Guild Wars 2

Kal Spiro.9745:

Fiontar.4695:

Yeni.3507:

Fiontar.4695:

Sorin.4310:

This thread isn’t feedback. It’s “this is my opinion and I’m taking it as factual for everyone”.

Time to close?

I’ve never claimed my opinion as universal. This is the most serious form of feedback that can be offered, the honest criticism of someone who actually appreciates what this game is at it’s core, what the Manifesto meant for the genre and the ways this year has been a major disappointment. Kowtowing benefits no one.

That few on the other side can do more than dismiss or deflect, rather than add to the conversation isn’t a failing of the critics of the current direction of the game.

That’s the last I’ll say to those who wish this conversation would just go away. People are very welcome to offer their opinion to the discussion, though it would be most appreciated if it’s in a form that actually adds to the discussion.

Maybe you don’t see the Manifesto as anything special? Maybe you prefer this form of content to an evolution of the game world via Dynamic Event content? Maybe you prefer a check list to grind for rewards to free form exploration and immersion in the game world? We don’t know where you are coming from, other than that you just don’t want to hear criticism of the game and wish we would just stop talking.

Everyone’s a critic, but I am not seeing where you are coming from. Maybe it is just me but all I read is “I don’t like this QQ”

Constructive criticism is welcome, but rage QQ is not.

I’ve been pretty detailed in where I’m coming from. Some people get it, agree or not. Other can’t, don’t or won’t grasp the reasons many are frustrated. I know most of the developers will understand what is being said and likely a good portion of it will be seen as valid, if stinging, criticism.

The temptation to add “double que” to any post should be the first clue that maybe a bit more thought should be given before entering a conversation.

If people appreciate the ways the game is departing from the Manifesto and prefer adventure by checklist over the great potential the game and the manifesto offered us, I’d be happy to hear about it. Maybe Anet just has a better finger on the pulse of the players and has decided that the Manifesto and the core game design were a mistake to be rectified.

I’d be sad to have that be the conclusion of these difficult and critical discussions, but it would still be worth knowing.

OR, maybe they’ve been bumbling through a year worth of content learning how to fine tune their design? Maybe they’ve been developing a handful of events they can bring back again and again, just like in GW1 and many other MMOs before now. Maybe, as they have specifically stated not even a month ago, from this point on they will be working toward providing content that will expand and develop the world we play in, not just provide oneshots with no meaning after the fact.

Seriously, we got more out of the developers, even through temporary content, in one year than I’ve seen from many MMOs in their lifetime. They’ve been trying things out, laying the groundwork, and now they are in a position, that they weren’t a year ago, to run with it and actually make things happen.

I don’t disagree with your point. I would say, though, that if we don’t express our opinions about what they do right and, more importantly, what they are doing wrong, then the period of bumbling and time wasted on failed experiments grows exponentially.

The past can be forgiven if they actually get back on track. For me, this event just represents a further departure from the foundation of the game, the goals of the Manifesto and an ongoing waste of resources on the wrong kind of content.

Gibson.4036:

Euryon.9248:

Instead of going on and on and on and on about the “Manifesto” and what your personal ideals about what the game “should be”, why not just take it at face value? Most of your complaint is centered around stuff from a year ago instead of just evaluating the current content for what it is.

And if you don’t like the current content, don’t play it and instead go play the stuff you do like. And if there isn’t anything you do like, why are you wasting your time complaining here instead of finding some other game?

A company talks about their vision for a product.
You think that they are on track to deliver that vision.
Over time, it seems like they are getting off track.

Which makes more sense:

1) Let the company know that you think they are getting off track, that you really love where they were headed, and where they were, but not where they seem to be now.

or

2) Go buy a product from a company that doesn’t even have that vision.

Or to put it numerically,

If they said they were going for 100% what you wanted, started off with 80%, and seem to be slipping down to 50%, does it make sense to express it to the company, or go find someone delivering 2%?

As much as people like to rant that ANet doesn’t listen to people on the forums, there seem to be changes that reflect the feedback made here. So why is it a waste of time?

Thank you. You boiled it down more concisely than I ever could.

The game is still better than anything currently out there, but it’s getting worse, rather than better and is drifting further away from it’s established ideals, rather than closer.

I’m not venting before storming off, never to return. I’m expressing frustrated concerns because I love the game and it’s core vision and hope that honest criticism may wake someone up to the possibility that “yes, we are off track and maybe it’s time to return to our core principles”.

This is the BEST content update so far. You know why? It’s challenging. It took me a day
to do it, but I finally beat Liadri. All of the bosses are tough, but fair and the game needs more of this.

There should have been a Wall of Text warning… (WoT) :p

EchenSketch.9142:

This is the BEST content update so far. You know why? It’s challenging. It took me a day
to do it, but I finally beat Liadri. All of the bosses are tough, but fair and the game needs more of this.

Challenge is great, and sorely needed. But delivered as a series of “wait in line to ride the ride”, contextless encounters?

if you were here pre-nerf in the zone, this was the greatest event ever.

post-nerf, everything sucks in there.

Sorry Martin. It felt obligatory.

I don’t often PvE, but I do like this update for the gauntlet. Not every player is leet überpro so having content you can adjust the difficulty of by yourself (using gambits etc) is interesting to me.

I like the 1v1 setup as you don’t have to rely on others to get it done, yet you can still take a group up there and make an event of it watching and helping each other from the wings.

Wallet is nice too.

I’m honestly angry at this point.
Last year the game started off terrific. Who cares if all the WoW kiddies got bored within the first 3 weeks and ran back as soon as their Pandas&Pokemon expansion came out? That’s the way it should have stayed. Not slowly being contorted into a l00t treadmill ever since Fractals and everything else in that vein were forced into it.

Gw1 kept simple. We’d get a mini for each Alt, and all the Cupcakes we could find.
And we could STACK those cupcakes with whatever hell other Consumes we wanted.

I want that back. Not this …. Zynga iPad App that not even Dhuum would curse upon us…

Definitely my favorite update so far. Absolutely love what ANet is doing! Can’t wait to see what they bring to the table in Year 2.

I agree with the original poster, it’s been almost one year and we havent really seen any progression from the original story about the dragons. Isn’t Guild Wars 2 about the awakening of the dragons? and its races joining forces together to stop its corruption? what happened after we killed zhaitan and his minions? what’s the story about that? did they just disappear out of nowhere and the Pact decided “ok lets wrap this up guys lets go home and chill, perhaps celebrate and kitten. lets sit tight and panic when the next dragons comes.” LOL! Honestly what happened to the story? After we killed zhaitan all I remember that MAKE SENSE to me and I could narrate on top of my head is that the races of Tyria found a way to join forces together and stop a dragon.

After that though, I cannot grasp the story anymore. To me it feels like these living story events are just a way for us players to just forget about the dragons, Anet is pretty much throwing these bi weekly patch to just forget about the story and to just celebrate, do puzzles, do this to get this! I do love these updates, but if you ask a player to tell the story of Guild Wars 2? Im not sure how many people could actually summarize what the story of Guild Wars 2 so far and compare to Guild Wars 1 lore? gawd… the difference is like night and day.

I am still hoping that one of the original Guild Wars 1 devs step up and actually give us a real story to do or updates on the up coming patch. I pray that happen really.

Meriem.3504:

I think his point his that almost every living story feels like a holiday event rather then an actual event. The Molten Alliance for example felt like an actual battle though I still think it could of been done better with some of the world stuff going on. Everything else feels like a holiday with some bad guys. The Aetherblade Pirates just feel like party crashers and not a real threat. They are like clowns gone wrong.

They did say that they wanted to get the holiday rotation down before they moved on to more permanent content. Which i would expect to be much more epic. And Why would theifs crash expensive parties it is where the loot is. What I’m surrprised at is they never attack inforce only one ship at a time.

Not all new content is for everyone. Arenanet tries new things with all these minigames, and living world updates. If you don’t like some of it, skip it…..it’s OPTIONAL. Go do what you like. If you don’t like any of it, please just leave the game. The rest of the community won’t mind your absense, we promise. I’m happy with a smaller, tighter community. Please just don’t come back in 2 weeks and complain about the next update. It gets redundant. I personally loved the group arena at the bottom with all the bosses and loot!

If you have a legit concern that can be addressed, great…expecially bugs. That is helpful and constructive. The reason for the different currency is to reward the people who played that content. It makes some weapons/skins more “valuable”. To combine it all to one, kind of defeats that purpose, and I’m surprised that this is not obvious to everyone. I would like to go back and spend a different token on a jade weapon, but I also like the fact that those tokens were more rare. I feel more pride in sporting my jade weapon.

Also for those who did not realize this: Arenanet is making it ALOT easier to get a Legendary. They are doing almost everything but handing it to you. We get WvW badges from achievement chests. The new patch is an attempt to get players to play other dungeons so that everyone can get the tokens they need for their specific legendary. Dailys lets you get karma jugs, which lets you get Orrian chests, which give you shards and lodestones. Soon we will be able to craft the precursor. Laurels lets you get the mats you need or more shards. Karma is now account bound. All this makes it 10x easier to get a Lengendary now than before. You don’t need a large guild to do any of this….but if you do, you are allowed to join more than one guild! …and I would be happy to throw you an invite.

IGN- Kirikaze Shadowform

ilr.9675:

I’m honestly angry at this point.
Last year the game started off terrific. Who cares if all the WoW kiddies got bored within the first 3 weeks and ran back as soon as their Pandas&Pokemon expansion came out? That’s the way it should have stayed. Not slowly being contorted into a l00t treadmill ever since Fractals and everything else in that vein were forced into it.

Gw1 kept simple. We’d get a mini for each Alt, and all the Cupcakes we could find.
And we could STACK those cupcakes with whatever hell other Consumes we wanted.

I want that back. Not this …. Zynga iPad App that not even Dhuum would curse upon us…

…. What are you even talking about?

I agree with the OP. While I kinda enjoy being actually able to get mats and loot and feel some sort of progression for once in the past 6 months, it’s nothing what I originally signed up for. The time-gating and monetization of the game are starting to get in way of the actual fun factor.

A lot of you guys, including Fiontar, are misinterpreting that Manifesto video to a rather hilarious extent. ANet has delivered on their promises. They may not have delivered in a way that you (for whatever reason) thought they would, but they have delivered exactly what product they were advertising.

Here’s a challenge: Instead of simply stating that they’re “drifting from the Manifesto”, how about you provide examples of how they’re doing that? I fail to see how anything in this or any other update contradicts the promises made in that video.

Fiontar.4695:

Stone.6751:

OP – Your post made much more sense after I looked at every other post you have made. :P

Well, I hope you went all the way back to launch, because I’ve been a massive fan for a very long time. On one other site, I must have made close to 3,000 largely positive posts supporting the game from late 2010 until early 2013.

You are right though, if you actually are familiar with all my posts historically, this post will probably make a lot more sense to you.

I agree with you most of the time. I’ve even seen you defend the game on other sites like mmorpg.com. Just ignore the haters. They don’t know your post history and how you’ve defended GW2 from the real haters.

I also agree with you so much on how the Living Story concept has ruined GW2. It started off so amazing, then it devolved into a vapid waste of content that is temporary.

It’s actually quite sad, since GW2 had so much potential to actually be a living world with changing dynamic events, and a changing world, where zones would change based on mobs, climate, or destruction.

Instead, we get temporary fluff, such as, quaggan backpacks and RNG weapon skins. I’ve also mentioned that the major reason Living Story fails, is because of the rewards. They are not worth striving for.

Yea i don’t like it either OP. I thought i would, was even looking forward to some arena fighting tbh, but after seeing the senseless over the top mobs and mechanics, i’ve changed my mind about it.

I mean i went to the ceremony thing with the Queen, spent a few minutes there and after a few sentences what happens? An attack! how predictable! And that was it, the rest is more or less another farming zerg. So i thought i’d check the 1v1 arena thing and guess, 1-shot kills everywhere. Even liked the idea of balloon rides, but like u said, what? u get on this think and ur back DR! wasted a wp cost to get to the map just to be returned unceremoniously back to DR.

Ah well maybe one of these days we’ll actually get some expansion to this game, that wold be nice for a change.

I really don’t like the way this game is headed. He’s right, the core game is amazing, but everything feels forced, temporary, and small. I don’t like feeling like I have to play this game or I’ll miss the new stuff and never be able to get it again any time soon. It’s a horrible feeling and I’d play another game if there was another I haven’t yet. I know the Queen’s Jubilee thing is gonna pick up later and all this stuff is leading to something huge within the game, but it’s bullkitten and I don’t like it.

nexxe.7081:

Instead, we get temporary fluff, such as, quaggan backpacks and RNG weapon skins. I’ve also mentioned that the major reason Living Story fails, is because of the rewards. They are not worth striving for.

The torch I earned earlier today is hardly fluff. But let’s talk about the Balloon I earned; it serves no purpose….except for me to run around with and have fun. I may not play with it every day, but make no mistake, that balloon is coming out again one day. When it does, I will run around for no reason what-so-ever, other than to simply have fun.

Not to mention, rewards are only a small part of the Living World, the larger part is the experience. Which is why we see so many activities associated with each Living World release.

Best update, IMO.

You should skip the crafting 500/ascended update stuff and keep making more of this.

I’ve loathed just about every update before this except for the tuning and bugfix ones, so I’m honestly glad that after a year ANet releases something I can get behind. (Even if they’ve already revealed plans to add stuff I don’t want)

I like the update, except for one thing: Remove necromancer’s only means of defense against massive damage spike for pax, and introduce a Gauntlet full of bosses with massive damage spikes.

GG

I agree on all points with the OP.

What i d like to add is that not only is the content in this update boring, grindy, and uninteresting but also bug ridden and horribly designed.

In 1 year the actual story about GW2… (about the dragons about to destroy us all) has progressed not even one step. It is like the premise of GW2 never even existed.

We ve been showered with filler content, pathetic fluff items that dont really fit into the world, pointless gear progression, numerous time gates and currencies.

Meanwhile real problems that have pestered this game since the beta persist and are largely ignored by ANET. Performance, uninteresting champion and world boss fights, boring PVP, zerging in WvW…

And finally with the roadmap promising even more of daily gated progression i m not sure i ll be sticking around for much longer. Especially since real content or an expansion is apparently not even in the works.

ANET has failed to make the world feel alive, instead sending its playerbase chasing after a new carrot every 2 weeks while doing their daily chores.

I like the update. However, the predictability of some things is starting to get stale.

We run around the world popping holographic mobs to beat.
Next update, we run around the world to burn dragon effigies.
Next update, we run around the world getting kite baskets.
Now, we run around the world to find balloons.

Anyone other than me seeing a rather predictable and drab pattern here?

To be honest, I get what OP is getting to. But I don´t agree with him. I find myself enjoying this content. And like with every content this can be your or cant be yours. If you start leaving the game cause some things don´t go the way you want it to go. Nobody is going to miss you at all.

Other then that I don´t see the reason why you can´t come back later after things cooled down. I mean, it´s not that your characters will be randomly gone after not playing a while. Sure, you will miss out content. But hey, kitten happens mate!

You already payed for this game and you found it awesome. But at some point you stopped liking it because it didn´t go the way you want it to go. Take a break, they are listening to us. And bit by bit giving us new things

Tiger Ashante.1792:

Ah well maybe one of these days we’ll actually get some expansion to this game, that wold be nice for a change.

New content every 2 weeks seems like a good expansion to me. That way, I don’t have to wait 6 months to a year for something new.

digitalruse.9085:

Sorry Martin. It felt obligatory.

LMKKO!

I’m ambivalent about the update. There’s a lot of potential, but there’s a lot of bad, too.

The Queen’s Gauntlet, for example. I think it’s great that ArenaNet is playing with combat design in the game. One of the main flaws of PvE is the way it works when fighting against bosses, most of which consist on dodging the ocasional big one hit kill attack while dealing damage to a huge HP sponge. It’s great that ArenaNet is trying to find ways to make encounters more interesting and more unique.

In other hand, guess what is the very first fight we face? One in which we have to dodge the ocasional one hit kill attack… Underwhelming to see the same old, same old as the very first fight. Some of the enemies in there rely too much on stuns and knock downs, with are the cheaper effect among everything the GW2 combat system could have used.

And then there are all the small design flaws. Making it “somewhat” in the open world so people could watch is a hassle – I have absolutely no interest in having people watching me fight, and the way it has been set makes it impossible to predict when is an interesting fight going to happen, in case I wanted to watch someone else (I don’t, for the records). Having to wait in a queu is far worse than having the fights in instanced content, considering how little would be lost with that. And there’s the issue of the camera within the dome – the walls actually hurt visibility and prevent us from looking around the fiel properly. Had this been designed into instanced content using open arena-like environments, this issue wouldn’t be there at all.

The inside of the Crown Pavilion has been a disappointment. It feels a lot like the Southsun update, in that it’s just farming grounds. No interesting event, just people randomly running around trying to farm enemies while under a huge Magic Find buff. The boss battles against the three champions are a huge mess. I honestly believe GW2s combat system doesn’t work well in huge fights like that. Even with the changes to particle effects, I can’t see what’s happening in melee range of those bosses, other than there are a lot of players there; but playing from range is safe, and other than moving away from the ocasional red circle, it’s basically a matter of spamming attacks. If the Queen’s Gauntlet is trying to show us interesting fights, the champion bosses below it show the same old, same old. Isn’t a boss there meant to reflect projectiles or something?

Although, the environmental effects can be interesting. I barely noticed the reduction in endurance regeneration, since most of the time there isn’t even the need to dodge. The effect with the hawks is very amusing, and is a nice way to make people actually care about what exactly their AoEs are hitting, even if it relies too much on dodge (again). And speaking about “again”, the saboteurs spamming knock down bombs are very annoying – again, relying on chained knock downs is a rather poor and simplistic mechanic.

The opening ceremony was interesting, from a lore point of view, and I’m happy that (for once) the dialogue changed based on what our characters had done. But it was a bit underwhelming – I would have expected Queen Jennah to make a speach to the masses, not to stand in the middle of a mostly empty circle. We have very few characters with likeable personalities; Logan definitely doesn’t fit that role, and Rox and Braham aren’t that interesting either, considering how shallow their personalities are. It was great to watch the queen fighting, but c’mon, she should have been more impressive, and used trickery instead of just trying to fight – she’s powerful enough to deceive even an entire army, deceiving a few pirates should have been easy, at least to keep her and Anise hidden while we went to help Rox. And, for the records, when I was told to defend the Charr, no enemy spawned; I didn’t have anything to defend her from.

Despite all that, though, the opening ceremony was still better than the instances for most of the previous Living Story updates, with the exception of the Marjorie content in the Dead End bar.

My biggest disappointment is with the lack of good Dynamic Events. I think that’s Guild Wars 2’s most unique and most promising feature, but they have been poorly implemented in every single update. The events here are as bad as the ones in the Southsun update, just farming spawns with no story and with mindless repetition. Where are the nice event chains that actually tell a story, like the little boy trying to defend his family from the Dredge? Why are the events just “defeat this big champion” over and over, or “run from place X to Y” repeating endlessly?

OP has brought up a good point. Hopefully Anet won’t forget what could make GW2 really special: dynamic events that change the world, and we the players contribute how these taking place and where it end up. It is pretty amazing that I can create history in a virtual world. No?
A great designer usually dosen’t listen to the general populace coz they don’t really know what they want. It takes a genius to be truly innovative, GW2 start out well, can they pull through? Do you have the guts to ignore the populace to stay true to your vision?

You know, aside from the wallet, and champion loot, I don’t like this update either. More aetherblades, unreasonable difficulty in the queen’s gauntlet, and more “press F 30 times to win” achievements.

I’ll be battling this migraine far longer than I’ve battled Liadri.

I honestly thought this was a joke when I first heard of it.
A.. a party? Instead of spending all that gold to supply their military or fund defense against the centaurs or research on the dragons, you send balloons to everywhere in the world and invite them to hit machines (that could be used as guards in those places instead of giving them balloon rides) and ignore the aetherblades attacking? Yea, lets send those amazing fighters off to fight random people instead of defending from the atherblades or helping out the locals..

This entire update is just full of wat. Hey guys… dragons, centaurs, aetherblades, krait kidnapping innocent people and using them as slaves… nah, lets party!

Alleluia.1320:

ilr.9675:

I’m honestly angry at this point.
Last year the game started off terrific. Who cares if all the WoW kiddies got bored within the first 3 weeks and ran back as soon as their Pandas&Pokemon expansion came out? That’s the way it should have stayed. Not slowly being contorted into a l00t treadmill ever since Fractals and everything else in that vein were forced into it.

Gw1 kept simple. We’d get a mini for each Alt, and all the Cupcakes we could find.
And we could STACK those cupcakes with whatever hell other Consumes we wanted.

I want that back. Not this …. Zynga iPad App that not even Dhuum would curse upon us…

…. What are you even talking about?

I think he just drank some Norn ale and has fallen into a drunken rant state.

You should skip the crafting 500/ascended update stuff and keep making more of this.

Nah, what they should do is skip the ascended garbage and add more permanent open world dynamic content.

You know, the stuff most of us bought this game for? I would love if every zone had one or two Balthezar’s temple-style massive, full map event chains, or even multi-map chains.

Alleluia.1320:

ilr.9675:

I’m honestly angry at this point.
Last year the game started off terrific. Who cares if all the WoW kiddies got bored within the first 3 weeks and ran back as soon as their Pandas&Pokemon expansion came out? That’s the way it should have stayed. Not slowly being contorted into a l00t treadmill ever since Fractals and everything else in that vein were forced into it.

Gw1 kept simple. We’d get a mini for each Alt, and all the Cupcakes we could find.
And we could STACK those cupcakes with whatever hell other Consumes we wanted.

I want that back. Not this …. Zynga iPad App that not even Dhuum would curse upon us…

…. What are you even talking about?

I’m talking about the original game and how it was so much better than this.
Even the first couple months of this game, you could see them actually CARING about fixing bugs and especially bugged D.E.‘s and Dungeons. They’re not even doing that much anymore. If you don’t have an Account issue tied to the GemShop, they just don’t care about you anymore. (Well Gaile does but there’s only 1 Gaile…)

I’ve only played the zerg events on Tuesday and enjoyed them. I got the kill 100 of all and had fun, made money, etc.

I think this was trying something like the southsun angry settlers (disgruntled?). That was a fun farm and we got to socialize in between. It was a nice change for those who like to sometimes mindlessly farm. This event seemed a little too fast paced for the socializing part though. The buffs from the emissarys were nice and similar to the buffs from southsun.

I for one am loving this event/update. The Bosses are not your simple World Bosses… They actually hurt! We need more world bosses like these!

The gauntlet was a great challenge and it was so satisfying to beat Liadri after 50 tries .lol

Anet really just have to make both types of content. Temporary and permanent content go well hand in hand. Southsun Cove was a permanent addition but its a shame its a ghost zone because it does have good rewards like the Karka Queen.

Finally there are achievements that actually are difficult. Achievements should separate the skilled players versus unskilled players. Just like in GW1 PvE where alliances were competing for HzH or Cavalon people need to compete for something in GW2 in PvE. The best form of competition right now is AP.

i actually like the update the only thing i don’t like is… I don’t have enough time to play it
I like how anet do the bi-weekly events + achievement points chests.
oh ya as long the achievements for each bi weekly events don’t require pvp… I’m fine with it.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I like the update, except for one thing: Remove necromancer’s only means of defense against massive damage spike for pax, and introduce a Gauntlet full of bosses with massive damage spikes.

GG

Didn’t even bother with the gauntlet for this reason; the tells are hard for me to see also. But I find it funny that ANet themselves said that our leaching line is terrible in an interview from a month ago (apx.), but yet takes away one of our only three ways to avoid damage, two of which are dodges without any vigor to boost them.

For once I agree with the original poster. Fantastic post.

I could not agree more with your point on currency. Why do we need a new currency with every addition to the Living Story? It just makes things more complicated. Simplifying all these LS currencies into one currency type would actually be very appreciated.

If a single currency type, for all these LS updates, were to be created it could be added to the new wallet and not have to be worried about in the long run. If we wanted to see our balance we could simply go to our wallet and check instead of having to rush to the bank to check.

Fiontar.4695:

Some people must have some serious blinders on not to see how “insulting” this kind of content is to players, the game, the five years of pre-launch development and the Manifesto.

I think you are reading way too much into it. This is a celebration event, it’s meant to be a bit of fun (and for me it certaintly is – and tbqh, rather than taking me away from the open world, it’s sparked up my interest in seeing the whole world, because in order to do the Balloon Tourist, I’m exploring some areas I haven’t been before, and not only that, I’m participating in some of the normal zone events along the way).

Now having said that, I definitely agree that they need to start working on the promised gradual change of the open world itself – they need to start shifting and varying DEs, etc., as was promised. That larger change needs to happen. But jeez, come on, you can’t expect that to happen overnight. What they are doing now is learning how to make those changes.

You will notice that one of the choices in the election was to further develop some LW events that have already happened – that’s more like what you’re wanting, surely?

If you’re bored, leave it for a while and come back (I’ve done that 3 times, and each time I love the game more). This isn’t like other MMOs where coming back is a chore to pick up where you left off. It’s actually very easy to pick up where you left off, and in fact the changes in the world and variation make it quite exciting to come back after a break. The world feels alive in a way few other MMO virtual worlds do.

Be patient for the deeper promised ongoing changes, they’re still learning how to do what is an incredibly complex thing that few developers have really tackled before (except, notably, the original EQ – something like LW content was the whole point of the title “Everquest”, but they couldn’t sustain it at that time, mostly for technological reasons, which Anet now think they are beating).

This update has not been fun for me at all. Liadri is just dumb on some classes.

Nearly a year after release and pets are still instantkill fodder.

Taste is subjective.

I jumped on last night, did some balloon tower events, the torch run, and then ran around the pie with the zerg, and had mad fun. Well done, ArenaNet!

I haven’t tried the solo gauntlet yet, and to be honest, I don’t expect to enjoy or beat it. But that’s cool, I expect different content to appeal to different people and I’m not in the demographic that finds punishingly difficult solo PvE fun. That’s cool. I’m not QQ’ing because some of the content is not targeted at me and people like me.

Scourge.4317:

Elbegast.6970:

Scourge.4317:

Elbegast.6970:

Vahkris.6847:

Elbegast.6970:

Vahkris.6847:

Elbegast.6970:

Vahkris.6847:

Honestly, I think players are focusing too much on the achievements and not enough on just playing the game.

Achievements have become the entirety of the game. Go try to kill the bosses in Orr or ask for a group to do Arah Story Mode. You won’t find anyone because they are all outside chasing balloons. ArenaNet is moving piles of populace to new locations each week while leaving the majority of the world as empty as Kessex Peak from Guild Wars 1.

The release just dropped, it’s not surprising you don’t see players doing pre-existing content when new content is now here. Everyone’s checking it out.

Outside of this, I certainly do see people killing the bosses in Orr.

Yes, it just dropped, I already have 9/16 achievements and I’m finished with this update. I have no need nor desire to log on until the next content update. Even then, I will log on only long enough to grab the new back item or perma-toy and repeat the cycle over again.

And in regards to the Orr bosses, your server must be far more active than mine. Orr is dead for me, no pun intended.

Awesome, good for you. Take advantage of the no subscription fee and only play when you like it. There’s something every two weeks so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to see if something grabs your interest. Whatever’s fun for you.

See that’s the kicker though. It’s not fun. I haven’t had fun in the game since this whole living story started. The core game was brilliant and then it just died with the introduction of the Living Story. I log on for new content in hopes of finding something fun but it never happens. The Living Story killed my game.

LIVING STORY IS OPTIONAL. If you weren’t having fun since it started why make yourself play through it all? That’s a very odd thing to do. There are other activity’s for you to do but if nothing else interest you then take a break and do something else with your time until something you like gets added to the game.

First off, the entire game is optional. Please, stop using that lame duck ‘optional content’ argument. You only make yourself look like a Thackeray or Bookah or whatever it is you humans hurl as insults.

Second, I am forced to play the living story because that’s where the people are. I can’t play the core game any longer because there aren’t enough people to complete the content. Do you understand?

Breaks do not help. As a 7+ year WoW vet, I can tell you, each break you return from only makes you hate the game more and more.

As it stands, I cannot complete my game because of temporary living story content.

Is that suppose to be some kind of troll? What exactly is the living story keeping you from doing? because people are still running dungeons and still doing events out in the open world. WvW hasn’t been interrupted. I personally have been able to do the dragon events and regular events even in Orr.

I sort of see where Elbegast is coming from, Possibly because I also , through my own flaws feel that I am being suffocated by constant achievements and content, mostly because I can’t say “No” and “I must complete” LOL ….. It’s all very subjective.

My solution has been to blissfully go back to my Necro/Warrior in GW1 and play peacefully without the "Quick do it now before it s gone " hanging over my head , like I used to be able to GW2, yeah sure it sucks that I can’t leave a mission half way through but there is not the constant pressure to complete to achieve NOW going on.

That and drift through eve galaxy salvaging abandoned spaceships LOL

Sorry this is the best update so far. It has lots to do. The dynamic fights are what we have been asking for. As far as I’m concerned there should always be an area like this in every update. The little domes are challenging to say the least but even I have done one or 2 so far. I don’t know if I can do them with the gambits yet but I’ll think I try to just kill them first.

The balloons could have been a nice touch if it actually was a ride. But think of how long you would be hanging up there in the balloon. Maybe they should have done a short panoramic at the beginning and the end. The fights to get the chests are pretty easy especially if there are others around to help. But the new dynamic content is great and the achievements are pretty good. There could have been more under the queens jubilee though. It’s really new content and not recycled jumping puzzles. There is not such a emphasis on PvP or Pugging Dungeons. It’s happening out there in the world and all you got to do it go get it. I like the fact that the towers are quest driven and not just run out and get the treasure like the kites.

I normally do not do the living story events, I don’t like running around searching for things. But with this update I actually have participated and am really enjoying it so far. Not everyone likes all the updates I didn’t like the last one so I just voted. Wait till the next one maybe the next will make you happy.

Wizzlock.3492:

I really wanned to disagree but I can’t.
I was fan of this game for sooooo long. I still love it, and it hurts, hurts so bad when I see what is happening.
Thing that I think would be impossible to imagine for me half year ago… I fear updates, I fear new content. Instead of feeling excitement while waiting for new content (that will steal my time), I feel afraid of upcoming chore list that is called “Living Story”. Good joke, but joke is on me.

Fully agree with you and with the OP!

What happens to GW!??

This start’s looking to a Theme Park!

Some day we will have roller coasters,“Merry go round” Carrousels, and fast food tents too, just wait and see!… … …

At first I thought it was a good event, then I realized it’s just a farmfest crammed into a pie of recycled terrain and mobs, with people fighting in hanging pods. Other parts of the update seem great (like champion loot and dungeon changes), but this farmfest (encouraged by 150% mf buff) will probably steal the population from the open world, until the event ends or people get bored.

New ‘real’ zone soon please (not a partial zone like southsun). And release that LFG tool asap, it will do the most to make your game more like an MMO again…

Btw, fighting those legendaries in the pavillion, I did not notice ‘improved combat visibility’ at all.

Proxcel.2596:

i actually like the update the only thing i don’t like is… I don’t have enough time to play it
I like how anet do the bi-weekly events + achievement points chests.
oh ya as long the achievements for each bi weekly events don’t require pvp… I’m fine with it.

Its a month long event. You SHOULD have enough time to play it.

Fiontar.4695:

What should you have done? Well, you should have stuck to the original plan you talked about last fall and created boatloads of new Dynamic Event content. Content that would have advanced the story with in each game zone told by the Dynamic Events that were there at launch. Adapting some, replacing some, rotating some in and out of circulation. That would have created a Living World. that would have preserved the sense of a dynamic game environment. That would have shed the negative stereotypes about Theme Park MMOs.

I strongly agree with this idea. I am not against the Living Story as it makes players chase carrots on a stick or keep them busy getting new shinies every single update. But what should have been done was to weave these Living Story content with the existing Dynamic Events that you described as what became just an infinite loop. Dynamic Events were awesome the first time you encounter them. But after a year of seeing these events go over and over and over again on the exact same spot with fixed timers is not my idea of a living and changing world. A strong example was the Southsun Cove. But I’m hoping to see more of this in other zones as well.

Adapting some, replacing some, rotating some in and out of circulation. That would have created a Living World. And then incorporate new shinies and achievements in these new events or the existing ones somehow to provide incentive in doing them.

And this is the one thing I would like them to consider in the future. But I’m pretty sure ANet has considered this path but realized it was easier to create new content without having to involve the existing ones in every zone to implement them since I know it’s not easy but it would be very awesome to see such changes.