My first read on this is to be pretty excited; the new dailies system looks interesting, more accessible skyscale will be good for newer players, etc.
My first read on this is to be pretty excited; the new dailies system looks interesting, more accessible skyscale will be good for newer players, etc.
Oh man, this takes me back. I’m going to share my favorite GW2 memory, because I can.
I was playing my main (a thief), wandering around some zone or another. I happened upon a cool looking elite and tried to take it, but it was too powerful and I had to retreat. After I did so, I noticed another player arrive and also go for the elite, and decided I could jump in with him and get the loot too.
We killed it, I don’t remember the loot, but what I do remember is the strange portal opening…
We enter, and are teleported to a bizarre other region. We regroup, and spend some time exploring before accidentally finding a portal out of the place and being teleported to random spots in the region.
We immediately /pm each other and regroup at the elite, both eager to find what’s really in that other place. Cue 2+ hours of exploration, solving jumping puzzles, and just camaraderie with this stranger I’d never met exploring a beautiful and mystifying area. Finally we reach the prize, a big chest of loot and an achievement, and teleport out.
I never saw them again, and I don’t need to. It was such an amazing experience, just raw human connection and exploration, happening by pure coincidence in a game I played exclusively solo. I enjoyed a lot of things about GW2, but that one memory will always stick in my mind, and I haven’t found an experience like that since
Ah, the Hidden Garden. Yeah, that one’s pretty magical. I think if there’s one thing I really like about GW2 (aside from the ungodly amount of content), it’s how organically it pushes folks to play together. Speaking as a serial soloer, I’ve spent more time playing with other folks on GW2 than in any other game, simply because you can so easily bump into folks doing map events and just get swept up in whatever’s going on.
People are also just generally nice too, which is lovely.
GW2 is great that way. I think Anet really sat down and thought, what are the areas of friction that make people play against each other instead of with each other, and sought to design the game to be as cooperative as possible. From the very first hour of playing it I already could feel the difference.