I’m sure this is an issue with more people than you think.
I’m young…sort of. 28 years old. I’ve had the good days of EQ, DAoC, WoW and several other MMO’s most people probably never tried. Game play was essential, not only in terms of things to do, but also things to gain. Things to make your character look different. Things to set you apart.
I am definitely a casual player. The majority of people probably are. That majority are probably also wanting different looks, different attack animations, different abilities or just more of a selection of what they can do to be ‘different’.
The minority are the raiders, the PvE’ers and the people who just want content to surpass in a day or two which is the big problem considering it takes weeks to create the content. I’m not dissing on those players, but AI takes up a ton of time to build and program. If it’s too hard or too easy, everyone will hear the cries.
I’ve only leveled characters into the 50’s. It’s hard to go passed that because of the lack of gaining anything other than pointless skill points (because I already have everything I want) and the fact that every weapon I can use I’ve maxed by level 10. Besides that, just the look of armor is appealing to me…and it’s not appealing enough to burn hours and hours just to slightly change what I’m wearing. The skill tree is ok, but offers very little when looking for something different or something new to use every level. There is hardly any experimentation. Even changing builds doesn’t seem like it does much. Maybe it does in later levels, but I doubt it changes a whole lot without a large change in gear. Just the amount to hardly change the outcome in a conflict in pve.
This game was suppose to be a lot for pvp and wvw. As it stands…there is no real gain to pvp besides some minor changes in looks as I have found. The leader boards don’t mean much to the player who doesn’t spend most of his time pvping. WoW got it right with the score boards anyway when they allowed you to see everything you’ve done from damage, kills, healing and capturing etc. That’s what most people will look for. If you could incorporate assisting through blessings or debuffs for the support characters than this company would be starting something new.
The biggest problem with pvp is it is separated completely from pve. The rank and armor achieved should be able to be used to transform your armor for pve (forgive me if I am incorrect on this). There also needs some slight benefits of being a better player in pvp. Nothing like superior weapons or armor, as anyone in an arena gets the same as their opponent. Maybe a slight adjustment in run speed or endurance recovery while in combat based on the rank you have achieved. This wouldn’t give you a superior advantage…just enough to let you slip by if you get careless after winning all of those battles.
In conclusion I’m suggesting selling different abilities that won’t change much or even different animations when using abilities in their store. I would like to see more melee axe abilities rather than only throwing. I would like to see spears included in land melee rather than subterranean only. Content will repeat if there is goals created. The minority only want a challenge from AI, which is very time consuming and probably difficult to create and balance to be beaten by the only best of the best. But GW2 isn’t suppose to be the farming, end game, boss killing, gear farming game like WoW. At least that’s the impression I got from it. If you continue you will die like every other game that has tried competing with WoW…
Get to the point of addressing your shop, your characters and your pvp. That’s where you belong. I don’t want to play another WoW! I do love the leveling experience as it is, keep at it, but don’t flounder on the main aspect you guys have going for you. An MMO that mainly supports pvp, wvw and new kitten, like you originally wanted to go for.
Andkittento anyone who complains about a wall of text or if you completely disagree. You are a follower with no ideas of your own or not the balls to speak them. You are a disease to this community.
Thank you Arena.net for you have given me, and thank you for the work you put into pressing this game in to something different from the garbage that is out there.