Guild Wars 2

Starting, this is an opinion through experience running hundred of hours of content.
Please keep this thread focused on the topic at hand, being changes that can be made
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The Direction for PvE
The current path that ANET has chosen over the years has been rather depressing both in the eyes of hardcore/elite players and in the eyes of casuals, although the views are probably around half and half for good and bad.

Examples would be they have been catering to every single player qq’ing about content being way to “difficult” or “broken” or throwing down pointless updates that make little to no sense leaving us completely in the dark, nerfing dungeons to practically (force) people to do buy and play HoT content, because their dungeon team split up long ago? (Makes sense)

Tangled Depths still fails regularly albeit doesn’t fail as much as it used to fail, but majority of players that really enjoyed TD for the challenge we are still quite upset with the nerf. We as a community lead a lot of TD post nerf, it was exciting to teach people and to help people gain their collections, it was a community effort not just guilds running guilds.

Sure the scaling was horrible at first I will admit it, but NOT for the gerents, just side events (spores) the pre-events bugging and people not receiving their rewards, Rata novus killing on phase 1 bug, Nuhoch being 100% poisoned with 10 stacks, etc.

The only reason why people fail and or failed current and post nerf TD is because they do not know how to play. Straight forward and to the point, people do not know how to burst fury ele, they do not know how to rotate, they do not know how to combo field, they just press skills this is not just my opinion this is a fact from personal experience running with people that just spam 1-0 because “I like this build better”

The same could be said for past content, be it Triple Trouble the Evolved Jungle Wurms or even Tequatl the Sunless.

So far with HoT it’s been rather disappointing Dragon Stand was a huge letdown the actual content itself is boring, repetitive and just lacking any real challenge now that they have nerfed everything aside from RAIDS.

Rewards for the time spent doing these events are not even worth doing.
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Raids
Anet also had high hopes for raids, being their most “challenging” content due to difficulty we have experienced raids as a community for ourselves and it honestly has yet to be difficult it’s just a time sink and a DPS race. The mechanics take some time to learn and after that it’s just having people know their rotations to actually win in the time limit provided.

You then have people who are elites, selling runs to the public who are incapable of doing the content themselves paying them for hundreds and hundreds of gold.

I don’t see how making a timer on something as trivial as learning mechanics is so important to you but that’s how GW2 has also been, timer this, timer that.

I would say though that for the future raids actually put some effort into it, I would argue that a better way to improve raiding to be more challenging would be to add in a system like instabilities where if you kitten up you gain a perma instability or just run the entire raid with every single fractal instability added onto you, that would be a challenge.

The Balance
We still find it completely absurd that they put out an Expansion, Leagues for PvP and all this other stuff practically forcing players again to stop literally stop what they are doing specifically in PvP or WvW an jump on the bandwagon to have any form of a chance against Heralds, Chronomancers, Bunker Tempests, Trap DH and every other class that got buffed leaving the poor thieves and warriors to fend for themselves completely changing the META, and all while still having not done a single thing to BALANCE everything, except for changing the Mesmer precog well, everything aside from this currently is in the same state be it PvE/PvP or WvW.
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ANET asks all the time in their own posts “How can we make this content better?”

My answer would be to stop making the decisions for yourselves and actually listen to your community, get into a lot more of the community runs, if it is a world event if you were to bring more content like the Twisted Marionette (please yes god) then actually participate in a large portion of the community runs and ask us for our individual opinions, possible give us polls to vote on while giving our own comments directly to you, for you to look over and then make the right decisions.

I get it you’re a company you want money to support yourselves and make more content, but listen to your community fully don’t just hear a few words left and right saying “make it easier” and then make that decision to do so.

We understand it Anet you need money and this is a sure as hell good way to scheme people into having no other choice to either BUY or QUIT.

But honestly I am not too upset because this is reality, you can’t have GW2 without payments and you can’t have payments without content being sold.

Sure we can’t tell you how to do your jobs, but we as a community can help lead you towards a more exciting future for guild wars 2, stop leaving us in the dark, actually communicate with us, let us know what you’re doing to the extent that we can actually give our opinions before you throw content/patches/nerfs out at us.
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I probably missed some things, but I think I got out most of the stuff.

What happens when more players want what you feel is harmful to the game? Where would Devs get the most accurate information on how players play the game? How long should players be able to express their opinions (albeit never having played said content) before the content is released? What should happen if some players feel upcoming content/patch/buff/nerf sounds good and other players feel it sounds boring/harmful/bad? What about changes that are good for the overall health of the game, but may not be popular in the short-term? What should be the practice of adding never-before-seen content, considering, as a species, humans are resistant to change? Etc., etc.

All thoughts to ponder….

I think one of the issues may be that there doesn’t seem to be a middle ground when it comes to changes or nerfs. Or at least in the eyes of the players.

Like to me, I see the TD nerf as taking something that require a little bit of effort and coordination to something where the biggest challenge is to not kill it before phase 3 so people can get their achievements.

Nekomi.9562:

I would say though that for the future raids actually put some effort into it, I would argue that a better way to improve raiding to be more challenging would be to add in a system like instabilities where if you kitten up you gain a perma instability or just run the entire raid with every single fractal instability added onto you, that would be a challenge.

I don’t see that happen, because the current state of the raids is the logical step following the game’s progression “effort-wise”. First, there were the dungeons that got perverted by the more vocal part of the community by just running and rushing them. Enter Fractals: Dungeons with much less need to outrun trash-mobs. Raids are just the next step, after which we’ll probably see just a spawn-point in a room with a chest.

As you said, I also never thought raids are challenging, as they just require concentration for about 15 minutes. Measuring and monitoring the failed runs might give insights into data much more responsible for all the “negative” changes games in general require to atract masses of people. Being patient is “hard content” these days…

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What happens when more players want what you feel, and it becomes harmful to the game?

Then they obviously aim for a crossroad between both parties, making it fair and doable but still a challenge rather than destroying the entire mechanics to a basic (Skill 1) fight.

I would argue to say that what I mean by content being harder/challenging is that they need to balance it to be both challenging, fun and rewarding like Tangled Depths was absolutely unbalanced. You had to setup 1-2 hours in advanced to get a 100% chance if not 70% chance at a success with people that wanted to WIN not LEECH or farm HP or map completion and ignore helping each lane. Once you did win the rewards were completely the same as a normal nuhoch vendor.

Afterwhich they did update the meta, but to the same point of Silver Wastes Queen Bee amulet a 0.000000000000001% drop rate (Not worth the time)

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Where would Devs get the most accurate information on how players play the game?

As stated before they would get the best information from people actually in the game doing the content for hours and hours 9100-200 hours on the first week) example; not through content creators that pretty much focus on getting carried through it and then making a short guide through sources that do not focus it 100%.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

How long should players be able to express their opinions (albeit never having played said content) before the content is released?

I would say at least give us the full release don’t start us of at max level actually show us how we are to progress to masteries (This was a problem on release everything was gated behind masteries and HPs and even living stories which they did fix)

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What should happen if some players feel upcoming content/patch/buff/nerf sounds good and other players feel it sounds boring/harmful/bad?

It all depends on the content, giving warriors and thieves a buff to match the current PvP state would be ideal, instead of nerfing revs and the other classes to the ground.

Normally the people complaining about it behind bad just don’t want to lose their “advantage” over other players who don’t play the “broken” classes or content.

They should still ask us what we think, a large portion prefer balance which anet constantly ignores.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What about changes that are good for the overall health of the game, but may not be popular in the short-term?

I assume you mean by the health of the game financially as a company like ANET obviously there is no work around to this unless they asked us to help them fund their stuff but It would be an understanding change rather than pointless change.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What should be the practice of adding never-before-seen content, considering, as a species, humans are resistant to change?

I am a charr, I resist nothing! Raaaah!
They should actually let the consumers test it as a community rather than individually picking players or guilds at random (beta and alpha which they did) but more so everything that they plan to change should be fully or majorily focused rather than “Oh hey new content test it for us!” it should be “Do you think the new combat/skills/whatever work here in HoT and in GW2?”

The main problem is ArenaNet stopped making a Guild Wars sequel and started trying to include every tired mechanic from every MMO out there. I’ve even stopped logging in for the daily freebie (which should have never been added). Sadly, I think I’m done here and off to BDO, at least character creation will be a fun diversion.

Nekomi.9562:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What happens when more players want what you feel, and it becomes harmful to the game?

Then they obviously aim for a crossroad between both parties, making it fair and doable but still a challenge rather than destroying the entire mechanics to a basic (Skill 1) fight.

I would argue to say that what I mean by content being harder/challenging is that they need to balance it to be both challenging, fun and rewarding like Tangled Depths was absolutely unbalanced. You had to setup 1-2 hours in advanced to get a 100% chance if not 70% chance at a success with people that wanted to WIN not LEECH or farm HP or map completion and ignore helping each lane. Once you did win the rewards were completely the same as a normal nuhoch vendor.

Afterwhich they did update the meta, but to the same point of Silver Wastes Queen Bee amulet a 0.000000000000001% drop rate (Not worth the time)

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Where would Devs get the most accurate information on how players play the game?

As stated before they would get the best information from people actually in the game doing the content for hours and hours 9100-200 hours on the first week) example; not through content creators that pretty much focus on getting carried through it and then making a short guide through sources that do not focus it 100%.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

How long should players be able to express their opinions (albeit never having played said content) before the content is released?

I would say at least give us the full release don’t start us of at max level actually show us how we are to progress to masteries (This was a problem on release everything was gated behind masteries and HPs and even living stories which they did fix)

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What should happen if some players feel upcoming content/patch/buff/nerf sounds good and other players feel it sounds boring/harmful/bad?

It all depends on the content, giving warriors and thieves a buff to match the current PvP state would be ideal, instead of nerfing revs and the other classes to the ground.

Normally the people complaining about it behind bad just don’t want to lose their “advantage” over other players who don’t play the “broken” classes or content.

They should still ask us what we think, a large portion prefer balance which anet constantly ignores.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What about changes that are good for the overall health of the game, but may not be popular in the short-term?

I assume you mean by the health of the game financially as a company like ANET obviously there is no work around to this unless they asked us to help them fund their stuff but It would be an understanding change rather than pointless change.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What should be the practice of adding never-before-seen content, considering, as a species, humans are resistant to change?

I am a charr, I resist nothing! Raaaah!
They should actually let the consumers test it as a community rather than individually picking players or guilds at random (beta and alpha which they did) but more so everything that they plan to change should be fully or majorily focused rather than “Oh hey new content test it for us!” it should be “Do you think the new combat/skills/whatever work here in HoT and in GW2?”

If you are going to quote me, please don’t edit my posts to say what YOU would like to read. Thank you.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Nekomi.9562:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What happens when more players want what you feel, and it becomes harmful to the game?

Then they obviously aim for a crossroad between both parties, making it fair and doable but still a challenge rather than destroying the entire mechanics to a basic (Skill 1) fight.

I would argue to say that what I mean by content being harder/challenging is that they need to balance it to be both challenging, fun and rewarding like Tangled Depths was absolutely unbalanced. You had to setup 1-2 hours in advanced to get a 100% chance if not 70% chance at a success with people that wanted to WIN not LEECH or farm HP or map completion and ignore helping each lane. Once you did win the rewards were completely the same as a normal nuhoch vendor.

Afterwhich they did update the meta, but to the same point of Silver Wastes Queen Bee amulet a 0.000000000000001% drop rate (Not worth the time)

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Where would Devs get the most accurate information on how players play the game?

As stated before they would get the best information from people actually in the game doing the content for hours and hours 9100-200 hours on the first week) example; not through content creators that pretty much focus on getting carried through it and then making a short guide through sources that do not focus it 100%.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

How long should players be able to express their opinions (albeit never having played said content) before the content is released?

I would say at least give us the full release don’t start us of at max level actually show us how we are to progress to masteries (This was a problem on release everything was gated behind masteries and HPs and even living stories which they did fix)

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What should happen if some players feel upcoming content/patch/buff/nerf sounds good and other players feel it sounds boring/harmful/bad?

It all depends on the content, giving warriors and thieves a buff to match the current PvP state would be ideal, instead of nerfing revs and the other classes to the ground.

Normally the people complaining about it behind bad just don’t want to lose their “advantage” over other players who don’t play the “broken” classes or content.

They should still ask us what we think, a large portion prefer balance which anet constantly ignores.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What about changes that are good for the overall health of the game, but may not be popular in the short-term?

I assume you mean by the health of the game financially as a company like ANET obviously there is no work around to this unless they asked us to help them fund their stuff but It would be an understanding change rather than pointless change.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What should be the practice of adding never-before-seen content, considering, as a species, humans are resistant to change?

I am a charr, I resist nothing! Raaaah!
They should actually let the consumers test it as a community rather than individually picking players or guilds at random (beta and alpha which they did) but more so everything that they plan to change should be fully or majorily focused rather than “Oh hey new content test it for us!” it should be “Do you think the new combat/skills/whatever work here in HoT and in GW2?”

If you are going to quote me, please don’t edit my posts to say what YOU would like to read. Thank you.

Only edited the first part to make more sense.
What happens when more players want what you feel is harmful to the game?
to
What happens when more players want what you feel, and it becomes harmful to the game?

BilboBaggins.5620:

The main problem is ArenaNet stopped making a Guild Wars sequel and started trying to include every tired mechanic from every MMO out there. I’ve even stopped logging in for the daily freebie (which should have never been added). Sadly, I think I’m done here and off to BDO, at least character creation will be a fun diversion.

Personally I see the attempt to make GW2 like other mmos is a nice change but their going about it all wrong, as in their doing it on their own / hiring new teams without really consulting what the community truly wants, I get that both sides can’t get what they want an there will always be a problem but if they just sit down seriously and actually one on one talk with people in some form be it streaming / forums / reddit then people would be able to come together to agree on something that works all over PvP/PvE/WvW.

If that makes sense.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What happens when more players want what you feel is harmful to the game? Where would Devs get the most accurate information on how players play the game? How long should players be able to express their opinions (albeit never having played said content) before the content is released? What should happen if some players feel upcoming content/patch/buff/nerf sounds good and other players feel it sounds boring/harmful/bad? What about changes that are good for the overall health of the game, but may not be popular in the short-term? What should be the practice of adding never-before-seen content, considering, as a species, humans are resistant to change? Etc., etc.

All thoughts to ponder….

This is quite an interesting post, really. But I would like to take the example of long time health out of this specifically. Mr Smith(that is the name of the economy guy of Anet, right?) is an economist. He probably has some impressive credibility from an university or economy school, and his mayor was hopefully also economy. I am also pretty sure he´s from the neo liberal school of economy because that is the thing to be in right now, although corporate identity and more relaxed economy is surely making bounds and leaps on that in creative industries.
So if my prediction is right, Mr Smith has no clue about(or even worse, he has a clue and does not use it) and also no interest in sustainability. And he is right in a certain way in thinking this way, that is the way modern economy works. Sadly this kind of economy will be the band on theTiitanic of modern capitalism so to speak if things continue to go down the drain like they did in the last 15 years.

But how do you probably ask does this stand against the credentials of officially business smart people?
*Obvious evidence like banks crashing, banks too big to fail, the real estate bubble, corporate buyouts with taxes.
*Other officially business smart people like Werner Sinn from the ifo institue who is resigning in march and does not have any more political restrains and now can honestly say how continual growth is an illusion and will have reached it´s limit soon.

tl:dr Hire a neoliberal economist and you get what you paid for.

Nekomi.9562:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Nekomi.9562:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What happens when more players want what you feel, and it becomes harmful to the game?

Then they obviously aim for a crossroad between both parties, making it fair and doable but still a challenge rather than destroying the entire mechanics to a basic (Skill 1) fight.

I would argue to say that what I mean by content being harder/challenging is that they need to balance it to be both challenging, fun and rewarding like Tangled Depths was absolutely unbalanced. You had to setup 1-2 hours in advanced to get a 100% chance if not 70% chance at a success with people that wanted to WIN not LEECH or farm HP or map completion and ignore helping each lane. Once you did win the rewards were completely the same as a normal nuhoch vendor.

Afterwhich they did update the meta, but to the same point of Silver Wastes Queen Bee amulet a 0.000000000000001% drop rate (Not worth the time)

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Where would Devs get the most accurate information on how players play the game?

As stated before they would get the best information from people actually in the game doing the content for hours and hours 9100-200 hours on the first week) example; not through content creators that pretty much focus on getting carried through it and then making a short guide through sources that do not focus it 100%.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

How long should players be able to express their opinions (albeit never having played said content) before the content is released?

I would say at least give us the full release don’t start us of at max level actually show us how we are to progress to masteries (This was a problem on release everything was gated behind masteries and HPs and even living stories which they did fix)

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What should happen if some players feel upcoming content/patch/buff/nerf sounds good and other players feel it sounds boring/harmful/bad?

It all depends on the content, giving warriors and thieves a buff to match the current PvP state would be ideal, instead of nerfing revs and the other classes to the ground.

Normally the people complaining about it behind bad just don’t want to lose their “advantage” over other players who don’t play the “broken” classes or content.

They should still ask us what we think, a large portion prefer balance which anet constantly ignores.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What about changes that are good for the overall health of the game, but may not be popular in the short-term?

I assume you mean by the health of the game financially as a company like ANET obviously there is no work around to this unless they asked us to help them fund their stuff but It would be an understanding change rather than pointless change.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

What should be the practice of adding never-before-seen content, considering, as a species, humans are resistant to change?

I am a charr, I resist nothing! Raaaah!
They should actually let the consumers test it as a community rather than individually picking players or guilds at random (beta and alpha which they did) but more so everything that they plan to change should be fully or majorily focused rather than “Oh hey new content test it for us!” it should be “Do you think the new combat/skills/whatever work here in HoT and in GW2?”

If you are going to quote me, please don’t edit my posts to say what YOU would like to read. Thank you.

Only edited the first part to make more sense.
What happens when more players want what you feel is harmful to the game?
to
What happens when more players want what you feel, and it becomes harmful to the game?

It makes no sense, at all; I am not sure what that player feels, nor is it relevant. If you want to comment on another player’s feelings, please don’t edit posts and then quote them. Thank you.