GW2 Thank God I’m Not An Achiever

8 November, 2013. 485 words.

I was reading a post on Why I Game which talked about lackluster enthusiasm for GW2, and I started to feel really bad for him. I cannot imagine what it’s like to feel such a compulsion to obtain achievements that you’re willing to log tons of game time doing things that aren’t fun.

I certainly agree about the lack of enthusiasm for GW2. This Tower of Nightmares update is more of the same. Log in, kill lots of stuff, get some achievements, log out. Really nothing to look forward to except watching your achievment progress bar go from zero to full, and that’s not fun for me at all. I mean I guess there’s loot too, but I’m 80 so what do I need loot for? A new “finishing move?” I’m not doing PvP and it’s not like there are any raids to do.

The Living Story wasn’t doing anything for me, so I dropped into WvW to see all the excitement there and … there’s no excitement there. My server Blackgate is apparently good at this WvW thing, so they were pretty much crushing the opposition and held a big chunk of the map already. I ran around all by myself in a vast empty wasteland for a while until I came across a Ruins.

I expertly stood in the white circle until it turned blue, capturing it for my team, and I felt good about contributing to the war effort, even though I have no idea what a Ruins is or why it was supposed to be captured. It looked empty … you know, like a ruins. Then I came across a Yak and walked with it back to the castle and got a Silver Medal for my efforts.

I noticed a Vista nearby so I climbed up and got that. There was a whole map full of vistas and POIs that I could have gotten (weird since I thought I’d already gotten most of them), but instead I logged out to go play a game that was actually fun. I’m extremely thankful that I’m not someone who needs to get achievements, or I would be dying from the repetitive, time-consuming labor required to get all of the Living World achievements. I had a hard time just getting through one stage of an achievement for killing like 25 Toxic Alliance people.

It’s really a shame because GW2 is awesome in many ways, and I want to want to play it, but there is simply nothing to do in there that hasn’t already been done. (Caveat: I still haven’t done any dungeons; it’s the only thing I can look forward to, but to be honest, the LFG tool doesn’t look all that great.) I can’t see myself doing much more in GW2 unless new classes are introduced, or the level cap is expanded, or new abilities are added.

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