Game Diary 20130112

 

On recommendation from various sources I purchased a copy of Guild Wars 2, a recently released MMORPG (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_game). One of my partners had been playing and speaking enthusiastically of it for a few weeks, and I came across a rather glowing review from a source I tend to trust (local game review television show, with roots in a magazine I subscribed to when younger). Plus, it had the advantage of not requiring an ongoing subscription fee to play.

Previously I had only played World of Warcraft for a while, eventually quitting when the size of the update and installation downloads exceeded the size of the household's monthly data limit. So, I don't have much to compare Guild Wars 2 against, but the developers seem to have gone out of their way to fix all the interface annoyances and inconveniences that plagued World of Warcraft. The kind of thing which, by not having, causes one to realise how burdensome its existence had been.

Apart from interface stuff like being able to autosell junk and automating depositing useful items in the player's various storage locations without having to trek all the way to those physical locations every time - apart from that, it is also a lot of fun to run around in the game world and play.

Also like that one does not have to formally accept quests (although one can in dialogue agree to them), but for the most part it is structured that events are going on in the surrounding game world, and one can participate or not, and be awarded automatically for participation based on one's actions, without having to formally claim completion (or attempting, if it failed).

Well, I've only been playing intermittently, and I haven't developed my so far single character very well or far, but it has been plenty of fun. And not having a subscription fee means I don't have to fret about wasting money if I don't pick it up especially often (it is not uncommon for me not to let myself have much gaming time at all for months at a stretch - the last few months have been unusually game-heavy for me).

Like World of Warcraft, I do find Guild Wars 2 wearingly intense if playing with someone else. My normal pace in games is quite leisurely, with many pauses, but when I am with another player I feel obligated to push a bit harder, to keep up with em and to keep things interesting.

Probably have more to say on this after I have played more. But so far it is nifty getting to run around helping people out. Especially since that was the core of my character concept (a useful one for a game like this). I didn't actually expect it to be so fantasy; for some reason I thought the game would be more science fiction. No disappointment tho.