Guild Wars 2

Instead of investing on the uniqueness of GW1 like the lack of focus on a level cap, loot drops, highly adjustable character build system, highly focused PVE and PVP, Realistic Art styles set in real world cultural environments, battles that required strategy and teamwork instead of spam or zerg groups, etc. etc. made the GW1 really stand out on the shelf. To me GW2 is too much like other games that I already played and it has been a disappointment for me because I was hoping to continue GW1 in an updated version that offered more of the same play style but with a complete facelift to it. When I play GW2 It makes me wish I was playing GW1 again. Then I remember all those hours I spent in GW1 day dreaming about GW2 and looking forward to the new challenge.

For people that haven’t played games like WoW,Rift,or games like that for a number of years GW2 is probably “new” to you. If you never played GW1 you wouldn’t know how different this game is. I noticed a lot of players that I met that played WoW jumped to GW2 looking for salvation but only found more of the same and went back to playing WoW again once the new hype wore off. A lot of the people I met that still play this game never played WoW or games like it before. I noticed that GW1 players either hate or love GW2 or stick in the middle as they adjust to the new changes or went back to GW1 altogether.

I will say it’s hard to log into GW1 and not bump into someone that actually likes GW2. I think most players currently still playing GW1 loathe GW2 since it meant the end of GW1 and any future changes for it.

For me playing GW2 feels like I’m playing an alternate version of WoW mashed in with Guildwars. Choosing not to play WoW because I was tired of it and playing GW2 only to be reminded of how burnt out I was of those type of MMO’s really never motivated me much to play this game. The saving grace for me in an mmo is usually the community but MMO culture has really changed. People don’t group or talk they like to solo. There’s really nothing in this game that you actually need a guild for except for guild specific stuff like guild missions or bounties. With LFG and most of the main content being “zergable” A guild is hardly needed. The only time I’ve seen a guild matter is in WvsW and that’s usually because of their level of teamwork. Since this game follows the Warcraft type of style but doesn’t have raids exactly you don’t necessarily need a guild.

In GW1 guilds really weren’t needed either unless you were interested in competitive PVP. Even playing with other players wasn’t needed much because you had your Heroes. This left a pretty detached feeling a lot of times when you PVE’d in GW1 unless you invited a buddy to come along or felt like “Party Searching” for actual people for certain missions. You did however need real people for those hard—- GW1 dungeons. I thought that GW2 would somehow incorporate the MM in MMO better but their idea of this were just world bosses that required Zergs while everything else is largely soloable minus fractals.

So in closing I say that GW2 for me was a let down because it didn’t continue to carry on the lessons that GW1 taught. Instead it abandons them and takes note out of the books of other MMO’s. What I see in the future for GW2 is that as soon as a more unique mmo experience comes along GW2 might loose some steam. Right now MMO’s players are stuck in limbo. They play games they’re tired of while still searching for a replacement but end up falling on Appetizers in the mean time. Really GW2’s biggest problem is that it’s new paint on an old house. Underneath it all it’s still the same grind to shine format as every other dime a dozen mmo. It currently might offer a newer spin on it but it’s not enough to sustain the next “Guildwars” (as in a unique mmo-ish game that breaks the mold as GW1 originally did) type of game coming out.

I think I’ve felt both frustration and optimism about this game. The way I think about it is this….

Playing Guild Wars 2 is like taking your second-choice date to prom.

You’re happy. You will have a good time. There’s nothing wrong with your date. But it wasn’t the date you really wanted. And the more you think about wanting that other person, the less happy you’ll be.

I think most of us wanted more from GW2. That doesn’t mean the content we got is bad, though. I’ve gone back and forth with the Living World strategy – it reached a high point around the Bazaar stage and I remember saying, “Oh man! They’re getting their feet under them! This is going to be great!”

Then we had a few more disappointing releases and a lot more open-world zergfests.

I believe ArenaNet is a company of smart people who care deeply about this game but are working in a severely limited development environment. I don’t know if it’s because the code is a mess or the tools aren’t quite right or the engine just can’t handle the art they wish they could do or what. I’m utterly perplexed that they haven’t expanded the world we play in yet, 18 months in. I question whether zergy overflow fests are really the way of the future. I mourn the loss of each guild member who leaves (or stops representing) my small community so they can kill Tequatl or Wurm with TTS instead.

All that said, because ArenaNet is full of smart people who care, I think they’re also able to take the feedback we’re giving them and do better. Remember, they’re trying something new and expecting them to get it right the first time is maybe expecting too much.

I think Living World Season 2 will be a bellweather for this game’s future and I really hope they succeed.

Anyway, that’s my two cents.

“Since release I’ve been playing GW2 off and on trying to make it work for me but the truth is this isn’t what I was looking for.”

You answered your own question, the game isn’t what you were looking for.

Good synopsis. I agree with the OP.

I’m not into the gear grind mentality, and GW2 doesn’t have the appeal of the original in terms of gameplay (solo builds, team builds, etc) and content (zergs, no please) to keep me going.
So I just play for a couple of days after each update (which are underwhelming most of the time) and then I’m off to other games I enjoy.

The OP is right, as a huge GW1, I am not finding the goodness of the original in the sequel. But whatever, not all games are meant for everyone. All is good.

I will agree that I too sometimes think I just miss GW1. I respect and love gw2 for all it has done but I want almost all the things gw1 had. The story I remember well from gw1, I cant even really tell you the plot of gw2, dragon messing things up and must be stopped. Defense at Lions arch was fun and interesting part I remember but thats about it, to much of the talking with random background like a comic book not as much ingame actions and cut scenes. Do not give up though, push for change and work with community for it to happen. At the end of the day Dev want to make us happy too.

I absolutely loved this game, loved being the key word. I still log in daily to get my daily out of the way and chat with my guildies but I’m bored. I think the previous 2 LS patches were great but this last one was boring. I’m also very disappointed that there are so many bugs with the main attraction to this patch, e.g. if zoning into the main server the Miasma level bar is full. Does this affect the game in anyway? No. But it just leaves that unpolished taste in my mouth.

The amount of QoL changes, which really aren’t QoL changes but how things should just be is enormous. They keep promising that the big patch will solve a lot of things, but that is my last straw. That patch. period. If they don’t address the list of things that are buggy/not user friendly, I will be done.

Like I said, I did love this game, but there are others on the horizon that will probably get my attention.

It’s funny because the gear grind here is worse than it is in WoW.

It is a game, you don’t like it, no one but you can decide.

If you are not enjoying the game, then you are not wrong by quitting. I would say that for anyone out there that feels the same way.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

It’s funny because the gear grind here is worse than it is in WoW.

Really then you did not play the same WoW that I did. Because although how much I loved running a raid once a week for an entire year for the hopes that it dropped the piece of equipment that I need was ‘fun’. /sarcasm

OP. Sounds like the game might just not be for you. This is a separate game from GW1, it is not an updated version of it. Take a break and maybe in a few months you will want to come back. If not good luck with what ever game you choose.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

It’s funny because the gear grind here is worse than it is in WoW.

Ugh, nothing is worse than the grind in WoW. Raid for months and months hoping against hope for your item with a teensy tiny drop rate chance to drop, then when it finally does, you have to roll on it against all the trolls that want to shard it in front of you.

All this is before you can play the current content. Then 6 months later they drop a new raid and you have to do it all over again!

Karizee.8076:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

It’s funny because the gear grind here is worse than it is in WoW.

Ugh, nothing is worse than the grind in WoW. Raid for months and months hoping against hope for your item with a teensy tiny drop rate chance to drop, then when it finally does, you have to roll on it against all the trolls that want to shard it in front of you.

All this is before you can play the current content. Then 6 months later they drop a new raid and you have to do it all over again!

Gold raids weren’t popular where you played? Simply buying the stuff you need and earn money while raiding was the best gearing option i had in a MMO.

Yeah the gear grind is not like WoW’s. GW2 is actually in a position to make the most accessible raids ever, considering there is no gear treadmill (ascended is a trick, with the exception of trinkets.) Unfortunately, everything is doomed to the open world, so the real magic will never happen. Play it very casually, and all will be well.

TLDR

If you don’t like the game, don’t play it. If you still tried this game months later and you still don’t like it, don’t play it. 99% chance the game does not suit you. Do not force yourself on it.

Hear hear! A great post.

I ve been thinking and trying for the longest time to do a write up like this but gave up.
Because for all the flaws listed with the game one thing trumps them all:

ANET does not listen, ANET does not answer.

http://web.archive.org/web/20130201042944/http://www.arena.net/blog/is-it-fun-colin-johanson-on-how-arenanet-measures-success
Where is my Guild Wars 2, where is my fun?

People change, even our most favorite stuff gets stale, that is why something that you liked most before, can be bothersome at times. It’s just the natural order of things for us humans. I could say the same story with my experience with Diablo, and I threw in the towel for D3 (hated what it has become), but unlike you, I have never made any goodbye post to any community about any game that I loved.

Got tired of Warcraft 1, I said goodbye to the fond memories. Have enjoyed War 2, but have to move on again. War 3 was great, but it WAS great and I have to leave it too.
Same for Stacraft 1/BW, made so many friends, made stories, but it gets boring in time
SC2 is awesome graphics wise, story wise, I fell out of love
The Sims, what can I say, burned my pocket with all the expansions
Sims 2 and other iterations, I could care less after playing a few times
Sim City was awesome for me, except the last 2 iterations. I was hoping the latest will bring me back, but it turned me away even more

I could name you a lot of examples, like, I used to play Basketball, and Chess and I will have my eyes glued reading Naruto and Onepiece manga….

BUT we are human being, we crave for what we love. Sometimes, those we love before, are no more, sometimes, we just grow out of it, sometimes we get so used to it, sometimes we get really tired of it.

So I have embraced that part of me. I usually send email to the devs and developers whenever I moved on, hoping it will reach them and provide them feedback. After that, I move on to the next thing: be it virtual or real life hobbies.

I understand that you said this game was different from what you were expecting, from Gw1. But hey, not everyone share the same taste as you, and the devs have their basis of making this game for what it is now. And the reality of things are: they can’t please everyone.

I wish you well, good luck, and may you have fun in your next adventure!

I never felt the need to grind in WoW. I’m pretty casual these days so I just do lfr and get geared up in a month or two. And I like raids. What does a few hours a week in gw2 get me in terms of gear?

It takes me a week to get a set of pvp gear, and since PvE gear is scaled down and doesn’t have any pvp stats there is no need for PvE BiS. Here you need to grind out ascended (legendary soon!) or else you’re at a disadvantage in WvW. Nothing is scaled down.

Agree with OP. I loved how GW1 worked with focus on story and developing yourself like you wanted without any need for grind. GW2 is still GW1’s lore, but sadly with boring quests (hearts) with little to no variation or story backing. The main aspect of the game is also no long story and pvp with a heavy story backing, but trading post flipping and standing in LA.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

I never felt the need to grind in WoW. I’m pretty casual these days so I just do lfr and get geared up in a month or two. And I like raids. What does a few hours a week in gw2 get me in terms of gear?

It takes me a week to get a set of pvp gear, and since PvE gear is scaled down and doesn’t have any pvp stats there is no need for PvE BiS. Here you need to grind out ascended (legendary soon!) or else you’re at a disadvantage in WvW. Nothing is scaled down.

Just because you didn’t feel the need to grind doesn’t mean it wasn’t nessecary to grind.

In WoW you could take a break for a year and by the time you came back you would be behind everyone else by 2-3 tiers of gear.
Here it is 1 tier with not much of a stat increase.

Also, in WoW PvE gear is better than PvP gear(haven’t played since 2012 so it may have changed by now).
Here everyone has the same gear in PvP. Unless you are talking about WvW, which is concidered PvE.

The game is fine. Aside from some QoL stuff and the kittenload of bugs. I can live with that.

BUT. I can’t live with no single meaningful content update. Put Fractals and Southsun aside. There was no addition of a single area, zone, campaign, new playable race etc etc. Content the community is asking for.

It’s OK to wait two years for such a hunge addon or expansion. But we didn’t get even a single update on it. I really don’t understand the secretive behaviour of anet. Why don’t they openly communicate what they want to implement. Every MMO company I know does that and they will bring this content as well.
My only guess is: they simply don’t have the capacity. Why else can you explain that there are sometimes simple bugs they are in the game since betas and haven’t been fixed.

Original Guild Wars was such a master game. The atmosphere, the story, the characters the way it worked, it was such a big adventure.

If Guild Wars just had more players playing it, I would jump back to it in an instant. I wish ArenaNet never put the game on autopilot, and could just continue on with that game instead.

Guild Wars 2 is a generic mmo. Guild Wars 1 was a complete, well thought out world of imagination and loads of fun. Anyone reading this should know. If you loved GW1 you will not be happy with GW2. they share a name only. Jeff Strains vision is no where to be found in GW2. Anet has said they feel pretty much every aspect of GW1 was wrong and purposely made GW2 the exact opposite. Recently the co-founder of Anet left to join Dead Labs founded by Jeff Strain (founder of Anet, and driving force behind GW1.). MMO’s are all making the same mistake it seems they make their game a WOW clone and it fails. Hopefully the future is brighter. SWTOR is a 300 mil failure financially. Blizzard put their new mmo back into alpha testing and moved some of it’s development teams to work on other projects. All the mmo game co’s need to do is listen to the players. But they absolutely refuse to do so. I think I can safely say in 5 years or less, MMO’s will no longer exist as they do today. Even a former developer from WOW said they killed the genre. There are no inventive or creative games anymore. They all seem the same. I read an article the other day that said as of it’s posting GW2 had sold 3.6 million copies, but only had approx. 460k of regular players. That is a pretty big gap. I’d call it a failure except they do not live on subs. I suppose it’s possible the 460k of players bring in enough money via in game purchases. But I doubt it. Chat in game seems to lean towards little or no real money being spent. Most say they would never pay real money for anything offered.

Sad.. I was so excited when they announced GW2. Now.. I play because it’s free and just to pass the time.

Naus the Gobbo.5172:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

I never felt the need to grind in WoW. I’m pretty casual these days so I just do lfr and get geared up in a month or two. And I like raids. What does a few hours a week in gw2 get me in terms of gear?

It takes me a week to get a set of pvp gear, and since PvE gear is scaled down and doesn’t have any pvp stats there is no need for PvE BiS. Here you need to grind out ascended (legendary soon!) or else you’re at a disadvantage in WvW. Nothing is scaled down.

Just because you didn’t feel the need to grind doesn’t mean it wasn’t nessecary to grind.

In WoW you could take a break for a year and by the time you came back you would be behind everyone else by 2-3 tiers of gear.
Here it is 1 tier with not much of a stat increase.

Also, in WoW PvE gear is better than PvP gear(haven’t played since 2012 so it may have changed by now).
Here everyone has the same gear in PvP. Unless you are talking about WvW, which is concidered PvE.

I took a break from WoW for 7 months to play this game. I went back to WoW and was ready for the latest raid in under a week because blizzard provided catch up mechanics. PvE gear lacks pvp power which is required to overcome the inherent 70%+ damage reduction all players have. You can have great PvE gear but you’ll hit like a wet noodle.

Fact is, WoW holds closer to the gw2 manifesto than gw2 itself by reducing grind and increasing accessibility. And I still have fun and plenty to do after 6 years with that game.

It was only $60. I would not feel guilty over trying every single other game out there. We take this too seriously. Have you tried Eve Online? Everyone should try it once. There is no going back, I tried to go back it did not work second time around, but once was epic.

Guild Wars 2 is more of a generic MMO than Guild Wars 1 ever was.
It’s not a sequel, It’s a completely new game.
Almost all core aspects that made original game unique were removed.

I know the feels @ OP.
I still have high hopes though with the game. Anet is a great company with great passion, work ethics and resources. Endless possibilities! Slowly but surely gw2 will become that game we all are looking for.

i would be bored if i didnt have anything to aim for like crafting gear but i guess its a matter of personality.
i played lineage 2 where grinding was endless and i have to say gw2 grind is a baby in front of it.
i just need to have something to aim for i will quit if there is not anything to do.

Right now i just log for the dailies… and tequatl once per day if i can i do the 3 headed wurm with my guild…those bosses are the only thing that need coordination ond an organization… the rest of time i’m not online or afk, and the RNG system makes doing bosses not worth at all of the time i spend in game! What brought me to gw2 was the idea of dynamic events and living story, yet it was not my idea of ls… i hoped in a story made by us players as in a full rpg…where we could actually change the world around us with our actions…and the war between guilds or between 2 factions (like one that wants to awake the elder dragons while the other wants to protect Tyria) could be the role playing scenario…

Evon Skyfyre.9673:

Guild Wars 2 is a generic mmo. Guild Wars 1 was a complete, well thought out world of imagination and loads of fun. Anyone reading this should know. If you loved GW1 you will not be happy with GW2. they share a name only. Jeff Strains vision is no where to be found in GW2. Anet has said they feel pretty much every aspect of GW1 was wrong and purposely made GW2 the exact opposite. Recently the co-founder of Anet left to join Dead Labs founded by Jeff Strain (founder of Anet, and driving force behind GW1.). MMO’s are all making the same mistake it seems they make their game a WOW clone and it fails. Hopefully the future is brighter. SWTOR is a 300 mil failure financially. Blizzard put their new mmo back into alpha testing and moved some of it’s development teams to work on other projects. All the mmo game co’s need to do is listen to the players. But they absolutely refuse to do so. I think I can safely say in 5 years or less, MMO’s will no longer exist as they do today. Even a former developer from WOW said they killed the genre. There are no inventive or creative games anymore. They all seem the same. I read an article the other day that said as of it’s posting GW2 had sold 3.6 million copies, but only had approx. 460k of regular players. That is a pretty big gap. I’d call it a failure except they do not live on subs. I suppose it’s possible the 460k of players bring in enough money via in game purchases. But I doubt it. Chat in game seems to lean towards little or no real money being spent. Most say they would never pay real money for anything offered.

Sad.. I was so excited when they announced GW2. Now.. I play because it’s free and just to pass the time.

I must applaud the meager attempts to begin to open up the conversation to the player base by ANET in the recent months with the CDI discussion posts, but overall its hard not to think about the past mistakes, the broken visions, and the eternal carrot that is being offered most players. To be completely honest, most players I know of only log on nowadays because of a lack of anything else to play (although more and more players are going to individual games which might explain the large gap mentioned above) and the fact that there is no subscription and therefore is little reason to completely uninstall. One fact that I never did understand about the discussions taken place is that if player ideas were taken a bit more seriously then financial opportunities would be easier to see. (Prime example is the WvW community and wxp ability reset via the gem store)

To the OP, no you are not wrong to quit a game because it isn’t fun anymore, games are meant to be fun.

As someone who knows that the game has a lot of potential, I am willing to wait. But to what extent?

A R W E N.6895:

As someone who knows that the game has a lot of potential, I am willing to wait. But to what extent?

Well every thing has potential when you do not know how games work or how programing works or how human interaction works online. The “I quit post” tend to be on the lines of “I will stop paying” “I will hold my breath till something happens” “I will slam my head on the wall” its means nothing but a tantrum. This will lead to nothing as they all do in every forum on every game that has come or will come.

I never played GW1, but i did play WoW for several years and GW2 is not one bit simillar to WoW, this game is NOT a classic MMORPG, I don’t know what game have you guys been playing, because your comments and complaints don’t match the reality of the game, not one bit.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

It’s funny because the gear grind here is worse than it is in WoW.

I’m actually back playing WoW. I had come to GW2 to escape the grind among other things and, since Nov-12, GW2 is the grindiest game I’ve ever played. WoW is a piece of cake in comparison. In WoW I can grind out a set of gear in 1-2 months and I’m done grinding for the rest of the tier. Here the grind is never over. GW2 has taught me that a fast steep grind is far less grindy than a long slow one that is never over. And, I can maintain alts in WoW—good luck gearing them up in GW2.

Raine.1394:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

It’s funny because the gear grind here is worse than it is in WoW.

I’m actually back playing WoW. I had come to GW2 to escape the grind among other things and, since Nov-12, GW2 is the grindiest game I’ve ever played. WoW is a piece of cake in comparison. In WoW I can grind out a set of gear in 1-2 months and I’m done grinding for the rest of the tier. Here the grind is never over. GW2 has taught me that a fast steep grind is far less grindy than a long slow one that is never over. And, I can maintain alts in WoW—good luck gearing them up in GW2.

There is no required grind in GW2 in WoW there is it as simple as that.

Jski.6180:

A R W E N.6895:

As someone who knows that the game has a lot of potential, I am willing to wait. But to what extent?

Well every thing has potential when you do not know how games work or how programing works or how human interaction works online. The “I quit post” tend to be on the lines of “I will stop paying” “I will hold my breath till something happens” “I will slam my head on the wall” its means nothing but a tantrum. This will lead to nothing as they all do in every forum on every game that has come or will come.

I do have knowledge of programming and applied mathematics and statistics. Your point is?

When I see that little things that could be implemented to the game that are not being added, or that bugs are being masked with other bugs something, I start wondering why it is like that.

For example:
Many exploits have been fixed in this game by adding invisible wall instead of fixing the thing properly.

Now, as I know and from what I read here, people are not asking for huge things. It is simply a collection of small little things that could be added to the game. But Indeed if you take all these small things, it does in the end become really big.

If living story and the love of just playing now enough to hold you over than you are not wrong for leaving. Player wanted content is not as big as you would expect GW2 to be. They give you what they want, which is a love/hate. Love what they give hate what they don’t.

but it goes downhill when the love/hate ratio goes toward hate.

A R W E N.6895:

Jski.6180:

A R W E N.6895:

As someone who knows that the game has a lot of potential, I am willing to wait. But to what extent?

Well every thing has potential when you do not know how games work or how programing works or how human interaction works online. The “I quit post” tend to be on the lines of “I will stop paying” “I will hold my breath till something happens” “I will slam my head on the wall” its means nothing but a tantrum. This will lead to nothing as they all do in every forum on every game that has come or will come.

I do have knowledge of programming and applied mathematics and statistics. Your point is?

When I see that little things that could be implemented to the game that are not being added, or that bugs are being masked with other bugs something, I start wondering why it is like that.

For example:
Many exploits have been fixed in this game by adding invisible wall instead of fixing the thing properly.

Now, as I know and from what I read here, people are not asking for huge things. It is simply a collection of small little things that could be added to the game. But Indeed if you take all these small things, it does in the end become really big.

My point is that GW2 is compared to a game that is not an mmorpg GW1 you must compare it to other mmorpgs like WoW EQ etc.. That is the point of view you need to grind other mmorpgs. It would not be fair to compare ESO to the older ES games that where not online too. There are just simple truth you need to keep in mind when dealing with an mmorpg.
1. Its is online with a positing world this means to just throw free items at ppl will destroy the gold system and the over all economy.
2. To just make events so complex that you may or may not find needed would have soo many bugs and so much lag that it will get in the way.
3. To let dmg have no cap mainly aoe and condition dmg the server lag would be so bad that the game would be unplayable.
4. If the story makes your hero too important or not important enofe then the ideal of having other real ppl there seems pointless there is a need to keep players from being the end all be all in a story but at the same time not so far apart that they have no worth. Its a very hard balancing act.
5. Any type of balancing takes time years of time players find tricks that game makers do not even think about because the players tend to use these tools more then the game makers.
6. Update do not happen over night nor do they happen after faster when ppl make up times and then get mad at it. There is a very bad thing going on with these games all mmorpgs ppl are trolling update times and patch notes “every one like puppy and every one hates bills” type of notes so any thing but the fake notes seems worthless. ALOT of ppl are being fool by this type of trolling.
7. Things take time a lot of time to truly fixes something may bug out something comply different and much like real life a temp. fix tend to be better then a full fix this is how human live because ppl forget about the time cost of doing a real fix and what could be used with that time other then trying to fix something.

And here is where a testing environment comes in handy.

Gw2 is a sequel to Gw1. Some will say in name other not. But when the core of its predecesor feels like it has been put to the trash, then maybe rename Gw2 to something else, and do not say that it a sequel to gw1 because Imo it is a shame of what Gw2 has become compared to Gw1.

People are asking for small thing, but they get the complete opposite. Tell me, who is playing the game? the Dev or the player?

Who makes a game healthy? The Dev or the player?
Who brings in a flow of money to anet? The Dev or the player?

Now please try to understand that both of them need each other. Both of them have to work toguether in order to make this game become greater.

I feel that right now, we are like guinee pigs playing a beta game and we are lead to believe that something great will come (CDI circus la la la).

Other companies are more transparent, they give the player their ideas, they discuss it, and hence making their game better. But why am I not seeing this here? Why is it that I only see 1 side oppening up to the other but nothing comes back to them. I see plenty of great ideas from playing, and then the feedback they get is ‘’great idea, we will discuss it during meeting’’. All i have to say to that is a big LOL.

Other companies even have things called hackaton where people are free to implement their idea in this testing environment. Companies that are able to this are actually able to acknowleged that there is talented programmer everywhere else and that they are not the only one who can do that.

It’s been months now that people have been listing bugs, giving idea etc. But where is all that. And this is what I mean by being negative. What I am saying trully shows that I am negative right now. And I hope like some other that this negative feeling diminishes and that I can finally start saying ‘’kitten this game is freakin awesome, the Dev litteraly surpassed themselves and they did take the ideas from the player’’.

I hope that I can say something like one day, meanwhile ill just be here and trying to voice my opinion on this forum since I can actually have feedback from other player. (nothing like on the french forum, since I speak french as a main language).

I’ve never played GW1 but I still feel the same thing: GW2 is not what I expected. Take the appetiser and move on (although it’s not for free). Took me several 100 hours to get fed up on them which is actually a good hours per buck ratio for a major company game.

The only difference between today and back to the days of our favorite games is that we had variety back then. A broad variety of edgy creations- something for everyone to love or hate and no less. Today a game is considered a fail if it only caters to one audience. Today, gaming industry is a very serious business and it already established “which product sells”. They don’t want to create “art” -they want to make money. On the other hand, gaming has become part of our society so perhaps this will change some day.

There are already a few developers who care for their games as a masterpiece- not as a product. The way quite alot of things in GW2 are leaves me with no doubt there are at least a few devs of this type working for anet too. Maybe their vision got mixed up with marketing strategies. Maybe there are not enough of them. However, I still give them credit and I think it’s important to submit Anet this kind of feedback, so these devs will have more of a say in their future projects (including coming patches for gw2).

Nope!, I gave up on this game 6 months ago and so glad I did!. Huge fan of GW1 played for 6 years, GW2 isn’t what I imagine it to be aka boring with very little feeling of accomplishment (except for fractal level 50 before they lower the level).

I think it’s an overall great game and has absolutely worthed every cent of its cost, but when you look closely it has too many things that could have worked better if done in another way.

Let’s think for example on the loot system.
Surrounding players not becoming a nuissance for your own gameplay might seem a step forward at first glance. It has proven, however, to have clear downsides.

The first of them is the zerg gameplay.
Having content specifically designed for large groups of people isn’t bad at all; it provides some sense of epicness that many people like.

I honestly think this was the original idea behind World Bosses. Pre-events would trigger, the word would spread and most people playing in the map would gather to fight the beast. This was probably true for the first weeks after release, but eventually many zones became less populated and these encounters showed to be poorly designed and not worth the effort.
The real open world profit source was indeed about large groups of players, just done in a different, and probably unintended, way. It was pretty much about “exploiting” the combination of both loot and scaling (another awesome idea on its own) systems, zerging regular event chains (mainly around high-end zones like Orr) and forcing them to spawn loads of enemies to kill and loot.

Further nerfs on those event chains and the introduction of daily chests somehow revitalized World Bosses. It worked, however, on a quite weird way, with players monitorizing spawn times on some external web, joining the map just to complete the event and moving to next one right after that.
Regular DEs and open world gameplay just was completely unrewarding for the most part (and remains this way over one year later)

Feedback about how little sense killing champions in open world made leaded to the introduction of champion loot bags, which obviosuly, instead of encouraging soloers or small groups to try to defeat them, leaded to the current zergy champion trains.

I won’t go deep into how the loot system affects WvW gameplay, specially after the introduction of WXP.

Recently released content, like Marionette or Wurm, are much better designed gameplay wise for large groups players. Unfortunately, they require too much people, which might cause a lot of issues with overflows and waiting times.
They have it place, of course, for large guild/communities to enjoy them, but there’s a huge gap between these (specially Wurm) and the still poorly designed original World Bosses.
Having one well designed but not excessively coordination or number (scaling for about 20 people and onwards) reliant encouter on about each map would probably be more than enough for giving those big battle lovers an awesome game experience.

The truth is, the game never needed this loot system.
With open world gameplay being focused around DEs, deleting any loot from DE spawned mobs and granting a meaningul reward (and not the crap we have atm) on completion to every participant would have been enough for not only pleasing every gamestyle but for actually having people doing these events for something more than daily AP completion.
Excluding a really small amount of spots (and, currently, champions) the game has never been about killing those open world non DE related monsters. As long as killing aknowledgment and quest items (for heart completion) were shared as every drop currently is, there wouldn’t be any issues with a more classic looting system.

In fact, moving away from the classic individual/divided loot does, IMHO, more harm that good.
Currently, since everyone is going to be rewarded, there’s no point at all on trying beat some non-scaling content (like dungeons or world spawned champions, for example) with less people than possible (well, it is if you sell dungeon spots, but I find it a quite obscure behaviour that shouldn’t need to work that way). You can do it for the shake of fun and challenge, but when you renounce to some reward on the process, it gets old pretty fast and lacks proper replayability.
Granting players the choice to handycap themselves for a greater reward can work like a difficulty setting for a single player game, allowing developers to design most content at a fairly low challenge level without worrying about people finding it undoable or faceroll easy.

If, on top of this, downscaling (another awesome idea, just horribly done) would have been properly designed, we would have IMHO a more interesting open world and a far better game.
I dont’ really get the point on featuring this and then designing the whole game for a downscaled characters to be way more powerful than in-level ones.

In addition to this (which I agree is a quite personal opinion), I’m pretty sure that we could list a lot more features that most of the playerbase would agree on being poorly designed (Precursor sources, the AP system that doesn’t look an AP system at all, the completely uninteresting way of introducing ascended weapon/armors, …).

Raine.1394:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

It’s funny because the gear grind here is worse than it is in WoW.

I’m actually back playing WoW. I had come to GW2 to escape the grind among other things and, since Nov-12, GW2 is the grindiest game I’ve ever played. WoW is a piece of cake in comparison. In WoW I can grind out a set of gear in 1-2 months and I’m done grinding for the rest of the tier. Here the grind is never over. GW2 has taught me that a fast steep grind is far less grindy than a long slow one that is never over. And, I can maintain alts in WoW—good luck gearing them up in GW2.

I’m back playing WoW as well. I don’t think the gear grind even qualifies as a grind. You get to do a fun raid once a week and it’s only a few hours. Pvp gear isn’t even a grind if you enjoy pvp because they gave everyone the same damage reduction. Just starting out, you may hit like a wet noodle but you’re still useful.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Raine.1394:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

It’s funny because the gear grind here is worse than it is in WoW.

I’m actually back playing WoW. I had come to GW2 to escape the grind among other things and, since Nov-12, GW2 is the grindiest game I’ve ever played. WoW is a piece of cake in comparison. In WoW I can grind out a set of gear in 1-2 months and I’m done grinding for the rest of the tier. Here the grind is never over. GW2 has taught me that a fast steep grind is far less grindy than a long slow one that is never over. And, I can maintain alts in WoW—good luck gearing them up in GW2.

I’m back playing WoW as well. I don’t think the gear grind even qualifies as a grind. You get to do a fun raid once a week and it’s only a few hours. Pvp gear isn’t even a grind if you enjoy pvp because they gave everyone the same damage reduction. Just starting out, you may hit like a wet noodle but you’re still useful.

oh god! those dreadful raid nights!! raiding was actually what made me quit wow, it was the worst thing I had ever experienced in a game… the problem wasn’t the many failed atempts though, it was that raiding wasn’t done for fun, I was raiding to get a chance to roll against my guildies for 1 piece of gear… nope, no thank you

Doing Tequatl was very akin to raiding but it was just for fun, for the glory of beating it 1st on your server, that’s how dificult content should be, not an endless grind for more gear

A R W E N.6895:

As someone who knows that the game has a lot of potential, I am willing to wait. But to what extent?

(not really aimed at you A R W E N)

Really, you’re better off not waiting for any potential that you can see being achieved. What your perceived potential is and what the devs are working towards are most likely two different paths. Maybe not but likely. That way can lead to bitter disappointment.

People should play the game for what it is now and not hold on desperately for something glittering coming down the line. But, people being people, not everyone can do that. It’s one of the things that I both love and frustrates the crap out of me about individuality. Each to their own.

It’s very easy to come and go with GW2.

Oh, and to answer the question: no it’s not wrong. Go free OP and find your fun and satisfaction wherever you can (as long as its legal).

A quick reminder.
You could get best stat armor and weapons and max level in less than 4 hours without being rich, GW1.
All builds worked with any armor.

And you could get BDS (Bone Dragon Staff, and other rare skins) running speed clears faster than you get a precursor in this game.

When are they going to add a dueling feature?

Dark Catalyst.1028:

It’s funny because the gear grind here is worse than it is in WoW.

You’re wrong.

Unlike WoW where you NEED to grind the gear to complete the next tier of content, in GW2 you don’t.

There is gear to get only if you like the look of it. Some of it gives you a very minor boost in stats but doesn’t allow you to see or play any content someone with only rares can experience.