Guild Wars 2

I don’t think more or new content is the best answer.

Let me get used to and familiar with the content that’s already there, develop connections with the characters/storyline/NPCs, etc. It’s through playing time with existing content that I’ll develop a connection with the game, not through mindlessly throwing new content at me that means nothing to me yet.

Heck, I didn’t even know where the two starting areas were for the new content (Diessa and whatever the other one is) having not made a Norn or Charr character at all. How can I be attached to refugees who are in some area of the game my Human warrior has never been to? Since, I have quickly stopped my progression in Orr to go back and find/explore these new areas just to experience the new content.

I think “pre” in GW1 was so hugely popular for the simple fact that everyone was really familiar with it. It never obtained any new content at all in six years, yet people still created permanent characters just to reside in pre. It is the place most people developed a connection with GW1. That says a lot about familiarity and not “newness”.

Agent Ice.6578:

So how about the TOS agreement that came bundled with the patch? Did anyone actually READ it?

What did it say?

Amadan.9451:

Vayne why should you even explain how you spend your time?
same logic can be applied to them, if they are here to complain in the forum what they are complaining about since they are not playing the game?
they trolled you because you like the game and you dare not to find the ranger profession useless while playing the best class in every mmo in the world that is the mesmer. if they like the mesmer so much they should play one (i would like see them leveling it properly with no crafting, learning the skills and the timing and just laugh once they discover that is not an easy class to play as they claim especially when they are stomped in wvw) and start to enjoy the game too or a warrior for that matters (i could die of boredom playing a warrior).

that said i love fotm too, while i generally avoid other dungeons unless i can run it with my guild with no elitism over classes or gears. once i have my gift of zhaitan i’ll probably won’t bother anymore with dungeons ever!

i agree that living story was slow paced but i liked the new istances very much and you don’t even need to be in a party of 5 to run them, it was refreshing and fun.
i wait to see more… am i waiting too much? maybe but who cares? i can do something else in the meanwhile

Actually, I was responding, because I had said people who are enjoying the game don’t spend time complaining about it…and they wanted to know why I wasn’t playing. I felt it was a reasonable question, so I answered it.

You’re right, of course, No one knows anyone’s personal circumstances, but they judge anyway. But I wouldn’t say I was being trolled.

I actually believe the OP has his heart in the right place. I believe he cares about the game. And he’s not “wrong” in what he says. He’s simply asking for something that’s going to take time to deliver. That’s the nature of MMOs. It’s a time game.

I’ve said all along that this game released early because they had to be MoP to market. They paid a price for that. Because the game really should have been released around January, with some of the features it was supposed to have already in it.

For one thing, if ascended gear had been in at launch, no one would have said two words about it. Only because it was added, and how it was added was it a problem.

In the end, the game will grow and mature. It’ll have a decent sized player base. Some people will come back to try it, some won’t. But it’s not going anywhere.

Programming content takes time, a lot of time. Guild Wars 1 had significantly less content at launch, didn’t have nearly as much content patches as GW 2 and it’s been around for seven years.

And it also had tons of complaints about balance. People just don’t remember.

As for the person who brought up World of Tanks, it might be an MMO, but it’s not an MMORPG. It’s a completely different thing. I should have specified MMORPG, but I figured most of the people here would have understood.

thisolderhead.5127:

Lafiel.9372:

Yeah, I really don’t understand the warrior buff and rangers and engineer nerfs. Those are the two most classes people dislike partying with most since they think they don’t really bring “anything to the party”. Nerfing them will just make people go… “do you have another class?”

Potential, look around and find the VERY good rangers and engi videos out there.

Those videos are pre-nerf. Logic fail. Actually I was pretty happy with class balance until this patch and class balance was the final straw that broke the camel’s back as there is no real new content for PVE players like myself after shinylust has been sated.

Apparently the only dungeon the PVPers ever play is COF P1, otherwise I fail to see how TW/Quickness pre patch allows u stomp on bosses.

thisolderhead.5127:

thieves and warriors are the kids brand of play.

Please explain me how exactly is thief brand for kids in PvE? I dont play PvP and very little of WvW, but i feel like playing melee thief in places like FoTM lvl 40 without beeing downed isnt as easy as some players imagining you dont loose aggor anymore by going stealth you have 4 sec between hides, blind is close to useless in dungeons and you get downed by almost any hit or aoe/condition damage…

Khal Drogo.9631:

thisolderhead.5127:

Lafiel.9372:

Yeah, I really don’t understand the warrior buff and rangers and engineer nerfs. Those are the two most classes people dislike partying with most since they think they don’t really bring “anything to the party”. Nerfing them will just make people go… “do you have another class?”

Potential, look around and find the VERY good rangers and engi videos out there.

Those videos are pre-nerf. Logic fail. Actually I was pretty happy with class balance until this patch and class balance was the final straw that broke the camel’s back as there is no real new content for PVE players like myself after shinylust has been sated.

Apparently the only dungeon the PVPers ever play is COF P1, otherwise I fail to see how TW/Quickness pre patch allows u stomp on bosses.

Pre-nerf, post-nerf, mid-nerf, whatever – we’ve both been here long enough to know it is a one track complaint from those (in particular) professions, as balance changes players adapt or sook on forums.

The issue with PvE content is a real one, but at this stage (fractals fallout) I would be reluctant to push any content out to players (regardless of their vocal nature on the topic) without pushing it through a lot more QA.

BadHabitZz.1856:

thisolderhead.5127:

thieves and warriors are the kids brand of play.

Please explain me how exactly is thief brand for kids in PvE? I dont play PvP and very little of WvW, but i feel like playing melee thief in places like FoTM lvl 40 without beeing downed isnt as easy as some players imagining you dont loose aggor anymore by going stealth you have 4 sec between hides, blind is close to useless in dungeons and you get downed by almost any hit or aoe/condition damage…

PvE is not difficult, and given I play melee primarily I can actually empathise with some of your issues, but its not an issue that can’t be overcome – its a challenge that makes it interesting, your examples are the few interestingly tricky parts of those encounters.

Are you missing the consumables now they are out of the picture too?

The only major issue I have with the game is the lack of a dungeon finder/LFG. Cross server dungeons is wasted without that.

I don’t care about 3rd party site. In 2013 if you can’t put a basic feature in a game like this then they need to get rid of who ever they need too and find someone that will.

The dungeons are pretty much dead expect for CoF p1. At the very least a way for us to enter overflow in LA would fix the problem. I wouldn’t mind going there and just using the chat like we did before until they changed it or a bunch of people quit.

Also lodestones. Let them drop in other places besides just a circle. I don’t care about low drop rates but having to run in the same circle (corrupted,charged..) just to farm them is not fun.

Let them drop from more things or at least all over the proper map. Corrupted-frostgorge.

Jski.6180:

Martin The Brave.8731:

I do agree that this game has of late been seeing some less than enthusiastic content; I feel as if the team need’s to be more oriented on creating content that will build off into an expansion rather than tweaking just the basic’s. I do think F&F is a step in the right direction; Although the wait period between actual content was dismal. For me the game need’s to be focused around fun group content with an emphasis on lore and very interesting rewards (Instead of chain-skin’s). More dungeon content also need’s to be implemented, Honestly I feel that many people only do dungeon’s so that they can farm them and not for fun.

I still have full confidence in Arenanet even if my idea of a perfect Guildwars 2 is never fulfilled.

And how dose one do that? How long did it take to get the person story as it is now 3 years? This game has CS it had voice acting artful zones and environments its more then just a simple add in a new npc that has a box to read (most will just skip) and go to a “new” zone that was just model off an old one that has no art feeling to it over all making it a less of a zone compared to others.

Why do you have a gripe with what I said? Regardless of whether or not you feel my idea of what be a good foot forward, Somewhere along the line Arena-net is going to have to implement these thing’s. As for how long it took them to make a personal story, I have no clue but it doesn’t seem that long given that they did great work when they worked on expansion’s in GW1 (Which only took 6-month’s). The rest of what you said has nothing to do with my post, As your just assuming that I want Arenanet to introduce lack luster content.

thisolderhead.5127:

BadHabitZz.1856:

thisolderhead.5127:

thieves and warriors are the kids brand of play.

Please explain me how exactly is thief brand for kids in PvE? I dont play PvP and very little of WvW, but i feel like playing melee thief in places like FoTM lvl 40 without beeing downed isnt as easy as some players imagining you dont loose aggor anymore by going stealth you have 4 sec between hides, blind is close to useless in dungeons and you get downed by almost any hit or aoe/condition damage…

PvE is not difficult, and given I play melee primarily I can actually empathise with some of your issues, but its not an issue that can’t be overcome – its a challenge that makes it interesting, your examples are the few interestingly tricky parts of those encounters.

Are you missing the consumables now they are out of the picture too?

Not really, healing seed and cluster was nice but otherwise not. Iam not saying thieves need some complex thinking but i know alots of players which just doesnt know how to evade and if you dont know how to evade you are bad thief imo Ive seen soooo many bad thieves which just had to stick to SB whole dungeon beacuse otherwise there were downed 50% of time.
I love my thief hes killer in 1v1 fight iam not saying hes not but guardians or mesmers are still giving me hard times because if you blow your CnD on illusion or aegis you have hard time because 4 sec is a loooong time for GC thief and good player will punish you, it all comes down to player…..In zergs and huge battles i dont thinks thiefs are something special, same goes for pve so i just dont like when ppl dissing them… :’(

BadHabitZz.1856:

thisolderhead.5127:

BadHabitZz.1856:

thisolderhead.5127:

thieves and warriors are the kids brand of play.

Please explain me how exactly is thief brand for kids in PvE? I dont play PvP and very little of WvW, but i feel like playing melee thief in places like FoTM lvl 40 without beeing downed isnt as easy as some players imagining you dont loose aggor anymore by going stealth you have 4 sec between hides, blind is close to useless in dungeons and you get downed by almost any hit or aoe/condition damage…

PvE is not difficult, and given I play melee primarily I can actually empathise with some of your issues, but its not an issue that can’t be overcome – its a challenge that makes it interesting, your examples are the few interestingly tricky parts of those encounters.

Are you missing the consumables now they are out of the picture too?

Not really, healing seed and cluster was nice but otherwise not. Iam not saying thieves need some complex thinking but i know alots of players which just doesnt know how to evade and if you dont know how to evade you are bad thief imo Ive seen soooo many bad thieves which just had to stick to SB whole dungeon beacuse otherwise there were downed 50% of time.
I love my thief hes killer in 1v1 fight iam not saying hes not but guardians or mesmers are still giving me hard times because if you blow your CnD on illusion or aegis you have hard time in zergs i dont thinks thiefs are something special, same goes for pve so i just dont like when ppl dissing them… :’(

Thieves are a prof that plays well enough under a bad player, and brilliantly for a good player, same with warriors – there are others which are “fail” professions that are completely underrated as you need to be a good player to play them well enough, but an amazing player is just something else entirely.

I think this is the issue – do they balance the classes for the masses of muppets or for the top 15% of PvP’ers. PvE is a different kettle, but again its about mob/boss mechanics being fixed so balance in PvE can be closer to PvE requirements… hard stuff with a broken stub of an AI (which is what we got at release).

Should clear that up – sorry – not kitten on anyone’s profession, just some are more “entry friendly”, some are just really amazing but only if you have skills, the right mindset, a good knowlege of GW2 mechanics and twelve cans of red bull – that is fun for some.

LotusThief.4613:

The only major issue I have with the game is the lack of a dungeon finder/LFG. Cross server dungeons is wasted without that.

I don’t care about 3rd party site. In 2013 if you can’t put a basic feature in a game like this then they need to get rid of who ever they need too and find someone that will.

The dungeons are pretty much dead expect for CoF p1. At the very least a way for us to enter overflow in LA would fix the problem. I wouldn’t mind going there and just using the chat like we did before until they changed it or a bunch of people quit.

Also lodestones. Let them drop in other places besides just a circle. I don’t care about low drop rates but having to run in the same circle (corrupted,charged..) just to farm them is not fun.

Let them drop from more things or at least all over the proper map. Corrupted-frostgorge.

You act as if most games have a dungeon finder in place at launch. Most don’t. And I’ve yet to see a game that had something as efficient as gw2lfg.com whether you want to use it or not.

Using it, I’ve seldom waited more than five minutes to fill out a dungeon party. If you choose not to use it, that’s your own look out.

Should it be in the game? Do you remember what happens to most games and most forums when people bring up dungeon finders? Do you really believe everyone wants it, or everyone’s for it?

Or is this a case of you want it, and you believe it’s necessary so it doesn’t matter if other people want it or not.

Rift didn’t launch with a dungeon finder. SWToR didn’t (and you couldn’t do cross server dungeons). At least Guild Wars 2 allows you to do dungeons with anyone in your server park (US or Europe). Many games don’t launch with that.

I wish people would stop making dungeon finder out to be such an important thing, particularly with a perfectly serviceable workaround that they simply refuse to use.

On profession balance….

I can’t think of a single MMORPG that didn’t have professions that were easy to pick up and play and harder to pick up and play. Those who want to play a ranger and find it too challenging, I can empathize with you. I enjoy my ranger, but he’s not the only profession I play. I have beaten dungeons with him, even hard ones, but he’s not my main dungeon guy. And yes, it’s harder to find a group that will be willing to pug with rangers, which is why I joined a guild. No one cares what character I take.

What people forget is that in Guild Wars 1 the same problem existed. There were professions welcomed in UW and FoW and there were professions that weren’t. There were specific builds you had to have/use, or people weren’t interested in you. This exists not just in Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2, but every MMORPG with dungeons.

There’s not been a game where min/maxers and speed runners haven’t put up some kind of arbitrary criteria to allow you to join them. And I don’t play with those people because I don’t like those kinds of people. I’m sure some of them are very nice, but I’m inclusive rather than exclusive. So I joined a guild that had the same thought process. Inclusive, instead of exclusive. And it works. We have rangers, necros, engineers, quite a few of each and all of them do dungeons and fractals and play the game and enjoy it.

I’m not saying rangers couldn’t use a little love. I’m not saying necros have a zillion viable builds either. I’m saying that those who complain they’re not welcome in parties, and compare this game to Guild Wars 1, aren’t remembering how it used to be in FoW and UW and volataic spear farming. People didn’t only insist on specific professions but they insisted on specific builds. I hated the build of the week thing and I couldn’t find groups that wanted to play with me in Guild Wars 1…until I joined a guild of like-minded people.

I’m glad I’m in this kind of guild in Guild Wars 2. It solves a lot of problems. The min/maxers and speed runners. They’ll be there in every game. Stop letting them ruin your fun. Find people to play with who enjoy the game without being elitist.

Orpheus.7284:

Only things I’m concerned about is the balance team and the direction of the in-game economy.

The balance team rarely discusses their reasoning behind their buffs and nerfs and that lack of communication is creating a lack of faith.
Economy…not enough supply, too much gold.

This is whats killing the game for me and my friends, they are the meat and three veg of most players anger..

They need to balance for PvE, PvP and WvW, not just the minority part only a few even step into..but hey when the populations decrease again who knows what might happen..

Guild Wars 2’s artwork is gorgeous. Besides that, I like dodging and self sufficient characters instead of the trinity. But that’s it. For all the rest it seems like Guild Wars 2 is being managed by a small team of amateurs. It feels like a kittening indie game.

Dante.1508:

Orpheus.7284:

Only things I’m concerned about is the balance team and the direction of the in-game economy.

The balance team rarely discusses their reasoning behind their buffs and nerfs and that lack of communication is creating a lack of faith.
Economy…not enough supply, too much gold.

This is whats killing the game for me and my friends, they are the meat and three veg of most players anger..

They need to balance for PvE, PvP and WvW, not just the minority part only a few even step into..but hey when the populations decrease again who knows what might happen..

I love it when others refer to 85% (I would say 95%) of the playerbase as the muppet masses which the balance team apparently disfavored in this patch.

LotusThief.4613:

The only major issue I have with the game is the lack of a dungeon finder/LFG. Cross server dungeons is wasted without that.

I actually forgotten about this one. +1 to the stacks of gripes I have.

Vayne.8563:

Amadan.9451:

Vayne why should you even explain how you spend your time?
same logic can be applied to them, if they are here to complain in the forum what they are complaining about since they are not playing the game?
they trolled you because you like the game and you dare not to find the ranger profession useless while playing the best class in every mmo in the world that is the mesmer. if they like the mesmer so much they should play one (i would like see them leveling it properly with no crafting, learning the skills and the timing and just laugh once they discover that is not an easy class to play as they claim especially when they are stomped in wvw) and start to enjoy the game too or a warrior for that matters (i could die of boredom playing a warrior).

that said i love fotm too, while i generally avoid other dungeons unless i can run it with my guild with no elitism over classes or gears. once i have my gift of zhaitan i’ll probably won’t bother anymore with dungeons ever!

i agree that living story was slow paced but i liked the new istances very much and you don’t even need to be in a party of 5 to run them, it was refreshing and fun.
i wait to see more… am i waiting too much? maybe but who cares? i can do something else in the meanwhile

Actually, I was responding, because I had said people who are enjoying the game don’t spend time complaining about it…and they wanted to know why I wasn’t playing. I felt it was a reasonable question, so I answered it.

You’re right, of course, No one knows anyone’s personal circumstances, but they judge anyway. But I wouldn’t say I was being trolled.

I actually believe the OP has his heart in the right place. I believe he cares about the game. And he’s not “wrong” in what he says. He’s simply asking for something that’s going to take time to deliver. That’s the nature of MMOs. It’s a time game.

I’ve said all along that this game released early because they had to be MoP to market. They paid a price for that. Because the game really should have been released around January, with some of the features it was supposed to have already in it.

For one thing, if ascended gear had been in at launch, no one would have said two words about it. Only because it was added, and how it was added was it a problem.

In the end, the game will grow and mature. It’ll have a decent sized player base. Some people will come back to try it, some won’t. But it’s not going anywhere.

Programming content takes time, a lot of time. Guild Wars 1 had significantly less content at launch, didn’t have nearly as much content patches as GW 2 and it’s been around for seven years.

And it also had tons of complaints about balance. People just don’t remember.

As for the person who brought up World of Tanks, it might be an MMO, but it’s not an MMORPG. It’s a completely different thing. I should have specified MMORPG, but I figured most of the people here would have understood.

I think we need to stick to the topic and not insinuate what anyone postings motives are. Just because I don’t always agree with Vayne doesn’t mean I don’t find his opinion just as valid as anyone else’s

I think the critics and fanbois both want this game to be the best game it can be.

Vasham.2408:

IomegadriveOne.5291:

Vasham.2408:

clay.7849:

Vayne.8563:

Flame and Frost feels more old school to me. You actually have to walk around and talk to people. And yeah, I don’t think it’s brilliant content. It’s filler content while the bigger stuff gets worked on.

But it’s fine. The two new instances are fun, you can run them once a day, get some extra karma, and just have fun with it.

Not sure I see the problem here, unless people were expecting totally awesome events for free on a monthly basis.

I remember Rift. Every month they’d come out with a new event that had new currency, that you could cash in for nonsense. Every month. One event would hang around until the next event came out. Some of it was okay. Most of it was annoying as hell. It was just another form of daily. By the end of the month you couldn’t wait for it to go away…and then they’d replace it with the next one.

Eventually Rift has some time to add new content and they did. The same will happen with Guild Wars 2. Until then, what we get is filler content.

To expect more from a monthly upgrade is probably unreasonable.

Considering that ANet has said that they are forgoing any current plans for an expansion in favor of the living story idea, I think it makes sense for them to put the same effort into the living story as they would an expansion. If they think it is a better investment to do that for free rather than working on a paid expansion, that is their problem.

Considering this game’s a complete disaster in terms of sales and player retention the expansion more than likely was canceled due to lack of funds.

Thanks for posting your sources and information to back up your claims. You definitely showed us just how brilliant you are.

Two million sales and the fact they’re officially offering free transfers shows exactly how brilliant I am. Two million is pathetic for an MMO at launch these days, especially since successful new MMOs have a 50% player retention rate, GW2’s retention rate being somewhere in the order of 20-25%.

Besides, if the game was successful they wouldn’t be basing server populations on accounts tied to server. It would be based on active players.

Your reiteration of those irrefutable sources must be proof of such claims. You are so right, I can’t believe I ever doubted you. Please, if you will, reiterate again these 100% full-proof claims just in case anyone missed it, I don’t want any of the unfortunate to miss out on your pure brilliance, my liege.

I don’t understand the argument where people say, for example, that their skill allows their engineer to outperform a “bad” warrior. They could take their skill and play, with a warrior’s mechanical advantages in DPS, and be downed less often than the bad warrior, thus doing even more DPS. Engineers still need a buff, regardless of how skilled you are.

Khal Drogo.9631

I love it when others refer to 85% (I would say 95%) of the playerbase as the muppet masses which the balance team apparently disfavored in this patch.

And that is the balance focus I refer to, while those with the most capability to be able to evaluate and provide high value input fall into the minority it is unlikely that the most well reasoned and sensible approach will be the one that wins.

Highly skilled players are the betamax of gaming, and although it can be frustrating only a small proportion of the population – nerfing complex mechanics and difficulties to the lowest common denominator is the MMORPG way, and something we ought to accept.

With the WvW patch out of the way, Anet will be able to concentrate on some really cool stuff. I hope they actually release an expansion next(Jormag, anyone?).

Doomdesire.9365:

With the WvW patch out of the way, Anet will be able to concentrate on some really cool stuff. I hope they actually release an expansion next(Jormag, anyone?).

Anet won’t be releasing a full expansion anytime soon. I’d expect at least a year before that happens.

RebelYell.7132:

I don’t understand the argument where people say, for example, that their skill allows their engineer to outperform a “bad” warrior. They could take their skill and play, with a warrior’s mechanical advantages in DPS, and be downed less often than the bad warrior, thus doing even more DPS. Engineers still need a buff, regardless of how skilled you are.

I haven’t seen anyone (including myself) suggest there are no balance issues to address.

Again – a highly skilled player or lower skilled player will be able to get better results earlier/easily from some profs, however to reach the pinnacle of capability for that prof may not be a big jump from there. Other profs may be horrendous until you get to a higher level of skill at which point they can easily match (or even completely outclass) the others.

I could also point out professions mesh well with play style – I have been a highly ranked player in a game on one type of character within the healing role which was generally considered a broken prof (equiv.) and could not get my “imbahealzor” super OP cookie cutter character to rank anywhere near as well. There was a balance issue however for me as a player it was in fact the “broken” class was just misunderstood and OP in a lot of situations but the cookie cutter kids couldn’t work it out and the theorycraft required dynamic thinking so it wasn’t popular.

Food for thought.

We get one, single PvP update after all PvE updates for 7 months and you complain a lack of PvE updates?
God forbid Anet gets PvP out of beta, because you want more AI to kill….

Martin The Brave.8731:

Jski.6180:

Martin The Brave.8731:

I do agree that this game has of late been seeing some less than enthusiastic content; I feel as if the team need’s to be more oriented on creating content that will build off into an expansion rather than tweaking just the basic’s. I do think F&F is a step in the right direction; Although the wait period between actual content was dismal. For me the game need’s to be focused around fun group content with an emphasis on lore and very interesting rewards (Instead of chain-skin’s). More dungeon content also need’s to be implemented, Honestly I feel that many people only do dungeon’s so that they can farm them and not for fun.

I still have full confidence in Arenanet even if my idea of a perfect Guildwars 2 is never fulfilled.

And how dose one do that? How long did it take to get the person story as it is now 3 years? This game has CS it had voice acting artful zones and environments its more then just a simple add in a new npc that has a box to read (most will just skip) and go to a “new” zone that was just model off an old one that has no art feeling to it over all making it a less of a zone compared to others.

Why do you have a gripe with what I said? Regardless of whether or not you feel my idea of what be a good foot forward, Somewhere along the line Arena-net is going to have to implement these thing’s. As for how long it took them to make a personal story, I have no clue but it doesn’t seem that long given that they did great work when they worked on expansion’s in GW1 (Which only took 6-month’s). The rest of what you said has nothing to do with my post, As your just assuming that I want Arenanet to introduce lack luster content.

I think i miss read what you posted i am sry.

I disagree. First off im so tired of posts like this lol. This entire forum has become a nagfest. This recent patch, the razing, has given me hope. For a while I had dwindling hopes of the games future, but now I raise my head. The living story really improved, and as a growing lore fanatic, ive explored many aspects that the living story has offered so far, through npcs, events, and the ones currently, and am very happy. Its nice to see so many storylines playing out, and potential storylines for separate zones. The living story has huge potential for gw2. I cant wait to see how the rest of this month and april turn out for flame and frost, as well as the adjacent zones and storylines that could be affected.

Skylightmoon.1079:

I disagree. First off im so tired of posts like this lol. This entire forum has become a nagfest. This recent patch, the razing, has given me hope. For a while I had dwindling hopes of the games future, but now I raise my head. The living story really improved, and as a growing lore fanatic, ive explored many aspects that the living story has offered so far, through npcs, events, and the ones currently, and am very happy. Its nice to see so many storylines playing out, and potential storylines for separate zones. The living story has huge potential for gw2. I cant wait to see how the rest of this month and april turn out for flame and frost, as well as the adjacent zones and storylines that could be affected.

The problem with the living story for most people, I suspect, is that the tendency is to look online to see where to go, read a guide and do it ikittenminutes.

I never used a guide for the story, went looking for stuff, talked to people and generally enjoyed it. It took a lot longer, naturally, but I liked hearing the stories of people who were displaced and trying to figure out what was happening as time went on.

For a lot of people, who just want loot or don’t care about story, this living story did nothing. It’s a mindset as much as anything else.

People are too easily frustrated. They search for something for five minutes, get bored and go look at a guide.

As a genuine question to satisfy my curiosity:

If ascended gear was removed entirely from FotM (agony replaced with an alternative mechanism to scale the difficulty) and replaced with exotics (to be redeemed with relics) with no better stats than prevailing exotics, how many of you would still run FotM daily because that’s majorly enjoyable and you loooove FotM?

-edit- asking because I saw comments on how FotM was the best addition and how it’s something better than dungeons overall.

Yea, I get more underwhelmed every day. I keep wondering why I play the game and I’m looking for something else. Sick of RNG. Like, all the new “content” (not actual content just skins) doesn’t give you anything to do at all. You can only grind old things more. More COF, because that’s the only decent farm that actually involves playing (sure you can manipulate the TP but those who enjoy it are few and far between). But actually doing something enjoyable doesn’t give comparative farm. RNG for absolutely anything of value. No skill involved. The items that can be bought i just weigh in hours of COF. Is that skin worth 250 hours of mindless farming… and often I decide no as of late. Fractals, RNG, Fuzed, RNG, Pre-Cursor RNG.
End rant. Nothing worth having is obtained by actions worth doing. Just hope for luck. Because that’s fun….Take 90% of the RNG out of this game and I might play for the next few months, otherwise I’m out when I can beta ESO.

Lightning.8397:

As a genuine question to satisfy my curiosity:

If ascended gear was removed entirely from FotM (agony replaced with an alternative mechanism to scale the difficulty) and replaced with exotics (to be redeemed with relics) with no better stats than prevailing exotics, how many of you would still run FotM daily because that’s majorly enjoyable and you loooove FotM?

-edit- asking because I saw comments on how FotM was the best addition and how it’s something better than dungeons overall.

I don’t run it daily now. I run it because it’s fun, though, yes. Would I run it as often as I do now? Probably not.

Doesn’t take away that fact that I still have fun when I run it and the same can’t be said for dungeons. I never found CoE fun or SE or CM. I didn’t particularly mind AC or TA, but I didn’t love them either.

There are fun aspects of each dungeon, but as a whole I didn’t enjoy them. I do enjoy fractals.

I wouldn’t say they’ve been slacking on providing PvE content, as there’s basically been new things added every single month, which is far more often than I saw in “that other game” or generally other MMO’s when I used to play it/those in the past. The only time there was proper new content added, was in “yearly” expansions, and we’ve had none for GW2 yet, considering how young it still is.

“That other game” has also had years to build upon the content it can provide. This one has barely had half a year. For such a young game, I find it to have a lot more to offer than your average MMO released. Granted, I do enjoy mostly all types of gameplay provided; PvE, WvW and sPvP.

And although the Living Story was a fairly poor implementation of engaging story, before this 26th of March patch, now I at least, feel like it’s starting to pick up. Clearly it is leading to something changing in Southsun Cove, as mostly all the refugees are talking about it, how the Consortium is making them sign contracts, and what not. There’s also been new changes in the world due to this Living Story, small perhaps, but with two new beautiful little instanced areas, added for the “solo-dungeons” revolving Braham and Rox.

What I do agree with is Ranger feeling underwhelming. I never have trouble fighting Rangers. Some are building themselves very efficiently for being evasive and survivable, but then are absolutely unable to deal any sort of substantial damage to be able to do anything but survive for a few minutes longer while itching their opponents, and others are glass cannons that die in a couple hits. I really hope they have a serious look at Rangers soon, and buff them properly.

Perhaps the problem is in how ArenaNet has designed difference in damage between melee and ranged. Ranged has lower damage, because it allows you to be further away from danger, but it’s so easy to keep yourself within melee range against a ranged target, that melee are dishing out far superior damage to the ranged player. Pretty much all melee has a decent gap closer to quickly be in the face of their ranged opponents. Could perhaps ranged damage be slightly increased when targets are closer to you?

Things that worry me though, is when I see things like the new Fused Weapon Skins, being only obtainable, Account Bound, from sinking massive amounts of Gold and/or real money into Gems, relying on hopes of a gamble on a random chance Black Lion Chest providing a token to purchase one. There’s a total of 16 skins, and although I didn’t perhaps want more than a handful of them (4-5), after I personally opened 149 chests without getting a single token, I wrote them off as not being worth it, and a legendary even seem more feasible as a goal. This worries me. New skins that helps bring more customization and variety in choice, when it comes to looks, being added as Account Bound and only available through money-grabbing gambling “scams”. If that keeps up, I may keep playing or I may just get discouraged enough to quit outright, but in either case I won’t support the game anymore through real money purchases in the Gem Store.

It feels like the Gem Store team/head believes this is a “traditional” Free to Play game, where there isn’t the barrier of a entry fee before you start playing (GW2 is a Buy to Play game after all). It seems like they think it’s another one of the “just going to try it and see how it is” F2P titles, where such RNG milking tactics may work far better. Perhaps it’s working for them to a degree now as well, but for how long? What happens once most of your players start to resent you, spreading bad advertisement about it to their social network? If your friend is telling you about how annoyed they are with a game, are you more or less likely to spend money on buying into it? I’m not at the point of resenting the company, but I am getting increasingly more disappointed in them due to the Gem Store and these RNG milking tactics.

Really don’t get what they’re thinking with these gamble items. I’m fine with gamble items being there, as some might enjoy them, but at least provide direct purchase options as well for a “higher cost” when it comes to skins and miniature pets. It doesn’t help that the majority of the items produced from these RNG boxes are generally pure junk. Boosters and one-time use tonics aren’t rewarding. Especially with real money involved in several cases. If I want a Booster, I’ll just buy the specific one I want. If I want a Name Change Contract, I’ll buy it when I need it. If I want a Total Makeover Kit, you get my drift. It’s just annoying to get these inventory filling items that you absolutely do not want.

RNG boxes with skins/minis already caused an outrage in previous content updates, now they do it again. It’s like they say “We don’t care about you as a customer, what you tell us doesn’t matter one bit to us. Kittycat to you and give us your money. Huehue.”

Vayne.8563:

You act as if most games have a dungeon finder in place at launch. Most don’t. And I’ve yet to see a game that had something as efficient as gw2lfg.com whether you want to use it or not.

Using it, I’ve seldom waited more than five minutes to fill out a dungeon party. If you choose not to use it, that’s your own look out.

Define seldom. And it is possible to wait 30 min for a 6 min dungeon because by the time you Alt-tabbed back to the game to join a party, position has already been filled and this will occur frequently. People’s standards of efficiency may vary though.

As for “most” games not releasing with a dungeon finder, its probably because those games have no dungeons in the first place. I wonder if ESO and Neverwinter will come up Dungeon Finders on beta release.

Khal Drogo.9631:

Vayne.8563:

You act as if most games have a dungeon finder in place at launch. Most don’t. And I’ve yet to see a game that had something as efficient as gw2lfg.com whether you want to use it or not.

Using it, I’ve seldom waited more than five minutes to fill out a dungeon party. If you choose not to use it, that’s your own look out.

Define seldom. And it is possible to wait 30 min for a 6 min dungeon because by the time you Alt-tabbed back to the game to join a party, position has already been filled and this will occur frequently. People’s standards of efficiency may vary though.

As for “most” games not releasing with a dungeon finder, its probably because those games have no dungeons in the first place. I wonder if ESO and Neverwinter will come up Dungeon Finders on beta release.

Rift had dungeons and no dungeon finder. I played Rift and there was a HUGE battle on the forums, and I mean huge, between people who wanted it and people who didn’t. Anyone on those forums back then would remember it, because it was so hostile on both sides.

You act like everyone in the world is in favor of dungeon finders, but there’s a load of opposition to them as well…particularly cross server ones.

That shouldn’t be a problem in Guild Wars 2, but I’m just saying, most games with dungeons don’t launch with dungeon finders, even today.

Vayne.8563:

Rift had dungeons and no dungeon finder. I played Rift and there was a HUGE battle on the forums, and I mean huge, between people who wanted it and people who didn’t. Anyone on those forums back then would remember it, because it was so hostile on both sides.

You act like everyone in the world is in favor of dungeon finders, but there’s a load of opposition to them as well…particularly cross server ones.

That shouldn’t be a problem in Guild Wars 2, but I’m just saying, most games with dungeons don’t launch with dungeon finders, even today.

A load of opposition from the same ppl you mean. You only quoted one game and the discussion from another game. How applicable is that?

Neverwinter seems to have dungeon finders on beta from their gameplay videos. I mean if the next few MMOs with dungeons do have dungeon finders, this totally invalidates your claims.

Khal Drogo.9631:

Vayne.8563:

Rift had dungeons and no dungeon finder. I played Rift and there was a HUGE battle on the forums, and I mean huge, between people who wanted it and people who didn’t. Anyone on those forums back then would remember it, because it was so hostile on both sides.

You act like everyone in the world is in favor of dungeon finders, but there’s a load of opposition to them as well…particularly cross server ones.

That shouldn’t be a problem in Guild Wars 2, but I’m just saying, most games with dungeons don’t launch with dungeon finders, even today.

A load of opposition from the same ppl you mean. You only quoted one game and the discussion from another game. How applicable is that?

Neverwinter seems to have dungeon finders on beta from their gameplay videos. I mean if the next few MMOs with dungeons do have dungeon finders, this totally invalidates your claims.

As of now, I can’t think of ten existing MMOs that had dungeon finders at launch. Maybe in the future, games will have them at launch, but since that game isn’t out yet, it invalidates what you’re saying.

Name three AAA MMOs that launched with dungeon finders. I doubt you can get even two, but let’s say three. Then we’ll see who is and who isn’t invalidated.

I brought up Rift due to first hand experience instead of anecdotal experience.

oh really?

Spvp sub-forum: why is this game so pve centric? dev are neglecting the pvp aspect of the game, kitten this game i quit

WvW sub-foum: why is this game so pve-centric? plenty of pve updates and events, where’s the love for wvw? this game sucks

PvE sub-forum: devs are neglecting pve.

Vayne.8563:

A load of opposition from the same ppl you mean. You only quoted one game and the discussion from another game. How applicable is that?

Neverwinter seems to have dungeon finders on beta from their gameplay videos. I mean if the next few MMOs with dungeons do have dungeon finders, this totally invalidates your claims.

As of now, I can’t think of ten existing MMOs that had dungeon finders at launch. Maybe in the future, games will have them at launch, but since that game isn’t out yet, it invalidates what you’re saying.

Name three AAA MMOs that launched with dungeon finders. I doubt you can get even two, but let’s say three. Then we’ll see who is and who isn’t invalidated.

I wouldnt know about prior MMOs simply because GW2 is the 1st MMO I played. As for “AAA” MMOs, time will decide that and not based on some individual’s opinion

Vayne.8563:

I brought up Rift due to first hand experience instead of anecdotal experience.

That is the same thing.

hplee.2839:

oh really?

Spvp sub-forum: why is this game so pve centric? dev are neglecting the pvp aspect of the game, kitten this game i quit

WvW sub-foum: why is this game so pve-centric? plenty of pve updates and events, where’s the love for wvw? this game sucks

PvE sub-forum: devs are neglecting pve.

If all three sub-sections are saying the above-mentioned at the same time, you know you have a problem. And WvWers are far more likely to do PvE as well.

Khal Drogo.9631:

Vayne.8563:

A load of opposition from the same ppl you mean. You only quoted one game and the discussion from another game. How applicable is that?

Neverwinter seems to have dungeon finders on beta from their gameplay videos. I mean if the next few MMOs with dungeons do have dungeon finders, this totally invalidates your claims.

As of now, I can’t think of ten existing MMOs that had dungeon finders at launch. Maybe in the future, games will have them at launch, but since that game isn’t out yet, it invalidates what you’re saying.

Name three AAA MMOs that launched with dungeon finders. I doubt you can get even two, but let’s say three. Then we’ll see who is and who isn’t invalidated.

I wouldnt know about prior MMOs simply because GW2 is the 1st MMO I played. As for “AAA” MMOs, time will decide that and not based on some individual’s opinion

Vayne.8563:

I brought up Rift due to first hand experience instead of anecdotal experience.

That is the same thing. [/quote]

So if this is the first MMO you’ve played, and you’re making comments about what’s commonly in other MMOs, you’re basically making it all up…got it.

As for first hand experience and anecdotal experience, they’re different. No one told me Rift didn’t have a dungeon finder at launch. I played Rift at launch and saw for myself that they didn’t have one. There’s nothing anecdotal about that at all, nor about the number of people protesting it.

I could add that every time dungeon finder is brought up on any forum, including Guild Wars 2 guru, there’s always a huge argument about it. You don’t have to take my word about it, just take a look at other forums.

I know I have.

Edit: Also AAA MMO has nothing to do with how good an MMO is, but more to do with how much time/money went into creating it. It may not stand the test of time (though I believe it will) but that has nothing to do with a the moniker AAA.

Khal Drogo.9631:

hplee.2839:

oh really?

Spvp sub-forum: why is this game so pve centric? dev are neglecting the pvp aspect of the game, kitten this game i quit

WvW sub-foum: why is this game so pve-centric? plenty of pve updates and events, where’s the love for wvw? this game sucks

PvE sub-forum: devs are neglecting pve.

If all three sub-sections are saying the above-mentioned at the same time, you know you have a problem. And WvWers are far more likely to do PvE as well.

Maybe they are neglecting everything?

Vayne.8563:

So if this is the first MMO you’ve played, and you’re making comments about what’s commonly in other MMOs, you’re basically making it all up…got it.

As for first hand experience and anecdotal experience, they’re different. No one told me Rift didn’t have a dungeon finder at launch. I played Rift at launch and saw for myself that they didn’t have one. There’s nothing anecdotal about that at all, nor about the number of people protesting it.

I could add that every time dungeon finder is brought up on any forum, including Guild Wars 2 guru, there’s always a huge argument about it. You don’t have to take my word about it, just take a look at other forums.

I know I have.

No I am basing what I know off what I read in the upcoming future and since no other notable MMORPG with dungeons launched in 2012 I have had no basis for comparison for 2012. But if you are referring to GW2 forums, I am quite sure more people want dungeon finder than people who vehemently oppose them.

To you it is not anecdotal, to the rest of the world it is. No disrespect to you, I am not sure you understand what the word means.

Khal Drogo.9631:

Vayne.8563:

So if this is the first MMO you’ve played, and you’re making comments about what’s commonly in other MMOs, you’re basically making it all up…got it.

As for first hand experience and anecdotal experience, they’re different. No one told me Rift didn’t have a dungeon finder at launch. I played Rift at launch and saw for myself that they didn’t have one. There’s nothing anecdotal about that at all, nor about the number of people protesting it.

I could add that every time dungeon finder is brought up on any forum, including Guild Wars 2 guru, there’s always a huge argument about it. You don’t have to take my word about it, just take a look at other forums.

I know I have.

No I am basing what I know off what I read in the upcoming future and since no other notable MMORPG launched in 2012 I have had no basis for comparison for 2012. But if you are referring to GW2 forums, I am quite sure more people want dungeon finder than people who vehemently oppose them.

To you it is not anecdotal, to the rest of the world it is. No disrespect to you, I am not sure you understand what the word means.

Actually I know exactly what anecdotal means.

When a person experiences something and relates it, that’s direct experience. If you repeat it, that’s anecdotal. Direct experience means you were there. I was there. Whether it’s anecdotal to you is irrelevant. You can either accept what I say, or call me a liar. I don’t really care, because you’ve already put yourself in a place where I can’t take you seriously.

As for dungeon finders in games that aren’t out yet, sure, Guild Wars 2 is a transitional game. So the games like SWToR which had instances but no instance finders (and instances are called dungeons in MMOs whether they’re dungeons or not usually), but that didn’t come with a grouping utility and that launched at the very end of last year and yes, was a AAA MMO.

TSW launched the month before Guild Wars 2 and I’m pretty sure that didn’t have a dungeon finder either.

Saying that in the future this will be a standard feature is not nearly the same as saying that it’s been a feature all along and GW 2 should have had it.

As for the gw2lfg.com, if you make your game a window temporarily and call up a browser, so you have both your browser and the game up at the same time, you won’t run into the same problem of tabbing back and forth and missing out.

But you know, reading about stuff isn’t the same as experiencing it. I’m glad you’re reading at least, but you shouldn’t dismiss people that have had years of experience in a genre, based on stuff you’ve read.

Vayne.8563:

But you know, reading about stuff isn’t the same as experiencing it. I’m glad you’re reading at least, but you shouldn’t dismiss people that have had years of experience in a genre, based on stuff you’ve read.

Whether you run GW2 as a window or not, finding parties should never been a speed challenge where if u are Milliseconds too late, you won’t get into a PUG for 30 minutes.

I applaud you for not editing your posts in order to hide your lack of understanding of the concept of “anecdotal” from another person’s perspective (I.e not you).

And to years of experience etc, why should that even matter? Even if I was a veteran WOW player, WOW problems are WOW problems. I am sure people came to GW2 because of dissatisfaction with some aspect of the game (maybe the implementation of dungeon finder in WOW) or they simply got sick of that game after eight years.

Khal Drogo.9631:

Vayne.8563:

But you know, reading about stuff isn’t the same as experiencing it. I’m glad you’re reading at least, but you shouldn’t dismiss people that have had years of experience in a genre, based on stuff you’ve read.

Whether you run GW2 as a window or not, finding parties should never been a speed challenge where if u are Milliseconds too late, you won’t get into a PUG.

I applaud you for not editing your posts in order to hide your lack of understanding of the concept of “anecdotal” from another person’s perspective (I.e not you).

And to years of experience etc, why should that even matter? Even if I was a veteran WOW player, WOW problems are WOW problems. I am sure people came to GW2 because of dissatisfaction with some aspect of the game or they simply got sick of that game after eight years.

When someone comes along and says there’s no excuse for a game not to have a dungeon finder, when in fact, very few games have launched with a dungeon finder to date, it implies that somehow this game is different from others that came before it. The implication is that this game lacks something others had included. In this case, this isn’t the case.

And I’m happy to leave up my post about anecdotal, since I happen to be right about it. If I experience something and relate the experience, that is in fact direct knowledge. In history courses, when you interview someone who was there, and record the results, that’s direct knowlege. It’s when you talk to someone who talked to someone that it becomes anecdotal.

When you write your thesis, I’m sure they’ll explain it to you.

Anyone who says the game population is still strong is in denial.
try finding a group for story mode even on the external dungeon finder sites.

Rizzy.8293:

Anyone who says the game population is still strong is in denial.
try finding a group for story mode even on the external dungeon finder sites.

I’ve done it and gotten groups pretty fast. However, story mode simply isn’t rewarding. It takes too long for too little reward, so most people aren’t interested in doing it. Particularly because you can do explorable mode dungeons without unlocking story mode as long as others in the group have. I have a friend who hasn’t done a single story mode in the game, but he’s done almost all the explorable modes.

The big difference is the tokens you get. Most people do the dungeons for tokens and you get none in story mode.

Rizzy.8293:

Anyone who says the game population is still strong is in denial.
try finding a group for story mode even on the external dungeon finder sites.

What does story mode group finding have to do with population?

Vayne.8563:

When someone comes along and says there’s no excuse for a game not to have a dungeon finder, when in fact, very few games have launched with a dungeon finder to date, it implies that somehow this game is different from others that came before it. The implication is that this game lacks something others had included. In this case, this isn’t the case.

And I’m happy to leave up my post about anecdotal, since I happen to be right about it. If I experience something and relate the experience, that is in fact direct knowledge. In history courses, when you interview someone who was there, and record the results, that’s direct knowlege. It’s when you talk to someone who talked to someone that it becomes anecdotal.

When you write your thesis, I’m sure they’ll explain it to you.

1) You didn’t experience anything, you read some ranting on another game’s forums.
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence.
In the general context of the word and common usage:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/anecdotal

What university are you a doctorate of btw?

Vayne as i undestood you like FoTM, ppl who are complaining about Living story and Guild mission are mostly the ppl who loves FoTM beacuse with FoTM patch they felt like the game is going right direction, but after recent updates i think they are just worried that the game is going to be all about those 2 stuffs which they dont like.
My friends once told me that anet is planing adding new fractals, i get that they dont want fractals become end-game in GW2 so maybe some other dungeon (OUTSIDE LA, the loadings are killing me and we have beatiuful cites with no players in them…)

Vayne, i know iam mention you again in my post pls dont take it as some attack i acually like your posts you have some good points there, even if i dont agree with some of them…

BadHabitZz.1856:

Vayne as i undestood you like FoTM, ppl who are complaining about Living story and Guild mission are mostly the ppl who loves FoTM beacuse with FoTM patch they felt like the game is going right direction, but after recent updates i think they are just worried that the game is going to be all about those 2 stuffs which they dont like.
My friends once told me that anet is planing adding new fractals, i get that they dont want fractals become end-game in GW2 so maybe some other dungeon (OUTSIDE LA, the loadings are killing me and we have beatiuful cites with no players in them…)

Vayne, i know iam mention you again in my post pls dont take it as some attack i acually like your posts you have some good points there, even if i dont agree with some of them…

There are people who hate guild missions and people who like them. I’m not at all worried about the living story stuff, because frankly, that’s not a big deal either way. Most MMOs don’t have monthly content updates at all. The big updates are usually when an expansion comes out.

All Anet is doing is providing busywork. Nothing more. Till they can produce more content which takes time. Rift did the same exact thing. Stupid long events that did nothing but acted like more dailies for different currencies every month. And they did it for long enough until they could make a full fledged raid, and then later an expansion.

Guild Wars 2 is doing the same thing. They’ve had one major content patch since then, which was the fractals. I’d say it’s right on schedule.

The problem is people expect big monthly updates, but no game provides big monthly updates. The game is moving slowly. People don’t have patience.

But there’s no monthly fee and they can go play something else and come back and play the new content. I’m not seeing a problem here.