Guild Wars 2

Since the beginning of the game, many changes have been done that made the game either more ’’casual’’ or more ’’hardcore’’. Many people don’t necessary see this , but it’s pretty obvious. Take for example those things:

-Personal Story – There have been complaints about personal story not being casual enough since many missions are hard by design unless you are X class or unless you bring friends to help you

-Recent change to Risen: Apparently Anet have fixed a bug to the Risen unit which magically gives risen 100 extra skills that hit for even more and also the morale of escort quests for temples that makes those quests nearly impossible

-Fractals: Fractals are not for everyone since it takes an insane amount of time where you have to deal with supposedly the hardest dungeons in game filled with jumping quests and traps

-queen’s gaunlet: Pretty obvious even though it was plagued with bugs.

The game used to be casual but now turns more hardcore. My question to Anet is really this: What kind of gamers do you really want? You cannot please all the parties because no matter what you try a side will always complain.

Casual or hardcore generally refers to the amount of time a player invests in a game. I think you are talking more about skilled play vs. those who are still learning.

Personally I think the game offers a nice mix of content to appeal to all these spectrums. For instance in the Queen’s Jubilee patch going on right now we have Queen’s Pavilion (for the general population) and Queen’s Gauntlet (for players that want to show their prowess).

The overall game is very casual (pve) they are trying to draw hard core players back, they gave it a sniff and most left. But that should not reflect on the game, they are the 1%r’s. They never stay anywhere long, they always fly back to WOW and stand around til something new comes out. It’s the locust effect.

Personal story are meant to be hard alone and quite trivial with friends so you make some friends, casual one.
The escort quest is meant to be that hard, you are not alone, it is meant to include at least 10 person, and it’s quit trivial when you are around 80-90.
Fractal 1-9 is casual friendly, so stop complainning that fractal is not for casual, 1-9 is way easier and faster than arah 1 2 4. And arah have been done by countless casual pug.
Gauntlet : CHANGE YOUR BUILD!!!! It’s affordable by anyone, and let casual try out new build against set type of ennemy. Gw2 is about you, changing your build to adapt. There is some very effective build, but the one you make are viable too! Just try out new things, casual doesn’t mean brainless, if you see that your build don’t work, just change it, the instructor is near the wayppoint.

The Sixteenth.2561:

Personal story are meant to be hard alone and quite trivial with friends so you make some friends, casual one.
The escort quest is meant to be that hard, you are not alone, it is meant to include at least 10 person, and it’s quit trivial when you are around 80-90.
Fractal 1-9 is casual friendly, so stop complainning that fractal is not for casual, 1-9 is way easier and faster than arah 1 2 4. And arah have been done by countless casual pug.
Gauntlet : CHANGE YOUR BUILD!!!! It’s affordable by anyone, and let casual try out new build against set type of ennemy. Gw2 is about you, changing your build to adapt. There is some very effective build, but the one you make are viable too! Just try out new things, casual doesn’t mean brainless, if you see that your build don’t work, just change it, the instructor is near the wayppoint.

I actually disagree with personal story meant to be hard alone. I mean seriously, it’s called a personal story, not the group story. Not everyone is happy to go in X quest because Y person is not one of the easy classes.

Evon Skyfyre.9673:

The overall game is very casual (pve) they are trying to draw hard core players back, they gave it a sniff and most left. But that should not reflect on the game, they are the 1%r’s. They never stay anywhere long, they always fly back to WOW and stand around til something new comes out. It’s the locust effect.

i was a hardcore guild wars 1 player for years, i stopped playing this game daily 2 months ago. i don’t see me ever playing this game for more than an hour a day with the way they handle kitten

By hard I mean challenging when you go there alone, 3 level under the recommanded lvl.
I have 4 char 80 with the personal story done, the only challenging one I remember of is one whith my charr with limon and ghost, but I just called out for help on map channel and 2 guy came help me. I usually do them when I have 10-12 lvl above, then continue on till it’s above my level then go xp.

There is not much for hardcore player, fractal are repetitive, sPvP is fun but I would prefer team death match with no respawn, WvW mainly depends of the number…

I’m sorry… Really? This game is as casual as it can possibly be. I think Liadri may be the most difficult PvE element they’ve added and even that just takes a little practice, a little effort.

I had no idea people were complaining about personal story but having solo’d my personal story up until the final mission on several classes, I can safely say it’s doable for virtually any class. (Personally done it on Guardian, Warrior, elementalist, Mesmer, and thief.)

It may just be that you’re too casual… For even the casuals. There are a mere handful of challenging fights in this game.

Learn to play, the game was made for casual play, and apparently some can’t even manage that. It’s sad.

Araris.7839:

I’m sorry… Really? This game is as casual as it can possibly be. I think Liadri may be the most difficult PvE element they’ve added and even that just takes a little practice, a little effort.

I had no idea people were complaining about personal story but having solo’d my personal story up until the final mission on several classes, I can safely say it’s doable for virtually any class. (Personally done it on Guardian, Warrior, elementalist, Mesmer, and thief.)

It may just be that you’re too casual… For even the casuals. There are a mere handful of challenging fights in this game.

Learn to play, the game was made for casual play, and apparently some can’t even manage that. It’s sad.

Before you get too aggressive with your ’’I’m so pro while you’re so casual’’ I already finished darkness achievement so your l2p comment is pointless, now that is sad! Also, who are you to judge who is casual and who isn’t? If I was a casual doing something like exploration, it would be annoying as heck because the mobs do their best to slow you down ,immobilize or simply CC. That’s the kind of proof that says the devs aren’t quite sure the direction they are going in

To be honest the game is pretty much a mess.

Kronus.6048:

Before you get too aggressive with your ’’I’m so pro while you’re so casual’’ I already finished darkness achievement so your l2p comment is pointless, now that is sad! Also, who are you to judge who is casual and who isn’t? If I was a casual doing something like exploration, it would be annoying as heck because the mobs do their best to slow you down ,immobilize or simply CC. That’s the kind of proof that says the devs aren’t quite sure the direction they are going in

No, you’re not understanding. I’m not saying I’m pro, whether I’m incredible or have trouble tying my shoes has no relevance here. I’m saying that you obviously have no grasp of what “hardcore” is if you think the items you listed are “hardcore” and really? Now you bring up exploration and mob CC as a point of hardcore?

What you consider “hardcore” is obviously the inability to drool your way through content. Just because a game element requires a small amount of focus and tactic, does not mean it’s “hardcore”

My L2p comment wasn’t necessarily just for you, it’s for anybody with the audacity to say the game is hardcore because they can’t trim their toe nails while doing their personal story.

PSX.9250:

To be honest the game is pretty much a mess.

That’s what I’m thinking as well. If I look at fractals for for instance, people say before it’s easy, others say 1-20 is easy,others that it doesn’t get until 40+, while others find even the first ones hard/annoying due to jumping puzzles for instance.

Temples, another issue. If you ask hardcore players, they are easy, casual content, but the changes recently made some champions spam wells ,bomb on everyone that 1 hit k.o npcs and more abilities/buff to risen. If I was a casual playing that I would not find mobs 1 shooting npcs with skills normal at all, but rather annoying and seem as a more hardcore content. On the top of that you have hardcore players that don’t really find anything hard or just troll for the sake of it even if they did not completed the content discussed.

Yeaah a game where hostile mob gives you speed buff so you can explore faster, how about looting 250 of tier 6 mat on bunnies? Ow and how about getting the legendary with a quest that is basically you talking to 3 guy in LA ?
Omg darkness acheivement and map completition are sooo not casual that I’m impressed, go get the rank 80 in pvp and the dominator in WvW…

No, seriously, we are judging no one, we are just saying that it’s not pointed toward hardcore… (Rank 80 and dominator are hard core but, if a casual play 1h each day he might get them one day…)
By the way casual means you play casually not that you are bad… That’s why a rank 10 can beat the kitten out of a rank 70. Things you might feel hard might not be hard for a good casual player.

Araris.7839:

Kronus.6048:

Before you get too aggressive with your ’’I’m so pro while you’re so casual’’ I already finished darkness achievement so your l2p comment is pointless, now that is sad! Also, who are you to judge who is casual and who isn’t? If I was a casual doing something like exploration, it would be annoying as heck because the mobs do their best to slow you down ,immobilize or simply CC. That’s the kind of proof that says the devs aren’t quite sure the direction they are going in

No, you’re not understanding. I’m not saying I’m pro, whether I’m incredible or have trouble tying my shoes has no relevance here. I’m saying that you obviously have no grasp of what “hardcore” is if you think the items you listed are “hardcore” and really? Now you bring up exploration and mob CC as a point of hardcore?

What you consider “hardcore” is obviously the inability to drool your way through content. Just because a game element requires a small amount of focus and tactic, does not mean it’s “hardcore”

My L2p comment wasn’t necessarily just for you, it’s for anybody with the audacity to say the game is hardcore because they can’t trim their toe nails while doing their personal story.

No, my comment toward exploration and mob cc is because while it is casual, the constant hindrance from speed reduction/cc can frustrate players to the point where it ruins the ’’fun’’. I find that content personally pretty casual and yet I despise exploration due to those factors. Now put a casual in the same shoes having to deal with those.

Kronus.6048:

No, my comment toward exploration and mob cc is because while it is casual, the constant hindrance from speed reduction/cc can frustrate players to the point where it ruins the ’’fun’’. I find that content personally pretty casual and yet I despise exploration due to those factors. Now put a casual in the same shoes having to deal with those.

I’m so sorry that the highest level zone in the game, considered the hardest open world zone, can be frustrating for them because of all those pesky risen hindering their progress.

Perhaps Hello Kitty Island would be a more appropriate MMO for them.

Araris.7839:

Kronus.6048:

No, my comment toward exploration and mob cc is because while it is casual, the constant hindrance from speed reduction/cc can frustrate players to the point where it ruins the ’’fun’’. I find that content personally pretty casual and yet I despise exploration due to those factors. Now put a casual in the same shoes having to deal with those.

I’m so sorry that the highest level zone in the game, considered the hardest open world zone, can be frustrating for them because of all those pesky risen hindering their progress.

Perhaps Hello Kitty Island would be a more appropriate MMO for them.

um this issue happens in many areas lol, not only Orr.

Make a thief spec perma stealth, they will never bother you.

I must have missed those zones. Odd. :P

Araris.7839:

I must have missed those zones. Odd. :P

That is because they make stealth changes that no one notices until they revisit the old areas. Look at the patch on 6 August. Everyone noticed the new risen abilities/risen jesters/npcs with lower morale in Orr area . The reason why everyone noticed is because the area is visited very frequently

The Sixteenth.2561:

Make a thief spec perma stealth, they will never bother you.

that’s not a solution though, we shouldn’t have to use 1 class for something so casual.

Overall the game is very casual, but there are some areas that are more moderate, and now they’re adding in a small number of high skill areas as well so they can try to appeal to a broad range of people. Difficult=/= hardcore btw, although there is a lot of grind if you want to chase after high end cosmetics like legendary weapons or the lightning hammer skin, so there’s a fair amount of things you could consider hardcore there as well (or dedicated saving if you play casually).

Hardcore players are your core but casual players will pay the bills. Problem is casual players are capricious creatures that will flitter from one “popular” game to the next while the hardcore will stick with you until the servers are turned off.

You cater too much to casuals, you lose your hardcore and when the casuals move on you are left with nothing. Cater only to hardcore and you don’t have enough critical mass to keep the game moving forward. Ideally you want to convert casuals into hardcore by easing them into gameplay that hardcore players prefer.

Anyway, people should stop using “hardcore” for “It’s hard for me”. I’m pretty sure a lot of casuals would agree with me if I say that there are things that’s hard but it gives us a challenge, yet doesn’t take me that much time. Because the difference between casual and hardcore gamer is mainly the time they spend on the game. I know a 9k+AP friend who is clueless on dungeons and needed my guidance several time, while I have some below 1k AP and play only few hours the week end beating the kitten out of rank 60+ in sPvP.

Not so sure how GW2 can be classified as “hardcore” in it’s current state.
My take:

-Personal Story – All about player skill. A skilled player can still be a casual player.

-Recent change to Risen – Temple quests should be done in groups. They are failing not because players can do them, but people “purposely” fail them to farm. Poor design in ANet’s place – but still, cannot be used to classify GW2 as a game for hardcore gamers.

-Fractals – Again, player skill. Though I slightly agree that it takes more time than most content, but then again, it’s not required. I ignored FoTM and I am still not left behind. I don’t have the required concentration to run it. lol

-queen’s gaunlet: Cannot comment, never done.

This whole debate is fuzzy because no one will ever agree on what “casual” and “hardcore” mean. That said, there are gamers who play games because they enjoy challenging (i.e. difficult) content, and then there are players who game because they want to have simple, escapist, non-frustrating fun.

I am of the latter group. I don’t play games to be stressed, angry, and frustrated. I don’t believe something has to be difficult in order to enjoy it. If the story is good, and the characters are interesting, and the mechanics and world are fun and engaging, I will enjoy it.

Unfortunately, this type of gameplay is not very well supported in GW2. I was extremely frustrated when I encountered Doc Howler in my personal story and, upon researching this story step, found quotes from the devs saying that they intended the personal story to be challenging (i.e. difficult). I stopped doing the personal story right then. Frustrating =/= fun.

Then there was the Mad King, with a frustrating jumping puzzle just to get to him in order to fight him, only to have him teleport away so you can jump some more. And the Clock Tower, which the devs said they expected only a small percentage of players to complete. Then a whole lot of temporary content that they expected me to complete on a stress-inducing timer because Dwayna forbid I be allowed to relax and have fun at my own pace. And now the Gauntlet.

So what does that leave me? Running around the world completing reknown hearts (which you only get credit for once) and hoping a random event pops up that I can complete. Oh, and crafting, I suppose, if one has enough money.

I am a casual. This game is obviously not for me. I advise anyone who doesn’t enjoy frustration as a part of gameplay to give GW2 a pass.

Players who enjoy the difficult content: You may now brandish the pitchforks, torches, and insults as always.

I have always thought that hardcore was more a style of playing instead of time played.

If someone plays in a way to be the best they can be, and are willing to do whatever it takes to get there as quick;y as possible then I would say yes, they are hardcore. To me, it doesn’t matter if they play 10 hours a day or 1 hour a day.

On the other hand, if the player wants to hang out and admire the aesthetics or run a dungeon here and there, and don’t really care how long it takes them to get to max level with max armor and max stats, then I would consider them casual, again, it doesn’t matter if they play one hour a day or ten.

This game has always had content to appease the casual player. They are now adding some content for the more hardcore player base, and I am happy to see it.

The nice thing about it is that the content isn’t like it used to be in other games (not so fondly remembering the 8-hour long raids of yore.) If I want to log in for a couple hours, I can work toward something, or not, and it’s my choice what to do.

So, in my opinion, having played since Headstart, Anet has made a game that is both. But, if I had to say one or the other, I would say that until recently, the game was mostly casual.

Dr Ritter.1327:

Evon Skyfyre.9673:

The overall game is very casual (pve) they are trying to draw hard core players back, they gave it a sniff and most left. But that should not reflect on the game, they are the 1%r’s. They never stay anywhere long, they always fly back to WOW and stand around til something new comes out. It’s the locust effect.

i was a hardcore guild wars 1 player for years, i stopped playing this game daily 2 months ago. i don’t see me ever playing this game for more than an hour a day with the way they handle kitten

I hear ya. I do the daily and log. If I find a game I like more, GW2 will gather dust. Shame, so much potential and they turned their backs on all the loyal GW1 fans.

Nothing PVE wise is hard or needs much help if any. Some classes are underpowered and some are overpowered. That makes the difference.

Like all MMOs, this game offers different kinds of experience for different kinds of players. Like all MMOs, the casual players get mad if something is too hard for them. There is no such thing, nor should there be, of uniform difficulty in an MMO.

That said, the difficultly level can be uneven at times.

But as a general rule the dungeons are relatively hard and the open world is relatively easy.

From most casual point of view, dungeons are hard because you have to know what you’re doing and to some degree coordinate. Sometimes you die. Some of the group events are hard as well, which is why they’re called group events.

The personal story should always be soloable, at least until Arah and that’s a design decision I still disagree with.

I’m no uber pro player, but I can play comfortably in most areas of the game. Most of the game is super casual.

What I see here is someone complaining about the areas of the game meant not to be. Orr was meant to be end game content…it was never meant to be easy. Same with explorable mode dungeons. Same with fractals.

They represent a very small percentage of everything there is to do.

I’m not particularly upset that they’re adding harder stuff in the game for people to do that want challenge…even if it means some of it will end up too hard for me to do.

If you don’t like challenge : walk on a random map and try to record every thing each npc says, when and why. It’s fun and not hard at all, you can go 1h, gather some lore, go sightseeing and that’s absolutly not frustrating. Some times when I get bored I go to a random map and seek npc to know their dialogue, some are quite funny !
And I feel the class are quit balanced, every one have edges…

I think GW2 caters for both, hardcore and casual…or trys too…

Its a shame there isn’t/can’t be difficulty levels, like easy, normal, hard and impossible. So every player can tailor the game to there personal tastes…

Atm…you have some players put off by hard content they can’t do…quite a few of my friends have given up or will not buy GW2 because they would find parts of it too frustrating/difficult…

Then you have other players who complain the gauntlets way too easy and asking Anet for some real hard content…

Between a rock and a hard place…

I am not a fan of ‘closed’ off content…ie…a difficulty wall that some players just can’t get past no matter what…players just get fed up, frustrated and find another game to play…

Kronus.6048:

-Personal Story – There have been complaints about personal story not being casual enough since many missions are hard by design unless you are X class or unless you bring friends to help you

A single tough mission every 20 personal story missions is a nice change of pace.

Kronus.6048:

-Recent change to Risen: Apparently Anet have fixed a bug to the Risen unit which magically gives risen 100 extra skills that hit for even more and also the morale of escort quests for temples that makes those quests nearly impossible

Nearly impossible? Toughen up, kid.

Kronus.6048:

-Fractals: Fractals are not for everyone since it takes an insane amount of time where you have to deal with supposedly the hardest dungeons in game filled with jumping quests and traps

Hellooo? Fractals have levels?

Kronus.6048:

-queen’s gaunlet: Pretty obvious even though it was plagued with bugs.

Queen’s Gauntlet was easy as hell (as a full exotic warrior). Only Liadri needs a bit (and ONLY A BIT) of actual effort to get her on the ground.
Do not take me wrong, I am a really casual player, balancing my other hobbies with studying at uni and GW and I play an hour a day average. GW2 is the best combination of casual gameplay with tough bits now and then. If you think GW2 is a hardcore game, then Hello Kitty Online must be the game for you.

Hmmmm every one is talking about hello kitty online, is it that great ?

Karizee.8076:

Casual or hardcore generally refers to the amount of time a player invests in a game. I think you are talking more about skilled play vs. those who are still learning.

Personally I think the game offers a nice mix of content to appeal to all these spectrums. For instance in the Queen’s Jubilee patch going on right now we have Queen’s Pavilion (for the general population) and Queen’s Gauntlet (for players that want to show their prowess).

Nicely said. Given that not all players have the same skill, wants, etc., it boggles the mind how players can look at a game and still think that every bit of content has to be for them.

Kronus.6048:

Since the beginning of the game, many changes have been done that made the game either more ’’casual’’ or more ’’hardcore’’. Many people don’t necessary see this , but it’s pretty obvious. Take for example those things:

-Personal Story – There have been complaints about personal story not being casual enough since many missions are hard by design unless you are X class or unless you bring friends to help you

- no, they are extremely easy to finish

-Recent change to Risen: Apparently Anet have fixed a bug to the Risen unit which magically gives risen 100 extra skills that hit for even more and also the morale of escort quests for temples that makes those quests nearly impossible

- didn´t even notice and I am hardly a top player. New scaling makes some quests impossible to finish though when some area zerg arrives, especially since they are mostly concerned with tagging champs.

-Fractals: Fractals are not for everyone since it takes an insane amount of time where you have to deal with supposedly the hardest dungeons in game filled with jumping quests and traps

- they are not that hard, but require a lot of time. Certainly not “insane amounts of”, more like traditional mmorpg raids´ amount of time.

-queen’s gaunlet: Pretty obvious even though it was plagued with bugs.

- like? seems to work fine.

The game used to be casual but now turns more hardcore. My question to Anet is really this: What kind of gamers do you really want? You cannot please all the parties because no matter what you try a side will always complain.

- no, it turns into not auto-complete, a direction which will hopefully stay that way.

Hardcore players think casual players are unskilled.
Casual players think hardcore have no life.

I don’t have problem with either. But I do have a problem with players who only grind content for a reward. They are not playing the game for fun and will destroy the game. If Anet caters to them.

In terms of game mechanics, I think GW2 is on the casual/“easy” side. There are however plenty of things (legendaries, achievements etc) for players to work towards if they wish to dedicate more time to the game.

Ironically, I have met more “elitist” players in-game than in any other game. People like to feel that they are good/better at something.. with content being accessible and doable by the vast majority of players, some hardcores are ‘creating’ prestige by nit picking, putting down players that display anything short of their idea of perfection.

Guild Wars 2 is as casual as an MMO can be.

The only PVE mechanic you ever have to worry about is “don’t stand in the fire.”

Seriously.

And Arena Net made that single mechanic even easier with the dodge mechanic.

Guild Wars 2 is anything but challenging and appealing to “hardcore” players, unless you’re hardcore about jumping puzzles and playing dress-up.

I think:

Guild Wars 2 is intended to have features used by diverse groups of players. Casual vs Hard-Core oversimplifies. My guess is there are ~20 distinct subgroups of players, some served better by the game than others, and that essentially no one pursues all of the content with equal zeal.

There is a skill progression in GW2, particularly for someone coming from a non movement centric game (ie pretty much any earlier MMO). Much as in WoW, most of the endgame is accessible only if one has moved at least partway along this skill progression, but it is straightforward to level a toon to 80 without “getting it”.

I find relatively few boors in GW2, unlike instanced-raid centric games where the culture promoted by a certain EQ raid main tank turned developer had such a negative effect on the community. My block list isn’t full. This is a good sign.

One concern I have with GW2 is that the player who ambles through the outside world can reach 80 with no clue their defensive movement skill needs to improve if they are ever to set foot in a dungeon or fractal, or no comprehension that fields/finishers may do more dps than they do individually, and certainly no clue how to jump a specific distance (which I will never master). I’d like to see, not nanny-nagging from the game, but rather ways offered by the game for a player to measure their skill on various dimensions against the skill required to carry one’s weight in more advanced activities. Long conversation

Araris.7839:

I’m sorry… Really? This game is as casual as it can possibly be. I think Liadri may be the most difficult PvE element they’ve added and even that just takes a little practice, a little effort.

I had no idea people were complaining about personal story but having solo’d my personal story up until the final mission on several classes, I can safely say it’s doable for virtually any class. (Personally done it on Guardian, Warrior, elementalist, Mesmer, and thief.)

It may just be that you’re too casual… For even the casuals. There are a mere handful of challenging fights in this game.

Learn to play, the game was made for casual play, and apparently some can’t even manage that. It’s sad.

You obviously have no clue what casual means in gaming terms.

There’s not a single thing in gw2 aimed at the ‘hardcore’ unless spvp leaderboards is what you consider hardcore lol

Let’s just start with this.

With that out of the way… I think that the OP is mistaking two different things. On one hand, “casual” is used to refer to people who play infrequently and/or for short durations. On the other, “casual” is used to refer to people who don’t care/want the typical MMORPG endgame grinding.

Personally, I haven’t seen that many complaints about the personal story. Some parts have been unintentionally made harder with difficulty changes to veterans and champions in the open world carrying over to Personal Story.

Fractals were something that was given to the people who were saying that there was no endgame dungeons. That would, in a sense, be one facet of the “hardcore” crowd.

On the other hand, Liadri was something that was given to the other facet of “hardcore” players: the ones that were complaining that the boss encounters were filled with OHKO mechanics and weren’t actually hard.

I don’t think that ANet is trying to market their game to one crowd over the other. The thing with “hardcore” content is that it’s not something you should primarily develop, as the audiences have shifted from being primarily “hardcore” to a point where the “hardcore” as the minority. And of course, the “hardcore” players put in much more hours in a shorter timespan, so even if you do give them content, they devour it much faster than the “non-hardcore” crowd goes through whatever you give them.

If there’s one segment of the game that hasn’t been getting loads of love, it would have to be WvW.

You CAN please both. Just put at least one hardcore thingy in every update. This way we both will be happy.

BUT! There will always be complains. You can’t stop that. QQers will QQ.

I dunno I hadn’t played for at least 8 months and a number of things are more casual friendly.

Some story line quests are easier than they were.
Some of the dungeons have been made easier on a number of encounters.
Orr is not quite as crowded as it used to be.

It could be perception, but I really felt that this time around a fair number of things were totally easier.

I think that if you are more casual, just ignore fractals and don’t worry about farming for legendaries and you can be a casual player easy. In fact it’s the only way I can enjoy this game for a little bit at a time.

“Hardcore players” are not players who grind the same content only for a reward. They don’t play, it’s just work to them.

The REAL Hardcore players are the ones who have fun playing the game!

lol GW2 is hard. You want hard? Go buy Guild Wars Prophecies, ( only Prophecies ) and make your way to this nice little Dwarf outpost named “Thunder Head Keep”. For more fun, get some of your real life friends involved. To make things fair, don’t use Wiki ( we didn’t have that in 2005 ) and restrict yourself to only Prophecies skills.

Now, do that about 20 times and report back here. We’ll compare and contrast the difficulty level of Guild Wars vs. Guild Wars 2.

Enjoy.

Onshidesigns.1069:

“Hardcore players” are not players who grind the same content only for a reward. They don’t play, it’s just work to them.

The REAL Hardcore players are the ones who have fun playing the game!

No, hardcore players are the ones that will do trail and error (repeat stuff 1000 times) just to beat it at least once.

But imo they don’t like to farm/grind cause it’s boring. You got that part right.

Copestetic.5174:

lol GW2 is hard. You want hard? Go buy Guild Wars Prophecies, ( only Prophecies ) and make your way to this nice little Dwarf outpost named “Thunder Head Keep”. For more fun, get some of your real life friends involved. To make things fair, don’t use Wiki ( we didn’t have that in 2005 ) and restrict yourself to only Prophecies skills.

Now, do that about 20 times and report back here. We’ll compare and contrast the difficulty level of Guild Wars vs. Guild Wars 2.

Enjoy.

(shivers) WTB Run…Full Shiverpeaks tour…Paying…um…nothing cuz I don’t play GW1 anymores…lol

I do remember.

Cheers!

Gw2 is more a Casual Game. Even tho Anet tries to make it a Game for everyone, and has made a step in the right direction with the Gauntlet for Hardcore Players, the Majority of the PvE Content is easy. But I like that. As I get into situations in my life where I don’t have time for more than a few hours, I wouldn’t want to bother myself with more hard stuff than school delivers me already in order to progress ingame.

I’m perfectly fine with the game at the Moment, but I look forward to every change ArenaNet makes, because this game has a lot of things to improve on.

Depends on how you define ‘casual’ or ‘hardcore’ really.

If it’s in terms of difficulty, than the majority of it is casual (although you could probably raise the difficulty for yourself by intentionally limiting yourself).

I don’t, however, tend to agree that ‘casual’ and ‘hardcore’ are terms that should be applied to how difficult content is, but to play-style (time spent, investment into learning ect). For example, crafting. Someone can craft casually simply to get gear as they level, or they could aim to unlock every single recipe in the game, and not use guides for cooking.

Another note, challenging content isn’t ‘hardcore’. Both casual and hardcore players alike can enjoy challenging content. It’s more of a case of how they approach it. A casual player might use a guide, try for a bit and then go off to do something else before trying again, while a hardcore player might try to work out the encounters for themselves, or keep at it until they’ve done it.

Kronus.6048:

Since the beginning of the game, many changes have been done that made the game either more ’’casual’’ or more ’’hardcore’’. Many people don’t necessary see this , but it’s pretty obvious. Take for example those things:

-Personal Story – There have been complaints about personal story not being casual enough since many missions are hard by design unless you are X class or unless you bring friends to help you

-Recent change to Risen: Apparently Anet have fixed a bug to the Risen unit which magically gives risen 100 extra skills that hit for even more and also the morale of escort quests for temples that makes those quests nearly impossible

-Fractals: Fractals are not for everyone since it takes an insane amount of time where you have to deal with supposedly the hardest dungeons in game filled with jumping quests and traps

-queen’s gaunlet: Pretty obvious even though it was plagued with bugs.

The game used to be casual but now turns more hardcore. My question to Anet is really this: What kind of gamers do you really want? You cannot please all the parties because no matter what you try a side will always complain.