Guild Wars 2

Ok according to suggestion I’ll edit my post to make it more readable

I started this thread as a stress-releaving thread due the huge amount of frustation I builded up during these two years of dedication to GW2 so I ranted a bit (maybe more than a bit) but I’ll try to summarize it.

In the last months you (Anet) focused almost all your efforts on the living story/world and despite that’s not a bad thing, I like the story progression so far, we would really appreciate other contents too.

A clear example of that are dungeons, excluding some minor adjustement or exploit fixing we are stuck on the same 8 dungeons from the release, a couple more dungeons won’t hurt, a thing I really would like to see introduced are something like the GW1 elite dungeons “The Deep” and “Urgoz Warren” that they weren’t only difficult but theyr were rewarding and they needed a bit more coordination and enigm solving than the current dynamic of most of the gw2 dungeons of point -> aim -> massacre.

Another point, Fractals, even in this case post the Fractured release we haven’t seen major changes in fractals system that remains too long and too much unrewarding, I like fractals but I don’t think that they work well by now because they are too much unbalanced. It’s sad to see that every single time the party MUST start with the swamp fractal to minimize the time needed to complete the run and hope they don’t pick dredge/cliffside/grawl because this would multiply the time needed to complete the fractal run.

And now let’s handle the main theme of my original post, the trading post situation and the missing scavenging hunt.

Let’s start with the scavenging hunt. Originally you stated that to decrease the RNG dependency of precursor you were going to introduce a very long and hard quest to obtain a guarantee precursor item, this was vastly well accepted idea but we haven’t seen any more signs of the fabled scavenging hunt. This is really making me (and others) upset because I feel like hitting a rubber wall, at the beginning of my gw2 gameplay I was interested in the legendaries but i didn’t fell the urge to grab mine thinking that I would be able to get it later and I decided to focus on playing. After a year or so I decided that time is come to build up the legendary, I completed the map, I made clovers, I make gift of mastery and then “the horror”. T6 mats started to raise in price at incontrollable rate and they keep going up every day. By now the gift of fortune costs (excluding clovers) 1004.66 gold and this is going to get worse.

In fact while in gw1 “farming” was a natural practice (UW/FOW/DoA ecc…) in gw2 it’s seems to be an execrable habit.

But T6 spike is not the main problem, the main problem is the precursor weapon and it’s absurd dependency on a system that basically doesn’t work. The mystic forge RNG it capable of generating an incredible amount of rage in every player that plays with the forge (that’s why is also known as “The Mystic Toilet”) expecially when there are some players that toss hundreds or even thousand of weapons in it with absolutely no results and there are players that have the “luck” of obtaing three “Zap” in a row (I can’t find the link to the sceenshot proving it but trust me, it’s true).

How are we supposed to gather the gold needed to afford our legendaries, to improve our stats with ascended crafting or even for vanity due the raising gold to gems conversion?

We can’t do fast dungeons multiple times every day due the DR cutting drops every time.
We can’t farm because every time we find a farming spot you nerf it (like blix) and if you don’t nerf directly the farm usually you nerf the drop rate of everything valuable.
We can’t craft and sell things because everyone can craft everything so, excluding temporany spikes due new items, there are almost no profit.
We can’t flip the trading post because it’s specifically designed to prevent us from doing that with his website based structure that is much more instable than an integrated structure that leads to errors when trying to do multiple transactions consecutively and the 250 item limit.

I don’t want to give up with this game because i really like it but you’re really make it difficult to me to keep playing.

(if you want to read my original post it’s quoted a couple of post below)

Paragraphs. Use them.

TL/DR

yeah you’re right but i was writing with the sacred fire inside of me so i went berserk

Rant over? Trust me “TheCheater” we are all feeling the pinch at the moment (by “all” I mean 2-year old players). I’d be fibbing if I didn’t say I was at the end of my tether and am very seriously considering giving up on the game. But like a lot of others, I’m giving ANet the benefit of the doubt and am gonna hold out for another month or 2, to make my final choice… If I go, then it’s highly unlikely that I will come back… I suggest you give them a timeline of how much longer you are willing to give them too.

It’s clear you are fed up and frustrated with the current state of game, as are a lot of us. But just hold on and give ANet a fair amount of time to turn things around and put things right.

They do care, for the simple fact that if GW2 goes down the pan, so do their jobs! So don’t think they want GW2 to go up the swanny (as it were), they are just too few people to keep up with demand… but hopefully they will find a way to give us what we want (or as near as) soon.

To the OP: You certainly feel ‘Entitled’ don’t you.

If you actually look at the forum, A.Net is trying to engage again but with rants like yours, I see them pulling away because it is a ‘darned if you do, darned if you don’t’ mentality.

I’m afraid I didn’t read the ‘rant’, but I’m sure it was most apropos considering your Display Name.

Best of luck!

Participated in the blix event farm for a couple of weeks before the nerf & kind of wonder what all the fuss is about. Sure you got lots of champ boxes. Were they worthwhile? Seems to me most of the loot you obtain from the boxes is worthless.
As for precursors, I read here & there they drop from dungeons, champ boxes, pve mobs of all levels, world vs world, fractals & jumping puzzle chests. This maybe the case for some players, although with all the loot nerfing, I starting to assume those days are long gone. Even getting a yellow item from an event or champ box is a ‘rarity’.

In the September 2014 Feature Pack, we’re rethinking the way you collect and trade items! …… Hope this is going to be a positive change and not another nerf.

Trying to make money in this game is becoming next to impossible with the poor loot drops from different aspects of this game. Which does not aid anyone wanting to put in the time & effort trying to craft a legendary, when the cost is so high due to the large quantities of materials needed.

Precursors in the forge are hit & miss. Obtained 6 from the forge (4 in the space of three hours). Sold them all. Tried my luck at getting the two I wanted & most of my gold went down the toilet without any success (1500 bows without a hint of a precursor as an example). Even more disconcerting is decreasing amount of rare weapons available on the tp. The more we throw in the mystic forge the fewer there are to purchase. I guess because rare item drops are so infrequent now as part of loot drops (at least for me). Even high magic find stats appear to make no difference in quality of items received.
300% magic find. One rare item in 2 hours of game play. Most other items were white or blue with the occasional green thrown in.
Heck, if you could make a living from hoofs & porous skulls in this game we’d all be wealthy.

uknortherner.2670:

Paragraphs. Use them.

LOL thank you!

Anyway only time will tell if they care OP all we can do is participate, see what their priorities turn out to be, if they turn out to be anything other than fixing the game first before any other considerations I’ll have my answer. Only time will tell.

Ah yes…. Monday morning… and here we are…..

Another

“you broke your promise”
“gimme gimme gimme, I deserve everything”

/sarcasm off

I certainly don’t have an answer to the “precursor” issue. But I do understand the frustration for gold. Unfortunately there are those that grind out gold (via playing the trading post or grinding dungeons) and now have thousands of it and wish gold were taken out of the economy..(not that I understand the why of it)
While there are others that have less than 200g (after two years) and could never hope to buy any of the expensive stuff on the trading post.
But I agree, there should be an appropriate way for people to “farm” for gold (or items) how they wish.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Another
“you broke your promise”

And Threads like this are part of the reason why Anet isn’t telling us anything about the stuff they are developing.

Walhalla.5473:

And Threads like this are part of the reason why Anet isn’t telling us anything about the stuff they are developing.

They already told us what they’re working on: More living world, and no dungeons, SAB or hard mode. The problem was not “communication”; it was them being honest and then disappointing everyone.

I got to say I agree with a lot of the OP’s opinions. It feels like this game has no direction, or, rather, keeps changing direction.

We had several of the elder dragons already awake. Having killed Zhaitan, the logical expectation would be for an expansion that would pit us against another. Instead we get the living story that introduces Mordy. But wait, we have not really fought him yet even though I understand the living story is not going to advance for some time. So we got part way there and then….nothing.

We got two worlds in the SAB but then, it’s on hold.

We get new armors – but only in the gemstore. And now, even in the gemstore, we get outfits instead of armor, effectively separating appearance from gameplay itself even though originally advancement was supposed to be in terms of appearances not stats.

And, yeah, no scavenger hunt for legendaries.

And, to be honest, even the story line felt pretty thrown together.

There is a reason why the legendaries are so high and farming is so popular. There is nothing else to do in this game that feels “finished.”

It would be really nice if someone at ANet said, "here is where we are going to go and here is how we are going to get there instead of feeling like we playing half a dozen half finished projects (all of which were good ideas but few of which were ever really completed).

I wonder if ANet bothers to read walls of text. If they can’t take the time to make their post easy to read then why should a busy Dev read it?

Walhalla.5473:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Another
“you broke your promise”

And Threads like this are part of the reason why Anet isn’t telling us anything about the stuff they are developing.

Agreeing with Walhalla….

Why should they? People always read into articles, etc. what they want. That is why there are so many different interpretations of the Bible, the Koran, etc. You bring your own biases to it. Same thing happen(S -ED) with A.Net. They said a lot, ‘We shall see’ and people took it as ‘it will be in game’. When it wasn’t in game, people started yelling, you broke your promise. They didn’t promise anything, you assumed. Same with the SAB protest recently, A.Net said, SAB won’t be brought back in the near term, people assumed ‘NEVER’ and protested. That is the same issue.

To the OP, why don’t you actually be constructive instead of totally negative (as well as not using paragraphs – makes the text totally unreadable).

barnabas j collins.2306:

I got to say I agree with a lot of the OP’s opinions. It feels like this game has no direction, or, rather, keeps changing direction.

We had several of the elder dragons already awake. Having killed Zhaitan, the logical expectation would be for an expansion that would pit us against another. Instead we get the living story that introduces Mordy. But wait, we have not really fought him yet even though I understand the living story is not going to advance for some time. So we got part way there and then….nothing.

We got two worlds in the SAB but then, it’s on hold.

We get new armors – but only in the gemstore. And now, even in the gemstore, we get outfits instead of armor, effectively separating appearance from gameplay itself even though originally advancement was supposed to be in terms of appearances not stats.

And, yeah, no scavenger hunt for legendaries.

And, to be honest, even the story line felt pretty thrown together.

There is a reason why the legendaries are so high and farming is so popular. There is nothing else to do in this game that feels “finished.”

It would be really nice if someone at ANet said, "here is where we are going to go and here is how we are going to get there instead of feeling like we playing half a dozen half finished projects (all of which were good ideas but few of which were ever really completed).

First – players NEVER see the big picture as far as game development. They always focus on what they want, not about the whole game. A.Net has to look at the game as a whole and move forward from there. SAB was temporary content, put in during an April Fools Joke. People thought it would be cool as permanent content, but it really doesn’t fit with the basic premise of GW2, fighting the Elder Dragons (but neither does Trahearne but we will cross that bridge later).

A.Net doesn’t HAVE to tell you anything, but they are trying to do it cautiously. Why do you need to know EVERYTHING? It would be like the author telling you the storyline of his/her upcoming novel. It ruins the whole novel. Same here.

TheCheater.5190:

Anet do you really care about your players or are you just trying to test how much we can resist before we dump this game once and for all? It’s two years now that the game is out and still you’re fooling with us delaying EVERYTHING that you promised and constantly nerfing us. I haven’t played in the last days because I was busy and now I find out that you’re going to nerf the fiery greatsword brutally and that you already nerfed the only reliable farm that was left in game (yeah i’m referring to blix). By now we still have NO new dungeons, NO improvements to fractals (they take too much time to complete for a too small reward) and above every other thing NO scavenging hunt, do you remember that you stated that scavenging hunt would be activeated during march/april and we haven’t seen it at all? Pairing to this the situation of the trading post is becoming ridiculous and my first legendary is still miles away but i’m not the only one with this problem, precursors have reached abnormal prices (The Legend costs 1400 gold by now and the others are even more expensive) and T6 mats continue to raise in price. Right now the situation is on the verge of collapsing, a new player cannot even dream to build a legendary and even raise the crafting skills is a nightmare, right now due the cost of crafting materials the “gift of fortune” costs (excluding the clovers due RNG dependent) 1004.66 gold and to that enourmous amount of money we have to add the need to build a temple to a random divinity hoping in a divine blessing with the mystic forge (aka mystic toilet) to drop the needed precursor due the abnormal RNG that other than frustrating is also broken because i’ve seen players tossing thousands of rares/exo in the forge with NOTHING in return and players that get the precursor with just one attempt and the most disgusting thing was seeing a screenshot of a player that received THREE “Zap” with three consecutive attempts (I can’t find the link by now so you have to trust me or check your logs). Just to stress a bit more this thing I would quote a couple of statements like “we’re wathing the trading post situation…”, “we’re monitoring…”, “we’re going to address this…”, reminds something? That was you Anet assuring us that things wouldn’t have reached this absurd situation. HOW are we supposed to gather the money to afford such things? We can’t run dungeons multiple times because the reward decreases, we can’t craft because everyone can craft everything so players can’t build a market like it’s possible to do in other games like E.V.E Online or even SWTOR, we can’t farm because it’s evident that you consider farming a forbidden way of gaming considering that you nerf every single farming spot of the game as soon as we find them and we cannot even flip on the trading post due it’s website based structure rather than an integrated structire that crashes if someone tries to sell multiple things quickly and that doesn’t allow to buy more than 250 copies of an item, there are things that can be flipped but excluding some high-margin flips that are very slow to accomplish most of the flips have a margin of a couple of copper so to make a decent profit we have to buy hundreds of them but only 250 at time, I personally bought 10000 black lion chest to attempting to flip them for 1 copper profit and it took me 40 transactions to buy them all with several errors due the fast repeated transaction and only with this flip I wasted over 1 hour only for putting the orders. I really like this game, I’ve played it from the beginning two years ago, but I don’t want to make it a job that requires me to pass hours and hours and hours on the trading post hoping for a profit and I refuse to spend real money to buy gems to convert them to gold, now the 12 september the feature packs will be online and I really hope that contains a solution to these problems (or at least the beginning of a solution) otherwhise i really doubt that we’ll see a 3rd anniversary.

So for you fiery greatsword shouldn’t be modified? Because in pve i want to play a game called Guild Wars 2 and not a game called Guild Walls 2.

First of all Fiery greatsword was not nerfed actually fiery greatsword will be way more powerfull in pvp unless you fight in the wall in pvp lol then yeah its a nerf… that modification was needed for pve because it was overpower in dungeons it was just stupid… it takes 0 skill to kill the kitten and the boss’s.

To finish failing an event shouldn’t be more rewarding then winning the event… that’s stupid and it was not intention.

Dusty Moon.4382:

barnabas j collins.2306:

I got to say I agree with a lot of the OP’s opinions. It feels like this game has no direction, or, rather, keeps changing direction.

We had several of the elder dragons already awake. Having killed Zhaitan, the logical expectation would be for an expansion that would pit us against another. Instead we get the living story that introduces Mordy. But wait, we have not really fought him yet even though I understand the living story is not going to advance for some time. So we got part way there and then….nothing.

We got two worlds in the SAB but then, it’s on hold.

We get new armors – but only in the gemstore. And now, even in the gemstore, we get outfits instead of armor, effectively separating appearance from gameplay itself even though originally advancement was supposed to be in terms of appearances not stats.

And, yeah, no scavenger hunt for legendaries.

And, to be honest, even the story line felt pretty thrown together.

There is a reason why the legendaries are so high and farming is so popular. There is nothing else to do in this game that feels “finished.”

It would be really nice if someone at ANet said, "here is where we are going to go and here is how we are going to get there instead of feeling like we playing half a dozen half finished projects (all of which were good ideas but few of which were ever really completed).

First – players NEVER see the big picture as far as game development. They always focus on what they want, not about the whole game. A.Net has to look at the game as a whole and move forward from there. SAB was temporary content, put in during an April Fools Joke. People thought it would be cool as permanent content, but it really doesn’t fit with the basic premise of GW2, fighting the Elder Dragons (but neither does Trahearne but we will cross that bridge later).

A.Net doesn’t HAVE to tell you anything, but they are trying to do it cautiously. Why do you need to know EVERYTHING? It would be like the author telling you the storyline of his/her upcoming novel. It ruins the whole novel. Same here.

I never said we need to know everything. But we do need to know that there is actually some direction. Constantly changing direction while finishing nothing isn’t fun.

yeah sorry for the rant but too much frustration bottled up is dangerous for the health. I hope this post (and similar ones) would help to change the way things are going inside GW2 because I don’t want to abandon this game but Anet isn’t make it easy for us, wel’ll see what will be the changes apported with the september feature pack hoping for the best. A quick sidenote on my display name, I know “TheCheater” may look rather suspect but it was my first nickname and I’m attached to it (I swear that I cheat rarely and only on single-player games for fun (with a very brief exception for bf2142 but nvm))

This post won’t change anything, because of how it’s phrased. It doesn’t even matter if your points are legit or not legit. If you ask someone if they care or not, that’s completely 100% offensive. There’s not anything else to say about that.

Anet has consistently provided updates and content whether you like them or not. That shows at least a work ethic.

Threatening to dump the game once and for all? You how how many? The ten people who account for 90% of the complaining on this forum (admittedly you’re a new name).

There are plenty of people playing and enjoying the game. You have no evidence that you have the numbers to significantly affect the game’s population.

Accusations and threats should never be taken seriously.

I consider some of your points reasonable and some completely unreasonable, but due to the way you phrased your post, I’m not even going to bother listing which is which. People need to learn how to communicate in a way that is positive, even if they’re offering a negative opinion.

So, go back and edit it.

Or…leave as is; less chance the Devs will read it.

Your choice.

TheCheater.5190:

yeah sorry for the rant but too much frustration bottled up is dangerous for the health. I hope this post (and similar ones) would help to change the way things are going inside GW2 because I don’t want to abandon this game but Anet isn’t make it easy for us, wel’ll see what will be the changes apported with the september feature pack hoping for the best. A quick sidenote on my display name, I know “TheCheater” may look rather suspect but it was my first nickname and I’m attached to it (I swear that I cheat rarely and only on single-player games for fun (with a very brief exception for bf2142 but nvm))

While you are correct that too much frustration is bad for one’s health, there are better ways of dealing with it. Thus allowing you to approach and present your issues more rationally here, without ranting. This would garner a much healthier conversation in the long run, and make your post 1)more easily digestible to those that opt to actually read it and 2) make it somewhat more credible for the devs that have to deal with reading these forums. Do consider that the devs are human, and if we (your fellow forum goers) aren’t willing to read that wall, how likely are the devs to.

Just food for thought.

The crafting is a bit ridiculous really. It doesn’t matter how much effort you put in, you’re miles away from anything. Game prowess on the field I understand. Crafting, that should come to you. I can’t really believe how convoluted the new back thing is. And, you can’t hide a huge flower on your back. Who’s coming up with this stuff? What are you putting in his/her (or both) oatmeal?

Never seen such a thing with crafting. Sorry. (And, I hope to never see it again.)

uknortherner.2670:

Paragraphs. Use them.

Agreed….have to add the OPs name effected my reading continuation….

Also stopped after the first absurd attack veiled as a question….(pretty sure the entire post is like that but I won’t hurt my brain trying to read it).

Coopziana.1802:

… we are all feeling the pinch at the moment (by “all” I mean 2-year old players).

I’m not.

Other than paragraphs, let’s say you get the chance tomorrow to ask a dev a question… do you think asking them something like “do you really care about your players or are you just trying to test how much we can resist before we dump this game once and for all” would really foster change and discussion about the game, or put them on the defensive and/or just consider the post to be a troll or flame baiting and just ignore it completely? (I’ll bet the second one is the most likely reaction on their part)… which isn’t good, IMHO, because your feedback and your complains are 100% valid, but presented in a way that will most likely get the whole post ignored, if not outright deleted.

You say that you hope that post and more like those help change the way things go inside Anet, but TBH putting myself on their shoes, posts like that would just instead foster a “us Vs. them” mindset instead of a “let’s all work together” one.

Personally, I think it’s as good time as any to revive an old post by Josh Foreman:

1. It’s most helpful if you state your request or actionable item at the top. Then your reasons below. This helps us find and reference your post, pass it around for discussion, etc.

2. Don’t assume the reason that things are the way they are due to developer incompetence, laziness, apathy, stubbornness, greed, selfishness, lust or any of the other deadly sins. There are other possibilities beside developer personal defects. “Just” changing one thing usually has ramifications on other things that are hard to anticipate. An MMO is an incredibly complex web of interdependencies, and tweaking any individual part runs the risk of breaking many other parts. That’s why we don’t typically jump to instant ‘fixes’ (even though it’s tempting!) and why things that seem like obvious problems can take a lot longer to address than many would intuitively think they should. There is no MAKE IT WORK button that we refuse to push out of spite. Even if that were the case, it just doesn’t make sense to insult the party you are requesting something from. In what part of the real world does that ever work? No one wants to ‘slap you in the face’ or make the game less fun. We love you guys, and are thrilled that people play our game!

3. Don’t assume that we can just rearrange resources to work on your particular issue. Most of our teams are very specialized. It takes a long time to build the experience necessary to be a good productive member of the PvP, Story, Systems, or any other team. Just because we have X programmers working on bug fixes and Y working on Gameplay improvements, doesn’t mean we can arbitrarily move those numbers around. It’s just not that simple.

4. Please stop calling us liars when we fail to implement something we intended to months ago, but for some technical, balance, or other reason found it to be untenable. We can’t be very open about our plans if every word we say is taken as a contractual obligation. Imagine if every word you said to your friends were recorded and played back at the most inopportune time in order to make you look like a fool. You’d probably clam up pretty quickly. Making an MMO, especially one as experimental as GW2 requires… experimenting. Requires making plans, following through, finding dead ends, back-tracking and trying something else. Sometimes that means that we will state a clear goal, test it internally and find out it just won’t work. The idea that this means we don’t have a clear vision is wrong. There is a difference between a core vision for our design principles, and the implementation of specific systems. We are very clear about the mountain we want to scale, but whether we do it in 4×4, on foot, with a grappling hook, or a hot air balloon are all contingent on the terrain we discover as we progress.

5. You are not “all players”. Please stop saying “Players want X” just because you want X. The fact is that players want X, Y, Z, and the rest of the alphabet, and most of those desires conflict with each other. And I guarantee you, anything that the vast majority of the players want, we (as players of our own game) also want. If you don’t understand why something the vast majority of players and the devs want is not implemented, see the above points 2-4. I have a people-pleaser mentality, so this is one of the hardest pills for me to swallow as a developer. I want EVERYONE to be happy. Unfortunately, the rules of the real world make that impossible.

Source: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Collaborative-Development/page/20#post3007420

Boneheart.3561:

Coopziana.1802:

… we are all feeling the pinch at the moment (by “all” I mean 2-year old players).

I’m not.

Good for you!

I think the main issue is that ANet has decided to go forward with the Living Story, which is something that the majority of players do not want. Here’s what I honestly feel.

ANet, first of all, need to calm down with the Living Story. Living Story is a nice distraction, but honestly it takes maybe 1hr to complete one of the new “Episodes” and then we’re SOL for a few more weeks. Second, once LS stops being the main focus, focus on updating ONE aspect of the game. Only one for now. Make a brand new content patch so people can finally say “omg ANet finally gave some of the people what they asked for? Maybe we’re next?” and then they’ll give you a little more time.

ANet, the issue is that you’ve taken the game in the direction you want to go. And I can respect that, it’s your game. But at the same time, this isn’t an indie game, and you really dont get to do that. Some players have given you thousands of dollars, and the least you can do is give us something in return. Try making a cycle of updates, one month will be WvW, one month PvE, one month Fractals/Dungeons, and all the while have your story team cranking out a good storyline for LS that you can give to us. Everybody is happy, the game doesnt die, and you get less rage threads on the forums…

…once you remember to read them, that is

So, just ran across this in another thread:

ColinJohanson.2394:

The simple answer is: unless it’s nearing completion, we cannot talk about it. You can read Mo’s post titled “communicating with you” which covers in detail how we’ve been asked to message as of about a year ago in relation to what is in development.

What we can talk about is what we think tough problems are for the game to solve, what questions we think about regularly development wise about the game, or amazing ideas for what aspects of Gw2 can be – CDI’s are a great place for that discussion in particular. But we can’t answer what exactly we’re working on, what we might work on next, or what progress we’re making on stuff we are working on.

The reality is things like these sort of lists of “what is the team doing” like my old state of the game blogs created expectations. When plans, or implementation details changed, or we threw out whole systems because they weren’t good enough – I left the team looking bad for making them break those expectations. I’ve been asked to no longer do those blogs and instead focus on only doing the type of announcements we’ve done this year of stuff that is guaranteed to ship in a reasonable time-frame after we announce it. Things like the living world journal, structure of content for season two of living world, feature packs one, feature pack two, etc.

For everything you’re not hearing about…I can only say don’t assume that means we’re not working on it, most of us who build the game all day play the game constantly all night, and are just regular Gw2 players like a lot of you. We’re looking for a lot of the same things out of the game that you are, and we read the feedback from the community constantly. Heck I just flew in from being out of town for a couple weeks and I’m reading your thread at 10:30pm on a saturday, there ya go real proof!

Now that China has launched we’ve freed up a lot of development resources back to get to those things. We also have a lot of people at ArenaNet and you’ve only seen what some them are working on this last year or two. Since we can’t share a road map of what they’re doing per our company policy, all I can answer is I hope when we’re able to show you what all we’ve been doing in total someday in the future – you’re as excited as we are about it.

Note the part that I set in bold. It made me really sad, unhappy, kittened off… lot of emotions really, to read that, but I think it answers some of the OPs questions, and also indirectly supports some of our statements of why they don’t talk to us anymore. We, the forum goers, tend to be entitled kittens and so now they simply aren’t allowed to talk to us anymore. Go us…

sishbob.3987:

… the Living Story, which is something that the majority of players do not want.

[CITATION NEEDED]

I am not feeling the pinch, been here since the last open Beta, and pre-release. I wanted to love this game.

I remember the fun I had playing Guild Wars. I remember How i spent a LOT more time AFTER hitting level cap… grabbing Elite Skills, trying different sub-profession combinations… looking for synergy among all the different skills.

Gw2 was a totally different experience. I only have three level 80’;s and i do enjoy the engineer. But… The wife convinced me to give Archeage a try.

I get to grow my own mount. That’s right grow… as in " water… and sunshine".. Maybe they got the idea from Sylvari? Not sure… I digress.

I used to think that all I was anticipating was EQ Next. Then I heard about WoW WoD expac… and am anticipating that. Now i am playing through the Archeage Betas. And highly anticipating the release of Archeage.

To bring this back to the point. Know what i am unfortunately not anticipating? A gw2 expansion. Know what doesn’t make my toes twinkle eagerly with anticipation? Gw2 Living Story.

Gw2 does not seem to have anything that I am anticipating. The problem with that is…. when they do not have anything for a player to wait for eagerly…they get distracted by other offerings that do. Even something from a 10 year old game.

I know, this is where some players will say " can I have your stuff?" or " The door is over there." Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want Gw2 to copy archeage with it’s growable temp speed-boost combat mounts, or it’s Player Housing, or it’s Player run Justice System with players as jury etc…..

I want Gw2 to grow it’s own features that i can eagerly anticipate…but…. where are they? More Living Story?

I keep hoping that the devs will say to themselves.." we tried Living story out, and it doesn’t seem to be the " Big amazing thing" that we anticipated. Players would rather have an expansion. More Zones, More weapons, More skills, more professions… maybe we should give it to them? or…. we can try Living story season 3!!!"

I am slowly beginning to feel like the girl that expects a night out of Lobster and Dancing, that instead gets a big mac meal and bowling. Maybe I need a new date?

Boneheart.3561:

sishbob.3987:

… the Living Story, which is something that the majority of players do not want.

[CITATION NEEDED]

Lemme correct that then. LS is something that a majority of players do not want over content that actually matters and changes the game.

barnabas j collins.2306:

Dusty Moon.4382:

barnabas j collins.2306:

I got to say I agree with a lot of the OP’s opinions. It feels like this game has no direction, or, rather, keeps changing direction.

We had several of the elder dragons already awake. Having killed Zhaitan, the logical expectation would be for an expansion that would pit us against another. Instead we get the living story that introduces Mordy. But wait, we have not really fought him yet even though I understand the living story is not going to advance for some time. So we got part way there and then….nothing.

We got two worlds in the SAB but then, it’s on hold.

We get new armors – but only in the gemstore. And now, even in the gemstore, we get outfits instead of armor, effectively separating appearance from gameplay itself even though originally advancement was supposed to be in terms of appearances not stats.

And, yeah, no scavenger hunt for legendaries.

And, to be honest, even the story line felt pretty thrown together.

There is a reason why the legendaries are so high and farming is so popular. There is nothing else to do in this game that feels “finished.”

It would be really nice if someone at ANet said, "here is where we are going to go and here is how we are going to get there instead of feeling like we playing half a dozen half finished projects (all of which were good ideas but few of which were ever really completed).

First – players NEVER see the big picture as far as game development. They always focus on what they want, not about the whole game. A.Net has to look at the game as a whole and move forward from there. SAB was temporary content, put in during an April Fools Joke. People thought it would be cool as permanent content, but it really doesn’t fit with the basic premise of GW2, fighting the Elder Dragons (but neither does Trahearne but we will cross that bridge later).

A.Net doesn’t HAVE to tell you anything, but they are trying to do it cautiously. Why do you need to know EVERYTHING? It would be like the author telling you the storyline of his/her upcoming novel. It ruins the whole novel. Same here.

I never said we need to know everything. But we do need to know that there is actually some direction. Constantly changing direction while finishing nothing isn’t fun.

You don’t need to know the direction – more than likely a need to know basis. it is kind of like reading the end of a novel before the rest – it kind of ruins it for the rest.

You don’t know that they are constantly changing direction. To the players, it may feel that way but to the people looking at the whole of the game, it more than likely doesn’t. I mean think of the movie "the Hobbit’ – it is in 3 parts – didn’t the end of the first 2 feel like there was something missing? Same here. Players want to know the end before the journey is over – just give me the journey, the end is gravy.

I suggest a game wide boycott of the gem store until they provide us with what we’ve been asking for.

Vote with your wallet.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

So, just ran across this in another thread:

ColinJohanson.2394:

The simple answer is: unless it’s nearing completion, we cannot talk about it. You can read Mo’s post titled “communicating with you” which covers in detail how we’ve been asked to message as of about a year ago in relation to what is in development.

What we can talk about is what we think tough problems are for the game to solve, what questions we think about regularly development wise about the game, or amazing ideas for what aspects of Gw2 can be – CDI’s are a great place for that discussion in particular. But we can’t answer what exactly we’re working on, what we might work on next, or what progress we’re making on stuff we are working on.

The reality is things like these sort of lists of “what is the team doing” like my old state of the game blogs created expectations. When plans, or implementation details changed, or we threw out whole systems because they weren’t good enough – I left the team looking bad for making them break those expectations. I’ve been asked to no longer do those blogs and instead focus on only doing the type of announcements we’ve done this year of stuff that is guaranteed to ship in a reasonable time-frame after we announce it. Things like the living world journal, structure of content for season two of living world, feature packs one, feature pack two, etc.

For everything you’re not hearing about…I can only say don’t assume that means we’re not working on it, most of us who build the game all day play the game constantly all night, and are just regular Gw2 players like a lot of you. We’re looking for a lot of the same things out of the game that you are, and we read the feedback from the community constantly. Heck I just flew in from being out of town for a couple weeks and I’m reading your thread at 10:30pm on a saturday, there ya go real proof!

Now that China has launched we’ve freed up a lot of development resources back to get to those things. We also have a lot of people at ArenaNet and you’ve only seen what some them are working on this last year or two. Since we can’t share a road map of what they’re doing per our company policy, all I can answer is I hope when we’re able to show you what all we’ve been doing in total someday in the future – you’re as excited as we are about it.

Note the part that I set in bold. It made me really sad, unhappy, kittened off… lot of emotions really, to read that, but I think it answers some of the OPs questions, and also indirectly supports some of our statements of why they don’t talk to us anymore. We, the forum goers, tend to be entitled kittens and so now they simply aren’t allowed to talk to us anymore. Go us…

Because there is an excluded middle in this case. it’s not a Binary problem. Some players want the Devs to tell us what they have planned. They tried that. But then they had to go back on their plans…and that upset the player base, so the devs said." we cannot tell them our plans anymore."

See everyone is thinking there are ONLY 2 options.

1. Tell the players their plans , and fulfill them. And then if the devs cannot fulfill them, disappoint the fans.

or

2. Do not tell the fans anything until they are 100 % sure they can deliver.

The excluded middle seems to have been….excuded.

option 3. Tell the players your plans… so they know what they can anticipate, and they can get hungry for something new…. and deliver it, but…. if for whatever reason you CANNOT deliver…. tell your players what the problem is, if it is anticipated to be resolved, and how… more or less that it is being worked on….or…. " sorry we tried it, and here is why we cannot deliver it."

The thing that seems to upset reasonable players is not that they say " we will give you A" then they don’t.. it is that they say " we will give you A" they don’t..then they don’t bother to explain WHY A is Not coming… what is being done to deliver it, what problems are anticipated in delivery of A ETA of A or… “A is impossible for us at this time, it’s going on a backburner..or it’s not gonna be delivered.”

Now…while many will say this is too much to expect from developers that we should Just sit , and wait patiently… hoping they give us some notice of what is in store…but understanding " hey, we upset them, by trying to say " didn’t you say we would have A?" "

The answer isn’t to stop telling us what to anticipate. the answer is, if they cannot deliver A…. tell us why not.

See I am funny…if I have no idea what might be coming down the pike, what is being developed, what Might be coming….I lose interest, and start looking elsewhere.

ipan.4356:

I suggest a game wide boycott of the gem store until they provide us with what we’ve been asking for.

Vote with your wallet.

Go right ahead – I am sure you will be able to get everyone to help you (like China). This would only work if you didn’t already purchased the game.

You already paid for the game with the purchase of the box. The rest of the money is like gravy on fries, optional but it tastes good. You don’t need ANYTHING from the CS to play the game, it is all optional.

You will never get an answer you want because situations like this are always biased against the people company the questions are asked to. A.Net could answer and if it is not what YOU WANT, then you could still act like a spoiled child and stomp your feet in a hissy fit. This is what y’all are doing and what y’all look like.

sishbob.3987:

Boneheart.3561:

sishbob.3987:

… the Living Story, which is something that the majority of players do not want.

[CITATION NEEDED]

Lemme correct that then. LS is something that a majority of players do not want over content that actually matters and changes the game.

Sorry what? You can’t speak for most of the players. You don’t know most of the players. You can only speak for yourself and maybe your friends. That’s who you can speak for.

The living story matters and changes the game. If you don’t think so, you obviously don’t remember Kessex Hills and Lion’s Arch before the Living Story beat them up.

sishbob.3987:

Boneheart.3561:

sishbob.3987:

… the Living Story, which is something that the majority of players do not want.

[CITATION NEEDED]

Lemme correct that then. LS is something that a majority of players do not want over content that actually matters and changes the game.

The LS IS changing the game world. That is the point – destroyed LA, broken WP, Pale Tree maybe dying, items that were left from the LS in the world. Those are definite changes. How would a new chapter (like Prophecies to Factions in GW1) change things? All it would do is move players to a new area and the old area would stay the same. The LS is pushing things forward, not in the way you want but in the way A.Net feels would benefit the game.

How do you know the majority of players do not want the LS? Have you asked them or did you just assume because YOU don’t want it? Please state it properly, you don’t want the LS.

ipan.4356:

I suggest a game wide boycott of the gem store until they provide us with what we’ve been asking for.

Vote with your wallet.

Can I +10 that?

Coopziana.1802:

ipan.4356:

I suggest a game wide boycott of the gem store until they provide us with what we’ve been asking for.

Vote with your wallet.

Can I +10 that?

Go right ahead. They already have your money from buying the game. The money from the CS is just extra gravy.

ipan.4356:

I suggest a game wide boycott of the gem store until they provide us with what we’ve been asking for.

Vote with your wallet.

Player X doesn’t buy from the gem store for several months. This triggers alarms in the accountant’s office. Frantically ANet’s combs through Player X’s posting history, hoping to find the one thing he said he wanted that he didn’t get, that made him stop buying.

Likely? Not very.

The notion people have that not buying gems will somehow cause ANet to provide what they in particular have asked for is….. interesting……. Sure, if dissatisfied, stop buying. But to expect that they will know that Player X stopped because of costumes instead of armor and Player Y stopped because of Living Story and Player Z stopped because of (whatever bee got into his bonnet that day) is unrealistic.

It’s also unrealistic for someone to call out for a gamewide boycott because of whatever he is unhappy about. This assumes his unhappiness is gamewide and is also an unrealistic expectation.

Dusty Moon.4382:

sishbob.3987:

Boneheart.3561:

sishbob.3987:

… the Living Story, which is something that the majority of players do not want.

[CITATION NEEDED]

Lemme correct that then. LS is something that a majority of players do not want over content that actually matters and changes the game.

The LS IS changing the game. That is the point – damaged LA, broken WP, Pale Tree maybe dying. Those are definite changes. How would a new chapter (like Prophecies to Factions in GW1) change things? All it would do is move players to a new area and the old area would stay the same.

How do you know the majority of players do not want the LS? Have you asked them or did you just assume because YOU don’t want it? Please state it properly, You don’t want the LS.

Factions gave us, a whole new continent to explore, New Mobs to face, new skills, old skills with a new feel… a new theme. New elites…. new professions.

I cannot say for most since I do not have a citation. But for many…. Living Story is not something even close to an expansion. For many players an expansion doesn’t Just give us new things to do…. it gives us new ways to play..even if we are playing Old things, in old locations, it expands the way we play those things. New professions, weapons, and skills give us new ways to experience Tyria. Living story is a new chapter with the same old characters to an old book. An expansion is a New Book, with new characters set in the old world.

There is a difference, and many, like me, may be tired of what seems to be something done.." on the cheap". LS is Not a substitute for a real expansion, LS may sate til the real expansion arrives. but…it’s buttered crackers… it’s what you serve BEFORE dinner to keep people from starving…. but it is not dinner.

Nerelith.7360:

option 3. Tell the players your plans… so they know what they can anticipate, and they can get hungry for something new…. and deliver it, but…. if for whatever reason you CANNOT deliver…. tell your players what the problem is, if it is anticipated to be resolved, and how… more or less that it is being worked on….or…. " sorry we tried it, and here is why we cannot deliver it."

They do do some of this though. The issue I tend to run into isn’t the fact that weren’t telling us, it was that they weren’t using a consistent method to tell us. Sometimes it was updated through an interview, sometimes it’s through twitch, sometimes it’s just a question answered by a CM and a lot of people missed some of it. Which definitely didn’t help. However, some of those people expect a month by month updates, which just isn’t realistic (not if they want things done anyway).

The thing that seems to upset reasonable players is not that they say " we will give you A" then they don’t.. it is that they say " we will give you A" they don’t..then they don’t bother to explain WHY A is Not coming… what is being done to deliver it, what problems are anticipated in delivery of A ETA of A or… “A is impossible for us at this time, it’s going on a backburner..or it’s not gonna be delivered.”

Now…while many will say this is too much to expect from developers that we should Just sit , and wait patiently… hoping they give us some notice of what is in store…but understanding " hey, we upset them, by trying to say " didn’t you say we would have A?" "

The answer isn’t to stop telling us what to anticipate. the answer is, if they cannot deliver A…. tell us why not.

This probably touches on their not being able to give specifics in regards to any particular project. They can’t tell us “why” (even before all this hubub) only whether or not its still on the table or not. Which, really should be fine. Ok they are still working on it, or kitten they had to scrap it. In certain cases, we’ve had this information provided, it just wasn’t done in a consistent way, so a lot of people missed it. And thus all the “you broke your promises” bullkitten arises, when in fact no actual promise was made, and an update as to status is actually floating around out there…

Dusty Moon.4382:

sishbob.3987:

Boneheart.3561:

sishbob.3987:

… the Living Story, which is something that the majority of players do not want.

[CITATION NEEDED]

Lemme correct that then. LS is something that a majority of players do not want over content that actually matters and changes the game.

The LS IS changing the game world. That is the point – destroyed LA, broken WP, Pale Tree maybe dying, items that were left from the LS in the world. Those are definite changes. How would a new chapter (like Prophecies to Factions in GW1) change things? All it would do is move players to a new area and the old area would stay the same. The LS is pushing things forward, not in the way you want but in the way A.Net feels would benefit the game.

How do you know the majority of players do not want the LS? Have you asked them or did you just assume because YOU don’t want it? Please state it properly, you don’t want the LS.

I read the forums, and the amount that people want things that are NOT LS related seems to outweigh the one, like you, who do want things LS related.

Imho lore is just that: lore. Yes, I love the lore for most games, and GW is one of them. That does not mean that lore is more important than making a game that not only lasts, but is also fun for EVERYONE to play, not just the diehard lore fans who really care.

sishbob.3987:

Boneheart.3561:

sishbob.3987:

… the Living Story, which is something that the majority of players do not want.

[CITATION NEEDED]

Lemme correct that then. LS is something that a majority of players do not want over content that actually matters and changes the game.

Define “actually matters” and “game”. Because there’s massive vines running through Iron Marches and your statement sounds flat-out subjective.
But let’s pretend I didn’t type any of that, I’d like a citation for this “correct” statement.

Boneheart.3561:

sishbob.3987:

Boneheart.3561:

sishbob.3987:

… the Living Story, which is something that the majority of players do not want.

[CITATION NEEDED]

Lemme correct that then. LS is something that a majority of players do not want over content that actually matters and changes the game.

Define “actually matters” and “game”. Because there’s massive vines running through Iron Marches and your statement sounds flat-out subjective.
But let’s pretend I didn’t type any of that, I’d like a citation for this “correct” statement.

Wait, vines running through the iron marches is all we need to be happy? Someone call ANet. Tell them to put vines everywhere! Gameplay doesnt need to change. Cheating doesnt need to be addressed! And who needs those dungeons? And fractals? Phah!

If you seriously only needed to see some vines run through the map to be happy than good for you. But heres the thing. You’re still talking about lore, and how the world works. People want to play the game. Do vines running through the marches even change gameplay? Maybe they hint to a sinister boss battle, but honestly, unless spooky skeleton pops out the of the ground real quick and we fight him for a solid reason with some new concepts to work with, people wont be around to fight Mr Spooky, and thats a shame.

Edit: You even brought up the need to have updates to other aspects of the game in your original post. Yet you seem to be now fixated on defending the priority that LS has over the rest of the game? Confused.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Nerelith.7360:

option 3. Tell the players your plans… so they know what they can anticipate, and they can get hungry for something new…. and deliver it, but…. if for whatever reason you CANNOT deliver…. tell your players what the problem is, if it is anticipated to be resolved, and how… more or less that it is being worked on….or…. " sorry we tried it, and here is why we cannot deliver it."

They do do some of this though. The issue I tend to run into isn’t the fact that weren’t telling us, it was that they weren’t using a consistent method to tell us. Sometimes it was updated through an interview, sometimes it’s through twitch, sometimes it’s just a question answered by a CM and a lot of people missed some of it. Which definitely didn’t help. However, some of those people expect a month by month updates, which just isn’t realistic (not if they want things done anyway).

The thing that seems to upset reasonable players is not that they say " we will give you A" then they don’t.. it is that they say " we will give you A" they don’t..then they don’t bother to explain WHY A is Not coming… what is being done to deliver it, what problems are anticipated in delivery of A ETA of A or… “A is impossible for us at this time, it’s going on a backburner..or it’s not gonna be delivered.”

Now…while many will say this is too much to expect from developers that we should Just sit , and wait patiently… hoping they give us some notice of what is in store…but understanding " hey, we upset them, by trying to say " didn’t you say we would have A?" "

The answer isn’t to stop telling us what to anticipate. the answer is, if they cannot deliver A…. tell us why not.

This probably touches on their not being able to give specifics in regards to any particular project. They can’t tell us “why” (even before all this hubub) only whether or not its still on the table or not. Which, really should be fine. Ok they are still working on it, or kitten they had to scrap it. In certain cases, we’ve had this information provided, it just wasn’t done in a consistent way, so a lot of people missed it. And thus all the “you broke your promises” bullkitten arises, when in fact no actual promise was made, and an update as to status is actually floating around out there…

See we agree. If it is not consistently done, it’s not being done in a way that players may have access to.

What’s wrong with a Notice when players log in? Just a Blurb the same exact way they announce a new armor skin?

" Update on precursor crafting…. (link)"

Then when you go there, they say " we had anticipated having precursor crafting available by now but… while we cannot discuss why, we can tell you it’s On the back-burner for at least 6 months to a year. sorry we couldn’t get it done… we will keep you posted."

I don’t see what would have been wrong to include that in between the:

“awesome new armor-skin XXXXX Now on Gem-store.”

and

“awesome new weapon skin YYYYY Now on Gem-store.”

LS is pretty good – I enjoyed some parts of it, but not all. Perhaps my biggest disappointment with LS was that many of the events ended up being dominated by the zerg once again, but that’s a hard thing to deal with. When something like LS events happen, lots of people show up for them. I don’t really fault Anet for that, because no one has figured that one out yet.

But, it bothers me that people treat the LS as if it’s a substitute for the real meat of ‘new content’ – it’s not.

As a couple people have pointed out – LS is NOT new maps (well, there was Dry Top…but it’s so tiny), it’s not a new class, it’s not new dungeons, or a new playable race.

In short, it’s not an expansion.

And that is the meat of the issue – no expansion.

I got no beef with the LS itself really – but I do with people who try to pull the wool over my eyes and convince me that LS is an acceptable replacement for ‘expansion’ grade material.

It’s not.