Guild Wars 2

I’d just like to give ArenaNet some well deserved positive feedback.

I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 since the beginning and in that time seen how some players have embraced its take on MMOs while others have found the lack of some conventional features (trinity etc) somewhat disconcerting.

For me personally I adore this game, the gorgeous and detailed environments, the love and design that’s gone into every corner, the expertly crafted jumping puzzles that in themselves are worth playing the game for. The fact I have five maxed out level eighty characters might tell you how I just love to run through Tyria doing whatever takes me fancy.

When I look back and count all the additional content we’ve been given (for free!) it’s staggering. I was especially impressed with the quality and size of Christmas, Halloween and Southsun. On top of this we’ve had new dungeons, fractals, Superbox, the living story and much more. Then ArenaNet decided (rightly so) to get their house in order and it went quiet. Many of my friends sounded off with ‘bored and nothing to do’ and left the game. I’m now seeing many coming back after hearing good things.

The living story did start really slow in my opinion and so some people may have been jaded by this but Im really happy to see its now taking off and getting huge support from the community. It’s natural to want people to love the game you love but I couldn’t disagree with many when we started this and it had the ‘is that it’ feeling.

This latest chapter with the Aether Pirates is just fantastic, it’s challenging, well designed and most of all, lots of fun. I spent hours in the jumping puzzle last night pulling my hair out! The guys who made a zeppelin, hidden in a holographic mountain I take my hat off to you.

It’s almost a sigh of relief, your now pushing your player base with content that is really making them sit up and pay attention. In addition we have a lot more to come, your reworking of rewards in the wings (finally!) and a commitment to adding new content every two weeks is very encouraging.

So yes, I’d like to say a big thankyou and congratulations to ArenaNet for sticking to your guns, providing an almost impossible amount of additional content and listening/acting to the feedback from the community.

I hope your all getting the holidays and down time you deserve!

Genophix

Thanks for posting this. I agree. I think this game is going to only get better. It’ll still take time, but I definitely think they’re on the right track.

Great post. I agree. The updates have been hit or miss for the most part, but some (like Super Adventure Box) have been outstanding. Either way, each update is still more exciting content than anything I ever saw in previous MMOs.

Emperor.1360:

Great post. I agree. The updates have been hit or miss for the most part, but some (like Super Adventure Box) have been outstanding. Either way, each update is still more exciting content than anything I ever saw in previous MMOs.

I think the best part is that if you look back, even just one patch to the next, you can easily see the improvement that they’ve made, be it from feedback received or just intuition improvements. It’s quite amazing and they don’t get enough credit. Too many naysayers on the forums.

I think they should bring back that Event Completion Survey in the BWE.

Esplen.3940:

Emperor.1360:

Great post. I agree. The updates have been hit or miss for the most part, but some (like Super Adventure Box) have been outstanding. Either way, each update is still more exciting content than anything I ever saw in previous MMOs.

I think the best part is that if you look back, even just one patch to the next, you can easily see the improvement that they’ve made, be it from feedback received or just intuition improvements. It’s quite amazing and they don’t get enough credit. Too many naysayers on the forums.

I think they should bring back that Event Completion Survey in the BWE.

Yes, I agree with you; the updates have mostly gotten better as time goes on. I am not too keen on the Dragon Bash and Sky Pirates updates, though (for stylistic reasons, mostly; I thought these updates were dull). SAB was great and the Southsun events were pretty good, too.

We’ve been given a large amount of content in a relatively short amount of time, and we haven’t been asked to pay a dime for any of it. I’ve never seen a developer so dedicated to giving their players such a good gaming experience in all my years (no short time) of gaming. Things aren’t perfect; it’s unlikely they ever will be. That’s just the nature of these things. But your effort and your passion are not unnoticed. Nor are they unappreciated. So here’s a well deserved “thank you.”

I also heard some of the content is coming back curtsey of the fractals. This actually makes sense and won’t break the whole timeline thing. We won’t get the rewards (like the jetpack) but even so, it will be good to be able to go back and see what has been.

This will also be good for people just joining Guild Wars 2 to be able to get a taste of what they have missed.

darkace.8925:

We’ve been given a large amount of content in a relatively short amount of time, and we haven’t been asked to pay a dime for any of it. I’ve never seen a developer so dedicated to giving their players such a good gaming experience in all my years (no short time) of gaming. Things aren’t perfect; it’s unlikely they ever will be. That’s just the nature of these things. But your effort and your passion are not unnoticed. Nor are they unappreciated. So here’s a well deserved “thank you.”

Have you ever played a Korean game? And I don’t mean a Korean game published in America (see: Nexon NA), I mean the actual Korean version of any game?

Not only are they event-driven (similar to this), but they are also less buy-to-win (when they are free-to-play, of course there are still ways to be buy-to-win but you can say the same with GW2).

I’m not trying to make fun of you, I’m just saying that the American game industry has been spoonfeeding so hard that most people don’t know how to play without being spoonfed. (see: all the players who weren’t capable of reading the giant “LIVING STORY” bulletin ingame or their mail which included a giant “SHOW ME” button that… showed them… in a REALLY obvious way. It’s pretty hard to get any less obvious than that. Oh did I mention the giant stars on the map? But people still couldn’t find diddly-squat.)

Esplen.3940:

I think the best part is that if you look back, even just one patch to the next, you can easily see the improvement that they’ve made, be it from feedback received or just intuition improvements. It’s quite amazing and they don’t get enough credit. Too many naysayers on the forums.

Its fantastic how much they have improved my Ranger…they have done such a fantastic job that I have not played that character since the last patch and unlikely to ever again in the future…thanks Anet…good work…

I really love my Elementalist too, but I am 100% confident that the ‘balancing’ team can do a equally good job with her in the future…go for it Anet…I have 100% confidence in you…to destroy anything that is good about all 8 character classes slowly by ‘balancing’ them…

Really, GW2 revolves around your character whichever you play and Anet have proved repeatedly that they will destroy characters/builds without hesitation…so whats the point in playing GW2?

Meglobob.8620:

Really, GW2 revolves around your character whichever you play and Anet have proved repeatedly that they will destroy characters/builds without hesitation…so whats the point in playing GW2?

This is what GW2 is about.

It only took 8 replies this time!

Thank you ANet. I looked forward to this game during the development pre-beta stage…..and I am not disappointed. I am having the fun I knew I was going to have.

People are entitled to complain of course, but I feel ANet deserve to be commended on the good they do, after all a lot of work goes into this.

Esplen.3940:

Not only are they event-driven (similar to this), but they are also less buy-to-win (when they are free-to-play, of course there are still ways to be buy-to-win but you can say the same with GW2).

In what way could you possibly consider Guild Wars 2 a buy-to-win game? It’s REALLY hard to take anything you said seriously when you say such things.

Yeah how is Guild Wars 2 pay to win? Isn’t that the whole point, that’s its not about the gear but about the experiences we have while travelling through it. Even the legendary weapons are no better than exotics, you would think they would be after all that effort, but even on this the dev teams have stuck to their guns.

I’ve personally had the same gear on now for months, I made it myself and am far too busy enjoying myself to be running a dungeon 80 times a months for a 0.0007% chance to drop a better piece of gear.

While it hurts like hell having no gear progression (yes in some ways I do miss the insanity of it all) Im overall glad. AN have lost many customers over this (and they know it) but they know what they want to make and it’s not another MMO like the last ten.

Right or wrong you have to give them credit for that.

As a guy who plays on a budget laptop, I disagree with you on everything being “perfectly crafted”. All jumping puzzles really are is a clump of object put together in a way that you can jump to a normally unreachable place. I don’t mind that it is lazy but WHEN THE ENTIRE GAME IS LIKE THIS its really disappointing to look at.

I understand that I am on a laptop with an APU (which sucks). Lag and loading issues are to be expected but it isn’t like I can just go out and get a better computer because unfortunately I am broke and jobless. This does, however, allow my computer to figure out whats causing the lag. It is the kittenloads of objects I have to process constantly.

Picture of what I am talking about will be at the bottom. Excuse the crude edits. I was kitten ed off at the time.

Sorry to hear that Zachary, it must be a right pain to have lag issues.

I’m fortunate to have a really good gaming rig so can play Guild Wars 2 on full whack. I didn’t think a lower performing system would cause lag but sucks that it does.

The first jumping puzzle I did was in beta, I didn’t even know they existed and then stumbled across a crack in the wall in Metrica Province. On exploring I found the floating steps and made my way through the portal. Myself and the two friends I was with were really excited to have found something hidden, then our gaze panned up and we saw the maze of complex platforms above us…

Over the next two hours we figured out the portal mechanics and the various traps and route. If you have done this puzzle or any of the others that rate as good I can’t see how you don’t think they are just amazing. My opinion ofc I know

I also love how they all have unique mechanics and also seem to be part of the world as opposed to being separate ‘and here’s the puzzle for this area’.