I love achievements. When I can’t figure out what I want to do in a game I can look at the list of achievements and usually find something that appeals to me. Since I’m playing Guild Wars 2 on a newer account that has very little completed, I decided to spend some quiet time chipping away at map completion.
As an example of how very little I have completed on this account – I may have four level 80 characters but they certainly didn’t get there from leveling the traditional way. Rather, I crafted my way to 80. I have 5% world map completion on my main – and of course I want to slowly change that.
I started out easy. I never know when I’m going to have to jump away from the PC so I wanted to begin in a city. I haven’t explored much of Lion’s Arch since the destruction (and rebuilding) after Living Season 1, so I decided that was as good a place as any. I had about 50% of the map already unlocked, waypoints visited and two vista. It took less than an hour to complete the rest, and gave me a nice 2% bump to my overall world map completion.
The best part is that it was completely relaxing and very immersive. I lost myself in the music of the zone, and just bounced around. It was exactly what I wanted to do with my time, and I’m really glad that I did. Was it character progression? Not in the traditional sense of the word, but I did get a little experience for getting it done (cities give very little, I’ve found) and again, it was fun and just what I needed. Next I’m headed to Gendarran Fields, where I have 12% of the map completed. I expect this one will take me a bit longer (hearts, so many hearts) but again it’s a fairly relaxing pace where I can just run around doing my thing and not have to focus too much.
Now I just have to find the time..
As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!