In Everquest 1 I had my warrior to start but eventually switched and stayed on an enchanter. In Star Wars Galaxies I had my dancer and no other characters. In World of Warcraft I bounced around a lot in the first year till I found my niche and then stayed with being a Holy Priest for almost 5 years. And finally, in Everquest 2 I've been a Fury (and still am) for 2 ½ years with no other alts that I play.
Not hard to see the trend there, I find what I like best and never switch up in any game I play for a long time. It's always been that way...until now.
Right now I have my main (Elementalist) at level 80 with still plenty more to do on her and I love playing her but I'm also actively leveling a warrior, a thief, and a ranger. I've never felt the need, want or compulsion to make alts after I find my niche and any alts I do make are then left on a shelf to become dusty and neglected... poor little unloved alts.
I think the best part of it for me has been that no matter how many times I've been through the starting zones, and I've been through them a lot (Caledon: 4, Queensdale: 3, Wayfarer Hills: 4, Metrica Province: 1, Ashford: 2), it's different. Every time I go through these zones the only repetitive part for me is the hearts. Even if the dynamic events are the same they don't happen the way they did on other characters and I've seen events on some that I have never seen on others. That alone has made it worth it to go through again and again.
So what about you, readers, do you like making alts in Guild Wars 2 more or less than other games? Do you find the content tedious and exhausting after the first character or do you relish finding new events and undiscovered nooks you didn't see the first time through?
I'm on my fourth character and starting to find it tedious. On the positive side I really appreciate the fact that it's a big world and I don't have to go to the same old levelling area each time. I also appreciate that I don't have an endless back and forth turning in quests only to be sent back in the same direction again. Both of those were issues with Rift when I played it and it's good not to see it here. But too often the renown hearts are dull.
ReplyDeleteSince I'm a completionist at heart I'd much rather see dynamic events which are more frequent and varied and just have level appropriate karma vendors dotted around that you can spend your points with any time. Maybe I should just WvW - my guild does plenty of that so I needn't go alone, but I've never been a pvp'er so I'm reluctant to dip my toes in.
Hey there, thanks for the comment. :) Since this post I've gotten my Thief to 80, and made steady progress on a Mesmer and Warrior and I am definitely familiar now with the tediousness that begins to creep in. I've begun to feel like I'm burning out on the game even though I still enjoy it greatly simply because I really don't want to do such 'n such zone for what feels like the billionth time but my sense of completion drives me for that Gold Star of 100% Map Completion.
DeleteThe thing that's keeping me going right now though is the content patches that ANet has been putting out each month and while it hasn't been without incident or some disappointment, they genuinely seem to want to give us as much free content as possible to expand our game-play and not just dull Renown Hearts but new dynamic events. I do wish for and look forward to the Live Team adding in more events to add variation to existing zones for those like you and I that may have seen all current events several times.
And as for WvW, if you haven't tried it yet, I definitely suggest giving it a try. I'm not a PvP'er myself by any means but they've really done a lot to make even a non-PvP'er like myself feel somewhat comfortable in WvW. It has a very pronounced PvE feel to it with loot, dynamic events, normal mobs, gathering nodes, etc and the fact that you can't see the name of the attacking players makes them feel more impersonal, like a particularly smart AI that just happens to be pretty good at kicking your butt, or just mine rather, as I'm a squishy cloth glass cannon that falls over if glared at for two seconds. *cough* But yeah, it just doesn't feel like PvP really and they did very well in capturing the feel of RvR warfare from Dark Age of Camelot.