And so I fell for #guildwars2 . Been playing it for a few days now, so I don't have a clear view on everything yet, although there's a lot of things (mostly praise) I'd like to say about it.
First of all, the pricing model. Unlike most MMO's, this one uses a pay once, play forever model: you buy the game, and play it (and all of its updates) indefinitly. There is a microtransaction model attached to it, but unlike for example Lotro, there's no pressure whatsoever to ever employ it. The result is that there is no pressure to play it, there's a possibility to be really casual about it. Unlike for example TSW, where if you pay for a month, you better play as much as possible that month !
The overall gameplay, questing, moving through the world, choosing to explore, fight, quest, craft, etc has been done beautifully. I've never played GW1 so I don't know how much has been taken from it, but I've never seen anything quite like it.
There is only one quest: the Story. Like for example SWTOR or TSW or even Lotro this is the Thing That Matters in the world. There is not much progression beyong the Story, even though you can level.
The side quests are not quests at all. They are hotspots where 'things have to be done'. What things ? Well, that's up to you: there's a list of tasks to do when you are in the hotspot, and each little task you actually do contributes to the overall 'quest completion'. It is very well possible to progress through these hotspots without fighting at all. The tasks can be very, very mundane, like feeding the animals or planting crops. This is something I liked in Lotro: even though your hero has his own story, the places and people you pass by each have their own priorities, and your hero is just a minor helping detail... call it a slice of humble pie every now and then.
Aside from the side quests, there are frequent events (mostly connected to the hotspots) in which everybody who happens to be nearby can assist. A town comes under attack, an NPC has to be escorted, ... These clearly call back to the Public Quest system of WAR, or the invasions of Rift, only this system has been very well implemented.
Moving through the world works mainly with teleportation. This I think is a pity, because it makes the world feel smaller. On the other hand, exploring the part of the world you're in is ingrained in the game as a challenge: for each part of the world, you're expected to find all teleportation points, points of general interest, panorama's (each with their own little cinematic of you enjoying the view) and skill challenge points. The last two are especially entertaining for MMO Explorer types:
A panorama is in some cases 'hidden' on the top of a building or natural structure, which begs the challenge of getting there. A skill challenge encompasses finding something, fighting something, or getting somewhere.
(The skill challenge of getting on top of a floating rock/tree thing at the start of the Sylvari map still bugs me endlessly... I always seem to jump wrong)
The fighting system is completely new to me. The challenge of 'getting to know your class' has effectively become a mission impossible. Not only do the fighting skills depend on which kind of weapon you're wielding, but also the combination of weapons and even whether you wield a weapon in your main or offhand makes the skillbar look completely different.
Aside from that there are skillpoints and traitpoints that you invest to get a plethora of other skills that have nothing to do with the weapon you wield, but with your own playstyle.
Fighting at itself is a little more challenging. You can swing your sword, but if there is no enemy closeby, you don't hit anything. Also, if you are out of range of something you only notice this after you've activated your expensive, several-tens-of-seconds-cooldown skill. More fighting skills are inherently area-of-effect, meaning that including neutral mobs in a fight becomes more of a hazard.
And then there is fighting while underwater (with different weapons of course), fighting while defeated (a last-ditched effort to get back on your feet), fighting with objects that happen to lay around the hotspot, or in forms that happen to be important to the hotspot.
Crafting is something which I didn't really explore fully, yet. I did see however they took a page from the WAR crafting system, by allowing experimentation with ingredients.
And finally there are the little details which speak of an MMO which took a lot of lessons from other succesful or failed MMO's: access to your bank while crafting, simultaneous harvesting from a resource node, no more reading walls of text for quests, voiceovers when they matter, scouts introducing you to the problems (hotspots) at hand, being able to help/revive other players without being grouped, automatic downlevelling to the region you're in so no more one-shotting when helping low-level friends, and a lot of other little things which make the experience all the more enjoyable.
The big downside to Guildwars, for me, is the Big Story behind it. Up until now, I haven't really seen it and for my characters their Story quest is not really a big one. Also, the GW fantasy universe sometimes looks too sci-fi for me, with the portals, teleporters, robots... it's like the world writers don't know whether they want fantasy, steampunk, or outright sci-fi.
I like a spun-out, consequent universe behind a gaming world: the Warcraft World (pre-TBC), Lord of the Rings, Warhammer, Cthulhu, Star Wars, ... I can't seem to connect to Guildwars, and that's a pity. But maybe it'll get better as I keep on playing it casually.
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