Guild Wars 2

zenleto.6179:

… I gotta wear shades (not quite right but I couldn’t help myself).

:)

This is more appropriate

I liked most of the stuff in this update. Besides the one big thing that they did wrong…. megaservers. Sure they made the trait system wonky for low levels, and I feel bad for them, but if you really want you can just buy the traits instead (stupid gold sink, but liveable).

The megaserver, on the other hand is a disaster, and seriously has me not willing to spend another dollar on this game until they fix it. Sure I’ll still play, although I have noticed I’m playing less, but I’m voting with my wallet against this awful megaserver change. Why did they need to destroy old communities for those of us that were happy in order to create their new ones? If it really wasn’t about money saving, then why not let those of us who want to play on our old server do that, and give you the option to join the megaserver if you want to. Saves old communities, and lets people have the MS if they want it.

The very least they could do is leave the cities out of it. Sure that means I wouldn’t do open world content anymore, but at least I could still be in my city. As it is I hide in WvW most of the time, and actually use that to enter pvp matches. Only PvE thing I’m ever going to do now is dungeons, and even that is a pain since I have to load a million times in order to get to one.

jweez.7214:

But I don’t see the future as bright. I just see it as stagnant.

Yea. After over a year of talks about mythical “big things they’re working on in background” (don’t tell me it was wardrobe and megaserver) it’s safe to say the game is in stagnation. And that was the main concern back then, when they’ve announced the “no expansion plans” and focus on LS. Even scavenger hunt is nowhere on the horizon and it’s been a year. Priorities, priorities — they’ve been kittened up since day one. But, HEY! We have now a portfolio of festivals, like upcoming dragon bash! Isn’t it YAY?! Ppl can’t wait, right? Right?!

It doesn’t bode well that they haven’t announced any plans for the future yet.

same exact content from 2 years ago.. endless amount of time wasted in temporary content… this patch was nice but there is nothing new.. other than a few skills that i dont even use.. or care the wardrobe is just a new tool.. to use the same content.. the new skins are made ups from old content.. same dungeon.. same maps.. same items , same events cya

I don’t see a bright future. There isn’t an MMO out there willing to buck the LCD pandering that has infected the Genre since WoW launching except possibly EVE.

GW1 bucked the trend and they chose to let it die. It lingers on still however, and I feel only because of uniqueness. I will never understand them not seeing the lesson of GW1 still surviving on minimum automated life support. Instead of integrating more GW1 philosophy and vision, they tossed it. I’ll add that they seem to have tossed a very loyal customer base as well.

All I see is this game devolving and self destructing for me, with no replacement on the horizon.

I’m not saying GW2 will die. WoW is mediocre and is far from dying. I’m just stating that there is no shortage of aging, LCD, mediocre MMOs. I had hopes that GW2 would not join their ranks, but.. oh well.

Sekhmet.6153:

Nage.1520:

Sekhmet.6153:

TheGaryTh.1649:

Flytrap.8075:

My main problem with GW2 is the lack of content.

It’s been a year and a half since release and we’re essentially playing the exact same game.

Does LS not count as content? Sure it’s only temporary, however I found that the LS updates every 2 weeks seemed like more content overall, compared with any other mmos. Also what about Teqautl, Triple Wurm, EOTM, and pvp revamp? Pretty sure these are fairly large bits of content added, on top of LS.

Can you play them now? Can a new player play them? Is it a selling point to get a friend of yours to play it now?

Since the answer is no, I wouldn’t count LS as content that counts, really. Which is why a lot of players were against the idea of a LS in the first place because it is a lot of time and effort from the devs for something that players cannot play in the future, which is a waste.

Compared to other MMO’s, it isn’t that great because at least with expansion packs, the 30 bucks still get you more new zones than every LS update, but usually with a lot of other things attached to it.

Not a fan of LS at all. Sure it can be a fun way to break the mundane every few weeks, but their time would have been better spent giving us new zones, skins and possibly dungeons every few months. Imagine if, in the current state of the game, instead of the Lion’s Arch destruction and Scarlett angle, they just had 4 or 5 new explorable zones, a new dungeon and loads of new rare skins?

You wouldn’t just have those available to play, but then you’d have the excitement of wondering what their next new update would be that you can explore for the next few months, instead of a LS that may only give you something new for 2 weeks.

I can play the new fractals now. I can do the new jumping puzzles now. I can play the new path of TA now. I can play the redesigned AC now. I can play the new Tequatl and Wurm now (though only at certain times). I can certainly play Edge of the Mists now. I can play the new PvP maps now. I can go to Southsun Island, and do the Karka Queen now.

For a game without an expansion we’ve had decent content updates, but the whole idea of this feature pack is laying the ground to make the core game better, so they can make real updates.

I’m 100% sure we’re getting at least one (and probably more) new zones in season two. The only thing holding it up is the Chinese release.

And I would counter the idea of only one or two zones after another year would mean that in 3 years GW2 would have added:

Fractals of the mists, a few jumping puzzles, 3 zones (southsun and the new ones that will be added), one new dungeon path in Twilight Arbor, Ascended armor and a few skins that were gem store only?

Obviously there could be much more in store than just a zone or two, but it just shows that after 2-3 years, an MMO should really be adding some substantial things so that gamers aren’t still doing the same things they’ve been playing for more than a few years. At least thats my view. After year 1, I’m understanding. After year 2, I’m a bit disappointed but I at least could hope they’ll change course. If after year 3, its more of the same but with just a few more zones, then I’d have to find something else to spend my time on.

It would be nice if instead of constant LS updates that get washed after weeks, they’d wait and do it every 3-4 months and release a couple of zones, skins and a dungeon that are all permanent.

No one said there wouldn’t be an expansion. The zones would hold us over until there is one. I’m pretty sure they’re working on one, since NCsoft talked about one.

But the time to release an expansion is when both the Chinese and the US can buy it. Which would probably be next year…not this year.

In the mean time we’ll have the living story again, with new zones to keep us busy until then.

I’m always amazed at how depressed the forum community is about their game. In every mmo, it’s always like this. Everyone loves the amazing game except for the forum community. It’s honestly sad.

MightyMicah.7451:

I’m always amazed at how depressed the forum community is about their game. In every mmo, it’s always like this. Everyone loves the amazing game except for the forum community. It’s honestly sad.

I’d be more inclined to agree with you if the criticisms being offered by the haters weren’t extremely accurate.

Flytrap.8075:

MightyMicah.7451:

I’m always amazed at how depressed the forum community is about their game. In every mmo, it’s always like this. Everyone loves the amazing game except for the forum community. It’s honestly sad.

I’d be more inclined to agree with you if the criticisms being offered by the haters weren’t extremely accurate.

Then I guess you can agree with him cause you yourself gave negative feedback that is far from correct. You stated “It’s been a year and a half since release and we’re essentially playing the exact same game.”

Truth is we got new PvP Maps, new WvW Map, new PvE maps, several new mini games, several new dynamic events, 3 zones (including 1 that didnt exist at launch) changed dramatically, We got a whole game within the game, we got 2 new instanced towns, fractals, guild missions, We got content that happens at different intervals like holiday events, Queens gauntlet and Labyrinthine Cliffs. Essentially except for 1 or max 2 exceptions we had new permanent stuff added to the game month after month.

Bottom line is I am afraid even just focusing on your comment alone, extremely accurate is definitely not the right adjective to describe it I am afraid.

Something funny that I came across today that proves to a degree MightyMicah point. On reddit today there was a post pointing out that polygon re-reviewed Gw2 and based on what changed since launch they decided to upgrade their score from 8.5 to 9 out of 10.

Galen Grey.4709:

Then I guess you can agree with him cause you yourself gave negative feedback that is far from correct. You stated “It’s been a year and a half since release and we’re essentially playing the exact same game.”

Truth is we got new PvP Maps, new WvW Map, new PvE maps, several new mini games, several new dynamic events, 3 zones (including 1 that didnt exist at launch) changed dramatically, We got a whole game within the game, we got 2 new instanced towns, fractals, guild missions, We got content that happens at different intervals like holiday events, Queens gauntlet and Labyrinthine Cliffs. Essentially except for 1 or max 2 exceptions we had new permanent stuff added to the game month after month.

Bottom line is I am afraid even just focusing on your comment alone, extremely accurate is definitely not the right adjective to describe it I am afraid.

Something funny that I came across today that proves to a degree MightyMicah point. On reddit today there was a post pointing out that polygon re-reviewed Gw2 and based on what changed since launch they decided to upgrade their score from 8.5 to 9 out of 10.

“Ermahgerd now we have account bound dyes and like we totally didn’t have them before”.

Nevermind that it’s been a year since the last sPvP map was released, the fact that WvW has become a stagnant game-mode and that EotM did not alleviate said issues, that the vast majority of the Living Story content was temporary, PvE focused, and now gone forever, or that nothing that adds meaningful depth or variance to how this game is played has been implemented since release.

I want this game to succeed and I’d love to have ANet prove me wrong, but I don’t see it happening anytime soon.

TheGaryTh.1649:

Flytrap.8075:

My main problem with GW2 is the lack of content.

It’s been a year and a half since release and we’re essentially playing the exact same game.

Does LS not count as content? Sure it’s only temporary, however I found that the LS updates every 2 weeks seemed like more content overall, compared with any other mmos. Also what about Teqautl, Triple Wurm, EOTM, and pvp revamp? Pretty sure these are fairly large bits of content added, on top of LS.

Hi. I took a several-month hiatus from the game. Please show me where the LS content is.

Content that gets flushed when it’s done is the same as content that never existed, from my perspective. The long-term impact is that a city I liked to RP in isn’t really a city any more, it’s a map they spent a tremendous amount of time and effort making look different, then scrubbed all functionality from so no one wants to spend any time there. Whee.

Not that I can RP anyway. Thanks, Megaserver Server-Merge to Overflow!

The future looks “bright” in the same manner as a blinding void.

Flytrap.8075:

Galen Grey.4709:

Then I guess you can agree with him cause you yourself gave negative feedback that is far from correct. You stated “It’s been a year and a half since release and we’re essentially playing the exact same game.”

Truth is we got new PvP Maps, new WvW Map, new PvE maps, several new mini games, several new dynamic events, 3 zones (including 1 that didnt exist at launch) changed dramatically, We got a whole game within the game, we got 2 new instanced towns, fractals, guild missions, We got content that happens at different intervals like holiday events, Queens gauntlet and Labyrinthine Cliffs. Essentially except for 1 or max 2 exceptions we had new permanent stuff added to the game month after month.

Bottom line is I am afraid even just focusing on your comment alone, extremely accurate is definitely not the right adjective to describe it I am afraid.

Something funny that I came across today that proves to a degree MightyMicah point. On reddit today there was a post pointing out that polygon re-reviewed Gw2 and based on what changed since launch they decided to upgrade their score from 8.5 to 9 out of 10.

“Ermahgerd now we have account bound dyes and like we totally didn’t have them before”.

Thats what I am talking about. be honest with yourself, do you really feel your comment is objectively reflective of the changes we had since launch?

Even if we take the actual update that included the account bound dyes. The patch notes consisted of a massive 1500+ lines (including titles) listing 1 item and making it sound like its nothing tries to trivialize a release that actually delivered a lot of things the community has been asking for which also of course includes Account bound dyes which I hope I dont need to remind you has been something Anet has been critisized about since before the release

Galen Grey.4709:

Thats what I am talking about. be honest with yourself, do you really feel your comment is objectively reflective of the changes we had since launch?

Even if we take the actual update that included the account bound dyes. The patch notes consisted of a massive 1500+ lines (including titles) listing 1 item and making it sound like its nothing tries to trivialize a release that actually delivered a lot of things the community has been asking for which also of course includes Account bound dyes which I hope I dont need to remind you has been something Anet has been critisized about since before the release

Account bound dyes should have been in this game to begin with.

Now unidentified dyes won’t drop in the open-world and are tied to the Gem Store; I honestly feel bad for anyone that picks up this game in the future when the flow of dyes on the Trading Post reaches a bottleneck.

I’m not saying that the Feature Patch was awful; I’m a fan of the wardrobe changes. However, what did it really add to the game? I already have all the skins that I want and I fooled around with my characters for 30 minutes and now they’re all Fashion Warred out. It was definitely a cool addition, but it didn’t add any real substance to the game.

Call me when they implement new utilites/elites/weapon sets and then we can talk.

Galen Grey.4709:

Flytrap.8075:

MightyMicah.7451:

I’m always amazed at how depressed the forum community is about their game. In every mmo, it’s always like this. Everyone loves the amazing game except for the forum community. It’s honestly sad.

I’d be more inclined to agree with you if the criticisms being offered by the haters weren’t extremely accurate.

Then I guess you can agree with him cause you yourself gave negative feedback that is far from correct. You stated “It’s been a year and a half since release and we’re essentially playing the exact same game.”

Truth is we got new PvP Maps, new WvW Map, new PvE maps, several new mini games, several new dynamic events, 3 zones (including 1 that didnt exist at launch) changed dramatically, We got a whole game within the game, we got 2 new instanced towns, fractals, guild missions, We got content that happens at different intervals like holiday events, Queens gauntlet and Labyrinthine Cliffs. Essentially except for 1 or max 2 exceptions we had new permanent stuff added to the game month after month.

Bottom line is I am afraid even just focusing on your comment alone, extremely accurate is definitely not the right adjective to describe it I am afraid.

Something funny that I came across today that proves to a degree MightyMicah point. On reddit today there was a post pointing out that polygon re-reviewed Gw2 and based on what changed since launch they decided to upgrade their score from 8.5 to 9 out of 10.

Point of view. I see very little substantive permanent content addition. In the same time frame EQ2 had released 2 full expansions as well as temp events and a content pack. GW1 had released far more in the same time frame as well.

I don’t see reworked old content as being on a par with new. My POV. I don’t see temp content as being on par with permanent. My POV. I do not see ANETs episodic temporary approach as superior to, or a replacement of expansions.

You aren’t proving anything but the fact that two consumers can look at the same thing and see polar opposites.

Other things are more black and white. Fact, pre update, we had individual servers and server communities. Post update, those servers are essentially gone.. and with them gone Server community is threatened. Now.. call someone upset by that “a hater” all you want… it does not make it an invalid issue.

And here is a concept for you to grapple with. I like this game. I still play this game. In the whole, it is a decent game. Liking a game, or anything, does not require unthinking rubber stamp approval or absolute denial of issues important to others.

If I HATED this game I wouldn’t be here. I’d be sitting in Freeport lmao over this mega merge fiasco to an appreciative audience.

Flytrap.8075:

Galen Grey.4709:

Thats what I am talking about. be honest with yourself, do you really feel your comment is objectively reflective of the changes we had since launch?

Even if we take the actual update that included the account bound dyes. The patch notes consisted of a massive 1500+ lines (including titles) listing 1 item and making it sound like its nothing tries to trivialize a release that actually delivered a lot of things the community has been asking for which also of course includes Account bound dyes which I hope I dont need to remind you has been something Anet has been critisized about since before the release

Account bound dyes should have been in this game to begin with.

Now unidentified dyes won’t drop in the open-world and are tied to the Gem Store; I honestly feel bad for anyone that picks up this game in the future when the flow of dyes on the Trading Post reaches a bottleneck.

I’m not saying that the Feature Patch was awful; I’m a fan of the wardrobe changes. However, what did it really add to the game? I already have all the skins that I want and I fooled around with my characters for 30 minutes and now they’re all Fashion Warred out. It was definitely a cool addition, but it didn’t add any real substance to the game.

Call me when they implement new utilites/elites/weapon sets and then we can talk.

Originally dyes were planned to be account wide if you followed the game before the beta but getting them was a nightmare you could only identify 1 dye per day through a npc and they were account bound so you couldnt even trade for the dye you wanted. if you needed a specific colour you had to find it. Its quite clear by design that dyes where never meant to be something very easily available.

By making Dyes account bound a player dye requirement falls potentially by the number of alts they have. A player with 8 alts needs 8 times less dyes that ofcourse needs to be balanced out which is why now dyes no longer drop as loot. But your statement they’re now tied to cash shop is incorrect. You can get dyes through some story line missions, through the laurel vendor or through crafting.

well there is a reason while it was specifically called a feature pack and not a content pack. That being said unifying rewards between PvE and sPvP helped in encouraging people to move around. The mega server helps making mid-level maps more attractive especially to people who find soloing a bit hard. So while yes, the feature pack didnt provide new playable content (it wasnt meant to) it did make some content more accessible to some people.

Galen Grey.4709:

So while yes, the feature pack didnt provide new playable content (it wasnt meant to) it did make some content more accessible to some people.

The whole point of my argument is that new content is exactly what this game needs.

Content, not Scarlet 2.0.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Point of view. I see very little substantive permanent content addition. In the same time frame EQ2 had released 2 full expansions as well as temp events and a content pack. GW1 had released far more in the same time frame as well.

I don’t see reworked old content as being on a par with new. My POV. I don’t see temp content as being on par with permanent. My POV. I do not see ANETs episodic temporary approach as superior to, or a replacement of expansions.

You aren’t proving anything but the fact that two consumers can look at the same thing and see polar opposites.

Other things are more black and white. Fact, pre update, we had individual servers and server communities. Post update, those servers are essentially gone.. and with them gone Server community is threatened. Now.. call someone upset by that “a hater” all you want… it does not make it an invalid issue.

And here is a concept for you to grapple with. I like this game. I still play this game. In the whole, it is a decent game. Liking a game, or anything, does not require unthinking rubber stamp approval or absolute denial of issues important to others.

If I HATED this game I wouldn’t be here. I’d be sitting in Freeport lmao over this mega merge fiasco to an appreciative audience.

For starters a small clarification, I didnt call anyone a hater, that wasnt me… I dont agree with such terminology.

and thats exactly the point MightyMicah tried to make. Everything has 2 POVs to it and official forums seem to attract the more negative one while other avenues outside of the official forums seem to generally be more positive.

I am sorry but I dont see the server as black and white or as factual as you seem to. For starters the mega server still tries to priorities members of the same server together and unless a map is so popular that its often full most likely there will not really be any difference. If that map is often full it will not make a difference because before you’d still likely find yourself in an overflow. Then there is the question of how much of a server community there was to begin with outside of WvW (which remains unchanged).

The only place where I personally see an impact is on the roleplaying community which is unfortunate but outside of that do you have any specific examples of how this effects community negatively?

Flytrap.8075:

Galen Grey.4709:

So while yes, the feature pack didnt provide new playable content (it wasnt meant to) it did make some content more accessible to some people.

The whole point of my argument is that new content is exactly what this game needs.

Content, not Scarlet 2.0.

cause scarlet 1.0 wasnt content right?

Galen Grey.4709:

cause scarlet 1.0 wasnt content right?

I’m glad we’re finally on the same page.

To elaborate, the first Living Story season had some good aspects to it; for instance, I thought the Zephyr Sanctum update and the Queen’s Jubilee boss fights were really cool additions and I hoped that the subsequent patches would be similar in nature.

However, what we ended up with afterwards was a flood of PvE zerg content that I can’t return to even if I wanted to. What ANet sells as “content” is nothing more than a temporary world event tied to Gemstore Updates and a laundry list of tedious, dry achievements.

The Living Story was a good idea that had potential, but the execution was way off.

gianz.2513:

can you please be more specific. can you please enlighten me and outweigh specifically these negatives and positives so i can see what you are saying.

OK, but bear in mind that “negative and positive” are subjective. That means what I consider a negative others may see as neutral or positive. In the interest of brevity I’ll only address a few issues, which will hopefully illustrate my point.

Exploration Playstyle: The game launched with many zones, and in those zones were both “official” objectives (the ones that counted for world completion) and “easter eggs,” in the form of nooks and crannies that had interesting stuff. It’s been 20 months since launch, which generally means that “explorer” players have explored those zones many times. What’s been added for explorers? One permanent zone, with no “official” objectives and few if any “easter eggs.” One small, temporary zone, which had ~45 sun crystals to reach and which is not currently available. The negative for explorers is that the launch content is stale and little to nothing has been added. If you’re not an explorer, it’s at worst a neutral.

Endgame Pursuits: The game launched with the promise of cosmetic endgame. Many looks existed, however, few of these skins were tied to endgame pursuits. Outside of the dungeon looks, the level 80 crafted, the T3 cultural and the one karma set, most everything else was a pre-80 look. The only looks that have been added are: some weapons available as drops, the back-piece of the week, and store armor/weapons. This is not enough to fuel an ongoing cosmetic endgame. There is little to no prestige attached to any look, outside of (maybe) Arah armor back before path-selling. Even legendary weapons don’t convey the prestige they could because they can be bought. Cosmetics were being asked to fuel endgame and to serve as a source of revenue. Essentially, the cosmetic endgame has been replaced with a stat chase. Throwing some numbers on gear is a lot less expensive than making new looks – especially if you don’t bother planning it out carefully — which is evident with Ascended gear. Also, while the new wardrobe helps to some degree, in that it encourages collecting looks across your account, it still does not make collecting looks on one character any more desirable. These things are negatives for some people, not for others.

Dungeons: Since launch, Fractals has been added; they’ve revised three AC paths, nerfed AC story and substituted TA-Aether for a launch path. While fractals is not “nothing,” it’s not a lot, either. Dungeons are also cost-intensive and have a limited pay-off. Absent rewards, their longevity is poor. It’s a lot more cost-effective to produce content that will be used by players en masse, especially if you are placing it in maps that already exist, or if the detail in any new maps is less than was found in the launch zones. Again, positive for some, negative for others.

Now, if you look at these issues and analyze them, you begin to see a pattern. I don’t blame any company for wanting to get the most return for their investment. However, what this has meant for GW2 over the last 20 months is that things I consider negatives are being emphasized and things I would consider positives are being ignored. Thus, while the future may or may not be bright for GW2 as a business tool, the future for me as a consumer of the service looks dim.

Flytrap.8075:

Galen Grey.4709:

cause scarlet 1.0 wasnt content right?

I’m glad we’re finally on the same page.

To elaborate, the first Living Story season had some good aspects to it; for instance, I thought the Zephyr Sanctum update and the Queen’s Jubilee boss fights were really cool additions and I hoped that the subsequent patches would be similar in nature.

However, what we ended up with afterwards was a flood of PvE zerg content that I can’t return to even if I wanted to. What ANet sells as “content” is nothing more than a temporary world event tied to Gemstore Updates and a laundry list of tedious, dry achievements.

The Living Story was a good idea that had potential, but the execution was way off.

Thing is it really wasn’t. (well except for the knight’s boss fights in the last update to be fair that was designed to be zergy content) Every content thats considered zergy, the clockwork invasions, escape from LA, the marionette etc… was actually specifically designed to fail if zerged.

Not just that but content was zergy as much as you wanted it to be zergy in each case there was always (at least on my server but cant imagine we’re that special) small groups around you could join. Yes it was a let down that very few would heed the call in map chat to spread out and in the end we’d fail the event but seriously what can Arenanet really do about it? Remove reward drops off mobs? The event would be ignored. Put a really really profitable reward if you win the event? you’d inflate the economy. Introduce mob tagging ? you’d kill what makes gw2 great! Everyone might complain about zerging but there is no doubt most people want zerging because they make a conscious decision to zerg. Literally every time you take part in one of these events you see people in map literally begging for people to spread out, do you really think cause that content is designed to be zergy or because its actually specifically designed to be anti-zerging?

The you cant return to is also not entirely true, many living story instances left some content behind. From new dynamic events in kessexs hills or southsun. New jumping puzzle in Gendarean fields. The new fractals based on the dungeons we had in the LS. The world events like Toxic alliance raid or the clock work invasions etc.. Some events even left behind new areas like cragstead or the hatchery. Other LS instances changed literally maps.

Now I get it, you dont like most of this content and thats fine. Some love how the world changes as the story progresses others couldnt care less. Fine. But I am sorry you may believe that criticism such as "nothing more than a temporary world event tied to Gemstore Updates and a laundry list of tedious, dry achievements. " is far from being extremely accurate like you seem to believe. For starter no content update was actually tied to the gemstore in anyway. Sure gemstore items might be themed to the event at hand but how are they tied? you could do the event while ignoring the gemstore and you can ‘enjoy’ the gemstore while ignoring the event. Now tie there. Temporary world events isnt accurate either because like I said nearly all of them left something behind. laundry list of dry achievements … yes I can accept that though most of them where entirely optional. Didnt take much more then just playing the content a couple of times to get to the rewards still if you didnt enjoy the content itself that in itself might still be boring and dry so you have a point there.

Now dont get me wrong you’re entitled to your opinion in its entirety I am telling you all this for one simple reason. With inaccurate sweeping statements such as the game has remained unchanged since launch content wise you risk of being dismissed by those who know this isnt the case. my suggestion is focus objectively on what you specifically dont like, say how rewards were focused on achievements for example. That way you can engage both players who like the content and dislike the content which surely is a road thats more likely to lead to positive change.

IndigoSundown.5419:

OK, but bear in mind that “negative and positive” are subjective. That means what I consider a negative others may see as neutral or positive. In the interest of brevity I’ll only address a few issues, which will hopefully illustrate my point.

Exploration Playstyle: The game launched with many zones, and in those zones were both “official” objectives (the ones that counted for world completion) and “easter eggs,” in the form of nooks and crannies that had interesting stuff. It’s been 20 months since launch, which generally means that “explorer” players have explored those zones many times. What’s been added for explorers? One permanent zone, with no “official” objectives and few if any “easter eggs.” One small, temporary zone, which had ~45 sun crystals to reach and which is not currently available. The negative for explorers is that the launch content is stale and little to nothing has been added. If you’re not an explorer, it’s at worst a neutral.

Endgame Pursuits: The game launched with the promise of cosmetic endgame. Many looks existed, however, few of these skins were tied to endgame pursuits. Outside of the dungeon looks, the level 80 crafted, the T3 cultural and the one karma set, most everything else was a pre-80 look. The only looks that have been added are: some weapons available as drops, the back-piece of the week, and store armor/weapons. This is not enough to fuel an ongoing cosmetic endgame. There is little to no prestige attached to any look, outside of (maybe) Arah armor back before path-selling. Even legendary weapons don’t convey the prestige they could because they can be bought. Cosmetics were being asked to fuel endgame and to serve as a source of revenue. Essentially, the cosmetic endgame has been replaced with a stat chase. Throwing some numbers on gear is a lot less expensive than making new looks – especially if you don’t bother planning it out carefully — which is evident with Ascended gear. Also, while the new wardrobe helps to some degree, in that it encourages collecting looks across your account, it still does not make collecting looks on one character any more desirable. These things are negatives for some people, not for others.

Dungeons: Since launch, Fractals has been added; they’ve revised three AC paths, nerfed AC story and substituted TA-Aether for a launch path. While fractals is not “nothing,” it’s not a lot, either. Dungeons are also cost-intensive and have a limited pay-off. Absent rewards, their longevity is poor. It’s a lot more cost-effective to produce content that will be used by players en masse, especially if you are placing it in maps that already exist, or if the detail in any new maps is less than was found in the launch zones. Again, positive for some, negative for others.

Now, if you look at these issues and analyze them, you begin to see a pattern. I don’t blame any company for wanting to get the most return for their investment. However, what this has meant for GW2 over the last 20 months is that things I consider negatives are being emphasized and things I would consider positives are being ignored. Thus, while the future may or may not be bright for GW2 as a business tool, the future for me as a consumer of the service looks dim.

At least someone gets it.

Flytrap.8075:

…..
I’d be more inclined to agree with you if the criticisms being offered by the haters weren’t extremely somewhat accurate.

Changed it so I could agree with it in some respect. Exaggerating just makes the entire statement laughable rather than thought provoking.

They should make the entire game like LS.

GW2, play for two years and then it’s gone!

(that counts as content, right?)

Just realized most of my life has been temporary content. What have I been living for?

Starlessknight.2316:

Just realized most of my life has been temporary content. What have I been living for?

What does comparing your life to a game say about you? “Temporary Content” is mandatory in your life. If you had a choice, you’d relive places and times you really enjoyed. That’s what games are for. The Living Story was a bad concept with a worse execution, and the game is paying for it now.

I want to see more feature patchs and permanent content packs in the future.
The last patch was great. In my opinion, it was better than all other living story(temporary content) patches.

As in life I remember the things I have done and where I have been. I enjoyed every moment as it occurred and look forward to new moments that will come.

Starlessknight.2316:

As in life I remember the things I have done and where I have been. I enjoyed every moment as it occurred and look forward to new moments that will come.

You also don’t check in and out of your life. By necessity, you are forced to experience it in its entirety. That isn’t the case with Guild Wars 2 and not how most people want it to be.

Sorry, there are just not any good arguments for the LW being a good concept. You may like it for some mostly arbitrary reason, but there’s a reason you’re in the minority.

I wish the future looked bright for WvW.

After almost nine years as an active GW player, I’m afraid it’s goodbye from me. The megaserver update is what really done it for me this time, and certainly not the only reason to leave this game.

Other reasons:
• The lack of content
• The lack of rewarding content
• The lack of permanent content
• The lack of dev interaction
• Ridiculous amounts of RNG+Gold sinks
• Diminishing returns/Magic Find
• A complete zerg grind fest
• Ascended gear
• A game designed for ex-WoW players
• Lackluster major patches/updates
• Living story is rushed, poorly written, and a waste of dev time
• 2 years on and no official expansion (not even announced)
• Frequent gem store cash grabs
• Unbalanced classes

The future is not bright. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for this game. It’s been spiraling downward since day one. There’s really no heart and soul put into this game, like there had been in GW1, instead of being a niche game it’s tried it’s absolute hardest to appeal to every type of MMO player, and that’s what has failed this game. No guild halls, no GvG, no title hunting, no teamplay. Just what game did I pay for 2 years ago? Guild Wars or GenericMMO#8234?

I’ve literally forced myself to like this game, and gave it a chance to bring back the Guild Wars feel with enjoyable updates, but I think 2 years has been enough and I regret not leaving this game far, far sooner.

Turgut.4397:

After almost nine years as an active GW player, I’m afraid it’s goodbye from me. The megaserver update is what really done it for me this time, and certainly not the only reason to leave this game.

Other reasons:
• The lack of content
• The lack of rewarding content
• The lack of permanent content
• The lack of dev interaction
• Ridiculous amounts of RNG+Gold sinks
• Diminishing returns/Magic Find
• A complete zerg grind fest
• Ascended gear
• A game designed for ex-WoW players
• Lackluster major patches/updates
• Living story is rushed, poorly written, and a waste of dev time
• 2 years on and no official expansion (not even announced)
• Frequent gem store cash grabs
• Unbalanced classes

The future is not bright. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for this game. It’s been spiraling downward since day one. There’s really no heart and soul put into this game, like there had been in GW1, instead of being a niche game it’s tried it’s absolute hardest to appeal to every type of MMO player, and that’s what has failed this game. No guild halls, no GvG, no title hunting, no teamplay. Just what game did I pay for 2 years ago? Guild Wars or GenericMMO#8234?

I’ve literally forced myself to like this game, and gave it a chance to bring back the Guild Wars feel with enjoyable updates, but I think 2 years has been enough and I regret not leaving this game far, far sooner.

Man this post is right on. I can’t believe how many wrong turns this game taken since launch. It should be so much more than it is at this point. It’s been so mismanaged that it’s unreal. Even just their lack of presence on the boards since the last patch is a major indictment of how they’re handling the game.

I’m very, very cautiously optimistic that they’re slowly weeding out what obviously doesn’t work and year 2 will end up being at least somewhat better than year 1, but I wouldn’t go so far as to bet on it.

Einlanzer.1627:

Turgut.4397:

After almost nine years as an active GW player, I’m afraid it’s goodbye from me. The megaserver update is what really done it for me this time, and certainly not the only reason to leave this game.

Other reasons:
• The lack of content
• The lack of rewarding content
• The lack of permanent content
• The lack of dev interaction
• Ridiculous amounts of RNG+Gold sinks
• Diminishing returns/Magic Find
• A complete zerg grind fest
• Ascended gear
• A game designed for ex-WoW players
• Lackluster major patches/updates
• Living story is rushed, poorly written, and a waste of dev time
• 2 years on and no official expansion (not even announced)
• Frequent gem store cash grabs
• Unbalanced classes

The future is not bright. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for this game. It’s been spiraling downward since day one. There’s really no heart and soul put into this game, like there had been in GW1, instead of being a niche game it’s tried it’s absolute hardest to appeal to every type of MMO player, and that’s what has failed this game. No guild halls, no GvG, no title hunting, no teamplay. Just what game did I pay for 2 years ago? Guild Wars or GenericMMO#8234?

I’ve literally forced myself to like this game, and gave it a chance to bring back the Guild Wars feel with enjoyable updates, but I think 2 years has been enough and I regret not leaving this game far, far sooner.

Man this post is right on. I can’t believe how many wrong turns this game taken since launch. It should be so much more than it is at this point. It’s been so mismanaged that it’s unreal. Even just their lack of presence on the boards since the last patch is a major indictment of how they’re handling the game.

I’m very, very cautiously optimistic that they’re slowly weeding out what obviously doesn’t work and year 2 will end up being at least somewhat better than year 1, but I wouldn’t go so far as to bet on it.

Several of those points are crazy. Gem store “cash grabs” are how we play a subscription-quality MMO without a subscription. You never have to spend a dime. It’s like complaining about taxes while living on disability or something. So silly.

Living story was rushed at the beginning, yes, but it improved substantially as time went on. And the entire game has moments of poor writing – by and large the Living Story was solid. Especially at the end as the characters from various arcs came together, it was really impressive. It worked far better than goram mary sue Trahearne, at least.

TO THE WHOLE THREAD: ANet has said repeatedly that there’s no reason they can’t work on Living Story AND Expansion content. They haven’t announced anything because they don’t want to distract from Season 2 of the Living Story. Assuming we don’t spend four months on a month’s worth of content again (Flame and Frost, we remember you), Season 2 will wrap up in about a year, and we’ll likely have an expansion 4-6 months after. That’s right on par for an MMO’s first xpac – WoW took three years, Rift took two, and TOR took a year and a half.

And it’s worth considering that we’ve had at least an expansion’s worth of game improvements and features since launch.

Astraea.2981:

Please show me where the LS content is.

Your fault for not playing the game .

Brainstorm.1864:

Einlanzer.1627:

Turgut.4397:

After almost nine years as an active GW player, I’m afraid it’s goodbye from me. The megaserver update is what really done it for me this time, and certainly not the only reason to leave this game.

Other reasons:
• The lack of content
• The lack of rewarding content
• The lack of permanent content
• The lack of dev interaction
• Ridiculous amounts of RNG+Gold sinks
• Diminishing returns/Magic Find
• A complete zerg grind fest
• Ascended gear
• A game designed for ex-WoW players
• Lackluster major patches/updates
• Living story is rushed, poorly written, and a waste of dev time
• 2 years on and no official expansion (not even announced)
• Frequent gem store cash grabs
• Unbalanced classes

The future is not bright. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for this game. It’s been spiraling downward since day one. There’s really no heart and soul put into this game, like there had been in GW1, instead of being a niche game it’s tried it’s absolute hardest to appeal to every type of MMO player, and that’s what has failed this game. No guild halls, no GvG, no title hunting, no teamplay. Just what game did I pay for 2 years ago? Guild Wars or GenericMMO#8234?

I’ve literally forced myself to like this game, and gave it a chance to bring back the Guild Wars feel with enjoyable updates, but I think 2 years has been enough and I regret not leaving this game far, far sooner.

Man this post is right on. I can’t believe how many wrong turns this game taken since launch. It should be so much more than it is at this point. It’s been so mismanaged that it’s unreal. Even just their lack of presence on the boards since the last patch is a major indictment of how they’re handling the game.

I’m very, very cautiously optimistic that they’re slowly weeding out what obviously doesn’t work and year 2 will end up being at least somewhat better than year 1, but I wouldn’t go so far as to bet on it.

Several of those points are crazy. Gem store “cash grabs” are how we play a subscription-quality MMO without a subscription. You never have to spend a dime. It’s like complaining about taxes while living on disability or something. So silly.

Living story was rushed at the beginning, yes, but it improved substantially as time went on. And the entire game has moments of poor writing – by and large the Living Story was solid. Especially at the end as the characters from various arcs came together, it was really impressive. It worked far better than goram mary sue Trahearne, at least.

TO THE WHOLE THREAD: ANet has said repeatedly that there’s no reason they can’t work on Living Story AND Expansion content. They haven’t announced anything because they don’t want to distract from Season 2 of the Living Story. Assuming we don’t spend four months on a month’s worth of content again (Flame and Frost, we remember you), Season 2 will wrap up in about a year, and we’ll likely have an expansion 4-6 months after. That’s right on par for an MMO’s first xpac – WoW took three years, Rift took two, and TOR took a year and a half.

And it’s worth considering that we’ve had at least an expansion’s worth of game improvements and features since launch.

Well for one, 3 and a half years (which is the time frame you gave) would be an oddly long time to release an expansion for a current MMO, let alone most MMO’s that have been released in the last 15 years or so (and even then, 3 years was usually the ceiling for the time to wait on an expansion). I’m not sure a lot of players would be happy to see an expansion pushed to year 3 or 4 of GW2, when its year 2 and people are already clammoring for it harder than I have seen it.

Besides that, Anet hasn’t really said a single thing about an actual expansion at all, so for all we know, they may not really be planning one for the forseeable future. Yes, it would make sense to, but they could easily just be planning season 2 of LS and the China release and push an expansion to the back burner until 2015 rolls around and they can focus on starting it.

I’m just a bit skeptical. I would love to see an expansion even as soon as late 2014, which I know won’t happen, but it would be nice. As fun as the game has been, there just seems to be gaps in content.

stayBlind.7849:

They should make the entire game like LS.

GW2, play for two years and then it’s gone!

(that counts as content, right?)

I think people tend to miss that every MMO makes its content temporary, it has to else it will suffer from massive player fragmentation. Ironically Gw2 is the one MMO that probably has the least temporary content yet its bashed exactly for it. Most of this is totally a perception issue.

Nearly every MMO has you doing a quest just once. Sure the quest remains in the game and sure you can make an alt if you want to experience it one more time but seriously who on earth would make an alt level it for a month or so just cause you feel to repeat that specific level 70 quest?

Zones remain in game as well once you play through them but again same issue. Unless all you want is sight see replaying a particular zone involves weeks of work just to experience a couple of days of what you wanted to play.

Now why does nearly every MMO do that? the answer is player fragmentation. Gw2 doesnt take away most of the content it has from the player once they played it and in turn it suffers from this issue. Simply speaking your standard MMO only gives you a few zones and a few dungeons at a time you can play in, it does this through the use of your regular endgame. That content is still temporary cause in the next release it will become absolute and there will be no point in playing it anymore. Sure physically it remains in the game but in practice just cause its there will not make a little bit of difference to most of the players.

Brainstorm.1864:

Einlanzer.1627:

Turgut.4397:

After almost nine years as an active GW player, I’m afraid it’s goodbye from me. The megaserver update is what really done it for me this time, and certainly not the only reason to leave this game.

Other reasons:
• The lack of content
• The lack of rewarding content
• The lack of permanent content
• The lack of dev interaction
• Ridiculous amounts of RNG+Gold sinks
• Diminishing returns/Magic Find
• A complete zerg grind fest
• Ascended gear
• A game designed for ex-WoW players
• Lackluster major patches/updates
• Living story is rushed, poorly written, and a waste of dev time
• 2 years on and no official expansion (not even announced)
• Frequent gem store cash grabs
• Unbalanced classes

The future is not bright. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for this game. It’s been spiraling downward since day one. There’s really no heart and soul put into this game, like there had been in GW1, instead of being a niche game it’s tried it’s absolute hardest to appeal to every type of MMO player, and that’s what has failed this game. No guild halls, no GvG, no title hunting, no teamplay. Just what game did I pay for 2 years ago? Guild Wars or GenericMMO#8234?

I’ve literally forced myself to like this game, and gave it a chance to bring back the Guild Wars feel with enjoyable updates, but I think 2 years has been enough and I regret not leaving this game far, far sooner.

Man this post is right on. I can’t believe how many wrong turns this game taken since launch. It should be so much more than it is at this point. It’s been so mismanaged that it’s unreal. Even just their lack of presence on the boards since the last patch is a major indictment of how they’re handling the game.

I’m very, very cautiously optimistic that they’re slowly weeding out what obviously doesn’t work and year 2 will end up being at least somewhat better than year 1, but I wouldn’t go so far as to bet on it.

Several of those points are crazy. Gem store “cash grabs” are how we play a subscription-quality MMO without a subscription. You never have to spend a dime. It’s like complaining about taxes while living on disability or something. So silly.

Living story was rushed at the beginning, yes, but it improved substantially as time went on. And the entire game has moments of poor writing – by and large the Living Story was solid. Especially at the end as the characters from various arcs came together, it was really impressive. It worked far better than goram mary sue Trahearne, at least.

TO THE WHOLE THREAD: ANet has said repeatedly that there’s no reason they can’t work on Living Story AND Expansion content. They haven’t announced anything because they don’t want to distract from Season 2 of the Living Story. Assuming we don’t spend four months on a month’s worth of content again (Flame and Frost, we remember you), Season 2 will wrap up in about a year, and we’ll likely have an expansion 4-6 months after. That’s right on par for an MMO’s first xpac – WoW took three years, Rift took two, and TOR took a year and a half.

And it’s worth considering that we’ve had at least an expansion’s worth of game improvements and features since launch.

None of those points is accurate. A well designed game focuses on quality of content, which then generates its own long term cash flow naturally without breeding resentment. This game really seems to have its development directly centered around the cash shop rather than the other way around, which is incredibly transparent and gimmicky, leading to resentment.

The Living Story was a bad idea for the game with an even worse execution, regardless of what any individual person thinks of it. This is because no one wants to feel forced to play the game all the time or miss stuff. Most players are intermittent and casual, and when most of the new content is temporary, you just destroy their motivation to return from hiatuses.

We have not received anywhere near an expansion’s worth of content over the last 1.5 years, even when you include the temporary content. 1.5 new zones, a few story instances and land areas, and a handful of relatively minor feature updates is not an expansion’s worth of content.

Flytrap.8075:

It doesn’t bode well that they haven’t announced any plans for the future yet.

Oh hey everybody its the guy that can’t stand to see something positive said about a game he dislikes playing! Hi guy!!

Draknar.5748:

Oh hey everybody its the guy that can’t stand to see something positive said about a game he dislikes playing! Hi guy!!

Oh look, my post got upvoted.

Looks like I’m not alone.