Guilt Wars

For the last days I've tried to take part at one of the most anticipated adventures since the Moon landing: Guild Wars 2.

I've got to admit that I wasn't very well informed about the game. Sure, I played Guild Wars 1 and yes, it didn't fascinated me very much. Less than that, I played it two times for about one hour.
But, to come back to GW2, I decided to learn about the game, the mechanics, the idea, the concept, etc. and so I took part at the stress tests.

Guild Wars 2 makes many things different, although it's the same meal but with more salt. In short: The idea of a dynamic world is good, the world well designed. But the rest is the same: same kind of quests, same "turn off brain and play"-mode to gain level, same concept of a health bar, abilities bar and so on.
This isn't bad, some well proofed concepts shouldn't be ignored - or ever tried to build a car with cornered wheels?

No, that's all ok. My problem with Guild Wars 2 is a little bit more complex and I don't know how to explain. To put the focus more on the symptoms than the disease: I am not able to light the fire. I get no passion, no "must play"-feeling. I have to convince myself to log in and I fail on the launcher.

But I don't know: why? Is it because I am totally destroyed by World of Warcraft? I am WoWized? Is it the shop which killed my feelings towards Lord of the Rings Online? Or is it the fault of the numerous other MMOs which have been released during the last four years?

Perhaps - and I have to put emphasis on "perhaps" - it's because of a combination of "setting" and "story".

Setting...
... because I've got problems with those manga style games. Very thin, very tall, big eyes. The female characters look like children with almost nothing on - some like it, for me it feels strange and "not right", but that's just "my personal non-taste".
Another important "setting"-aspect, although it's almost "game mechanics", is the class system. I don't get into it, I really loved the concept of the healer-tank-dps-trinity. Now everyone can do everything and as a matter of fact, everyone is expected to do everything. That's one of the reasons I never really liked hybrid classes - I tried to play _one_ role, never got into more than one as I wasn't able and willing to change dynamically during fights.

Story... 
... because I fell asleep during the introduction. "Oh, look, the city is burning - let's help. Oh, uh, something hit me, where am I? Lost? Ok, let's find a way out. Look, there are some friends and look, they are in trouble".
Really? Honestly? There was more story in Portal - and I'm talking about the first part. And yes, when it comes to the story topic everyone knows that almost every story has been told in any way before - even Star Wars isn't really "new".
Maybe others love the story. Sure, there are also people sleeping away during Star Trek. But the story doesn't get me.


My problem is that I bought the game. And, more than that I wanted to play with my guild.
But at the moment it's hard work to log in and I keep failing which makes me feel guilty towards my guild and friends there. I like the big community feeling and sure, it's good to meet all of those faces from WoW again. But I came into the game and found nothing to do. Jump here, jump there... trigger an event, tried to understand through the fog of confusion what the hell is happening on the screen...
But still no "Hey, play me, play me"-feeling when staring at the GW2 icon. It's more like a "they are waiting and you let them down? Again? Remember Star Wars!".

After all those own voices inside my head raising I decided to break with Guild Wars 2 for a while and make something completely different. To be honest, I am watching Sopranos. It's not only not a game, it's also something which has absolutely nothing to do with any computer related stuff at all. I am just watching movies on my computer...
Damn, feeling so old...

But I take it as a cure. As a possibility to re-join the guild after a complete tabula rasa. Perhaps this will help me to get into GW2. I hope so. Not for the game, not for the spent bucks. But for the guild, the friends there, the community.