It feels great to finally leave WoW after so many years of screaming at it.
*rubs hands together* Right! Time to get started with Guild Wars 2!
Launching is simple. Just asked for my email and password, and if I agreed to the EULA. Also had a thing showing the current news of the game.
When I got in, I was immediately greeted by the server list. Found the server mfish plays. It gives a warning about selecting this as “your personal home”, and that if I wish to change, I would have to pay.
Interesting. So, you can’t have chars on multiple servers. I never did when I played WoW, so it’s no biggy.
Selecting that, goes to the character select screen. Hmm. This is nothing like what I’ve been used to. I wanted to be able to set my graphics first. Notice that it’s set to full screen, but at least it matches my resolution.
Anyway, I thought of playing as a Human Ranger. As, well… you know, Benie is? So why not? Hopefully the name is available.
Oh wow. These options. It’s definitely like what I saw; The Sims 3’s CAS system in this game. Did my best to make a me… and.. well, I did my best. I’ll take a screenshot of him later.
I’m now able to choose one of three pets; a bear, a cat, and a.. what the fuck is that thing? A slug?! It’s called a “Drake”, so I think “A dragon? That looks nothing like a dragon”. Still went with it.
Now I’m having to personalize my char’s story. I can first choose that I’m Charming, that I have dignity, or that I’m ferocious…. NONE of these are me! Where’s “coward”? Where’s “lazy”? Mmmm… I think I’m going to go with Ferocious, as it might help my slug-dragon..thing.
Now, I need to pick where I was born. I can pick that I was born… on the Streets, by common folk(my parents?), or among the nobility(my non-existent rich parents).
Obviously, ‘by common folk’ would be me…. except it says “I work”, which.. ahaha.. no. .. Ehh. I’ll go with it. It says I have a sister and a brother too, which clearly I do not.
… Ohh boy. The next one is just too good. Now it asks what my greatest regret was. None of these are me. I don’t see “I joined WoW”, “I dropped out of school”, or “I didn’t move out of my parents house”…which would be all three for me. :/
My choices are, that I never met my real parents, I never recovered my sister’s body, or… oh wow. I turned down joining the circus?! What?! Is this game humoring me? I would… I would NEVER even consider joining, the circus! Let alone “turned down the opportunity of joining the circus”!
I… oh wow. I think I’m going to go with “Never met my real parents”.
And the last one before I wrap this up and name my char, what God I was blessed with at a young age. In Guild Wars 2, there used to be five gods for the Humans, but they abandoned them for some reason.
Looking over them, I’m going to pick ‘Dwayna’, as she reminds me somewhat of Alexstrasza in WoW. God of healing, air, and life. And Alexstrasza is the Aspect of Life (the one that oversees your birth).
And this is what I picked for my first char in Guild Wars 2. Just need to sign my name, and… “Benie is in use” DAMNIT!! D:< And I can't use numbers for some reason. I guess I'll have to do what I did for my alts, years ago in WoW.
And so, I named myself 'Beniee', and got to see a short video of 'my' life, and how I went to a town called 'Shaemoor' to defend it from Centaurs.
And now I'm ingame! Already, I notice I can't zoom in and out like I could WoW, and it's giving me a movement tutorial. Thankfully I can set my settings.
Ok, I can zoom in and out, but it's not through the mouse. It's my Page Up/Down buttons.
Got to play around with the combat system, and also notice that killed mobs don't drop loot. Odd. Might want to talk to mfish about this.
Just completed the tutorial missions and saved the place. Now I can free roam. There's one interesting quest that also kind of makes me facepalm. Getting XP for… entertaining cows. I did this, and I'm still going "wtf.."
.
Right, so this is what I've learned so far;
-There is no server time day/night cycle. However, it does use realtime shadows.
-At Level 5 and beyond, enemies get aggro. Actually like this, as it helps players new to MMOs get a handle on things.
-You can have a first and a last name.
-The NPC talk system is sort of like Skyrim. You can be given several conversation options.
-Special events happen out of the blue, and can affect how things work depending on your actions.
-Questing isn't like WoW at all. There's no "kill x mobs". Infact… it's like doing an Apexis daily. There's a bar you fill up to complete the quest. Not sure how this isn't grindy?
-Questing is also sort of like the bonus objectives in WoD, where you just go there and you're given a list of things to do. Also, a "quest" is a heart. After completing all of them, you got to seek out a scout to reveal more. Are you sure this isn't grindy?
-Level 5, is when you have control of your pet. Similar to WoW (back with the changes in Cata).
-The teleporting system is very simple, and I like it. You can click on any diamond icon, and accept the copper payment. You don't even have to be near a teleport area.
-Class trainers are in the game, but claim I "need a little more experience" before they can help me.
-There's a type of Auction House, called the 'Black Lion Trading Post'. It seems to just link up to an online store, where you can purchase stuff for real money. Go figure.
-You seem to be able to dye your weapons and gear. Interesting.
-In capital cities (like the Human city of Divinity's Reach that I'm in), there's some areas of the city that are known as instances. These are player instances (basically what mfish told me).
-When shutting the game off or logging, the game immediately quits without question. Love that.
Here's what I don't know (yet);
-How to craft, and where you go to craft.
-If you can name your pet.
-If your pet actually grows up and gets larger.
-How to tame new pets.
-Death punishment (losing your stuff/XP loss/corpse walk)?
-AFK system? I'm not exactly seeing one yet.
-Trying to figure out the chat system. Why am I locked to PMing a person, and why NPC chat isn't showing up anymore.
-Where mfish is on the server. He can teach me these things.