What a fantastic video, it's amazing to see how far Guild Wars 2 has come since its release, almost a decade ago now! This was super enjoyable for me even as a relatively new player, this franchise's journey must mean so much more for people who have been around since the beginning, as you've shown. Thank you for documenting this experience!

When I saw you pick up the Factions box again, I reflexively tried to log in thinking its game session again. 😂

Thanks. Nice to see how it started for those of us who weren't there.

I'd honestly be curious to hear you reminisce about the Heart of Thorns announcement/Beta/arrival (and perhaps the Living Seasons leading up to it ?) I remember that's when I started playing roughly, before the expac got announced, and it is the reason why I'm still playing the game today.

I loved watching this! I’ve only been playing gw2 for a little over a year, but it’s also changed my life for the better- I’ve met some very important friends through this game! Please keep sharing your stories!

Thank you for this awesome video! I wish I knew about gw2 back then so I could've been apart of the hype, but even though I was a bit late to the party by a good number of years, I love seeing this history documented from someone who was experiencing it all as it happened! (also I tend to get hyped at any of your videos tbh

Sure is nice that i got recommended this video right as we are about to celebrate the 10th anniversary, with my oldest character, my first one at that, being almost 7 years old as well (6 years, 11 months ago. On may 23, 2015). Truly astonishing how fast time has passed...

Nostalgia mode fully engaged - thank you for great video and some proper memory feels

Your videos are always well researched. You can tell you put a lot of effort in these videos. Keep it up, loving it! :D

thanks for showing me a time I never experienced

I really enjoyed this video Laranity! I started playing GW2 right after it’s launch so I never got a chance to play GW1. It was great to see how far the game has come since then and your enthusiasm is infectious. I wish you the best with your channel and I’ve already begun to share your videos and people love them! Looking forward to more! 😊

When April 1 came out the commando showed up; People lost their proverbial minds. It was an April fools joke but, we did get the engineer and we did get the dead eye for the assassin/thief. =b

Wow, thank you so much for this video. Amazing job!

Thank You for making this Video! :) Enjoyed! :) 💜😍

Great video really takes me back.

This was great. I even got a bit emotional and i haven't experienced any of that, i started when HoT released.

Nice video Lara, I enjoyed watching it.

really loved this video. i lived the wait of Gw2 release but only for like 5 month i never played gw1 but was super hyped for gw2 i remember having dreams about what class i should pick when it releases. i dont think i ever been hyped about anything since. thanks for sharing this it took me back.

I absolutely am glad I scrolled all the way down here. I started playing gw2 during COVID. I was interested in MMOs after I watched SAO and wanted to try out MMOs. My first one was SWTOR. I didn’t really like it. My friends told me we should try GW2. At first we didn’t know what to do and the other two ended up letting it go. I kept playing and three years later I can’t stop. I’ve taken breaks but I always come back. I used to be shy about embracing the nerdiness that came along with gw2. But the more I play and learn the complexities of this game and the more KZfaqrs like you that I watch, the happier I am embracing that side of myself.

Growing with Guild Wars was amazing, I got an account freely from a colleague of my father's at the time. The memories, the friends and bonds, the wonderful fights and exploration. I still tear up at the soundtrack and mention of past characters and all! Guild Wars 2 was and still is fantastic, the open world was a wonderful surprise, I struggled at first in 2012 (went for Norn because of Jora and Ele because it was my main in GW1) and took a break 🤣 now I am up to date since a few years and very very happy and forever learning 💛 I get so nostalgic hearing you talk about it as well so thank you for putting warmth and love in my heart with your video 😊 It is also interesting to see how closely you followed the journey towards GW2 because I didn't do it myself 😂 I do remember my best friend at the time being hyped for Charr while I was still in the "we fought them so much I don't like them" mindset but thankfully it changed (My personal biggest flex is my limited Nightfall edition 😏).

Yo this is so good! Hope you try out more of this format

love this video, nostalgia hits hard

I didnt play GW1 previously, but I jumped on the hype train for GW2 in 2009 and was super hooked. Same way as you, browsed the guru forums everyday for 3 years, bought and played through all the GW1 campaigns. My hype was beyond anything previously experienced and after release I played for a few months, put over 500 hours into the game, but at the time the content was sparse and I quit the game and havent touched it for more than 6 years. Only a little over a year ago I started to play again and I absolutely love it again.

Thank you very much @Laranity such a beautiful video

I clearly remember the slow unveil of each profession on the official GW2 website, sending the page to friends I payed GW1 with, being super excited thinking at the new characters we would have made! Thanks for the nostalgia trip Lara! :)

Loved the video! Nostalgia vibe

Saw this video and started it, first thing I said was I know you. I couldn't say where but I must have stumbled on your twitch channel or someone raided your channel that I was watching. Enjoyed hearing your memories of GW2, I also loved GW1.

Awesome video Lara!

Thanks for this history Absolutely priceless Well done Laranity ! You are the best

I remember from the beta, it was EXTREMELY dark at night! It was hard to see 😂 Luckily they fixed that!

loved the vid and the nostalgia is real hahaha

Bringing back wonderful memories for all of us OG players. So much has changed, for better or worse.

This video is soooo nostalgic!! Thank you so much! \ ;--; / !!!

I could listen to you talk about anything gw related !

And I hope the next Expansion will be incredible. Canta for the run!!! woohoo

God that old logo takes me back.

Fail camera noob 😂 Great video Lara, always a pleasure to hear the elders 😛 of the game reminiscing about the start of it all! Btw, i guess we all agree we need your in depth opinions video about the new elites, once they're announced LaranityHype ❤️

Very enlightening summary, I learned a lot! Would love to see more videos like this laranityHype Edit: Fail camera noob

Yeah about the armor thing, I don't have a source but I'm pretty certain I've heard/read that as well. Might be able to find info about it in old Snebzor video's haha,.I remember watching a ton of those back in the day so they might hold the answer somewhere as he was my prime source for GW2 information back then.

Wow, I wasn't even aware of Guild Wars 2 for most of that time period. But it's great to see what it was like for the community

1:40 oh man that PC Gamer issue. i remember it all too well. i kept it in my school bag to reread it on the daily while imagining what the game might be like.

oh yeah gamescom I still remember seeing that on some stream or so there were guildwars2 and I think wildstar side by side and the communites were doing a shout battle for their game that was amazing to watch sadly somehow cant find it anywhere on youtube the first "open" closed betas where also hype arenanet streamed a counter till they reached 1 million subscribers for getting a key to that closed beta I think I played in 3 of them all with different ending events which were really cool

What a great retrospective! I remember being so swept up in the hype train, especially the manifesto video, the tequatl playtest videos, and the design explanations of stuff GW2 was "doing differently from other MMOs". I couldn't convince my parents to pay for a monthly subscription, so I had cut my teeth instead on F2P WoW knockoffs and they had soured my enjoyment of the genre. GW2 was not only something I could get my parents to buy (or just buy myself by that point) but also promised to do away with a lot of the annoying crud that other MMOs slavishly adhered to in an attempt to be the WoW-killer. I'm in the same boat as you that GW2 has connected me with a lovely guild that has meant so much to me over the years.

Hahaha Great i was there aswell Playing the whole time like 3 days only on gw2 we probably even met there :D

I miss the original Guild Wars. I just want to have fun giving rush carries to newbies again and getting a heartly "thank you" as reward. Guild Wars 2 was such a bummer for me and everyone, I played with.

I enjoyed it, I started this game 3 years ago and now Im curious about GW1. I was in college back then and cant afford to play yet. xD

very cool

I remember Anet saying they will "NEVER add mounts" and "you dont need mounts to travel, there is waypoints everywhere" pretty much every Q&A for half a decade. Then they added mounts...

They hyped dungeons so much back at launch lol

I had played Gw1 and meet friends online from this game. I had remembered watching what new profession would be released. I had bought the collectors edition box witch came with both the tin box and Ritlock. I still have both of them and the original box I had ordered from GameStop. and I really hope we get to go to Cantha. Myself and the Raid group enjoy your videos. sincerely Kenage Achalarus

Don't worry my friend, I've posted a positive comment on your old gameplay video. I hope it works somehow as a way to show my apreciation. I really like the way you love this game.

The game released on my birthday!

played gw1 from "factions" till ~1 after the release of "eye of the north". When gw2 came out there were many other returning gw1 players i played with, but most left within the first month. From like 20ppl we were down to 2. Did you had a similar experience?

good job

Sjeng here! Limburgse Jagers still exist!

Nvr got into guild wars but I been curious to trying it

Fail camera noob ❤️

Ah the old days when you got your gaming news from paperback!

I remember obsessing over the beta videos, especially the ones from Totalbiscuit (RIP) who praised the demo while playing the "Battle Cow" race lol kzfaq.info/get/bejne/itSGeqiKrKucmKc.html

i remember the open beta events where everyone could play for 3 hours

Please also make a video about reminiscing Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire announcement.

Nightfall is third, I think there was a mistake in the beginning of the video

Crazy thought, Half your life has been around GW2. Turns out thats not a bad thing!

Where did Silver go?

I play gw1 for 15y. Do you play some gw1, Lara?

Did anyone else change their gw1 UI to match the GW2 UI when they first saw the demo? Because I did 😂

Guild wars 2 is #1

As a solo player of the game, this kinda vids make me feel kinda sad...when was the last time I felt engaged in a game I wonder😕

Limburgse Jagers

god those gw1 icons really take me back so much soul into them while gw2 icons are poop

Hey, early days of gw2 and significant changes vids? especially Lion's arch and living story 1? Le oof.

Guild Wars 1 .....

Dammit! you just reminded me how bad GW2 is compared to GW1 and how sad I was when I realised they will never actually "fix" GW2 to be as good.

The Launch of GW2 was one of the most fun mmorpg experiences I've ever had, especially the first Mad King event. Everything went downhill after that though with The Lost Shores release. I always try to get back in once a while but the game tries way too hard to be Final Fantasy, not to mention they did the Ascalonians dirty. The lore and storytelling compared to the original Guild Wars is simply atrocious. Hopefully Cantha will steer the franchise in the right direction.

What do you say about the all time bad-balancing in gw2 pvp? The game never was balanced, there is always an op-meta, new elitespecs are always extreme op...upcoming eltitespecs will be extreme op...and so on....

i remember being insanely hyped about being able to play a Charr but that was met with disappointment when i realized how neutered they were in GW2, i had hopes for bangar uniting the legions but then they all became dragon trash mobs rip Charr, you were cool in GW1