Guild Wars 2

To the OP: couldnt have said it better myself. +1

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

It’s so strange. If you fall into the “play every day” trap, you just accept it, and mind-numbingly do it without thought. If you take a few days off and come back…you realize that what you’re doing in the game is not playing, it’s just doing repeatative tasks over and over.

This, so very much this. I took a month off, came back and I see a lot of recycled stuff and a lot of repetition. Come one Anet, give us new land to explore.

Vol.5241:

1.) Tough luck. Guesting gives more benefits than drawbacks.
2.) Tough luck again. I’d rather have someone get in and contribute rather than waste a spot for you to relog
3.) Learn to play your class and stop being bad. There is a reason for insta-kill mechanics, and if you fail to learn you will keep dying until you acknowledge it’s presence
4.) You go to Dulfy, use her guide and then complain about it’s presence? The heck is this? You don’t like it, don’t use it.
5.) No one is forcing you to play, get real
6.) If you don’t want to get the points related to the achievement then you don’t deserve it. It’s not mandatory.
7.) Too bad

r u the guy who is looting precursers over and over? there had been one with the same name….
found it "For the record, I’ve got all my precursors from mobs/chests

I’ve spent over 700g on the forge, got zero

It’s just luck"

do u think your gaming experience is the same? there r hundreads of ppl who played the same amount than u r but never got any precurser or something that is worth more than 10g.
u r a fanboy because u have always been lucky…. there is a big difference. there r ppl who get punished by rng over and over. same for me. played 2500 hours and the best loot was a weapon worth 7g.

do u think a rich person can understand the situation of a poor person? no way! the elite who is ruling this world seperated themselfs from the normal people….. they have no idea what normal ppl r talking about…..

im sure most ppl wont get it =) it is just a game…. how can u comapre these 2 things…. its different but the same….. your reality is how everything around u treats u.

2 persons salvaging 10 rares every day. 1 person gets 2 ectos out of 10. the other one gets 20 out of 10. do u think their gaming experience is the same?

talking to a person like u doenst make sense at all. u must be a fanboy or something.

my friendlist doenst even exist anymore because everyone left this game for the same reasons.
there is more than 1 opinion.
i agree 100% with everything except number 2. im not suffering that many disconnects.
and i dont agree on any of your points.
who is right and who is wrong?

1) please tell why overflows r good?
2) r u really such an….. ??
3) serious? the scalling is just horrible. there is more than 1 champ that pretty much instakills u. and it happened at teq too…. u cant see red circles due to horrible effects u cant switch off…..
4) i like playing and not searching. i dont like the hole living story thing and im only doing it for avs….. there is anyway nothing else to do. no new content since release….
5) they r forcing u. its not that they say it…. watch this video to understand their intention of every aspect of the game.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_duqqVHTGRA&feature=youtu.be&t=21m10s its called psychology….. not so easy to explain whats the problem with that. its complex to understand the idea behind it. it is a way to force ppl doing stuff.
6) is there any content that ppl could play except grinding avs? content is lacking…. there is nothing else to do…..
7) its how we get fooled…..

u dont seem to be very…..

cesmode.4257:

@vol: Insta kill mechanics are lazy designs.

Instead of insta kill, they could have dropped a condition on you that ticks away a % of your HP..after 5-10 seconds, youre dead. You must use a condition remover.

Instead, we get a berserker style burst DPS mechanic. Its lazy whether you can avoid it or not. Plain and simple.

The only insta-kill mechanic that teq has AFAIK is the bloated norn looking risen that explode after awhile. They’ve been there before patch and continue to remain here. The best possible way to counter them is to know them away or DPS them down.

Whether it’s an insta kill or a condition on you, there are ways of handling it. One type of damage is preventable. One is countered by using a skill. I think the insta death mechanic is good enough to teach players how to prioritize rather than smash skills.

@ Jordy.

Not sure how my wealth or precursor acquisitions have to do anything with this, but OK

Agree. Not that I hate Dulfy, I LOVE Dulfy. But there just isn’t enough information in game to guide players.

Vol.5241:

cesmode.4257:

@vol: Insta kill mechanics are lazy designs.

Instead of insta kill, they could have dropped a condition on you that ticks away a % of your HP..after 5-10 seconds, youre dead. You must use a condition remover.

Instead, we get a berserker style burst DPS mechanic. Its lazy whether you can avoid it or not. Plain and simple.

The only insta-kill mechanic that teq has AFAIK is the bloated norn looking risen that explode after awhile. They’ve been there before patch and continue to remain here. The best possible way to counter them is to know them away or DPS them down.

Whether it’s an insta kill or a condition on you, there are ways of handling it. One type of damage is preventable. One is countered by using a skill. I think the insta death mechanic is good enough to teach players how to prioritize rather than smash skills.

Id like to point out just a few more in the game: First boss in TA. Spider boss in TA. Alpha in COE P3. Just to name a few. The ghost boss guy in AC.

I think all insta kills are poor designs and just fillers for more engaging mechanics.

Had to log in just to agree.

Good job summing up what’s wrong with 80-90% of the entire game lately.

I am ok with the dulfy thing for the rest I rest it really hurts me to say so but
what about uninstalling.

Vol.5241:

@ Jordy.

Not sure how my wealth or precursor acquisitions have to do anything with this, but OK

Magic find works. http://sinasdf.imgur.com/

u took a picture of every legendary u crafted =)

gw2 is the worst poser game ever.

its too complex to get my point…..

do u think, someone who is playing as much as u r and never looted a precurser has the same gaming experience?

your point of view is totally different

Perfectly Summed up OP mirror my feelings Perfectly , good post ..

p.s On 15th some big changes to fight mechanics and class roles ..

As a 220ish AP Leaderboard Ranker, I especially feel the weight on points 5, 6, and 7. I’ve been logging on every day to grind my dailies (because they give achievement points!), been doing every Livingstory 100% whether or not I like them (because they give achievement points!)

The “You are not forced to do them” argument is the dumbest thing people came up with. Of course you are not ‘forced’ to do them, but many people want to progress in the game they play. This game lacks progression, the only form of progression in this game is cosmetics and achievement points…it is just unfortunate that this style if progression is heavily time-gated and usually bound to boring/grindy content.

I don’t think it’s a smart idea to time gate so much stuff, and the achievement points too. In the long run you risk losing hardcore players by burning them out. Sure, it makes people want to play every day and not get lagged behind in Achievement points and time-gated items…but once they do lag behind there’s no way to catchup, which leads to “I’m really behind now, no point in playing anymore.”

If AP Rewards were never introduced I probably would have given up on the silly leaderboard climb long time ago, because AP means nothing other than a player’s dedication to dailies and timegated content. But ever since AP rewards were introduced, it was harder to give up not so much because of the current rewards but the potential future rewards Anet will introduce to reinforce the value of AP, their moneymaker.

In conclusion I find this system disgusting.

I sure that Anet, as with any other gaming company, realizes that some will simply complain about anything and everything. OP any different, I think not. But yeah, I am getting so tired of this……being done game after game after game ad nauseum.

Jordy.1570:

Vol.5241:

@ Jordy.

Not sure how my wealth or precursor acquisitions have to do anything with this, but OK

Magic find works. http://sinasdf.imgur.com/

u took a picture of every legendary u crafted =)

gw2 is the worst poser game ever.

its too complex to get my point…..

do u think, someone who is playing as much as u r and never looted a precurser has the same gaming experience?

your point of view is totally different

And your points are horribly disorganized. Whatever you are talking about has no relation with what OP is trying to convey.

Coffee.7058:

I am sure it does a great service to most but it also holds your hand. The things you eventually find in the game extend your enjoyment and reward when you do figure them out.

I have always hated the guy who bought the puzzle and set the box up to wear he could see what the puzzle would look like complete — but to eaches own.

I would love to solve everything in my own time.

My boyfriend and myself explored all maps in our own time. We found jumping puzzles, and figured most of them out without any outside advice. We looked for mini-dungeons, etc, all in our own time. Those halcyon days. It was when GW2 was really, really fun.

Then the living story really took off, and with it, new achievements every 2 weeks. Achievements that in more than one instance broke halfway through the event, teaching me that I better get them while they were working. Item rewards tied to meta-achievements, too. I don’t want to miss out, I might really want that back item for a later character! I better do all those things right now! I have 2 evenings after work of uninterrupted playtime before various RL obligations kick in this month – not enough time to comb through three maps looking for objects that the game didn’t even tell me I was supposed to find.

So… off to dulfy.net it is. It is significantly less fun than figuring out stuff when and how feels best; unfortunately, that would mean giving up on meta-achievements and the rewards tied to them.

Agree with everything except time gating.

Time gating was put in with casuals in mind. If there weren’t time gating, they would shift more of the focus towards hard grind, otherwise they’re making a bunch of trivial content that takes no effort. Time gating is the compromise. If you want multiple options towards getting mostly the same things, fine, but wanting less grind AND less time gating is the same as wanting everything nerfed.

As far as overflows, Im fine with them but not when they’re filled with foreigners! When you can’t get into your own server because people from other servers are taking up the space, that’s a problem. They need to cap the number of guesting individuals to something like 20% capacity. If people want to jump on the ez-train for Teq too bad. They can get their own server together and build their own.

Orpheus.7284:

As a 220ish AP Leaderboard Ranker, I especially feel the weight on points 5, 6, and 7. I’ve been logging on every day to grind my dailies (because they give achievement points!), been doing every Livingstory 100% whether or not I like them (because they give achievement points!)

The “You are not forced to do them” argument is the dumbest thing people came up with. Of course you are not ‘forced’ to do them, but many people want to progress in the game they play. This game lacks progression, the only form of progression in this game is cosmetics and achievement points…it is just unfortunate that this style if progression is heavily time-gated and usually bound to boring/grindy content.

I don’t think it’s a smart idea to time gate so much stuff, and the achievement points too. In the long run you risk losing hardcore players by burning them out. Sure, it makes people want to play every day and not get lagged behind in Achievement points and time-gated items…but once they do lag behind there’s no way to catchup, which leads to “I’m really behind now, no point in playing anymore.”

If AP Rewards were never introduced I probably would have given up on the silly leaderboard climb long time ago, because AP means nothing other than a player’s dedication to dailies and timegated content. But ever since AP rewards were introduced, it was harder to give up not so much because of the current rewards but the potential future rewards Anet will introduce to reinforce the value of AP, their moneymaker.

In conclusion I find this system disgusting.

So basically you want achievement points but you do not want to earn it or don’t like how you earn it.

Quite simply, you don’t deserve it.

Vol.5241:

So basically you want achievement points but you do not want to earn it or don’t like how you earn it.

Quite simply, you don’t deserve it.

Agreed with this. Achievements are for achieving, not begging.

Indeed…. Agree with all your points

Chickenshoes.6250:

Vol.5241:

So basically you want achievement points but you do not want to earn it or don’t like how you earn it.

Quite simply, you don’t deserve it.

Agreed with this. Achievements are for achieving, not begging.

You guys don’t deserve to reply on the forums is really what I think because you can’t interpret people’s posts. I am saying time-gating achievement points is a pretty bad concept. Did i say I want AP without doing anything? Learn to read.

Achievments are for achieving? Achieving what? Achieving in afk’ing in daily activities? Kill 30 ambient creatures?
You guys must think achievement points are some prestigious thing that needs to be ‘achieved’ while it’s actually just a time-gated currency of the game.

Orpheus.7284:

Chickenshoes.6250:

Vol.5241:

So basically you want achievement points but you do not want to earn it or don’t like how you earn it.

Quite simply, you don’t deserve it.

Agreed with this. Achievements are for achieving, not begging.

You guys don’t deserve to reply on the forums is really what I think because you can’t interpret people’s posts. I am saying time-gating achievement points is a pretty bad concept. Did i say I want AP without doing anything? Learn to read.

Achievments are for achieving? Achieving what? Achieving in afk’ing in daily activities? Kill 30 ambient creatures?
You guys must think achievement points are some prestigious thing that needs to be ‘achieved’ while it’s actually just a time-gated currency of the game.

And so what if it were a currency of the game and easy to acquire? Do you want all achievements to be on the level of 8-orb Liadri?

Doesn’t matter if it’s time-gated. If you don’t want to (or can’t) log-in every day to do your dailies, then too bad! You dont’ deserve it! The achievement is there for people dedicated to the game. There is no reason why someone who refuses to do daily achievements should be rewarded those who do them.

I understand you want to have an achievement system that is not time-gated, but these time-gated achievements reward those who are dedicated enough to play the game day in day out. If you can’t do that then readjust your expectations or maybe stick to fixed achievements.

Nice post. I also logged in for this to agree. I quit the game a month ago.

Well said, everything in your post is correct.

Jordy.1570:

do u think, someone who is playing as much as u r and never looted a precurser has the same gaming experience?

your point of view is totally different

Come on… nothing the OP raised has anything whatsoever to do with anyone’s likelihood of looting a precursor. I certainly haven’t done so, and like you I haven’t ever had an item drop worth more than 7g (I did get a celestial dye drop once actually, but I used it). Guess what? I disagree with the OP probably about as strongly as Vol does. He may have been dismissive but criticizing him as though his luck has completely changed his interpretation of the game is just shallow.

Here are my responses to the points and attitude expressed in the OP:

Overflows are a feature that helps avoid the typical pitfalls of maxed population on maps in a popular game (read: queues), and guesting adds further flexibility to the solution. It doesn’t make it worse, and you’re using it as a scapegoat. It’s almost universally ignored in these conversations that the true “fix” for overflows is for less people to be playing.

Disconnects are not intended and no one likes having progress interrupted or missing out on something. However since this isn’t a game design decision it’s barely relevant to the rest of the points. It also isn’t a universal problem.

There are very few actual insta-kill mechanics in the game. If you mean insta-down, then sure- depending on your class, HP, gear spec, etc, this can happen to you frequently… but it’s best viewed as an opportunity to improve. Almost everything that would do this to you has an enormous tell, every class has a vast array of active damage mitigation, and the fact that downed state exists at all, and anyone can res, means you can still progress and contribute even if you fail at any individual action. I’m going to be honest with you: for skilled gamers, nearly every single piece of group content in GW2 is very easy. It’s a difficult balancing act to provide a supply of things to do for very casual players who do not have a high skill level or aren’t interested in improving, while not making the rest of the experience mindnumbingly boring for those who are playing at a high degree of skill. For some, Tequatl represents the first real challenge outside of very small group or solo encounters the game has ever seen. The question “why is it I can spend a bunch of gold on my 80 character and still get easily downed?” is answered with “because GW2 rewards skilled play more than having the best gear.” I’m sorry if that contrasts with how you would like things to work, but as much as people would love to argue that gear matters sooo much, it’s as true now as it has ever been.

Dulfy is an external resource. If you believe that you need to use it to complete tasks (hint: you don’t), then use it. If you don’t want to then ignore it. I will concede that it certainly requires more effort to figure everything out in-game yourself.

The idea of being “forced to play” eludes me entirely. Literally nothing is actually compelling you to play the game other than your own desire. Seriously. If you feel forced to play, that means you don’t want to play; thus you shouldn’t play, and since you can in fact choose not to play at any time, that means you aren’t being forced to play. Believing this requires some kind of escherlike semantic maze to keep the logical components intact. If you have to ask “How is this fun?” or “Why am I here?” then you have already decided that it’s not and there’s no reason to be. Just go do something else!

Achievements have no impact on me; they can be safely ignored. The fact that people seem to cite this as a massive issue does indicate that ArenaNet could do a much better job presenting the concept. But again, similar to the previous point, if you’re “no longer here to play, here to blast through as many achievements as you can” then you simply shouldn’t be here at all. A change in perspective is the best thing you can do to get over this.

Time-gating is a complex and onerous issue dealing with giving some structure to concurrent player distribution. If you interpret this as “forcing you to play every day” then you’re certainly going to have a bad time. Some time-gated rewards do bother me and I certainly miss running SAB once per character. For some rewards, gating acquisition makes more sense than others and I definitely think they could take a look at this. This is the closest I come to agreeing with you on any point.

I hate to boil it down this much but in general if you find yourself “getting so tired of this” you should pretty clearly just stop playing. I don’t know how it gets more complicated than that for anyone, but it happens all the time. Surely you will agree it is unrealistic to expect a game’s development team to dramatically alter said game in the hopes of retaining you personally.

Vol.5241:

Orpheus.7284:

Chickenshoes.6250:

Vol.5241:

So basically you want achievement points but you do not want to earn it or don’t like how you earn it.

Quite simply, you don’t deserve it.

Agreed with this. Achievements are for achieving, not begging.

You guys don’t deserve to reply on the forums is really what I think because you can’t interpret people’s posts. I am saying time-gating achievement points is a pretty bad concept. Did i say I want AP without doing anything? Learn to read.

Achievments are for achieving? Achieving what? Achieving in afk’ing in daily activities? Kill 30 ambient creatures?
You guys must think achievement points are some prestigious thing that needs to be ‘achieved’ while it’s actually just a time-gated currency of the game.

And so what if it were a currency of the game and easy to acquire? Do you want all achievements to be on the level of 8-orb Liadri?

Doesn’t matter if it’s time-gated. If you don’t want to (or can’t) log-in every day to do your dailies, then too bad! You dont’ deserve it! The achievement is there for people dedicated to the game. There is no reason why someone who refuses to do daily achievements should be rewarded those who do them.

I understand you want to have an achievement system that is not time-gated, but these time-gated achievements reward those who are dedicated enough to play the game day in day out. If you can’t do that then readjust your expectations or maybe stick to fixed achievements.

8 Orb Liadri is only as horrible as the waiting time between each attempt. If the gauntlet was instanced, it actually has just-right difficulty. Off topic though.

I understand dailies’ current intentions, I didn’t ask for daily AP points to be awarded to people who don’t do dailies. But is this current system good?
I could do dailies, i’ve been doing them almost without fail since inception of the game (other than hurricane sandy hiatus)…but is the game supposed to make players feel like it’s work? I’m gonna keep doing dailies but I’m still gonna be disgusted by it. Many people share the same view.

yeah nice post.

I already started looking for another MMORPG and I realy like gw2… but when SAB 2 come out with insta kills and and so obvious use of infinite coin I feel more and more disgusted.

Vol.5241:

Doesn’t matter if it’s time-gated. If you don’t want to (or can’t) log-in every day to do your dailies, then too bad! You dont’ deserve it! The achievement is there for people dedicated to the game. There is no reason why someone who refuses to do daily achievements should be rewarded those who do them.

I understand you want to have an achievement system that is not time-gated, but these time-gated achievements reward those who are dedicated enough to play the game day in day out. If you can’t do that then readjust your expectations or maybe stick to fixed achievements.

Sorry, Vol, but your logic is failing.

You don’t get awesome points because you have a life that allows you to log in every day. You don’t get a special badge that entitles you to free refills at Starbucks because you can afford the time to play every day.

It’s not about dedication and it never was. Time-gated content and achievements is not about separating the dedicated L33T from those pesky casuals. Your insistent need to counter everyones argument with nothing but, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen” arguments are really not constructive, or even all that well thought out.

Please, try to contribute to this conversation with a little more understanding and consideration.

Hawkian.6580:

Achievements have no impact on me; they can be safely ignored. The fact that people seem to cite this as a massive issue does indicate that ArenaNet could do a much better job presenting the concept. But again, similar to the previous point, if you’re “no longer here to play, here to blast through as many achievements as you can” then you simply shouldn’t be here at all. A change in perspective is the best thing you can do to get over this.

I hate to boil it down this much but in general if you find yourself “getting so tired of this” you should pretty clearly just stop playing. I don’t know how it gets more complicated than that for anyone, but it happens all the time. Surely you will agree it is unrealistic to expect a game’s development team to dramatically alter said game in the hopes of retaining you personally.

This game (PVE) has no sense of progression other than Achievement points. (Fractal 50 was fun but that’s the only progression mechanic in place after hitting 80.
The way of getting the said AP is pathetic because it involves so much timegating and deadlines. It was all well and good until AP rewards are introduced. Because It created a potential of very appealing rewards obtainable only through AP.

If the game ever gets good again (has not been since Fractals was implemented for me), returning players don’t want to feel behind and unable to catchup as fast as they’d like due to time gating. So they grit their teeth and carry on with boring dailies.

Orpheus.7284:

Vol.5241:

Orpheus.7284:

Chickenshoes.6250:

Vol.5241:

So basically you want achievement points but you do not want to earn it or don’t like how you earn it.

Quite simply, you don’t deserve it.

Agreed with this. Achievements are for achieving, not begging.

You guys don’t deserve to reply on the forums is really what I think because you can’t interpret people’s posts. I am saying time-gating achievement points is a pretty bad concept. Did i say I want AP without doing anything? Learn to read.

Achievments are for achieving? Achieving what? Achieving in afk’ing in daily activities? Kill 30 ambient creatures?
You guys must think achievement points are some prestigious thing that needs to be ‘achieved’ while it’s actually just a time-gated currency of the game.

And so what if it were a currency of the game and easy to acquire? Do you want all achievements to be on the level of 8-orb Liadri?

Doesn’t matter if it’s time-gated. If you don’t want to (or can’t) log-in every day to do your dailies, then too bad! You dont’ deserve it! The achievement is there for people dedicated to the game. There is no reason why someone who refuses to do daily achievements should be rewarded those who do them.

I understand you want to have an achievement system that is not time-gated, but these time-gated achievements reward those who are dedicated enough to play the game day in day out. If you can’t do that then readjust your expectations or maybe stick to fixed achievements.

8 Orb Liadri is only as horrible as the waiting time between each attempt. If the gauntlet was instanced, it actually has just-right difficulty. Off topic though.

I understand dailies’ current intentions, I didn’t ask for daily AP points to be awarded to people who don’t do dailies. But is this current system good?
I could do dailies, i’ve been doing them almost without fail since inception of the game (other than hurricane sandy hiatus)…but is the game supposed to make players feel like it’s work? I’m gonna keep doing dailies but I’m still gonna be disgusted by it. Many people share the same view.

It’s the player’s fault for having the expectation that it’s work or a chore. There is a reason why they increased the # of daily activities from 5 to whatever if it now (12?). It’s so that just by playing the game, you don’t realize that it’s a grind. If there is anything that Anet can do, they can lower the # of achievements done for laurels from 5 to 3 or maybe even to 1. But I bet you people would still complain.

Vol.5241:

Whether it’s an insta kill or a condition on you, there are ways of handling it. One type of damage is preventable. One is countered by using a skill. I think the insta death mechanic is good enough to teach players how to prioritize rather than smash skills.

Insta-kill mechanics teach nothing unless you know what caused the insta-kill AND how to avoid it in future.

With various World Bosses, I have had my character just randomly drop dead from 100% with no visible debuffs, nothing on the floor, no mobs attacking me, no SFX – or SFX only visible multiple seconds later and I’m not sure if they’re related or not. Similarly I’ve had effects which dropped me from full to dead in a few seconds with no debuffs, sometimes not even any damage numbers.

That’s not always the way – there’s some highly fatal stuff that is very avoidable – that’s fine. The problem is with stuff which isn’t possible to see, and it doesn’t matter WHY you can’t see it, because dead is dead.

Further, what is definitely an actual undeniable problem is a LOT of this stuff is NOT in the combat log at all. Like, you go straight from alive to Downed, but nothing in the combat log shows what happened! That bad, that’s just bad.

For the record, my computer is fairly old (way above the min specs, but I have to keep settings low to get okay performance), and I’m sure that factors in, but I think the “dead in 5-10 seconds if you don’t cure condition” would be a wildly superior mechanic in most fights, because it could actually be reacted to and seen, whereas this stuff is all unseen (or only seen after death) – which is the problem. I’ve kind of been developing a “sixth sense” for effects that probably are there even though they’re not shown, and that’s kind of kittenty.

It’s nothing new, but the new harder bosses are making it more of an issue.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

Vol.5241:

Doesn’t matter if it’s time-gated. If you don’t want to (or can’t) log-in every day to do your dailies, then too bad! You dont’ deserve it! The achievement is there for people dedicated to the game. There is no reason why someone who refuses to do daily achievements should be rewarded those who do them.

I understand you want to have an achievement system that is not time-gated, but these time-gated achievements reward those who are dedicated enough to play the game day in day out. If you can’t do that then readjust your expectations or maybe stick to fixed achievements.

Your insistent need to counter everyones argument with nothing but, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen” arguments are really not constructive, or even all that well thought out.

But that’s really what it boils down to. MMO players (especially GW2) players have a severe case of entitlement that they want everything easy, quick and now for free.
It’s the same thing with people complaining about legendaries being expensive, SAB trib/Liadri/Teq too difficult. Fact is there is content in this game designed in a way that you have to work for it. It’s no different with dailies or time-gated content.

Again, all it boils down to is if you don’t want to dedicate time for it, you don’t deserve it.

Have to admit, the overflows are bugging me….

Eurhetemec.9052:

Vol.5241:

Whether it’s an insta kill or a condition on you, there are ways of handling it. One type of damage is preventable. One is countered by using a skill. I think the insta death mechanic is good enough to teach players how to prioritize rather than smash skills.

Insta-kill mechanics teach nothing unless you know what caused the insta-kill AND how to avoid it in future.

With various World Bosses, I have had my character just randomly drop dead from 100% with no visible debuffs, nothing on the floor, no mobs attacking me, no SFX – or SFX only visible multiple seconds later and I’m not sure if they’re related or not. Similarly I’ve had effects which dropped me from full to dead in a few seconds with no debuffs, sometimes not even any damage numbers.

That’s not always the way – there’s some highly fatal stuff that is very avoidable – that’s fine. The problem is with stuff which isn’t possible to see, and it doesn’t matter WHY you can’t see it, because dead is dead.

Further, what is definitely an actual undeniable problem is a LOT of this stuff is NOT in the combat log at all. Like, you go straight from alive to Downed, but nothing in the combat log shows what happened! That bad, that’s just bad.

For the record, my computer is fairly old (way above the min specs, but I have to keep settings low to get okay performance), and I’m sure that factors in, but I think the “dead in 5-10 seconds if you don’t cure condition” would be a wildly superior mechanic in most fights, because it could actually be reacted to and seen, whereas this stuff is all unseen (or only seen after death) – which is the problem. I’ve kind of been developing a “sixth sense” for effects that probably are there even though they’re not shown, and that’s kind of kittenty.

It’s nothing new, but the new harder bosses are making it more of an issue.

If you give me an example, I’ll point out what exactly is killing you near instantly.

As mentioned previously, teq has the bloated mobs that explode after awhile, but can die pretty easily (a bit harder when upscaled). You won’t see the damage in comat log AFAIK.

There are also Risen Nobles in other parts of the world which drop wells, and the damage stacks. Those can kill you instantly in 2 seconds with enough wells.

You also have exploding risen chickens, orrian fish, fully buffed abominations…

Orpheus.7284:

This game (PVE) has no sense of progression other than Achievement points. (Fractal 50 was fun but that’s the only progression mechanic in place after hitting 80.
The way of getting the said AP is pathetic because it involves so much timegating and deadlines. It was all well and good until AP rewards are introduced. Because It created a potential of very appealing rewards obtainable only through AP.

If the game ever gets good again (has not been since Fractals was implemented for me), returning players don’t want to feel behind and unable to catchup as fast as they’d like due to time gating. So they grit their teeth and carry on with boring dailies.

Fractals were added in November. Have you been playing a game you consider bad for ~9 months? :-/

It’s clear that you are player who is primarily motivated by “progression,” with the operating definition being an increase in some numerical gauge or another- your stats, your achievement score, your fractal level., etc. Fractals and Ascended gear in general, and Ascended weapons in particular, were added to offer something for this kind of player. Do you have any interest in gearing your characters with Ascended weapons?

While it’s nice that to some extent Guild Wars 2 can entertain and sustain players of this type, it’s also not designed exclusively or anywhere near primarily with them in mind- despite what many on these forums bemoaning the game’s unprecedented “grind” would have you believe. Indeed, I consider it remarkable that you are still here- but I can’t tell if that’s because the design decisions have been more effective than you think or because of some kind of compulsion.

Generally speaking, I don’t think I’ve ever played a game I considered “not good” for more than a few days.

Vol.5241:

It’s the player’s fault for having the expectation that it’s work or a chore. There is a reason why they increased the # of daily activities from 5 to whatever if it now (12?). It’s so that just by playing the game, you don’t realize that it’s a grind. If there is anything that Anet can do, they can lower the # of achievements done for laurels from 5 to 3 or maybe even to 1. But I bet you people would still complain.

Uh, no it’s the designer’s fault for making it feel like a chore, not a game, though I agree that the increased number made it a LOT less bad. The designer’s job is to make the game fun, though.

As for “people would still complain” – well yes, because Time Gating makes you log in EVERY DAY, which only a small minority of players have lives that let them (you are one of them).

What they need is a catch-up mechanism – so you can do dailies you missed – it wouldn’t even need to be 100% – if even every third day or something was possible to “catch up”, that’d be a way more friendly design.

You also say “Just playing the game completes them” – yes, it does, WHEN YOU CAN PLAY A LOT! If I have a rare weekend day where I can play for six hours, I will usually complete the Daily just by playing the game. However, on a weekday, where I can play for 1-3 hours if I can play at all? If I want the daily done, I need to make time for it – either to do it first like a chore, or to wait until I have thirty minutes left to play and see what else I need to do from it (which isn’t always practical).

I don’t mean to be rude, but I think you play so much that you have very little idea what the experience is like for people who don’t have that sort of time.

I also logged in here to say how much I agree with every point the OP makes. And I feel the same as Pixelpumpkin.4608 .. I loved that time as well.

I have had this building frustration with the game .. the game is feeling “weighty” almost worklike in some ways. :\

Something that was pointed out to me recently :

“I log into my game .. I do whatever daily needs to be done .. I check what I have to do for any 2 week content and get as much of that done as early as possible, just in case I can’t get in for some reason to finish it. I check to see if there is any other content that needs to be done for any longer term/monthly content. I farm up materials I need .. craft for a bit .. sell what I can .. check the shop for any new items .. the best stuff, of course, is premium ingame currency but they do allow you to get some of that via ingame methods so I can get some of the items, it just can take a while. I visit with friends .. then …. I log outta my Facebook games …. and into Guild Wars 2 .. where I ….. do pretty much the SAME things.”

Yeah … kinda broke my heart a little bit when they said that. :\

Vol.5241:

If you give me an example, I’ll point out what exactly is killing you near instantly.

Wow, you have completely missed the point.

Unless, Vol, you are going to come to my house and sit next to me and shout “OMG RUN INVISIBLE DEATH FIELD!” when I need to run, because the game as decided not to render the Death Field, or the exploding kitten, or whatever, you being able to do that is sadly useless to me.

It is also useless to all the other people who do not have Vol in their living room!

You agree that that stuff doesn’t appear in the combat log. Do you agree that that’s crap design? I think it’s REALLY crap design. To be fair some of this stuff isn’t one-shots, it’s just stuff that kills you when you’re on 60% health from stuff you DID see coming and that IS in the combat log (not all of it is avoidable given the limits of dodge-rolls – i.e. running out of juice), and makes you die for no visible reason. It’s quite disheartening.

EDIT – Also, re: achievements, they really are 99% “Just logging in”. Not skill or dedication or clever stuff like most Achievements in other computer games (even WoW achievements are more oriented towards ACHIEVING things, not mindlessly DOING things) – I can tell because I have twice as many as my wife – and yet she has done more and harder content than me, she just has played about half as much.

Vol.5241:

….It’s the same thing with people complaining about legendaries being expensive, SAB trib/Liadri/Teq too difficult. Fact is there is content in this game designed in a way that you have to work for it. It’s no different with dailies or time-gated content…

Legendaries are offtopic because most people just dump dollars to Anet for them anyway. It’s not really the same thing. SAB Trib/Liadri/Teq are actual achievements. Time gated dailies are chores that can be done by a bot. I can actually auto-run afk all sorts of Event dailies/Killer dailies on a MM Necro or Ranger. Do they really “deserve” (ur favorite word) to be Achievements? You might as well award people afk’ing in Lions Arch AP.

Vol.5241:

Orpheus.7284:

Vol.5241:

Orpheus.7284:

Chickenshoes.6250:

Vol.5241:

So basically you want achievement points but you do not want to earn it or don’t like how you earn it.

Quite simply, you don’t deserve it.

Agreed with this. Achievements are for achieving, not begging.

You guys don’t deserve to reply on the forums is really what I think because you can’t interpret people’s posts. I am saying time-gating achievement points is a pretty bad concept. Did i say I want AP without doing anything? Learn to read.

Achievments are for achieving? Achieving what? Achieving in afk’ing in daily activities? Kill 30 ambient creatures?
You guys must think achievement points are some prestigious thing that needs to be ‘achieved’ while it’s actually just a time-gated currency of the game.

And so what if it were a currency of the game and easy to acquire? Do you want all achievements to be on the level of 8-orb Liadri?

Doesn’t matter if it’s time-gated. If you don’t want to (or can’t) log-in every day to do your dailies, then too bad! You dont’ deserve it! The achievement is there for people dedicated to the game. There is no reason why someone who refuses to do daily achievements should be rewarded those who do them.

I understand you want to have an achievement system that is not time-gated, but these time-gated achievements reward those who are dedicated enough to play the game day in day out. If you can’t do that then readjust your expectations or maybe stick to fixed achievements.

8 Orb Liadri is only as horrible as the waiting time between each attempt. If the gauntlet was instanced, it actually has just-right difficulty. Off topic though.

I understand dailies’ current intentions, I didn’t ask for daily AP points to be awarded to people who don’t do dailies. But is this current system good?
I could do dailies, i’ve been doing them almost without fail since inception of the game (other than hurricane sandy hiatus)…but is the game supposed to make players feel like it’s work? I’m gonna keep doing dailies but I’m still gonna be disgusted by it. Many people share the same view.

It’s the player’s fault for having the expectation that it’s work or a chore. There is a reason why they increased the # of daily activities from 5 to whatever if it now (12?). It’s so that just by playing the game, you don’t realize that it’s a grind. If there is anything that Anet can do, they can lower the # of achievements done for laurels from 5 to 3 or maybe even to 1. But I bet you people would still complain.

Most of the time I need to get out of what I want to do in GW2 and go elsewhere to complete dailys. Youre dillusioned if you think that dailys can always be completed doing anything you do normally. Up until recently, I was doing map completion. I would focus on one zone. Lets say, Iron Marches. If one of the daily kills required my kills to be in, say, Kryta..well I cant do that one. Then you have 3 or four WvW dailys. Thats 5 right there out of 12 or so. Heres to hoping that 5 out of the remaining 7 can be completed by running around Iron Marches and map completing.

Ah…well thought out criticism, I can work with this!

Hawkian.6580:

Overflows are a feature that helps avoid the typical pitfalls of maxed population on maps in a popular game (read: queues), -snip-

While I understand the need for overflows, I don’t think they’re making the game more enjoyable. As I stated before, the problem with them is that players often find themselves in a sort of “limbo” where they’re not necessarily with the community they’re normally playing with, nor are the same events taking place.

Here is an example. The other day I was sitting around in LA, doing what I do, and someone in map chat mentioned that some players were taking on the Karka Queen soon and needed some help.

Excited, because…well the Karka Queen has been living a life of bliss since we all moved out of Southsun, so I opened the map and clicked the WP.

I ended up in some random overflow with no one around, and in the middle of a mob of Karkas. The Queen was nowhere to be found and so I WPed back to LA. A few moments later, everyone who had been there showed up and was talking about how it was cool to fight her again, and all the loot they had scored.

I was not able to be a part of my community or the event because of the overflow. It would have been worse if I couldn’t join my friends (as it happened during the Watchwork invasions).

Overflows are good, but they need to be looked at so players are still able to remain within their known community. If not, then there is no point in having servers at all, and ANet should honestly just make everyone in permanent overflow.

Hawkian.6580:

Disconnects are not intended -snip-

Car crashes are also not intended, but we can expect them to happen. No one wants to be disconnected, but this is the internet, and these things happen. Universal problem or not, no player should be penalized for something that is beyond their control.

ANet should implement a 2-5 min grace period for all players in the event of a disconnect. There is simply no reason not to.

Hawkian.6580:

There are very few actual insta-kill mechanics in the game. If you mean insta-down, then sure- depending on your class, HP, gear spec, etc, this can happen to you frequently… but it’s best viewed as an opportunity to improve. -snip-

The problem here is that you assume players care enough to improve. I tried the Queens Gauntlet and I have never raged so much in my life at the mechanics of it. I barely cared to continue, but those pesky achievements kept looming.

I’m not saying content shouldn’t be challenging, but I know from a lot of gaming experience there is a difference between something being challenging because it takes thought, skill, and timing, and challenging because it’s full of cheap mechanics.

Players don’t like to be downed, bashed around, knocked back, insta-killed, and constantly frozen. These mechanics make the player feel like they’re just rag dolls being tossed around at the mercy of the game.

Hawkian.6580:

Dulfy is an external resource. If you believe that you need to use it to complete tasks (hint: you don’t), then use it. -snip-

As I’ve said before many times on this forum, I have no issues with playing the game. What I’m not interested in doing is spending the little time I have randomly wandering the world hoping that I’ll randomly come across something I need…if I even know what I need.

This needs to be said time and time and time again. Hard content is fine, vague content is fine, grind is fine….as long as it is not available for a limited time. If you give me 3 months to track down dragon scales….fine….I’ll come across all of them eventually, but if you’re going to give me time sensitive content, then you need to give me some direction.

Why couldn’t Rox have said, “Maybe head over to….and look for dragon parts…..maybe try talking to some locals to see if they have seen anything.”

Oh…ok cool, I have some idea where I’m going and what I’m looking for.

Hawkian.6580:

The idea of being “forced to play” eludes me entirely.-snip-

Of course it is my own desire. We’re not talking about that. We are talking about the game being designed in a way that requires me to log in every day, or face consequences. If I don’t log in and slump through achievements, I miss out on potentially important rewards.

For example, what about those who decided summer was a nice time for a vacation and couldn’t take part in the “Living Story” where the reward was the crystal node in your home instance? They also missed out on achievement points, which result in gold, gear, and other forms of currency.

This is what I mean by forced. I’m forced to play on ANets schedule, not mine. I’m required to show up for the game like a job, because if I want to continue to progress and stay relevant in the game, I need to keep grinding those achievements. This is what ANet wants, because they think if I’m in game everyday, I’ll buy gems.

Hawkian.6580:

Achievements have no impact on me; they can be safely ignored. -snip-

Achievements give you points. Points result in gold and gear. They also result in rewards (Crystal Node, Back items, Minis, Weapons, Access to content (Gauntlet)). You might be able to safely ignore them, but for those of us who want to experience the game AND get the gear, we have to play by ANets rules. And ANEt says, if you want these things, you’ll log in each day…..and you’ll do what we tell you to do.

Hawkian.6580:

I hate to boil it down this much but in general if you find yourself “getting so tired of this” you should pretty clearly just stop playing. -snip-

Fair enough. If you think that is best for the game to have frustrated players leaving. Seems counter productive to me though.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

5. Stop trying to force me to play

You’ll get your money! Forcing me to play with time gated content, and “only here for a limited time” nonsense is making me not want to play. My girlfriend sat there last night and “Dulfied” her way through the entire update because she knew she wouldn’t have time otherwise.

How is this fun? Why am I here?

Every day I log in, it’s boss timers, crystal infusions, kill 50 rats, kill 5 vets, Akitten daily activity….

Then, sit and wait 24 hours so I can do it all over again. This is all so I can eventually get gear to help me….what….champ farm in Queensdale in style?

I’m here to play a game, not do task lists.

This right he I think sums up your and many others problems. Many of you have stopped playing the games for fun and instead play them to try and catch the carrot on the stick they put in front of you. You seem to think that in order to play the game you need to get and do everything, complete every achievement and have the “best” gear. STOP IT!

Play the game in a way that allows you to enjoy it, the rewards will come eventually, and you will have enjoyed every minute of it so it will not feel like a chore.

You said it yourself near the end you forcing yourself to play certain content to collect specific gear and you don’t even know why but you know your not enjoying it. Who is forcing you to do that? The game certainly isn’t, I have over 1300+ hours logged and if I wasn’t enjoying something I stopped doing it and did something else.

TLDR: The game doesn’t force you to make playing a chore, you force yourselves by chasing the carrot rather than chasing the fun.

Vol.5241:

But that’s really what it boils down to. MMO players (especially GW2) players have a severe case of entitlement that they want everything easy, quick and now for free.
It’s the same thing with people complaining about legendaries being expensive, SAB trib/Liadri/Teq too difficult. Fact is there is content in this game designed in a way that you have to work for it. It’s no different with dailies or time-gated content.

Again, all it boils down to is if you don’t want to dedicate time for it, you don’t deserve it.

No, this is your conclusion, but not fact.

I don’t want things quick, easy, and free. I want things to be exciting, challenging, and rewarding.

They complain about legendaries being expensive, because the only way to obtain one is not though playing, progressing, and defeating challenging content, it is by grinding out farming nodes, running the same content multiple times, and purchasing your way to the top.

I have no problem working for something. What I don’t like is being manipulated into it. Do I care if content is super challenging? Of course not. Do I care that I have to spend large quantities of gold, time, and patience because I only have 2 weeks (10 hours) to complete the content? YES!

I have 100% map completion, 100% JP completion, and a bunch of other achievements. I did them over the course of a year and enjoyed pretty much all of it because I did it on MY time. I also have 99% of the “Living Story” achievements and have pretty much hated 70% of it….because it’s been on ANets time.

Eurhetemec.9052:

Vol.5241:

It’s the player’s fault for having the expectation that it’s work or a chore. There is a reason why they increased the # of daily activities from 5 to whatever if it now (12?). It’s so that just by playing the game, you don’t realize that it’s a grind. If there is anything that Anet can do, they can lower the # of achievements done for laurels from 5 to 3 or maybe even to 1. But I bet you people would still complain.

Uh, no it’s the designer’s fault for making it feel like a chore, not a game, though I agree that the increased number made it a LOT less bad. The designer’s job is to make the game fun, though.

As for “people would still complain” – well yes, because Time Gating makes you log in EVERY DAY, which only a small minority of players have lives that let them (you are one of them).

What they need is a catch-up mechanism – so you can do dailies you missed – it wouldn’t even need to be 100% – if even every third day or something was possible to “catch up”, that’d be a way more friendly design.

You also say “Just playing the game completes them” – yes, it does, WHEN YOU CAN PLAY A LOT! If I have a rare weekend day where I can play for six hours, I will usually complete the Daily just by playing the game. However, on a weekday, where I can play for 1-3 hours if I can play at all? If I want the daily done, I need to make time for it – either to do it first like a chore, or to wait until I have thirty minutes left to play and see what else I need to do from it (which isn’t always practical).

I don’t mean to be rude, but I think you play so much that you have very little idea what the experience is like for people who don’t have that sort of time.

I agree, a catch-up mechanism would be great. All the dailies you missed would be banked so that you could get them eventually. That way, time-gating still serves its purpose but also gives those who missed them an opportunity to catch up.

I very much so try to understand other people’s POV (I love to play devil’s advocate and try as much as possible not to be biased). That being said, I think those who don’t have plenty of time need to readjust their expectations in that their inability to consume content that other people who have time is not a fault of Anet

But this could all be solved if Anet could allow us to ‘bank’ unfinished dailies.

Eurhetemec.9052:

Vol.5241:

If you give me an example, I’ll point out what exactly is killing you near instantly.

Wow, you have completely missed the point.

Unless, Vol, you are going to come to my house and sit next to me and shout “OMG RUN INVISIBLE DEATH FIELD!” when I need to run, because the game as decided not to render the Death Field, or the exploding kitten, or whatever, you being able to do that is sadly useless to me.

It is also useless to all the other people who do not have Vol in their living room!

You agree that that stuff doesn’t appear in the combat log. Do you agree that that’s crap design? I think it’s REALLY crap design. To be fair some of this stuff isn’t one-shots, it’s just stuff that kills you when you’re on 60% health from stuff you DID see coming and that IS in the combat log (not all of it is avoidable given the limits of dodge-rolls – i.e. running out of juice), and makes you die for no visible reason. It’s quite disheartening.

EDIT – Also, re: achievements, they really are 99% “Just logging in”. Not skill or dedication or clever stuff like most Achievements in other computer games (even WoW achievements are more oriented towards ACHIEVING things, not mindlessly DOING things) – I can tell because I have twice as many as my wife – and yet she has done more and harder content than me, she just has played about half as much.

What my point was that yes, some stuff doesn’t appear in the combat log, but you still can watch your screen and see the source of it. If you just died without a clue of what happened, either there was a bug or you weren’t paying attention. With enough time spent with those mechanics, you can find out the source of the insta kill/spike damage.

gaspara.4079:

I have over 1300+ hours logged and if I wasn’t enjoying something I stopped doing it and did something else.

Here is where you totally lost the argument, Gaspara.

You do not understand what it is like for normal players. You have played an average of 3.5 hours a day, assuming the game has been out for a year (so give or take a little).

That’s nuts. Assuming some days you didn’t play, that you probably took the odd week or two off, you probably play more like 4-5 hours/day on weekdays, and more on weekends.

Obviously you can say “Well just take it easy maaaaaaaaaaaaan!”, because your idea of “taking it easy” is playing the game more in a day than some people get to in most of a week. Yes, I agree, if you average 3.5 hours/day or more (which is realistically more hours/day, because no-one plays every single day), then you don’t need to worry about much, because it will come eventually.

If you are more normal, however, and play 1-3 hours day, and probably average something like 0.5-1.5 hours day over the last year, then no, you CANNOT take it easy and expect stuff to come – it will never come – you need to target what you do, set goals, and play to ArenaNet’s schedule.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

While I understand the need for overflows, I don’t think they’re making the game more enjoyable.

That’s definitely where we diverge then. The alternative is a simple queue a la how the WvW maps. Which is to say, you can’t get in- play the game- at all in that zone when it’s full. This is a problem that is solved by overflows. People take this feature for granted with such regularity that it is criticized as though it is one of the game’s flaws.

Per the rest of your discussion of overflows, just to be pragmatic: if you get in a party with someone in the version of the map you want to be in (either the main, or a particular overflow), you can right-click their portrait and click “Join in..” If very full, you may have to keep trying continuously to get an open slot. This will help you remain with your community during these scenarios. It’s annoying that you can’t always sitck with them seamlessly, but again I cannot stress how much better this system is than traditional queues.

Car crashes are also not intended, but we can expect them to happen.

If this is the analogy you choose, you’re making my point for me. Car manufacturers take all sorts of steps to reduce the number of crashes and the damage and injury that results from them. Likewise, ArenaNet has arleady made a number of concessions to mitigate crashing/disconnects- if you’re in a dungeon instance and get disconnected you can jump right back in; if you’re disconnected during a guild mission, nothing prevents you from completing it when you log back in. Daily/bonus achievement chest popups are retained on your UI until you click them. Nonetheless, damaging and fatal crashes still occur. It would be a lunatic fringe position to argue that car manufacturers are to blame for not protecting drivers from every possible accident scenario, and that’s what is being advocated by saying “I’m getting so tired of this game” with disconnects as a reason. Nominally I don’t even take issue with the concept of a “grace period” or whatever other further steps they could take to make things even safer, but there’s always going to be a way you can get screwed by being disconnected, and your getting disconnected might not even be related to the game.

The problem here is that you assume players care enough to improve.

I assume no such thing. I guess the assumption I would make in its place would be that the players who do not care enough to improve will simply move on to content that does not require them to do so. The jungle wurm, shadow behemoth , AC story and level 1 fractals don’t have you worrying much about “insta-down” combat scenarios. That’s how it has to work. I’m sure it does in many cases: people like you and others may continue to do things they are simply not enjoying solely for the achievement points, and I have nothing against that approach personally- it just isn’t how I play- but I imagine the retinue of players who would simply quit doing something they didn’t like is larger.

Players don’t like to be downed, bashed around, knocked back, insta-killed, and constantly frozen

Do you tend to keep one or more stun breaks on your utility bar?

As I’ve said before many times on this forum, I have no issues with playing the game. What I’m not interested in doing is spending the little time I have randomly wandering the world hoping that I’ll randomly come across something I need…if I even know what I need.

Meh, then use Dulfy. If you don’t mind spending the time you can, if you don’t want to you don’t have to. This one is a self-solving issue in my opinion.

To clarify, I completely agree that ArenaNet could do a better job of presenting in-game direction for its content additions in many cases. It’s not their strong suit; I ran into this in GW1 as well. Relying on the mail system to guide players toward story content is very much a band-aid, for example. However, I just don’t consider this particularly related to Dulfy. Dulfy would be there even if the in-game requirements were made five times clearer, someone else would be there if Dulfy wasn’t, et cetera.

Vol.5241:

I agree, a catch-up mechanism would be great. All the dailies you missed would be banked so that you could get them eventually. That way, time-gating still serves its purpose but also gives those who missed them an opportunity to catch up.

I very much so try to understand other people’s POV (I love to play devil’s advocate and try as much as possible not to be biased). That being said, I think those who don’t have plenty of time need to readjust their expectations in that their inability to consume content that other people who have time is not a fault of Anet
But this could all be solved if Anet could allow us to ‘bank’ unfinished dailies.

Catch-up system is a pretty good idea. But that probably will never happen.

Here’s why I think dailies are pretty bad:

On average, it takes me 90 minutes to do my dailies. (Usually 12~ points worth of AP)
About 30 minutes is spent on my PVP daily which I enjoy.
About 40~60 minutes is spent on all PVE dailies minus WvW dailies, I’d skip Story Dungeon and Fractals when they do come up because I simply don’t have the time.

I’d much rather dedicate my time to PVP only, or do a complete high lvl fractal run, a few dungeons with friends, or work towards some new content (Livingstory)…Instead I have to go out of my way and do boring, easier dailies.

Am I any less “dedicated” or "deserving"if I play the game the way I want than following a checklist every day? Either way I’m spending the same amount of time.

Vol.5241:

I agree, a catch-up mechanism would be great. All the dailies you missed would be banked so that you could get them eventually. That way, time-gating still serves its purpose but also gives those who missed them an opportunity to catch up.

I very much so try to understand other people’s POV (I love to play devil’s advocate and try as much as possible not to be biased). That being said, I think those who don’t have plenty of time need to readjust their expectations in that their inability to consume content that other people who have time is not a fault of Anet

But this could all be solved if Anet could allow us to ‘bank’ unfinished dailies.

I long ago adjusted my expectations, and learned that if I want to play GW2, my favourite MMO (for many reasons NOT related to the questionable reward mechanics), I have to play to ArenaNet’s schedule, which means less fun than otherwise. The trouble is, rather than getting better, these issues seem to be getting worse. That’s really concerning. The Karma nerf, for example – makes sense for people who log on every day – they could have had up to 3.2m Karma from the Jugs, but for people like me? It’s pretty horrible. I’m not saying they shouldn’t have done it, but it really negatively impacts my fun, and my ability to “keep up” or “catch up” (because Karma armour was effectively cheap and solid, not awesome – none of the best Affixes/Suffixes, but solid). Ascended Weapons and Armour will make it worse, and if I stop playing for a bit I will get even further behind on Laurels…

It’s not even making ArenaNet money! That’s what’s really silly! I can’t “pay to catch up” or anything – my game is just getting less fun and more “DO THIS OR NO COOKIES!”. Depressing. Which is sad because so much of the game is awesome.

Re: inexplicable deaths – yeah you learn eventually IF it happens consistently – the trouble is many of these deaths are inconsistent and impossible to fully explain.

Recent patches improved my framerate (despite the removal of the culling in PvE, bizarrely), but there is still a lot of stuff just not showing up.

I can agree with 1,2,4, and 7.

I don’t really see the achievements as a big deal, since I’ll get them eventually. Sure, it’s kinda annoying certain things can’t be done again, but if I have no interest in it, I doubt I ever will anyways. I’ve never been like “omg, that potential AP is gone” since there’s like 10,000 other choices anyways.

It is valid to say that the things that require you to look up a guide are not indicative of good gameplay— usually gameplay should be intuitive and engage the player— letting them figure out as opposed to mindlessly wandering around, wasting their time, and usually making them look it up.