Guild Wars 2

Great game. But to log in under existing account you right click the game in your library, properties, the paste "-provider Portal" minus the " into it then launch options line, you can log in using your old account.

It's a fun game, and if you want to use your ArenaNet account, just add "-provider Portal" to the launch options. I've played this game on and off for years now, and I just now realized that I can use my original ArenaNet account, so I don't have to start over.

Guild Wars 2 is one of the best MMORPGs I’ve ever played. From the start, you’re immersed in a beautifully crafted world full of history, diverse cultures, and fascinating stories. The combat system is fluid, allowing you to mix and match skills for dynamic, action-packed fights.
The unique dynamic event system is a standout feature, as it means that you never know what might happen next—no two playthroughs feel the same. The game also doesn’t require a subscription, which is a massive bonus for anyone hesitant about ongoing costs. The variety of classes, races, and expansion packs gives players a nearly infinite amount of content to explore. Whether you’re focused on PvE, PvP, or world-versus-world combat, Guild Wars 2 delivers a rewarding experience. Highly recommended for anyone who loves a rich, immersive MMORPG!

The base game is 100% free to play. The expansions go on sale regularly. There is no monthly fee. No upwards progression that makes any of the previous content obsolete. No reason not to try.

Do you like MMOs but hate the monthly payment subscription?
Play Guild Wars 2, pay once, and enjoy the game for the rest of your life.
Do you like WoW but hate that your character is useless after each new expansion, you need constantly grind gear and the game simply doesn't respect your time?
Play Guild Wars 2, after you max your character, it leans entirely on quality content, horizontal progression, and new mechanics.
Do you like ESO, but hate the clunky combat system?
Play Guild Wars 2, it has one of the best and the most fluid combat systems among MMOs.
Do you like SWToR, but hate the lack of character build customization?
Play Guild Wars 2, each character can be customized for several roles, which can be additionally enhanced with 3 elite specializations for each profession.
Do you already like Guild Wars 2, but you are worried that the game has 10 years and is too old?
Try New World, after that, it won't be a problem for you.
And you don't risk anything, the base game is available for free :)

Guild Wars 2 is *probably* the most Free-to-play and casual friendly MMO currently available on the market and is by far the easiest MMO to get into and play.
By far the easiest way to explain why GW2 is so much better(in my opinion) than other MMO's is to just compare them and see what GW2 does differently and better.
*The entire base game of GW2 is entirely Free-to-play, outside of a few QOL features like being able to mail money, there is no base game restrictions for New/F2P players. You have access to the entire OG story, you can get to max level, you have access to the ENTIRE base game map, etc.
*There is no class role restrictions or really any dedicated class role, there is no such thing as a Dedicated Tank, Healer, or DPS in GW2. Every class can do everything and while some classes are better at those things, you don't NEED to play say, a Heavy Armor class to tank; infact one of the beefiest classes is the Necromancer, a LIGHT armor class.
*GW2 has a Horizontal Progression compared to Vertical Progression other MMO's employ, what this basically means is that NO OLD CONTENT/GEAR/EQUIPMENT/ABILITIES BECOMES OBSOLETE. There is no such thing as a "Gear Treadmill" in Guild Wars 2, you can get to level 80(max level) buy an exotic armor set(the 3rd highest level armor) off the in-game market and that gear is and will ALWAYS be valid FOREVER. While there is armor levels above exotic(Ascended and Legendary), they are in NO-WAY required to do 95% of the games late game content, including expansion content. Ascended armors only purpose is 1 type of content and Legendary armors only purpose is Drip and a QoL improvement since you can alter the armors stat line whenever you want. Also armor stats stop improving at Ascended, Legendary is the same exact armor in terms of stats as Ascended and the difference between Exotic and Ascended armor is minimal, around a 12.5% stat increase.
(TLDR: There is no reason to grind armor/weapons once you have level 80 Exotic armor outside of a small numbers boost, ability to do a single late game activity, and drip; and that Exotic armor will ALWAYS be usable for new content.)
*Guild Wars 2 is DIRT CHEAP compared to other MMO's(that I will not name directly), outside of the entire base game being free, all of Guild Wars 2 expansions(as of the time of this review) only cost $100. While $100 may seem like a big number, if you compare this price to the average yearly subscription of other MMO's + new expansions it is, like I said, dirt cheap; which leads into the next reasoning.
*GUILD WARS 2 HAS NO SUBSCRIPTION OR SUBSCRIPTION REQUIREMENT. There is no monthly or yearly subscription in order to play Guild Wars 2, you play the base game for 100% free, and the expansions are a 1 time purchase for ALL CONTENT THEY CONTAIN. Which is the primary reason why GW2 is so cheap and new player friendly, there is no $12 or $15 monthly payment you have to cough up in order to just ACCESS the full game. At $12.99(the average for most year long subscriptions) a month it adds up to $155 a year, this is NOT including the purchase of new expansions which average around $40. There is no potential worry about not getting your monthly moneys worth out of GW2, if you decide you're bored and leave for a few months you can just come back and pick it up whenever you want with no worries you're burning cash or having to cancel a subscription.
All of these reasons is still only scratching the tip of the iceberg when it comes to GW2 compared to other MMO's, these are only the the big reasons I can remember off the top of my head.
If an MMO with a entirely F2P base game with no level locking, no subscription requirement, no "Gear Treadmill", and all new content only requiring a single one time purchase of $30 to access the ENTIRE expansion doesn't sound like an enticing MMO, then frankly nothing will.

Guildwars 2 extended review by a long term player
Before i write this review i do want to point out, while steam tells i have about 700 hours of in game hours my actual in game hours are close to 8000 hours this is because i did transit to the steam launcher since it has been released and steam won't show the hours you have prior to using steam.
As a long term player i thought i just wanted to share my honest thoughts about gw2, both the positive parts about the game and the negative parts of the game for the people who considering to buy gw2.
Let's start with the positive parts
1. No subscription fee. Gw2 does not have any subscription based model, there is a free trail where you can play the base game, as it original came out back in 2012 with some limitations. Then after you can buy the expansions, which will really open up the game! That being said, the game really starts to kick off from the very 1st expansion!
2. No p2w. While the game has no sub fee, it also doesn't have any p2w in the game. The game does however has a cosmetic shop, where you can buy cosmetics and quality of life items which can be bought both with money and with in game gold!
3. Horizontal progression. Gw2 has horizontal progression, with some vertical progression elements involved. The way how this game works, the level cap is level 80, which is pretty quickly to achieve. This level cap has remained the same from launch. Now the vertical progression elements i am talking about are the so called mastery's. With mastery's you unlock features like gliding, raptor jumping, autoloot etc. With this you 'level' past 80.
4. Best open world in any mmorpg. Gw2 has a very good open world system, and i think even the most unique to gw2. The open world is filled random events, world bosses and meta events, jumping puzzles etc! meta events are map wide events where a large group works together to the final boss in the map, requiring you to split up and complete certain objectives!
5. Best mount system in any mmorpg. Currently there are 9 different type of mounts in gw2. While this doesn't sound like a lot, every mount is unique and it will come with its unique ability's useful for all sorts of stuff in the game and each will come with a stamina bar so it doesn't feel very flat. 1 example is the griffon, this mount allows you to glide trough the air and go really fast like a jet! Dragonriding in wow is inspired from this specific mount and of the skyscale!
6. No gear grind (although optional options for gear grind!). In gw2 once you hit max level usually you have almost full exotic gear. With a full set of exotic gear you can pretty much so any content in the game! Although you have ascended (this has 5% better stats and is the best stat in the game) and there is also legendary gear, that allows you to swap stats on the fly, you can equip it on every character on your account at the same time and you can swap skins for free (you can unlock transmutation shards in the game to swap skins)
7. Build craft. Gw2 its build craft is quite unique, you start off with choosing 1 of the 9 professions, however later on you can spec into 3 different elite specialisations, which essentially make you have 36 different classes in the game (if you count core profession as well). Each elite specialisation comes with a new weapon, however this weapon also comes with different skills. Your tree is build out of 3 parts, with the 3th one the elite specialisation.
8. Instanced pve. Gw2 has raids, strikes, fractals and dungeons as instanced content. Raids are 10 man and usually 3 - 4 bosses per raid wing and each raid wing has its own unique story involved. So far we have 7 raid wings in the game, with an 8th raid wing coming in the new expansion which is huge, because we had no new raid wing for 5 years! Strikes are 10 man fights with just 1 boss in a room, repurposed from the story bosses (like trails in ffxiv). Currently strikes have 2 - 3 difficulty settings, normal, challange mode and (our latest strike) legendary mode. For wing 8 it will get the same treatment, with 3 difficulty settings. The legendary mode of the latest strike was pretty much on pair with mythic raids / savage raids of wow and ffxiv the race to world 1st took 9 days to complete! We also have dungeons and fractals, fractals are pretty much scaling dungeons with 4 tier, with each tier having a higher difficulty.
9. pvp & wvw (open world PvP). Gw2 has 2 different types of pvp. We have wvw (World vs World) and Pvp. Lets start with wvw first, wvw is pretty much server vs server vs server. This has its separate instance to the open world pve so that pve players don't have to deal with pvp. wvw is pretty unique, it has a lot of map wide objectives involved (like castles you can capture, keeps, towers etc) its really good if you are into that type of content! The pvp in this game is also pretty good i would even say 1 of if not the best pvp in any mmorpg, you can enter from level 2!
10. Alt friendly. Gw2 is a very alt friendly mmo and its not hard at all to level any character to levelcap (or you use leveltomes unlocked in the game!)
11. The community. Gw2 has a very good and friendly community! You will find some toxic players sometimes like any mmorpg, but overall the community is good!
12. Fasion. Gw2 has a very good fashion system! (skins and mounts have 4 color channels!)
13. housing (comming soon in the new expansion!). Housing is not yet in the game, i thought i wanted to add it to the review because we have seen video's on it, and as both a ffxiv and gw2 player i think this housing system might be the best implementation of housing in any mmorpg!
Now lets start on the negative parts
Let's start off on the instanced content. While there are a wide variety of fights that you can do, because of the horizontal progression, there are also negative parts. As of the current expansion, which did last for 1 year we had 2 strike missions in a full year, and 1 fractal (so 1 dungeon essentially). Compared to some other mmorpg's this is really not a lot. For our next expansion though we get 1 raid wing, which has 3 bosses in it so that is a improvement. Another negative or positive depending on your playstyle while gw2 does have fractals, with a tier system, it doesn't come with any sort of leaderboard. Some players might look for that type of gameplay (like mythic+ in wow). Another downside is because of the lack of gear progression, players can feel like there is nothing left to do after achieving full legendary gear. This is both a positive and negative though, but i thought for some players this might be a big negative. That being said, it will take quite a while to achieve that! Another downside is for players who are long term players, there might not be enough content to keep us engaged with the game. Now as for our current expansion, arenanet tried to address this by going for yearly, smaller scale expansions with quarterly updates, i think it did only partly succeed. The quarterly updates just weren't long enough (in my opinion). That being said though, the next expansion, from what we have seen off it so far it looks miles ahead of our current one, so i do have faith this one is going to be better, but if its enough content (for me) that remains to be seen. For a new player that does take a while though before you get to that point, if ever depending on how much you play.
As a summary, if i had to give a number, i would rate gw2 a solid 8/10, i think gw2 does a lot of things good compared to any other mmorpg, but it also has some negatives, which why i don't count it as a 10/10 despite it being my favourite mmorpg! I do recommend gw2 highly for players that look for a casual mmorpg, but also for players that are into endgame content and have less time to play! Although gw2 can also be perfect for players that look for a side mmo for example in between patches in wow or ffxiv!