Guild Wars 2

You know one thing you guys could do is start having more community votes on future updates.

You see, I play Runescape sometimes also. It’s a very old game, but one thing they’ve done in recent time is to implement this brilliant system that lets players vote on upcoming content options the Devs have brainstorming. You might not see that content until 8 months later, but still. Furthermore, they have votes afterwards for how players felt about the update.

It’s something I kind of like and I really respect Jagex as a studio for involving their players with the future of the game like that. Now GW2 is a very different beast that operates in very different ways, but implementing an in-game voting system for some of your ideas might not be too bad of an idea no?

Voting in-game can be very intrusive to people who just want to play the game to be honest. It would be ideal to just keep it through this site and just notify players via the bulletin you see on the client.

If anything though, I’d also like to see video demonstrations of what feature patches would have as text previews. So far, they have only given demonstrations to balance changes for professions and the whole new WvW experience footage from PAX which is a good start. All that’s needed now is to exercise consistency with it and present video footage for what future feature patches will have in store to help people be on the right page with the developers and all that.

Malkavian.4516:

Voting in-game can be very intrusive to people who just want to play the game to be honest. It would be ideal to just keep it through this site and just notify players via the bulletin you see on the client.

If anything though, I’d also like to see video demonstrations of what feature patches would have as text previews. So far, they have only given demonstrations to balance changes for professions and the whole new WvW experience footage from PAX which is a good start. All that’s needed now is to exercise consistency with it and present video footage for what future feature patches will have in store to help people be on the right page with the developers and all that.

Well the general idea is to make it a menu one can go to on their own volition. The problems arise when devs do the things that always make problems with these sorts of things arise: Making objects flash/pulse/sparkle/do unnecessary things/ rather than sit in the background. Which Jagex does and it’s annoying.

Hav anyone heard anything about if there will ever be new Racial Features introduced Like new horns for charr etc?
We’ve had a great deal of nice faces and hair but no horns/tattoos etc, that also makes u’r character stand out from others. And for some races those features are very visible – boring to look the same way as everybody else.
I’m already suffering fromm few choices of armour/looks due to (almost)everything being tailclipping coats (maining Medium armour Charr).

So on the topic of communication between developers and players I feel I have something to add.
There’s been a lot of back and forth about the lack of communication and while that’s a fact too what bothers me most is the miscommunication of intent on the dev’s side.

What do I mean? I mean statements that were made and they never happened. I mean – I understand that priorities shift and change in a MMO this big – that things become unviable or simply won’t work with new systems but you have to keep us up to speed with what’s going on.

Back in 2013 you announced “new legendary weapons and new legendary types before the end of the year” – I don’t know why it never came to pass but frankly I waited every month for that.
I saved up, I didn’t get stuff I might have wanted and enjoyed because I kept thinking to myself " it’s right around the corner" – and it wasn’t.

It’s almost the end of 2014 and that statement hasn’t come true. And that’s not the issue. The issue is that you – the devs – probably knew at one point or another that you weren’t going to make that milestone and deliver on that promise but you didn’t say anything about it. So people like me kept waiting and waiting for no good reason.

Another thing that pops to mind is the “Fractal Leaderboards” that was waved around as a reason to reset all our PR to 30. I get it – fair playing field for all – and while I hated the PR reset I went along with it because I could understand the Leaderboards issue.

What about the “Fractal weapon boxes” ? Where are they almost a year later after the fractured patch?

It’s been almost a year – where are these leaderboards? At least tell us that they’re not coming.

These sort of issues ( and I’m sure there are other issues like these that affect other players in places near and dear to their hearts) break trust between the player base and the developers and make players like me unable to keep trusting the devs when they say they’re going to do this or fix that.

How can I believe there’ll be no more vertical progression when stuff keeps being tossed around just to generate hype apparently and then nothing happens. And I don’t really mind that nothing happens -a lot of things can interfere but at least keep us in the loop.

Sogradde.8016:

Yo Chris.
(You might want to split this one into a separate thread in case you decide to answer it, to prevent your thread from being cluttered):

Where does the dev team see room for improvement in the game? I’m asking because we’re still lacking some kind of roadmap for the general direction you intend to take and honestly, I’m pretty sure the players would love to be part of that discussion.

Quoting myself here because I’m pretty sure this is relevant to alot of people.

Harper.4173:

So on the topic of communication between developers and players I feel I have something to add.
There’s been a lot of back and forth about the lack of communication and while that’s a fact too what bothers me most is the miscommunication of intent on the dev’s side.

What do I mean? I mean statements that were made and they never happened. I mean – I understand that priorities shift and change in a MMO this big – that things become unviable or simply won’t work with new systems but you have to keep us up to speed with what’s going on.

Back in 2013 you announced “new legendary weapons and new legendary types before the end of the year” – I don’t know why it never came to pass but frankly I waited every month for that.
I saved up, I didn’t get stuff I might have wanted and enjoyed because I kept thinking to myself " it’s right around the corner" – and it wasn’t.

It’s almost the end of 2014 and that statement hasn’t come true. And that’s not the issue. The issue is that you – the devs – probably knew at one point or another that you weren’t going to make that milestone and deliver on that promise but you didn’t say anything about it. So people like me kept waiting and waiting for no good reason.

Another thing that pops to mind is the “Fractal Leaderboards” that was waved around as a reason to reset all our PR to 30. I get it – fair playing field for all – and while I hated the PR reset I went along with it because I could understand the Leaderboards issue.

What about the “Fractal weapon boxes” ? Where are they almost a year later after the fractured patch?

It’s been almost a year – where are these leaderboards? At least tell us that they’re not coming.

These sort of issues ( and I’m sure there are other issues like these that affect other players in places near and dear to their hearts) break trust between the player base and the developers and make players like me unable to keep trusting the devs when they say they’re going to do this or fix that.

How can I believe there’ll be no more vertical progression when stuff keeps being tossed around just to generate hype apparently and then nothing happens. And I don’t really mind that nothing happens -a lot of things can interfere but at least keep us in the loop.

QFT. Anet takes a lot of flack for not delivering on things announced. But if Anet came out and said, clearly and front in center, that certain things are delayed or have been moved to the back burner, most reasonable fans would understand.

Anet not saying anything is pretty much Anet asking for trouble. The logic is simple.

If I tell my wife we’re probably going on vacation in June to Europe and I can’t make it, I probably should let her know before September. It would save me a lot of grief in the long run.

She might very well be disappointed if I came and told her I couldn’t get time off, or we couldn’t afford a vacation to Europe but she’s understand.

Vayne.8563:

QFT. Anet takes a lot of flack for not delivering on things announced. But if Anet came out and said, clearly and front in center, that certain things are delayed or have been moved to the back burner, most reasonable fans would understand.

Anet not saying anything is pretty much Anet asking for trouble. The logic is simple.

If I tell my wife we’re probably going on vacation in June to Europe and I can’t make it, I probably should let her know before September. It would save me a lot of grief in the long run.

She might very well be disappointed if I came and told her I couldn’t get time off, or we couldn’t afford a vacation to Europe but she’s understand.

Put another way, I am super disappointed in the direction this game is going (and clearly I’m not alone).

ArenaNet, why would people like me stick around if you’re not giving me something to look forward to? Or do you not care if people like me stick around?

Chuo.4238:

Vayne.8563:

QFT. Anet takes a lot of flack for not delivering on things announced. But if Anet came out and said, clearly and front in center, that certain things are delayed or have been moved to the back burner, most reasonable fans would understand.

Anet not saying anything is pretty much Anet asking for trouble. The logic is simple.

If I tell my wife we’re probably going on vacation in June to Europe and I can’t make it, I probably should let her know before September. It would save me a lot of grief in the long run.

She might very well be disappointed if I came and told her I couldn’t get time off, or we couldn’t afford a vacation to Europe but she’s understand.

Put another way, I am super disappointed in the direction this game is going (and clearly I’m not alone).

ArenaNet, why would people like me stick around if you’re not giving me something to look forward to? Or do you not care if people like me stick around?

You do realize you agreed with a post of mine? Just checking.

I think the direction of the game hasn’t really changed, but the focus has. It’s been going in this direction for a long long time. Not like a couple of weeks. A long time.

For some people that makes this the ideal game. For me it’s good. I’m an achievement hunter. Yay me. I like collecting stuff. Yay me again. I’m relatively casual. I don’t need to be constantly challenged. Again, perfect for me.

There are people who play games for completely different reasons. I don’t know that this game ever really catered to the hard core crowd, tbh, certainly not the PvE game. It has some challenging content, but no content that’s challenging remains challenging if you keep repeating it, at least in PvE. You learn all the tricks. You learn every short cut. So of course it’s not challenging.

I remember first running Arah and it was challenging. Now it’s mostly on farm.

The thing is, if Anet puts time into make content for the people who want the hard core challenging experience, it has to be worth the time. The last really hard thing they made, besides Triple Trouble, was the TA dungeon. The hard core crowd says it wasn’t rewarding enough to run which is why no one runs it.

Anet doesn’t want to make it more rewarding to run, because if they do, people will feel that they have to run it to get X. It’s a kind of pressure. The idea was supposed to be that you can get the best rewards, more or less by doing anything. Hell a precusor can and has dropped from a mob in the starting area.

I seriously doubt Anet is going to want to compromise that part of the game to make the rewards worth it to do more challenging content. As much as it would be great for the hard core crowd, the more casual crowd wouldn’t like that change. Sucks but there it is. And it would be a change, since Anet has never really rewarded challenge. Fractal skins are the closest thing. They have to keep the RNG because everyone would stop running fractals as soon as they got the skins they want.

I think the people who run challenging content to be challenged, as opposed to for rewards, is very small. So Anet either has to up the rewards, or shift their focus.

I think they’ve made a choice on that. It doesn’t bode well for the ultra hard core crowd and I know that must be frustrating as kitten.

But there are people like me, for whom the new focus works quite well.

Vayne.8563:

I’m an achievement hunter.

That’s very lucky for you, actually. The achievement system has seen more improvements than any other aspect of the game since launch.

Sokia.3710:

Vayne.8563:

I’m an achievement hunter.

That’s very lucky for you, actually. The achievement system has seen more improvements than any other aspect of the game since launch.

It is lucky. But also maybe it’s more than luck. I strongly suspect there are a lot of achievement hunters around, possibly due to the console generation growing up with achievements. I mean all the games basically have them now. Older generations of players tend to think achievements are sort of silly, but many of the newer gamers grew up with them and expect them. It’s become part of the way companies stretch their content.

I mean, I played Mass Effect 1 and 2 and the achievements were a part of keeping the game interesting after you beat it a couple of times. They can’t keep giving you more game, but they can place achievements in there to keep you playing. It’s those sorts of games that probably acclimatized me to achievement hunting. In other words, the industry trained me.

Vayne.8563:

It is lucky. But also maybe it’s more than luck. I strongly suspect there are a lot of achievement hunters around, possibly due to the console generation growing up with achievements. I mean all the games basically have them now. Older generations of players tend to think achievements are sort of silly, but many of the newer gamers grew up with them and expect them.

I’m an older gamer. To be honest, the first time I saw achievements in a game, I didn’t understand the point. It did seem silly to get some title for doing something that you were going to do anyway. I still don’t care for achievements all that much, because they are basically just pre-set goals, and I used to play text-based RPGS where you basically make your own goals. So, I’m used to coming up with stuff that I find interesting.

Sokia.3710:

Vayne.8563:

It is lucky. But also maybe it’s more than luck. I strongly suspect there are a lot of achievement hunters around, possibly due to the console generation growing up with achievements. I mean all the games basically have them now. Older generations of players tend to think achievements are sort of silly, but many of the newer gamers grew up with them and expect them.

I’m an older gamer. To be honest, the first time I saw achievements in a game, I didn’t understand the point. It did seem silly to get some title for doing something that you were going to do anyway. I still don’t care for achievements all that much, because they are basically just pre-set goals, and I used to play text-based RPGS where you basically make your own goals. So, I’m used to coming up with stuff that I find interesting.

I’m from your generation of gamer. I have always entertainment myself in games, and outside of games. That’s me.

However, I don’t mind having a checklist of stuff to do. I’m not like the new people who run out and have to have stuff right away. I’m not looking at Dulfy to find out how to get stuff or where to get it. I’m not buying it off the trading post. I’ll get it…when I get to it, in my own good time.

But it’s there. And when I get something from it, it becomes cool because I didn’t expect it. Even when I use Mawdrey and get another junk item unlocked for my collection I’m thinking, cool. It’s not a big cool, it’s a little one.

And I think we should probably stop here, because we’re getting way off the communication topic.

Vayne.8563:

You do realize you agreed with a post of mine? Just checking.

Yea – I can be openminded. Looks like you’re not completely satisfied with the kool-aid either. This should be worrying for ArenaNet.

Chuo.4238:

Put another way, I am super disappointed in the direction this game is going (and clearly I’m not alone).

ArenaNet, why would people like me stick around if you’re not giving me something to look forward to? Or do you not care if people like me stick around?

It’s entirely possible, that Anet may simply not want to confirm for a lot of people that the game will be going in a direction they dislike. Because, you know, they’d leave the game right away then – and if they are uninformed, they may stay for longer, until finally their patience runs out.

I hope, this is not the case.

Vayne.8563:

The thing is, if Anet puts time into make content for the people who want the hard core challenging experience, it has to be worth the time. The last really hard thing they made, besides Triple Trouble, was the TA dungeon. The hard core crowd says it wasn’t rewarding enough to run which is why no one runs it.

Anet doesn’t want to make it more rewarding to run, because if they do, people will feel that they have to run it to get X. It’s a kind of pressure. The idea was supposed to be that you can get the best rewards, more or less by doing anything. Hell a precusor can and has dropped from a mob in the starting area.

I seriously doubt Anet is going to want to compromise that part of the game to make the rewards worth it to do more challenging content. As much as it would be great for the hard core crowd, the more casual crowd wouldn’t like that change. Sucks but there it is. And it would be a change, since Anet has never really rewarded challenge. Fractal skins are the closest thing. They have to keep the RNG because everyone would stop running fractals as soon as they got the skins they want.

I think the people who run challenging content to be challenged, as opposed to for rewards, is very small. So Anet either has to up the rewards, or shift their focus.

I think they’ve made a choice on that. It doesn’t bode well for the ultra hard core crowd and I know that must be frustrating as kitten.

But there are people like me, for whom the new focus works quite well.

I don’t agree with everything you wrote here (I agree with you almost everytime). Anet tried something with Tequatl: they increased the rewards (more and better chests) for better performance. The skins are still very random drops, but the chance is higher the better the group performs.

Also most people love what Anet did with Liadri: a very difficult encounter which rewards players with a unique guaranteed mini.

TA could be more rewarding without being too rewarding: Skins are cosmetic only, exotic stats are really easy to come by. Why are the unique weapons that rare? If people had a good chance to get one of these every few runs more people would run it. A 0.001 % chance isn’t incentive for anyone who favours rewards to try.

…and why not add some other good rewards for a complete TA run? A unique mini for the first successful run, A 18slot bag with a unique utility (deposit all plants to the bank automatically) or unique titles for dungeon-achievements.

Would it really be too hard to implement some rewarding feeling after such a run?

Vayne.8563:

The thing is, if Anet puts time into make content for the people who want the hard core challenging experience, it has to be worth the time. The last really hard thing they made, besides Triple Trouble, was the TA dungeon. The hard core crowd says it wasn’t rewarding enough to run which is why no one runs it.
Anet doesn’t want to make it more rewarding to run, because if they do, people will feel that they have to run it to get X. It’s a kind of pressure. The idea was supposed to be that you can get the best rewards, more or less by doing anything. Hell a precusor can and has dropped from a mob in the starting area.

Let me disagree with you here – first of all hardcore content could easily be made more rewarding with the addition of unique and beautiful skins that would give people an incentive to play without “breaking the economy”.

Now for the idea that you can get the best rewards by doing anything – that’s just plain false. It was never true for GW2 and there was always some farm you had to do in order to get the best rewards.
Aside from random precursor drops we all know you’re not going to get “the best rewards” unless you do the content that’s currently “the most rewarding”.

The problem is that in a game that’s supposed to be an action-adventure MMO with unique and dynamic combat, beautiful visuals and a potential for very rich lore the best rewards are obtained by playing the trading post.
That’s right folks – if you want to make money in this game the single one thing you want to master above all else and focus on is the trading post. Nowhere else can you make that amount of cash so fast.
And it is challenging, it’s not easy – the people who do it have worked hard for it but the problem is that the rest of the hardcore players ( you know – the hardcore PVE players as opposed to the hardcore economics players) want to be able to do better too.

Why should I master combat to near perfection when the TP – if mastered – can get me more and better rewards in less time than farming the most difficult PVE areas?

That’s the problem right there.

The initial vision for this game was that of a beautifully crafted, rich in lore action MMO. Sadly the “end-game” in our game is mostly spread sheets, calculators, buy order and waiting around for stuff to sell. That’s the real issue right there.

I seriously doubt Anet is going to want to compromise that part of the game to make the rewards worth it to do more challenging content. As much as it would be great for the hard core crowd, the more casual crowd wouldn’t like that change.

So you’re telling me the casual crowd is fine with people making dozens and hundreds of gold off TP speculation but make an extra 2-3 gold off a difficult dungeon path and they’ll be armed with torches and pitchforks ready to burn down the forums ? I doubt it.

They have to keep the RNG because everyone would stop running fractals as soon as they got the skins they want.

Again – i disagree – RNG is bad.
I think more people have stopped running fractals because of RNG than have stopped because they got their skins.
You can’t seriously claim FOTM skin RNG is a good thing. They could make it very hard to get – say 250 pristine fractal relics – but at least obtainable and not just chasing some illusion every run.

Also how do you feel about the drop rates being ninja-nerfed with the fractured update?

Hello Chris, I was hoping if Leah and the rest of your team were able to look into the issue me and a few others mentioned about related to the Personal Story. Thanks.

Malkavian.4516:

Hello Chris, I was hoping if Leah and the rest of your team were able to look into the issue me and a few others mentioned about related to the Personal Story. Thanks.

It’s still early for ANET, I think they start up at 9 am which is another hour and 23 minutes away yet.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Maxwell.7843:

Hello Chris.
Would it be possible for someone from the team to take a look at the feedback in the Warrior forum, please?

To sum it up, many people feel that the adrenaline decay outside of combat make the warrior’s profession mechanic unusable. I believe it’s true. That’s because you end up being “out of combat” even if you are actually surrounded by foes.

One of the suggestions was to make the adrenaline decay start only if you stay out of combat for X seconds, so that you have time to get to the next enemy without an empty bar. It was also suggested to decrease the rate of decay a bit.

While I do realize that a lot of people complain when there are balance changes, I do honestly and wholeheartedly believe that the Warrior players have a point.

I’m NOT saying “omg now the [insert profession] can reset the fight it’s so unfair”, what I’m saying is “I think I understand what you guys did, but the concrete result is that burst skills now are broken”.
I am not asking to go back to the previous system, just to rework the decay rate out of combat.
I don’t believe it’s working as intended, because no profession should be locked out of their mechanic. I assume the goal was to prevent the warriors from carrying a full bar of adrenaline long outside of combat, and I agree, but we went from one extreme to another extreme.
If a Warrior is in a combat situation (which doesn’t mean “in combat”), he should be able to retain his adrenaline. The easiest way is to introduce an X seconds timer (for example 10 seconds) before the decay starts.

Thank you for your attention.

PS: I know that Mesmers have the same issue with loosing their clones; I don’t know that profession, but in the interest of fairness I think they should have a similar chance.

PPS: I’m one of those people who were very saddened about the disappearance of part of the personal story (the “greatest fear” storyline), so thank you for looking into that too.

Chap might reply to this. I play a warrior (PVT Shout Heal) and to be honest and quite happy with the changes. He knows more than I about balance however so i will bring it up with him tomorrow morning.

Chris

I’ll be awaiting impatiently about what Chaplan has to say about this. Adrenaline was stupidly overnerfed as if said changes weren’t tested at all, you can’t even use burst skills between fights most of the time anymore thus making several traits very ineffective.

Just some questions for Chap:
How long was this tested through? Are you happy with the current results? If not, couldn’t you have seen said results on your own testing enviroment? What was the reason behind adrenaline decay? Wasn’t adrenaline depletion on a missed burst skill just enough? Do you agree this was not a ‘shaving’ of the adrenaline mechanic and instead it was a significant nerf effectively reducing build diversity?

Khenzy.9348:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Maxwell.7843:

Hello Chris.
Would it be possible for someone from the team to take a look at the feedback in the Warrior forum, please?

To sum it up, many people feel that the adrenaline decay outside of combat make the warrior’s profession mechanic unusable. I believe it’s true. That’s because you end up being “out of combat” even if you are actually surrounded by foes.

One of the suggestions was to make the adrenaline decay start only if you stay out of combat for X seconds, so that you have time to get to the next enemy without an empty bar. It was also suggested to decrease the rate of decay a bit.

While I do realize that a lot of people complain when there are balance changes, I do honestly and wholeheartedly believe that the Warrior players have a point.

I’m NOT saying “omg now the [insert profession] can reset the fight it’s so unfair”, what I’m saying is “I think I understand what you guys did, but the concrete result is that burst skills now are broken”.
I am not asking to go back to the previous system, just to rework the decay rate out of combat.
I don’t believe it’s working as intended, because no profession should be locked out of their mechanic. I assume the goal was to prevent the warriors from carrying a full bar of adrenaline long outside of combat, and I agree, but we went from one extreme to another extreme.
If a Warrior is in a combat situation (which doesn’t mean “in combat”), he should be able to retain his adrenaline. The easiest way is to introduce an X seconds timer (for example 10 seconds) before the decay starts.

Thank you for your attention.

PS: I know that Mesmers have the same issue with loosing their clones; I don’t know that profession, but in the interest of fairness I think they should have a similar chance.

PPS: I’m one of those people who were very saddened about the disappearance of part of the personal story (the “greatest fear” storyline), so thank you for looking into that too.

Chap might reply to this. I play a warrior (PVT Shout Heal) and to be honest and quite happy with the changes. He knows more than I about balance however so i will bring it up with him tomorrow morning.

Chris

I’ll be awaiting impatiently about what Chaplan has to say about this. Adrenaline was stupidly overnerfed as if said changes weren’t tested at all, you can’t even use burst skills between fights most of the time anymore thus making several traits very ineffective.

Just some questions for Chap:
How long was this tested through? Are you happy with the current results? If not, couldn’t you have seen said results on your own testing enviroment? What was the reason behind adrenaline decay? Wasn’t adrenaline depletion on a missed burst skill just enough? Do you agree this was not a ‘shaving’ of the adrenaline mechanic and instead it was a significant nerf effectively reducing build diversity?

And while they’re at it – it would be nice to understand why SoR had to be nerfed. And why AS was reduced to only 50% under 50% hp?
These and the adrenaline out of combat decay are the only things that don’t make sense to me with the current warrior nerf. I feel they overdid it.

Also how can the F1 skills now be balanced considering they were supposed to be balanced in their current form when we had an overabundance of adrenaline which we no longer have? Consider Mace F1.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Blude.6812:

Not really asking for a time frame.
Just asking for some “communication with you” in the bug forum. As I said a simple ‘yes we know’ and it’s on our to do list would be be fine. But totally ignoring it —not so fine.

Hi Blude,

We are not ignoring it all. We are aware and will update Monday.

Thanks for raising it to my attention.

Chris

Thanks, cannot wait :d

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Morning All,

I have just woken up and and am feeling decidedly unwell.

I am heading back to bed and will be back online tomorrow.

Chris

Please take care of yourself. I hope that you are not overworking yourself or letting us stress you out so much that it’s getting to you physically. I know we can be rough at times but we care about this game a lot too.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Morning All,

I have just woken up and and am feeling decidedly unwell.

I am heading back to bed and will be back online tomorrow.

Chris

Did WvW go that badly?

I haven’t had time to read every post here so it might have been answered to/stated already but I just want to add my views.

The most important thing to me when it comes to balances is more frequency. Having balance changes every 6 months is just NOT ok and it is probably my number one issue with the game atm. One of my favorite parts of games like these is being able to mess with all of the changes and theorycrafting new builds. In GW1 you would be able to do this fairly frequently but I’ve only been able to do it a few times in GW2. There’s a ton of cool potential builds but at the end of the day they aren’t viable due to one reason or another.

Maybe something like target profession changes every 1-2 months so the balance team can focus on just one class, see how the changes affect the meta, then make small tweaks next class with more changes to another.

If there’s a specific reason why we get balance changes to frequently I would be interested to hear it. Is it a resource issue or just what the balance team wants?

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Morning All,

I have just woken up and and am feeling decidedly unwell.

I am heading back to bed and will be back online tomorrow.

Chris

I had the same feeling when i saw the new and “improved” leveling experience for fresh characters.

Are you sure its us you are communicating with? Or are we just being soothed over while you’re actually trying your best to win over the Chinese market? Because that would explain sooooo much.

Anyway, back to bed.

Sokia.3710:

Vayne.8563:

It is lucky. But also maybe it’s more than luck. I strongly suspect there are a lot of achievement hunters around, possibly due to the console generation growing up with achievements. I mean all the games basically have them now. Older generations of players tend to think achievements are sort of silly, but many of the newer gamers grew up with them and expect them.

I’m an older gamer. To be honest, the first time I saw achievements in a game, I didn’t understand the point. It did seem silly to get some title for doing something that you were going to do anyway. I still don’t care for achievements all that much, because they are basically just pre-set goals, and I used to play text-based RPGS where you basically make your own goals. So, I’m used to coming up with stuff that I find interesting.

I am an older gamer and technically, all we had were achievements and leaderboards. You put your quarter in the Donkey Kong, Galaga, Pac Man or Super Mario Bros. machine and earned points and hopefully placed in the top ten so you could put your initials on the leaderboard. Does that mean a lot of people care about that? I am sure a lot of people because the metrics show that they do or we wouldn’t have gotten so much stuff towards arbitrary collections. For me personally, it stinks. Instead of adding fresh new content to the game, they are stretching thin the existing content by adding new rewards. The collections aren’t even a decent amount of Achievement Points for the most part. The Exotic Collection is only the exotics out of the Champ Bags making named exotics more expensive and therefore providing less means of forging a precursor because their cost now is prohibitive to do so. This “Collection” thing is just The precursor Scavenger Hunt they said they were working on without any precursors for rewards. Everyone is cool with that? Where’s the open communication in that? Their actions are telling me they don’t want to implement a non RNG way of getting a precursor. Taking the most readily available named exotics and adding them to a collection has just made it harder to RNG a precursor and literally no one is talking about it. No one is talking about how collections are the scavenger hunt without the precursors either.

To me collecting isn’t content.
Email me when there is new and exciting content to play and then I will log in.
Mike? Do you realize what “Theme Park” style MMO’s are? The LS isn’t enough to satiate your playerbase
Hopefully you guys can figure out what made GW1 popular and transfer some of those ideas into this incarnation. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
GL Anet, you guys need it

I missed the announcement that Collections were the Precursor Scavenger Hunt (without the Precursor). I do, however, remember the announcement long, long ago that that idea was scrapped in favor of Precursor crafting. Perhaps, you would be so kind as to provide the link to said announcement, so I can keep up with what’s current. Thank you in advance. =)

Iason Evan.3806:

The Exotic Collection is only the exotics out of the Champ Bags making named exotics more expensive and therefore providing less means of forging a precursor because their cost now is prohibitive to do so.

Wait, what? That doesn’t make sense. In fact, since a lot of those named exotics are a sideeffect of precursor forging, the cost of making a precursor (after calculating gains from selling any more costly forge byproducts) should go down.

Astralporing.1957:

Iason Evan.3806:

The Exotic Collection is only the exotics out of the Champ Bags making named exotics more expensive and therefore providing less means of forging a precursor because their cost now is prohibitive to do so.

Wait, what? That doesn’t make sense. In fact, since a lot of those named exotics are a sideeffect of precursor forging, the cost of making a precursor (after calculating gains from selling any more costly forge byproducts) should go down.

The named exotics like “Crystal Guardian”, “Bonetti’s Rapier”(The Champion Bag named exotics) etc. have gone up in price significantly for the most part because they are a part of the new collection system. Those used to be the cheapest named exotics because they were the most readily available. It’s not the case anymore.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Morning All,

I have just woken up and and am feeling decidedly unwell.

I am heading back to bed and will be back online tomorrow.

Chris

Gaming can take it out on you if you played for hours on end. lol

Chuo.4238:

Vayne.8563:

You do realize you agreed with a post of mine? Just checking.

Yea – I can be openminded. Looks like you’re not completely satisfied with the kool-aid either. This should be worrying for ArenaNet.

Why? Why do you think everyone had to like everything about a game or a company? I have never ever played a game where I’ve liked everything. Not once. Not ever. It’s never going to happen.

Over all I’m happy with the direction of the game. There are things I decidedly don’t like, but they’re still a minority.

Here’s a question that many Necromancer players are wondering right now:

What was the rationale for leaving the Blood Magic traitline entirely untouched in a balance pass that was looking to improve sustain for Necromancers? I know that what players want varies greatly, so someone will always be upset with what actually happens, but basically everyone expected at least something to change with Blood Magic.

I realize that this is more appropriate of a question for Chapman, but I don’t know if you might have heard some of the discussion or not.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Morning All,

I have just woken up and and am feeling decidedly unwell.

I am heading back to bed and will be back online tomorrow.

Chris

Hope you get better.

So the patch is coming without him, right?

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Morning All,

I have just woken up and and am feeling decidedly unwell.

I am heading back to bed and will be back online tomorrow.

Chris

Feel better, Chris!

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Morning All,

I have just woken up and and am feeling decidedly unwell.

I am heading back to bed and will be back online tomorrow.

Chris

Get well soon. Take it easy.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Morning All,

I have just woken up and and am feeling decidedly unwell.

I am heading back to bed and will be back online tomorrow.

Chris

Hope you get better soon Chris.

I would send you some fresh hot baked cookies, but by the time they would get there they would be nothing more than uneatable rocks

Iason Evan.3806:

Astralporing.1957:

Iason Evan.3806:

The Exotic Collection is only the exotics out of the Champ Bags making named exotics more expensive and therefore providing less means of forging a precursor because their cost now is prohibitive to do so.

Wait, what? That doesn’t make sense. In fact, since a lot of those named exotics are a sideeffect of precursor forging, the cost of making a precursor (after calculating gains from selling any more costly forge byproducts) should go down.

The named exotics like “Crystal Guardian”, “Bonetti’s Rapier”(The Champion Bag named exotics) etc. have gone up in price significantly for the most part because they are a part of the new collection system. Those used to be the cheapest named exotics because they were the most readily available. It’s not the case anymore.

Umm, I don’t know when the last time you checked those items on the TP were, but Bonetti’s was 27 gold just last month, and Crystal Guardian was around 20. They both went way up in price back in April because they have Superior Sigils of Bloodlust. No, the collection didn’t help but they were in no way the cheapest named exotics as you claim.

On topic: I too would really love to see a roadmap, and when it hits a dead-end, hear something about that.

Get well soon Chris! You’ve been a huge wellspring of morale the last few weeks.

felessan.9587:

Iason Evan.3806:

Astralporing.1957:

Iason Evan.3806:

The Exotic Collection is only the exotics out of the Champ Bags making named exotics more expensive and therefore providing less means of forging a precursor because their cost now is prohibitive to do so.

Wait, what? That doesn’t make sense. In fact, since a lot of those named exotics are a sideeffect of precursor forging, the cost of making a precursor (after calculating gains from selling any more costly forge byproducts) should go down.

The named exotics like “Crystal Guardian”, “Bonetti’s Rapier”(The Champion Bag named exotics) etc. have gone up in price significantly for the most part because they are a part of the new collection system. Those used to be the cheapest named exotics because they were the most readily available. It’s not the case anymore.

Umm, I don’t know when the last time you checked those items on the TP were, but Bonetti’s was 27 gold just last month, and Crystal Guardian was around 20. They both went way up in price back in April because they have Superior Sigils of Bloodlust. No, the collection didn’t help but they were in no way the cheapest named exotics as you claim.

My apologies for listing the names out of that collection off the top of my head. The two karka bows are over 150g each. They both held in the 30-40g range before the update. A few of the scepters as well. Occultist Flame was a few gold before the update and is now over 20g. Arc is selling for over 4g and was one of the cheapest named exotics you could get prior to the patch. Combustion is selling for close to 6g. My point was that you could get some of the cheaper ones in the 2-3g range before and now can’t. Exterminator was constantly in the lowest range of 1-2g. It’s now north of 3g.

Mike O Brien.4613:

and in addition to developers, we have a community team who can clarify and be the bridge between players and developers. They’re ready to engage you on these topics.

(…)
See you in-game,
Mike O’Brien

Can Chris, Mike or Regina explain me something : why does a french community manager spend more time reading and posting on the english forum than on the french one ?
Does it make sense for you ?

I tried to find an answer, but the hammer of mod…. gasp * I mean, the hammer of doom hits hard !

@Chris

Has anyone on the team seen this thread? https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/The-Future-You-Want-survey-results/first#post4416312

Or more importantly, the survey that was run the thread is linking to? http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2ggvgg/the_future_you_want_survey_results/

I did not know the survey was running, but it seems like the majority of the votes are akin to what I would have voted regardless, and I am sure, many others.

Zietlogik.6208:

@Chris

Has anyone on the team seen this thread? https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/The-Future-You-Want-survey-results/first#post4416312

Or more importantly, the survey that was run the thread is linking to? http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2ggvgg/the_future_you_want_survey_results/

I did not know the survey was running, but it seems like the majority of the votes are akin to what I would have voted regardless, and I am sure, many others.

This is, based on the data, people that are long time players. Quite seriously, people that either pay for stuff or play enough that they “know” the deal. I think it’s a pretty valid survey, at least for vet players.

Anyway, I’ve been watching my wife level a thief and while she’s a long time player, it’s EXTREMELY frustrating and literally makes me not want to level my toons. I think they really needed to go half way, make progression slightly more positive (not the story every 10 levels). Right now i wouldn’t even want to level anything, ever, it’s so gated.

It’s always been difficult leveling new characters. Especially if you’ve been running fully equiped Level 80s in the lower zones. Know that group of critters you can one shot? Now with a new appropriate level character even one is a challenge. Coming down off of Olympus has always been a problem with alts. Just now we can point at something and say that’s the reason.

I had a level 80 mesmer and when I started my thief I had a tough time remembering I wasn’t uber anymore. That I was running with whites and blues. This was before the trait change, even before the wallet. But since April players could point at the trait change and now the NPE as to why it’s tough. We have a fall guy for our faulty memories.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Stiofan.6720:

.

Hi Stiofan,

We are working on increased personnel to meet our goal of a better connection with the community. You should see some news soon.

Chris

Thank God there will now be a Communications manager experienced in public communications and interaction. I hope that this person is smart enough to insist all communications go through his terminal in all cases to avoid further feux pa’s.
All I can say is yay, they hired a communications manager.

Astralporing.1957:

Chuo.4238:

Put another way, I am super disappointed in the direction this game is going (and clearly I’m not alone).

ArenaNet, why would people like me stick around if you’re not giving me something to look forward to? Or do you not care if people like me stick around?

It’s entirely possible, that Anet may simply not want to confirm for a lot of people that the game will be going in a direction they dislike. Because, you know, they’d leave the game right away then – and if they are uninformed, they may stay for longer, until finally their patience runs out.

I hope, this is not the case.

I think it is, and I think the direction is towards small, cheap changes to try and attract new players instead of retaining veterans.

I have seen nothing in the last year or so to suggest that Anet has any plans to substantially invest in new content. Heck, the “feature pack” was largely a cost saving measure. They made the game more similar to the Chinese version so that the game was easier to support.

I’m just going to make this short and sweet. (Just a word of warning: I’m strictly talking about PvE. I don’t WvW and I don’t PvP. I’m not talking about anything for those game modes; I know nothing about either game modes.)

Please, can we at least get an update on the eldritch abomination known as the engineer hobosacks? This thread has well over a thousand posts and ninety thousand views over the time span of nearly two years, and yet it’s been over a full year since there was any post regarding it.

There’s been plenty of suggestions on how to fix it, including toolbar icons like eles, changing the sacks into fanny packs, removing the sacks and giving the engie visually distinct weapons for each kits, or something as simple as giving us the ability to hide the kits like back pieces in PvE. With each update, you guys are adding more and more back piece skins, but you’re locking us out from using them, as engie is more or less reliant on kits to be viable.

Please, just give an updated response about it. The engie community will thank you, even if the response is “too bad, so sad”, as we will at least know not to expect it any more.

Harper.4173:

The problem is that in a game that’s supposed to be an action-adventure MMO with unique and dynamic combat, beautiful visuals and a potential for very rich lore the best rewards are obtained by playing the trading post.

This is why I recently started learning how to play the market. We will see how it goes. If it isn’t fun I will most likely quit the game, because no matter how good I get at the game I won’t be 1/10th as rewarded as the guys who master trading.

So far so good. I recently doubled my money by investing in an item that boosts move speed on siege golems(WvW tourney skyrocketed the price). That would have taken me many hours to do otherwise. With TP I did it with an hour of work and a week of waiting.