I absolutely agree.
I’ve been hoping for real content updates — you know, the rest of the map, actual permanent changes that aren’t just “Living Story things we forgot to clean up”, etc — for months, and in fact only got back into the game to play with new friends in December after having stopped some time in June 2013.
I haven’t a clue of what’s going on in Living Story, who these people are, and I never will. It’s gone. Well, mostly. I’m still trying to avoid these so-called “Toxic” creatures and figure out why Kessex Hills is a giant mess. Wayfarer’s Foothills and Diessa Plateau didn’t get completely messed up in the first Living Story thing…
Now, a bit about why I’ve actually decided to log in and post again:
When I came back to the game, I started running dungeons with newbie groups, and quickly learned that unless you’re doing Story or explicitly say “relaxed” in your LFG, 9 times out of 10 you’re going to be stuck with some farming jerkbags who turn the experience into a stressful event that makes you want to quit as soon as you get out of there. And this is the first time I’ve ever had the opportunity to really run all of them, let alone with friends. I shouldn’t have one of the big achievement-centric STORY DRIVEN pieces of the game be a massive turnoff because nobody wants to actually play the content!
I was bad at PvP since GW1, and I’m even worse at it now. I don’t understand WvW nor can I play it (my ancient Phenom II 925 can barely handle temple assaults in Orr). That said, I’m strictly a PvE player. Other than roleplaying — which quite frankly is a rather personal matter I’m not quite comfortable with doing with or alongside strangers — I haven’t much to really do in the game.
Crafting has become an absolute joke now that it’s easier to outright buy things from the market with the 162gp I have sitting in my bank, and with dungeons shut off to me, the only two attractions are running Jumping Puzzles and Orr Temples.
Only, I don’t give a skritt’s posterior about Orr Temples. I’ve no vapid desire for in-game currency, nor do I care about being able to afford Ascended or even Legendary items — not to mention that as I said before, my experience with them is visually lagged at best and my contribution (and reward) hardly merits the risk of being completely destroyed (and subsequently ignored by my so-called compatriots).
So in the last three days since I’ve returned from a brief hiatus to think about whether or not I’m really willing to keep with the game, I banged out last 3 dailies and 12 jumping puzzles (running them alongside friends to introduce them to the game and other “hidden content”).
And frankly? That’s it. I’m done with my story — or as done as “LFG Arah Story” can be — I dislike zergs, and the meta-gaming is so bad I refuse to subject myself to competitive gaming / PvP. I’m left with map completion (already something most anyone can reasonably do alone), World Events that are either empty on my home server (last night over an hour or two of running 4 jumping puzzles solo, I saw exactly 1 other player out of 3 maps), or guesting to join in large-scale zerg rushes that I frankly couldn’t care less about, because it’s honestly more fun to rampage through a map looking for crafting materials than it is to actually … you know, craft with them.
Why am I still here?
Honestly, I don’t know. I’m holding out because I finally have friends who play again and a few more who are joining at long last. I mean, that’s why I play MMOs in the first place: to hang out with friends and have adventures. Heck, back around release I remember spending hours palling around and chatting with random other players and just having a good time doing content, fighting area bosses, and getting our butts kicked by doing something blithely stupid. But we had fun all the same.
The only problem is that as more and more players gravitate to gold-making schemes and turn toxic thanks to meta-gaming advantages, it’s harder to find new people to play with, and even harder still to find those I want to have anything to do with.
I almost wouldn’t say there’s an overall lack of content — just that a lot of it isn’t as readily accessible as it should be, like the 30-odd jumping puzzles I’ve yet to find/do — that’s driven me away so much as just the feeling of being completely alone in a game that was built from the ground up to be a social experience.
More for statement than any real content, I’ve attached gw002.jpg, dated from Sept. 4, 2012. In it is a picture of my first proper character in the first set of armor I’d craft for myself, being silly with fellow adventurers after successfully completing the Wall Breach Blitz jumping puzzle.