Guild Wars 2

Just as the title reads. Explain why you believe it to be.

My thoughts on the matter are:
Since Guild Wars 2 was first announced. It has lived up to very little if any of the hype projected by it’s developers. Other then it being a visually stunning game. Anything mentioned or hyped that does not come to pass brings very negative feedback!
There are many examples to choose from. I will use one. New ways to get legendaries. It was said it’s being looked at or worked on. Correct me if I am wrong. It’s been a long while since that was mentioned, still nothing yet precursors are rising in price! So many more to mention would love to read others thoughts.
I love the idea of a legendary scavenger hunt so to speak. Implement it in a way the tells the story of said legend not just collecting the items to make it. The legend behind legendaries shouldn’t be about the amount of time, cost, or resources to make it!

Because there are no big announcements and no changes that impact the game in a meaningful way other than the destruction and removal of enjoyable content. One of the thing that gets me hyped about a game is knowing something big is going to be happening, or at least knowing what’s coming. I don’t like being in the dark and it makes it hard for me to want to invest my time in this game if I don’t know what the future holds. When I do get excited it doesn’t last because I don’t know how much content is staying. It’s like being a child excited for Christmas, only it’s hard to be excited when your presents are going to be taken away a few weeks later. It’s also hard to be excited about the type of things that are released… they never make an impact on the game unless it’s the destruction of something (the leveling experience and personal story for example). I would like to see meaningful change and growth, like new weapons instead of things like one new heal skill per profession…

Also, I think the reason ANet isn’t trying to hype people up is because they have pulled back on their promises (craft able precusors, various release dates) and also generated negative hype via the announcement of ascended gear and are now afraid of the hate that may follow any major change or announcement.

Aguri.2896:

It’s like being a child excited for Christmas, only it’s hard to be excited when your presents are going to be taken away a few weeks later.

Now now, they may or may not give you the same presents back for an undisclosed time at an unspecified future date. That makes them exciting.

No it is near a kin to false advertising. However it isn’t really working. Of course they are able to dupe a few people. To be honest it’s okay the first or maybe the 2nd time through so it’s worth the box price. There are games on steam that you can spend the same on and get a lot less entertainment out of. I log in every now and then when they introduced Ascended gear realized the hype about the game was a scam and stopped giving them money in the gem store. Came back and did the WvW Season 1 meta achievement and was not surprised but was hoping against hope still that it would be rewarding. Nope tons of time vs garbage reward delivered. Never again will participate in that. Can’t tell you how many in passing have mentioned trying GW2 while in BGs. Many have been swayed away from wasting their money and time. Logged in again last night after almost a year of not playing. Only 5 people around lately from my release guild. This is probably the worst of the many “WoW killers” that have been hyped about over the years.

That being said once you’ve done everything once or twice the game becomes completely unrewarding. Like the OP mentioned the precursor. The game advertises play as you want. There is no way to obtain a legendary in game without extreme luck or using gems (pay to win) to buy it. To save up to that with the unrewarding loot droops in game is just not worth the boring in game content vs doing things in RL. This effectively makes the game free to play but pay to win.

If this is what most free to play games are like then pay to play is the way better option. I know it is not. LoL from talking to the people i know who do play that game it’s pretty much all cosmetic for cash shop. Again don’t necessarily know 100% for that game because I don’t play it. However I do play WoW and gladly give them 15 a month. If I want a legendary I can go do it. It’s a long list of things to do but it can be done in a reasonable amount of time. The old adage definitely applies, you get what you pay for.

The thing that hasn’t changed since around the Ascended gear came out is the devs claiming to be listening and taking your input. Yet the same things are talked about can be seen briefly reading over the first page of forum threads. The exact same stuff! The devs actions show they are not listening or care at all about what their players are looking for. Hint that’s why WoW while half the subs it once was still takes in 105 mil in subs a month, plus expansions, plus additional cash shop services.

shakes head, moves along.

McSlappy.1372:

No it is near a kin to false advertising. However it isn’t really working. Of course they are able to dupe a few people. To be honest it’s okay the first or maybe the 2nd time through so it’s worth the box price. There are games on steam that you can spend the same on and get a lot less entertainment out of.

That being said once you’ve done everything once or twice the game becomes completely unrewarding. Like the OP mentioned the precursor. The game advertises play as you want. There is no way to obtain a legendary in game without extreme luck or using gems (pay to win) to buy it. To save up to that with the unrewarding loot droops in game is just not worth the boring in game content vs doing things in RL. This effectively makes the game free to play but pay to win.

If this is what most free to play games are like then pay to play is the way better option. I know it is not. LoL from talking to the people i know who do play that game it’s pretty much all cosmetic for cash shop. Again don’t necessarily know 100% for that game because I don’t play it. However I do play WoW and gladly give them 15 a month. If I want a legendary I can go do it. It’s a long list of things to do but it can be done in a reasonable amount of time. The old adage definitely applies, you get what you pay for.

Give me a break. The precusor “advertisement” only affects people who already own the game. People who have yet to buy the game aren’t affected by a precusor scavenger hunt. Odds are most of those people don’t even know what a precusor is.

You already own the game, so it’s not false advertisement.

There have been hundreds, perhaps thousands of statements made about this game by Anet. A tiny percentage of them have not actually eventuated.

Vayne.8563:

McSlappy.1372:

No it is near a kin to false advertising. However it isn’t really working. Of course they are able to dupe a few people. To be honest it’s okay the first or maybe the 2nd time through so it’s worth the box price. There are games on steam that you can spend the same on and get a lot less entertainment out of.

That being said once you’ve done everything once or twice the game becomes completely unrewarding. Like the OP mentioned the precursor. The game advertises play as you want. There is no way to obtain a legendary in game without extreme luck or using gems (pay to win) to buy it. To save up to that with the unrewarding loot droops in game is just not worth the boring in game content vs doing things in RL. This effectively makes the game free to play but pay to win.

If this is what most free to play games are like then pay to play is the way better option. I know it is not. LoL from talking to the people i know who do play that game it’s pretty much all cosmetic for cash shop. Again don’t necessarily know 100% for that game because I don’t play it. However I do play WoW and gladly give them 15 a month. If I want a legendary I can go do it. It’s a long list of things to do but it can be done in a reasonable amount of time. The old adage definitely applies, you get what you pay for.

Give me a break. The precusor “advertisement” only affects people who already own the game. People who have yet to buy the game aren’t affected by a precusor scavenger hunt. Odds are most of those people don’t even know what a precusor is.

You already own the game, so it’s not false advertisement.

There have been hundreds, perhaps thousands of statements made about this game by Anet. A tiny percentage of them have not actually eventuated.

Umm.. It was advertised to the existing player base. We the people whom already purchased the hype aren’t concerned about people whom have yet to purchase the game. Our pockets aren’t going to be filled by them. We are simply asking for and about things we have believed to already purchased. “as advertised”. Hop off any time.

NYG.2568:

Vayne.8563:

McSlappy.1372:

No it is near a kin to false advertising. However it isn’t really working. Of course they are able to dupe a few people. To be honest it’s okay the first or maybe the 2nd time through so it’s worth the box price. There are games on steam that you can spend the same on and get a lot less entertainment out of.

That being said once you’ve done everything once or twice the game becomes completely unrewarding. Like the OP mentioned the precursor. The game advertises play as you want. There is no way to obtain a legendary in game without extreme luck or using gems (pay to win) to buy it. To save up to that with the unrewarding loot droops in game is just not worth the boring in game content vs doing things in RL. This effectively makes the game free to play but pay to win.

If this is what most free to play games are like then pay to play is the way better option. I know it is not. LoL from talking to the people i know who do play that game it’s pretty much all cosmetic for cash shop. Again don’t necessarily know 100% for that game because I don’t play it. However I do play WoW and gladly give them 15 a month. If I want a legendary I can go do it. It’s a long list of things to do but it can be done in a reasonable amount of time. The old adage definitely applies, you get what you pay for.

Give me a break. The precusor “advertisement” only affects people who already own the game. People who have yet to buy the game aren’t affected by a precusor scavenger hunt. Odds are most of those people don’t even know what a precusor is.

You already own the game, so it’s not false advertisement.

There have been hundreds, perhaps thousands of statements made about this game by Anet. A tiny percentage of them have not actually eventuated.

Umm.. It was advertised to the existing player base. We the people whom already purchased the hype aren’t concerned about people whom have yet to purchase the game. Our pockets aren’t going to be filled by them. We are simply asking for and about things we have believed to already purchased. “as advertised”. Hop off any time.

Something that is “advertised to the existing player base” isn’t being advertised at all.

They informed us of the intention to do this thing. They revealed a plan to us. Advertising is trying to get you to buy something. We’d already bought the game.

They made a plan, the plan fell through. It happens in businesses all the time.

In reality, no person could possibly live up to the expectations that fans have for Anet. It’s not reasonable to expect plans won’t change…particularly in an MMO. Particularly in an article that said nothing is set in stone.

NYG.2568:

Just as the title reads. Explain why you believe it to be.

My thoughts on the matter are:
Since Guild Wars 2 was first announced. It has lived up to very little if any of the hype projected by it’s developers. Other then it being a visually stunning game. Anything mentioned or hyped that does not come to pass brings very negative feedback!
There are many examples to choose from. I will use one. New ways to get legendaries. It was said it’s being looked at or worked on. Correct me if I am wrong. It’s been a long while since that was mentioned, still nothing yet precursors are rising in price! So many more to mention would love to read others thoughts.
I love the idea of a legendary scavenger hunt so to speak. Implement it in a way the tells the story of said legend not just collecting the items to make it. The legend behind legendaries shouldn’t be about the amount of time, cost, or resources to make it!

Not to defend the short comings of Anet, but hype is what companies do. Think about all the fast food, soda, and video game commercials you’ve seen. The company always over sells their products. It’s just part of marketing. It does degrade consumer confidence and makes people more cynical but for now that’s the way of the world.

See Boogie2988’s video on the subject for reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDTg8gADBHU&list=UU4_bwov47DseacR1-ttTdOg

For me, ANet is very inconsistent in releasing things I like to do. Though what they have released has generally been enjoyable.

So I can’t really ever be hyped when 9/10 times there is either very little or no content I would enjoy doing.

I thought having a ton of teams of people working on different aspects of the game would mean we were going to get constant content in all areas of the game but that didn’t happen.

I main qualm with GW2 is how ArenaNet are dead silent about upcoming features and changes. It’s not how things should operate, in my opinion. We should be made aware of what to expect, and whether or not our concerns are being worked on (by providing actual examples, not just saying it’s being looked in to, etc)

While, yes, this may raise certain expectations in people, just not having any word on whether the numerous player concerns are actively being worked on is very disheartening. Just look at how long necromancers have been left out in the dust (I’m new, but a simple search around shows me that necromancers have been neglected in terms of pve strength for a long, long time) or any of the other numerous issues that have been brought up again and again on the forums that have no arenanet responses, and no foreseeable resolution incoming

Vayne.8563:

NYG.2568:

Vayne.8563:

McSlappy.1372:

No it is near a kin to false advertising. However it isn’t really working. Of course they are able to dupe a few people. To be honest it’s okay the first or maybe the 2nd time through so it’s worth the box price. There are games on steam that you can spend the same on and get a lot less entertainment out of.

That being said once you’ve done everything once or twice the game becomes completely unrewarding. Like the OP mentioned the precursor. The game advertises play as you want. There is no way to obtain a legendary in game without extreme luck or using gems (pay to win) to buy it. To save up to that with the unrewarding loot droops in game is just not worth the boring in game content vs doing things in RL. This effectively makes the game free to play but pay to win.

If this is what most free to play games are like then pay to play is the way better option. I know it is not. LoL from talking to the people i know who do play that game it’s pretty much all cosmetic for cash shop. Again don’t necessarily know 100% for that game because I don’t play it. However I do play WoW and gladly give them 15 a month. If I want a legendary I can go do it. It’s a long list of things to do but it can be done in a reasonable amount of time. The old adage definitely applies, you get what you pay for.

Give me a break. The precusor “advertisement” only affects people who already own the game. People who have yet to buy the game aren’t affected by a precusor scavenger hunt. Odds are most of those people don’t even know what a precusor is.

You already own the game, so it’s not false advertisement.

There have been hundreds, perhaps thousands of statements made about this game by Anet. A tiny percentage of them have not actually eventuated.

Umm.. It was advertised to the existing player base. We the people whom already purchased the hype aren’t concerned about people whom have yet to purchase the game. Our pockets aren’t going to be filled by them. We are simply asking for and about things we have believed to already purchased. “as advertised”. Hop off any time.

Something that is “advertised to the existing player base” isn’t being advertised at all.

They informed us of the intention to do this thing. They revealed a plan to us. Advertising is trying to get you to buy something. We’d already bought the game.

They made a plan, the plan fell through. It happens in businesses all the time.

In reality, no person could possibly live up to the expectations that fans have for Anet. It’s not reasonable to expect plans won’t change…particularly in an MMO. Particularly in an article that said nothing is set in stone.

Advertising to the existing player base is a thing because you want to keep them interested in playing. Fail to do that and you won’t have a player base for long.

Plans change – priorities shift but not keeping the players in the loop is always a bad idea. They basically shut us down and didn’t bother to tell us anything about anything in a number of situations.

Harper.4173:

Vayne.8563:

NYG.2568:

Vayne.8563:

McSlappy.1372:

No it is near a kin to false advertising. However it isn’t really working. Of course they are able to dupe a few people. To be honest it’s okay the first or maybe the 2nd time through so it’s worth the box price. There are games on steam that you can spend the same on and get a lot less entertainment out of.

That being said once you’ve done everything once or twice the game becomes completely unrewarding. Like the OP mentioned the precursor. The game advertises play as you want. There is no way to obtain a legendary in game without extreme luck or using gems (pay to win) to buy it. To save up to that with the unrewarding loot droops in game is just not worth the boring in game content vs doing things in RL. This effectively makes the game free to play but pay to win.

If this is what most free to play games are like then pay to play is the way better option. I know it is not. LoL from talking to the people i know who do play that game it’s pretty much all cosmetic for cash shop. Again don’t necessarily know 100% for that game because I don’t play it. However I do play WoW and gladly give them 15 a month. If I want a legendary I can go do it. It’s a long list of things to do but it can be done in a reasonable amount of time. The old adage definitely applies, you get what you pay for.

Give me a break. The precusor “advertisement” only affects people who already own the game. People who have yet to buy the game aren’t affected by a precusor scavenger hunt. Odds are most of those people don’t even know what a precusor is.

You already own the game, so it’s not false advertisement.

There have been hundreds, perhaps thousands of statements made about this game by Anet. A tiny percentage of them have not actually eventuated.

Umm.. It was advertised to the existing player base. We the people whom already purchased the hype aren’t concerned about people whom have yet to purchase the game. Our pockets aren’t going to be filled by them. We are simply asking for and about things we have believed to already purchased. “as advertised”. Hop off any time.

Something that is “advertised to the existing player base” isn’t being advertised at all.

They informed us of the intention to do this thing. They revealed a plan to us. Advertising is trying to get you to buy something. We’d already bought the game.

They made a plan, the plan fell through. It happens in businesses all the time.

In reality, no person could possibly live up to the expectations that fans have for Anet. It’s not reasonable to expect plans won’t change…particularly in an MMO. Particularly in an article that said nothing is set in stone.

Advertising to the existing player base is a thing because you want to keep them interested in playing. Fail to do that and you won’t have a player base for long.

Plans change – priorities shift but not keeping the players in the loop is always a bad idea. They basically shut us down and didn’t bother to tell us anything about anything in a number of situations.

I’m not disagreeing with you. I think Anet needs to be much clearer on what’s being worked on. Keep us posted. Let us know.

None of this, we can’t talk about it right now crap, because that’s not really working for them.

Harper.4173:

Vayne.8563:

NYG.2568:

Vayne.8563:

McSlappy.1372:

No it is near a kin to false advertising. However it isn’t really working. Of course they are able to dupe a few people. To be honest it’s okay the first or maybe the 2nd time through so it’s worth the box price. There are games on steam that you can spend the same on and get a lot less entertainment out of.

That being said once you’ve done everything once or twice the game becomes completely unrewarding. Like the OP mentioned the precursor. The game advertises play as you want. There is no way to obtain a legendary in game without extreme luck or using gems (pay to win) to buy it. To save up to that with the unrewarding loot droops in game is just not worth the boring in game content vs doing things in RL. This effectively makes the game free to play but pay to win.

If this is what most free to play games are like then pay to play is the way better option. I know it is not. LoL from talking to the people i know who do play that game it’s pretty much all cosmetic for cash shop. Again don’t necessarily know 100% for that game because I don’t play it. However I do play WoW and gladly give them 15 a month. If I want a legendary I can go do it. It’s a long list of things to do but it can be done in a reasonable amount of time. The old adage definitely applies, you get what you pay for.

Give me a break. The precusor “advertisement” only affects people who already own the game. People who have yet to buy the game aren’t affected by a precusor scavenger hunt. Odds are most of those people don’t even know what a precusor is.

You already own the game, so it’s not false advertisement.

There have been hundreds, perhaps thousands of statements made about this game by Anet. A tiny percentage of them have not actually eventuated.

Umm.. It was advertised to the existing player base. We the people whom already purchased the hype aren’t concerned about people whom have yet to purchase the game. Our pockets aren’t going to be filled by them. We are simply asking for and about things we have believed to already purchased. “as advertised”. Hop off any time.

Something that is “advertised to the existing player base” isn’t being advertised at all.

They informed us of the intention to do this thing. They revealed a plan to us. Advertising is trying to get you to buy something. We’d already bought the game.

They made a plan, the plan fell through. It happens in businesses all the time.

In reality, no person could possibly live up to the expectations that fans have for Anet. It’s not reasonable to expect plans won’t change…particularly in an MMO. Particularly in an article that said nothing is set in stone.

Advertising to the existing player base is a thing because you want to keep them interested in playing. Fail to do that and you won’t have a player base for long.

Plans change – priorities shift but not keeping the players in the loop is always a bad idea. They basically shut us down and didn’t bother to tell us anything about anything in a number of situations.

This.. And ty for mentioning.

Vayne.8563:

Something that is “advertised to the existing player base” isn’t being advertised at all.

They informed us of the intention to do this thing. They revealed a plan to us. Advertising is trying to get you to buy something. We’d already bought the game.

They made a plan, the plan fell through. It happens in businesses all the time.

In reality, no person could possibly live up to the expectations that fans have for Anet. It’s not reasonable to expect plans won’t change…particularly in an MMO. Particularly in an article that said nothing is set in stone.

We’d already bought the game, yes. But you know very well that there’s more than that to buy. Players that feel that the game is going to improve are more likely to stick around and spend money on other things related to the game. To let players believe that they’re working on a desired feature, and then quietly end work on it and never get back to it is akin to holding a dog treat in front of your dog to convince him to sit, and then putting the treat away once he does. I can think of twice ANet has pulled this, and I bet others can come up with more.

(Yes, I just compared us all to dogs. Get off the sofa and deal with it.)

There’s something else you want to consider, though. An MMO is, by its nature, an incomplete product. What’s lacking isn’t the updates and expansions (though those are important). What’s lacking is the other players. Buy to Play and even Free to Play MMOs will crash and burn if there’s not enough existing players around for new players to interact with. Leading people to think that desired improvements, features, and content are coming “soon” to keep them playing when they would otherwise leave the game is a way to keep enough players around for new players to interact with. That brings in more new players and more box sales.

Now, with all THAT said … ANet’s hype generally doesn’t do this. Precursor crafting/hunt was a couple of dev comments that the players hyped, not ANet. I think the only time ANet has failed to deliver SOMETHING when they actually hyped it was the Infinite SAB coin, marketed as usable in all future SAB releases.

Instead, ANet tends to oversell everything they do. The latest feature pack had three weeks of dramatic reveals of stuff that was, by and large, painfully underwhelming and frequently unwanted by the people they were advertising to. They did deliver it, though.

So, I don’t believe the hype from ANet any more. In fact, I’m beginning to dread it. “We’ve got awesome news!” generally means “Enjoy that thing you like for two more weeks before we ‘improve’ it out of existence.”

The “hype” never has stop. Players only say this because they have gotten their hopes up time and time again by believing everything Anet says (manifesto trailer cough) and expecting to much out of Anet or simply misreading something they said.

rapthorne.7345:

I main qualm with GW2 is how ArenaNet are dead silent about upcoming features and changes.

This IS A GOOD THING!!!!!

We’re introducing Ascended gear!
We’re coming out with leaderboards!
We’re resetting your fractal progress!
Our new content is only temporary!
We’re nurfing drops!
We’re nurfing Champions!

Ask yourself do you really want them to change more?

People get angry at anet for hyping and ask them to stop….and when they don’t hype people question why there’s no hype….?

Vayne.8563:

NYG.2568:

Vayne.8563:

McSlappy.1372:

No it is near a kin to false advertising. However it isn’t really working. Of course they are able to dupe a few people. To be honest it’s okay the first or maybe the 2nd time through so it’s worth the box price. There are games on steam that you can spend the same on and get a lot less entertainment out of.

That being said once you’ve done everything once or twice the game becomes completely unrewarding. Like the OP mentioned the precursor. The game advertises play as you want. There is no way to obtain a legendary in game without extreme luck or using gems (pay to win) to buy it. To save up to that with the unrewarding loot droops in game is just not worth the boring in game content vs doing things in RL. This effectively makes the game free to play but pay to win.

If this is what most free to play games are like then pay to play is the way better option. I know it is not. LoL from talking to the people i know who do play that game it’s pretty much all cosmetic for cash shop. Again don’t necessarily know 100% for that game because I don’t play it. However I do play WoW and gladly give them 15 a month. If I want a legendary I can go do it. It’s a long list of things to do but it can be done in a reasonable amount of time. The old adage definitely applies, you get what you pay for.

Give me a break. The precusor “advertisement” only affects people who already own the game. People who have yet to buy the game aren’t affected by a precusor scavenger hunt. Odds are most of those people don’t even know what a precusor is.

You already own the game, so it’s not false advertisement.

There have been hundreds, perhaps thousands of statements made about this game by Anet. A tiny percentage of them have not actually eventuated.

Umm.. It was advertised to the existing player base. We the people whom already purchased the hype aren’t concerned about people whom have yet to purchase the game. Our pockets aren’t going to be filled by them. We are simply asking for and about things we have believed to already purchased. “as advertised”. Hop off any time.

Something that is “advertised to the existing player base” isn’t being advertised at all.

They informed us of the intention to do this thing. They revealed a plan to us. Advertising is trying to get you to buy something. We’d already bought the game.

They made a plan, the plan fell through. It happens in businesses all the time.

In reality, no person could possibly live up to the expectations that fans have for Anet. It’s not reasonable to expect plans won’t change…particularly in an MMO. Particularly in an article that said nothing is set in stone.

Holy moly Vayne.. this is getting spooky (Halloween must be close).. we are in agreement twice in the same month, this is unchartered waters for me

But @ NYG heck.. here goes nothing…………… WHAT HE SAID ^

Palador.2170:

We’d already bought the game, yes. But you know very well that there’s more than that to buy. Players that feel that the game is going to improve are more likely to stick around and spend money on other things related to the game. To let players believe that they’re working on a desired feature, and then quietly end work on it and never get back to it is akin to holding a dog treat in front of your dog to convince him to sit, and then putting the treat away once he does. I can think of twice ANet has pulled this, and I bet others can come up with more.

This exactly. I spend a lot of money on gaming. Multiple EVE accounts and WoW subscriptions. If GW2 had the stuff advertized pre launch all that money from me and tons of others looking at guild rosters would be theirs. But this is not the case.

And TBH even if they came out with the precursor quest and fixed a bunch of the stuff it is probably way too little way to late to get people back. Lets see the game is what two years old now? Even if they came out with the precursor stuff by the end of the year, then takes a few months to get. Is it worth bothering for a game that at that point is 3 years old and really hasn’t gone anywhere? Probably not.

The game maybe fun to mess around with for a few days every 6-12 months or so but definitely not worth spending any more money on.

every time i make a comment or suggestion i get infracted,
so i’m at the point where i just play less and less, the direction they’re going is down,
but i’m done making suggestions and getting punished for it,
i’ll just play less and less while they think up new ways to ruin it.
i once played daily, now i’ve not logged on since Wednesday.

McSlappy.1372:

Palador.2170:

We’d already bought the game, yes. But you know very well that there’s more than that to buy. Players that feel that the game is going to improve are more likely to stick around and spend money on other things related to the game. To let players believe that they’re working on a desired feature, and then quietly end work on it and never get back to it is akin to holding a dog treat in front of your dog to convince him to sit, and then putting the treat away once he does. I can think of twice ANet has pulled this, and I bet others can come up with more.

This exactly. I spend a lot of money on gaming. Multiple EVE accounts and WoW subscriptions. If GW2 had the stuff advertized pre launch all that money from me and tons of others looking at guild rosters would be theirs. But this is not the case.

And TBH even if they came out with the precursor quest and fixed a bunch of the stuff it is probably way too little way to late to get people back. Lets see the game is what two years old now? Even if they came out with the precursor stuff by the end of the year, then takes a few months to get. Is it worth bothering for a game that at that point is 3 years old and really hasn’t gone anywhere? Probably not.

The game maybe fun to mess around with for a few days every 6-12 months or so but definitely not worth spending any more money on.

I’m going to say this first to kinda explain a bit more. I’ve noticed with gw2 and listening to some of the devs, they don’t want to be like all the other MMOs, going by the same system and set up (aka WoW style). By this I mean we have no trinity, no questing, etc. I do believe that gw2 is an experiment in a genre that is becoming stale, and needs new innovation and risks.

Having said that, we do need some kind of big game changer, something to shift the game at its core, or some hard (as in having a major impact) effect content, such as a new profession, PvP game mode, race, etc. Yes, I am saying an ‘expansion’ but anet is trying to see it as that, and trying to grow the game by a different method. Whether it works or not, since it seems to be done through the living story, remains to be seen.

I will say that the LS has gotten better (but having completed the north story in gw1, its not near that level), but the game does need something big to happen for it to stay relevant. New MMOs and expansions are coming out, and gw2 just looks the same as it did 2 years ago (because really, it hasn’t changed that much at all).

McSlappy.1372:

rapthorne.7345:

I main qualm with GW2 is how ArenaNet are dead silent about upcoming features and changes.

This IS A GOOD THING!!!!!

We’re introducing Ascended gear!
We’re coming out with leaderboards!
We’re resetting your fractal progress!
Our new content is only temporary!
We’re nurfing drops!
We’re nurfing Champions!

Ask yourself do you really want them to change more?

I don’t understand the point you’re trying to make here?

Things will change regardless, I’d just like a little preview/warning/advertisement before they do, like… you know… 90% of game developers/publishers do?

Serophous.9085:

Having said that, we do need some kind of big game changer, something to shift the game at its core, or some hard (as in having a major impact) effect content, such as a new profession, PvP game mode, race, etc. Yes, I am saying an ‘expansion’ but anet is trying to see it as that, and trying to grow the game by a different method. Whether it works or not, since it seems to be done through the living story, remains to be seen.

GW2 definitely isn’t that. EQ Next maybe but we’ll see. Also a lot is changing in Warlords so that could be interesting too.

No game can match the sheer imaginative power of a hyped-up target demographic.

/thread

Labjax.2465:

No game can match the sheer imaginative power of a hyped-up target demographic.

/thread

No game.
No movie.
No book series.
No television show.

/NOTHING/ can ever live up to the sheer imaginative power of a hyped-up target demographic.
It’s the society we live in.

NYG.2568:

Since Guild Wars 2 was first announced. It has lived up to very little if any of the hype projected by it’s players.

Fixed for you.

To be honest, the developers don’t hype as much as people proclaim them to. They do make desires for what they want of the game, but they don’t hype it up. And some desires come, some don’t. They merely promise to look into it. Exception being the Manifesto trailer, which… yeah, that didn’t really come about.

NYG.2568:

I love the idea of a legendary scavenger hunt so to speak. Implement it in a way the tells the story of said legend not just collecting the items to make it. The legend behind legendaries shouldn’t be about the amount of time, cost, or resources to make it!

I suspect that the scavenger and crafting hunt for Mawdrey was the prototype for precursor crafting – a test to see how well it was received.

ANYWAYS

I think the ‘hype’ has died down due to three things:

• Temporariness of Season 1. Hard to become motivated for stuff if you’ve got a pre-established feeling that it won’t last, even if you’re told it will.
• The continuous release nature of the Living World. It just isn’t easy to get hyped up for small update after small update, even with breaks inbetween them now. If they want to get the hype train going again, they’ll need something different than ‘same old same old with a new look’.
• A build off of the direct above: far too many situations where what players get didn’t hit what players expected. One of the downsides of the continuous releases is that it increases the disappointment of the inevitable inability to match a player’s imagination – you have to be true masters of the craft to make people who have expectations ooh and ahh in awe. And true masters of the craft, ArenaNet are not – few, oh so very few, are. This is the main reason why ME3’s ending got ridiculed – though it wasn’t the best it could have been, ME1 and ME2 created such high expectations that it just couldn’t be met; but those who played through after hearing all the bashing had low expectations… which were surpassed. Anyways – too many disappointments caused by the player’s own overhyping, leading to a disillusionment resulting in a lack of desire to have expectations.

I think part of the “hype” problem isn’t so much that ANet are hyping too much, it’s that they’ve limited their communication with their players to the soundbites in their marketing. If we were getting actual normal communication, then the occasional exaggerations about how successful the Living Story has been in the wider media wouldn’t be such an issue.

But the problem is we’re now getting almost all of our information like that. Advertising to potential customers about how awesome the game is is fine (heck, the game IS awesome), but talking to the long term players about how awesome the Living Story is (and worse, telling us that things like SAB aren’t coming back yet because they don’t fit with it) is kind of a problem.

ShinjoNaomi.1896:

Labjax.2465:

No game can match the sheer imaginative power of a hyped-up target demographic.

/thread

No game.
No movie.
No book series.
No television show.

/NOTHING/ can ever live up to the sheer imaginative power of a hyped-up target demographic.
It’s the society we live in.

Yup. Fact is, we’re better at imagining stuff than our human capabilities are at actually creating stuff.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

NYG.2568:

Since Guild Wars 2 was first announced. It has lived up to very little if any of the hype projected by it’s players.

Fixed for you.

To be honest, the developers don’t hype as much as people proclaim them to. They do make desires for what they want of the game, but they don’t hype it up. And some desires come, some don’t. They merely promise to look into it. Exception being the Manifesto trailer, which… yeah, that didn’t really come about.

NYG.2568:

I love the idea of a legendary scavenger hunt so to speak. Implement it in a way the tells the story of said legend not just collecting the items to make it. The legend behind legendaries shouldn’t be about the amount of time, cost, or resources to make it!

I suspect that the scavenger and crafting hunt for Mawdrey was the prototype for precursor crafting – a test to see how well it was received.

ANYWAYS

I think the ‘hype’ has died down due to three things:

• Temporariness of Season 1. Hard to become motivated for stuff if you’ve got a pre-established feeling that it won’t last, even if you’re told it will.
• The continuous release nature of the Living World. It just isn’t easy to get hyped up for small update after small update, even with breaks inbetween them now. If they want to get the hype train going again, they’ll need something different than ‘same old same old with a new look’.
• A build off of the direct above: far too many situations where what players get didn’t hit what players expected. One of the downsides of the continuous releases is that it increases the disappointment of the inevitable inability to match a player’s imagination – you have to be true masters of the craft to make people who have expectations ooh and ahh in awe. And true masters of the craft, ArenaNet are not – few, oh so very few, are. This is the main reason why ME3’s ending got ridiculed – though it wasn’t the best it could have been, ME1 and ME2 created such high expectations that it just couldn’t be met; but those who played through after hearing all the bashing had low expectations… which were surpassed. Anyways – too many disappointments caused by the player’s own overhyping, leading to a disillusionment resulting in a lack of desire to have expectations.

I know nothing of this mawdrey. Other then it’s yet another back piece. I haven’t played really since season 1 ended. That long break took me to other things. I logged in only to get season 2 updates. Just in case I decided to come back and play. I’m not a grinder or a rinse and repeat person.
I keep up with the game through friends and these forums. I so want to be a fan again. From what I can tell nothing exciting is in the works. Probably because Anet won’t say anything.
They hyped this game before release and lived up to none of it IMO. That is the kind of hype I refer to.

For me it’s quite simple: Because they don’t want to separate WvsW, PvE and PvP.

Skills that are perfect for PvE gets nerfed just because of PvP/WvsW.
Skills that are ok in PvP gets changed because of PvE/WvsW.

Honestly I love PvE but i hate WvsW/PvP. That’s ok, i’m not here to criticism it, i’m here to say that i love a part of the game that gets changed because of another part of the game that i will never play (no matter what you try, not gonna happen).
The game constantly gets random changes that doesn’t affect me at all but gives me problems because it’s a nerf in PvE. I’m not talking about bugs or exploit skills, but actual useful CC skills that could build up for very challenging fights in the near future.

That said, I can’t hype anymore just because i see they’re trying to make GW2 an eSport and wasting too much time in a game-mode that i don’t enjoy while other aspects of the game that i enjoy (dungeons) are forgotten.

Because bus schedules, trivializing alot of the content, The whole “living and breathing world” isn’t in the game anymore, but it comes from the players. More zerg is living and breathing apparently. I haven’t done a world boss in ages, most events have become alot easier. Scaling is never working, either makes you to powerful, or people exploit it in such a way that it’s not even funny anymore.

The story instances are still good though, because that’s the only location where you can still get that feeling of the world not being in a giant blob of grinding players.

FrizzFreston.5290:

Because bus schedules, trivializing alot of the content, The whole “living and breathing world” isn’t in the game anymore, but it comes from the players. More zerg is living and breathing apparently. I haven’t done a world boss in ages, most events have become alot easier. Scaling is never working, either makes you to powerful, or people exploit it in such a way that it’s not even funny anymore.

The story instances are still good though, because that’s the only location where you can still get that feeling of the world not being in a giant blob of grinding players.

I don’t even want to get started on the zerg fest stuff. There is so much particle and weapon effects. I’ve lost myself in battles not to mention you can barely see any tells or the enemy rings on the ground.

Not just that. The world bosses aren’t even a threat anymore. With the coming of the schedule AND mega servers, it just makes the whole experience a spamfest. Its literally a bus schedule imo. Wait at each spawn location hit 1 rush the events, and go to the next.

I loved that the world was spontaneous, but by making it like this, because of the economical reason of the rares or what not, it just playing into the hands of the farmers and making it easier to mindlessly grind.

The first event that they changed that I actually liked was the Nebo Terrace one because people actually get trampled and actually feel like it’s challenging and exciting.
It actually feels like a fight. Though people avoid it, because it’s not spam 1 and win, I’m completely fine with that. It was the first time in ages where I thought the centaurs were fighting back.

The event chain system was pretty great and I felt like they could’ve exploited the system more creatively. Except also regarding the world boss chains, which apparently needed extra rewards to it, they moved it more and more into a territory where it just screams to be mindlessly repeated, rather than giving more meaningful and daring event changes, that would actually matter in a sense that you would feel like you needed to not fail an event or you would lose an valuable asset in some sort of war.

Instead event chains were mostly linear, with the exception of the three way event chain in Straits of Devastation, two way events in Iron Marches and such scarce event chains which felt like a step up in the system.

Dry Top seems to be an step in the right direction, even though it still seems rather off since all the events seem hardly connected, even though there is a common goal in it. And it does actually spread people out. But the events ..in my opinion… lack coherence with the world around them. They are very localized and don’t seem to have a broad impact on success or failure.

The game just seems to improve rather slowly, though. So I’m feeling like it’s become more a wait and see, than anything else.

Maybe these bi-weekly updates have spoiled us? it feels wrong when the game goes for a month without updates.

Maybe it stopped because people here stopped asking to overhype their stuff and . . . in typical fashion, they went too far the other way?

@Vayne
[…]
In reality, no person could possibly live up to the expectations that fans have for Anet. It’s not reasonable to expect plans won’t change…particularly in an MMO. Particularly in an article that said nothing is set in stone.
[…]

Really Vayne ?! Since this seems so hard for you to digest, I’ll try to put it in a much simpler way:
I suppose you own a car. Or at least you prefer some brand. And you happily use that car over and over till the time comes to replace that car with a new one. By that time, the manufacturer of the car already advertises for “a brand new model, a shinier, much more polished version of something you already own, you know, you rely on and you TRUST”.

So, of course, you rush in to buy this new car only to find out that the emblem is the only thing which reminds you of the old, reliable one. Everything else in this new car is … something else. Not to mention things, important parts, are missing. Parts or features that you, as a sane man, expected to find since you can’t truly imagine that the manufacturer of the old car would cutoff from the new one. And of course the manufacturer would not lie to you. After all this is the manufacturer you trust. Right ?

And if you still pretend not to understand the point, I’ll give a second example, asking your wife to read it for you:
When it comes to cosmetics, women get very attached to certain brands. They need reliable products. They rarely try new brands and they are very loyal to the ones they know, the ones they trust. Unlike video games or cars, bad cosmetics might just turn your face into a nightmare and scare the husband away, so this customer-merchant relation is based on quality and trust. I trust she will explain the details further, in case you’re still scratching your head.

I made efforts and bought my GW2 Collector’s Edition given the trust and expectations and advertisement from ArenaNet. All my friends know this story. I bought the most expensive version of the game in order to show my gratitude for a good product (GW1) and my trust in the company who made it. I also did it to encourage, to financially sustain the development of this new product, given the trust I had for the company who made both.

Now, can you even image the disappointment ?
Do you know what happens when a customer gets hit by such a disappointing experience ?

I understand that ArenaNet has a business to run and I understand that things may change on the way. But there’s a limit ! Now please get off the chair, go straight to your employer’s desk and tell him, at the risk of being fired, that the mockery has to stop.

What’s there to be hyped about?
I log in maybe two or three times in a week, do some FOTM runs, check the horrible unbalanced WvW match up and log out.

Looka.6078:

@Vayne
[…]
In reality, no person could possibly live up to the expectations that fans have for Anet. It’s not reasonable to expect plans won’t change…particularly in an MMO. Particularly in an article that said nothing is set in stone.
[…]

Really Vayne ?! Since this seems so hard for you to digest, I’ll try to put it in a much simpler way:
I suppose you own a car. Or at least you prefer some brand. And you happily use that car over and over till the time comes to replace that car with a new one. By that time, the manufacturer of the car already advertises for “a brand new model, a shinier, much more polished version of something you already own, you know, you rely on and you TRUST”.

So, of course, you rush in to buy this new car only to find out that the emblem is the only thing which reminds you of the old, reliable one. Everything else in this new car is … something else. Not to mention things, important parts, are missing. Parts or features that you, as a sane man, expected to find since you can’t truly imagine that the manufacturer of the old car would cutoff from the new one. And of course the manufacturer would not lie to you. After all this is the manufacturer you trust. Right ?

And if you still pretend not to understand the point, I’ll give a second example, asking your wife to read it for you:
When it comes to cosmetics, women get very attached to certain brands. They need reliable products. They rarely try new brands and they are very loyal to the ones they know, the ones they trust. Unlike video games or cars, bad cosmetics might just turn your face into a nightmare and scare the husband away, so this customer-merchant relation is based on quality and trust. I trust she will explain the details further, in case you’re still scratching your head.

I made efforts and bought my GW2 Collector’s Edition given the trust and expectations and advertisement from ArenaNet. All my friends know this story. I bought the most expensive version of the game in order to show my gratitude for a good product (GW1) and my trust in the company who made it. I also did it to encourage, to financially sustain the development of this new product, given the trust I had for the company who made both.

Now, can you even image the disappointment ?
Do you know what happens when a customer gets hit by such a disappointing experience ?

I understand that ArenaNet has a business to run and I understand that things may change on the way. But there’s a limit ! Now please get off the chair, go straight to your employer’s desk and tell him, at the risk of being fired, that the mockery has to stop.

You know what? You explaining it more simply does nothing but prove my point.

You buy a car. You like it. Years later the same manufacturer comes out with another car, and you see one commerical and buy it without doing research?

There’s a list of things different about this game from Guild Wars 1, and almost every single one of them has been known before launch.

Before launch I knew there’d be no Guild vs Guild. Before launch I knew there’s be one structured PvP type. Before launch I knew there’d be no heroes. I knew the level cap would be higher. I knew that there would be less skills and they’d be tied to weapons.

So again, if you bought this game and didn’t pay attention to what was actually said, simply because you had faith in the developer, that’s your own problem.

I played Guild Wars 1 as well, knew pretty much what I was getting into and so I’m satisfied with what I got. Because I listened to what was said. I knew it wasn’t going to be the same game. It logically couldn’t.

The only real issue that I see, and it’s a big one, is the ascended items debacle, which people couldn’t have known. At that time, Anet gave refunds to people who were playing the game for months, which they didn’t have to do. People who didn’t like that change were entitled to get a refund.

Many chose to stay and complain instead of getting a refund. That’s not Anet’s fault either. I don’t like ascended gear, but I sure understand why Anet felt they had to put it in.

I haven’t touched the games for 2 months or so, since there is no meaningful release. The updates are ridiculous compared to other companies. It’s just bland, stupid dress up doll.

I did world completion and dungeon master almost two years ago. Now there is still nothing to do beside a few ‘living story’ chunks which doesn’t live up the content that an MMO deserves.

Looka.6078:

@Vayne
[…]
In reality, no person could possibly live up to the expectations that fans have for Anet. It’s not reasonable to expect plans won’t change…particularly in an MMO. Particularly in an article that said nothing is set in stone.
[…]

Really Vayne ?! Since this seems so hard for you to digest, I’ll try to put it in a much simpler way:
I suppose you own a car. Or at least you prefer some brand. And you happily use that car over and over till the time comes to replace that car with a new one. By that time, the manufacturer of the car already advertises for “a brand new model, a shinier, much more polished version of something you already own, you know, you rely on and you TRUST”.

This is actually exactly the core center of the point. The manufacturer say this brand new car gets all the things you loved in the older and puts them in a new modern package.

Then you go wonder building a mental image of how this new car will look. You really loved how it drove, the smoothness of the manual gear changer, the smoothness of handle used to lower the windows, How the engine roared and the feel of raw power when you pressed the accelerator. How low maintenance it all was.

Only the manufacturer was talking a lot more high level then you were thinking not to mention way more in general. Different people appreciated different aspects of the old model. The manufacturer specifically was refering to how smooth everything worked, they meant how economic the car was when it came to fuel consumption and how ahead of its time it was at the time.

So what they delivered was a hybrid car with electric windows, automatic gear. Now the new model doesnt look like anything you had in your mental picture and most likely will not live up to your expectations either. Automatic instead of Manual? no longer low maintenance, No longer that feel of law power as you accelerate. Feels nothing like its predecessor really. But thats only true for people who valued the same stuff you did above all. For some people what mattered is how smooth the ride was, how advanced the car is compared to its competitors as well as how economical it was. Chances are the manufacturer didnt hit 100% with these people either but for the most part they did.

As someone who did not play Guild Wars 1, I gotta say, I didn’t hear/see any hype. Quite honestly, I didn’t even know GW2 was coming out until some friends who played GW1 said something and begged me to try it with them (at early release). I reluctantly agreed and have been playing every day since, as have all of my friends. Well, there was one guy who did not like GW2 because it wasn’t like GW1. He’s off playing Destiny/WoW now.

So can I assume all of the hype being referenced here is whatever hype was directed towards GW1 players? I honestly feel bad for you guys. Going into the game fresh without any expectations = fantastic game.

Vayne.8563:

You buy a car. You like it. Years later the same manufacturer comes out with another car, and you see one commerical and buy it without doing research?

Research?

/e analogy carpool

All the research in the world won’t help when, a couple of months after you bought the car, the manufacture issues a recall on round wheels and replaces them with square wheels. Or when during routine maintenance the authorized mechanic (following manufacturer instructions) alters the air conditioner so that it only works after you’ve racked up 100,000 miles. Or that, despite exhaustive testing, the door handles are so confusing to new drivers that the manufacturer issues yet another recall and replaces the doors with burlap sacks.

Draknar.5748:

As someone who did not play Guild Wars 1, I gotta say, I didn’t hear/see any hype. Quite honestly, I didn’t even know GW2 was coming out until some friends who played GW1 said something and begged me to try it with them (at early release). I reluctantly agreed and have been playing every day since, as have all of my friends. Well, there was one guy who did not like GW2 because it wasn’t like GW1. He’s off playing Destiny/WoW now.

So can I assume all of the hype being referenced here is whatever hype was directed towards GW1 players? I honestly feel bad for you guys. Going into the game fresh without any expectations = fantastic game.

It’s not really that simple. There was a lot of hype, but there was also a lot of information provided.

Certainly PvPers from Guild Wars 1 got the shortest end of the stick. For PvE’ers it probably depended on the content you played. But there are many people in game who played Guild Wars 1 and are satisfied.

A lot of the hype was self-induced. Anet would say one line and people would reiterated it until it became a promise in their mind.

It’s just not all that cut and dried. I played Guild Wars 1 for six years. I don’t have the same problems as many others.

Just gonna quote Zero Punctuation here
“Hype is a device invented created by mean spirited marketing directors who never discovered the true meaning of Christmas”
Never, ever expect a game to live up to its hype. They’re just trying to sell you the product before you figure out everything that’s wrong with it.

All those MMO Hype started with / after WoW i think .. first i ever heared it was when
i played Lineage 2 and people started :
This game suck .. when WoW comes out i’m gone

Personally i left when EQ2 came out .. but there i also heared, especially from EQ1 players :
This game sucks .. when Vanguard comes out i’m gone ..

Next was Age of Conan .. then Warhammer .. after that AION .. SWTOR .. RIFT ..

None of those games lived up to their hype .. most of them lost massive players
in the first 3 months already and had to merge servers in the first year.

After all that i think that GW2 still does better than all those other MMOs.

They never found the balance between efforts placed in gemstore and efforts placed in-game. I understand its their business but if you don’t take care for the bees you will harvest no honey.

Mesket.5728:

They never found the balance between efforts placed in gemstore and efforts placed in-game. I understand its their business but if you don’t take care for the bees you will harvest no honey.

I don’t think it was a problem of balance of effort. A lot of content has been produced. Its just the content that has been produced has largely either been temporary (LS), arbitrarily turned off (SAB), half-hearted (Southsun Cove), or not very well liked (NPE). Also quite a few changes were outright backwards steps for no obvious reason (fractal level resets, trait changes etc.)

Unfortunately it might be too late for the expansion pack that would bring both content for us, and money for them. I remember all of the optimism in the forums for new classes, races, guild halls and areas. Now the threads are just asking for people to talk to us, or for content that has already been in the game to come back.

Yargesh.4965:

shakes head, moves along.

Agree….nothing like the irony of exaggerating the word “hype”…..

Vayne.8563:

You know what? You explaining it more simply does nothing but prove my point.

You buy a car. You like it. Years later the same manufacturer comes out with another car, and you see one commerical and buy it without doing research?

There’s a list of things different about this game from Guild Wars 1, and almost every single one of them has been known before launch.

Before launch I knew there’d be no Guild vs Guild. Before launch I knew there’s be one structured PvP type. Before launch I knew there’d be no heroes. I knew the level cap would be higher. I knew that there would be less skills and they’d be tied to weapons.

So again, if you bought this game and didn’t pay attention to what was actually said, simply because you had faith in the developer, that’s your own problem.

I played Guild Wars 1 as well, knew pretty much what I was getting into and so I’m satisfied with what I got. Because I listened to what was said. I knew it wasn’t going to be the same game. It logically couldn’t.

The only real issue that I see, and it’s a big one, is the ascended items debacle, which people couldn’t have known. At that time, Anet gave refunds to people who were playing the game for months, which they didn’t have to do. People who didn’t like that change were entitled to get a refund.

Many chose to stay and complain instead of getting a refund. That’s not Anet’s fault either. I don’t like ascended gear, but I sure understand why Anet felt they had to put it in.

You make a good point but let me make one too.

I expected the company that allowed us to respec skills and skill points in any city to give us easy trait respect and trait templates on launch.

I expected a LFG tool to be here at launch ( given that the lack of one was often brought up in GW1).

I expected the process of getting a legendary to actually mean something other than getting money and buying the stuff.

I expected the story quality to be at least somewhat similar to GW1.

I expected Guild “last online” feature to be there at launch.

He made a good point, and you made a good point too.

The point is this – a lot of us are disappointed because the “new car” – while advertised as new – was never advertised to have certain features from the “old car” missing.
So one might wonder why they didn’t put these features in the “second car” to begin with considering they knew about them and had used them before.