Guild Wars 2: 5 reasons you’re bored – Reason 1

Recently, ArenaNet announced it sold its 3 millionth copy of Guild Wars 2. By any measure it’s a successful MMO and even appears likely to stake out a position as one of the most enduring MMOs of all time. It has a lot of content, whether it’s regular dungeons or fractals or PvP or leveling new characters or jumping puzzles or chasing achievements, there’s a staggering amount of content.

And, yet.. A good portion of your guild barely shows up, anymore, do they? And what happened to all the people who your in-game friends list? Where are they?

And let’s face it, it’s not just them.  You know it’s you, too. Come on, admit it. You know you’d rather be trapped in the men’s room at an all-you-can eat burrito contest than grind out another fractal level.

Yeps, you’ve officially hit your grind point, that point in an MMO when the NGE (new game energy) wears off and what was once thrilling and exciting is now outright boring.

Why are you so bored? For the rest of the week we’ll be looking at just that – why you and so many others have gotten bored with Guild Wars 2.

1. You’re bored with the story

If you get bored with the endgame of an MMO, you can always entertain yourself by leveling another character. Leveling in GW2 is a lot of fun. There are so many ways to level – daily events, crafting, dungeons and your story. Unfortunately, no one wants to do their story more than once.

In the beginning your story is all about you. You learn about your background, your character grows in the context of the story and you join one of the three orders of Tyrian. What you do, the choices you make, give you the feeling you’re steering the course of your character’s development. You’re making the decisions that affect your character’s growth.

Then Mr. Salad Head butts into your story.

Also known as Trahearne, once he enters the story, your story is over. You start playing Robin to his Batman. The focus of the story shifts to Trahearne; you’re just along for the ride.

Not only is the guy a buzzkill, he’s also a moron. Oh, sure, you’ll be told how freakin brilliant he is, but he’s a moron. Why? Because he leads you into one ambush after another. The fish head admiral from Star Wars has nothing on this guy when it comes to obvious traps. Um, Trahearne, do you think being surrounded by undead might be a bad idea?

Evidently, ArenaNet fired the writers after you get inducted into your chosen order and Trahearne sprouts up in your story. After that, the main plot element consists almost entirely of walking into one mob ambush after another, and Trahearne blithely leading the way, every time.

And, just in case you think you might be able to stomach the tiresome Trahearne, again, there’s zero chance you’ll want to do the final quest, again. When you get to it, you’re all excited – finally, you get to kill the dragon. Sadly, it’s one endless mob after another endless mob. And just when you think there can’t be any more endless mobs – Surprise! –  here come another bazillion mobs.

As the final insult to this sad finale, you never get the feeling you actually kill the dragon. Yeah, he dies, but it feels incredibly anti-climatic.

Going off and leveling an alt, is what a lot of people do when they get bored with the endgame. but who wants to do their storyline in GW2, again? No one.

Is it any wonder you’re bored?

[Tomorrow: Reason 2 – you’re bored with PvP]