Kovnic

The CoH comparison made early in the commenets is a pretty good one. I played CoH before it introduced "Endgame" and for a long time it was fun. A lot of fun. But there comes a point when running the same world boss or Instance AGAIN, for no real reason other than "becuase its there" stops being fun. I stopped playing CoH smply because there really was nothing to do in the game other than roll an alt. . . again and again and again and again . . . .

Lets look at it this way - People play "End game" because it is an extention of their characters progression from leveling. Like in WoW (and many many others) - You Level up, hit the cap, and now the only way to improve your character is through gear. So you raid for gear. You get better, then they introduce more new raids and better gear etc etc etc and the sudo-leveling continues. Yes . . . soon this too gets old (for some).

Both systems have things I enjoyed and things I hated. I just hope more than anything GW2 find the balance between them. Because I will tell you now, that if the only thing to do in GW2 is to re-do stuff you already did for no real reward, it gets old. Alternate paths through an instance are great, but soon, you WILL have seen every single variation. Doing it will be "Oh this again . . ." and with no real reward, you won't have a reason to keep doing it. The fun factor of doing it "Just because" will eventually stop.

GW1 did away with a lot of this with capped gear stats and a low level cap. But ask yourself this . . . how many people left GW1 when they quickly got bored? How many have come back to GW1 and/or started playing it because of the Hall of monuments stuff. The Carrot on a stick got added and suddenly people flooded back, myself included (and yes, I am sure some people came back to GW1 for other reasons . . ). What happened when I got everything I wanted from HoM? I stopped playing GW1 again. No, I am not hating on GW1 here. I enjoyed it for what it was. I'm just pointing out that, as much as "Carrot on a stick" gets bad press, in terms of driving people to play a game it works, and so far it has worked better than not having it.

I guess my point is. Yes there is a lot of bad stuff associated with the dreaded "End game", but honestly, older CoH has already shown that the alternative "no end game - do any level content" is not all its cracked up to be either. I am looking forward more than anything to GW2, end game or not, and I will just watch with interest on how they handle this topic.

I got GW1 waaay back when it forst came out. I never really got into it though as my time was being used on other MMO's (City of Heroes and then WoW). Although I didnt really "bite" when I first played GW1, I like dit enough to pick up the expansions as they launched, and played it off and on as a "Side game". At the time the HoM achievments came out, my highest character was a level 12 warrior that had not even made it to Lions Arch yet!

GW2 and the HoM stuff made me come back to GW1 with a goal. I wanted those item unlocks, and was happy to spend time getting them. I came back to the game and after a few months, am now sat at 32/50. I soloed all of the contenet, which helped me to take my time and appreciate some of the lore aspects of the game that I would have perhaps missed had I teamed with more experienced or "rushed" players that just wanted to get the stuff done.

I would Like to get 40/50 or 45/50 (I am under no illusion that 50/50 is out of my reach with the time left) - but after getting the main items unlocked, grinding out those last few bits just for GW2 titles . . . it just isnt appealing. I have played the game now, I have seen the lore, the story, etc etc I may not have as strong a link to it as some of the long time players, but even what little I have seen I think will help me appreciate GW2 more.

Perhaps if I had taken the time to find a guild, gaining the last 10 - 20 HoM points would be more appealing. It was just never on my agenda when I first started collecting, and perhaps as a result, I have not seen GW1 at its best. It was still fun :)

@Nearly Departed

I was about to say the same thing, but from a facebook perspective (yes yes facebook = devil blah blah blah) But as someone that very recently got quite "into" some of the facebook games, I see this working a LOT like groups on that site.

You play the game, and join as many "groups" as meet your needs for the game. Raiding group? check. Farming group? Check. Crafting group? Check. Now Lets play.

The best groups quickly attract the better players and from that become the "must join" groups for any particular activity.

To be fair, they are not doing anything "new" really. City of Heroes has a similar mechanic with its use of chat channels allowing players from multiple guilds to still join "Alt" groups for different purposes. The only difference is in GW2 they have named them guilds rather than channels.

@(Unverified)

Thats good to hear.

@Tanek

I agree, it would be far more fun finding that stuff out for yourself. I just know that, as much as I feel like that now, once that info is out there I wont be able to help myself. I will have to look lol.

I remember reading that there would be an auction house. I seem to remember them also saying that we would have access to it from phone apps. That implies that we can sell either crafting mats and/or crafting items. With the way they have described crafting skills, why would you pay for a pre-made item? Its better to buy the mats and make it yourself. Unless the finished item ends up being way cheaper than the cost of mats (which is what I expect after reading this). As such, people will never make a profit on finished items only on mats. That just seems like a bit of a daft way to do it, but, like I said, its early yet and I guess things could change and/or I could be looking at it wrong.

I hope so at least. As it just doesnt sit right with me that the stuff I make will be worth less than the items I make it from.

Its a nice idea on paper, but as has been said, the "hidden craft combinations" will be up on a wiki in days of release which will make it kind of redundent.

Also, with everyone able to level up every craft skill to max swapping and changing at will, I take it that means that there will be pretty much zero economy based around crafted items? I mean, why would you ever pay someone for something that you can craft yourself? Its going to revolve around crafting materials rather than the craft skills themselves, which will make farming mats the money source rather than making stuff. I dont like that myself, but, we'll see how it pans out.

I like the look, I like A LOT that they are not elves. The Lore side of things seemed well thought out, but perhaps borrowed a little too much from the Fae lore's Unseelie Court vs Seelie Court.

Also, and Maybe its just me, but this whole sentient talking plant thing . . . I swear if the pale tree starts begging for blood and busts out into a Corus of "Feed me" in the voice if Levi Stubbs, I for one will not be surprised.

Love the update. Having a party full of heroes opens up so much more of the game to those of us that came to GW late and missed it at its peak.

That said, I really dont see the point of the "Merc" heroes content. Its WAY over priced and adds nothing to the actual game other than "basically" re-skinning the Heroes to look like your alts. You can do everything you can do with the "merc" content by just using the ingame Heroes, and it costs you nothing. - It just seems like an expensive "fluff" option, and one I wont be using.

I also REALLY hope this pricing is not indicative of possible prices of GW2 micro transactions, if it is...I can see that being the 1st and only current "downside" to GW2 for me.

So the expected Rogue-esque class has Dual Pistols. Maybe now all this talk of the unkown class being a "gunner class" will go away and we can start getting some good speculation going! :P

Will be interested to see how the "stealing from enemies" ability works in combat.

Oh and...what the hell is that Tail all about?? I hear them say in the vid "it needs to be that big for balance", and maybe thats true from a technical "real animal" stand point, but come on... It just looks comical.

Anyway, awesome stuff. Cant wait to see more of this as more info comes in over the weekend. Roll on GW2 main site update!

Have been REALLY looking forward to Norn week. Since they first appeared in GW1 I have loved this race, and I can say without a doubt that my first character in GW2 will be Norn. The screen shots of the starting area, and in particular the Norn themselves, have only made me even more sure that Norn are for me.

If it wasnt for the fact that each race gets a "unique" story arc (maybe more than 1?) that the geek in me must play through, I probably would have made only Norns. As it stands, I can see me having at least 1 of each race (assuming we get enough character slots for that), but if there are any extra spaces...they'll be Norn.