Guild Wars 2

cesmode.4257:

All of the pro and cons in ths thread aside…

I love how arenanet forum peoples hop into threads that are benign in nature but not in something like this.

When people comment on aesthetics or some gem shop item being cool or bad, or whatever, they comment in there. But when people have concerns, they steer clear. Probably because they know that people will put them on pikes, but still.

Devs are listening.

You realize this thread was started around 3:30 am ArenaNet time and its only 7:30 am their time now.

I understand the desire for more communication, but complaining they haven’t responded to a 4 hour thread that was posted in the middle of their night is a bit ridiculous and, most likely, simply meant to inflame an issue and start an argument .

There is way too much of that on the forums. If you want to affect change, you need to do so in a more rational and level headed manner.

Jana.6831:

Novuake.2691:

Because he refuted my point (that buying every trait for every char is pointless and a waste of time because you will never use them all), by saying his main character(which obvious is just one) has used them all…

I think you twisted the meaning of his words: There’s no way anyone knows which traits one is going to use and for most people it also isn’t clear who their main character will be. So saying that one has only to buy 15 traits is nonsense, even if not all will be used – but there’s no way to determine which ones that will be.

Step 1 : Read.
Step 2 : I like it. Yes or no?
Step 3 : If yes, GO GET ’EM! If no, next…

Simple enough to me.

In general everyone knows what build they are looking for, even if its just a basic concept, by reading the trait and skills that you are comfortable with, you can form an idea if the trait fits with your concept and preference BEFORE going out to get it.

Blaeys.3102:

cesmode.4257:

All of the pro and cons in ths thread aside…

I love how arenanet forum peoples hop into threads that are benign in nature but not in something like this.

When people comment on aesthetics or some gem shop item being cool or bad, or whatever, they comment in there. But when people have concerns, they steer clear. Probably because they know that people will put them on pikes, but still.

Devs are listening.

You realize this thread was started around 3:30 am ArenaNet time and its only 7:30 am their time now.

I understand the desire for more communication, but complaining they haven’t responded to a 4 hour thread that was posted in the middle of their night is a bit ridiculous and, most likely, simply meant to inflame an issue and start an argument .

There is way too much of that on the forums. If you want to affect change, you need to do so in a more rational and level headed manner.

Its more of a broad observation that specific to this thread. Look at the main page…I see a lot of arenanet posts on non-controversial / non-critical(in terms of feedback) threads.

cesmode.4257:

Its more of a broad observation that specific to this thread. Look at the main page…I see a lot of arenanet posts on non-controversial / non-critical(in terms of feedback) threads.

The point is threads are specific to topic, if you have nothing to add to the topic, then you are better of not commenting on it at all.

Rule 2 of forum etiquette. :P

Novuake.2691:

Sors Immani.8429:

My major issue pertains to LS: the releases we are getting can be cleared in under an hour for even the most casual of casual gamers. An hour’s worth of content each month is almost insulting, in my opinion. In attempt to try to stretch out the content, an achievement grind-fest has been implemented: wardrobe, collections, crafting, title tracks, etc… With LS 2, we’re treated to this “mid-season finale” crap. I, and I’m sure many other players, hate it. We get 5 or so quests in biweekly intervals for a little over a month and then we have to wait 3 for a new release (August 13 – Nov 4)? It’s infuriating (on top of the gem store debacle that, for me, has yet to be remedied).

How would I remedy this? For starters, “Living Story” would consist of major expansion-like patches every 3 to 6 months (for GW1 veterans, think the Sorrow’s Furnace patch). New quests, dungeons, and events would provide a source of income for players while the new gear skins would allow players to expand their wardrobe if they chose to do so. Expansive new maps (with fewer waypoints) would allow players to explore at their leisure and provide a sense of achievement since defeat would require a long trek back to where you left off (again, harkening back to GW1 with towns/outposts serving as only means of travel).

Tyria itself is rich with lore and locale that we’ve not explored: the Crystal Desert, Dragon’s Lair, Battledepths/Depths of Tyria, Ring of Fire Isles, Tarnished Coast, Woodland/Verdant Cascades, Janthir, Southern Shiverpeaks, Far Shiverpeaks, and every other area on the map that is still in it’s stylized “uncharted” sense. Add to it the continents of Elona and Cantha, the Realm of Torment, and the vast expanse of the Unending Ocean and you’ve got enough material to work with for the next 5 years (easily) at my proposed content size and release schedule. I’m sure most players would be thrilled to see the continent maps have 100% landmass explorable.

TL;DR: ANet, you’ve got more than enough material to work with. Please stop trying to wring every last drop of “content” out of these tiny releases. Slow your schedule down some, give us larger releases and show us new locales with more quests, dungeons, etc. While we’re in “x”, something can be happening in "y"— that’s how you do LS.

I agree the devs could do more and would love them to do more, but you can not expect them to, or even demand they do.
Hell as you put it there is a mountain-load of content to expand on or even start from scratch.

And expect and demand seem to be the prevailing sentiment on the forum.

I think it’s less about doing more and more about doing different.

Let’s say that there is a young wannabe fantasy author, but he spends all of his writing time on fanfiction because that provides immediate gratification. Meanwhile, his major novel goal is pushed back and he loses out for it.

That’s precisely what’s happening here. Instant gratification and short term gain are winning out over the long term improvement and health of the game and Anet are taking some much-warranted flak for it.

And yes, I did just call the Living Story fanfiction.

Novuake.2691:

Step 1 : Read.
Step 2 : I like it. Yes or no?
Step 3 : If yes, GO GET ’EM! If no, next…

Simple enough to me.

In general everyone knows what build they are looking for, even if its just a basic concept, by reading the trait and skills that you are comfortable with, you can form an idea if the trait fits with your concept and preference BEFORE going out to get it.

Did that on my engi, only to find that the trait was bugged.
No, people usually don’t know or even if they know the tendencies but not exactly what traits might be best for that as that knowledge is only achieved by tryying it out, just like skills, I try them out, even if I have read what they’re doing before. And I try others who I didn’t like by reading their descriptions after I’ve watched some other people using them – and that’s kind of how it should be “play as you like” and not “play if you’re not restricted”. No offense, I guess I get your point of view, but new players can’t know all the stuff veterans know including what might be good and people playing the competitive sides of the game need different builds from time to time.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

I think it’s less about doing more and more about doing different.

Let’s say that there is a young wannabe fantasy author, but he spends all of his writing time on fanfiction because that provides immediate gratification. Meanwhile, his major novel goal is pushed back and he loses out for it.

That’s precisely what’s happening here. Instant gratification and short term gain are winning out over the long term improvement and health of the game and Anet are taking some much-warranted flak for it.

Interesting way of looking at it.

Have not considered it, will give it some thought as to how it could fit into the world in actual application..

GuzziHero.2467:

Magister Tassi refers to the player character’s participation in Dragon Bash. Obviously, there was no Dragon Bash this year.

How do you know she’s not referring to the one Dragon Bash we did have?

Jana.6831:

Did that on my engi, only to find that the trait was bugged.
No, people usually don’t know or even if they know the tendencies but not exactly what traits might be best for that as that knowledge is only achieved by tryying it out, just like skills, I try them out, even if I have read what they’re doing before. And I try others who I didn’t like by reading their descriptions after I’ve watched some other people using them – and that’s kind of how it should be “play as you like” and not “play if you’re not restricted”. No offense, I guess I get your point of view, but new players can’t know all the stuff veterans know including what might be good and people playing the competitive sides of the game need different builds from time to time.

To each his/her own, right?

This is what discussion is about, all of the stuff we have said is only from our perspective, we will never truly know what new players experience will be like.

Out of curiosity, which trait was/is bugged?
I main Engi, so curios.

GuzziHero.2467:

Ascended: I have 14 characters. Imagine how long it would take and how much it would cost for me to gather enough laurels and materials to equip them all with Ascended. Years.
.

Ascended is account bound. It’s a waste to create multiple sets of the same stat combo. Players earn about 40 laurels a month not counting AP chests. The costs are reasonable and reflected by how much demand there is for them.

Novuake.2691:

Out of curiosity, which trait was/is bugged?
I main Engi, so curios.

Autodefense bomb dispenser – they fixed it since, I guess, but that was just to point out that traits might be bugged, so even reading and liking them does not mean that buying them will give you what you want.

Jana.6831:

I think you twisted the meaning of his words: There’s no way anyone knows which traits one is going to use and for most people it also isn’t clear who their main character will be. So saying that one has only to buy 15 traits is nonsense, even if not all will be used – but there’s no way to determine which ones that will be.

I challenge you to find any significant percentage of players that have EVER enabled more than 30 Traits on a character for any type of serious excursion into actual game-play…..that is LESS than half the available 65. I’d be willing to guess that 80% of players have never used more than 20 Traits on a single character.

Granted, this system inhibits testing and discourages “completionist” pursuits while being less than helpful to an entirely new player (that has NO idea what “good” and “bad” Traits might be), so I personally think it needs some drastic “tweaking” from it’s current state.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Jana.6831:

I think you twisted the meaning of his words: There’s no way anyone knows which traits one is going to use and for most people it also isn’t clear who their main character will be. So saying that one has only to buy 15 traits is nonsense, even if not all will be used – but there’s no way to determine which ones that will be.

I challenge you to find any significant percentage of players that have EVER enabled more than 30 Traits on a character for any type of serious excursion into actual game-play…..that is LESS than half the available 65. I’d be willing to guess that 80% of players have never used more than 20 Traits on a single character.

Granted, this system inhibits testing and discourages “completionist” pursuits while being less than helpful to an entirely new player (that has NO idea what “good” and “bad” Traits might be), so I personally think it needs some drastic “tweaking” from it’s current state.

Alright, then let me see, my main is a thief. He used (oh my) Blinding powder, Hard to catch, Vigorous recovery, Fleet of foot, Pain response is now using Fleet shadow. In that line. Ok, next line: Slowed pulse, Hidden thief, Shadows embrace, Cloaked in shadow and Shadow’s rejuvenation. Next line: Side Strikes, Practiced Tolerance, Hidden Killer, Executioner and Signet of power. Next line: Has used mug, in the condi setup he still uses it. Has used Panic strike and revealed Training. Other traits being used having been used: Uncatchable, Long reach, Ricochet, Sleight of hand.

Any more questions? ; )
(Why shouldn’t everybody have access to all traits just because you think that no one ever uses more than 20 – I used more than that as you can see – and I’m not lying, I really tried all of them out or am still using them, depending on what weapons I use)

Edit: Spelling, grammar

Pandaman.4758:

No. The image you linked is a Miao Dao, Belinda’s sword is not a Miao Dao.

Miao Daos are straighter because their smithing technique is different, Japanese swords have the curvature because of the layering and tempering techniques that were used to compensate for the quality of their iron, which was not a concern in China.

You can also tell it’s not a Miao Dao because the end tapers differently, the scabbard is identical to every iconic Japanese sword’s scabbard and no Chinese sword scabbards, the hilt’s binding is seen only in Japanese swords. You will not find a single image of a Miao Dao that looks like Belinda’s sword, but every image of a katana or nodachi (or odachi, rather) will look exactly like Belinda’s sword.

Now if you’ll excuse me it’s dinner time here in China, so I have to eat.

I reverently withdraw from the Nodachi/Miao Dao debate. I am sufficiently satisfied with your explanation and accept that you are correct.

That said however…

Your final sentence, ‘Now if you’ll excuse me it’s dinner time here in China, so I have to eat’. What does that have to do with anything? I am not an expert in pottery, just because I live in Stoke-on-Trent, which for years was the world centre of pottery manufacture*. It is like expecting you to tell me why my Zontes motorbike (a Chinese make) requires me to take the entire front light binnacle off to replace a flaming sidelight bulb, just because you are in China

• Trufax. If any of your ceramicware has an England backstamp on it, chances are it came from my city. Beswick, Spode, Doulton, Wedgwood, Dudson Armalite, Moorcroft et al. But I digress.

Megaservers were made to compensate for all the empty maps because people are leaving the game. People are leaving the game because of the lack of new competitive content like GvG, guild halls and hardcore PvE dungeons, as well as a lack of variety (only party of 5 people, no new skills, no new weapon types, no new classes).

No since then Anet has gave us ZERO information about upcoming permanent content, they’ve even announced some new stuff like SAB would never come back. They backtracked probably when they feared losing even more players after that mistake.

Players complaints for the first year was: “everything is temporary”.
Their answer for season 2: “That’s all that you’ll get from now on, but if you want you can repeat it 10 times for achievements and grinding”.

Gem store update in last feature patch: "Don’t worry that “BUY MORE GEMS” button will only bring you to the same old screen". Then 2 months later they change that screen to a complete money grab with buy buttons everywhere. Players complained, once more they backtracked.

It seems with the CDI that they are really starting to understand that what this game needs is what players have been asking for since beta, Guild Raids, Guild Halls, Guild vs Guilds.

I have the impression that these thing takes time to do and therefore they have been trying to slow down player progression with the new trait system just to keep people playing longer while they work on these new game modes.

However we’ve waited a year now, buying gems to finance their work, and nothing was even announced. I give them 2 more months, if by the end of 2015 they have not announced that at least one of these features is coming I’m gone.

GuzziHero.2467:

The latest patch just goes to show how little Anet seems to care about its playerbase. It almost feels like contempt of us.

What I am referring to is the extraordinarily sloppy way in which this year’s Halloween events have been delivered.

Magister Tassi refers to the player character’s participation in Dragon Bash. Obviously, there was no Dragon Bash this year. Then there are the Mad Memoires NPCs in Lion’s Arch… but nowhere else.

New Player Experience? Well, there is a great experience for new players – starting an in game scavenger hunt that they then have to be told in chat is actually a scrappy remnant of an old event. Aka – Anet doesn’t clean up after itself very well.

This comes on top of the complete ignorance of the playerbase regarding MANY other much-complained about topics, including but not limited to:

Trait requirements that are impossible to achieve because they’re in WvWvW or are on timegated events which not everyone has the ability to complete.
The entire trait unlocking system overall, and level 80s out there with 3 or sometimes less traits unlocked.
The Megaserver which discriminates against guilds.
The way Ascended was implemented which discriminates against those with alts. In fact, having alts is a major detriment to a player in many ways in GW2.
The absolute balls-up of the storyline, and the disjointed, often confusing, way the dialogues now play out.
The persistent pandering to China, and giving two-finger salutes to the existing player base. The new outfit with the sedge (conical) hat being just the latest example.

All these completely ignored and barely answered criticisms have left me in the state that I don’t want to log in anymore either because I feel it is futile to hope for improvement… or because I am actually so angry at the utter contempt for myself and my fellow players that it makes me not want to support the game anymore.

GW2 is still a flagship MMO, but the Captain is drunk, the helmsman jumped overboard, and it seems that all we have left is Gaile Gray (all credit to her) running around trying to plug the leaks in the hull.

Well, at least the game is F2P right? So nothing to lose!

RoseofGilead.8907:

warduke.1780:

Novuake.2691:

warduke.1780:

Are you even playing the same game? The trait change was one of the worst ideas I’ve ever seen in an MMO.

I should hope so.

Tell me, do you buy or try to obtain every single trait? Even if you do not use them?
Because that is the only time I could possibly even understand why you would need to complain.

I LIKE the trait system for reasons already mentioned.

I have a LOT of characters and it’s very expensive to gear up alts then unlock all their traits too. The trait change (amongst others) was a kick in the teeth to all those who prefer to have many alts rather than one or two main characters.

Of course, people like you probably can’t see this, because you think everything Anet does is amazing. They should add a /worship emote for you.

I have 12 different characters, all level 80 and all with their needed traits. About six of them were made after the trait system change, so I’ve experienced both systems and had no problems with either one. Getting the traits isn’t hard or even that expensive at all.

If we’re playing this game, try 28 characters.

And actually, yes it is quite expensive. Let’s not forget that before, it costed NOTHING to unlock traits.

F2P… does that include the extra account plus 6 character slots, plus 3 outfits plus all the gold I bought with £ to equip all my characters in exotics, only for Ascended to come out and try to screw more money out of me?

Brother Grimm.5176:

Jana.6831:

I think you twisted the meaning of his words: There’s no way anyone knows which traits one is going to use and for most people it also isn’t clear who their main character will be. So saying that one has only to buy 15 traits is nonsense, even if not all will be used – but there’s no way to determine which ones that will be.

I challenge you to find any significant percentage of players that have EVER enabled more than 30 Traits on a character for any type of serious excursion into actual game-play…..that is LESS than half the available 65. I’d be willing to guess that 80% of players have never used more than 20 Traits on a single character.

Granted, this system inhibits testing and discourages “completionist” pursuits while being less than helpful to an entirely new player (that has NO idea what “good” and “bad” Traits might be), so I personally think it needs some drastic “tweaking” from it’s current state.

All of my characters used multiple builds of completely different traits. Depending on what I was doing or felt like doing. My warrior I used a DPS greatsword, sword/shield, a conditions hammer, sword/shield, a hammer, sword/sword build, shouts builds, banner builds. I changed traits regularly. I’d be willing to guess that the number is closer to 50% than 80% and pulling random numbers out of your kitten doesn’t mean a thing anyways. I met tons of people that played both ways. Some people have a class that they pretty much use every trait depending on the situation but like to play another class a certain way with one build because of the mechanics. It used to be able to be said that for all those players that only used one build and never changed traits there was a person that changed regularly. Now that they have changed traits it is said that for every person that has some random mixed up build at level 80 there is a veteran laughing his kitten off while he kills them in wvw/pvp.

Xillllix.3485:

Megaservers were made to compensate for all the empty maps because people are leaving the game. People are leaving the game because of the lack of new competitive content like GvG, guild halls and hardcore PvE dungeons, as well as a lack of variety (only party of 5 people, no new skills, no new weapon types, no new classes).

No since then Anet has gave us ZERO information about upcoming permanent content, they’ve even announced some new stuff like SAB would never come back. They backtracked probably when they feared losing even more players after that mistake.

Players complaints for the first year was: “everything is temporary”.
Their answer for season 2: “That’s all that you’ll get from now on, but if you want you can repeat it 10 times for achievements and grinding”.

Gem store update in last feature patch: "Don’t worry that “BUY MORE GEMS” button will only bring you to the same old screen". Then 2 months later they change that screen to a complete money grab with buy buttons everywhere. Players complained, once more they backtracked.

It seems with the CDI that they are really starting to understand that what this game needs is what players have been asking for since beta, Guild Raids, Guild Halls, Guild vs Guilds.

I have the impression that these thing takes time to do and therefore they have been trying to slow down player progression with the new trait system just to keep people playing longer while they work on these new game modes.

However we’ve waited a year now, buying gems to finance their work, and nothing was even announced. I give them 2 more months, if by the end of 2015 they have not announced that at least one of these features is coming I’m gone.

CDI threads are just there to blow smoke up your kitten . They will only do the easiest barely mentioned things and throw them in with some random BS they want to shove down your throat. That’s if they do anything at all, other than come in and tell everyone thanks for the great ideas and thank all the white knights for the praise.

GuzziHero.2467:

Your final sentence, ‘Now if you’ll excuse me it’s dinner time here in China, so I have to eat’. What does that have to do with anything? I am not an expert in pottery, just because I live in Stoke-on-Trent, which for years was the world centre of pottery manufacture*. It is like expecting you to tell me why my Zontes motorbike (a Chinese make) requires me to take the entire front light binnacle off to replace a flaming sidelight bulb, just because you are in China

It was an unfair statement (a logical fallacy, even, which is pretty shameful) for me to make, in retrospect, but to explain the action-oriented entertainment here (TV shows, movies, or comics) is dominated by martial arts, so there’s a lot of exposure to authentic weapon designs; this doesn’t make me an expert by any means, but it’s a cultural thing – you get a “feel” for what’s within cultural norms and what is obviously something outside it, even if you can’t properly articulate or replicate the details you use to identify a particular item as local or alien.

Japanese swords are far enough outside the norm that I had a total kneejerk reaction and was too busy flailing about to properly explain what details were wrong, which was dumb of me.

Edit: the only reason I know about the various smithing techniques is because I watch far too much Discovery and History Channel. Oh god, I’m old.

GuzziHero.2467:

F2P… does that include the extra account plus 6 character slots, plus 3 outfits plus all the gold I bought with £ to equip all my characters in exotics, only for Ascended to come out and try to screw more money out of me?

No but no one is forcing you to buy those things to play the game, that is your choice.

Problem of Ascended: They’re optional gear, you are not forced to make them in the first place, except for Fractals of +10 levels.

Ascended gear was added to GW2, because ANet collapsed on grindwhiner’s requests…

On other hand, ANet should scale the Ascended and Legendary gear back to Exotic lvls, that’s the way of GW2 meant to be, design taken from GW1, no gear progression…

Duke Blackrose.4981:

I think it’s less about doing more and more about doing different.

Let’s say that there is a young wannabe fantasy author, but he spends all of his writing time on fanfiction because that provides immediate gratification. Meanwhile, his major novel goal is pushed back and he loses out for it.

That’s precisely what’s happening here. Instant gratification and short term gain are winning out over the long term improvement and health of the game and Anet are taking some much-warranted flak for it.

And yes, I did just call the Living Story fanfiction.

Precisely. I add, that just because something is different or unique doesn’t always mean its good or it works.

Novuake.2691:

I agree the devs could do more and would love them to do more, but you can not expect them to, or even demand they do.

Why not? I remember, shortly after the release of Nightfall, ANet announcing that they were scrapping the campaign plan to work on Guild Wars 2, and that it was going to be ground-breaking and that they wanted it to be the best product they could produce. Throughout the betas and on release day, this was the case: “quests” (hearts) that didn’t require dialogue, enemies that couldn’t be “stolen” (tagged for another player), and credit based on effort put in, not just “being with the winners”, dynamic events, etc.. what happened? Now we have reheated holiday events, dungeon zerg grinding, WvW grinding, champion/karma grinding, achievement grinding, collection grinding, wardrobe grinding and hour-long mouthfuls of content with entire seasons inbetween (last LS release mid-late summer, next LS release mid-late autumn) 4-round bursts. Living Story shouldn’t be 4 weeks of releases followed by 11 weeks of break. I cannot stress enough how much this mid-season finale stuff infuriates me, especially when it’s coupled with the brevity of each LS release. It’s bad enough that TV shows do this (ahem, AMC). I don’t want my game to do the same.

Quick thought: at least when TV series do this mid-season finale junk, I’m getting a solid hour’s worth of entertainment every week as opposed to every two weeks. Not to mention their “break” is usually a week shorter or so.

Now looking down the road, even at a breakneck speed of one “continent” every 18 months, it’d take an additional 6 years to fully flesh out whatever passes for a “planet” Guild Wars takes place on. Add to it another 9-12 months to finish filling out Tyria and you’ll have a game that’ll easily last for 9 years: nearly the equivalent to today’s WoW, and like it or not, that other MMO is the benchmark for the industry and genre (added note and without derailing thread, at last I recall, Blizz had no further plans for the game once the players hit 100, meaning next month could bring their last expansion).

Sample of my proposal:
We fight against Mordy until around Q3 of 2015, at which point the DSD is becoming more active and is wrecking havoc on the costal regions of Cantha/Elona. The continent of Cantha OR Elona is introduced, and we spend until Q4 2016/Q1 2017 “fleshing out” that continent. When we finish there, we move on to the other continent (Cantha or Elona), and spend until Q3 2018 filling it out. Rinse, repeat for 3rd continent (Unending Ocean or Realm of Torment) and wrap up Q4 2019/Q1 2020. Then it’s off to the last uncharted continent to last until Q3 2021 before returning to Tyria to finish filling out its boundaries by the end of Q4 2022/Q1 2023.

And this is just to establish the world the game takes place in/on. Add to it political intrigue, shifts of power, and dragon influences (Primordus, Krakaltorrik, and Mordy will still be active, the latter “incapacitated” or what have you, and you’ll still have the after effects of Zhaitan and Bubbles to deal with), and you have the ability to change an established world for new experiences (read: destroy something other than Lion’s Arch).

Demoralised and angry…

Desperated Housewife?

I agree with a lot of the OP. I don’t care about the nitpicking of the sword – it is a fact that there is no “oriental” culture in GW2. So why are we suddenly getting all kinds of oriental items? (That was a rhetorical question.)

And don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind at all that Anet is introducing oriental items. What I mind is that they say that certain things “don’t fit with the story”, like SAB, but then they introduce things all the time that “don’t fit with the story”.

Djinn.9245:

I agree with a lot of the OP. I don’t care about the nitpicking of the sword – it is a fact that there is no “oriental” culture in GW2. So why are we suddenly getting all kinds of oriental items? (That was a rhetorical question.)

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Cantha
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cantha

That being said, the LS isn’t taking us in the right direction to reach Cantha, so yes, the influx of Asian-themed skins is pretty clearly related to the China release rather than any in-game event.

Novuake.2691:

Ashen.2907:

You had to, “PLAY the game,” to get your traits before the change. The change doesn’t mandate playing the game any more than was the case before, now it just mandates specific content to be played rather than playing those aspects you enjoy.

Just out of curiosity, if your position is based purely on reason, what led you to the belief that you know, in advance, whether or not others will use given traits ? I know that I have used every single trait on my main character. I don’t deny that some got used only once or twice, but all have been used.

And obtaining those traits on ONE character via gold or whatever requirement would be that hard?
Really?

Think I need to buy a new account just to put this in perspective again, but I am pretty sure that it REALLY is not that bad, and just like every other change that people find even the slightest bit inconvenient are just raging for the sake of raging and because they can not rush through their alts anymore.

I didn’t say whether or not I thought it would be hard.

It doesn’t really matter whether or nor you or I think it would be hard as, apparently, we are not the ones for whom this is a negative experience. I suppose it does discourage me from playing alts, but I tend to spend most of my time on a single main character anyway so, though it does reduce the depth of the game for me, its not a huge deal.

For others, people who have different interests and preferences than you do for example, it is more of a negative influence on their ability to enjoy the game. If you prefer having to play specific content in order to be able to use specific traits the option was always there. You always had the option to choose to not use a given trait unless you had killed the grub in WvW for example. Anet did not add that option for you, they took options away from others.

It does not matter, in any way, whether or not you buy another account, put things in perspective for yourself, or whatever. Fun is subjective and this, “feature,” negatively affects some players’ fun. The fact that it might not affect yours is irrelevant to that point.

It would not affect my fun at all if all classes other than Ranger (that one main that I mentioned…particularly since I am unlikely to play my alts with the addition of ascended gear and the changes to traits) were removed from the game. Maybe its not all about me though. Maybe things that affect how others enjoy the game can be important too.

Pandaman.4758:

Djinn.9245:

I agree with a lot of the OP. I don’t care about the nitpicking of the sword – it is a fact that there is no “oriental” culture in GW2. So why are we suddenly getting all kinds of oriental items? (That was a rhetorical question.)

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Cantha
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cantha

I said that there is currently no oriental culture…the fact that there might hypothetically be an oriental culture somewhere that isn’t available to our PCs in-game doesn’t negate this fact.

Djinn.9245:

Pandaman.4758:

Djinn.9245:

I agree with a lot of the OP. I don’t care about the nitpicking of the sword – it is a fact that there is no “oriental” culture in GW2. So why are we suddenly getting all kinds of oriental items? (That was a rhetorical question.)

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Cantha
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cantha

I said that there is currently no oriental culture…the fact that there might hypothetically be an oriental culture somewhere that isn’t available to our PCs in-game doesn’t negate this fact.

That isn’t a hypothetical. That is a real, existing culture in Guild Wars lore. Cantha is a real nation and we do know the generalities of its current state.

There are Krytans of Canthan descent (though they are few in number). Marjory is one of these.

Furthermore, Canthan culture is an influence on Tengu culture. Much of the Tengu population is comprised of the descendants of Tengu who were driven out of Cantha when the Ministry of Purity attempted genocide on them.

cesmode.4257:

All of the pro and cons in ths thread aside…

I love how arenanet forum peoples hop into threads that are benign in nature but not in something like this.

When people comment on aesthetics or some gem shop item being cool or bad, or whatever, they comment in there. But when people have concerns, they steer clear. Probably because they know that people will put them on pikes, but still.

Devs are listening.

The devs can’t do jack diddly about the state of the game, neither can the community personnel. Our only hope is a NCsoft exec who is given a link by an assistant to gander at the sheer volume of criticisims directed at the direction Anet has taken GW2. Of course each of us will be struck by lightning before that happens.