The hype has me by my huevos. So now I'm thinking about getting it, but I was wondering for the fans of the game; does it feel like you're playing in a world or does it feel like you're playing a game? I don't really know how to explain it, but it's that feeling you get where you forget everything beyond the borders of your computer monitor. Do you feel like you can just run around and bullshit for the day or does it feel like you're supposed to be constantly doing something?

Edit: This question could be more aimed at the people who have that experience or have had that experience at one point in their mmo gaming. Like @Marino and his Everquest adventures. Is there a chance I can get that experience in this game?

Edit2: are there useless things to do like sit in chairs?

@Jams said:

Do you feel like you can just run around and bullshit for the day

Simply put, yes. It's unfortunate you missed out on the beta, but at least release is extremely soon. I'm sure a bunch of the GW2 board regulars will be in here very soon, but we ended up just goofing around and jumping from activity to activity quite frequently. I think the world is pretty immersive, honestly.

I'm not at all opposed to having legitimate criticism, but I truly can't leverage any in this regard. There is plenty to do just from what I've seen in the beta, and that's before everything is even implemented. It is totally plausible to me that people will have days disappear before their eyes without them even realizing it.

@Subjugation said:

It is totally plausible to me that people will have days disappear before their eyes without them even realizing it.

The betas did this to some of us, and those were for only three days.

There's always something to do, but I never felt like I should have been doing something when I wasn't. Pretty much all of my time in the beta/stress tests was spent bullshiting, but some would call that "adventuring".

The dynamic events make the world feel very much alive, since there's always multiple things going on all over, and some of those things chain to others, so once you help out in an event beofre you know it you'll find yourself ending up all across the map having done this 3 events-wide adventure with other players ending in a big boss fight. On that front it definitely doesn't feel gamey.

There are things called Renown Hearts which deep down are closer to the sort of list-checking quests in MMOs that make you say "oh yeah I'm playing a game sort of way", but they're given enough context to mask that, and you aren't given an actual checklist, only a list of things you can choose to do to make an NPC happy. What you choose to do is up to you. These Renown Heart NPCs are also supposedly to go down in frequency the higher your level, as you move to more hostile territory and become more comfortable with the dynamic even system.

Then there's crafting, activities (bar fights, some sort of keg rugby thing, some robot chess, etc.), or just social stuff. Finally there's your personal story where you'll get the breadth of the narrative. The stories are interesting and have enough opportunity for choices to keep it engaging, though I've only played the first 2 story threads.

Even WvW feels like you're in a world, where you'll get reports from other players of keeps and supply lines under attack, only to get there and find a massive battle between players taking place. Structured PvP is the gamey part of GW2. Arena based PvP with capture and hold modes, that sort of thing.

@TheHT said:

Then there's crafting, activities (bar fights, some sort of keg rugby thing, some robot chess, etc.), or just social stuff. Finally there's your personal story where you'll get the breadth of the narrative. The stories are interesting and have enough opportunity for choices to keep it engaging, though I've only played the first 2 story threads.

WHAT?! There are really bar fights and robot chess? All the game's missing now is fishing.

@Jams:Apparently, I haven't played in any bar fight but the devs mentioned it before. I have seen robot chess though. It's not exactly chess, but you're moving robots to take out other robots and they can only move a certain amount of squares, etc There's a video of it on Gamespot. The Asura starting area video.

Don't know if they have fishing-rod fishing, but you're free to dive into the water yourself and harpoon/spear fish. Speaking of which, whenever you dive underwater, your weapon chages to either a harpoon, trident, or a spear, and your weapon skills all change to give you new underwater only skills. You're also naturally able to move up and down to avoid attacks or flank enemies while underwater, and don't have to worry about any oxygen meter too. There are events that take place underwater, and even some PvP maps with underwater areas.

@Jams said:

does it feel like you're playing in a world or does it feel like you're playing a game? I don't really know how to explain it, but it's that feeling you get where you forget everything beyond the borders of your computer monitor. Do you feel like you can just run around and bullshit for the day or does it feel like you're supposed to be constantly doing something?

This is actually one of the things that I like the most about the game. It's sort of the biggest revelation for me as a non-PVPer. The PVE experience feels a lot like Skyrim without an active quest. You're just walk around the world, exploring, and stuff happens around you. You get pulled into small little adventures with groups of people that you don't know. Hell, even if you've got a set objective that you want to accomplish, you can still very easily get distracted with silly little events that pull you off into a crazy new part of the world.

--

I'll give you an example. I was just hanging out with a friend in a Skritt (rat-people) infested cave. He was helping out an NPC with something (heart), and I was taking advantage of the terrain by mining a bunch of nodes in the area for crafting later. We were just chatting away doing our thing when a little event popped up to repair a broken Asura portal that the Skritt has disassembled and hoarded into the cave. I figure: sure, I'll do this silly thing--I'm in here anyway, why not collect these portal pieces? After 5 minutes of exploring this cave and snatching up a stack of portal pieces, I walked back to this Asura and gave her my share. She wrapped up and I got my big chunk of XP for contributing. Started harvesting some plants outside the cave and looted my way around the world, picking up vegetables and stuff.

10 minutes later I get my friend screaming to come back to the cave. I head back and the Skritt are attacking the stache of Asura portal materials that the Asura were working with. Here we are, two people fighting off an army of little rat people atop a small hill with a giant Asura portal behind us. People from all over the area started to come in to help us out. Within 2 minutes we had 15 people defending the portal from these Skritt invaders. After a fair number of losses, they stopped attacking.

By the time we rezzed all the dead, I turned around and noticed something: during this attack, the Asura managed to repair the portal. Curious, I wanted to see if it actually did anything (or was just a cosmetic 'you changed the world' thing). I end up inside the side of a mountain, transported from my lush forests into a volcanic laboratory. The Asura engineers and my friend join me on the other side as I hail him through. This then lead into a huge expedition of 2-3 events throughout this laboratory with golems reactivating, crazy bosses and completely stunning scenery that I had never seen before. It was a really fantastic little adventure that all began with a bit of social mining inside a nondescript cave.

I had been through that area maybe 4 times previously. Never once have I seen that portal open, even when I spent a significant amount of time there. It was just really special that the stars aligned and I got to see that it was actually functioning.

@project343 said:

@Jams said:

does it feel like you're playing in a world or does it feel like you're playing a game? I don't really know how to explain it, but it's that feeling you get where you forget everything beyond the borders of your computer monitor. Do you feel like you can just run around and bullshit for the day or does it feel like you're supposed to be constantly doing something?

This is actually one of the things that I like the most about the game. It's sort of the biggest revelation for me as a non-PVPer. The PVE experience feels a lot like Skyrim without an active quest. You're just walk around the world, exploring, and stuff happens around you. You get pulled into small little adventures with groups of people that you don't know. Hell, even if you've got a set objective that you want to accomplish, you can still very easily get distracted with silly little events that pull you off into a crazy new part of the world.

--

I'll give you an example. I was just hanging out with a friend in a Skritt (rat-people) infested cave. He was helping out an NPC with something (heart), and I was taking advantage of the terrain by mining a bunch of nodes in the area for crafting later. We were just chatting away doing our thing when a little event popped up to repair a broken Asura portal that the Skritt has disassembled and hoarded into the cave. I figure: sure, I'll do this silly thing--I'm in here anyway, why not collect these portal pieces? After 5 minutes of exploring this cave and snatching up a stack of portal pieces, I walked back to this Asura and gave her my share. She wrapped up and I got my big chunk of XP for contributing. Started harvesting some plants outside the cave and looted my way around the world, picking up vegetables and stuff.

10 minutes later I get my friend screaming to come back to the cave. I head back and the Skritt are attacking the stache of Asura portal materials that the Asura were working with. Here we are, two people fighting off an army of little rat people atop a small hill with a giant Asura portal behind us. People from all over the area started to come in to help us out. Within 2 minutes we had 15 people defending the portal from these Skritt invaders. After a fair number of losses, they stopped attacking.

By the time we rezzed all the dead, I turned around and noticed something: during this attack, the Asura managed to repair the portal. Curious, I wanted to see if it actually did anything (or was just a cosmetic 'you changed the world' thing). I end up inside the side of a mountain, transported from my lush forests into a volcanic laboratory. The Asura engineers and my friend join me on the other side as I hail him through. This then lead into a huge expedition of 2-3 events throughout this laboratory with golems reactivating, crazy bosses and completely stunning scenery that I had never seen before. It was a really fantastic little adventure that all began with a bit of social mining inside a nondescript cave.

I had been through that area maybe 4 times previously. Never once have I seen that portal open, even when I spent a significant amount of time there. It was just really special that the stars aligned and I got to see that it was actually functioning.

Just got the game and I'm installing it now. Thanks for the post.

@Jams said:

Just got the game and I'm installing it now. Thanks for the post.

Good. I think the biggest departure in the PVE territory that makes this game special is the distinct lack of objectives. It transforms the gameplay experience from a checklist to genuine exploration. Welcome aboard, and don't forget to add yourself to the Lincoln Force guild doc! :)

@Jams said:

@TheHT said:

Then there's crafting, activities (bar fights, some sort of keg rugby thing, some robot chess, etc.), or just social stuff. Finally there's your personal story where you'll get the breadth of the narrative. The stories are interesting and have enough opportunity for choices to keep it engaging, though I've only played the first 2 story threads.

WHAT?! There are really bar fights and robot chess? All the game's missing now is fishing.

i think i read somewhere or heard on gamebreaker fishing might be added later.....