Guild Wars 2

Update – Wednesday, May 25

Increased drops of Celestial Sigils in the Hall of Heroes.

Broadened the variety of items found in the chest in the Hall of Heroes; it can now contain rare shields or salvageable armor.

Improved the Sigil Trader so that prices will more accurately track supply and demand.

Removed the “/roll” command from towns and outposts.

Updated European and Korean translations.

Made minor balance changes to Majesty’s Rest explorable area.

Fixed issue with Balthazar’s Aura skill, so that when multiple copies of the buff are cast on the same ally, only the most powerful is active.

Fixed door on Isle of the Dead guild battle map.

Fixed miscellaneous rare crash bugs.

Update – Friday, May 13

Changed art on Celestial Sigils to distinguish them from runes. Celestial Sigils will now look like this in your inventory:

Made minor balance changes to some desert areas and “Iron Mines of Moladune."

Fixed miscellaneous rare crash bugs.

Update – Wednesday, May 11

Major changes to PvP Arenas! Previously, each Arena had a separate outpost. When you joined an Arena, you continued playing on that map repeatedly until you lost. Now, the various high-level Arena maps all share a common outpost. When you enter the high-level Arena, you’ll play on many different maps with many different victory conditions, and you’ll need to master all the maps to keep on winning.

After each consecutive PvP victory, the game now displays the number of consecutive wins.

A new screen at the end of PvP character creation allows you to choose the starting location of your PvP character.

We retired the old “Dazed," “Shock Sniper," “Divine Healer.” and “Trapper” PvP-only character templates, and rotated in some new templates, including three new templates created by guilds that won our April ladder contest. Additionally, we tweaked the skills of many other PvP character templates. These changes only affect the creation of new characters; existing characters created with an old template may continue to use that old template.

You can now store gold in your account storage vault! The vault can store up to 1000 platinum pieces, and individual characters can now hold a maximum of 100 platinum pieces.

PvP-only characters can now access the account storage vault for free.

Entering “The Underworld” now costs 1 platinum piece, the same as entering “The Fissure of Woe." Rewards in both maps have been significantly improved.

New quests! In Post-Searing Ascalon: “The Weaver of Nebo” and “Iron Horse War Machine." In “The Fissure of Woe:” “Tower of Courage," “The Wailing Lord," “A Gift of Griffons," “Army of Darkness," “The Eternal Forgemaster," “Defend the Temple of War," and “Restore the Temple of War."

Primary quests in Pre-Searing Ascalon now chain together, making it more straightforward for new players to complete Pre-Searing Ascalon and gain entrance to the Academy.

Increased drop rates for Uncommon and Rare items in Explorable Areas.

Implemented various minor fixes and clarifications to existing quests.

Implemented various tweaks to monster difficulty and loot balance.

Added new boss monster encounters in the “Ring of Fire” area.

Added new bonuses on certain collector and quest items.

Instituted skill changes: “Watch Yourself!” correctly affects characters who were already affected by another instance of the skill. “Firestorm” now continues to cast even if the target enemy dies during spellcasting. We’ll revise other area-effect spells to work this way in future updates.

The party window and account storage windows now correctly remember their position and size.

There are many new hints displayed in Pre-Searing Ascalon, and a new option to disable the display of hints.

When you gain a level, a button now appears prompting you to spend your newly acquired attribute points.

Quest destination points now appear on both the Map Area and Map Travel windows.

Most NPC text is now logged to the chat window, as well as being displayed in game.

Implemented various minor fixes to UI.

Fixed crafters recognizing high-level crafting items.

Fixed problems which caused excessive scarcity of Fur Squares, Linen, and Silk.

Implemented fixes for incorrect behavior when a player or party disconnects before the beginning of a competitive game.

Implemented fixes for miscellaneous rare crash bugs.

Added the ability to change postal mailing address on account.

Improved hardware compatibility.

Inspired by Woodenpotatoes series of videos discussing the direction and end game of GW2 i decided to look through an old folder i had on my computer… back from 2005.

And I remember these patch notes. I remember when they removed /roll from towns. There was an outrage.
And what it makes me think off, when I look at these patch notes for 5-6 years of Guild Wars 1 updates. What comes around, goes around. So much of what certain people are mad about now balance wise, will be on it’s head before you know it. And then on it’s head again.
I just think that’s the way it is. We can use old patch notes to put it into perspective on how we perceive new ones. GW2 is a different game from GW1 clearly, but still there is a common denominator and there is a sense with both games that it’s vocal communities had/has very vocal ideas about how it should be taken further.

It’s also exciting. The way Guild Wars 2 has played and felt during this past year will soon be gone, as they keep making changes. And some other feel will change the game completely again. Change is constant and forever. There will never be a balanced patch or build that fixes everything. It just won’t happen.

I think people tend to forget this sort of thing because they’re so used to the end result. People would do well to remember that GW1 wasn’t perfect either.

Berelious.3290:

I think people tend to forget this sort of thing because they’re so used to the end result. People would do well to remember that GW1 wasn’t perfect either.

My god, I just saw this video review from 2005: http://www.gametrailers.com/reviews/jrh0c2/guild-wars-review

it doesn’t look like the game I remembered in my head. I played GW1 for almost a thousand hours. Wow. Somehow it makes me appreciate GW2 more.

This is a really good post, OP. Do you remember the backlash when Guild Wars 1 introduced heroes with Nightfall. A lot of people hated the very idea…a lot of people loved it. There are still people saying the introduction of heroes ruined Guild Wars 1.

I really do think people forget.

All the complaining that went on each time Anet nerfed a skill. And how many professions and skills had to be buffed because people weren’t using them.

Guild Wars 1 was a great game, but it wasn’t a perfect game. And it had plenty of time to get its legs under it before it became the game it eventually was.

During that time some people left and others jumped on the bandwagon. I think the same thing will happen here.

I agree Vayne, I agree.

This game had an extremely long development. Yes, improvements to the core game released at launch should be expected, and improvements over time.

That does not excuse the game releasing without basic, fundamental features existing in far older games, including some in GW

Configurable UI. Particle controls. Appearance slots. Functional LFG. Flexible graphical settings. Enhanced guild management tools particularly the over simplified bank. These are basics. The newness of the game only exacerbates the fact that basic things are missing. NO ONE had to invent the concepts.

Companies do not release computers with basic features missing that computers released 8 years ago have, and then excuse it by saying “it’s new” and pointing out that the Commodore 64 didn’t have them at release.

May i point out, Teofa, that kids today don’t know what a floppy drive is. So sometimes basic things are replaced with better things. Not saying that is 100% the case in GW2 …just sayin….

Perhaps then you could point out the “better” versions of the things I listed. I can’t seem to find them in my copy of GW2.
Just sayin.

I first got GW1 halfway between the release of Factions and Nightfall and then (due to computer problems) didn’t get to start playing properly until just after Nightfall came out.

When I took the time to go back and read through old patch notes it really surprised me what wasn’t in the game at launch and what was changed along the way.

I think given time it will be the same for GW2. There will be people who will find it incredible that Ascended gear wasn’t in the game at launch, or that anyone objected to it when it came out. Or the laurel system or who knows what that will be added in future.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

This game had an extremely long development. Yes, improvements to the core game released at launch should be expected, and improvements over time.

That does not excuse the game releasing without basic, fundamental features existing in far older games, including some in GW

Configurable UI. Particle controls. Appearance slots. Functional LFG. Flexible graphical settings. Enhanced guild management tools particularly the over simplified bank. These are basics. The newness of the game only exacerbates the fact that basic things are missing. NO ONE had to invent the concepts.

Companies do not release computers with basic features missing that computers released 8 years ago have, and then excuse it by saying “it’s new” and pointing out that the Commodore 64 didn’t have them at release.

Teofa, the majority of MMOs I have played never had those things. Albeit they are nice, I don’t consider them “basic”. Perhaps LFG tool though. It seems the current one still needs improvements!

Wow, Vanguard, Everquest2, SWG, Lotro, AoC, etc etc. What supposed “mmos” were you playing?

Actually, Never mind. You are correct, Etch A Sketch had only 2 knobs. Everything is an “improvement”. It is good to be constantly prompted to do a story you have no intention of doing. A fixed, Rigid UI prevents me from hurting myself moving elements of it around. I’m so glad now, thinking about it, that I can’t access purchased costumes acct wide, put them in an appearance slot, and wear them Adventuring. I’m happy that I can’t choose to put a huge variety of Items in appearance and yet have my armor stats.

Mostly, I’m thankful that in a move/dodge game that I have a massive, blinding wall of particle effects helping me. It’s a great thing I cannot adjust those, for sure.

And no doubt, a second party LFG forum unconnected to the game is a vast improvement.

Gosh, I’m sorry.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

This game had an extremely long development. Yes, improvements to the core game released at launch should be expected, and improvements over time.

That does not excuse the game releasing without basic, fundamental features existing in far older games, including some in GW

Configurable UI. Particle controls. Appearance slots. Functional LFG. Flexible graphical settings. Enhanced guild management tools particularly the over simplified bank. These are basics. The newness of the game only exacerbates the fact that basic things are missing. NO ONE had to invent the concepts.

Companies do not release computers with basic features missing that computers released 8 years ago have, and then excuse it by saying “it’s new” and pointing out that the Commodore 64 didn’t have them at release.

I’m not sure any excuse is required.

MMOs are huge investments in time and money. I can think of NO MMO, not one, that had most basic features at launch. Including one feature meant excluding other features, or it would take ten years to develop each MMO…far too long for the market to support the project without some income.

This particular MMO launched with a huge world…five starting zones, 25 large zones in all, and personal stories (which most MMOs don’t launch with). Have you ever seen an MMO launch with all the basics?

You can either have most features and a tiny world, or a great big world and some features…but I don’t think you can have both.

And I don’t think anyone should be expecting it from any of the upcoming games either….or you’re going to be massively disappointed.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Wow, Vanguard, Everquest2, SWG, Lotro, AoC, etc etc. What supposed “mmos” were you playing?

Actually, Never mind. You are correct, Etch A Sketch had only 2 knobs.

WoW didn’t have a LFG tool until the first expansion “The Burning Crusade”. Before that all it had was a global LFG channel most people had turned off because it was mostly a source of spam and the meeting stones automatically assigning you to random groups which was mostly useless because it didn’t take into account the need of a tank/healer/DPS trinity. It also didn’t have appearance slots until recently (I think with the cataclism release, I know it didn’t have them or any alternative when I left around WotLK expansion) which, IIRC works similarly to the way transmutation crystals work in GW2, you apply the skin of one item to the stats of another. I also don’t remember it having much in the form of particle controls, but might be wrong, didn’t fiddle much with the settings back then.

AoC at release didn’t have apearance slots (they were there when it went F2P, though, no idea when it was added), and the graphical and performance settings were famous for being abysmal at release, with most of them doing nothing. The selectable particle details was added about a couple of months after release (IIRC) because of the complains of the siege system (a big selling point) being completely unplayable because the game slowed to a crawl with more than 15 or 20 people on screen, and at least when I left (about 4 or 5 months after release) it was still not working properly. I also remember the guild interface not being too good, but it did have “last logged on” which is something sorely lacking on GW2.

Won’t comment on the others since I never played them, though, but a quick comment on other recent MMOs:

SW:TOR didn’t have a LFG tool when it launched either, and didn’t get one until about 6 months after release.

TSW didn’t have LFG either or even an auction house at release (and the guild management window was almost as basic as GW2), user made mods covered for them (like the LFG website here), but weren’t added properly into the game for a few months after release.

TERA did have a LFG tool on the NA release… which was over a year after its original asian release, which didn’t have one until the NA release added it.

Well this is the only video game in general i’ve ever played. As I said, my comment was not to imply that GW2 is perfect nor perfect at launch. I was merely pointing out that your analogy of old computers was not the best choice for this particular discussion. Some basic things, like LFG tool, were missing on launch. Overall though, this game is awesome. Personally, I’m happy they continue to work on improvements.

Sure. Games did not launch with some, or all of those features, years ago. Some did. Point is, the features were popular, asked for, and became pretty much standard fare.

It is 2013. We should not have to beg for them for common features, much as we don’t have to beg a computer producer for a memstick or flash port, even though computers 8 years ago didn’t commonly have them.

I will repeat, pointing at products from a decade or so ago and saying “they didn’t have this at launch either” does not excuse a product produced today from including accepted, popular features.

I fail to see how anyone could look at lack of a particle slider is a “good” thing in a reactive move/dodge game when telegraphed warnings are impossible to see, nor can I understand why “fluff” particles, at the very least, were not client side controllable from launch day. I need to see AOE rings. I do not need to see rainbow unicorns, cutesy footprints, or golden bubbles of ??? coming up from my rage signet and they should have reacted to complaints re. particles as far back as Beta.

This should be “industry wide” learning. SWG learned it when large scale PvP became impossible with NGE particle effect spam. They put in a slider. EQ2 launched with one, having learned from large scale EQ raids. As mentioned, AoC learned when sieges were unplayable due to particles. Why should ANET, this late in the genre, have to “relearn” this?

Oh yes, I remember, and I often point such things out when arguing with people.

I also enjoy pointing out that just because this game lacks something that other games consider ‘standard’ may not be in error, it may have been done intentionally – ie no direct trading for example. We’ve sort of blown their initial game design dreams right out of the water.

What frustrates me more is that the game launched with glaring shortcomings that it didn’t have in GW1. Yes, GW1 took a while to overcome the shortcomings, but I don’t understand why Anet needs to learn those things a second time over.

• Templates: everyone loved them. There was literally not a single downside to having them. It was one of the most brilliant things Anet ever implemented in GW1 and it made life so easy.

• A decent targetting system: I went and played GW1 earlier this week, out of nostalgia and I was blown away by how awesome GW1’s targetting system was. It’s like making dinner for someone one day and they say they really like it, and when they come over again, you think to yourself ‘you know what they would really like, if instead of just having dinner, I’ll put a big poop in the middle of the plate that they have to eat around, they’ll love it!’.

• Decent AI: like really. The AI (especially of the NPCs) in this game is so bad it kind of makes me ashamed. In GW1 you also had the ability to trick your NPC AI to follow you. This is especially frustrating in dungeons where you rely on the NPCs to trigger events. Either just make them afk characters like Kormir was, or give them decent AI. But don’t make them dumber than a bag of rocks, have them hit like a wet noodle and make them tanky as hell and then have entire dungeons rely on them. Or just re-introduce the system where you could ping a target and the NPC would follow the person that pinged the target.

• PvP modes: like really, how can you make a game that was universally hailed for their great PvP modes and then make a new game that has exactly 1 mode, and then the most boring of them all. And on top of that have the balls to say that you hope your game to become an esport with a straight face.

• A good story: GW1 story was amazing. I don’t have to remind you of the public opinion of the GW2 story…

^

Wow…it’s hard to write a post that is both angry and intelligent.

/hatsoff

Because it’s different technology Bright. This is something Colin has expressed frustration with, especially in regards to the issue with capes. Things don’t work the same way, can’t be implemented as easily or in the same fashion. It’s not an uncommon issue with technology these days. Sometimes there are work arounds, sometimes there aren’t. Sometimes you have to ‘relearn’ how to do something in order for it to work in the new system. Of course, it could be as simple as they haven’t gotten around to it either (not that templates would work the same way necessarily here anyway). We don’t really know what the deal with for any specific issue because we don’t work there. We do need to cut them some slack though.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Because it’s different technology Bright. This is something Colin has expressed frustration with, especially in regards to the issue with capes. Things don’t work the same way, can’t be implemented as easily or in the same fashion. It’s not an uncommon issue with technology these days. Sometimes there are work arounds, sometimes there aren’t. Sometimes you have to ‘relearn’ how to do something in order for it to work in the new system. Of course, it could be as simple as they haven’t gotten around to it either (not that templates would work the same way necessarily here anyway). We don’t really know what the deal with for any specific issue because we don’t work there. We do need to cut them some slack though.

Anet doesn’t have the technology to implement capes?

If they can do kites, they can do capes.

Kites…

laharl.8435:

Anet doesn’t have the technology to implement capes?

That is not what I said. I said that the technology is different. As such, things they did previously cannot necessarily be implemented the same way. This is something Colin talked about in his PAX interview. Using capes as the example, even though this is something they want to do, it is much more difficult with the current technology than it was in GW1, because there is simple ‘more’ to GW2. As such its not as simple as copying the code and pasting it into the codebase for GW2. It requires a ‘relearning.’

Obsidian.1328:

If they can do kites, they can do capes.

Except that kites aren’t quite the same. They aren’t attached to you. Don’t need to flow fluidly with your movements. Don’t have to take a million possible clipping collisions into consideration…

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Perhaps then you could point out the “better” versions of the things I listed. I can’t seem to find them in my copy of GW2.
Just sayin.

That is because your views are ridiculously scewed do to your personal bias of GW1. I could linst the portions of your list that are better in GW2, but then my hands would be cramping after all of the typing.

Bright.9160:

• A good story: GW1 story was amazing. I don’t have to remind you of the public opinion of the GW2 story…

Wow, how fast we forget. You had to ignore A LOT of things said about GW1 if you are naive enough to believe the story in GW1 was loved by all as you are appearing to portray it.

I rather enjoyed the story in GW2 and feel very many did.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Because it’s different technology Bright. This is something Colin has expressed frustration with, especially in regards to the issue with capes. Things don’t work the same way, can’t be implemented as easily or in the same fashion. It’s not an uncommon issue with technology these days. Sometimes there are work arounds, sometimes there aren’t. Sometimes you have to ‘relearn’ how to do something in order for it to work in the new system. Of course, it could be as simple as they haven’t gotten around to it either (not that templates would work the same way necessarily here anyway). We don’t really know what the deal with for any specific issue because we don’t work there. We do need to cut them some slack though.

Okay, so it’s different technology, I can give them that.

But where it become more frustrating is when you see the apparent priorities Anet sets. It might be that somewhere, some guy is working his butt off trying to get new things in, but we just don’t see it. That and the fact that they often try to ‘fix’ something that isn’t really broke, and in the meantime completely miss a really broken issue that is related to it.

For example: with the last patch they ‘fixed’ a skip in SE p3 where you would skip literally 2 mobs to the first boss. What they did was place a giant boulder in the way of the skip. On the other hand, 20 steps further down the road of that boulder there is a big hole in the ground where a piece of floor is missing. Due to the missing floor, the patrol that walks around there just stares blank at a wall the entire time. If you fall into the hole, you’ll need to leave the instance in order to get back in, because you’ll be stuck in combat.

Tell me how they can ‘fix’ a skip that didn’t even save time on a run (you can still run past the mobs in the hall and they’ll leash when you reach the boss), yet completely forget to fix a big hole in the floor?

The same goes for many things they introduce and/or fix in game. They always fix or introduce something minor while completely ignoring other more important features. Although the wallet and the likes were great additions and I applaud them for it, they still haven’t done anything about particle effects and let’s not forget it took us 9 months of begging for an option to turn off right-click to target.

Of course this isn’t super relevant to the topic, but it’s something that can often put oil on the fire.

coglin.1867:

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Perhaps then you could point out the “better” versions of the things I listed. I can’t seem to find them in my copy of GW2.
Just sayin.

That is because your views are ridiculously scewed do to your personal bias of GW1. I could linst the portions of your list that are better in GW2, but then my hands would be cramping after all of the typing.

Bright.9160:

• A good story: GW1 story was amazing. I don’t have to remind you of the public opinion of the GW2 story…

Wow, how fast we forget. You had to ignore A LOT of things said about GW1 if you are naive enough to believe the story in GW1 was loved by all as you are appearing to portray it.

I rather enjoyed the story in GW2 and feel very many did.

Feel free to cramp your hands typing out to me what of these things I listed is even in GW2.

Configurable UI. Particle controls. Appearance slots. Functional LFG. Flexible graphical settings. Enhanced guild management tools particularly the over simplified bank.

Also, you might take note that I was not comparing GW to GW2. I was comparing GW2 to all of the other major MMOs I have played.. and only in reference to above features.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

coglin.1867:

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Perhaps then you could point out the “better” versions of the things I listed. I can’t seem to find them in my copy of GW2.
Just sayin.

That is because your views are ridiculously scewed do to your personal bias of GW1. I could linst the portions of your list that are better in GW2, but then my hands would be cramping after all of the typing.

Bright.9160:

• A good story: GW1 story was amazing. I don’t have to remind you of the public opinion of the GW2 story…

Wow, how fast we forget. You had to ignore A LOT of things said about GW1 if you are naive enough to believe the story in GW1 was loved by all as you are appearing to portray it.

I rather enjoyed the story in GW2 and feel very many did.

Feel free to cramp your hands typing out to me what of these things I listed is even in GW2.

Configurable UI. Particle controls. Appearance slots. Functional LFG. Flexible graphical settings. Enhanced guild management tools particularly the over simplified bank.

Also, you might take note that I was not comparing GW to GW2. I was comparing GW2 to all of the other major MMOs I have played.. and only in reference to above features.

At least in my case:

Configurable UI: agree, I personally like the UI but I miss the fact that you could configure it in other games I played.

Particle Controls: Also agree, though at least we got a response recently:

Yeah we’ve done a number of steps already this year to improve it, but we have a long ways to go to get it cleaned up to the point we’re happy with. It’s something we’re continuing to work on for sure, but we’re focusing way more on game performance currently before we turn back to the FX side.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Can-anyone-really-see-through-the-clutter/page/4#post3125306

Appearance slots: We just have a different system, the transmutation stones. I do agree that I’d rather have appearance slots, but I guess it’s the system they settled for (IIRC WoW uses a simmilar one, or did last time I read about it).

Functional LFG: What do you think should be improved about the current one?. So far seems to work OK for me, I’ve been getting dungeon groups almost daily since it was released. Actually reminds me of the one WoW had around TBC, which is basically what I was looking for on one.

BTW, about your previous comment about current MMOs not shipping without one… TSW was released few months before GW2, it had no LFG tool (like GW2, an user made one and several months later an official one was added to the game), TOR was released in december 2011, it didn’t have a LFG tool until 6 months later, those seem current enough for me (at least no big AAA MMO that I know has launched afterwards), so while I do consider a LFG tool very useful and top of my list of features I want, I don’t see it yet as a required one for MMOs at launch these days… yet.

Flexible graphical settings: Again, I’d like to know what do you feel is missing from the graphical settings. I’m not someone that dabbles with them too much, but so far they seem to be mostly adequate at least, they have done a good job in reaching a balance between looks and performance (again, to me, I’d like to know what you feel is missing).

Enhanced guild settings and bank: I agree that there are some features missing from the guild tools, specially a “last logged on” feature (we’ve been making up for that by booting people that haven’t earnt influence points for over a month or so), but I’d like to know what do you feel should be improved about the guild bank, not because I feel it’s good as it is, but out of curiosity, as I’ve only used it from an user point of view (on my guild) and never really from the managing point of view.

Bright.9160:

Okay, so it’s different technology, I can give them that.

But where it become more frustrating is when you see the apparent priorities Anet sets. It might be that somewhere, some guy is working his butt off trying to get new things in, but we just don’t see it. That and the fact that they often try to ‘fix’ something that isn’t really broke, and in the meantime completely miss a really broken issue that is related to it.

For example: with the last patch they ‘fixed’ a skip in SE p3 where you would skip literally 2 mobs to the first boss. What they did was place a giant boulder in the way of the skip. On the other hand, 20 steps further down the road of that boulder there is a big hole in the ground where a piece of floor is missing. Due to the missing floor, the patrol that walks around there just stares blank at a wall the entire time. If you fall into the hole, you’ll need to leave the instance in order to get back in, because you’ll be stuck in combat.

Tell me how they can ‘fix’ a skip that didn’t even save time on a run (you can still run past the mobs in the hall and they’ll leash when you reach the boss), yet completely forget to fix a big hole in the floor?

The same goes for many things they introduce and/or fix in game. They always fix or introduce something minor while completely ignoring other more important features. Although the wallet and the likes were great additions and I applaud them for it, they still haven’t done anything about particle effects and let’s not forget it took us 9 months of begging for an option to turn off right-click to target.

Of course this isn’t super relevant to the topic, but it’s something that can often put oil on the fire.

You know, I can’t speak to their priorities. I honestly don’t work for them, and while I do speculate some, the simple fact is that unless they tell us, we won’t know. And they aren’t going to tell us, because of the way their player base lashes out at them in almost mindless rage over the smallest perceived issue.

There is probably much more going in behind the scenes than we, the customers, see. There always is with large companies.

They have told us that they work in teams. So the various issues aren’t all handled by the same person, or group of people most likely. They have told us that they are working on revamping dungeons and world bosses. It is likely that they may have deemed the overhaul more of a priority than fixing the hole in the floor. Of course, the hole in the floor might be a more difficult issue to fix than not being able to skip the mobs, and as such they fix the one but put the other on the back burner. We simply don’t know.

I know it’s frustrating, but development isn’t done with a magic wand. Sometimes code that looks like it should work, even runs perfectly fine in its test suite, doesn’t function as planned with no apparent reason for it’s malfunction. In a code base with thousands, if not millions, of lines of code and numerous dependencies to take into account, that can be enough to make someone tear their hair out.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Obsidian.1328:

If they can do kites, they can do capes.

Except that kites aren’t quite the same. They aren’t attached to you. Don’t need to flow fluidly with your movements. Don’t have to take a million possible clipping collisions into consideration…

The kite flows with your movements, just not against your back. I played a F2P game 5 years ago with worse graphics than GW2, and their capes looked amazing. They flowed with your movements perfectly. There was only a little clipping, which brings me to…

Oh boy…the clipping issue again. What in the heck is the big deal with clipping? The screen has a million things going on and people /rage over a tail that obstructs a piece of cloth, or a piece of armor that covers up a portion of a focus. Good grief, how can anyone not expect that to happen? Does it really ruin your game if your hairdo doesn’t still look perfect with that new hammer skin you got? /rollseyes

coglin.1867:

I rather enjoyed the story in GW2 and feel very many did.

I’m afraid you’d be in the minority then.

Obsidian.1328:

Oh boy…the clipping issue again. What in the heck is the big deal with clipping? The screen has a million things going on and people /rage over a tail that obstructs a piece of cloth, or a piece of armor that covers up a portion of a focus. Good grief, how can anyone not expect that to happen? Does it really ruin your game if your hairdo doesn’t still look perfect with that new hammer skin you got? /rollseyes

I don’t have an issue with clipping overly much myself, but the vast majority of the player base seems to. As such, until they can get it just right, don’t expect to see it implemented. I’m sure the devs would like to hold themselves to slightly higher standard as well, and do it right. Can’t blame them for that. Doing it “right” vs just “doing it” makes a big difference on technical debt that has to be dealt with later on.

As for clipping in general… have you looked at some of the complaints on this forum? The last question you ask, seems to be a resounding yes.

Another think I noticed about those patch notes is the dates. May 11, 13, 25. Not this every 2-4 week thing. If there was a problem to fix, it was fixed. There are planned patch releases, and that I get. But often fixes don’t come until the next patch release, instead of hotfixes. I thought hotfixes were the MMO norm.

I played GW from just a couple months after release and well into EotN. It was amazing. And it had some faults, but I always felt that when a serious issue was revealed (OP builds, bugs, UI issues) they were fixed quickly. We’ve got lists of known bugs all over these forums that haven’t been addressed in months. Meanwhile, we get tooltip reskins.

Things like templates and free respecs came with time. So I give any company that. But what I hate hearing, especially from the devs of a game that’s supposed to be so ground-breaking, is that they can’t do something due to technical limitations. We can’t name our pets or stack 25+ conditions because of server issues. That seems like gross oversights. Many of the things mentioned above ring true for me. I’mnot much of a PvPer. But I did get into it in GW because there were so many types that it was refreshing and fun. I think Anet threw all their PvP eggs in one big WvW basket with GW2.

You want capes to not clip? They can’t even get cultural armor to not clip.

locoman.1974:

Bright.9160:

.

[/quote]

Configurable UI. Particle controls. Appearance slots. Functional LFG. Flexible graphical settings. Enhanced guild management tools particularly the over simplified bank.

Also, you might take note that I was not comparing GW to GW2. I was comparing GW2 to all of the other major MMOs I have played.. and only in reference to above features.

[/quote]
At least in my case:

Configurable UI: agree, I personally like the UI but I miss the fact that you could configure it in other games I played.

Particle Controls: Also agree, though at least we got a response recently:

Yeah we’ve done a number of steps already this year to improve it, but we have a long ways to go to get it cleaned up to the point we’re happy with. It’s something we’re continuing to work on for sure, but we’re focusing way more on game performance currently before we turn back to the FX side.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Can-anyone-really-see-through-the-clutter/page/4#post3125306

Appearance slots: We just have a different system, the transmutation stones. I do agree that I’d rather have appearance slots, but I guess it’s the system they settled for (IIRC WoW uses a simmilar one, or did last time I read about it).

Functional LFG: What do you think should be improved about the current one?. So far seems to work OK for me, I’ve been getting dungeon groups almost daily since it was released. Actually reminds me of the one WoW had around TBC, which is basically what I was looking for on one.

BTW, about your previous comment about current MMOs not shipping without one… TSW was released few months before GW2, it had no LFG tool (like GW2, an user made one and several months later an official one was added to the game), TOR was released in december 2011, it didn’t have a LFG tool until 6 months later, those seem current enough for me (at least no big AAA MMO that I know has launched afterwards), so while I do consider a LFG tool very useful and top of my list of features I want, I don’t see it yet as a required one for MMOs at launch these days… yet.

Flexible graphical settings: Again, I’d like to know what do you feel is missing from the graphical settings. I’m not someone that dabbles with them too much, but so far they seem to be mostly adequate at least, they have done a good job in reaching a balance between looks and performance (again, to me, I’d like to know what you feel is missing).

Enhanced guild settings and bank: I agree that there are some features missing from the guild tools, specially a “last logged on” feature (we’ve been making up for that by booting people that haven’t earnt influence points for over a month or so), but I’d like to know what do you feel should be improved about the guild bank, not because I feel it’s good as it is, but out of curiosity, as I’ve only used it from an user point of view (on my guild) and never really from the managing point of view.[/quote]

Flexible Graphical settings. In Everquest 2 I can seriously adjust everything, far deeper customization of every aspect. Would take forever to explain all of it.. For just Targeting circles I can set size, visibility, color, animation, arrow,etc. I can set size, color and verbosity of combat text, or remove it. There is a pane just to set reflection levels and types. Earlier in this thread I posted a pic of just the particle pane. I can set animation levels to a greater extent. I can turn off people’s mounts, cloaks if I choose. Too much to list. Oh.. I can shut off tooltips, leave them on, set the duration of hover time to bring them up, set amount of text shown in tooltip, etc etc. I would kill here just to get rid of tooltips.

And save a template. So.. I have pretty pretty screenshot template, day to day template, raid template that is pure performance.. and change them with one button.

Guild Management for Banks. 4 banks actually, with the ability to set access to each one separately according to guild rank. I can set daily limits for each rank as well.. coin or items. I have a bank log that shows who deposited, who withdrew, and when. I can put different amounts of coin in each bank, limiting access to it by rank. For example, a recruit member can take 3 gold and 5 items per day. No more. (gold is not what it is here) I don’t give a recruit access to the other 3 banks at all.

General.. I have a dropdown to choose how I show members. Logged in last week, logged in last 2 weeks, 30 days, etc. I have an event log, and can choose what is saved to it. etc etc, I have officer only chat and channels in addition to guild chat. Mail to guild function.
All off the top of my head.

Sorry for all this text, but you did ask.

Seras.5702:

Another think I noticed about those patch notes is the dates. May 11, 13, 25. Not this every 2-4 week thing. If there was a problem to fix, it was fixed. There are planned patch releases, and that I get. But often fixes don’t come until the next patch release, instead of hotfixes. I thought hotfixes were the MMO norm.

I played GW from just a couple months after release and well into EotN. It was amazing. And it had some faults, but I always felt that when a serious issue was revealed (OP builds, bugs, UI issues) they were fixed quickly. We’ve got lists of known bugs all over these forums that haven’t been addressed in months. Meanwhile, we get tooltip reskins.

Things like templates and free respecs came with time. So I give any company that. But what I hate hearing, especially from the devs of a game that’s supposed to be so ground-breaking, is that they can’t do something due to technical limitations. We can’t name our pets or stack 25+ conditions because of server issues. That seems like gross oversights. Many of the things mentioned above ring true for me. I’mnot much of a PvPer. But I did get into it in GW because there were so many types that it was refreshing and fun. I think Anet threw all their PvP eggs in one big WvW basket with GW2.

You want capes to not clip? They can’t even get cultural armor to not clip.

Isn’t technology grand?

Some things can be hotfixed, some can’t. Depends on what it is, and how things are set up.

Edit: Some things have improved though, over GW1. In gw1 you couldn’t share conditions, here multiple people can stack them to the cap. You couldn’t have two copies of the same hex on someone either, one person would simple overwrite the other person’s. So it was a bit of a hassle to make sure people weren’t running the same thing.

The max cap for conditions isn’t all that different from having a max cap on degen either honestly.

Considering we’ve got people talking about how good the story and AI was in GW1 and holding Kormir up as an example of good AI I think it’s safe to say the answer to the OP’s question is no, people don’t remember.

Danikat.8537:

Considering we’ve got people talking about how good the story and AI was in GW1 and holding Kormir up as an example of good AI I think it’s safe to say the answer to the OP’s question is no, people don’t remember.

I hated the NF story, but loved Factions and Nightfall.

And I don’t know if you remember, but Kormir was an afk NPC. I was not hailing her for her AI. I was saying that it was nice that her presence was completely irrelevant to the completion of your missions.

It’s not just about technology though. It’s about time/energy/money too. Simply put, this game launched with more quests (dynamic events) than all the quests from all Guild Wars games put together. They came out with Guild Wars Prophecies and it had well under 300 quests. This game has 300 hearts, and 1500 dynamic events. And while Guild Wars 1 had 25 missions, this game has many times that in terms of personal stories that had to be created. Guild Wars 1 has a single starting area. It didn’t have underwater to populate. It didn’t have something like WvW, which is a huge undertaking to work on….hell Guild Wars Prophecies didn’t really even have “dungeons”. Dungeons were basically added in Eye of the North.

So the game takes years and money to develop and every developer, not just Anet, has to pick and choose what it puts time and money into. The auction house and LFG tool really didn’t exist in Guild Wars 1. Guesting didn’t exist. Culling didn’t exist. These are things that all needed work.

The systems that were implemented at launch were the ones they thought they needed for the game..and even then, how many dynamic events were bugged at launch? How many personal stories?

This isn’t about learning or not learning from a previous game, even if the technology can challenge people. This is about how long and hard it is to make a game as large and ambitious as this one. Choices were made not based on learning and not learning. Choices were made based on time and money, just like in any project.

At some point every MMO has to be launched and it will never have enough end game content. It will never have every feature. And games that are coming, will be exactly the same. They’ll either be feature rich and very small, or huge sprawling worlds with nothing in them, or games that are lacking certain things.

Someone said that today’s games all launch with an LFG tool. SWToR didn’t. TSW didn’t. Rift didn’t. And those are the most recent big MMOs. Now, I’m pretty sure that Neverwinter DID launch with an LFG tool. But it didn’t launch with a huge open world.

To say that games today all launch with all the stuff that previous games have, when previous games have had years to implement stuff, is like saying that making a new MMO should take the same time as making an older MMO and adding everything to it. It just takes too long and costs to much for MMOs to do everything prior to launch. You’d either have to be have best funded MMO of all time, or the most understanding investors, or the most patient fans, or all three.

Bright.9160:

Danikat.8537:

Considering we’ve got people talking about how good the story and AI was in GW1 and holding Kormir up as an example of good AI I think it’s safe to say the answer to the OP’s question is no, people don’t remember.

I hated the NF story, but loved Factions and Nightfall.

And I don’t know if you remember, but Kormir was an afk NPC. I was not hailing her for her AI. I was saying that it was nice that her presence was completely irrelevant to the completion of your missions.

Except when she kills a Sunspear ghost and you lose the bonus.

Vayne.8563:

Bright.9160:

Danikat.8537:

Considering we’ve got people talking about how good the story and AI was in GW1 and holding Kormir up as an example of good AI I think it’s safe to say the answer to the OP’s question is no, people don’t remember.

I hated the NF story, but loved Factions and Nightfall.

And I don’t know if you remember, but Kormir was an afk NPC. I was not hailing her for her AI. I was saying that it was nice that her presence was completely irrelevant to the completion of your missions.

Except when she kills a Sunspear ghost and you lose the bonus.

Or body blocks you during the fight with Abbadon. Or gets stuck and just stops moving mid-mission so you have to re-start the entire thing.

Vayne.8563:

It’s not just about technology though. It’s about time/energy/money too. Simply put, this game launched with more quests (dynamic events) than all the quests from all Guild Wars games put together. They came out with Guild Wars Prophecies and it had well under 300 quests. This game has 300 hearts, and 1500 dynamic events.

Even if the numbers are correct (which I personally doubt after spending so much time in PvE) it doesn’t change the fact that all the dynamic events and renown hearts are nothing else than simply baby-sitting the locals. There is nothing “renown” about GW2 hearts because Joe will forget about you feeding his cows the moment you receive your reward. In GW1 quests actually felt like you are making a difference because instances offered a way of changing your environment according to your progression (i.e. if you complete the battle for Lion’s Arch you’ll immediately see a reduced number of White Mantle patrols etc.) You were not stuck in one zone until you reach 100% completion unlike GW1 where constant rezoning actually prevented people from getting bored.

In the end going all philosophical about GW1 vs GW2 is pointless. Why? Well, I spent countless hours discussing about that with my friends which I know from GW1. Most of them have stopped playing GW2 a long time ago but it was interesting to see that our discussion led us to a very interesting conclusion – GW1 and GW2 are simply not aimed for the same audience.

GW1 was essentially a heavy RPG story-driven experience which offered people a unique chance to experience all the fine aspects of the game together. It didn’t bother too much to incorporate any of the MMO “features” and “standards” which made it even more immersive for the RPG fans. A mature, dark and well written game which you can experience with your friends all over again in so many different ways. What’s not to like about that?

GW2 eventually became something that a lot of GW1 fans, myself included, didn’t want it to become – an MMO. Switching focus from a “multiplayer RPG game” to an MMO also meant a lot of compromises. Too much as far as some people are concerned. Content quality and quantity suddenly had to switch places because unlike RPG folks which don’t mind waiting for new quality content an MMO requires of you to keep people occupied with stuff to do or they’ll simply leave the game (a bad idea if your business model depends on micro-transactions). That doesn’t necessarily needs to be a bad thing simply something that doesn’t fit well with some of the GW1 folks.

holodoc.5748:

Vayne.8563:

It’s not just about technology though. It’s about time/energy/money too. Simply put, this game launched with more quests (dynamic events) than all the quests from all Guild Wars games put together. They came out with Guild Wars Prophecies and it had well under 300 quests. This game has 300 hearts, and 1500 dynamic events.

Even if the numbers are correct (which I personally doubt after spending so much time in PvE) it doesn’t change the fact that all the dynamic events and renown hearts are nothing else than simply baby-sitting the locals. There is nothing “renown” about GW2 hearts because Joe will forget about you feeding his cows the moment you receive your reward. In GW1 quests actually felt like you are making a difference because instances offered a way of changing your environment according to your progression (i.e. if you complete the battle for Lion’s Arch you’ll immediately see a reduced number of White Mantle patrols etc.) You were not stuck in one zone until you reach 100% completion unlike GW1 where constant rezoning actually prevented people from getting bored.

In the end going all philosophical about GW1 vs GW2 is pointless. Why? Well, I spent countless hours discussing about that with my friends which I know from GW1. Most of them have stopped playing GW2 a long time ago but it was interesting to see that our discussion led us to a very interesting conclusion – GW1 and GW2 are simply not aimed for the same audience.

GW1 was essentially a heavy RPG story-driven experience which offered people a unique chance to experience all the fine aspects of the game together. It didn’t bother too much to incorporate any of the MMO “features” and “standards” which made it even more immersive for the RPG fans. A mature, dark and well written game which you can experience with your friends all over again in so many different ways. What’s not to like about that?

GW2 eventually became something that a lot of GW1 fans, myself included, didn’t want it to become – an MMO. Switching focus from a “multiplayer RPG game” to an MMO also meant a lot of compromises. Too much as far as some people are concerned. Content quality and quantity suddenly had to switch places because unlike RPG folks which don’t mind waiting for new quality content an MMO requires of you to keep people occupied with stuff to do or they’ll simply leave the game (a bad idea if your business model depends on micro-transactions). That doesn’t necessarily need to be a bad thing simply not something that doesn’t fit well with some of the GW1 folks.

The numbers are taken from Guild Wars 2 and Guild Wars 1 press releases.

This is the wiki page for Guild Wars: Prophecies…you’ll note it had 205 quests…most of which weren’t repeatable at all. And we know it had 25 missions

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_Prophecies

We know there are 301 hearts in Guild Wars 2, because it says so on the map screen. It was said by Anet numerous times that there are over 1500 dynamic events in the game. I can find a quote if you insist.

Hearts were not supposed to replace quests and aren’t really there to be compared to quests. Hearts were placed in the game very late in the piece, in order to get people to stay for a bit in areas where dynamic events spawn. The term “renown”, well yes, you get known to the heart person you helped, which is why you can then use them as merchants and get things from them.

There are 130 people in my guild and more than half of them played Guild Wars 1. Most of them enjoy Guild Wars 2. In fact most of them are here since launch.

Shrug. The game is a year old. But, persist on comparing it as “Brand New” to Proph at launch. Forget that at one year, Factions was introduced. Compare year old games to year old games at least.

Time is running out on the “but it’s a new game” thing.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Shrug. The game is a year old. But, persist on comparing it as “Brand New” to Proph at launch. Forget that at one year, Factions was introduced. Compare year old games to year old games at least.

Time is running out on the “but it’s a new game” thing.

I agree with you. This game is a year old….but it had more content at launch than Guild Wars Prophecies and Guild Wars Factions had put together.

The exception to this is SPvP. The structured PvP is this game is clearly more limited than the structured PvP in Guild Wars 1. But in PvE, this game has far more content. If you take the game pre Fractals, it had more content than Guild Wars 1 at this point in time…and we’re talking far more, not just a little.

Who, besides you, is talking of content numbers?. My post was and is about a few features that should be in this game by now. Particle control being an issue since beta in this game, more than any other MMO I have played and exacerbated by the reactive combat mechanics.

You are talking numbers. I’m talking features. At this point in time, which game had guild halls and which does not for one example. Which game had an entirely new story added that was not short term and time gated? And that is just comparing “year old” GW and GW2.

Everquest 2, at one year, had 2 adventure pack expansions and a full expansion, and a full expansion added every year, roughly, since launch. (and seriously, you do not want to compare “amount of content” between the two at one year.)

By this time we should be seeing quality of gameplay features added that don’t link to content, class, LS, or anything else but enjoyment of the game. Particle control would be one, Configurable UI, another, Guild halls? Guild management? Features that this game needs regardless of what other games have, or have not. Features that would have a lasting impact for all, as compared to Crazy Poison Ivy jumping out of bushes and going “bwaa haa haa”

Oh yes, I remember loads of things, especially for PvE. Chief among them? Ursan Blessing. Jesus, what a nightmare THAT was.

For those unfamilar with it, it was pretty much this: Imagine a skill in GW2 that could be used by every class that had a set skillbar that was the same for everyone. That’s pretty much what Ursan did in GW1, it completely gutted class diversity.

At this point it was pretty much the tip of the iceberg, too: PvP balance was borked, the added vertical progression to PvE was shallow and grindy, heroes didn’t help the fact that finding people to play with was a mess – they made a LOT of strange decisions, and instead of fixing problems they ignored them and moved further away from them, creating whole new problems.

The most true thing I’ve ever heard spoken for GW1 is this: “The problem with talking about what made it great is it didn’t last long”. It had a horde of untapped potential but it was neglected and diminished. And I feel that GW2 has been going down the same path.

Vayne.8563:

holodoc.5748:

Vayne.8563:

It’s not just about technology though. It’s about time/energy/money too. Simply put, this game launched with more quests (dynamic events) than all the quests from all Guild Wars games put together. They came out with Guild Wars Prophecies and it had well under 300 quests. This game has 300 hearts, and 1500 dynamic events.

Even if the numbers are correct (which I personally doubt after spending so much time in PvE) it doesn’t change the fact that all the dynamic events and renown hearts are nothing else than simply baby-sitting the locals. There is nothing “renown” about GW2 hearts because Joe will forget about you feeding his cows the moment you receive your reward. In GW1 quests actually felt like you are making a difference because instances offered a way of changing your environment according to your progression (i.e. if you complete the battle for Lion’s Arch you’ll immediately see a reduced number of White Mantle patrols etc.) You were not stuck in one zone until you reach 100% completion unlike GW1 where constant rezoning actually prevented people from getting bored.

In the end going all philosophical about GW1 vs GW2 is pointless. Why? Well, I spent countless hours discussing about that with my friends which I know from GW1. Most of them have stopped playing GW2 a long time ago but it was interesting to see that our discussion led us to a very interesting conclusion – GW1 and GW2 are simply not aimed for the same audience.

GW1 was essentially a heavy RPG story-driven experience which offered people a unique chance to experience all the fine aspects of the game together. It didn’t bother too much to incorporate any of the MMO “features” and “standards” which made it even more immersive for the RPG fans. A mature, dark and well written game which you can experience with your friends all over again in so many different ways. What’s not to like about that?

GW2 eventually became something that a lot of GW1 fans, myself included, didn’t want it to become – an MMO. Switching focus from a “multiplayer RPG game” to an MMO also meant a lot of compromises. Too much as far as some people are concerned. Content quality and quantity suddenly had to switch places because unlike RPG folks which don’t mind waiting for new quality content an MMO requires of you to keep people occupied with stuff to do or they’ll simply leave the game (a bad idea if your business model depends on micro-transactions). That doesn’t necessarily need to be a bad thing simply not something that doesn’t fit well with some of the GW1 folks.

The numbers are taken from Guild Wars 2 and Guild Wars 1 press releases.

This is the wiki page for Guild Wars: Prophecies…you’ll note it had 205 quests…most of which weren’t repeatable at all. And we know it had 25 missions

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_Prophecies

We know there are 301 hearts in Guild Wars 2, because it says so on the map screen. It was said by Anet numerous times that there are over 1500 dynamic events in the game. I can find a quote if you insist.

Hearts were not supposed to replace quests and aren’t really there to be compared to quests. Hearts were placed in the game very late in the piece, in order to get people to stay for a bit in areas where dynamic events spawn. The term “renown”, well yes, you get known to the heart person you helped, which is why you can then use them as merchants and get things from them.

There are 130 people in my guild and more than half of them played Guild Wars 1. Most of them enjoy Guild Wars 2. In fact most of them are here since launch.

Press releases are usually just PR stunts with the sole purpose of impressing people so excuse me for saying that I don’t trust them. I will be convinced only if someone makes a comprehensive list of all the dynamic events in the game and counts them. Until then from my personal experience while playing PvE in GW2 it feels like there are no more than 400-500 dynamic events accross the whole map.

But even so if I had to choose between 250 thoughtfully written and executed quests and 1500 “rinse and repeat” baby sitting events with no deeper meaning than just filling in time I’ll choose the first option anytime. In GW1 every quest had a backstory, every quest giver cared to explain in details his/her motivations and expand the lore. In GW2 everything is “on sight” and hardly enough to make you wonder why are you doing whatever you are doing.

Regards the number of DE.. some are a bit “fudged”. A lot of what I consider to be singular events are actually several rolled up in a package.

Simple example.. Maw. Kill Grawl=DE. Escort=DE. Destroy Idol=DE. Kill Portals =DE. Kill veteran Shaman =DE. Kill Boss Shaman = DE. That is 6 DE in one “event” judging from the completion messages.

There are a lot of these.

Smith.1826:

Oh yes, I remember loads of things, especially for PvE. Chief among them? Ursan Blessing. Jesus, what a nightmare THAT was.

For those unfamilar with it, it was pretty much this: Imagine a skill in GW2 that could be used by every class that had a set skillbar that was the same for everyone. That’s pretty much what Ursan did in GW1, it completely gutted class diversity.

At this point it was pretty much the tip of the iceberg, too: PvP balance was borked, the added vertical progression to PvE was shallow and grindy, heroes didn’t help the fact that finding people to play with was a mess – they made a LOT of strange decisions, and instead of fixing problems they ignored them and moved further away from them, creating whole new problems.

The most true thing I’ve ever heard spoken for GW1 is this: “The problem with talking about what made it great is it didn’t last long”. It had a horde of untapped potential but it was neglected and diminished. And I feel that GW2 has been going down the same path.

And then Ursan Blessing got rightfully nerfed to the Stone Age. What was your point?

Finding help? Yesterday on FA Claw of Jormag failed 3 times in a row. Scarlet invasion failed. The “help” was all stampeding around Kessix after temporary carrots.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Smith.1826:

Oh yes, I remember loads of things, especially for PvE. Chief among them? Ursan Blessing. Jesus, what a nightmare THAT was.

For those unfamilar with it, it was pretty much this: Imagine a skill in GW2 that could be used by every class that had a set skillbar that was the same for everyone. That’s pretty much what Ursan did in GW1, it completely gutted class diversity.

At this point it was pretty much the tip of the iceberg, too: PvP balance was borked, the added vertical progression to PvE was shallow and grindy, heroes didn’t help the fact that finding people to play with was a mess – they made a LOT of strange decisions, and instead of fixing problems they ignored them and moved further away from them, creating whole new problems.

The most true thing I’ve ever heard spoken for GW1 is this: “The problem with talking about what made it great is it didn’t last long”. It had a horde of untapped potential but it was neglected and diminished. And I feel that GW2 has been going down the same path.

And then Ursan Blessing got rightfully nerfed to the Stone Age. What was your point?

My point was with the rest of my post: GW1 made a lot of mistakes, but I still thought it was far better game with far more potential, something I was hoping would be untapped in GW2. That’s not the case.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Who, besides you, is talking of content numbers?. My post was and is about a few features that should be in this game by now. Particle control being an issue since beta in this game, more than any other MMO I have played and exacerbated by the reactive combat mechanics.

You are talking numbers. I’m talking features. At this point in time, which game had guild halls and which does not for one example. Which game had an entirely new story added that was not short term and time gated? And that is just comparing “year old” GW and GW2.

Everquest 2, at one year, had 2 adventure pack expansions and a full expansion, and a full expansion added every year, roughly, since launch. (and seriously, you do not want to compare “amount of content” between the two at one year.)

By this time we should be seeing quality of gameplay features added that don’t link to content, class, LS, or anything else but enjoyment of the game. Particle control would be one, Configurable UI, another, Guild halls? Guild management? Features that this game needs regardless of what other games have, or have not. Features that would have a lasting impact for all, as compared to Crazy Poison Ivy jumping out of bushes and going “bwaa haa haa”

Ah, you’re talking about features. My bad completely. Stuff like an auction house, an account wallet, a format of PvP like WvW, a personal story, an actual LFG tool, multiple races to play. Those are all features too. And then there’s stuff like overflow servers and guesting (something most MMOs don’t have). For that matter crafting is a feature that Guild Wars 2 has that Guild Wars 1 doesn’t.

Because there’s no Guild vs Guild in this game (the main feature guild halls were used for in Guild Wars 1), the work that would have went into that went instead into WvW, which is another feature. You may not like it, but I think WvW is better on the whole than most of the PvP available in Guild Wars 1.

In other words you’ve mentioned a couple of things you’d like to see in the game (fair enough by all counts), while ignoring the features that are already in the game as if they’re not already there.

If you gave me a choice of say a marketplace or a guild hall, there would be no contest. Or a mail system, which also didn’t exist in Guild Wars 1. Even Guild missions didn’t exist in Guild Wars 1.

Do I think the guild options need more work? Sure. I do. 100% true. I agree that it needs more work. Do I agree that guild halls, once you removed GvG from them, is a rush priority that the game couldn’t have launched without? That I don’t believe.

There are features lacking in this game. There are also features present in this game that are still absent from Guild Wars 1 to this day, including a bank tab specifically for miniatures.

There can always be more features and more features when they come will indeed be welcome. But I don’t think this game as substantially less features than most other games out for a similar period of time…that’s all I’m saying.