacing. I've never gelled with Living Story as a structure and it's never felt to me like something that delivered a consistent central story. The direction ls4 has sadly gone in and assured me I just wont ever fully engage with it like I want to.

 

The balancing was a mess, far worse than anything levied at GW2.

 

Both have exceptional soundtracks. GW1 is iconic now, but what the current GW2 team are doing is extremely good and compliments the game so well.

 

Replayability in hindsight is also worse in GW1 for me as well. It was fun at the time, but ultimately going back, it's just a slog of grinding for rep, hoping for a 0.1% weapon drop. GW2 has grind, but it also has a great deal more variety in content.

 

GW2 also has by far and away the superior open world. The maps, the map stories, the dynamic events, the accessibility, the world building, the variety, the exploration, the achievements - it gets it right *almost* every release in this regard (Kourna being a notable example of how they go it so, so wrong for me)

 

Both are excellent. Both have strengths. For me, GW1 was the better central story in each campaign (maybe excluding Factions, but it did at least work as an arc), whereas GW2 has the variety and the World. I will say I preferred GW1 pvp, simply for the Alliance Battles. No other mmo has been more fun, more relaxed in pvp than that mode somehow delivered. My greatest moment was me on my dervish and a monk friend suddenly encountering another dervish with a monk in the midst of a battle around us and being left to duel it out whilst our respective armies battled around us. GW2 pvp or wvw just has never clicked with me.

 

I try to avoid returning though. I find every time I do go back, I enjoy it less and less as it has aged horrifically and I don't want what good memories I have, tarnished by time and the realisation that I think ultimately, I just prefer GW2

[Cedric Ambidexter.9174]

> @"Hashar.6082" said:

> > @"Cedric Ambidexter.9174" said:

> > The GW2 Necromancer is WAY too dark in my opinion: I actually felt uncomfortable playing it and ended up deleting it after just a few minutes. The spells and descriptions of the skills are way too serious and edgy for my tastes. GW1 never took itself seriously with any of its fantasy elements, and playing a necromancer with a blood drinker spell didn't make me feel uncomfortable, or that I was summoning demonic spirits in real life.

>

> Huh, that's surprising. My reaction was the exact opposite: I couldn't play the GW2 necromancer because its skills were so cheesy and looked like SFX from a Halloween show, compared to GW1' raising of bloodied skeletons from dead bodies and draining people's blood. Oh, and looking like an undead creature with nonhuman eyes and discolored or even mummified skin.

>

>

 

Hehe! It's nice to get a different perspective. :)

[Cedric Ambidexter.9174]

> @"Deaths.9165" said:

> @"Hashar.6082" said:

>

> I feel the same. Gw1 nekros sucked enegry from dead corpses and lost life through skill usage. U had an army of zombies rolling over entire groups of mobs or players (in pvp). U could use ur minions as bombs with death nova even ur team mates u could use as bombs. U could use up ur hp with blood skills and cast over urself death nova and bomb the foes with eoe bombs. Their appearience were half dead half alive and their elite armore specs were creepy.

>

> U could suck up with soul reaping energy from dead corpses and spent life (hp) to the living ones as monk secondary.

>

> While in gw2 the entire necromancer is more like errupted from a cartoon for 3 to 4 year old kids.

 

See I find the GW1 necro extremely cartoonish and pokemon-like, while the GW2 graphics make it seem more real/dark. I also feel similar about the Revenant - not comfortable playing that character longterm, and all the summoning spirits from the mist lore....too freaky for me.