Guild Wars 2

I’ve been contemplating making this post for a while and now I feel I have enough to say to make it a worthwhile feedback. There is a lot of praise I have to give this game, I love it a lot but this feedback is specifically to give constructive critism for the things I feel need to change. First let me quickly explain my background a bit.

Quick Background

I’ve been playing since Beta Weekend 1, all subsequent weekends/stress tests and since headstart I’ve played about 1500 hours. The character I played most on (1350 hours) is my Mesmer.

I run a pretty succesful guild with about 120 members (http://www.destinysedge.net). I’ve played MANY games and have been running (or in leading positions) in guilds since I was 16 (I’m 26 now/Female).

Community/Guilds

Community focus is incredibly lacking in this game, not incredibly… severely. The majority of the current mechanics within the game are either lacking in functionality and/or have this feeling of being forced to play with PuG’s/Strangers.

There is no content for large groups and guilds to do within this game other than WvW and Dragons (The latter being hardly worth mentioning let’s be honest). All the content that I was envisioning there to be for guilds after launch isn’t there.

Instead I was forced to come up with activities for my guild to do through creativity (Hide’n’seek, Run naked across tyria etc.) or even things outside of the game itself. The point is there is only so much I can come up with and I shouldn’t have to be the one to provide all the guild entertainment. Guild wars 2 is the MMO and should therefore provide content for guilds.

People are getting bored with the repeated made up events and starting to feel forced to mingle when there is nothing in game that really requires you to be a community.

All the fun activities (with all I mean there is really just one atm…) and now holiday activities are all about playing with random people. People don’t want to be forced to play with random people. They want to play with guild members and friends.

Keg brawl, Why was this so neglected? Why is there no way to make set teams/tournaments for guilds only? Where are the other many mini-games promised that aren’t about playing with randoms and/or holiday themed?

Then Wintersday came a long, perfect opportunity to have some activities going with guilds and friends in mind you’d think…. Can’t play snowball mayhem with parties (fair enough it’s pvp, need to be fair but still.. it’s meant to be a fun activity), Can’t do bell choir with the groups you want (Not to mention the horrendous lag spikes).

Jumping puzzle, sure we can join others from our party but lets be honest it’s mostly a solitary activity, Tixx Dungeon… Fair enough this is a party instance (If repetitive). Then there is Toypocalypse, there is NO reason why this couldn’t have been a party instance or even better a guild instance.

Guild Halls… Fair enough they are coming up but PLEASE make them in the same manner as Heart of the Mists, a stop between the world and Lion’s Arch, simply press G and ‘Go to guild hall’ would be perfect. Within the guild hall have mini-games you can play with your guild and run events.

Have useful vendors there (banks, merchant, trading post) but leave crafting and mystic forge in Lion’s Arch only. This will also alleviate overflow issues within Lion’s Arch. Nobody likes being in overflow in cities.

Of course have a portal to Lion’s Arch here. A way to thoroughly customise the guild hall for a guilds personal flavour would be great too. I will literally cry if guild halls are some far away instance you have to deliberately travel to, out of your way.

Guild rosters, Why is there no way to see how much someone is representing? (A percentage when hovering their name would be great) and why can’t we see when someone last logged in? I’d also like to be able to see which crafting professions people have regardless of character and at what level each is (Perhaps make it so you can click someones name and open a profile with more in depth detail about that person?).

Influence, Some of the buffs everyone uses cost too much influence. What I mean is as a PvX guild to run all buffs at all times (meaning you have to speed up some builds) just costs more than you can make even as a good size guild like my own. I feel forced to pick between a couple at a time.

Chat, Because everything is about being in parties or running solo there is hardly any incentive for people to talk in guild chat. There needs to be more content for guild groups to do and talk about.

There is a lack of incentive for people to stick with a guild, be loyal and communicate. No matter how hard you work for it, it’s like trying to get oil and water to stick together, Guilds need some help from the game itself, an adhesive, a reason to have a community. It’s just not there at the moment.

Continued in next post…

Rewards/Dungeons

Overall I’m most happy with the dungeon design in this game (fractal aside but I’ll get to that in a minute). My only gripe with dungeons is that with the current economy effort versus reward is still not where it should be. In regards to gold anyway.

The only dungeon I have issues with is Fractals, It splits people up because not everyone is on the same level. There is also the issue of ascended gear blocking progress but I believe there are fixes being made to this but to be honest it’s already too late for me because I’m bored with them (that’s saying something when I still enjoy AC after many…many runs).

I love each fractal design and fight mechanic wise but they are too short, by the time you immerse into one you get pulled into the next one. I much rather have had each fractal be a full length dungeon than feeling so rushed around. I don’t like this ‘speedrun’ feel. It discourages people from having a chat while in the instance even less.

Also to get to the more challenging fractals you have to repeat the same content over and over so that by the time it gets interesting you have done the dungeon so many times that it’s just a bit boring. There isn’t that excitement of finally reaching that end boss, not knowing what to expect because you already done it a 100 times in easy mode.

I much rather have dungeons that are hard to begin with and not a grind to the fun parts (that are being made inaccessible by the agony resistance being blocked).

Also please at least make an LFG chat channel with a much more reasonable ‘spam’ limit or something to help people find groups.

RNG

This is something I feel this game is starting to take too far. It was already pretty bad to begin with but more and more is being added all the time. I feel popular items should be something also obtainable through a set course of action (like collecting tokens) and not just through trading post/lucky drops/gemstore.

Especially when you add items that you can’t get in the gemstore either (choir bell, infinite hairstyle contract etc.). I want to enjoy the game not go to a casino and watch people win all around me. It’s just not fun. It causes jealousy and envy amongst players and resentment. It doesn’t help the already lack of community and activities/dungeons that fracture it even further.

As much as I think it’s okay to have random drops of rare items and them being able to be bought on the store. I also feel there should be a set way for people to gain these items through effort. I much rather grind for 1000 tokens of something and be guaranteed to get my item then to pay a fortune in gold/real money to obtain it.

Because lets be honest, you can’t realistically gain the gold required for some of these items through playing the game normally without being a trading post wiz unless you play the game for years.

You did it right with the dungeon tokens, this is the way to go. RNG is a step backwards. Nobody but those who are lucky or rich like RNG. It’s not fun, it’s not fair.

Conclusion

- Make several activities you can do with guilds and fix those where you currently can’t
- Activities should always have a way to be done in set parties/guild groups not forced randoms
- Make guild halls a stop between like Heart of the Mists
- Fix guild lack of functionalities (Roster issues, Influence, Bank functionality)
- Get rid of so much RNG and move more towards the token type systems, For every RNG/Gemstore system there should be a way to obtain it by playing the game in a guaranteed way
- Fractals was a nice idea but it didn’t work. It needs reworking.
- Make an LFG chat window or improved system like gw2lfg.com

How is it possible that you have played 1500 hrs? The game has been out 4 months so that means you would have to play 12.5 hrs a day every single day since the game launched. That blows my mind.

Waffler.1257:

How is it possible that you have played 1500 hrs? The game has been out 4 months so that means you would have to play 12.5 hrs a day every single day since the game launched. That blows my mind.

he played all the beta weekends.

plasmacutter.2709:

Waffler.1257:

How is it possible that you have played 1500 hrs? The game has been out 4 months so that means you would have to play 12.5 hrs a day every single day since the game launched. That blows my mind.

he played all the beta weekends.

She* but yes I play a lot most of the day That’s beside the point other than me having experienced the game a lot to give some weight to my feedback. I just hope the dev’s read and take note of my concern to the community building issues especially.

Hey Fay,

Excellent feedback. I’m sure ArenaNet will take notice and note your comments. It’s important for people with your experience to speak up and help shape the future of our game.

Well done!

Who cares if he played 1500 hrs, is his life not yours.
If he wants to tell the whole world about it, who cares too?

I dont blow my mind, i just say: ‘’good for you’’
If he wants to say hes a girl, good for him too, for me he still being an ‘’internet dude’’

Nayru.3947:

Why do you need to say you’re a girl in every post?

Anyway, you’ve played 1500 hours? Uh… looks like you’re happy with the game as it stands. So why are you complaining?

Also, just wondering, why do you have “1500+ hours” in your signature? Is it a personal achievement?

nice attempt to derail an actual constructive thread.
Would you correct someone if they refered to you as female when infact your a dude? I know I would. Same stands the other way round.

1500 hours is a kitten lot of time. But just cos someone can spend more time in a game more than what you think is the norm dont take away from their view on things. Seems to me you just have a personal issue with this poster.

ON TOPIC
I like the dungeons as they are. Only thing they should really change is what you can spend tokens on. Its been mentioned in other threads a few times about expensive mats being available purchasable with tokens, and i agree.

FOTM
The whole divide was a MASSIVE mistake, along with the AR concept. But it would seem they are trying to address that now with lowering the mats beend to infuse rings, and helping rings not been a complete lottery with the new token and rings purchase thing.

My real major gripes about the game atm is the farming DR thing. Its down to people to decide for themselves if they want to farm. SHouldnt be down to Anet being greedy and trying to make an expensive economy to attract more gem sales.

lack of a LFG is killing off half the world due to people reluctant to leave LA.

To many sodding bugs littered around that should have been concentrated on before adding new things. Even though I know big shiny events distract some from this, but alot of people think you dont care about the bugs and ignore them to move onto something more shiny. Long lasting games fix first, impliment additional things later.

Fay.2735:

plasmacutter.2709:

Waffler.1257:

How is it possible that you have played 1500 hrs? The game has been out 4 months so that means you would have to play 12.5 hrs a day every single day since the game launched. That blows my mind.

he played all the beta weekends.

She* but yes I play a lot most of the day That’s beside the point other than me having experienced the game a lot to give some weight to my feedback. I just hope the dev’s read and take note of my concern to the community building issues especially.

This is the internet, we all know you’re made of spaghetti and longcats.

I agree with you btw.

I play maybe 6 hours a week (2-3 evenings) and am hit so hard with DR I just have zero chance of personal progression beyond nominal level gains on alts.

I can’t make gold legitimately thanks to ANet’s bugged DR, and I don’t exploit, so I’m hosed.

Nayru.3947:

Why do you need to say you’re a girl in every post?

Anyway, you’ve played 1500 hours? Uh… looks like you’re happy with the game as it stands. So why are you complaining?

Also, just wondering, why do you have “1500+ hours” in your signature? Is it a personal achievement?

I believe the point of proving a framework before committing comments for peer-review is about building credibility. Hours played is a relevant factor in building credibility. Also, I do not feel that Fay is complaining. She is providing honest feedback that I’m sure ArenaNet appreciates.

Cheers!

Nayru.3947:

Lutharr.1035:

Would you correct someone if they refered to you as female when infact your a dude? I know I would. Same stands the other way round.

In reply to your question, no I wouldn’t correct them. And she said it in the OP. You seem really bothered by me. ;(

Nice attempt to derail this constructive thread but please try to stay on topic and be respectful, thanks.

Lutharr.1035:

But just cos someone can spend more time in a game more than what you think is the norm dont take away from their view on things.

That doesn’t make any sense. ;(

Please try to stay on topic. Cheers.

Nayru.3947:

Anyway, you’ve played 1500 hours? Uh… looks like you’re happy with the game as it stands. So why are you complaining?

Then odviously you dont even understand what your harping on about also.

Nayru.3947:

Why do you need to say you’re a girl in every post?

Anyway, you’ve played 1500 hours? Uh… looks like you’re happy with the game as it stands. So why are you complaining?

Also, just wondering, why do you have “1500+ hours” in your signature? Is it a personal achievement?

Amazing: Focusing on 2 totally unrelated statements keeps you from commenting on the OP’s VERY long list of valid points.
While leaving out the omnipresent, canned “you are playing it wrong” or “you are too casual” responses you still manage to make it quite obvious why the OP stated those 1500+ hours played.

Thanks OP… A sober, to the point description of many of the things we miss for guilds in “guild wars 2”.

I REALLY hope Anet still have a dev or two not assigned to monetization, because your posts have a lot of seemingly easily implemented improvements for guilds!

Lutharr.1035:

Nayru.3947:

Why do you need to say you’re a girl in every post?

Anyway, you’ve played 1500 hours? Uh… looks like you’re happy with the game as it stands. So why are you complaining?

Also, just wondering, why do you have “1500+ hours” in your signature? Is it a personal achievement?

nice attempt to derail an actual constructive thread.
Would you correct someone if they refered to you as female when infact your a dude? I know I would. Same stands the other way round.

1500 hours is a kitten lot of time. But just cos someone can spend more time in a game more than what you think is the norm dont take away from their view on things. Seems to me you just have a personal issue with this poster.

ON TOPIC
I like the dungeons as they are. Only thing they should really change is what you can spend tokens on. Its been mentioned in other threads a few times about expensive mats being available purchasable with tokens, and i agree.

FOTM
The whole divide was a MASSIVE mistake, along with the AR concept. But it would seem they are trying to address that now with lowering the mats beend to infuse rings, and helping rings not been a complete lottery with the new token and rings purchase thing.

My real major gripes about the game atm is the farming DR thing. Its down to people to decide for themselves if they want to farm. SHouldnt be down to Anet being greedy and trying to make an expensive economy to attract more gem sales.

lack of a LFG is killing off half the world due to people reluctant to leave LA.

To many sodding bugs littered around that should have been concentrated on before adding new things. Even though I know big shiny events distract some from this, but alot of people think you dont care about the bugs and ignore them to move onto something more shiny. Long lasting games fix first, impliment additional things later.

Thank you for your constructive reply Trolls will be trolls.

The farming DR I feel is necessary. However there should be a better compromise made. Farming repetitively is done a lot by bots so it’s a good strategy to stop bots from farming (scripted farming routes).

The way to counteract bots is the way they’ve done DR in dungeons, by making it so you get rewarded more by doing different kinds of content (different paths and dungeons). So perhaps if you move zones or areas each of them has it’s own DR rather than a time limit attached to it.

Make more areas with the same loot it should allow for farming while diminishing bots farming activities. That said I don’t like farming, I prefer doing other content.

I’m mostly concerned about the lack of abilities to keep a community together, nothing to talk about in guild chat because it’s all about parties and solo content. No activities to do as a guild other than WvW (which unless you are a serious wvw guild isn’t really a thing to do as an event or you might obstruct rather than help the efforts).

There really needs an urgent focus on guild communities and having more content and interesting perks to being in a specific one. More reasons to stick to one and not guild hop, represent/un-represent without good cause. As well as fixing the lack of guild functionalities.

Community builds the game, if there’s nothing for community to stick around as one, no strong community building activities then the individual will get bored and move on repeatedly as I’ve seen happen so much, to do their own things and not work towards their guild. It makes it less of an MMO and more of a play with random strangers and pugs.

Nayru.3947:

Zimlobo.3962:

Now I feel bad. We’re not ganging up on you Nayru. I’m just bored and typing my 2c

That’s ok my friend. Don’t worry, I ignore the trolls. : )

The irony of this just made my day. (ok maybe not day, last 10 mins then)

Hi Fay,

I don’t normally reply to these “feedback” threads because the points they make normally don’t interest me much… but you mirror my feelings almost perfectly.

To add to your feedback… I would also like to see community built through weekly “challenges” and player created content.

The challenges could come from player suggestions, or from the devs… and feature some sort of reward for doing something each week out of the ordinary as a group. One week perhaps do something like “run AC path 3 topless and with only 6 downs party wide” or “find the NPC Waldo and run some random odd DE with him” then have Waldo teleport all around Tyria or just all around a couple of different maps… things like that. Or how about “role play with your guild a scene from hamlet… best production wins.” Doesn’t matter what the challenges are as long as they are creative… fun… give people something to talk about and brainstorm on… and can be done with guildmates for rewards like coin and influence, or guild tokens that can be spent on mats or other things. It also would require very little work in implementation beyond creating a space to announce the challenges, a place to provide proof of the completion (if there is no mechanic to do so) and receive the award, and a place to provide feedback/collect new ideas.

And player created content doesn’t need much of an explanation…

The community is the most important part of an MMO… and we need more ways to find excuses to interact with each other positively… but even more than that… the devs need to take steps to show us that community matters and they want it… PUG Wars is fun to play… but I want the cohesion of Guild Wars…

I won’t touch upon whether or not the OP’s true gender is male or female, or whether he/she is truly 26, 36, 56, etc … irrelevant …

I WILL say well done — a very intelligently written piece, and one I hope the devs happen upon, read over, and take into consideration.

That being said, however, I will move to my point in responding, and that is the forcing of so much content in GW2 to be group-based.

To provide a bit of my own background, I’ve been gaming, both online and otherwise, for over 20 years now, harkening back all the way to 2nd edition AD&D (still have the hardcover books, taped spines and all). I’ve played City of Heroes/Villains, LOTR, POTC, Lineage, AoC, and probably a dozen others the Coors I’m enjoying is causing me to forget. I’d love to say I’m a casual gamer but that’d be a bald-faced lie — I’m a gaming addict, and attend regular meetings. No I don’t — I blow those off to game. And I, too, have been playing GW2 since BW1.

But I digress …

GW2 is a multi-player game, I get that, I do. And it’s all the more flavorful because of the thousands of others people playing at the same time I am. My suggestion, though, is that for the content to be also available for those who choose to solo it. Every single dungeon is set-up so that it requires at least a couple of players, if not the “recommended” five, to manage it. I know — I’ve tried several on my own, and while I haven’t been slaughtered straight out of the gate, the objectives simply weren’t achievable. Example 1 — Mad King during Halloween. I went in with my guardian, waded through the mobs, and managed to take the Mad King himself down several notches, but after an hour, was never able to seal the deal. Example 2 — Tixx’s toyship. I went in with my warrior, laying waste to skritt and tar elementals alike. But by the time I had a few of the ooze globs into the machine, it was already resetting.

Again, I get the fact the game was designed for interaction — if i wanted to play by myself, I should just be playing Skyrim, right? Yeah, I’ve heard those points before. But I think there is a fair number of the GW2 community that enjoys being an independent member of that community. If I’m running through a zone and the map chat blows up with, “Wasp Queen up”, or “Anyone around that can help with skill challenge …”, if I happen to be in the area and in the mood, I’ll be there in a heartbeat. If I see a downed player on the map, I’ll drop what I’m doing to try and find them to rez ’em.

Do I do dungeons, though? Not at all.

Would I if the mobs scaled to the number of players in the party? You betcha. I’d have run through them all, and this is coming from someone who filled dungeon tomes in GW1 multiple times, with multiple chars, in both modes, INCLUDING Duncan. Who wasn’t so bad if you had a rit and set some spirits on him.

So, while I agree that there is a helluva lot that can yet be done to foster group-based activities for guilds, bands of drinking buddies, families that play together, etc., I think an equal amount of focus could be given to those folks who like the online world, but still want to do most of the content on their own.

I dunno, maybe it’s just me, but I like knowing there are other players in a zone, chatting away idly in map, and that I can ask them for a hand or lend my own, whichever the case may be, but do not dig that I also have to accept that for certain aspects of the game joining with a PUG is going to be a necessity.

Communities consist of many different types of people — some are naturally gregarious, some the spotlight-hogs, some the wallflowers … some speak volumes and never make an ounce of sense, some speak a few words that are absolutely profound … and, to point, there are some that wish to foster a familial environment while others wish to play the role of the uncle or cousin the rest of the family only dicusses in hushed tones.

Should there be more content that develops and enriches the communal aspects of the game? Absolutely. But for the devs, please also take into consideration those in the player-base who want to strike out on their own.

Nayru.3947:

Why do you need to say you’re a girl in every post?

Anyway, you’ve played 1500 hours? Uh… looks like you’re happy with the game as it stands. So why are you complaining?

Also, just wondering, why do you have “1500+ hours” in your signature? Is it a personal achievement?

I don’t see anything wrong with correcting her gender as to which she should be addressed by.

I’m at 1500 hours myself, played since BWE 1. Yes, I’m going to say I’m happy with a lot of the game. But just because I’ve played it for that long doesn’t mean I’m happy with everything in the game.

It isn’t complaining, it’s called feedback. People who want to see improvements in a company’s product they adore do this. Stop being ignorant.

To Fay; I agree with a lot of what you posted. The RNG is going a bit too far, and I agree that the guild system needs some more “oomph!” to it as well. Otherwise, I’m pretty darn happy about the game thus far.

Oh, and to add to it; I really, really, really hate diminishing returns on Karma and on loot obtainable. I don’t want to be punished for farming because I chose to spend 3 hours in Orr. (Sometimes all it takes is 1 good hour of farming before hitting diminishing returns, which is really disappointing.)

Thank you everyone for your responses.

The reason I mentioned what I did about my background is to hope to give some weight to my feedback as someone who has played the game a lot and comes from a gaming background as well as not being a 10 year old kid raging on the forums

As I said, I love the game but I’m worried about the community because there isn’t anything there to keep it together other than peoples good nature. I’ve heard of many other guilds struggling to keep members on board and people un-representing frequently.

I know this is an intended feature and I’m sure it can be useful in some cases but for a guild to have an active, lively community it needs members to represent full time. As well as reasons and things to do in a large group.

Communities and guilds are the building blocks of MMO’s, if the foundation is neglected it will crumple. For now guilds are holding together by strings thanks to the rapid adding of new content. It’s not a long term solution and the strain of keeping a guild together is becoming more and more noticeable.

I really hope Arenanet takes note of the guild issues. It needs to be addressed as a priority. I much rather tolerate some buggy dungeons than see guilds and communities around me fall apart.

bluewanders.5297:

Hi Fay,

I don’t normally reply to these “feedback” threads because the points they make normally don’t interest me much… but you mirror my feelings almost perfectly.

To add to your feedback… I would also like to see community built through weekly “challenges” and player created content.

A weekly guild achievement would be an awesome idea! Some sort of challenge you have to do as a guild. Maybe a random Dynamic event build to require at least 10 people of the same guild to complete in a special guild instance (should of course allow more than 10 people and it scales with size).

Then if you complete it everyone in the guild gets achievement points and maybe a nice reward. It doesn’t have to be super fancy but just something fun to do each week.

mojowalker.3798:

I dunno, maybe it’s just me, but I like knowing there are other players in a zone, chatting away idly in map, and that I can ask them for a hand or lend my own, whichever the case may be, but do not dig that I also have to accept that for certain aspects of the game joining with a PUG is going to be a necessity.

As you’ve said yourself, Guild wars 2 is a multi-player game and will therefore always put first things with multiple people in mind. The problem currently is there is only stuff to do for parties and strangers together. There isn’t anything for communities to do.

I think although it would be nice for people who like playing multi-player games solo to have things to do as well. The attention should first be on fixing the lack of large community content. If they fix content for guilds to do then by all means I’d support people to be able to play solo as well.

Amiron.1067:

To Fay; I agree with a lot of what you posted. The RNG is going a bit too far, and I agree that the guild system needs some more “oomph!” to it as well. Otherwise, I’m pretty darn happy about the game thus far.

Oh, and to add to it; I really, really, really hate diminishing returns on Karma and on loot obtainable. I don’t want to be punished for farming because I chose to spend 3 hours in Orr. (Sometimes all it takes is 1 good hour of farming before hitting diminishing returns, which is really disappointing.)

I personally hate farming because it’s boring to me but I can see how it could be frustrating for those who do like farming. That’s why I suggested farming DR should be made into areas of effect.

Where if you keep moving through different areas to farm you wont be hit by DR but if you stay in the same area grinding like a bot that you will be hit by it. Like the dungeon DR variety of content played is rewarded.