Guild Wars 2

Okay so im hoping this topic will encourage some talk regarding the content GW2 has released post-launch as well as answering a question that has been on my mind for a while. Try to keep this constructive please! The more level headed we keep this thread, the more chance ANET have of taking note of it.

So it has been mentioned many, MANY times on the forums that a great number of GW2 players are disillusioned at the state of the game post-launch. Specifically mentioned has been the lack of content released. I will state now that I do not feel this is the case, having witnessed a lot of living story content both permanent and not. The issue here is that I do not have any guide to go by. I have never played another ‘AAA MMO’, instead focusing on smaller (more grindy) Korean titles.

So my question to you is this- In your personal opinion, when directly compared to other MMOs, what is GW2 doing wrong and how would you rectify this?

As I have said I cannot answer my own question. What I will say is this- from the smaller MMOs that I have played post-launch content was limited to a couple of new maps/dungeons/raids per ~6months. If GW2 were to do this players would spend a couple of weeks playing before starting to complain about wanting more content. LS, in my opinion, is better for the game as a whole.

Thereon.3495:

Okay so im hoping this topic will encourage some talk regarding the content GW2 has released post-launch as well as answering a question that has been on my mind for a while. Try to keep this constructive please! The more level headed we keep this thread, the more chance ANET have of taking note of it.

So it has been mentioned many, MANY times on the forums that a great number of GW2 players are disillusioned at the state of the game post-launch. Specifically mentioned has been the lack of content released. I will state now that I do not feel this is the case, having witnessed a lot of living story content both permanent and not. The issue here is that I do not have any guide to go by. I have never played another ‘AAA MMO’, instead focusing on smaller (more grindy) Korean titles.

So my question to you is this- In your personal opinion, when directly compared to other MMOs, what is GW2 doing wrong and how would you rectify this?

The big mistake is not expanding the game. They have focused mostly on evolution over expansion. They are refining the basic game, but they havent added much to it. Not only that, but they have no promoted plans to do so.

In a normal MMO even once they announce something big like an expansion, it brings people back, they get excited to play the new stuff, and start playing the old stuff to recconect, re experience, etc.

The living story fails in one big way.
it doesnt really bring people back. It slows hemoraging, But it doesnt re engage the customer. Perhaps this isnt just about the model, some of it is definately the execution, but to be honest, you need a special set of skills/abilities/style/management to handle serialization, and based on living story 1 they dont have that yet.

So really the big difference is by and large there is nothing new to re engae old customers.
an example of what type of things re engage the customers, look at guild wars 1, FFXI
new professions
*assassin,ritualist
*samurai, ninja, dragoon, summoner
new main plotlines
*gw1 an entire new plotline with new bosses, new enemies, new skills
*ffxi an entire new plotline bigger than the initial story, new bosses, enemies, skills
new areas
*gw1 as big a map added as the initial game release
*ffxi about double the map size
new enemies
new mechanics
*gw1 new pvp systems, new pve skills alliance based skills, hero system
ffxi dynamis, zilart gods boss system

essentially what they generally do in an expansion, is give you a new game that connects to the old one (for AAA games) The costs tend to be lower because they are building on old systems, with an old engine. returning players get to re experience the things they loved, with enough new and changed/evolved things to keep them going.

Many people say in two weeks they are bored, but in general an expansion is rolled out in phases, and the amount of content they add generally lasts way longer than two weeks. Also since it is expanding the game, not replacing it, each expansion gives more options to new players, which keeps them engaged for longer.

Hi everyone,

We understand that the purpose of this thread is to offer constructive ideas. However, as it could quickly turn into a discussion about other games, we will ask you to please focus your feedback around Guild Wars 2. All off topic posts will be removed.

Thank you!

Moderator.6840:

Hi everyone,

We understand that the purpose of this thread is to offer constructive ideas. However, as it could quickly turn into a discussion about other games, we will ask you to please focus your feedback around Guild Wars 2. All off topic posts will be removed.
Thank you!

Completely agree. This isnt a thread to compare games but more a thread to ask those that are complaining what exactly they have an issue with and how they would change GW2 going forward based on the post-launch models of other games.

In response to you Phys, can I assume that the main grievance you have is the lack of permanent content? I seem to remember reading that ANET were looking to make more LS content permanently available. Would this change your views on the LS model if this was the case?

Without comparing to any other games I can put it this way.

GW2 has been out for 19months, if I had stopped playing the last 12months and came back today I could have cleared all the permanent content added in the last 12months in a weekend maybe two.

With laurels already saved and gold/skill points ascended can be knocked out fairly quick.
Changes to WvW are in a good direction, but the content itself is the same.
EOTM well, the new karma/loot train.
FOTM, I already played it enough pre change to have 8 fotm weapon skins and lvl 44.

Edit: To answer your LS question, I doubt it at this point. I hope I’m proven wrong. I played and gave LS1 a 100%, poorly written, untested and buggy, zergfests, achievement farming, directly tied to the release of gem store content.

Take in consideration this coming LS2, now remove all the recurring holiday events we have already done (some multiple times already) MadKing, Wintersday, SAB, Dragon Bash, FourWinds, Queen’s Jubilee, and not too much is left.

and really what is the Living Story? Nothing more than non holiday holiday events. MMO’s have been doing this for the last decade plus, they just did them during the holidays and Anet is doing them mostly throughout the year. What has changed so much in Tyria? Our major hub is now Vigil instead of LA, and a empty island players farm in zergs or do karka few times a day.

other mmo’s have done recurring holidays too, plus expansions worth of content and QoL/balance.

Thereon.3495:

Moderator.6840:

Hi everyone,

We understand that the purpose of this thread is to offer constructive ideas. However, as it could quickly turn into a discussion about other games, we will ask you to please focus your feedback around Guild Wars 2. All off topic posts will be removed.
Thank you!

Completely agree. This isnt a thread to compare games but more a thread to ask those that are complaining what exactly they have an issue with and how they would change GW2 going forward based on the post-launch models of other games.

In response to you Phys, can I assume that the main grievance you have is the lack of permanent content? I seem to remember reading that ANET were looking to make more LS content permanently available. Would this change your views on the LS model if this was the case?

its not just wether it stays around, its also the goal and aim of the content.
most of the living story content is fairly shallow, which makes a type of sense, because it is short term.
Even if living story content stayed around, it would still be fairly shallow and forgotten. The key here is to make the type of content that players who have played the game a bit, may be looking for.

They need to expand and deepen the game. While they could do that with living story, they probably wont, because living story is meant to be something that in general everyone can get into even if they are new, this generally makes it fairly shallow for older players.
living story isnt based on deep lore, or story
because they cant be sure anyone has experienced any of it
living story isnt based on high level content
because they dont want it to be just for high levels
Living story cant be too long
because people have a limited time to be able to digest it
Living story tries not to be progressive
because they cant be sure people have played any of the previous parts.

They could break these rules if they wanted to, in fact for living story to work, i think they will have to. But i dont think they see it that way.

Permanent content, i think they feel more comfortable not following those rules, because people can deal with it at their own pace. But truth is, even within the permanent content, they generally havent gone too deep.

Even on their major additions that have stayed, or even the ones they started with, they have not gotten any deeper.
Personal story, hasnt gotten deeper, and probably has been abandoned
Dungeon progression, has not happened,
Exploration progression doesnt really have any reinforcing systems other than experience. and possibly guild trek
Guild Missions have been fairly static, and not sought to get any deeper than initial release.
fractals, actually did get somewhat deeper with instabilities, but the method of reward and progression didnt reinforce the system at all.
Dynamic Events, probably the deepest system on release has not expanded, or gotten deeper, the reward systems in place for them are also not properly designed to encourage their strengths.

The game is full of a lot very good ideas shallowly implemented. In a normal MMO this is fine and even good, because it has room to grow. But after two years, GW2 isnt getting any deeper, and it isnt getting more expansive. In fact the meta is generally making the game shallower.

I don’t think GW2 is doing much wrong at all. I like pretty much everything about it. I just think that more content would be warranted that will keep other people happy. More permanent content. If they aren’t going to do an expansion, how about just another zone. Completely filled out with hearts and everything, for level 80s.

Thereon.3495:

Okay so im hoping this topic will encourage some talk regarding the content GW2 has released post-launch as well as answering a question that has been on my mind for a while. Try to keep this constructive please! The more level headed we keep this thread, the more chance ANET have of taking note of it.

So it has been mentioned many, MANY times on the forums that a great number of GW2 players are disillusioned at the state of the game post-launch. Specifically mentioned has been the lack of content released. I will state now that I do not feel this is the case, having witnessed a lot of living story content both permanent and not. The issue here is that I do not have any guide to go by. I have never played another ‘AAA MMO’, instead focusing on smaller (more grindy) Korean titles.

So my question to you is this- In your personal opinion, when directly compared to other MMOs, what is GW2 doing wrong and how would you rectify this?

let give some examples in 2014:
RIFT: released 2 new tier of raiding pluse new souls and pvp maps and also in 2014 the expansion # 2 will be out.
FFX 14 RR: just released last year and it is less than year old but already got over 2 million subscribers and released good amount of content in its 10 months of release
WORLD OF WARCRAFT: well the WOD which is the expansion will come late 2014. which is normal for wow they dont release much of content in between but that is how wow always was and still king of the hill.
SWTOR: released the star fighter mini expansion in 2014 and they also announced the mini expansion with player housing (this mini expansion is going to be bigger that is why it delayed it seems) and in between thing like patch 2.8 is coming.
THE SECRET WORLD: well the similar mmo to gw2 in terms of content release is tsw they had small events like living story so far i do not know what is coming in the future just like gw2 lol.
these are the top AAA mmos in the western market as of today.

It is well known in the mmorpg community, GW2 dont’ really have an endgame(or have an focus on endgame).

It is probably intentional by design. So they can draw the casual crowd, at the same time don’t need to focus develop time on endgame.

laokoko.7403:

It is well known in the mmorpg community, GW2 dont’ really have an endgame(or have an focus on endgame).

It is probably intentional by design. So they can draw the casual crowd, at the same time don’t need to focus develop time on endgame.

I’m not sure what the endgame is supposed to be in this game, and that to me is what separates gw2 (in a bad way) from other games, even offline ones.

• Its not PvP or WvW, those are just separate game modes that you don’t have to play the PvE portion of the game to get into.

• There are Legendary Weapons, but I don’t consider grinding for thousands of hours on end for a Precursor ‘endgame’, because it is entirely random whether or not you get a precursor. This leaves grinding game content you already did before for gold in order to get a precursor and progress through this brand of ‘endgame’. Or you, buy to win this particular endgame, by buying gold through the gemstore, and just buying your precursor/legendary.

• There are endlessly repeating Dungeons and Fractals, but, there is nothing you are actually achieving by doing them since the gear you are grinding for isn’t even ‘best in slot’ gear (unless you are grinding gold on your way to a legendary)

• There is no story progression after you beat the game, (kill Zhaitan), as basically all of the open story threads in the game don’t get picked up on in the Living World, and are endlessly recycled through Content that you probably already did.

• Then there is Living World. I can’t call that endgame. More like ‘Side Game’, because it is temporary, you can do it at any level, and there is no penalty to not doing it. You are just as caught up in the story as anyone who was playing for the last two years.

If there was to be an actual endgame in Guild Wars 2, it needs two things….

• On the gameplay side of things, there needs to be an actual quantifiable progression system for acquiring best in slot gear (legendary), not random chances and endless grinding and buying from people who got lucky on the random chance. (((I understand that other games do the same random chance thing, but, its normally for specific gear, in a specific location, so you at least know that if you do a dungeon enough times, you get this weapon or that armor set, especially since in most other games, at least one loot drop will happen, meaning you know how many times you need to do a particular dungeon for end game gear. Its still more quantifiable than GW2’s system where there is nothing but uncertainty for end game gear (legendary weapons) for anywhere from 1 hour to 10,000 hours of playing the game, depending on how lucky you are)))

• On the story side of things, story threads in this game not related to the Living World needs to keep moving in a direction, instead of standing still and waiting for its turn to maybe be explained five years from now. I understand that due to the nature of the event system, pretty much all of these event/story threads explain themselves in a way so they can repeat themselves forever, but, they need an actual conclusion (even a temporary one) instead of sitting on the backburner for another 5 years.

As far as gear grind, Legendary, while best-in-slot and customizable, isn’t the only best-in-slot option. >.> For those who aren’t fortunate enough to get a precursor, Ascended weapons provide the same tier of damage and bonuses.

lack of hardcore content
lack of reward
lack of area to explore
lack of build diversification
lack of true feeling of accomplishment
lack of …..

A R W E N.6895:

lack of hardcore content
lack of reward
lack of area to explore
lack of build diversification
lack of true feeling of accomplishment
lack of …..

lack of hardcore content
There’s some. A little. People have done it enough that it’s no longer “hardcore.” And really, stop using that word. -_- But yes, we do need some engaging challenges, either in open world or better dungeon encounters.

lack of reward
…Yes. So much yes. Beyond so much yes. Bad enough I get more excited for silk than gossamer, most of the challenging content in the game just isn’t worth it.

lack of area to explore
False. There’s plenty. But I know many waiting on the wings for an expansion or new zone. (Get it? Wings? Dominion of Winds? …no? Sigh.)

lack of build diversification
Again, there’s plenty available. The problem is the encounter design enforces the zerg-and-stack dungeon mentality and often shoves PvPers into condition builds. PvP ain’t gonna change that, because control is power, but boss design needs to be improved greatly.

lack of true feeling of accomplishment
…Yeah, I can kind of agree with that. Personal Story didn’t give it to us. Open world content doesn’t give it to us. Living Story shows up, bombs us with quasi-plot, then flies away, never to be seen again. I’m just grinding out the daily metas to get my loot then wondering what the scripted end will be, in which my failure was preordained so the story could continue.

I don’t have very many titles or options to get them.
I don’t have a robust set of emotes.
I don’t have goals that aren’t “grind out 13000 silk” or “buy the 1000G off the trading post”.

And yet, I still play daily, just not with the enthusiasm I had before.

Lack of hardcore content
Fractal is not hardcore, it is quite easy with the right set up. No dungeon in this game is actually hardcore also. What makes it hard sometime is the quality of the player you are playing with, or random bugs that are yet to be fixed ig. We often say in my guild that lags are what creates difficulty in this game.

Lack of reward
You said it

Lack of area to explore
When I press on M to open my map, and see that there is so much more to explore, my first thought is: will this ever be available to player because I already did explore everything and repeating it gets boring quickly.

Lack of build diversification
I mainly press mesmer. I am useful for 3 things, portal, time warp and reflect. I have been using the same build for over a year since it is the only one that actually works properly in a PvE environment. What I mean by this lack of build diversification, is that there are some classes in this game that are simply useless or some classes bound to do only one thing because of the lack of options they have to help the group.

Lack of true feeling of accomplishment
You said it

Meh, a lot of what I have to say has already been said, but I’ll say it anyways

I’d like to start with the bad rewards. Since killing champions has become more rewarding with the loot bags, people started to avoid harder and more time-taking stuff, like running dungeons for example
Hell, CoE takes 20-30 minutes, it is a hard dungeon, and gives you only 1 gold. Killing facepalming champions in starter areas is much easier and faster and gives a lot more money
I’m not saying that the first champions should be hard, but they are too rewarding for the difficulty.

The other thing I’d like to talk about is the poorly designed battle system. It has too things about it that I hate:

• Every enemy is highly predictable. Some enemies even have only one attack/skill, and the animation is so obvious that you just can’t get hit. Others follow an order: skill X, skill Y, skill Z; if HP = %, use skill A every n seconds (aka Lupicus/Spider Queen)

• The other problem is that healing and tank gear are useless in PvE. There are few party healing skills, and they are terrible. Tank gear is even more useless, since enemies can deal so much damage independently of your toughness. I know there shouldn’t be healers and tankers (no trinity), but there’s no versatility.

Let me explain it better down here: the trinity is important, but what makes other MMOs bad is that they can’t use it in their favour. Some games are already using a system where you can “choose your class whenever you want”.
Need a healer? Just change some skills and gear.
Oh no, the tank left! No problem, let me chance this and that so we can keep going

GW2 could use this, the trait system could be better used for achieving it. Tanks and healers are fine.

Rauderi.8706:

As far as gear grind, Legendary, while best-in-slot and customizable, isn’t the only best-in-slot option. >.> For those who aren’t fortunate enough to get a precursor, Ascended weapons provide the same tier of damage and bonuses.

No, Legendary gear IS the best in slot option, period. Legendary weapons (and I assume, future legendary trinkets and armor) allow you to change stats. If you are someone who likes to use multiple gear sets, either for different situations or if different play styles is just what you do, it would take much longer to grind out multiple ascended gear sets than some people who got lucky with finding Precursors on day one, so, what’s the point in even bothering to get ascended gear? It would be a much better investment of my time to just grind for materials and gold and wait for legendary versions of everything to eventually get released.

Rauderi.8706:

lack of hardcore content
There’s some. A little. People have done it enough that it’s no longer “hardcore.” And really, stop using that word. -_- But yes, we do need some engaging challenges, either in open world or better dungeon encounters.

Or smarter enemies in general. Most enemies has the most basic of AI functions that every other game has (online and not), and even the toughest enemies in this game can be defeated with 2 well timed dodges and a whole lot of easy to access might and burst.

lack of reward
…Yes. So much yes. Beyond so much yes. Bad enough I get more excited for silk than gossamer, most of the challenging content in the game just isn’t worth it.

Area specific rewards would be nice, beyond two world bosses, and beyond the Living World.

Rauderi.8706:

lack of area to explore
False. There’s plenty. But I know many waiting on the wings for an expansion or new zone. (Get it? Wings? Dominion of Winds? …no? Sigh.)

the world is big, but it doesn’t take long to see everything, and it only just becomes a lack of area to explore after you’ve done it once or twice (or as some people have done 7 or 8 times)

Rauderi.8706:

lack of build diversification
Again, there’s plenty available. The problem is the encounter design enforces the zerg-and-stack dungeon mentality and often shoves PvPers into condition builds. PvP ain’t gonna change that, because control is power, but boss design needs to be improved greatly.

I agree. At one time I had 11 different exotic gear sets on one profession, and there were multiple builds that could come out of any gear set. The problem is, Zerker wins over all because of how stats are balanced, except in WvW and PvP.

Its a direct result of Anet wanting any group to succeed in dungeons without needing a tank or healer, which is a good thing. I run dungeons in FFXIV lately, and all it is this ::: Tank pulls enemies, Healer heals tank, DPS presses the same three skills to win. Its the same in every fight. occasionally, DPS goes to kill an add or 2. That’s kind of boring, and GW2, even with a DPS only system, still has way more diverse tactics than that, and it forces every player to have an active role in combat instead of everything being passive except for the tank, who has to aggro a new enemy from the healer every few seconds.

Rauderi.8706:

And yet, I still play daily, just not with the enthusiasm I had before.

Same, but hopefully Anet changes that in the very near future, and actually releases expansion worthy content. 5 new traits, quality of life upgrades, and a skill balance is not expansion worthy content. Expansion worthy content in other games normally doesn’t just refine any given system in a game, though game refinement is an essential part (feature pack example : Dyes, world boss update, mega server update, skill balance update).

Normally Expansion Worthy Content that you normally find in a traditional Expansion Pack, actually Expands on the game’s systems (of which the only thing in the Feature pack that actually does that is the wardrobe system, though you can argue that too was an update/refinement/removal to the existing and awkward transmutation and town clothes system since everything the wardrobe system does you could find in the game already prior to the update.)

I need content to keep coming back. I need the story to continue, I need new areas to explore at my leisure. I need smarter enemies to kill in the absence of a level increase. I need new weapon skins to show off that doesn’t include buying everything from a cash shop or an infinitely small random chance from an updated world boss.

Right now, I think one of the biggest issues in-game at the is PVE balance and execution.

#1: There is nothing in-game to teach players how to play the game. Anets philosophy on this is to increase difficulty, and expect people to figure it out on their own. This doesn’t work: it just discourages players from playing the game. There needs to be an in-game tutorial that teaches players about blocking and dodging, the absence of hard roles, about combo fields, about telegraphs, and particular class basics.

#2: The condition cap puts a hard limit on the contribution of condi based builds and classes. Again, this is not something Anet tells players, but something players observe.

#3: Unblockable and undodgeable attacks don’t have any special indication of their nature. Players have to learn what is unblockable and undodgeable by getting their face smashed in by these attacks, and then trying to remember that experience for the rest of their lives.

#4: PVE enemy behavior is incredibly basic, which causes DPS to be the best way to play the game.

#5: The way leveling and scaling works in the game is so disjointed that lower level zones are a bore now.

For sPVP:

#1: Lack of game modes. Conquest is fun… for awhile.

#2: Lack of maps. Variety is the spice of life.

#3: Guild vs. Guild is needed.

For me PvE really lacks a real structure.

Endgame in GW2 is essentially just a massive gold-farming grind in pursuit of whatever you currently want. There is no sense of progression, no sense of accomplishment, no sense of challenge.

There’s also no structure to rewards. Doing 5 min of auto-attacks while being on your desktop can prove to be more rewarding than 2 hours of FotM level 50. 5 Minutes running around Orr spaming AoE into zerg-events will yield you better loot than a dungeon run.

There’s no correlation between risk and reward, investment and return.

ANet really need to take a look at their loot system and PvE content. They need to decide what type of content deserves what kind of reward and what is a fair ratio of risk/reward?

I’m quite happy with both the amount and quality of content GW2 puts out, my only problem with it being the temporary nature of much of it.
I have played a number of MMOs, both triple A and cheap-o kmmo grinders, and find GW2 to be pretty high up there for content release.
While this isn’t some formal study or anything of the sorts, I’ve also gone through (trying to be as objective as I could) and compared the content released in an 11 months period for both WoW and GW2, and felt GW2 put out at least as much(if not more) content then WoW.
So… yea, I’m happy with it.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Right now, I think one of the biggest issues in-game at the is PVE balance and execution.

#1: There is nothing in-game to teach players how to play the game. Anets philosophy on this is to increase difficulty, and expect people to figure it out on their own. This doesn’t work: it just discourages players from playing the game. There needs to be an in-game tutorial that teaches players about blocking and dodging, the absence of hard roles, about combo fields, about telegraphs, and particular class basics.

#2: The condition cap puts a hard limit on the contribution of condi based builds and classes. Again, this is not something Anet tells players, but something players observe.

#3: Unblockable and undodgeable attacks don’t have any special indication of their nature. Players have to learn what is unblockable and undodgeable by getting their face smashed in by these attacks, and then trying to remember that experience for the rest of their lives.

#4: PVE enemy behavior is incredibly basic, which causes DPS to be the best way to play the game.

#5: The way leveling and scaling works in the game is so disjointed that lower level zones are a bore now.

Something I have noticed about GW2 in its dungeon/boss design is that it doesn’t communicate what’s going on. I’m not sure how much information is needed, but many encounters just surprise players with “whoops, you’re dead” mechanics with no real indication of how to survive them or when they will happen.

And, really, one-hit KOs can just go, entirely. It’s unjustifiable as a learning tool. Perhaps GW2 designers are thinking of being a little “hard” about it, but really, it’s just kinda kitteny. OHKOs aside, we need better telegraphs that are comparable to the amount of damage we’re due to receive if we don’t move. (Looking at you, Catacombs knight bum. -_-#)

Enemies do need more flexible behavior, especially bosses and their mechanics. Less megadamage and more spread out to encourage multiple players to stay on the move.

By the Six, I will rail against that condition cap on bosses until it’s raised to 100. It’s one of the biggest offenders of maintaining a zerk-only meta. (Nothing wrong with zerk, but other kids would like to play too :P)

There’s just nothing to do, and no reason to log in most of the time. The closest we get is fractals or world bosses, but in most games one dungeon is not even close to being enough; I remember playing Rift and, at launch, it had 10 dungeons, about a new one every 5 or so levels from level 15, and at level cap, you could replay all those dungeons in a remixed format. Plus the 20 man raids. Plus the 10 man raids. Etc.

GW2 doesn’t come close to the sort of group content that other MMOs have, and it’s one of the few MMOs that actively seems to discourage people from grouping, by not giving them any reason to do so— not to mention more than a few dungeons (like CoF) get locked doors all the time too.

I feel the lack of reward is the biggest problem with guild wars. As a friend of mine put it he quit the original guild wars in order to play WoW because he felt no sense of reward since high level armor and weapons had similar stats and he felt no desire to grind for.

Another friend of mine quit Guild wars 2 because of similar reasons. He says once you have exotic or ascended gear there’s no desire to continue playing other then to grind some cosmetic stuff. He also feels the amount of grinding required to get things like legendaries is as anti-fun as it can get.

In my own case I quit Guild wars 2 once already back when it first came out me and a group of friends farmed all of our exotic gear pretty fast after that it was just farming orichalcum for days or following a zerg around there was no real goal after getting those exotics. I’ve recently returned to Guild wars 2 to find out I’ve missed an entire season of the living story I’ll never be able to participate in which kind of bums me out (Though I see a lot of complaints about it being just another zerg fest). Currently I’m exploring the new permanent content and trying to get a set of ascended gear but after that I don’t know if I’ll continue playing or just quit again.

compared to other mmos I played:

gameplay: in those other mmos, every skill i used was meaningful and almost crucial. In gw2, I use most of the skills because they are on cd. Also, there’s no direct way to measure the damage you are doing, so you don’t know if the skill add something or you better save them. The most noticeable example is the cc. Some ccs take longer to cast than the duration of the effect. Why would I bother?

No raids: I know many people would disagree with me, but raids have the same effect than fractals with ascendeds: it creates a challenging content and rewards things that help you better clear said content.

The problem is, the rate drops in fractals are appaling, and the dugeons are not challenging until you clear them for the 30th time. Never, EVER in my life, did I clear a whole raid 30 times. And I would usually get all the gear I could want in 4 weeks.

social: having no need to form a group means that you don’t actually talk to anybody. People just move from point a to point b killing things. In those other mmos, you have to socialize, form groups, survive hard experiences with other people, it helps create in game friends, of which I had many in WoW. I have 0 in GW2.

No immersion: I don’t know the cause of this problem, but it’s less immersive than some asian mmorpgs with ridiculous clothing design. And that’s a lot to say.

And that’s just a few things I can mention without giving it too much thought. There are many others.

Aenesthesia.1697:

compared to other mmos I played:
…snip
social: having no need to form a group means that you don’t actually talk to anybody. People just move from point a to point b killing things. In those other mmos, you have to socialize, form groups, survive hard experiences with other people, it helps create in game friends, of which I had many in WoW. I have 0 in GW2.
…snip

I just wanted to chime in on this as I feel the opposite for reasons discussed before. I’ve played some other mmos where you have to group up. Often times, the biggest reason I’ve found to group wasn’t to take down tough baddies but to share a kill or objective. That forces socialization but it has, for me and some others, a strong drawback to it. Your success comes at the price of the failure of those around you. GW2 is not about that. You group because you want to, not because you have to. This was a key tenet that I feel they delivered on spectacularly. When I first started playing GW2 to today, I still get that feeling of comraderie from the entire group surrounding me when we take down an objective and not just from my 5-8 person party. We talk and socialize and sometimes strategize but if others are silent then that is their choice. I’m not saying every fight requires you to talk to each other and some open world objectives definitely could be made tougher in an enjoyable way. I’m just saying that my experience has been different, you know, for comparative analysis.

Ermm…..

It is pretty much the end-game re-playable content.

Yes, people can argue that PvP, WvW and maybe FOTM are the so-called endgame but these do not have the rewarding and competitive feel from typical endgame content in other MMORPG.

PvP is alright, is pretty good.
WvW, the match is too long tbh, it is unrealistic for a game tbh. For example, why is counterstike popular? If counterstrike is to have a long match that require long hours to decide winner, will it still be popular? If WvW is to become a more intense short war, it did be more interesting than a long week war. Of course, I’m speaking this from the SEA perspective, since the NA hours are not short of intense war.

Though, there isn’t really anything to complain since gw2 target the mainstream and not the hardcore portion.

nightwulf.1986:

Aenesthesia.1697:

compared to other mmos I played:
…snip
social: having no need to form a group means that you don’t actually talk to anybody. People just move from point a to point b killing things. In those other mmos, you have to socialize, form groups, survive hard experiences with other people, it helps create in game friends, of which I had many in WoW. I have 0 in GW2.
…snip

I just wanted to chime in on this as I feel the opposite for reasons discussed before. I’ve played some other mmos where you have to group up. Often times, the biggest reason I’ve found to group wasn’t to take down tough baddies but to share a kill or objective. That forces socialization but it has, for me and some others, a strong drawback to it. Your success comes at the price of the failure of those around you. GW2 is not about that. You group because you want to, not because you have to. This was a key tenet that I feel they delivered on spectacularly. When I first started playing GW2 to today, I still get that feeling of comraderie from the entire group surrounding me when we take down an objective and not just from my 5-8 person party. We talk and socialize and sometimes strategize but if others are silent then that is their choice. I’m not saying every fight requires you to talk to each other and some open world objectives definitely could be made tougher in an enjoyable way. I’m just saying that my experience has been different, you know, for comparative analysis.

Thanks for voicing this. I don’t like being forced to socialized in real life, and I don’t like being forced to socialize here either. I’ve developed some very tight friendships in GW2, but they have been of my own volition, pursuing parts of the games that I enjoy. The problem with trying to make social interaction important in order to do well in the game is that not everyone would necessarily group with people they get along with, and they could come out of the experience burned, rather than encouraged. I think socialization is a very personal, individual experience and it’s important for it to be allowed to grow organically. On that point, at least, Anet’s got it right.

Games have their own hooks.

“Hardcore” Games like Runescape, Darkfall, and Dark Age of Camelot have a “risk” factor AND Open World. If you die in these games (PvP OR PvE) you lose your items and others can claim them.

Games like World of Warcraft and Wild Star have Open World Faction-Based PvP with no risk factor.

Then you got games like Elder Scrolls Online and Guild Wars 2, PvP based solely in specific PvP zones, with NO risk factor. However, there’s a stronger focus on things like cosmetics, easy + quick interface, etc.

Just depends on what you prefer.

I’d like to say I completely enjoy the lack of “Endgame” in Guild Wars 2.

Once I hit 80, there’s no pressure for me to shelve everything else I had been doing up to that point to chase a gear treadmill – I’m free to mess around with exotics, knowing they’re effectively the best-in-slot for my purposes (I can’t be assed with the hassle of acquiring ascended/legendary gear, and feel the introduction of those actually brought the wrong crowd to the game), and don’t have to worry about trying to amass excessive gold to try new gear and weapons – normal play for me can get me enough to occasionally buy a new Exotic weapon, trinket, armor piece, rune, or upgrade component to play around with.

Zerker greatswords are boring for me. I play a PvE condi bunker. I have yet to find any creature that deals so much damage that my high Vitality (From Carrion and Shaman gear, currently, and defensive traits), can’t prevent a 1-shot from, allowing me to play a more measured and less frantic style – and if worst comes to worst, I can just back off and let my foes bleed/burn/torment to death while I heal.

However – I do agree time investment and cash earning should be equalized. Griffinrook Run and Catching Barrels in Snowden Drifts need better rewards to compensate for the challenge involved.

Moderator.6840:

Hi everyone,

We understand that the purpose of this thread is to offer constructive ideas. However, as it could quickly turn into a discussion about other games, we will ask you to please focus your feedback around Guild Wars 2. All off topic posts will be removed.

Thank you!

Yeah, wouldn’t want to discuss flaws of the game and the competition all in the same topic….

Thereon.3495:

So my question to you is this- In your personal opinion, when directly compared to other MMOs, what is GW2 doing wrong and how would you rectify this?

I think that the many things that I might sometimes find annoying in this game are often the same things that make me play GW over all the other mmo’s.
Zerging is kinda uninteresting way to play, but on the other hand in other mmo’s if you want to group up you need to do instanced content. Much of the world content punishes you for being in a group bigger than maybe two or three people.
Or gear progression. Most other mmo’s have gear gated content, no matter how well you play you can’t beat some things before reaching certain level of gear. GW lacks some of that progress but it allows you to outskill content. This especially is what makes GW’s pvp soo much better and fairer compared to any competition.

Having read the responses (some great ones up there!) there is one thing that I feel GW2 has lacked for a long time and can agree with others saying- that feeling of epic.

The few smaller MMOs I have played all shared one common factor- challenge. There was nothing better than getting a group together who you knew and overcoming challenging content. GW2 brings that with the Wurm and Tequatl but with the issues of getting on the right server(and not DCing) in addition to the fact that this is two pieces of ‘hard’ content in two years means that ive felt underwhelmed since I have started playing. Easy content is great. Its a nice feeling to get rewarded quickly but its a very short term emotion. GW2 lacks the ‘moments of epic’ that really solidify the game as an all time great.

Ive been playing since headstart, clocked over 4000hrs and will state right now that I have no reason to quit the game. But the only occasions that I can honestly say that ive been moved are the first killing of Tequatl, the first Halloween event and the first time I played the personal story. I realised early on that I was not this games target audience…. and thats a sad thing to realise. Id love to get emotionally invested in GW2 but have to face facts that this will never happen. Sure, its a fun game… but to say it couldve been more is an understatement.

Thereon.3495:

Having read the responses (some great ones up there!) there is one thing that I feel GW2 has lacked for a long time and can agree with others saying- that feeling of epic.

The few smaller MMOs I have played all shared one common factor- challenge. There was nothing better than getting a group together who you knew and overcoming challenging content. GW2 brings that with the Wurm and Tequatl but with the issues of getting on the right server(and not DCing) in addition to the fact that this is two pieces of ‘hard’ content in two years means that ive felt underwhelmed since I have started playing. Easy content is great. Its a nice feeling to get rewarded quickly but its a very short term emotion. GW2 lacks the ‘moments of epic’ that really solidify the game as an all time great.

Ive been playing since headstart, clocked over 4000hrs and will state right now that I have no reason to quit the game. But the only occasions that I can honestly say that ive been moved are the first killing of Tequatl, the first Halloween event and the first time I played the personal story. I realised early on that I was not this games target audience…. and thats a sad thing to realise. Id love to get emotionally invested in GW2 but have to face facts that this will never happen. Sure, its a fun game… but to say it couldve been more is an understatement.

That’s pretty interesting that you find a lack of “epic” in the game. I’d say I’ve found more of it here than anywhere else. Most MMOs feel plastered and trivial after a short time, or even right off the bat, as far as I’m concerned. GW2 has done an excellent job of pulling me in and making me feel relevant, yet it’s also kept my heroism in game compatible with social playing. I feel like part of a bigger whole, cooperating with a lot of other people. I think that feels more epic than a game that is more or less a single-player game with lots of people in it, which is how I feel about most MMOs.

As for big boss fights like Tequatl, I will point out that they’ve been making some changes. Tequatl, for instance, wasn’t always such a fantastic fight. And I believe Anet has shown intent of changing future bosses to reflect the sort of combat you get in the Teq fights.

One of the neatest things about GW2 is that it’s such a living, breathing game. Most MMOs I’ve played, the changes are more focused playing with what they’ve got, but Anet has gone and completely changed the structure of the servers and continues to make major changes that pay attention to what is beautiful about MMOs specifically and make sure they encompass those opportunities. Sure, it’s not perfect now and probably never will be, but they keep responding to the imperfections they see and it’s a wonderful thing to watch.

Thereon.3495:

Okay so im hoping this topic will encourage some talk regarding the content GW2 has released post-launch as well as answering a question that has been on my mind for a while. Try to keep this constructive please! The more level headed we keep this thread, the more chance ANET have of taking note of it.

So it has been mentioned many, MANY times on the forums that a great number of GW2 players are disillusioned at the state of the game post-launch. Specifically mentioned has been the lack of content released. I will state now that I do not feel this is the case, having witnessed a lot of living story content both permanent and not. The issue here is that I do not have any guide to go by. I have never played another ‘AAA MMO’, instead focusing on smaller (more grindy) Korean titles.

So my question to you is this- In your personal opinion, when directly compared to other MMOs, what is GW2 doing wrong and how would you rectify this?

I haven’t played but one other MMO (no, not WOW), so me doing a comparison would be unfair.

Post April 15, however, a HUGE thing I see wrong is the effect Megaserver is having on the immersion and story flows. Other problems are out there and have been mentioned in other threads, but there was already only the thinnest of storylines, and many of those have been broken to the point of reducing their respective event chains to point-in-time, non-contextual battles.

Take the Modnir event chain in Harathi Hinterlands as one of the best examples: Remember having the Harathi overrun all the way back to Seraph Landing and having to take land back fort by fort? Gone.

Once you owned all those: remember retaking the Harathi base of operations from Northpasture/Southforge, culminating in a definitive final boss fight? Gone.

Three times per day the fight spawns – the rest of the time, you go through this last dramatic battle only to have it just abruptly stop at the point of highest drama.

All semblance of storytelling has been destroyed by launching Megaserver in a hurry.

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

Thereon.3495:

Having read the responses (some great ones up there!) there is one thing that I feel GW2 has lacked for a long time and can agree with others saying- that feeling of epic.

The few smaller MMOs I have played all shared one common factor- challenge. There was nothing better than getting a group together who you knew and overcoming challenging content. GW2 brings that with the Wurm and Tequatl but with the issues of getting on the right server(and not DCing) in addition to the fact that this is two pieces of ‘hard’ content in two years means that ive felt underwhelmed since I have started playing. Easy content is great. Its a nice feeling to get rewarded quickly but its a very short term emotion. GW2 lacks the ‘moments of epic’ that really solidify the game as an all time great.

Ive been playing since headstart, clocked over 4000hrs and will state right now that I have no reason to quit the game. But the only occasions that I can honestly say that ive been moved are the first killing of Tequatl, the first Halloween event and the first time I played the personal story. I realised early on that I was not this games target audience…. and thats a sad thing to realise. Id love to get emotionally invested in GW2 but have to face facts that this will never happen. Sure, its a fun game… but to say it couldve been more is an understatement.

… GW2 has done an excellent job of pulling me in and making me feel relevant, …

By finishing Trahearne’s Personal Story?

:D

We need more legendaries!

saye.9304:

Thereon.3495:

Okay so im hoping this topic will encourage some talk regarding the content GW2 has released post-launch as well as answering a question that has been on my mind for a while. Try to keep this constructive please! The more level headed we keep this thread, the more chance ANET have of taking note of it.

So it has been mentioned many, MANY times on the forums that a great number of GW2 players are disillusioned at the state of the game post-launch. Specifically mentioned has been the lack of content released. I will state now that I do not feel this is the case, having witnessed a lot of living story content both permanent and not. The issue here is that I do not have any guide to go by. I have never played another ‘AAA MMO’, instead focusing on smaller (more grindy) Korean titles.

So my question to you is this- In your personal opinion, when directly compared to other MMOs, what is GW2 doing wrong and how would you rectify this?

let give some examples in 2014:
RIFT: released 2 new tier of raiding pluse new souls and pvp maps and also in 2014 the expansion # 2 will be out.
FFX 14 RR: just released last year and it is less than year old but already got over 2 million subscribers and released good amount of content in its 10 months of release
WORLD OF WARCRAFT: well the WOD which is the expansion will come late 2014. which is normal for wow they dont release much of content in between but that is how wow always was and still king of the hill.
SWTOR: released the star fighter mini expansion in 2014 and they also announced the mini expansion with player housing (this mini expansion is going to be bigger that is why it delayed it seems) and in between thing like patch 2.8 is coming.
THE SECRET WORLD: well the similar mmo to gw2 in terms of content release is tsw they had small events like living story so far i do not know what is coming in the future just like gw2 lol.
these are the top AAA mmos in the western market as of today.

In all honesty, if the LS actually stayed, GW2 probably has released more content than all those. The problem is that Anet seems fixated in their LS concept even if it doesn’t work, or even fleshed out.

I mean, they compared the LS to a TV series, but then how did they not acknowledge that every TV series has a playback option or is released later in disc format so people who missed episodes can catch up with it?

P.S: Re:TSW You can pretty safely add that Issue #9: The Black Signal (aka Tokyo) is coming at the end of the month.

nightwulf.1986:

GW2 is not about that. You group because you want to, not because you have to. This was a key tenet that I feel they delivered on spectacularly. When I first started playing GW2 to today, I still get that feeling of comraderie from the entire group surrounding me when we take down an objective and not just from my 5-8 person party.

Well, what I cited as a problem is indeed the side effect of the great and groundbreaking ‘no group needed’ system. I agree with you in that there’s a sense of comune going on in these mega events, and it’s a good thing. But, I don’t know, the fact that everybody gets his prize means that the prize is worthless. And the fact that everybody can be friends with everybody means there’s nothing at stake. The only time they did introduce a challenging event where the success of the whole server relied on the success of a few (marionette) I could still see that cammaraderie going on, with people cheering other platforms, but I also could see that there are many people who stop being nice once they have to rely on oher people.

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

That’s pretty interesting that you find a lack of “epic” in the game. I’d say I’ve found more of it here than anywhere else. Most MMOs feel plastered and trivial after a short time, or even right off the bat, as far as I’m concerned. GW2 has done an excellent job of pulling me in and making me feel relevant, yet it’s also kept my heroism in game compatible with social playing. I feel like part of a bigger whole, cooperating with a lot of other people. I think that feels more epic than a game that is more or less a single-player game with lots of people in it, which is how I feel about most MMOs.

I know for a fact that GW2 cannot offer me certain things that other smaller MMOs can. This is not ANETs fault. All I can say is how I FEEL about the game based on my preferences and the one thing that jumps out is the lack of personal stories that have come in two years of playing. By that I mean occasions that have awed me, given me memories and things to tell my friends about. While I cannot deny that the game is still fun (otherwise I wouldnt be playing), its for this reason that I can say that there is no magic in the game for me. No spark to keep me motivated.

KarateKid.5648:

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

Thereon.3495:

Having read the responses (some great ones up there!) there is one thing that I feel GW2 has lacked for a long time and can agree with others saying- that feeling of epic.

The few smaller MMOs I have played all shared one common factor- challenge. There was nothing better than getting a group together who you knew and overcoming challenging content. GW2 brings that with the Wurm and Tequatl but with the issues of getting on the right server(and not DCing) in addition to the fact that this is two pieces of ‘hard’ content in two years means that ive felt underwhelmed since I have started playing. Easy content is great. Its a nice feeling to get rewarded quickly but its a very short term emotion. GW2 lacks the ‘moments of epic’ that really solidify the game as an all time great.

Ive been playing since headstart, clocked over 4000hrs and will state right now that I have no reason to quit the game. But the only occasions that I can honestly say that ive been moved are the first killing of Tequatl, the first Halloween event and the first time I played the personal story. I realised early on that I was not this games target audience…. and thats a sad thing to realise. Id love to get emotionally invested in GW2 but have to face facts that this will never happen. Sure, its a fun game… but to say it couldve been more is an understatement.

… GW2 has done an excellent job of pulling me in and making me feel relevant, …

By finishing Trahearne’s Personal Story?

:D

shots fired XD

No, it’s mostly the dynamic events and the living story. I like being pulled into working with other people to stop bad guys. And besides, even with the personal story, I like to make a difference, not be the main character. I don’t mind if he’s the big shot—I got to be involved.

As an RPer, I don’t consider personal story canon for my characters anyways. XD

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

KarateKid.5648:

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

Thereon.3495:

Having read the responses (some great ones up there!) there is one thing that I feel GW2 has lacked for a long time and can agree with others saying- that feeling of epic.

The few smaller MMOs I have played all shared one common factor- challenge. There was nothing better than getting a group together who you knew and overcoming challenging content. GW2 brings that with the Wurm and Tequatl but with the issues of getting on the right server(and not DCing) in addition to the fact that this is two pieces of ‘hard’ content in two years means that ive felt underwhelmed since I have started playing. Easy content is great. Its a nice feeling to get rewarded quickly but its a very short term emotion. GW2 lacks the ‘moments of epic’ that really solidify the game as an all time great.

Ive been playing since headstart, clocked over 4000hrs and will state right now that I have no reason to quit the game. But the only occasions that I can honestly say that ive been moved are the first killing of Tequatl, the first Halloween event and the first time I played the personal story. I realised early on that I was not this games target audience…. and thats a sad thing to realise. Id love to get emotionally invested in GW2 but have to face facts that this will never happen. Sure, its a fun game… but to say it couldve been more is an understatement.

… GW2 has done an excellent job of pulling me in and making me feel relevant, …

By finishing Trahearne’s Personal Story?

:D

shots fired XD

No, it’s mostly the dynamic events and the living story. I like being pulled into working with other people to stop bad guys. And besides, even with the personal story, I like to make a difference, not be the main character. I don’t mind if he’s the big shot—I got to be involved.

As an RPer, I don’t consider personal story canon for my characters anyways. XD

Really wasn’t intended to be shots fired at YOU – just the weirdness that is our personal story wherein we’re being sidelined

KarateKid.5648:

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

KarateKid.5648:

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

Thereon.3495:

Having read the responses (some great ones up there!) there is one thing that I feel GW2 has lacked for a long time and can agree with others saying- that feeling of epic.

The few smaller MMOs I have played all shared one common factor- challenge. There was nothing better than getting a group together who you knew and overcoming challenging content. GW2 brings that with the Wurm and Tequatl but with the issues of getting on the right server(and not DCing) in addition to the fact that this is two pieces of ‘hard’ content in two years means that ive felt underwhelmed since I have started playing. Easy content is great. Its a nice feeling to get rewarded quickly but its a very short term emotion. GW2 lacks the ‘moments of epic’ that really solidify the game as an all time great.

Ive been playing since headstart, clocked over 4000hrs and will state right now that I have no reason to quit the game. But the only occasions that I can honestly say that ive been moved are the first killing of Tequatl, the first Halloween event and the first time I played the personal story. I realised early on that I was not this games target audience…. and thats a sad thing to realise. Id love to get emotionally invested in GW2 but have to face facts that this will never happen. Sure, its a fun game… but to say it couldve been more is an understatement.

… GW2 has done an excellent job of pulling me in and making me feel relevant, …

By finishing Trahearne’s Personal Story?

:D

shots fired XD

No, it’s mostly the dynamic events and the living story. I like being pulled into working with other people to stop bad guys. And besides, even with the personal story, I like to make a difference, not be the main character. I don’t mind if he’s the big shot—I got to be involved.

As an RPer, I don’t consider personal story canon for my characters anyways. XD

Really wasn’t intended to be shots fired at YOU – just the weirdness that is our personal story wherein we’re being sidelined

^u^ I know, just being silly. It really is weird, but I kinda like it, personally. Call me weird, but hero stories are kinda. . . everywhere. It was an interesting, brave idea, albeit a not-so-well executed one.

I won’t compare here GW2 directly with other games, but instead i will just list up things that GW2 needs to get up on par with other games:

1) Living Stories with Content, that isn’t done in just a few hours right after release
2) More Character Progression in the Form of Sub Classes
3) More Skills (easiest done by adding more Weapons, old as like new ones to Classes)
4) More new explorable Maps, theres still so much left of Tyria, that is unexplorable currently and then there’s still Cantha, Elona and unknown Continents, like Utopia…
5) Missing Content being finally added, like Polymok, Archery, Bar Brawls…
6) 64BIT Client !!!
7) Direct X11 Support !!!
8) Housing
9) Guild Halls/Fortresses/Towns and in general alot of Guild Improvements
10) Split of Trait System inton Traits, Talents and Abilities for better active, passive and visual Character Progression
11) Improvements to the Combat System, making the Z-Achsis more useful
12) Redesign of the Underwater Combat, giving us separate Underwater Traits/Talents/Abilities
13) More EMOTES
14) Reward Tracks for PvE
15) Reintroduction of an improved Personality System
16) New playable Races, like Tengus or redesigned Largos
17) More Interactivity with the whole Game World, also to in regard of Character Movement and also in general with the Environment (destructable things for example)
18) Constant adding of new dynamic Events in all maps
19) Redesign of the Borderlands to 3 seperate different maps, improving WvW with some of the EotM features, adding more rewards for Badges of Honor
20) Merge of some WvW Skills, raise all current existing WvW Skills to 10 Tiers, adding WvW Skills that improve the Defense in WvW and make Defense in general alot more rewarding. People should earn in WvW only Karma through defending places
21) Add Class Specific WvW Skills to improve the Class Roles of all classes for WvW
22) Add Mounts and new features that are based around them
23) Naval Battles and alot more Water/Underwater Content
24) Add of more new Dungeons (including Underwater Dungeons, see above)
25) Add alot more new Hairstyles, Face and general options for the Character Creator.
26) Reintroduce the Town Clothes Feature in an improved way
27) Precursor Crafting, Legendary Quests
28) Redesign of the Personal Story and especially how it is told, adding also more options (Arcs) that lead to side quests where your made choices lead tp personal different rewards at the end of the personal story
29) Most that needs to be redesigned about the PS is just all the stuff around trahearne and the fight agaisnt Zhaitan
30) Make Personal Story and Renown Hearts repeatable with increased rewards so more you repeat it when you repeat it with someone, who hasn’t done that content with a character, so that helping others in the personal story is also rewarding for the helpers!!!
31) Only for Friends-Option for the Whisper Chat!!!!
32) Fix of all the WvW Hacks
33) Adding of new Legendaries and making the receiving of ascended items more Alternative Character friendly
34) World Bosses should guaranteed drop trophies, that are used as tokens to exchange them for rewards, like ascended boss themed equipment.
35) Build Template System to save your builds to change them in a matter of seconds
36) Add alot more meaningful Titles to the existing achievements
37) Constant adding of new Jumping Puzzles/ Riddles/ Hidden treasures

That should cover most of the things

Orpheal.8263:

3) More Skills (easiest done by adding more Weapons, old as like new ones to Classes)
/ I would debate here. In most games, new skills mostly bring imbalance to classes. I would rather priority a rework on some skills and Runes(like perplexity)
4) More new explorable Maps, theres still so much left of Tyria, that is unexplorable currently and then there’s still Cantha, Elona and unknown Continents, like Utopia…
/ I agree on this point. I believe it would be around the time to introduce new maps and new content regarding another Elder Dragon.
6) 64BIT Client !!!
/ Debatable. 32bit client is very well optimized both for Intel and AMD CPUs. RAM Usage and Graphic Card usage are also optimized pretty well. I doubt that 64bit client would bring any visible performance improvement.
7) Direct X11 Support !!!
/ Not sure if bringing Tessellation into GW2 would change much except performance drop. If you want to force your GPU and increase the quality I recommend SweetFX.
8) Housing
/ useless. I have seen it already in other games which was rich as Sims and it’s totally useless.
9) Guild Halls/Fortresses/Towns and in general alot of Guild Improvements
/ I +1 this. Moreover I would also add a Vanarch system including GvG(Just like in TERA Online) and specific Rating + reward system.
14) Reward Tracks for PvE
[b]/ not sure what you have on your mind, but achievement system already is filled with PvE reward system. You also got a Reward Tracker to HotM matches.
16) New playable Races, like Tengus or redesigned Largos
/ that would soon enough bring an argument to add Skritt, Quaggans and other races to be playable. I would rather vote for adding a content and rich story regarding those races.
17) More Interactivity with the whole Game World, also to in regard of Character Movement and also in general with the Environment (destructable things for example)
/ nothing’s wrong with character movement, but making environment richer is a good idea. I would vote for adding specific events like in Human territories, where Centaurs would make raids and destroy towns and Cities. Later, players would have to rebuild them and get proper reward for it. Fort Salma in Kessax Hills has NPC houses which can be damaged/destroyed and you can rebuild them. Applying it to whole world + giving a little improvement + rewards would be awesome.
18) Constant adding of new dynamic Events in all maps
/ not so sure. I find the amount of dynamic Events to be sufficient. If you would focus on them, then there is a big chance that you would barely touch any Heart Quests in most of the areas.
19) Redesign of the Borderlands to 3 seperate different maps, improving WvW with some of the EotM features, adding more rewards for Badges of Honor
/ I +1 this one. Having only 3 different maps – Eternal Battleground, Borderlands and Obsidian Sanctum is a bit not enough. If it comes to Badges of Honor – I recommend to add more items and NPCs which would put this currency in more use. At the moment it kinda has no value.
22) Add Mounts and new features that are based around them
[b]/ I’ll say that they’re useless. We do have waypoints, yes, but also all classes have Speed boosting skills, passives, or traits. It would make stuff prettier, but it’s time consuming and I’ll rather focus on content that would make playing more enjoyable than making afk time look better.
32) Fix of all the WvW Hacks
/ there are any?

I kinda have brought my poi regarding your ideas. The ones I didn’t list, either I had no opinion at all, or simply agreed totally.

My main issue with GW2 is there’s so many areas on the map blurred out that could and might eventually have content added to. If Anet wants to use LS then I would hope they use it to create and open up new areas and not just screw with existing areas. I think all new areas made with LS should also be like Southsun Cove was originally. It raised everyone to level 80 for the Ancient Karka event like how FOTM puts people below level 80 to level 80.

Then after the LS there is done, the zone could be level 80 only without raising player’s levels anymore just like how it was done with Southsun Cove. That way we would get new content and any new players or low level characters could experience the LS as it happened. This would prevent the LS from clustering junk in existing maps. Sure eventually Anet would need to use LS on existing maps but it would be nice if they just expanded the game and gave us new zones.

Anet seems to prefer LS which is fine with me. I just want them to give us new zones through LS rather than modify already existing zones.

@Tao:

But GW2 isn’t “most games” Other games don’t have Skills, that are bonded to specific Weapons that are half of your Skill Bar. Other Games have a way more complex Skill System, than GW2. And especially other Games also oftenly don’t care much about Class Balance at all but instead priorize “Fun” over “Balance” very often, where you have here with ANet a company, that handles this alot more on a 50/50 relationship, than other companies, like Blizzard, Nexus or others would do.

The Game is currently only optimized around DX9 for old PCs that don’t have many multi cores. The game is extreme CPU hungry. I have an 8core PC with 16GB RAM and are still forced to play WvW on lowest settings just to be able to play WvW at all over logner times, just to see the game client crashingif I am for too long in the middle of a huge zerg that clashes into an enemy zerg of like 40-50 people and everyone starts spamming their tons of AoE skills.

Why? Because the 32bit client just cripples down my maximum performance of the game to 4GB RAM and doesn’t make use of all the cores, so that my PC can’t handle as much thigns at the same time with lesser CPU efforts per core, than it could, if the client would allow for making usage of all the cores that the PC has to improve the game performance.
I’m no super PC expert, but from what i know I think i should get at least a feelable performance boost if there would be a 64bit client and DX11 support, for my PC that I use. I also heard of SweetFX, that its a better Shader, that makes the game more coloful and better looking in many cases, but as long this Shader gets not officially supported and integrated to GW2 by Anet, I won’t use it.

I think Housing is not useless, its a trendy feature, that alot of people like and that can be used as a kind of prestige. Legendary weapons are also useless basically and still exist for being just prestige and the visual fluff around them. They became only later more useful, after anet added the function of Stat Changing to give them an utility function and by that more comfort to the player.

Achievements are no Reward Tracks… Achievements are just taskas that you can do to earn rarely currently a title for what ypou have done and to get rewarded for specific amounts of AP. But the PvP Reward Track functionizes in a different way.

A PvE reward Track should get affected by done dynamic Events in the specific regions to give players something, that drives them to continuously revisit all of the Maps and regions of GW2.
Reward Trakcs, that woudl be repeatable like the PvP ones and sometimes maybe also special ones, that can be done only once.
Doing these PvE reward Tracks should help players on gettign all of the materials, that are needed to work on asecended equipment and legendary weapons to make that stuff more alternative character friendly.
The system could be used also to implementd new weapon and armor sets that are special only for those rebion/map bound tracks, or other unique rewards that are bonded to specific regions/maps, like minipets, back items, toys, outfits, potions, boosters ect. pp

part 2:

That argument has been discussed already to death. Lesser inferior races like Skritt, Quaggan, Grawls ect. will never become playable, as they play only side roles in our personal story. However, this doesn’t mean, that we might not see in the future in regard of the living Story more story additions towards these races perhaps to flesh out their background history better, their lore and so on …
—-

Theres alot wrong with character movement and combat could get improved also compared to other existign as like upcoming games. Anet could make alot better use of the Z-Axis for exampl for ground combat.
Jumping in GW2 just looks laughable, you could really expect of our heroes to move a bit more you know, heroically.
Its sad to see, how heroically characters (Nika) are in the old GW1 render scenes of GW Factions for example and that none of this is reflectively seen in the game engine, neither was it in GW2, nor now in GW2, but other similar games of the same mother company are alot more developed in fast paced real time action combat with much better character movement systems to create fluid and elegant heroic looking characters, even developers of other games are so far, where the only thing where GW2’s character movement/combat system in which GW2 shines bright ist the Dodge Mechanic, that works very well here, which most other games oftenly were lacking of in the past. But GW2 could also make use more of active blocking and counterattack/interrupt mechanics without actually needing to hard counter with such silly frustrating and unfun thigns, like getting permanently knocked downed/launched/immobilized to the point, that you have no chance to do anything at all and fight back
Games like Everquest Next, Blades & Soul or Black Desert are far more advanced in regard of Character Movement and Environment Interactivity.
Even old games like Invictus, that aren’t real MMORPGs, mut more like MMO-Hack & Slashes are there more advanced in the real time fast pace action combat system and environmentent interactivities, that you can destroy alot of things or just grab stuff, thats lieing on the ground to abuse it as environmental weapon agaisnt your foes or to just grab your foe and throw him/her away.
on the other hand, even console games are in that point more advanced, like Dragons Dogma, where you can jump on large creatures to climp on them up to hit them in their weak spots.
In general, GW2 needs a Resistance and Weaknesses System more fleshed out, to give combat a more realistical and tactical touch and to make battles in GW2 also more intersting that enemies can’t get so simply be defeated, if you don’t fight them with the right tactics.
The game is currently way too much designed for the brain dead casual, who just wants only to kill everything by tab mashing 111111111111111111 and the ocasional 2 and 3
Combat in GW2 must become more entertaining and less of a CPU heavy eyesore full of tons of AoE that you can’t even effectively reduce.

Part 3

GW2 hasn’t enough dynamic events. When theres currently not a living story in a map, that adds temporarely a few more new dynamic event,s all you see in the maps of GW2 are like the same 5-6 events, that permanerntly repeat themself like every 5-10 minutes. The game becomes quickly boring, if you do for months over months always the same events in the maps and nothign even actually changes permanently.
You save Nebo a millionth time against 8 hordes of Centaurs… nothign changes.
it gets even so plain dull, that you start to beleive, that you basicallyx must have completely annihalated all of the Centaurs by the time now, that you alone have killed the whole population of Centaurs and becoem the war hero, who ended the war against the Cnetaurs completely as a 1 man show by the amount of Centaurs that you killed through permanently savign nebo …
If Anet would constantly add new dynamic events to all of the maps, this would reduce the chances, that one and the same evenrs permanently repeat themself in a short time, it would make revisitign the maps in general more interesting.
But revisting a map is total borign and uninterstign, when you exactly know when and what happens exactly where in the map on the second exactly, because of the maps having not enough dynamic events.
A map with like 5-6 event chains constistign of like 5 follow up events plus some lonestandign single events that are all location bonded and notreally dynamic at all but instead just only time gated or reaction based isn’t enough.
Each map needs several douzends of event chains and a couple hundreds of single events and each of them should underlie also some kind of irrational rotation, so that it is not guaranteed that each of those chains will happen daily. These events must trigger in a random way! Then its dynamic.
Events can be only dynamic, when you can’t prepare yourself for them, when they just happen randomly out of a sudden and don#t repeat themself like every 5 minutes, because then becomes doing such an event just plain pointless, when you save nebo and 5 minutes later is everythign again as if you have done nothign at all.

Last Part:

Mounts aren’t useless, but thats an other topic that has its own threads.
But I won’t say something about that anymore, because everytime when I did in the past, it brigns me to the point that I rage out and get in the end only infractions, to the point of temp bans last time and annoying 600 seconds flood controls

There are many hacks in VWW, just take a look into the WvW Forum Section and you see there alot of threads complaining over hackers, which significantly increased instantly in population with the start of the current WvW season, because alot of people are cheating now and take willingly the risk of beign banne,d because

A= they are plannign on quittign the game anyway and are just trolls or
B= they willingly cheat to try to guarantee, that their servers win the matches so that they get at the end of the current season the best rewards

My opinion about these hackers is, if in a Wvw match should get hackers reported and Anet can confirm a certain amount of players really hacked and cheated, that the whole server should get disqualified from the actual match as a punishment and receive minus points under a malus system.
Its the only way how you will effictively prevent people from hacking in WvW, if you punish the server hard for it, if too many of them get reported in a match and confirmed by Anet for really cheating.
Howeve,r thats also somethign that should get discussed further in the WvW section.

Orpheal.8263:

…snip part 2 of your long post…..

And black desert isn’t brain dead casual? It looks cool to pick up an enemy and throw them around God of War style then slam them into the ground, but is there any tactical feel to the game at all? The combat does have a more traditional, weighted feel to it like an action game, but, Action generally means action, not tactics. From what I’ve seen so far, there is no penalty to just use the same attack over and over and over again. Sure it looks prettier, but prettier graphics is the only reason people buy games (otherwise the so called PC master race would have crushed these puny things called game consoles long ago.)

……

And what would this weakness and resistance system have? It would be cool to have, since Guild Wars 1 (sort of) had a system in place, but that was largely ignored. The problem with a system like that is that it quickly makes the game system very complex, and it forces you to carry multiple gear sets just for certain resistances or strengths for each individual dungeon and area in the game. I am pretty sure that Anet understood this by adding slayer potions instead, that will raise your damage/resistance against a specific enemy type instead of tying it all to gear. I think it would be a mistake to once again tie elemental/weapon resistance to gear.

They could be tied to a specific stat, but since toughness reduces all damage across all physical sources, its not needed. Certain enemies could have certain weaknesses to certain weapon and attack types, but how would that be programmed in to keep the game flexible instead of forcing you to specialize into a specific armor, weapon or skill type for a specific part of the game?

It would be neat to get other non-slayer utility Potions that award proper use and punish improper use, for example say we get a Potion of Fire that increases damage to fire, burning, and explosion attacks. The problem is that these potions need to affect everyone, and not just the class that has elemental powers.

……

The thing that Anet really needs to do is make each boss encounter in Dungeons more unique and challenging, and they seriously need to update the enemy AI in general to be more reactive instead of having the same AI routine, every time. They also need to update their enemy types to encourage prioritizing certain enemies over others. This does exist in some parts of the game, but not nearly enough.

The bosses/encounters in the Aetherpath of Twilight Arbor are pretty much perfect. There is enemy priority, and there are specific things that you have to do to be successful instead of just stacking and pressing 1 in a very brain dead manner, but, it does give you enough flexibility to keep it from being the same boring encounter every time.

The problem is that most other dungeon paths don’t have that. People can just run past enemy encounters, and during almost all other bosses, you can just stack and press 1 to kill them. To make it worse, when an exploit/short cut is discovered, they don’t normally get patched, allowing people to keep doing these utterly ridiculous 10 minute dungeon runs.