GW2 pre-order

[Tulip1123]

So a few months ago, a friend tried to convince me to get GW2 when it was available to pre-order. Now, I have researched the game somewhat, and I am looking forward to it. It looks really good.
The problem is, I'm broke, and without ever actually playing the game I'm scared it will just be a disappointment and a waste of my money. This had happened before. (coughcoughSWTORcoughcough)
So Escapist members, do you think it is worth it to pre-order it? Other than being able to play 3 days early, does it really matter? If I get a digital copy, it won't matter when I get it, because it can't can't be out of stock, correct?
What are your thoughts on GW2? Will it really be as good as all the hype?

 

[ResonanceSD]

I've got the collector's edition and can't wait, it's seriously awesome. 3 day headstart? not that big a deal unless you NEED to get a particular name.

 

[Andrewtheeviscerator]

I'm going to get it when it releases. I would pre order it but I'm moving to Uni 3 days before it comes out so there really isn't a point. I did play in the last two beta weekends and I must say the game looks fantastic so far. The combat is entertaining, the quests aren't dull and does a really good job at telling the story, in fact I would say only TOR does a better job at story telling. I'd recommend you get it if you're looking for an mmo.

 

[Norrdicus]

Well, first off, if this friend of yours was recommending GW2 to you last month, and lived anywhere close, he should have let you try the game at his house for an hour or two during one of the beta weekends. That's how I made my decision to pre-purchase the game, trying it out made me see that GW2 lets you get to the good parts of its gameplay rather quickly

Secondly, the game requires no subscription fee, so unlike many other MMOs, you're not forced to commit. You'll get your money's worth by playing it like a console game

Thirdly, pre-purchase gets you 3-day headstart and pre-order gets you 1 day. Most of the pre-purchase incentive has mostly been used up already in the 3 beta weekends and numerous stress-tests. So it's your call really, when do you want to start playing?

Fourth point, the game is worth the hype. The WvWvW is fun, PvP is great like it was in the original Guild Wars, and they've really beefed up the PvE content from last game

 

[BloatedGuppy]

What are your thoughts on GW2? Will it really be as good as all the hype?

Hard to say, as everyone's expectations are different. GW2 has received an uncommon amount of hype, and is viewed in some corners as a panacea to cure all the ills of the MMO genre. This isn't the case. It's an excellent game, but it is not without question marks.

Some data points:

1. The Holy Trinity is (almost) gone. No more tank/healer/DPS. All classes are now a fusion of the three, and are largely responsible for their own well being through kiting, self healing and dodging. Some strategic depth and stateliness is lost in this, and combat feels less formal and deep and more scrambled and frantic. On the upside, no more howling for a tank or healer, just play what you like.

2. There are no instanced raids. This is either the worst thing ever, if you're a raider, or the best thing ever, if you hate raids and raid culture.

3. All the large scale group content is drop in. Just wander up and start doing it with other people. It (hypothetically) scales to the number of people present. This can result in the large scale group content feeling quite zergy, but it is still fun.

4. You cast while moving. Constant movement is expected in the game. No more self-rooting.

5. The personal storyline is a bit naff, and not up to TOR standards.

6. The world design is excellent, and exploring is a real pleasure. There is an uncommonly large number of zones available at launch (25+, in addition to 8 dungeons and 6 huge cities).

7. You are dynamically scaled down to the content. The intention is that a level 70 character can enter a level 15 zone and quest/adventure in it as a level 15. In reality, you still get quite a boost from your level 70 gear, but it's nice knowing that you can never truly outlevel content. Nothing ever goes grey, and you don't get funneled into a tiny handful of end-game zones.

8. There is 3 faction open world PvP with keep sieges and point control spread over 4 massive zones speckled with dozens of towers and massive keeps. Very reminiscent of DAoC.

9. There is no end-game gear grind. The gear plateaus very quickly, and the dungeon rewards are new skins for your existing gear, not an ever increasing statistical edge. This is both a huge positive in terms of reducing the grind and keeping everyone on a level playing field for PvP. It's bad for people who love the gear treadmill and a constant sense of character advancement post level cap.

10. Crafting and travel are very streamlined and very convenient.

11. There is a cash shop, but it is relatively benign (for now, anyway).

12. Optimization is a work in process. I have excellent performance and FPS, others are not so fortunate.

13. Difficulty is currently all over the map. It was brutally hard in BWE1, better in BWE2, and comically easy in BWE3. They've indicated their goal is to get it to BWE2 standards, but the proof will be in the pudding.

My gut tells me it has the potential to be hugely popular, but my gut has been wrong before (I anticipated big things for Warhammer Online, but in fairness to me I didn't realize the meta-game was broken). The game is fast, fun, easy to learn and play. If you hate hotkey based MMOs this won't change your mind, and it's not completely revolutionary in every single aspect, but it's considerably more innovative and forward looking than TOR was. If they can keep the cash shop from getting out of hand, keep content flowing into the game, squash little bugs and annoyances, and get their class balancing in order, it has the potential to be a substantial hit. This has been a labor of love for Arena Net, and it shows.

If you wish, you can elaborate more on what it was that disappointed you about TOR and other MMOs, and I can try and tell you whether I think GW2 will deliver in those regards.

 

[targren]

What are your thoughts on GW2? Will it really be as good as all the hype?

Having played through 2 and a quarter Beta Weekend events, I have to say: No, not as far as I'm concerned. The only thing it offers that every other fantasy MMO out there doesn't is lack of a subscription fee and maybe a lack of paywall-blocked content (like Age of Conan did when it went F2P). I'm not going to cancel my pre-purchase because $60 isn't really all that much, and I spent way too many hours getting 50/50 in my Hall of Monuments in GW1, but really, I'm not all that excited about it.

I'll probably play it the same way I currently play Diablo II and Borderlands: just something to kill time while my code is compiling and I have nothing else to do. I can't imagine it being as gripping and fun as the original, since the only thing it has in common with the original is the name, and some lore.

 

[NathLines]

Pre-orders are cheaper and since this is an MMO, I doubt that the price will go down for a long time. At least not until they bring an expansion out.

I'm personally not all that excited about it. The combat is not as action based as all the hype wanted me to believe. Still, there's no subscription and it is not bad by any stretch. But I personally enjoy ToR more than GW2 from what I played from the betas. I still have it pre-purchased though.

Edit: OH! There is one thing of note that I really like about it though; it seems pretty hard at times. Challenges are very, very welcome in MMOs as far as I'm concerned.

 

[lumenadducere]

I think it's quite good, personally. I think they've added a lot of incentive for exploration, and the lack of gear grind at end-game is something I personally find really appealing. And I I definitely disagree with targren above and think it offers much more than just the lack of a subscription fee. The game's design has been almost entirely made to get rid of the things that annoy many gamers about MMOs. The dynamic events help to give a sense of a living world (much more so than most other MMOs), the whole philosophy towards the "endgame" and towards class design (removing the trinity) is made to let people enjoy content and remove the annoying and arbitrary restrictions that keep people from playing.

Some people would find that to be annoying and I'm sure there'll be the usual chorus of "there's nothing to do at the endgame" when people realize that traditional gear treadmill progression isn't in the game, but now that I'm no longer a student and am balancing work with social stuff and single-player games, I'm finding myself more and more annoyed when MMOs present me with a repetitive instance grind. I'd much rather have a big explorable world with events that I'm likely to only see parts of as I go through the zone. That way it's also much less frustrating for me to level alts, as I'll have new content to see regardless of where they are.

The important thing though is that you need to enter into the game knowing what it is and what it's trying to do. I have no doubt that people are going to play not realizing the design philosophy behind the game and are going to end up frustrated that it's not WoW with dynamic events. In many ways it definitely still feels traditional (combat isn't dynamic at lower levels and doesn't really rely on movement until much later) but for me personally there's so many little things that add up to make the game enjoyable and different that as a whole the product is a very welcome change of pace.

 

[nasteypenguin]

I do think that, with all the hype, it's going to be down to what you expect from it. If you go in expecting it to be another standard mmo, you'll be very pleasantly surprised as it does deviate from the norms a lot and I would call it quite the upgrade to any mmo I've played. If you're really expecting a revolutionary experience to make mmo haters become mmo lovers* however, that's not going to happen for the most part; it's still hotkey based combat (although it puts all other hotkey based combat games I've played to shame) it's still an RPG and many quests are still quite repetitive.

The thing that makes me excited for it is the way they approach character balance. Instead of giving you a big list of spells and abilities to choose from, each weapon gives you preset skillset which makes up half of your usable abilities. Rather than limiting customisation, it actually gives the player more freedom in choosing abilities, since I've never played an mmo where there wasn't a single best skill tree/ability rotation which everyone and their mothers used. At the very least Guild Wars 2 gives you the option of five.

*saying that though, the game encourages casual play to a certain extent since there's no real rush to endgame for gear grinding and high level players can play with low level players without spoiling much, so maybe it will turn people, who knows.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

So the game will be EASIER?? than my beta weekend?

It was perfectly fine, fun and balanced, wth is wrong with them?

BWE1 was a stiff challenge, which as a 14 year MMO vet I quite enjoyed. You have to remember though that they're making this game for more than just you or me. Some WoW fan who decided to pick up the slick new GW2 and gets his ass ROFLstomped in the goddam newbie area because their difficulty tuning was out of control is going to put it down and never touch it again.

I think it's a little too EASY in the early areas now, but really better too easy than too hard. In the early areas. If it's still like that at 80, then we have a problem.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Honestly if you're really that caution with your spending, I would suggest you should wait until they do some kind of a free trail version.

I mean look at SW:TOR and the recent Diablo 3 annoucement about letting you play the game until you reach a certain level.

I can't guaranteed Anet will do the same for GW2 but I think they will make one in the future seeing how they did made a free trail version for GW.

The only risk with that way is the matter of time as in when you do played the free trail version and like the game itself, you will regret not playing it sooner.

 

[Kordie]

Well, first off, if this friend of yours was recommending GW2 to you last month, and lived anywhere close, he should have let you try the game at his house for an hour or two during one of the beta weekends. That's how I made my decision to pre-purchase the game, trying it out made me see that GW2 lets you get to the good parts of its gameplay rather quickly

Secondly, the game requires no subscription fee, so unlike many other MMOs, you're not forced to commit. You'll get your money's worth by playing it like a console game

Thirdly, pre-purchase gets you 3-day headstart and pre-order gets you 1 day. Most of the pre-purchase incentive has mostly been used up already in the 3 beta weekends and numerous stress-tests. So it's your call really, when do you want to start playing?

Fourth point, the game is worth the hype. The WvWvW is fun, PvP is great like it was in the original Guild Wars, and they've really beefed up the PvE content from last game

Posted again as those are very good valid points. I would recommend watching this video for a bit more information as well, it does a pretty good job of going through a lot of the game without heading into over hype land. Honestly, I think the biggest obstacle to GW2 right now is the hype. If you are still on the fence, I say wait. I have suffered pre-order burn as well, and this game won't be for everyone. Give it a week after launch and see what people are saying, that will probably also avoid dealing with those pesky week 1 MMO problems that crop up.

 

[Lucyfer86]

Without knowing your preference on what you like in MMO's it's hard to say.
But as far as i'm concerned, based on gameplay itself, events and pvp in beta(s), i honestly can say it's the best MMO i have ever played (and i have played _alot_ of them..)

What remains to be seen is that how well the content will carry out in the end.

 

[Phasmal]

I've preorded it and I had a ton of fun on the beta and stresstests.
Though after playing WoW for ages I keep forgetting I can cast and move at the same time, old habits.
Rolling a Norn Ranger when it comes out. Can't wait.

PVP's different from WoW as well, in that every class has a self-heal and fights can last a lot longer, which I think is good because it gives you more chances to turn the fight your way, whereas in WoW if you get jumped you can be dead in 2 seconds.

But we'll have to see when it comes out.
If you're pressed for money, I wouldn't fuss about preordering, but you should definately try it when it's out.

 

[Raioken18]

I Pre-Purchased the Standard Digital Edition, $55 AUD
Apart from the lower price, I couldn't really justify spending the extra $20 to buy the Digital Delux Edition as most of the items are available in the cash shop anyway and in a game where the skins are basically what you grind for I couldn't be bothered paying for vanity items.

With that being said I may support GW2 by buying cash shop items after the launch if I find it enjoyable.

So they have my initial payment and if they back it up then they may even receive more cash than if they had a paid subscription service.

I'm really excited bout the game, I missed the BWE's so I haven't had a chance to play it at all but I just want to play it when it's released anyway so I can play relatively uninterrupted.

But I am trying to curb my expectations, as it is I have really high hopes, (like if it was the perfect combination of WoW, SWTOR and TSW) lol. With impossible expectations like that it'd be impossible to meet.

But yeah I don't regret Pre-Purchasing based on what I've seen and read, but I can't really tell you if you'll like it that much.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Well mate, if they play WoW and can't handle GW2 newbie area they're real morons, i can tell you that for a fact. The less morons the better, this isn't a subscription based game anyway.

As much of GW2 is based around large scale player participation, including the much ballyhooed WvWvW and the entire dynamic-event focused endgame centered around Orr, it behooves Arena Net not to drive the majority away in the first 10-15 levels. It's fairly traditional for developers to not throw players into the deep end of the pool during the first 2-3 hours of game play, regardless of genre.

 

[Fappy]

I'll probably pre-order it even though I won't even be able to play it 3-days early anyway. D*Con that weekend >.>

EDIT: Or I am terrible at math! Holy shit, the game is coming out in 9 days!?

 

[Aprilgold]

So a few months ago, a friend tried to convince me to get GW2 when it was available to pre-order. Now, I have researched the game somewhat, and I am looking forward to it. It looks really good.
The problem is, I'm broke, and without ever actually playing the game I'm scared it will just be a disappointment and a waste of my money. This had happened before. (coughcoughSWTORcoughcough)
So Escapist members, do you think it is worth it to pre-order it? Other than being able to play 3 days early, does it really matter? If I get a digital copy, it won't matter when I get it, because it can't can't be out of stock, correct?
What are your thoughts on GW2? Will it really be as good as all the hype?

Alright to answer this

1) I have been beta-testing Guild Wars 2 since the Pre-Order went live and I can safely tell you that this is not a waste of money. There is enough content to, in likelihood, last about a year of time.

I have not found anything bad about this and it is really as good as some say, as in "Its really good and everyone should play it" not "IT IS THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS GOOD!"

2) The 3 days are definitely worth it if you want to get in there early and find a server with friends or a guild.

3) It can't be out of stock, however the servers can be full and then, you know, you can't play the game anyways so they don't sell the digital copies. I may be wrong, but from what I understand it works like this: For every unit they have on a shelf they save server space so that way people who buy the game from a shop can get into the game the day they buy it, however the digital copies have X amount of server space and then they become "sold out" which is just Arena trying to save space.

4) It isn't the second coming of Jesus, but it is close and I honestly think that if you are sick and tired of the "grind" and single player experience of MMOs as of late you should give it a go.

Overall, I haven't found a single reason to throw Guild Wars 2 under a moving truck and I think that everyone should try and buy it in case they want a more "gamey" MMO that focuses on actual multiplayer.

Almost forgot, its a buy-it-once, own-it-forever deal. If you buy it and then don't play it for six months you can log right back on and play no issue.