Guild Wars 2

For some weird reason or another, anet has been trying to reduce its player base for some time now. Starting with making champs in to vets. Reworking dungeons so that we only do one path per day. Removing traits so you only get them if you want to waste all that extra time doing the events (or buy them) is just another in their weird idea on how to make the game better. If players are playing some specific aspect of a game then removing is it pathetic and will only lead to less players playing the game. It is getting to the point that some of these events are not soloable and there are no other players available to help so players end up not bothering to get the traits that are required to play other parts of the game, like wvw and pvp etc!

I’m confused. Is something missing? Or did you just want to quote yourself or someone else?

I could argue that allowing only one path a day means that people come in and run dungeons on more days. Some people will leave. That’s true.

But there are tons of people who burn through what they want to get what they want and leave anyway. My sons were like that. Got their legendary and left. Came back made ascended armor and left.

So for those people, if they could have made it faster they would have left sooner.

In the end, all most MMOs become is a list of things to do. Almost every MMO finds out sooner or later that something has to be gated. Other games lock out raids so you can only do them once a week and so you have to wait to get stuff.

Some people will leave. But not as many as you think and many more will stay because they have “something to work on”.

Reducing player base = Reducing customer base

Why the kitten would they “want” to do that?

Azhure.1857:

Reducing player base = Reducing customer base

Why the kitten would they “want” to do that?

I was wondering the same actually.

You’re the one that posted this nonsense thread. Don’t give me that “wondering” crap.

Where did this quote come from?

A lot of the things being mentioned happened because we the players asked for it, even the dungeon limitations to some extent. But what exactly did they remove now?

I’m rather lost.

What’s this thing about allowing a dungeon path per day? o.o

Cryptic as ever, Knighthonor. Lol

Maxwell.7843:

What’s this thing about allowing a dungeon path per day? o.o

End rewards and the chests I think. You used to be able to be able to run the dungeon(s) on alts and get the full rewards, including boss chests, but those were made to once per account for some unknown (and unasked for) reason.

skullmount.1758:

Maxwell.7843:

What’s this thing about allowing a dungeon path per day? o.o

End rewards and the chests I think. You used to be able to be able to run the dungeon(s) on alts and get the full rewards, including boss chests, but those were made to once per account for some unknown (and unasked for) reason.

Oooh, that.
I was getting worried for moment, thanks for clarifying!

skullmount.1758:

Maxwell.7843:

What’s this thing about allowing a dungeon path per day? o.o

End rewards and the chests I think. You used to be able to be able to run the dungeon(s) on alts and get the full rewards, including boss chests, but those were made to once per account for some unknown (and unasked for) reason.

To reduce endless CoF P1 farming, which was a good thing…

maddoctor.2738:

skullmount.1758:

Maxwell.7843:

What’s this thing about allowing a dungeon path per day? o.o

End rewards and the chests I think. You used to be able to be able to run the dungeon(s) on alts and get the full rewards, including boss chests, but those were made to once per account for some unknown (and unasked for) reason.

To reduce endless CoF P1 farming, which was a good thing…

So instead of adjusting the other dungeon’s rewards or making CoF remarkbly harder/longer to finish the solution of Anet to limit the player experience is a good thing? Well, if that is your mind-set, you should consider applying to ArenaNet.

Azhure.1857:

Reducing player base = Reducing customer base

Why the kitten would they “want” to do that?

They wouldn’t. The OP is just self-absorbed. ArenaNet nerfed features that they liked. Since they are about to rage quit ArenaNet is reducing the player base. The implication there is that the OP represents the player base. I know it makes no sense, but some people (myself included, when I was younger) have trouble understanding that the majority might not see things their way.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Where did this quote come from?

A lot of the things being mentioned happened because we the players asked for it…

No, not really.

ANet’s established method of communicating its intentions along with their general reluctance to understand that killing the goose is no way to secure the supply of golden eggs is reflected in the changes that ANet has brought about:

Ascended Tier:

Players widely expressed concerns of a dearth of end-game progression opportunities, so instead of ANet implementing (let’s say) a fully fleshed bevy of “Elite Traits” and a engaging system of acquisition to the game; they gave us instead a dungeon treadmill (Fractals) and the poorly realized Ascended Tier.

Fractal Level +30 Reset:

Fractals became the new corridor of progression and plenty of players lined up and started grinding them out in the understandable confidence that ANet had adequately planned out the path ahead. Unfortunately, it had not.

ANet revised the entire system, and changed the rules.

I never had a dog in this fight, but it was another “thrashing” dev change inflicted on players that could be categorized as “major”.

Trait Unlock:

Players, still hungry for progression opportunities, clamored for something that the original Guild Wars had offered: Elite Skill Hunting/Acquisition.

It was a great idea that would allow the players at 80 to have a full spectrum of new and varied challenging (perhaps, ever-growing number of) opportunities to acquire NEW “elite” Traits to top off the existing core Trait lines.

Tone deaf as always, ANet decided to rework the ENTIRE Trait system as well into the introduced system. This changed the game in a fundamental way, I won’t delve into if it was good or bad; but let’s agree it was a HUGE game changer.

NPE’s Level Gating:

In response to a “dire” need to retain new players that presumably were quitting due to the game’s complexity, ANet added further layers of progression complexity.

Where once, an elegant and intuitive system existed, a clunky, inconsistent and plodding progression curve was introduced.

Stepped and widely spaced attribute gains led to some serious peaks and valleys in what had used to be a smooth progression.

Skills and abilities were level gated in off-putting and non-complimentary ways. (Example Off-hand usage and Weapon Swap)

@Kuldebar – Right on spot.

And instead of giving the community what it really wanted they gave us this.

Where are the ingame achievable armors after 2 years? Without Gem-Shop theres not much.

Where are the new skills?

Where is a change in balance and making the feeling of the game less stale?

Where are new professions?

Where are new traits that make our characters more cutomizable?

In general – excluding the gem-shop there are not much possibilities to customize your char. Every class has 1 max. 2 builds. Every weapon type has 1-2 good designs. Means you see everybody running around with the same build and with same/similar weapon types. It is frustrating if you take into consideration the amount of variety excluding the gem-shop. Since that was the initial offer for $60 that did not really change in 2 years.

Kuldebar.1897:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Where did this quote come from?

A lot of the things being mentioned happened because we the players asked for it…

No, not really.

ANet’s established method of communicating its intentions along with their general reluctance to understand that killing the goose is no way to secure the supply of golden eggs is reflected in the changes that ANet has brought about:

Ascended Tier:

Players widely expressed concerns of a dearth of end-game progression opportunities, so instead of ANet implementing (let’s say) a fully fleshed bevy of “Elite Traits” and a engaging system of acquisition to the game; they gave us instead a dungeon treadmill (Fractals) and the poorly realized Ascended Tier.

Fractal Level +30 Reset:

Fractals became the new corridor of progression and plenty of players lined up and started grinding them out in the understandable confidence that ANet had adequately planned out the path ahead. Unfortunately, it had not.

ANet revised the entire system, and changed the rules.

I never had a dog in this fight, but it was another “thrashing” dev change inflicted on players that could be categorized as “major”.

Trait Unlock:

Players, still hungry for progression opportunities, clamored for something that the original Guild Wars had offered: Elite Skill Hunting/Acquisition.

It was a great idea that would allow the players at 80 to have a full spectrum of new and varied challenging (perhaps, ever-growing number of) opportunities to acquire NEW “elite” Traits to top off the existing core Trait lines.

Tone deaf as always, ANet decided to rework the ENTIRE Trait system as well into the introduced system. This changed the game in a fundamental way, I won’t delve into if it was good or bad; but let’s agree it was a HUGE game changer.

NPE’s Level Gating:

In response to a “dire” need to retain new players that presumably were quitting due to the game’s complexity, ANet added further layers of progression complexity.

Where once, an elegant and intuitive system existed, a clunky, inconsistent and plodding progression curve was introduced.

Stepped and widely spaced attribute gains led to some serious peaks and valleys in what had used to be a smooth progression.

Skills and abilities were level gated in off-putting and non-complimentary ways. (Example Off-hand usage and Weapon Swap)

totally agree

Tristar.2687:

maddoctor.2738:

skullmount.1758:

Maxwell.7843:

What’s this thing about allowing a dungeon path per day? o.o

End rewards and the chests I think. You used to be able to be able to run the dungeon(s) on alts and get the full rewards, including boss chests, but those were made to once per account for some unknown (and unasked for) reason.

To reduce endless CoF P1 farming, which was a good thing…

So instead of adjusting the other dungeon’s rewards or making CoF remarkbly harder/longer to finish the solution of Anet to limit the player experience is a good thing? Well, if that is your mind-set, you should consider applying to ArenaNet.

That wouldn’t solve the problem. The farmers would simply find the next best path then and once again ignore all the others.

Knighthonor.4061:

Azhure.1857:

Reducing player base = Reducing customer base

Why the kitten would they “want” to do that?

I was wondering the same actually.

Or probably renew/reset the player base, iv’e noticed Anet love Skrits as player base, they will accept any shinny “stuff” as major update.

>:]

Anet is trying to appeal to a core player base who likes the game they’re making. They probably care a bit less about people who want to play a different game. For example, some people like the idea of open world PvP but it was never meant to be in this game.

It’s not that Anet isn’t sorry to see players go. They simply don’t want to lose the other players to keep those players.

If you lose the people who don’t fit your game, and keep the people who like it, adding a few here and there along the way who feel the same way, you should do decent business.

It’s when you try to appeal to everyone that you end up suffering.

This is just another tiresome loot moan. You can still have fun running dungeons as you used to do but you don’t get full gold for every alt. You can still have fun running event chains as you used to do but you don’t get as many champion purses as before. The trains are not there any more since whatever fun came from the social element was less important to the farmers than the gold, seemingly. Traits … well everyone agrees that the trait unlocking is awful.

Anet are not closing down fun elements of the game. They are closing down excessive loot rewards. All the fun elements of the game are still there for players who do not equate fun with gold.

Stooperdale.3560:

This is just another tiresome loot moan. You can still have fun running dungeons as you used to do but you don’t get full gold for every alt. You can still have fun running event chains as you used to do but you don’t get as many champion purses as before. The trains are not there any more since whatever fun came from the social element was less important to the farmers than the gold, seemingly. Traits … well everyone agrees that the trait unlocking is awful.

Anet are not closing down fun elements of the game. They are closing down excessive loot rewards. All the fun elements of the game are still there for players who do not equate fun with gold.

Except for most players its the loot that makes its fun, or at least repeatable. Take out the loot, it becomes less fun thus and takes away incentive to repeat it. Look at SW. First day or so it was actually active (till chest farming became a thing), then when chest farming ‘bug’ was fixed, players pretty much abandoned it (other than constantly swapping to near complete breaches) due to lack of rewards. At least thats my opinion on why its fairly empty. The lack of monster loot and the low event rewards is why I don’t really like the map.

skullmount.1758:

Except for most players its the loot that makes its fun, or at least repeatable.

This. Whenever I see people write on the forums about playing ‘just for fun’ and talking about rewards being unnecessary, I am genuinely puzzled. Rewards are at least half the fun of any MMO.

Jahroots.6791:

skullmount.1758:

Except for most players its the loot that makes its fun, or at least repeatable.

This. Whenever I see people write on the forums about playing ‘just for fun’ and talking about rewards being unnecessary, I am genuinely puzzled. Rewards are at least half the fun of any MMO.

Different strokes for different folks. Some people don’t need that “new shiny toy” or that huge gold drop to have fun in an MMO..

ANet is just wasting the fantastic combat system on PvE and LS updates, rather than focus on sPvP and WvW, which has been the endgame for GW2. Those two sorely neglected game modes (with a missing GvG mode) is what this game is suffering from. Screw the PvE. You get a few skins then grind for 1000s of hours for the next few skins. Put the attention into WvW and watch the player base reinvigorate itself on proper endgame content.

The market Anet is aiming for is the ones who have not only expendable cash but the desire to spend that cash to obtain ‘stuff’. Anet has shown they really are not targeting their original, steady player base. They are courting the MMO hoppers who go from game to game. And it seems to be working for them.

I have not played, seriously played, this game in over a year. Why? Because Anet seems to have lost whatever plan they had to actually improve the game.

But that’s a whole different conversation.

Many players – not me – have clamored since release for better PvP and WvW. And the mechanics, as I understand, are available to activate. Why doesn’t Anet improve their PvP/WvW gameplay to allow that core of players to enjoy the game more?

Many players – definitely me – have clamored since release for better PvE. Not dumbed down. No huge piles of loot at the end of every quest. But interesting, working quests that allow us to enjoy the beautiful world the artists have drawn us while we ‘save’ the various NPCs from terrible troubles or work through our personal stories.

Instead we get more and more ‘living’ content – which I understand, really I do, as a way to breath life into the game – that may/may not be bug-ridden and may/may not be available to players without ponying up real life funds.

So, while I am a veteran-since-release of GW1 and a beta-tester and original purchaser of GW2, I am still expected to buy into a game in order to play it. Not for pretty new skins or for cool mounts or any other non-essential material. But to actually play the game.

How is that, in itself, not deliberately trying to reduce its player base?

FalconDance.1637:

The market Anet is aiming for is the ones who have not only expendable cash but the desire to spend that cash to obtain ‘stuff’. Anet has shown they really are not targeting their original, steady player base. They are courting the MMO hoppers who go from game to game. And it seems to be working for them.

I have not played, seriously played, this game in over a year. Why? Because Anet seems to have lost whatever plan they had to actually improve the game.

But that’s a whole different conversation.

Many players – not me – have clamored since release for better PvP and WvW. And the mechanics, as I understand, are available to activate. Why doesn’t Anet improve their PvP/WvW gameplay to allow that core of players to enjoy the game more?

Many players – definitely me – have clamored since release for better PvE. Not dumbed down. No huge piles of loot at the end of every quest. But interesting, working quests that allow us to enjoy the beautiful world the artists have drawn us while we ‘save’ the various NPCs from terrible troubles or work through our personal stories.

Instead we get more and more ‘living’ content – which I understand, really I do, as a way to breath life into the game – that may/may not be bug-ridden and may/may not be available to players without ponying up real life funds.

So, while I am a veteran-since-release of GW1 and a beta-tester and original purchaser of GW2, I am still expected to buy into a game in order to play it. Not for pretty new skins or for cool mounts or any other non-essential material. But to actually play the game.

How is that, in itself, not deliberately trying to reduce its player base?

Because you’re only looking at it from your point of view. And I’m sure there are a demographic of players who share your point of view, but I believe those players are a minority.

The amount of players who think deeply about their gaming experience is probably quite small. A lot of people log in, kill a few things, do a bit of crafting, gathering, do a daily and go to bed to get up for work the next day. They don’t really have the time or energy to play the hours it takes to get great at a game or work through raids.

These are people who do this as a hobby. People spend money on their hobbies.

A better question is when did you last buy a movie that kept coming out with more parts that you didn’t have to pay for.

You seem to think all content should be free forever. But that’s not really how the world works at all. Even in Guild Wars 1, though there was a bit of free content from time to time, you paid for expansions.

In WoW, you not only pay a monthly fee, you pay a monthly fee, pay for expansions, you still play twenty bucks to transfer a server or for a name change AND there’s a cash shop.

Anet once has 50 people working there. Now they have at least six times that amount. Box sales alone aren’t going to cut it.

If you want to play the content, be happy to pay for it. And keep in mind had you actually just logged in, even if you didn’t play, it would have unlocked for free, which most of us did.

lol this OP

All that you said was to reduce the gold inflation , less ways to obtain gold so is easier for most players to get cool stuff and the traits so people have more things to spend gold

Not all players have the time to do 45 times CoF or anything stupid to get gold

After all this game isnt for the no life player its more for fun and asthetics

Mmmm yeah the player base was reduced but only was mindless players that only know to press 1 all the day in the same boring map , so was a good thing

Vayne.8563:

You seem to think all content should be free forever. But that’s not really how the world works at all. Even in Guild Wars 1, though there was a bit of free content from time to time, you paid for expansions.

If you want to play the content, be happy to pay for it. And keep in mind had you actually just logged in, even if you didn’t play, it would have unlocked for free, which most of us did.

You made a few erroneous assumptions there, but that’s ok since you don’t know me.

I paid for every new campaign and the one expansion of GW1. Gladly. I enjoyed the free new content they put in every now and then, as well. In fact, there were three of us in the household who all had our own copies of everything. We still go back for the holiday events, and I play content on occasion even though I’ve completed it all several times.

The campaigns were new content, stand-alone if that’s what you wanted. The expansion was not, obviously, and required you to own one of two given campaigns (from a story line, it had to be so to make sense). There was a progression of story. There was an achievements system added in which was engaging and, at times, challenging though it was optional. There was a multitude of skills that, while it was a bear for the devs to balance in any sense of the word, gave you a smorgasbord of possibilities for your character’s progression.

“Living Story”, however, is not an expansion. It is temporary content, mostly. The bulk of it is instanced (which is why you can purchase it later if you missed it first time around), but it also has effects on the main game (ruins of LA). It straddles a very uncomfortable line.

But you are correct – if I’d logged in, it might have unlocked the content for future use. If I’d been aware of the possibility of it being a pay-to-play otherwise, I might have done that. But hindsight is always 20/20.

What I was trying to get at and apparently failing miserably is that there is little to keep a veteran player. For example, there was an escort quest that I could not complete for over a year because it was bugged – reported repeatedly by many, many, many players (and acknowledged as being bugged). There were personal story quests that were bugged in a similar fashion. Instead of immediately – or even quickly – addressing the problem, we were pretty much told to shut up, they were working on stuff.

Then The Lost Shores happened. I was there. My guild was there. What a clusterbomb. And the next “living story” bit (Flame and Frost). And the holiday stuff – which was really fun! And then the next bit of “living story” which was a slightly less clusterbomb than its predecessors. somewhere in there was the “Adventure Box” thing which made no sense unless you were really into Mario Brothers as a kid. And it kept going. Frankly, I gave up trying to follow it. My gaming time is precious – and tremendous lag, sub-optimalized storyline implementation, the seeming unwillingness to make meaningful repairs to what was reported as ‘broken’, and the “what the kitten” factor drove me away.

Of course a company should seek to attract new players. That is a no-brainer. But they should also seek to retain the core base that launched their game and enabled it to be around to attract the new, as well. Not by giving away stuff every day. By fixing what is broken in a timely fashion. By communicating intent (not details). By listening to and acknowledging what players are saying (not necessarily acquiescing) when they say that XYZ seems sub-par and craptastic, what about this other idea.

Conaywea.5062

Mmmm yeah the player base was reduced but only was mindless players that only know to press 1 all the day in the same boring map , so was a good thing

That, sir/madam, was just disrespectful and untrue.

My apologies to the OP. I seem to have become distracted and gotten somewhat off topic.

Conaywea.5062:

(…)

Mmmm yeah the player base was reduced but only was mindless players that only know to press 1 all the day in the same boring map , so was a good thing

I feel its the other way arround, Anet moved them to EOTM and is working on LS making it lesser zergy , other game modes are being almost ignored, and those players were the ones that are mostly ignoring the game atm.

Anet role model caters Pve and EOTM.

Kuldebar.1897:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Where did this quote come from?

A lot of the things being mentioned happened because we the players asked for it…

No, not really.

ANet’s established method of communicating its intentions along with their general reluctance to understand that killing the goose is no way to secure the supply of golden eggs is reflected in the changes that ANet has brought about:

Ascended Tier:

Players widely expressed concerns of a dearth of end-game progression opportunities, so instead of ANet implementing (let’s say) a fully fleshed bevy of “Elite Traits” and a engaging system of acquisition to the game; they gave us instead a dungeon treadmill (Fractals) and the poorly realized Ascended Tier.

Fractal Level +30 Reset:

Fractals became the new corridor of progression and plenty of players lined up and started grinding them out in the understandable confidence that ANet had adequately planned out the path ahead. Unfortunately, it had not.

ANet revised the entire system, and changed the rules.

I never had a dog in this fight, but it was another “thrashing” dev change inflicted on players that could be categorized as “major”.

Trait Unlock:

Players, still hungry for progression opportunities, clamored for something that the original Guild Wars had offered: Elite Skill Hunting/Acquisition.

It was a great idea that would allow the players at 80 to have a full spectrum of new and varied challenging (perhaps, ever-growing number of) opportunities to acquire NEW “elite” Traits to top off the existing core Trait lines.

Tone deaf as always, ANet decided to rework the ENTIRE Trait system as well into the introduced system. This changed the game in a fundamental way, I won’t delve into if it was good or bad; but let’s agree it was a HUGE game changer.

NPE’s Level Gating:

In response to a “dire” need to retain new players that presumably were quitting due to the game’s complexity, ANet added further layers of progression complexity.

Where once, an elegant and intuitive system existed, a clunky, inconsistent and plodding progression curve was introduced.

Stepped and widely spaced attribute gains led to some serious peaks and valleys in what had used to be a smooth progression.

Skills and abilities were level gated in off-putting and non-complimentary ways. (Example Off-hand usage and Weapon Swap)

I’d add to this:

Turning off SAB

No clue on why this happened, so not even speculating, but you know, riots.

Making activities rotate

Rather than make activities more fun by adding leaderboards, or making them playable with guild/party members, they made them rotate. I don’t know about anyone else, but this made me stop playing them entirely because any time I was in the mood to play one, it was either inactive, or I couldn’t be bothered to go and find out if I was lucky enough for it to be active.

The game could have so many options for what to do when you log in. But they keep being blocked off in the interests of (I think) channelling people to play things together, whether that’s what they want to be doing or not.

Kuldebar.1897:

Ascended Tier:

Players widely expressed concerns of a dearth of end-game progression opportunities, so instead of ANet implementing (let’s say) a fully fleshed bevy of “Elite Traits” and a engaging system of acquisition to the game; they gave us instead a dungeon treadmill (Fractals) and the poorly realized Ascended Tier.

No, I distinctly recall the threads calling for gear progression and raid like grind. I remember fighting against them, because we didn’t need gear progression, we didn’t need a treadmill grind. That’s why they gave use ascended and fractals. That’s on those people, but it was asked for.

Kuldebar.1897:

Fractal Level +30 Reset:

Fractals became the new corridor of progression and plenty of players lined up and started grinding them out in the understandable confidence that ANet had adequately planned out the path ahead. Unfortunately, it had not.

ANet revised the entire system, and changed the rules.

I never had a dog in this fight, but it was another “thrashing” dev change inflicted on players that could be categorized as “major”.

I don’t pay attention to fractals. All I remember was people kittening that they had completed what was available, were bored with no new fractals, and wanted it to be more challenging. Tada…fractal overhaul. Was resetting the levels a bit much maybe? Sure, but having to reclimb that ladder gave them something to do now didn’kitten

Kuldebar.1897:

Trait Unlock:

Players, still hungry for progression opportunities, clamored for something that the original Guild Wars had offered: Elite Skill Hunting/Acquisition.

It was a great idea that would allow the players at 80 to have a full spectrum of new and varied challenging (perhaps, ever-growing number of) opportunities to acquire NEW “elite” Traits to top off the existing core Trait lines.

Tone deaf as always, ANet decided to rework the ENTIRE Trait system as well into the introduced system. This changed the game in a fundamental way, I won’t delve into if it was good or bad; but let’s agree it was a HUGE game changer.

Yes, we asked for skill hunting. They applied it to traits instead. They gave us a logical explanation as to why it was easier to do traits as opposed to skills. It’s really not that kitten awful. Yes, several acquisitions still need tweaking, but the world hasn’t ended.

Kuldebar.1897:

NPE’s Level Gating:

In response to a “dire” need to retain new players that presumably were quitting due to the game’s complexity, ANet added further layers of progression complexity.

Where once, an elegant and intuitive system existed, a clunky, inconsistent and plodding progression curve was introduced.

Stepped and widely spaced attribute gains led to some serious peaks and valleys in what had used to be a smooth progression.

Skills and abilities were level gated in off-putting and non-complimentary ways. (Example Off-hand usage and Weapon Swap)

Like the traits, the NPE has it’s pros and its cons. I’ve leveled several characters since those changes came along. Again, the sky is not falling. It is not the end of the world. It’s far from perfect, but it’s not hellfire and brimstone either. There have been people both helped and hindered by those changes.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Ascended Tier:

No, I distinctly recall the threads calling for gear progression and raid like grind.

Yes, that’s what I indicated:

“Players widely expressed concerns of a dearth of end-game progression opportunities…”

Many players were asking for some sort of progression at level 80, ANet came out two months after release with Ascended Gear and then Fractals. It was rushed, poorly thought out, and Ascended is still mostly a work in progress.

Fractal Level +30 Reset:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

All I remember was people kittening that they had completed what was available, were bored with no new fractals, and wanted it to be more challenging. Tada…fractal overhaul. Was resetting the levels a bit much maybe? Sure, but having to reclimb that ladder gave them something to do now didn’kitten

Yes, a reset. I was mentioning this to illustrate the point: Fractals (and Ascended) was a rush job that could have benefited from more development time.

Again, yes, players ask for things, and games often are lacking in things, but this doesn’t give the Devs a free pass to slap whatever out onto the servers and then pass the buck to the player-base when it turns sour.

Trait Unlock:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Yes, we asked for skill hunting. They applied it to traits instead. They gave us a logical explanation as to why it was easier to do traits as opposed to skills. It’s really not that kitten awful. Yes, several acquisitions still need tweaking, but the world hasn’t ended.

Not sure why you wasted so many words on a point of relative agreement.

But, again, the entire point is what the the community “blob” asks for versus what ANet gives us. Many players feel that things are getting lost in translation somewhere.

NPE’s Level Gating:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Like the traits, the NPE has it’s pros and its cons. I’ve leveled several characters since those changes came along. Again, the sky is not falling. It is not the end of the world. It’s far from perfect, but it’s not hellfire and brimstone either. There have been people both helped and hindered by those changes.

Again, the entire point is what the the community asks for versus what ANet gives us. In this case, the NPE appeared to be addressing a “dire” problem according to ANet that many players didn’t know existed.

I can only speak from my own experience and what friends who once played GW2 and since quit (not to return) have told me. It was not because the game was too difficult.

But, that doesn’t matter, no one knew or guessed that ANet was cooking up a tutorial/leveling curve overhaul; it was pretty much the furthest thing from people’s minds in regards to what GW2 was in need of addressing.

Bottom line:

Since November of 2012, the blight of the post-80 mostly remains addressed.

• The Living Story, it is true, has added a lot of new content, but most, if not all, does little to add variety to the game. Many players think the LS series is diluting ANet’s efforts far too much.

• Additions/revampsof Dungeons (and much needed improvements to existing ones) appears to be very low priority for ANet. It gives one the sense they have thrown in the towel on that front.

• WvW which was heralded to be the other Endgame has been largely neglected. EotM did nothing to improve WvW, in fact it can be argued that EotM has harmed WvW overall.

Again, that’s just the existing situation above, not a list of all the other expectations many players have held onto:

• More weapon variety for Professions

• More variety of skins and acquisition means

• World Boss Event development

• Integrated GvG functionality

• Crafting Tiers for ALL crafting Professions

• Ongoing focus on Profession bug fixing/balance

Just examples of long anticipated game changes, but with ANet’s track record, we never really know what form such things could take or that they would even bother to convey their intentions.

To be fair, they announced their intentions with the NPE almost a year before it appeared. It’s true that there were no particulars for the forums to discuss, but it wasn’t ‘out of the blue’, either.

@ FalconDance

You’re making a few erroneous assumptions yourself and saying stuff that doesn’t make any sense within the context of Guild Wars 2 today.

First, I’m pretty sure I played more Guild Wars 1 than you did. Yes, I know Factions and Nightfall were stand alone games. And I know EoTN was the only expansion. And Guild Wars 2 has probably had more players already and all three original Guild Wars games ever had combined for a reason. Which isn’t really the purpose of this thread.

It’s a bit rich however to say that the living story is mostly temporary and completely instanced. While it’s true that there is an instanced aspect of the Living World, not all of it is (there are events in the world you have to complete to do some of it) where is in Guild Wars 1 the entire game was instanced. All of it.

As for temporary, the last temporary Living World content we had was back in March. Since the second Season started there is NO temporary events. They’re all permanent.

It’s obviously like like one game better than the other. I like both Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, but Guild Wars had a huge number of problems from the perspective of being anything more than a niche game. It was too complicated for a lot of people, it was too dependent on builds, heroes basically turned the game into a single player game for 9% of it.

It had no trading post, no open world at all, and I could AFK even in hard mode virtually anywhere in the world and my heroes could keep me safe while I had dinner.

Guild Wars 1 was pathed. If my ranger came upon a log in the woods he’d have to turn around because apparently rangers can’t jump over logs.

Since you gave up trying to follow the living story before it started to hit it’s stride, I don’t know why you think you’re qualified to comment on it.

I think you’ll find pre-Nightmare Tower the Living Story had less support and during and after that it grew in popularity.

Again, the new content is all permanent. New zones have been introduced. And I don’t really believe the playerbase is decreasing, at least not nearly as fast as most 2 year old games without an expansion.

This game is still one of the most popular MMORPGs on the market. You’ve got WoW, which nothing can touch and then a group of probably three or four games that are pretty much the next tier of success. Guild Wars 2 is one of them.

Stooperdale.3560:

This is just another tiresome loot moan. You can still have fun running dungeons as you used to do but you don’t get full gold for every alt. You can still have fun running event chains as you used to do but you don’t get as many champion purses as before. The trains are not there any more since whatever fun came from the social element was less important to the farmers than the gold, seemingly. Traits … well everyone agrees that the trait unlocking is awful.

Anet are not closing down fun elements of the game. They are closing down excessive loot rewards. All the fun elements of the game are still there for players who do not equate fun with gold.

Kuldebar.1897 couldn’t have said it better. Why in the WORLD would people want to repeat playing complex dungeons night after night for nothing in return? That’s not a game, it turns into a job at that point. Anet isn’t catering to a core player base, they are catering to whatever they want or deem fit to sell you. CDI was an absolute joke, the forums cry out for sweeping changes to the PvE system which is the entire game is based around, and what does anet respond with? Hey guys, lets talk about PvP and WvW some more. They have made it plainly evident over the past 2 years that they do not care at all what the players think about this game, they are going to do what they want to do, and the small percentage of players like yourself will pat them on the back for it. Meanwhile people will continue to get fed up with the constant grind for crap loot, the poorly written LS, and the weaksauce world encounters. Much the same way Eve online went from 80,000 users online at any given peek time down to about 20k. 2 years there will be a handful of GW2 players all obsessed with WvW and PvP play, the LS will come to an end, as will the PvE aspect of the game, and we will talk about the glory of GW1 and how awesome it was to play that game. GW2 will vanish like a fart in the wind.

Spawne.3128:

Kuldebar.1897 couldn’t have said it better. Why in the WORLD would people want to repeat playing complex dungeons night after night for nothing in return? That’s not a game, it turns into a job at that point.

No! Exactly the opposite. If you are churning through dungeons just for gold it is like a job. If you play dungeons for fun then it is not a job and you are happy with the rewards you get. I don’t work for free, do you?

should rename post to:
op trying to increase thread traffic
`slowclap

Conaywea.5062:

lol this OP

All that you said was to reduce the gold inflation , less ways to obtain gold so is easier for most players to get cool stuff and the traits so people have more things to spend gold

Wait are you trying to say the new trait system is easier to acquire traits than the old trait system? Cause it is definitely NOT easier.

tofumon.5924:

Conaywea.5062:

lol this OP

All that you said was to reduce the gold inflation , less ways to obtain gold so is easier for most players to get cool stuff and the traits so people have more things to spend gold

Wait are you trying to say the new trait system is easier to acquire traits than the old trait system? Cause it is definitely NOT easier.

Also, nothing has reduced inflation at all. Aside from a few mats, everything else on the TP costs quite a bit more, and the consistent sources of in-game gold remain the same.

This is foremost among my overall gripes with this game: too many things are becoming harder or less convenient. Gold → gems is much less feasible, traits are a pain, craft-levelling took a massive nerf. They even took the god-kittened TP out of a few zones as well.

A few posters have offered explanations for these, but all things considered, it’s illogical for a game to become more tedious as it ages.

The new LS and its rewards sort of make up for this though. Sort of.

Kuldebar.1897:

-snip-

It simply boils down to thus:

Just because we ask for something doesn’t mean they are going to give it to us exactly how we want it. That rarely ever happens. Some people like it, some people hate it, some couldn’t care one way or the other.

Suggestions are merely that – suggestions. Anet has free reign to do with them as they please. What they do with them, whether we like it or not, does not negate the fact that it was all asked for.

Knighthonor.4061:

Reworking dungeons so that we only do one path per day.

Wait what? They even nerfed dungeon rewards? First they nerf leveling (which was fun the old way), and then they nerf dungeon rewards?
I really dont understand how Arenanet thinks, instead of adding new content for players (dungeons, fractals, raids, decent pvp), they nerf everything that was fine to begin with, and give us a living story, spread over 6 months now?

Gw2 has so much potential, it’s a pity Arenanet doesnt see that, and is pushing it in the wrong direction

Dustbite.3670:

Knighthonor.4061:

Reworking dungeons so that we only do one path per day.

Wait what? They even nerfed dungeon rewards? First they nerf leveling (which was fun the old way), and then they nerf dungeon rewards?
I really dont understand how Arenanet thinks, instead of adding new content for players (dungeons, fractals, raids, decent pvp), they nerf everything that was fine to begin with, and give us a living story, spread over 6 months now?

Gw2 has so much potential, it’s a pity Arenanet doesnt see that, and is pushing it in the wrong direction

They actually improved dungeon rewards over time. They only stopped it so you couldn’t just keep running the same fast dungeon over and over to get your loot. Which to most people, I might add, is boring anyway.

Everyone was running CoF path 1 back in the day, so Anet added a gold reward to each dungeon, of course the champ bag update also increased the dungeons rewards. Dungeons are more rewarding now than they were at launch.

The caveat is you can’t just run one dungeon. There’s at least six fast dungeon paths that people run to get money, instead of grinding away one dungeon all day.

They didn’t nerf the rewards for each dungeon, since the dungeon itself is more rewarding now. They simply encouraged people to spread out, which is what happened.

@Vayne

Ok, I get it. You disagree and believe me to not even have a right to make any comments about the Living Story since I gave up on it after the first few episodes when it was a buggy hot mess. You believe I am mistaken in nearly everything I have given as my own experience and observations. That’s ok. We can agree to disagree if you feel this need to dismiss me.

Do I prefer GW1 over 2? While it really is comparing apples and oranges, and GW1 had/has its own challenges and bugs, yes. There are several reasons for this preference, not the least of which is that it is a playable game.

I hold fast in my belief that Anet is demonstrating a disregard, perhaps even a distaste, for its veteran core group with its insistence in continuing the path it’s on with little emphasis to actually fixing long-standing bugs or introducing meaningful content. That is my belief, and I am entitled to it just as, sir/madam, you are yours.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

What they do with them, whether we like it or not, does not negate the fact that it was all asked for.

So ArenaNet is the monkey’s paw of the game industry?

Filaha.1678:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

What they do with them, whether we like it or not, does not negate the fact that it was all asked for.

So ArenaNet is the monkey’s paw of the game industry?

In a sense.

We make suggestions; however we don’t know the broader scope, how things are coded, etc etc because we don’t work there.

Filaha.1678:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

What they do with them, whether we like it or not, does not negate the fact that it was all asked for.

So ArenaNet is the monkey’s paw of the game industry?

I’d LOL but it’s the all too sad truth.

It really underscores the admonition of “being careful what you wish for”.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Filaha.1678:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

What they do with them, whether we like it or not, does not negate the fact that it was all asked for.

So ArenaNet is the monkey’s paw of the game industry?

In a sense.

We make suggestions; however we don’t know the broader scope, how things are coded, etc etc because we don’t work there.

Well, I suggest that ANet should get more attuned or a least better at interpreting what players want. Yes, it’s a crap shoot even if you are good at it, but some companies can read their playerbase better. Not everything has to result in a crapstorm on the forums.

I’ve played many MMO’s over the last 20 years, this is unique to GW2 in my experience. Every game has the forum dramas, the disappointments and missteps; but ANet appears to be regularly cultivating such things, and it does so because of how it operates as a company via its policies, decision making metrics and the whole “vision thing”.

The problem is where the rubber meets the road.

Kuldebar.1897:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Filaha.1678:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

What they do with them, whether we like it or not, does not negate the fact that it was all asked for.

So ArenaNet is the monkey’s paw of the game industry?

In a sense.

We make suggestions; however we don’t know the broader scope, how things are coded, etc etc because we don’t work there.

Well, I suggest that ANet should get more attuned or a least better at interpreting what players want. Yes, it’s a crap shoot even if you are good at it, but some companies can read their playerbase better. Not everything has to result in a crapstorm on the forums.

I’ve played many MMO’s over the last 20 years, this is unique to GW2 in my experience. Every game has the forum dramas, the disappointments and missteps; but ANet appears to be regularly cultivating such things, and it does so because of how it operates as a company via its policies, decision making metrics and the whole “vision thing”.

The problem is where the rubber meets the road.

I’d say not everything does, but someone would come along hell bent on proving me wrong.

Still, I have to wonder what their metrics tell them. Obviously if we just went by the forum consensus the sky would be falling, hell would be frozen over, and the world ending in general. However, from the activity in game, it doesn’t seem that way at all. Yes, they stir up the anthill often, but maybe they aren’t as out of touch as we would like to think.