Meanwhile in Tyria…
Guild Wars 2, it’s the MMOrpg we choose to play after playing this genre of online game for over 25 years. We played World of Warcraft from launch until December 2024. There were a few breaks from the game over 20 years, but it was our primary mmorpg until we cancelled our subscription last December. In May of 2024, we reinstalled Guild Wars 2 as a game to play while waiting for new content to drop in WoW. Neither of us had played GW2 in years but returning was flawless. We didn’t have to catch up, even though several expansions were released over the years. It has a unique art style as well and we love the ability to create unique looks for our characters. It’s the first game where we don’t find 50 other players with a cookie cutter appearance. It’s great.
Last year with the release of “The Janthir Wilds”, Arenanet added there version of housing and we’re so stoked for the future of this addition. Everyone gets a homestead. There are no lotteries for housing plots. You don’t have to grind for months to obtain enough game currency to purchase a home. It’s rewarded to you as you play through the story of this expansion. Housing is something we love. We love it so much that I made sure to create a video of our FC (Free Company a.k.a. guild) house that we had when we played FFXIV.
Our Free Company home in FFXIV. It cost tens of millions of Gil (the currency in the game) to obtain and craft all the items, plus hours to decorate, but Nykonis (my hubby and gaming partner) and I loved every minute of it. But in gaming, sometimes you move on to new adventures. We returned to WoW after a year break and then moved to Guild Wars 2, where we’ve both agreed to stay permanently. :D
No more subscription games for us because we’ve grown tired of being let down. Don’t get me wrong, we have so many good memories from our time in World of Warcraft: guilds we built, PvP and PvE, the friends we met along the way. The times we spent with our sons adventuring and thousands of hours of laughter. Some couples bowl. This couple plays video games.
There’s so much to do in Guild Wars 2 that you can quickly become overwhelmed when trying to do “all the things.” Husband has been working on obtaining all the resource nodes available for his homestead. Today, he completed that and is only missing a couple that he will get from holiday seasons. He’s also gone down the long and very expensive (in-game currency folks… no US dollars!) road that is crafting legendary weapons and armor. I’ve been working on the title of Grandmaster Chef as well as the achievement Gourmet, and getting all professions to max level. Together, we worked on getting the Skyscale flying mount and it was worth the effort because it makes map completion easier and much faster. Map completion of core Tyria still eludes me but I’ve doubled-down and try to complete a zone or half a zone every few days. I have a very vibrant life outside of gaming as well as a job. Long gone are the days when we’d sit and game for the entire day.
With so much to do in the game that interests me, I’m also eagerly awaiting the launch of the next expansion, Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity. Here’s the teaser trailer that just dropped. We’re excited for the new zone, new elite specs and the new homestead!! There’s so much more than what I listed and both hubby and I are now waiting to check out the newest elite specs so that we can change a few alts around.
There’s one thing that would make playing this game even better…
If we could convince other family members to join us in GW2. Our oldest no longer plays games like GW2 and WoW. Our middle son bounces between World of Warcraft retail and Classic. Our nephew, sticks to World of Warcraft and Elder Scrolls Online. Unfortunately, we’re committed to never returning to WoW, especially when GW2 provides top tier gaming with no monthly subscription.
Game on!
Nim
