Guild Wars 2 Initial Thoughts

So I am not just a table top gamer. Like many other table top gamer's out there I also love video games. I am a bit of a collector,been playing since I could hold a controller. I am also one of the luck gamer's that have grown up with video games as part of our lives from day one I am talking Atari 2600 on up through modern computing. I enjoy a wide variety of games but over the last few years I have been increasing drawn to Massive Multi-player Online games. It started with Ultima Online and I have played just about every game since including all the major players. Recently  I have been playing Guild Wars 2 and I have to say I am impressed.

Now let me qualify that I loved the original Guild Wars but it was always a secondary game partly due to to its subscription model and partly due to the fact that it wasn't your typical MMO with a persistent world. Basically every time you left the city you got your own private version of the world which was great but didn't offer much in multi-player aspect. Guild Wars 2 changes this up, it still has the buy the box player for ever for free business model which is excellent but it also adds a persistent world making it like every other major MMO out there but that is just the tip of the iceberg. 

For the outside Guild Wars 2 looks like any other MMO out there but its the subtle details that make the game great and dare I say a WoW killer(lets be frank here WoW is on its way out anyway).  I can't go into every single detail but I can get into a few that jump out at me. First the game has a lot of polish from the interface to the combat everything works well and looks good. Secondly PvP is a level playing field. Instead of relying on a bolster mechanic where everything gets buffed up to max level like in Star Wars the Old Republic, Guild Wars 2 just make everyone level 80 and give you access to everything you need. PvP is now about how your play and setup your character instead of what your gear is. The game also does a way with the "fiddly bits" that can make and MMO a pain to play, have a bunch of crafting items filling up your bags no problem one click send them to your bank, need to use the auction house, you can access it from any ware buying and selling. Speaking of crafting when you are ready to craft you don't have to make a trip to the bank to pick up your stuff when you go to a workbench it already knows what you have in your bank and uses it like you had it on you.Now this may break the "Role-Playing" experience for some people but the game strives to streamline the tedious stuff so you can actually play the game more. The other major change that I have seen in Guild Wars 2 is the fact that your are not locked into a server like in other games. Yes, you do choose a home server which is used the the World Vs World PvP(Which I have yet to try looks awesome) but you can "Guest" on any server you want so you can play with whoever. They have also put the Structured PvP into its own instance so there are always matches to be played with little to no waiting. Lastly probably the greatest thing about Guild Wars 2 is that I don't feel rushed to play the game. Since there is no gear grind there is time to explore and simply take my time.

Overall I believe that Guild Wars 2 is a step in the right direction that removes a lot of the barriers that people have with other games. Much like Everquest was an improvement over Ultima Online and WoW was an improvement over Everquest I believe that Guild Wars 2 is the next step in MMOs. I also believe that Guild Wars 2 marks the change from a subscription based model to a buy the box play the game model that has already been around for a while with other Free to Play games. This is especially the cane with Star Wars the Old Republic switching to a free to play model in the near future I can also see the Secret World switching as the subscriptions numbers drop because the options for free games are amazing.

I hope to post some more info on my progress through Guild Wars 2 as I can.