(GW) Feeling Left Out?
It has been noted that I make far more World of Warcraft posts than Guild Wars ones. The reasons are probably already laid out in some of my comparisons in the past, but I guess I've heard it just enough now to address directly. And there are multiple reasons that are mixed, scattered, and cross over one another. That makes it hard for me to sort out, but I guess I shall try anyway.
Probably the main point: WoW is more involving to me.
The game world's lore is built upon games I've previously played and, though told mostly through 511-character pages of text from quest-givers, seems broader and richer. The professions, resources, and in-game auction house give lots of things to do in the game other than talking to people of finding things to kill. Boss fights stand out from the norm, and usually involve some sort of strategy beyond just using your character's attacks. At my level of play, there is always something to strive for, usually in the form of gear upgrades.
Even outside the game, I find entertainment in watching videos from Project Lore and reading news/questions/analysis on sites like WoWInsider.
So I think it makes sense that I'm more inclined to talk about the game I am more interested in and spend more time with.
On top of that, I simply see less to talk about in GW. I could list quests completed each weekend, but they usually go by pretty fast, and I don't go into that much detail with WoW either. 99% of the bosses in the game are simply standard enemies with glowy auras and higher level/stats that give a temporary morale boost (and possibly a skill worth capturing) when killed. I have yet to figure out how anyone can effectively tank in the game, and I can't remember any encounter that really required much strategy beyond "kill a certain thing first and try not to let them get past here."
It probably doesn't help that I don't know my GW guildmates as well as my WoW ones. Part of that may simply be time played, to be honest.
In WoW, characters are distinct. I have four or five alts on the guild list myself, though only one is ever not greyed out. I've been confused before about which are alts of which characters, but at least you can make little guild notes "so-and-so's alt" to clear that up. In GW, your characters are all in the same guild and whichever is active replaces the last one active in the roster. That keeps a cleaner list, but it doesn't help me know which Factions character is who from Prophecies, since we all changed characters. One is pretty obvious to me. One is pretty distinct in mannerisms. The others are usually a challenge for me to pick out in the virtual equivalent of "putting a name to a face."
So I feel less guild community there. We joined an alliance, too, which seemed sudden and rather mystified me. After I turned off the alliance channel to avoid spam, however, it's basically meant nothing to how the game plays for me.
And while I'm one of the more progression-advanced members of our WoW guild, I'm not in a position to be lending any advice on play to my guildmates in GW.
Finishing missions - which, I might add, we haven't done in a few weeks - doesn't usually feel like a huge accomplishment. And without measurable goals, that doesn't give me a lot to comment on unless something unusual strikes me. I'm not really sure what else to say...
That said, my ritualist did hit level 20 (maximum) on Sunday. He has max-rating armor, as previously mentioned. I still haven't found a focussed build that strongly appeals. Dedicated healing still looks like a chore to me and actual spirit-wrangling still seems against our group play style (though a skill I can't get until a good bit deeper into the game would enable me to summon existing spirits to my location, apparently). So I remain with a rather scattered build that probably isn't as good as it could be, but does let me do things. Thusfar, it doesn't seem to have been a problem.
Probably the main point: WoW is more involving to me.
The game world's lore is built upon games I've previously played and, though told mostly through 511-character pages of text from quest-givers, seems broader and richer. The professions, resources, and in-game auction house give lots of things to do in the game other than talking to people of finding things to kill. Boss fights stand out from the norm, and usually involve some sort of strategy beyond just using your character's attacks. At my level of play, there is always something to strive for, usually in the form of gear upgrades.
Even outside the game, I find entertainment in watching videos from Project Lore and reading news/questions/analysis on sites like WoWInsider.
So I think it makes sense that I'm more inclined to talk about the game I am more interested in and spend more time with.
On top of that, I simply see less to talk about in GW. I could list quests completed each weekend, but they usually go by pretty fast, and I don't go into that much detail with WoW either. 99% of the bosses in the game are simply standard enemies with glowy auras and higher level/stats that give a temporary morale boost (and possibly a skill worth capturing) when killed. I have yet to figure out how anyone can effectively tank in the game, and I can't remember any encounter that really required much strategy beyond "kill a certain thing first and try not to let them get past here."
It probably doesn't help that I don't know my GW guildmates as well as my WoW ones. Part of that may simply be time played, to be honest.
In WoW, characters are distinct. I have four or five alts on the guild list myself, though only one is ever not greyed out. I've been confused before about which are alts of which characters, but at least you can make little guild notes "so-and-so's alt" to clear that up. In GW, your characters are all in the same guild and whichever is active replaces the last one active in the roster. That keeps a cleaner list, but it doesn't help me know which Factions character is who from Prophecies, since we all changed characters. One is pretty obvious to me. One is pretty distinct in mannerisms. The others are usually a challenge for me to pick out in the virtual equivalent of "putting a name to a face."
So I feel less guild community there. We joined an alliance, too, which seemed sudden and rather mystified me. After I turned off the alliance channel to avoid spam, however, it's basically meant nothing to how the game plays for me.
And while I'm one of the more progression-advanced members of our WoW guild, I'm not in a position to be lending any advice on play to my guildmates in GW.
Finishing missions - which, I might add, we haven't done in a few weeks - doesn't usually feel like a huge accomplishment. And without measurable goals, that doesn't give me a lot to comment on unless something unusual strikes me. I'm not really sure what else to say...
That said, my ritualist did hit level 20 (maximum) on Sunday. He has max-rating armor, as previously mentioned. I still haven't found a focussed build that strongly appeals. Dedicated healing still looks like a chore to me and actual spirit-wrangling still seems against our group play style (though a skill I can't get until a good bit deeper into the game would enable me to summon existing spirits to my location, apparently). So I remain with a rather scattered build that probably isn't as good as it could be, but does let me do things. Thusfar, it doesn't seem to have been a problem.
I finally got around to reinstalling GW myself... But still can't really get into playing it... It just feels like so much "fluff" when compared to more fleshed out games like WoW and EQ. O.o Or even, for the sake of the nonce, FFXI. o.o;;
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