Guild Wars 2

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Kraggy.4169:

DoctorDing.5890:

At least read what Colin says before venting. He says it is not being driven by esports.

Of COURSE it isn’t .. it’s entirely coincidental all this nerfing happened as ANet’s e-sports antic got underway.

Blaming non-existent PVE QQ about visual effects is laughable but just another example of the contempt in which they hold most players these days.

Non-existent? Perhaps, you missed the countless threads lamenting the inability to see anything because of the over-abundance of visual effects. Many with screenshots.

Visual clutter is no doubt an issue, and definitely makes PvP in particular hard to follow.

But Fireball and Auras were NOT the big offenders.

Visual effects that occur on-hit and scale with the enemy model (burning, etc.) are the big offenders. Not to mention, Auras now are less distinct from each other, which will be problematic in PvP.

By targeting the wrong FX, they are just frustrating people who WANT flashy attacks (which, face it, are a big reason why GW2 is popular.) Ele in particular really appeals to many for this reason.

Not to mention, instead of working on a slider or other option to make visual culling OPTIONAL, they just forced it onto everyone, like it or not.

I don’t begrudge people their frustration, although I think people can make their point without attacking the devs.

I have seen people complaining about visual clutter… but for everyone forum topic on that I’ve probably seen 5-15 complaining about trenchcoats for medium armor and skirts/buttflaps for heavy/light armor yet armor design is still chugging along like it has from the beginning. And for every 1 visual clutter it’s probably 20-30 for those tired of seeing outfits instead of mix-and-match armor pieces. Or the 30-40 threads per visual thread calling for a better way to obtain cloth for ascended crafting. It seems incredibly ignorant to cherry pick which suggestions/gripes (even when I see very constructive feedback given in the others) you consider ‘important’ for the players.

The excuse that the models for armor classes being rigged differently as to why they don’t cross over doesn’t explain why new armors aren’t being designed in better taste, or just ‘different’ taste.

At times, pretty much only when I was zerging against champions or WB, I thought the visuals were a bit much. I will concede that, but the implementation of the fix is where Anet dropped the ball. Nearly every MMO I’ve played has had the option to choose the level of visual clutter. CoH, for example, went from full vision seizure to barely noticeable and there was a way to up or lower not only your own particle effects or what not but that of the other players as well (I personally played with mine up and others nearly non-existent).

The fix, which will make everyone happy Colin, is to put the visual clutter into the hands of those who are playing – not yours. Or do you believe your player base is too… I don’t want to say idiotic, but it really seems that way – perhaps juvenile would be better given the condescending response done on reddit… to understand how to find the graphics settings, choose graphics settings that fit their play style, and change them accordingly?

Stop with the hand holding, you aren’t our helicopter parents that annoy the living kittens out of us. Starting with the NPE the game has been taken more and more out of our hands with how we want to play it. Change the dailies to be more generalized so we can play where we want to get them even if it takes longer (PS they were perfect before changing them to try to get more PvEers into PvP… all that did for me as a PvEer was remind me how much I hate – yes, I am intentionally using this strong of a word – PvP). Change graphics settings to being in our control – which has always been a suggestion and an emphasis in every visual clutter thread/discussion I have seen.

Choice is better, it always is.

I have no opinion, one way or the other, about the current ‘nerf’ to visual effects. What I was calling out, was the ‘non-existent QQ’ about visual effects. Either the poster is new, never visited the forums before, or has selective memory.

Adding a slider to allow us to set our own prefs would be perfect but unfortunately I think that is way more work than just replacing an existing animation with a different one. And I think that there is more “visual noise reduction” to come yet.

I’ll go back and read Colin’s post in a minute and make a direct comment soon.

There are obviously issues with graphics, minis, auras, effects… All inhabiting the same space so I’d suggest…

Improve your tech.

Create individual slider settings beyond what options we currently have.

You can’t forcefully limit the quality of “cool” animations and effects as a blanket change. Some of us are running 4-5k gaming rigs and we are tossing out matchsticks for fireballs?

It is sad to see that an old game like city of heroes had top quality animations, effects, impacts, crap tons of auras to use, the ability to color/dye your powers… Yet here we can’t even color back gear and weapons, minis disappear, 2000 gold night fury just disappears and we have some awful animations and power effects… For a game that prides itself of aesthetics and is a modern, this is a big shame. It clearly shows that money does not go back to fundamental things (like profession development and reinvestment too).

Also, while I appreciate the beauty of the “scenery”, the attention to detail in many areas, investments in voice actors for npcs in dark corners of the world, interesting events and the ton of temporary powers tossed around the game… It’s clear to see where most major cash investments go…

So honestly, while I can appreciate the frog playing a song on the guitar and all the extra fluff stuff to bring the world more to life, I’d much rather see things like the ranger sword get fixed, Druid get fixed completely, fireballs back on ele, secondary powers like travel powers/skills that put all professions on equal “footing”, revamps to conditions, stealth reworks so thief is not a one trick pony, traits that make sense, better rewards and reward systems…

NecroN.8306:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Kraggy.4169:

DoctorDing.5890:

At least read what Colin says before venting. He says it is not being driven by esports.

Of COURSE it isn’t .. it’s entirely coincidental all this nerfing happened as ANet’s e-sports antic got underway.

Blaming non-existent PVE QQ about visual effects is laughable but just another example of the contempt in which they hold most players these days.

Non-existent? Perhaps, you missed the countless threads lamenting the inability to see anything because of the over-abundance of visual effects. Many with screenshots.

So what you’re saying is that they should have had a setting for this years ago, but didn’t see at as a problem until after the sale of HoT and implementation of eSports.

How much time did they need to implement action camera? A year or more? What makes you think that it’s done over the weekend? You don’t have to answer me, just think yourself.

Xillllix.3485:

I’ve rarely met anyone complaining about combat visibility except in PvE where zergs attack a single foe because it has 5 million HP. I think the team in charge of reducing the visual noise are not been properly guided and perhaps do not understand what skills are important to see.

I agree. I’ve only seen one compliant, and it might have been a joke. It was either last year or early this year. I was fighting Frozen Maw with a huge group and someone asked: “Does anyone know what this boss even looks like?”

It could have been a joke, it could have been a compliant. Regardless, I don’t the spell fx at all, and I’m saddened that other classes have to suffer a visual loss of their cool abilities just on principle. As a thief main, I don’t have flashy abilities, but classes like the Mesmer and the Elementalist do. That’s one of the things that makes those classes cool IMO.

Chicho Gosho.6507:

NecroN.8306:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Kraggy.4169:

DoctorDing.5890:

At least read what Colin says before venting. He says it is not being driven by esports.

Of COURSE it isn’t .. it’s entirely coincidental all this nerfing happened as ANet’s e-sports antic got underway.

Blaming non-existent PVE QQ about visual effects is laughable but just another example of the contempt in which they hold most players these days.

Non-existent? Perhaps, you missed the countless threads lamenting the inability to see anything because of the over-abundance of visual effects. Many with screenshots.

So what you’re saying is that they should have had a setting for this years ago, but didn’t see at as a problem until after the sale of HoT and implementation of eSports.

How much time did they need to implement action camera? A year or more? What makes you think that it’s done over the weekend? You don’t have to answer me, just think yourself.

Yes, lets think about this. If this has been an existing problem for years then why was it not addressed? They have had years to address it, but have not. Yet when HoT and their eSports comes out they have a problem with it, and address it with a blanket “fix” in less than a month. Yep I thought about it, and the only logical conclusion I can come up with is that Anet is lying to me.

Combat visibility in general isn’t driven by any sort of “esports” stuff though I realize that’s the easy out that’s cool thing to blame things on this week.

Seriously, this is what you start with Colin. You sound like a patronizing kitten .

Maybe you guys could concentrate on long standing bugs or stupid design decisions.

Look at that, all these players which are currently being manipulated by words. OF course E-sport is largely responsible for the new direction that anet want for the game.
If E-sport gives a lot of money and is a success, I don’t know how devs/anet can ignore it. Marketing don’t work like that at all.

Well, Colin is right that PvP leagues and the tournament series is a fantastic marketing program. Especially at the scale they are rolling it out at, I have to imagine it’s one of if not their best marketing initiatives on a per-dollar basis.

The frustration, as best I can tell, is that it seems like A.Net is using marketing as a substitute for development when it comes to PvP, not as a complement. Launching a tournament for a buggy, unbalanced mess of a PvP game is still a windfall from a marketing and brand awareness standpoint, but it’s certainly not developing an e-sport.

Well, having read what Colin said, I agree with him. Hope he leads the team in good directions for all of us.

The connection people are making between esports and the visual nerfs could certainly be a case of correlation without causation. The plan for esports and the plan to address the consistent complaints about visual noise could have been independent of each other but because they were released at the same time, they appear connected.

The visual noise during many encounters was so consistently raised by players and so consistently ignored by devs that it became a joke, with just press 1 as the punchline.

That being said, “iteration by committee” of skill fx will never deliver as thorough a solution as player controlled choice.

Ensign.2189:

Well, Colin is right that PvP leagues and the tournament series is a fantastic marketing program. Especially at the scale they are rolling it out at, I have to imagine it’s one of if not their best marketing initiatives on a per-dollar basis.

The frustration, as best I can tell, is that it seems like A.Net is using marketing as a substitute for development when it comes to PvP, not as a complement. Launching a tournament for a buggy, unbalanced mess of a PvP game is still a windfall from a marketing and brand awareness standpoint, but it’s certainly not developing an e-sport.

I could not agree more with these statements.

The visual effects were never too much… Maybe add an option where you can turn them up or down based on your preference. If you don’t think the toned down skill effects are dumb just log in on an ele and use fireball. It looks so ridiculously stupid now, I laughed when I saw it first thinking it was a glitch or something, then it turned out to be “working as intended.”

Chrisco.5732:

This part really bugs me about theses comments.

“If you want to see the game fail I’m not sure what you’re doing here, but rooting against programs like pro league is basically rooting against Gw2 growing. When folks come here and rip on stuff like PvP, you’re basically hurting the games ability to grow – and personally I would say shame on you, if you truly love the game, be constructive and give awesome feedback and suggestions: but don’t knock it just cause it’s not PvE. And let’s be honest, it beats spending marketing funds on taxi confession ads or people spray painting wall cinematics if you ask me.”

A) I don’t think anyone is rooting against pro leagues, they’re rooting against Anet half-kittening it and ignoring the community that’s asking for balance and we have to wait 3 months to hear that it wont happen. Also to say that rooting against pro leagues is rooting against gw2 growing is total bs, that’s a huge leap to make.

B) “Shame on you” for ripping PvP. Sorry … what! You even admitted that PvP was DoA on release 3 years ago and yet here we are still asking for balance, still asking for bugs fixes still asking for matchmaking improvements still asking for new modes (1 in 3 years). I mean balance … balance is the MOST important thing in pvp and you guys just seem to not care whatsoever.

C) “if you truly love the game, be constructive and give awesome feedback and suggestions” …. WE DOOOOO!!! go look at the warrior sub forum, its pages and pages and pages of suggestions and feedback that have been ignored since bew2. We are the ones that “truly love the game” and the only time we get answers is when we rage on the forums that nobody talks to us. But its okay we’ll have a nice cdi in 3 months and then wait another 6 for anything to change.

Honestly … just no. There’s a reason that people laugh when you say esports, and it isn’t because the community is qq’ing. You have so many people that put so much time and passion into the game in all games modes and it (personally) feels like they’re just ignored. Not for the first time either

Whens the next hype train?

Ehm… In response to A, Colin wrote this as a response to someone else. The “If you want to see the game fail I’m not sure why you’re here…” Bit was directed at the person he was responding to.

Angus.5961:

He makes some good points, but seriously, the guilt trips and manipulation are not necessary.

QFT

I for one love the new toned down effects. The clusterkitten of effects was unbelievably annoying and totally unnecessary. I think the new auras look more interesting and… sleek? I don’t know if that’s the right word. The old auras were just boring old spheres, didn’t look that interesting in my opinion. Also I play elementalist a lot, so I am extra thankful.

Vephar.8475:

I for one love the new toned down effects. The clusterkitten of effects was unbelievably annoying and totally unnecessary. I think the new auras look more interesting and… sleek? I don’t know if that’s the right word. The old auras were just boring old spheres, didn’t look that interesting in my opinion. Also I play elementalist a lot, so I am extra thankful.

“I think the new auras look more interesting and… sleek?” You can’t seem them!!
But thanks for your 2cents or whatever Anet gave you.

NecroN.8306:

Vephar.8475:

I for one love the new toned down effects. The clusterkitten of effects was unbelievably annoying and totally unnecessary. I think the new auras look more interesting and… sleek? I don’t know if that’s the right word. The old auras were just boring old spheres, didn’t look that interesting in my opinion. Also I play elementalist a lot, so I am extra thankful.

“I think the new auras look more interesting and… sleek?” You can’t seem them!!
But thanks for your 2cents or whatever Anet gave you.

Haha, I can understand why people don’t enjoy them. I’m just 1 person, my opinion doesn’t matter much. I can see them, but they could keep them the way they are now and add a bit more color to help others see them.
Also, options! Add options so people can change the visual effects to their liking. Or make it so your characters effects are big and flashy, but others are toned down to still reduce visual noise.

I am not concerned about why the special visual effects nerfs were done. The ONLY thing I care about is if A-Net will soon give us graphics options to restore our full effects for all professions prior to the 11/17 patch.

All the maybe speculation by Colin leaves us hanging in midair. A simple YES or NO answer will do. However, if effect options were planned, they would have been implemented along the “visual nose” changes. So, I am not hopeful that A-Net will revisit this issue, and, if that is the case, I will be requesting refunds for all four of my family’s GW2 accounts.

TheLastNobody.8319:

For the most part I agree with Colin’s post, but some of the effects are not that needed or didn’t need to be nerfed, auras in particular. Fireball for ele’s yes, that’s fine…..

Here’s the thing…changing the size of Fireball’s projectile didn’t do ANY good to this alleged “Visual noise” problem. Its the IMPACT effect that causes issues, as this animation SCALES to the size of the enemy. Anet hasn’t done anything to change that. So fireball is now the size of a charcoal briquette, the impact is still as big as it was before this change, NOTHING has been improved. Which is just fine, apparently.

This just shows how their company is out of reality you can’t even post on your own forums. Regardless if it is filled with negativity it is your job to provide the consumer an explanation not on some other site. This company continues to disappoint me the only reason i feel the need to say something is because you already have my money. I’m sure by next year this game will be unrecognizable at the rate they are going. All I can say is I will not be purchasing anything from arena net in the future and I hope other people can see through their deception.

I’m still shaking my head that they use Reddit more than their own forums to say anything.

I also believe he is lying. It was pushed out to help viewers of their twitch broadcast. When it looks like a duck and when it quacks like a duck…….

Whoever thought the visual clutter issue was with the actual players and not the point of impact (boss being lite up like a Christmas tree) was totally off

Meanwhile they are adding even more clutter with the PvP icons next to names which adds even more clutter to a character which is completly ironic as you were doing the opposite with these visual clutter reductions on players.

While in PvE I still struggle to see telegraphed boss animations behind all the white damage numbers for smaller bosses.

Thanks but this visual clutter “fixing” is fixing nothing. Devs please play the game more or ask your player base how to implement these changes.

I can get on board saying we need less visual clutter BUT whoever has been doing these changes is implementing them totally wrong.

~~~~The Root of the Problem *~~~~* You guys at Anet need better communication between the “islands” at Anet. It seems different departments are way too isolated which is most likely where all this disconnect comes from. This fiasco is a prime example of this disconnect. Good intention; terrible implementation. I hope there’s someone coordinating all the work between departments but you Need more of these people or they need to step it up a few notches.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Kraggy.4169:

DoctorDing.5890:

At least read what Colin says before venting. He says it is not being driven by esports.

Of COURSE it isn’t .. it’s entirely coincidental all this nerfing happened as ANet’s e-sports antic got underway.

Blaming non-existent PVE QQ about visual effects is laughable but just another example of the contempt in which they hold most players these days.

Non-existent? Perhaps, you missed the countless threads lamenting the inability to see anything because of the over-abundance of visual effects. Many with screenshots.

You are quite right, I can’t see much when 80 people are all attacking the same thing. Of course, that is still true, and additionally when 80 people are all attacking the same thing, I just stand there and auto-attack and occasionally throw a cooldown at it. I never get hit, even if I am in melee, and in the rare circumstance I do get hit and downed, I get brought back up in a couple seconds. So, why do I need to see the boss? With 80 character models around it sipping tea I still couldn’t see well enough to dodge, and even if I could I wouldn’t bother because I am in no actual danger. So, devastating fix for a non-existent problem. I also went looking for these elusive threads that were so common in the forums. I had no luck, though lack of any search function make up for it. Still, a few people complaining about something over and over again doesn’t quite equal up to the massive flood of ire the change has triggered, as evidenced by many new forum accounts just to address this issue. Oh and the one single thread I found supporting visual changes (back before Nov 17) was asking for a graphic option to be able to toggle it as necessary. What a good idea….

Colin on Reddit:

Thanks folks, I passed this discussion along to the folks driving the project on combat visibility.
Combat visibility in general isn’t driven by any sort of “esports” stuff though I realize that’s the easy out that’s cool thing to blame things on this week. Despite some of the insane assumptions I’ve seen lately, the PvP pro league is pretty much entirely a marketing team thing and has almost no impact on the dev team. Though we all think it’s really cool, and seriously some of those games monday were awesome!

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-road-ahead-for-2015/

As we double down on exciting and challenging content like raids, PvP leagues, and fractal dungeons, the need for us to push forward on solving some of the issues of visibility in combat become even more important for the future of Guild Wars 2. …

… The same goes for the need to help better support spectating content so that players who aren’t at the highest tier of competition in those areas can watch and learn from players whose builds and strategies can help them become successful.

Yes, how could we even think to blame e-sports for these changes… where would we ever get that idea?

Taigen Raine.8752:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-road-ahead-for-2015/

As we double down on exciting and challenging content like raids, PvP leagues, and fractal dungeons, the need for us to push forward on solving some of the issues of visibility in combat become even more important for the future of Guild Wars 2. …

… The same goes for the need to help better support spectating content so that players who aren’t at the highest tier of competition in those areas can watch and learn from players whose builds and strategies can help them become successful.

Yes, how could we even think to blame e-sports for these changes… where would we ever get that idea?

A lot of us remember this and that’s what hurts us the most. We know it’s a lie. As per the forum rules here you cannot do personal attacks and must respect others. So Anet sent Colin to the reddit forums to attack and belittle the players that disagreed with them. IMO Colin’s post was nothing more than a Anet sanctioned hit piece on parts of it’s own customer base that they feel are no longer beneficial to them.

NecroN.8306:

So Colin’s response is to belittle and berate their customers into believing that their visual nerfs that happen to coincide with their big eSports push have nothing to do with each other. Hmmm. Their HoT expansion showed all this great visual candy to help push sales then they take it away and we are supposed to believe what? So I guess what we have here is false advertisement. Anet knew they were going to remove these visuals after millions of customers purchased their expansion pack. Oh Anet lawyer up.

I don’t think there’s anything technically wrong with the way Colin worded his post – in fact, it’s pretty positive on the whole. There’s a bit of a fatherly wristslap tone in there, but the issue with that is largely one of audience, I think. He addresses it to the community as a whole (regardless of whether that is his intention) but most people in the community are already pretty reasonable in how they go about communicating.

There is a minority who goes berserk and a slightly larger minority who goes kind of berserk and a slightly larger minority who gets kind of condescending when things go wrong.

The majority would seem to be people who are mostly tempered, reasonable, and offer an absolute boatload of suggestions and constructive criticism. The main issue with his tone is that he appears to be addressing the minority tone of feedback.

One of the things I’ve noticed in my stint in leadership positions, in part from the advice of somebody more experienced, is that if you largely ignore a certain kind of attitude and instead focus on the other attitude that you’re happy about, it can be quite helpful (e.g. the idea of rewarding good behavior and not condemning or rewarding bad behavior). I’m probably oversimplifying the psychology of it a bit, but that’s the general gist.

The result can be (though of course there is no guarantee, since people differ) that those who tend to approach with a poor attitude eventually lose interest in using a bad attitude to approach because it literally gets them nothing. Meanwhile, they’re subtly realizing that the use of a good attitude does get results, so they start leaning more in that direction.

Calling out bad attitudes (as opposed to ignoring them and focusing on the good) isn’t a black and white thing that never works. I’ve seen it work in my life a few times. But I think it’s usually something that works for individuals in limited context, not groups. The issue with calling out the attitude of a group, or even the performance of a group, is that you’re lumping everyone together into the same category, when the variations are as large as the group size.

I don’t expect a game developer to be a communication expert though. I just thought I’d share some stuff I’ve learned about communication. And heck, maybe they can learn something from it. If any of y’all are super interested (Anet or community members) I recommend the book Difficult Conversations.

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of GW2 players’ voices suddenly cried out in Nerf Terror and were suddenly silenced by A-Net.

I am venturing to guess that Arena Net management has recently changed because GW2 has lost its original spirit, philosophy, and direction that used to be focused on providing players with a very rewarding, interactive world that was extremely fun & without the endless grind feeling typical of many MMORPGs. More importantly, we used to have a voice that the Developers heard and responded to when it came to Guild Wars 2 evolution.

Now it’s nerf map events with Diminishing Returns (using bots as an excuse), nerf salvaging to make crafting harder, nerf dungeon rewards because A-Net doesn’t want players doing them anymore, nerf all professions beloved special effects because of “visual noise” that no one has ever complained about… and if you don’t like it as a player, too bad it’s our game; you no longer have a voice.

As I said before, I dealt with getting less rewards for doing PvP, WvW, Dungeons, & Fractals, but when A-Net stripped my heroes of all their visual appeal, what do I have left? What purpose if left for me to keep playing all my level 80 heroes if I no longer enjoy the graphics which were a big part of my fun? It certainly isn’t for me to get 1-2 exotic drops a day or an ascended chest every 2-3 months or maybe a legendary weapon after a year of grinding.

Colin Johanson on Guild Wars 2 in the Months Ahead
by Colin Johanson on January 15, 2013

To make playing in our open world worthwhile, we’ll make it rewarding enough for players to spend their time there across all levels. It’s extremely important that we stay true to our philosophy that you should be able to play Guild Wars 2 the way you want to play the game in order to reach the most powerful rewards.

As we push the boundaries and do new things with what an online game can be, we’ll likely hit some bumps along the road on the way. With your feedback and support, we’ll learn from those mistakes, grow from them, and be as transparent about them as possible. We’ll also have some amazing moments, and hopefully craft gaming memories you and we will never forget. And though you may not always know it, we’ll be right there in-game playing next to you as well.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/colin-johanson-on-guild-wars-2-in-the-months-ahead/

LegACy.1296:

Khyan.7039:

Oh nice. But we don’t really care. We want our skills effect back. NOW.

Sigh.
You know, this kind of behavior is probably why Anet doesn’t communicate much.

Nah, they get people like you defending them entirely free of charge which is the best (and cheapest) form of ‘communication’ ever.

W/e. Since we have to pay MONEY to post here, I would expect Anet would respond now and then instead on some free to sign up third party website. Right?

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I have no doubt that PvP is growing, but growth does not equal majority. They recently said that since F2P they are getting 3.1 million unique log ins a month.

IIRC that was for the month after it went free to play ie its not an ongoing figure. I would think the November figure would be significantly lower.

Combat visibility in general isn’t driven by any sort of “esports” stuff though I realize that’s the easy out that’s cool thing to blame things on this week.

This statement just wow’d me. I mean, what a bitter attitude to portray towards not only your fans and your player base, but your paying customers as well. In fact, the entirety of his post seems to lack any sort of courtesy and professionalism one would come to expect from a reputable developer. I understand that frustrations might build when things don’t work out as planned, but to go to a third party forum and rant about it is almost unbelievable.

When folks come here and rip on stuff like PvP, you’re basically hurting the games ability to grow – and personally I would say shame on you, if you truly love the game, be constructive and give awesome feedback and suggestions: but don’t knock it just cause it’s not PvE.

I don’t understand this statement at all. So now Anet does not want any sort of criticism regarding the decisions that they make? Shame on us if we give anything other than what they consider “awesome feedback?” It is blatantly obvious here that Colin is upset at the fact that these recent decisions weren’t instantly met with the praise and revelry he likely expected. I’m sorry, but after a reaction like this, I’m left wondering whether or not Anet is now making decisions just to spite the player base… and that’s a scary thing for a player to wonder about the game they supported since launch…

Perhaps instead of reducing player-to-target effects, the reduction (or maybe virtual elimination) of the effect aura that the target has would be a better solution. That way people could see player attacks incoming, but the target would be more visible.

Since the visual noise reductions have nothing to do with the Pro League, A-Net should just roll back all the visual special effects nerfs prior to the Nov 17 patch until they can implement Colin’s “programming solutions” & “options” (alluded to in his Reddit post) that would allow each player to tailor the special effects to his/her liking.

No new coding would have to be programmed because it already existed. Since 2012 GW2 players have happily coexisted with full beautiful special effects and the majority of players prefer how they were opposed to what they are now.

It is especially such a waste to see all the gorgeous special effects artwork created for the elite professions downgraded to shadows of their former glory. I was so excited about finally getting to play as a Chronomancer and casting her new artistic-looking time-bending powers only to have it stripped from me a few weeks later. Honestly, I haven’t been able to log in since the last patch because I am so disappointed.

Not so long ago Colin posted the following:

Colin Johanson on Guild Wars 2 in the Months Ahead

As we push the boundaries and do new things with what an online game can be, we’ll likely hit some bumps along the road on the way. With your feedback and support, we’ll learn from those mistakes, grow from them, and be as transparent about them as possible. We’ll also have some amazing moments, and hopefully craft gaming memories you and we will never forget. And though you may not always know it, we’ll be right there in-game playing next to you as well.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/colin-johanson-on-guild-wars-2-in-the-months-ahead/

Does ArenaNet still believe in player feedback & support, learning from mistakes, and being transparent? It’s hard to tell when major game changes are made without a chance for feedback & Developers are no longer available for response; but, I really hope so since so many of us have so much time & money invested into Guild Wars 2.

morrolan.9608:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I have no doubt that PvP is growing, but growth does not equal majority. They recently said that since F2P they are getting 3.1 million unique log ins a month.

IIRC that was for the month after it went free to play ie its not an ongoing figure. I would think the November figure would be significantly lower.

They’ve been caught being disingenuous with stats before. A while back, they said WvW was doing great; then it turned out they were including all the PvE-leveling-karma trainers in EotM.

So that “3.1 million logins a month” is probably not the “per month” thing that it sounds like. It’s probably, in one particular month (when it went f2p, they got 3.1 million logins that month).

ZachAttack.3957:

Ehm… In response to A, Colin wrote this as a response to someone else. The “If you want to see the game fail I’m not sure why you’re here…” Bit was directed at the person he was responding to.

So what Colin’s is saying is that he knows this direction is doomed to fail so don’t watch it happen, or He is telling everyone that thinks this new direction of the game will fail to go away.
Well first of all your customers that took the time to post on YOUR forums are doing so in the hopes that you listen so the game doesn’t fail. Yet Colin’s takes his time to post a condescending response to his customer base concerning these visual nerfs on a different forum. This Shows the amount respect that Colin and Anet have for their customers.

It would be nice if I could tell what type of aura is on a person.

Huh…

Gaile Gray:

Hey all,

As we prepare to launch Heart of Thorns, you may wish to know about the communications systems we’ll be using:

• The Forums (details below)
• Twitter
• The Guild Wars 2 Wiki

If you seek or want to share general info, the best place is the Heart of Thorns sub-forum. If you’re wondering about an update, or a hot fix, you’ll find those details over in the Game Release Notes sub-forum. And for bugs and issues, check the Bug sub-forum. In fact, for game bugs and issues, you should check the bugs forum before posting.

We’re counting the hours until you’re in the game, and look forward to seeing you there!!

Gaile? I don’t see reddit on that list. You think maybe your boss didn’t get the memo? I mean, it’s right there at the top of the News & Announcements page…

Jax.4903:

Since the visual noise reductions have nothing to do with the Pro League, A-Net should just roll back all the visual special effects nerfs prior to the Nov 17 patch until they can implement Colin’s “programming solutions” & “options” (alluded to in his Reddit post) that would allow each player to tailor the special effects to his/her liking.

Good, then they can also remove the kittening kittened sPvP league rank icons in WvW because they introduce a kitten ton of visual noise in zerg warfare.

Double standards, Anet at its best. Make things “better” in sPvP (because eSports woopwoop) at the expense of other game modes.

What a embarrassing joke they are. Release an expansion and then remove spell graphics that are a month old in an ill attempt to reduce clutter. Who even think that kitten up.

Playing some PvP myself, hardly know what the hell is going on now when they destroyed ground spell visuals that was there 2 weeks ago and other stuff that has nothing to do with splash visuals that is what people complained about.

I am really embarrassed for ANet at this point. I really have to wonder how they’re going to live up to this disaster, and how they’re going to make it up to their customer base. If they do nothing, well… Yeah.

All I read was pro leagues was managed by marketers and didn’t involve the balance team. I have complete faith this statement is 100% true.

gw2 is a great game in many ways, but it just has so many lose-lose aspects to ignore for both parties.

TerminalMontage.5693:

It would be nice if I could tell what type of aura is on a person.

It would be nice if I could tell there was an aura on a person.

Well now they are banning people who lose too many matches in a row instead of fixing their horribly broken system lol… seems like a good way to attract new players…

Kravick.4906:

I am really embarrassed for ANet at this point. I really have to wonder how they’re going to live up to this disaster, and how they’re going to make it up to their customer base. If they do nothing, well… Yeah.

I feel the same way. HoT has already suffered a mediocre post-release, and now they are further upsetting the players with these unusual decisions, like visual nerfs, releasing 5 outfits for gems within a month (more than what what was even offered in the xpac with the premium price tag), making condescending remarks toward the players/customers, etc.

What is going on at Anet, seriously? And how are they going to remedy this?

Seabreeze.8437:

Kravick.4906:

I am really embarrassed for ANet at this point. I really have to wonder how they’re going to live up to this disaster, and how they’re going to make it up to their customer base. If they do nothing, well… Yeah.

I feel the same way. HoT has already suffered a mediocre post-release, and now they are further upsetting the players with these unusual decisions, like visual nerfs, releasing 5 outfits for gems within a month (more than what what was even offered in the xpac with the premium price tag), making condescending remarks toward the players/customers, etc.

What is going on at Anet, seriously? And how are they going to remedy this?

I fear they aren’t. It’s like a vacuum over there in the management department from what it seems like. The disconnect is too big and they don’t care to fix it. They don’t seem to take negative feedback well. Instead of looking through the negative feedback for actual criticism they apparently just make sweeping statements toward the player base. Even if there was no actual good criticism, as a leader of a company you still don’t make posts like that, but there has been plenty of actual criticism albeit accompanied with some negative feedback.