Guild Wars 2

The success of Guild Wars 2 can’t be denied. The game innovated on a lot of grounds at a time where MMOs became increasingly stale. It is still in a young phase but if A.net keeps the pace up, this game is bound to be a huge competitor to any other fantasy MMO on the market, and comfortably settle on the second place.

In five years, people will be talking about GW2-killers the way WoW-killers were the trend yesterday. Every new MMO will try to mimic the GW2 success formula, no trinity, shared pve drops and nodes, down-scaling, no gear grind. Even WoW will to do this to an extent to keep their subscriptions up, probably their next expansion is going to be part GW2-clone.

Despite all the hate speech on the forums, the game is incredibly active and very enjoyable. It’s getting better with every patch which is once every 2 weeks. This game is the new standard by which new MMOs will be judged. Let this be my prediction.

So, you’re saying there is a game that killed WoW, I can’t stand WoW but it is very far from being dead and GW2 is just starting it’s life cycle.

Im Mudbone.1437:

So, you’re saying there is a game that killed WoW, I can’t stand WoW but it is very far from being dead and GW2 is just starting it’s life cycle.

I believe if you read his post he said “In five years…”

I like the thought of this.. I also like the thought I would have been part if it for all but the first four months. Which will eat at me!

I still like the thought of this, though.

no. First of all, there hasn´t been a single succesful “wowkiller” and that monicker exists only in the audience´s mind anyway, noone in the industry bothers with such nonsense. Wow will be killed by time and it has way more than twice the people that ever installed GW2 as paying SUBSCRIBERS almost a decade after launch. Anyways, GW2 is fine, your prediction is utterly false though. The mmorpg market is struggling. WoW made the genre appealing to the masses of players, launched marketing outside the usual target audience, had a large fan base to carry over from other games of Blizzard´s franchise and didn´t have any strong competitors. The market today is sated, no, it is bursting from mmorpg. Single player or “normal” multiplayer games have also improved a lot in recent years when it comes to story telling mechanics, no mmorpg can rival that by nature as they cannot concentrate on the experience of a single person. MMORPG will struggle more in upcoming years than they do now overall, GW2 will just be one of many.

GW2 (Launch) = A
Solid and innovative, best MMO since WoW

GW2 (Now) = C-
Substandard cash shop MMO with RNG and poorly designed mini-games.

WoW succeeded because it continued to add features and fix bugs. GW2 seems more interested in farming players pockets.

Algreg.3629:

no. First of all, there hasn´t been a single succesful “wowkiller” and that monicker exists only in the audience´s mind anyway, noone in the industry bothers with such nonsense. Wow will be killed by time and it has way more than twice the people that ever installed GW2 as paying SUBSCRIBERS almost a decade after launch. Anyways, GW2 is fine, your prediction is utterly false though. The mmorpg market is struggling. WoW made the genre appealing to the masses of players, launched marketing outside the usual target audience, had a large fan base to carry over from other games of Blizzard´s franchise and didn´t have any strong competitors. The market today is sated, no, it is bursting from mmorpg. Single player or “normal” multiplayer games have also improved a lot in recent years when it comes to story telling mechanics, no mmorpg can rival that by nature as they cannot concentrate on the experience of a single person. MMORPG will struggle more in upcoming years than they do now overall, GW2 will just be one of many.

Of course Guild Wars 2 will be one of many. But I think the OPs point is many of that many will be looking to Guild Wars 2 for guidance, in the way that many WoW clones looked to WoW for guidance.

No one is saying that Guild Wars 2 is going to corner the market. But people are saying that the changes Guild Wars 2 have brought to the genre will help pave the way forward.

Vayne.8563:

Algreg.3629:

no. First of all, there hasn´t been a single succesful “wowkiller” and that monicker exists only in the audience´s mind anyway, noone in the industry bothers with such nonsense. Wow will be killed by time and it has way more than twice the people that ever installed GW2 as paying SUBSCRIBERS almost a decade after launch. Anyways, GW2 is fine, your prediction is utterly false though. The mmorpg market is struggling. WoW made the genre appealing to the masses of players, launched marketing outside the usual target audience, had a large fan base to carry over from other games of Blizzard´s franchise and didn´t have any strong competitors. The market today is sated, no, it is bursting from mmorpg. Single player or “normal” multiplayer games have also improved a lot in recent years when it comes to story telling mechanics, no mmorpg can rival that by nature as they cannot concentrate on the experience of a single person. MMORPG will struggle more in upcoming years than they do now overall, GW2 will just be one of many.

Of course Guild Wars 2 will be one of many. But I think the OPs point is many of that many will be looking to Guild Wars 2 for guidance, in the way that many WoW clones looked to WoW for guidance.

No one is saying that Guild Wars 2 is going to corner the market. But people are saying that the changes Guild Wars 2 have brought to the genre will help pave the way forward.

No, OP meant exactly that, at least by how he phrased and wrote. You are right though on GW2´s evolutionary influence on the genre (well, TSW has similar elements, argueable which developer team came up with them first, GW2 is better known at least) , you see the first new games already adopting GW2´s combat mechanics.

marnick.4305:

The success of Guild Wars 2 can’t be denied. The game innovated on a lot of grounds at a time where MMOs became increasingly stale. It is still in a young phase but if A.net keeps the pace up, this game is bound to be a huge competitor to any other fantasy MMO on the market, and comfortably settle on the second place.

Completely agree with the quoted part!!

MMO industry needed a breath of fresh air, and although GW2 has many flaws, it indeed provided this renewal.

If it will be cloned, if it’s a killer, no1 can say yes or no with absolute certainty. Haters will say NO, Fanboys will say YES. What we can say for sure, is that it is very different than every other thing released on this industry! A pioneer we may add!

Algreg.3629:

no. First of all, there hasn´t been a single succesful “wowkiller” and that monicker exists only in the audience´s mind anyway, noone in the industry bothers with such nonsense.

I didn’t call GW2 the WoW-killer, it isn’t and shouldn’t be. I specifically said it’ll settle in a comfortable second place (after WoW, obviously). However the media will do exactly that, create a monicker in the audience’s mind. That monicker will be the GW2-killer in 5 years.

And, no offense, the constant stream of subpar MMOs designed to copy WoW proves the point … the industry most certainly bothers. They all want to be that next #1 MMO. GW2 will become #2 by doing something different entirely.

Peetee said it best.

Algreg.3629:

no. First of all, there hasn´t been a single succesful “wowkiller” and that monicker exists only in the audience´s mind anyway, noone in the industry bothers with such nonsense. Wow will be killed by time and it has way more than twice the people that ever installed GW2 as paying SUBSCRIBERS almost a decade after launch. Anyways, GW2 is fine, your prediction is utterly false though. The mmorpg market is struggling. WoW made the genre appealing to the masses of players, launched marketing outside the usual target audience, had a large fan base to carry over from other games of Blizzard´s franchise and didn´t have any strong competitors. The market today is sated, no, it is bursting from mmorpg. Single player or “normal” multiplayer games have also improved a lot in recent years when it comes to story telling mechanics, no mmorpg can rival that by nature as they cannot concentrate on the experience of a single person. MMORPG will struggle more in upcoming years than they do now overall, GW2 will just be one of many.

The OP also said that Guild Wars 2 would settle into a comfortable second place, intimating to me at least that it isn’t expected to kill WoW.

Peetee.9406:

GW2 (Launch) = A
Solid and innovative, best MMO since WoW

GW2 (Now) = C-
Substandard cash shop MMO with RNG and poorly designed mini-games.

WoW succeeded because it continued to add features and fix bugs. GW2 seems more interested in farming players pockets.

Care to explain what changed? The same innovation is there, the game is still solid so what changed?

maddoctor.2738:

Peetee.9406:

GW2 (Launch) = A
Solid and innovative, best MMO since WoW

GW2 (Now) = C-
Substandard cash shop MMO with RNG and poorly designed mini-games.

WoW succeeded because it continued to add features and fix bugs. GW2 seems more interested in farming players pockets.

Care to explain what changed? The same innovation is there, the game is still solid so what changed?

For me, the living story just isn’t doing it. The click “f” content is very lazy and seems to be the only content that takes time. I don’t like the mini games , so I am missing out on content. I have done all the jps that are released, but they take 20mins each and I don’t find them fun to repeat. I’ve done all the mini games, they just don’t feel solid, enough for me. I would be better to load up an emulator and play a much more solid console game.
I am looking forward to their “raids” though. Im also curious of this big team they have working on permanent content. Maybe a new landmass/new profession in the next few months.
Living story is working for some, but hasn’t been worth more than a few hours to me.

Fernling.1729:

maddoctor.2738:

Peetee.9406:

GW2 (Launch) = A
Solid and innovative, best MMO since WoW

GW2 (Now) = C-
Substandard cash shop MMO with RNG and poorly designed mini-games.

WoW succeeded because it continued to add features and fix bugs. GW2 seems more interested in farming players pockets.

Care to explain what changed? The same innovation is there, the game is still solid so what changed?

For me, the living story just isn’t doing it. The click “f” content is very lazy and seems to be the only content that takes time. I don’t like the mini games , so I am missing out on content. I have done all the jps that are released, but they take 20mins each and I don’t find them fun to repeat. I’ve done all the mini games, they just don’t feel solid, enough for me. I would be better to load up an emulator and play a much more solid console game.
I am looking forward to their “raids” though. Im also curious of this big team they have working on permanent content. Maybe a new landmass/new profession in the next few months.
Living story is working for some, but hasn’t been worth more than a few hours to me.

They’ve had a ‘big team’ for quite some time. This is from October 4, 2012:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/colin-johanson-outlines-guild-wars-2-live-game-development

“With a dedicated live team more than ten times the size of the Guild Wars live team, we think you’re going to be blown away by the size and scope of live additions to the world of Tyria for a very, very long time.”

Haven’t been ‘blown away’ yet, though. ;-)

Why can’t we play several MMO’s if we so desire?

I’ve already seen people saying Archeage and ESO will kill GW2 by sucking all the players away. Well, those games better make sure to not launch on WvW reset night…

Traveller.7496:

Why can’t we play several MMO’s if we so desire?

It is hard for me to do that. If I have the energy, I have the ability to play 2-3 hours per night. For the past week, its been one hour per night. Life is just draining me dry of energy lately.

I cannot juggle two MMOs for time restraints alone. For the past 2+ weeks Ive been enthralled in Firefall…I love the sandboxy feel of the game, its a shooter so its new for me…and its a challenge. Before that, it was never winter on and off for 1-2 months. Probably the most difficult MMO out there IMO. The dungeons are sick. And further back it was GW2. I have a hard time playing two at once.

However, Firefall had a positive effect on me. It showed me I might be able to play a game just to play it, and not focus on reward which is part of my problem when I log into GW2. So I am at a crossroads….Firefall for the sandbox “do what you want” shooter feel…Neverwinter for the interesting talent builds and difficulty in dungeons….GW2 for the most MMO experience to date with great WvW(but I have serious issues with the dev directions)…or even Defiance which is a “no gear requirement no level requirement” complete sandbox game.

Choices. Whatever game I decide, I tend to play 100%. I hate balancing two. So whatever game I decide to play, I hope I can stick with it a long while. This would be my 3rd go around with GW2.

maddoctor.2738:

Peetee.9406:

GW2 (Launch) = A
Solid and innovative, best MMO since WoW

GW2 (Now) = C-
Substandard cash shop MMO with RNG and poorly designed mini-games.

WoW succeeded because it continued to add features and fix bugs. GW2 seems more interested in farming players pockets.

Care to explain what changed? The same innovation is there, the game is still solid so what changed?

It’s what didn’t change.

The rest of the MMO market is moving forward, absorbing many of GW2’s innovations into the standard MMO framework while GW2 has stayed more or less in stasis – many of the features people come to expect of a modern MMO (Such as LFG tools, varied PvP modes, PvE custom dungeon creation etc) are simply absent in GW2.

While the level of RNG and viciousness of the cash shop exceed that of many F2P games, despite the fact GW2 is a B2P game. Overall, it means that GW2 languishes in amongst a horde of similar games instead of standing out form the crowd.

A lot of games will try to mimic GW2 and already have, which is a great thing. Because Anet successfully killed off a lot of MMO bull**** that made them boring/tedious. FFXIV for example has some heavy GW2 influence now, and it needs it after how hard it failed the first time around. Unfortunately they aren’t adopting the B2P method… yet. >.<

Traveller.7496:

Why can’t we play several MMO’s if we so desire?

Cuz fanboys.
I play/do what’s entertaining to me. GW1-2 still have been my favorites though.

Ryuujin.8236:

maddoctor.2738:

Peetee.9406:

GW2 (Launch) = A
Solid and innovative, best MMO since WoW

GW2 (Now) = C-
Substandard cash shop MMO with RNG and poorly designed mini-games.

WoW succeeded because it continued to add features and fix bugs. GW2 seems more interested in farming players pockets.

Care to explain what changed? The same innovation is there, the game is still solid so what changed?

It’s what didn’t change.

The rest of the MMO market is moving forward, absorbing many of GW2’s innovations into the standard MMO framework while GW2 has stayed more or less in stasis – many of the features people come to expect of a modern MMO (Such as LFG tools, varied PvP modes, PvE custom dungeon creation etc) are simply absent in GW2.

While the level of RNG and viciousness of the cash shop exceed that of many F2P games, despite the fact GW2 is a B2P game. Overall, it means that GW2 languishes in amongst a horde of similar games instead of standing out form the crowd.

I think that GW2 is moving forward, just not in the direction we thought. Even though I don’t really like it, Living story is moving forward. Even though I don’t think its a good idea, 2 week updates is moving forward.

Ryuujin.8236:

While the level of RNG and viciousness of the cash shop exceed that of many F2P games, despite the fact GW2 is a B2P game. Overall, it means that GW2 languishes in amongst a horde of similar games instead of standing out form the crowd.

I’d love to see even one F2P game with a “better” cash shop, that “many F2P games” needs a bit of explaining because in my experience no F2P game has a “better” cash shop than GW2.

marnick.4305:

In five years, people will be talking about GW2-killers the way WoW-killers were the trend yesterday. Every new MMO will try to mimic the GW2 success formula, no trinity, shared pve drops and nodes, down-scaling, no gear grind. Even WoW will to do this to an extent to keep their subscriptions up, probably their next expansion is going to be part GW2-clone..

I STRONGLY disagree.

Is Guild Wars 2 a success? Let’s assume, for the sake of the argument, that it is.

Is Guild Wars 2 the record-shattering, mind blowing, money-printing finantial success that WoW is? No.

Hence, no GW2 clones.

I think you are overestimating MMO developers. They are not making WoW clones because they want to make great games, revolutionize gaming, or anything; no, they look at WoW, see 11 million suckers who could give them free money, and so want a slice of WoW’s pie. Heh, MMO developers aren’t even smart enough to realize the great majority of MMOs has failed (they think it happened to everyone else but it won’t happen to them), or to see something as obvious as the migration pattern of MMO players (something ArenaNet also didn’t realize, for the records).

You are also overestimating MMORPG players. A lot of people want a copy of their first online world (which for most people was WoW), whether they realize it or not. Together with the high influx of WoW clones, this has turned the MMORPG audience into a small group of people – those who want everything seen in WoW, and who believes that all the faults seen in WoW are intrinsic to the MMORPG genre. Just see how many people here claim that it’s impossible to make a MMO without grind, gear progression, and so on.

So no, I don’t think GW2 will change a thing in the grand scheme of MMORPGs. People will continue trying to make WoW clones foolishly thinking they will have 12 million players, and players will continue to ask for WoW clones foolishly thinking MMORPGs cannot be anything else.

cesmode.4257:

I think that GW2 is moving forward, just not in the direction we thought. Even though I don’t really like it, Living story is moving forward. Even though I don’t think its a good idea, 2 week updates is moving forward.

I dunno if you can really call it movement.

Take for example Star Trek Online

Every so often you get a new story arc added, fleshing out the growing core story of the universe – frequently new worlds, maps, ships, features and even entirely new game modes and environments. As well as the standard patches and balance tweaks, new cash shop goodies etc

Nearly all of these these additions are permanent and expand the game as a whole (recently they added an entirely new playable faction to the game). The living story adds similar if not more content than these updates… but they only exist for a couple of weeks. Once the content is gone, it’s gone and subsequently GW2 doesn’t feel like it’s really grown – and we’ve had no new features or game modes of note since they introduced Fractals almost half a year ago.

It also doesn’t help that the updates could more or less write themselves by this stage

maddoctor.2738:

I’d love to see even one F2P game with a “better” cash shop, that “many F2P games” needs a bit of explaining because in my experience no F2P game has a “better” cash shop than GW2.

I’d point you to STO again then.

For the price of a designer hoodie in GW2, you could buy an entire wardrobe of new outfits in STO. And you wouldn’t get a single item for a single character, but the items would be re-usable, re-obtainable, available across your entire account, forever. They have RNG chests, but in addition to the RNG items you also get tokens so if you get a bad streak of luck from the RNG chests and don’t get what you wanted, you can take the tokens and buy something equally unique and awesome with them as a consolation prize.

It also has a similar gold-to-gems market as GW2 for trading in-game currency for cash shop currency (but the system is much more transparent, you can see the buyers and sellers offers instead of GW2’s blind “this is the price” model. Also the conversion rates arn’t taxed)

As much as I love GW2, I lament some of its failings, too. Shortly prior to and ever since launch, it has seemed to me like it has suddenly tried to cast a net for an audience it was never intended for – the insatiable content-devouring ‘hardcore’ gamer, and on top of that, the dodgy RNG focus in-game and in the cash shop along with some pretty questionable pricing strategies has left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

I think the reason GW2 will never quite be at the top of its game is because it tries to be a jack of all trades, but is effectively a master of none because it can’t decide whakittens audience is. It feels like a constant tug of war between casual, time-friendly, skill-based content and grindy, hardcore treadmill content. I love the game, massively appreciate the team behind it and have supported Anet since the GW1 days, but at the same time, it’s just not as good as it could have been if they had really fully realised those manifesto promises.

What is this “success” you speak of?

Peetee.9406:

WoW succeeded because it continued to add features and fix bugs.

Huh? Did I miss something?

marnick.4305:

The success of Guild Wars 2 can’t be denied. The game innovated on a lot of grounds at a time where MMOs became increasingly stale. It is still in a young phase but if A.net keeps the pace up, this game is bound to be a huge competitor to any other fantasy MMO on the market, and comfortably settle on the second place.

In five years, people will be talking about GW2-killers the way WoW-killers were the trend yesterday. Every new MMO will try to mimic the GW2 success formula, no trinity, shared pve drops and nodes, down-scaling, no gear grind. Even WoW will to do this to an extent to keep their subscriptions up, probably their next expansion is going to be part GW2-clone.

Despite all the hate speech on the forums, the game is incredibly active and very enjoyable. It’s getting better with every patch which is once every 2 weeks. This game is the new standard by which new MMOs will be judged. Let this be my prediction.

I think gw2 will kill itself, Blizzard are working on Titan as we all know so id wager Blizzard will hold the top 2 positions with Titan and wow.

A-net really need to get a grip, we are being flooded with bad 3d platforming and a cash shop, Diablo III sold over 10 million units in 6 months.
Guild Wars 2 sold over 3 million units in 5 months, i don’t think even today 3 million play gw2, thou i could be wrong.

Peeps quit for various reasons, no endgame is one, and for me unless they quit flooding us with bad 3d platforming Gw2 will have one less.

mesme.5028:

Diablo III sold over 10 million units in 6 months.

And for how long was D3 in development? Why won’t they just release D4?

Why does Blizzard have to resort to the subscriptionmodel + ingamestore?
The problem with WoW is no one knows how many eastern people play it.

kokiman.2364:

mesme.5028:

Diablo III sold over 10 million units in 6 months.

And for how long was D3 in development? Why won’t they just release D4?

Why does Blizzard have to resort to the subscriptionmodel + ingamestore?
The problem with WoW is no one knows how many eastern people play it.

To be honest i have no idea how many play blizzard products, as for Diablo 3 it dead now, but wow wont die even with a subscription, the reason people pay for it? that is simple to answer, around 8 million peeps think the game is worth paying for to play.

One question that comes to my mind is, when Blizzard release Titan and Wow goes free to play, will Gw2 have even the player base that Gw1 has at the moment? i don’t think bad 3d platforming will save it.

mesme.5028:

kokiman.2364:

mesme.5028:

Diablo III sold over 10 million units in 6 months.

And for how long was D3 in development? Why won’t they just release D4?

Why does Blizzard have to resort to the subscriptionmodel + ingamestore?
The problem with WoW is no one knows how many eastern people play it.

To be honest i have no idea how many play blizzard products, as for Diablo 3 it dead now, but wow wont die even with a subscription, the reason people pay for it? that is simple to answer, around 8 million peeps think the game is worth paying for to play.

One question that comes to my mind is, when Blizzard release Titan and Wow goes free to play, will Gw2 have even the player base that Gw1 has at the moment? i don’t think bad 3d platforming will save it.

Titan went back to the drawing board in case you’re not caught up on current events… it’s still years out now.

VOLKON.1290:

mesme.5028:

kokiman.2364:

mesme.5028:

Diablo III sold over 10 million units in 6 months.

And for how long was D3 in development? Why won’t they just release D4?

Why does Blizzard have to resort to the subscriptionmodel + ingamestore?
The problem with WoW is no one knows how many eastern people play it.

To be honest i have no idea how many play blizzard products, as for Diablo 3 it dead now, but wow wont die even with a subscription, the reason people pay for it? that is simple to answer, around 8 million peeps think the game is worth paying for to play.

One question that comes to my mind is, when Blizzard release Titan and Wow goes free to play, will Gw2 have even the player base that Gw1 has at the moment? i don’t think bad 3d platforming will save it.

Titan went back to the drawing board in case you’re not caught up on current events… it’s still years out now.

Especially when the development team was downsized from what I’ve heard.

VOLKON.1290:

mesme.5028:

kokiman.2364:

mesme.5028:

Diablo III sold over 10 million units in 6 months.

And for how long was D3 in development? Why won’t they just release D4?

Why does Blizzard have to resort to the subscriptionmodel + ingamestore?
The problem with WoW is no one knows how many eastern people play it.

To be honest i have no idea how many play blizzard products, as for Diablo 3 it dead now, but wow wont die even with a subscription, the reason people pay for it? that is simple to answer, around 8 million peeps think the game is worth paying for to play.

One question that comes to my mind is, when Blizzard release Titan and Wow goes free to play, will Gw2 have even the player base that Gw1 has at the moment? i don’t think bad 3d platforming will save it.

Titan went back to the drawing board in case you’re not caught up on current events… it’s still years out now.

I know it went back to the drawing board, but the op is talking in 5 years.

Titan….well when this is released it will be a forum repeat of every tittle

‘’no progression’’

‘’wtf this sucks’’

‘’ unbalanced pvp’’

‘’you promised wah wah wah’’

Gw2 at that time would of had much more time to grow and mature, also GW2 is free basically so whenever a new mmo comes a long people are more inclined to play it and try it with WoW its ‘’aaah i have a monthly sub….ill keep playing for a while longer i have put X hours into this game after all’’

Titan: will be ages away i guarantee you there re-developing or designing for the new consoles right now.

annd none of us know wtf titan is anyway so no point in bringing this up, it might be an MMO FPS and that can kiss my shiny baby butt.

DrixTrix.7168:

Titan….well when this is released it will be a forum repeat of every tittle

‘’no progression’’

‘’wtf this sucks’’

‘’ unbalanced pvp’’

‘’you promised wah wah wah’’

Gw2 at that time would of had much more time to grow and mature, also GW2 is free basically so whenever a new mmo comes a long people are more inclined to play it and try it with WoW its ‘’aaah i have a monthly sub….ill keep playing for a while longer i have put X hours into this game after all’’

Titan: will be ages away i guarantee you there re-developing or designing for the new consoles right now.

annd none of us know wtf titan is anyway so no point in bringing this up, it might be an MMO FPS and that can kiss my shiny baby butt.

Don’t misunderstand me, i love gw, i played gw1 for over 5 years and couldn’t have been happier, i bought gw2 around 3 month ago and i am already thinking on quitting, i still play gw1 sometimes, and wish a-net would focus on the main game not the silly mini games and 3d platforming in gw2.

EDIT: If you played gw1 log back in and ask how many got gw2 and were unhappy.

marnick.4305:

GW2 will become #2 by doing something different entirely.

that’s quite an overstatement, and just reeks with fanboy-ism.

GW2 can only kill GW2, GW1 is still alive and well, only way it’ll die is when they decide to stop giving server-support

maddoctor.2738:

Peetee.9406:

GW2 (Launch) = A
Solid and innovative, best MMO since WoW

GW2 (Now) = C-
Substandard cash shop MMO with RNG and poorly designed mini-games.

WoW succeeded because it continued to add features and fix bugs. GW2 seems more interested in farming players pockets.

Care to explain what changed? The same innovation is there, the game is still solid so what changed?

I can tell you what changed, the people running the game changed, GW2 a mile wide and an inch deep..

The game started ok (not great) and then took the nose dive from there, for me the game mostly changed in Nov 2012 went down from there..