Friday, July 3, 2020

A Month of MMORPGs: Guild Wars 2


In this special month-long series, I talk about various MMORPGs I have played over the years and the things I enjoyed best about them. This series celebrates how social media and social games bring people together, no matter the distance. The MMORPG for Week #1 is Guild Wars 2.




What is Guild Wars 2?

The easy answer to this is that it's the sequel to Guild Wars, but if that's the kind of content I wrote here then I probably wouldn't have any readership to speak of! Guild Wars 2 (GW2 from this point on) is an MMORPG that does its best to set itself apart from other MMORPGs in a variety of ways. It is based in the world of Tyria and takes place a long time after the events of the first game (which is still playable, by the way). A disbanded guild called Destiny's Edge has returned and is dedicated to fighting the Elder Dragons -- but not fantasy dragons as you know them. They're more Lovecraftian in nature and boy do they muck up the place a whole lot.

Instead of the usual questing system of most MMO's or solo-player RPGs, GW2 has more of an events-based system where you accomplish goals or activities in an area to fill in hearts, or you simply explore and uncover points of interest on the map, solve puzzles to reach breathtaking views (great photo-op!), or follow a personal storyline in which you actually make choices that impact the outcome of the story. That last part is virtually unheard of in an MMO setting, but they make it work via instances in GW2. It's a feature that I enjoy a great deal because it personalizes the experience while still being an MMO.



Why I Started Playing

In December of 2015, my not-yet-then-husband and I left our guild in the game RIFT, and about a dozen others left at the same time. The fallout that had caused us to leave left us tired and burned out on RIFT, so he began telling me about this other MMO he'd played called Guild Wars 2. Not long after that, we had a pair of characters that explored together and I quickly used up the rest of my character slots to get a feel for the other playable races and classes. It was a nice reprieve after so much drama, and there were so many things to love about the game. While I did venture back to RIFT after a few months and start up a new guild, I still play my GW2 characters from time to time.


Why I Continue to Play

In case you missed it, I mentioned that there are personal storylines in GW2. The story continues on over time because it is a persistent world. At one point, a large hub in the game (Lion's Arch) was destroyed per the story and has since been rebuilt. The only way to see how it used to look is to happen to run some instances in your own story that didn't get upgraded. It's wildly different, and also something that just doesn't happen in an MMORPG by most companies' standards. They might refresh a hub or improve graphics, but rarely to they rebuild it entirely.

I love that I can take a long hiatus from the game, come back, and discover I can play more of my characters' stories because more has been added. I love the potential that's still there for me because I haven't even bought either of the expansion packs or experienced their stories -- I don't know how much fun it is to use a glider or have a mount. That's still something I can look forward to!

I also well and truly love the soundtrack for GW2. I wrote about it a while back as a Soundtrack Saturday entry. If you haven't listened, then what are you even doing right now? Pull up the OST on YouTube and enjoy it! When I reinstalled the game the other day (first time on this new PC), I stood in Lion's Arch and went through all of my notifications and refamiliarized myself with my inventory and Hero panel... and then I realized I was REALLY enjoying the music playing in the background.

The different biomes in the world of Tyria are also phenomenal. The landscape, plants and animals all change depending on where you are, and it's never an abrupt change. They flow from one part of the map to the next in a way that makes sense. In a lot of MMORPGs, they will reuse asset materials from one place and tint it differently for another. Not in GW2. There is a lot of seriously well-done craftsmanship in the landscape of Tyria.

And let's not discuss the matter of Tybalt. (Best NPC ever!)




Social Media

If you have never played Guild Wars 2 before, good news: it's free-to-play. You'll have to cough up some money for certain aspects, but you can potentially get through a lot of the content without digging through couch cushions for loose change. I encourage you to give it a try!



Have you played Guild Wars 2? Leave some comments here or on Twitter about how @GuildWars2 has brought you together with other players, and be sure to tell them that #GamerReverieBlog sent you!

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