Why GW2?

That really is the question.  There have been so many MMOs as of late that have failed.  There have been a variety of reasons for each disaster; from lack of polish, rushed delivery, laziness, lack of beta testing, poor design, and the list goes on and on.

Guild Wars 2 has promised many things, and time will tell if ArenaNet can really deliver.

The short-list of reasons why you should play after the break:



1.  No Holy-Trinity.  This is the standard tank, healer, DPS trinity that has been utilized in almost all recent themepark MMOs.  There is a debate in the community on whether there is still a trinity, in which instead of the traditional layout, you instead have based on support, control, and damage.  What is for sure, is that to survive in GW2, you will have to heal yourself, control your enemies, support your allies, all the while damaging those that seek your imminent demise.

2.  An open world.  Yes, this game unlike its prequel features an open-world in which you can play with others.  Each zone is said to be hand-crafted and unique, time will tell how truly beautiful each zone is.

3.  WvWvW.  Three realms fighting in 4 maps each holding roughly 500 people in a battle that lasts 2 weeks.  Yes there is matchmaking, in which similar ranked realms will fight realms with similar rankings.  There are giant keeps, NPCs, main and side objectives, siege weapons, and giant, giant fights.  If you are into PvP, you must check this out. You can level up 1-80 exclusively through WvW, and receive gear for it.

4.  Dynamic Events.  On the PvE side of things, ArenaNet has largely done away with the quest giver with an exclamation mark over his head.  If there are centaurs attacking a village, you will see them attacking the village.  They aren't going to be standing around statically, waiting for you to attack them.  These are quests that will proceed with or without you, and many have success/failure options which can cascade out around the zone.

5. Dynamic Grouping.   If two people are in the same area, participating in a similar event, guess what?  You two can work together without partying.  There is no such thing as kill stealing, and each newcomer really just adds to the community.  The events will scale to the number of players, thus, you don't have to worry about the game becoming too easy.  The more players, the harder/more enemies you will have to fight to achieve success!

6.  Dynamic Scaling.  What if those two people mentioned above are different levels you ask? Well, let's just say they already thought of that.  If you are above the level of the content, you will be scaled down to the appropriate level.  You can no longer run through starting areas, one-shotting everything.  This is great for people who want to play with friends and family, because no matter the level difference, you all can participate in an event.  Note:  You can not scale up.

Note: There are several other major points I would like to mention, but I think this will do for the night.  Please note that I have not detailed extensively on these points and each will probably be mentioned at some point in their own unique, respective blog post with much more information.