Guild Wars 2

After seeing what Square did to FFIV I think that any game is fixable!

Anet has to sit for a while and rethink what they are doing and have done to put this game on a solid direction. The dead zones in PvE could be fixed putting unique rewards and content to each one. There are 27 pve zones, if I’n not mistaken, and they have the very same events, hearts, mobs and drops… There is no reason for visiting another area with the same lvl range of one you’ve just completed.

I don’t agree with at least half of the points being raised by the OP to be a problem in the first place, but there is nothing in that list that can’t be “fixed”. GW2 has a fairly solid core game, fixing its hiccups is entirely doable. I agree that the total domination of offense gear/builds needs addressing, as does the (painfully boring) process to get legendary weapons. The latter at least ANet communicated intent to address.

My personal main gripes with the game is a) that its main idea of difficulty is bosses with silly one-shot mechanics that result in combat being a chaotic dodge-fest and b) the utter lack of any meaningful variety in gear styles (90% of medium armour is trenchcoats, 90% of light armour is some sort of robe etc.) and that most weapon skins suffer under the anime-syndrome (oversized greatswords anyone?).
Even those would be fixable if ANet wanted to, although as far as the silly one-shot mechanics goes, my hope is limited as ANet really seems to love their red circles of insta-death.

From the way that the OP has put it, along with some others on this thread, you’d think that the game was so broken that it would destroy your computer just by logging in. :P

More seriously though… Opinions. We all have them. And without going into a point by point rebuttal, my opinion is this game is far from broken.
Perfect? Hardly. It’s got it’s share of problems just like any other game. (The biggest of which I personally think is the people who ‘What is /all/ and want it /NAO!/’)
Game is dead and full of nothing but farmers?
That is so far from what I have seen I have to wonder if we are even playing the same game… Perhaps you need to find a more active guild? Or possibly move to a higher population server?
Don’t get me wrong, Tarnished Coast has it’s share of Champ Trains and Dungeon Speed Runners… but rarely have I been anywhere and found the place ‘dead’ as you put it.

So, there’s my 2 copper. Take it or leave it.

Gathslan.1870:

Some of your problems would be fixed with the following actions.

Most dungeons and zones are empty because of no worthwhile loot.
Every mob on every zone drops same type of loot, so people find the best zone with most farmable mobs and just stick to it until a better one comes along.

Anet needs to improve the loot table and give good looking armor/weapons that drop from specific dungeons and zones, hence spreading out the playerbase and making every bit of content used.

Do not get me wrong though, i am saying they need to add good looking SKINS to different dungeons and zones as low chance drops. Skins that have no stats to them(or make them exotic stats as ascended would be too low drop chance)

There you go, a huge world with many different places worth a visit if you want your character to look cool

Actually I feel the loot tables have improved significantly over the last couple months. My problem with the current game is the ramping up of difficulty, I like a challenge occasionally, but not when it becomes a full time job.

I only do the story dungeons; why? Because they are easier, are a nice casual fun time, don’t have elitists running the show, and you can find a much friendlier party 99% of the time. I used to do the explorables, but as they have been slowly taken over by the speed runners, I no longer bother. I don’t measure the fun I am having by how fast I can find shinies, hence I don’t do the champ farms either. IMO loot is fine, ANet just needs to return us to the days when co-operation and not harder content was the moto of the game.

Dont think so since it would require to build up a new combat system.

Condition disaster <- why was this even in the game to begin with.
Most pve is “dodge or die” mechanic with the regular pop at few utility skills and proceed to autoattack over and over…

That said i think they created a beautiful world and their dungeons tend to look amazing but the boring combat / skills is a massive turn off. Minor puzzles etc in dungeons i also enjoy but they just dont seem to wanna make different specs fun and not just barely viable but actually wanted for dungeons and events.

8 classes how many are optimal for groups?

green plum.7514:

I’m not sure I’m following. What would be an example of a game which is not pointless? I’m playing games because I think its fun. I have no interest in grinding for legendaries etc. For me, the main problem in this games is that most people I run into are only interested in dungeon speed runs, champion trains and other such nonsense.

^This. The problem is with the above mentioned part of the community. For them, the game is about loot and nothing else.

Why? Maybe they want to be the most tricked out for PvP. I don’t know. If it is PvP, then I think ANet should just make PvP gear only work in PvP and promote everyone who enters PvP to lvl 80 and allow them access to only a pre-defined set of gear. That way everyone in PvP is on a level playing field.

I doubt the game can be fixed. I read the dev update posts every time, and see nothing that addresses actual problems with the game —- instead we get balance tweaks and more junk content.

ANet spouts “Living World” – I played MUDS 20+ years ago that were more persistent and “alive” than GW2 is.
A few examples:

1. You cannot drop anything, if you do it ceases to exist.
2. Respawns occur in minutes, Corpses decay in seconds, and Area-Events reset immediately upon completion. None of that is remotely a “living world”
3. Value of Items – almost everything is valued at a couple coppers – selling it at a vendor is nearly pointless… oh yeah and if you do, the item ceases to exist.

• You have to pay to list on Black Lion Trading post, nothing ever expires. Most things are flooded to the point where everything is a mere copper (or 2) above base price. Or so expensive that you would have to spend real $$ to buy it.
• Value of an item should at least be (at a minimum, sell value) what it costs to Craft it.

1. NPC’s: Stand (or sit) around doing the same thing day in night out.

• Shop vendors usually don’t even have a shop, or a cart, or any indicator whatsoever that they are a vendor aside from a floating icon on their head or map.
• Amusingly, there is an apple cart in the human town – and you can’t buy apples.

1. PC’s don’t sleep, or eat, and no reason to rest as regeneration is almost instantaneously when not in combat.
2. You can’t interact with anything in the game.

Cannot open doors, steal, pick locks.

1. Unless you own GW1+ you don’t even have a domicle/residence of any sort.

Nothing exists in the world, beyond the Players themselves.

1. You can walk right through non-aggressive mobs/enemies.

I could be mistaken, but AFAIK ANet has refused to fix the targetting issue with the mouse, when you want to use “RButton+LButton” as movement.

Most updates I have seen come down the pipe are pretty-things for level 80’s, or even more virtual types of currency to spend on more virtual items. I expect in another 6 months we’ll get yet another currency in game, and all “normal items” will still be worth ~10 copper.

The world looks pretty though. And some of the “jumping quests” (points of interest) were interesting.

The biggest issues this game has are these, in my opinion:

- Loot should be looted and not bought with currency: it doesn’t make sense, it’s quite silly and it’s boring. You do your job x times/day and get paid. I do that in real life, don’t want to do it here.

- Lack of roles makes a boring metagame. I can’t tank, I can’t heal, I just get to do two things: dodge and dps. Yeah “support” too, hahaha.

- Large imbalance in classes/traits, too few combinations are really playable, some weapons are horrible, some traits are placed randomly in the trees. Some classes need some serious work.

- The world is a beauty, exploring it was really fun, but dungeons/events are lackluster. I can’t wrap my head around champion “trains”, I guess nothing has to make sense anymore in a fantasy game, everything is about farming at maximum speed.

I don’t think this game is “fixable” as it’d require a lot of work and probably would annoy just as many customers as it’d make happy. I enjoy it mildly, I swap classes very often for variety, but I’m still waiting to see if anyone is going to make a new MMO that doesn’t stink, after so many years I lost all hopes.

HiddenNick.7206:

I think that gw2 did a lot about moving the whole industry forward. But AN failed so hard at making a really good game.

I completely disagree. What baffles me is how the occasional poster such as yourself, post with demand for changes to customize the game to them that would hose the other 3 million of use enjoying the game. It goes back to that whole vocal minority thing

HiddenNick.7206:

But back to the topic. Is there anything that AN can do to fix this game?
Why do I ask that?

1. Whole world is dead and pointless with exclusion of few farming places.

This is actually not true. There are guild events all over. I see people flood to various champions everywhere. World bosses all over gather players in droves. Just because each zone is not comparable to month 1 after a year means nothing except that your intentionally turning a blind eye to the facts simply to make your claims.

HiddenNick.7206:

2. World Bosses are broken (because of so many reasons that it’s really hard to sum it all up).

They all work fine and function properly for me. Perhaps you misunderstand what “broken” actually means.

HiddenNick.7206:

3. Whole PvE meta is broken (damage over defense, conditions are useless).

I will give you the fact that condition stack caps are indeed game breaking. As far as damage trumping defense goes, what the heck are you talking about? Its only broke if its not working as intended. And they have been vary clear that it is. Just because you want tanks in game doesn’t mean its broken. Another fine case of “if it doesn’t work how your personally want it” its broken.

HiddenNick.7206:

4. Dungeons are dead and pointless with exclusion of few farming places.

I am not even sure you actually log into the game. I just rolled through all the dungeons LFGs and found 19 groups taking players for the various dungeons, and i took about 30s to go through and look at each dungeon. . Pointless? LOL, hardly, you get gear, some runes you can get no where else, like noble runes, and token for a legendary.

HiddenNick.7206:

5. Living World has no story and it’s more about farming something. And is a really good example of the reason why standard MMO quests are not in this game.

There are actually a lot of standard MMO quest in this game. Some may find the Living story lacking, but I have to admit, there were parts of it that left a lot to be desired.

HiddenNick.7206:

6. The game can’t be expanded because it would only spread the community even more and make the world even more dead.

The world is not particularly dead, but your being very odd in your accusations. You portray it as if every other MMO has flooded starting zones after a year. This is an issue in every MMO. So seriously, stick to the points that make sense already.

HiddenNick.7206:

7. Main reason to play PvE now is to farm for AC gear that has no real use (just makes the game even easier).

Really? maybe for you. Some of use are killing tequatl. Working on legendary’s. Leveling other professions. Working on Ascended gear. Doing guild puzzles. Teaching newbies to the game how to run dungeons and where to get gear. (that is right, almost daily I end up helping a new player)

HiddenNick.7206:

8. Or to farm Legendary weapons – waste even more time at doing the same thing over and over again without having fun.

Uh oh. Reads to me as if someone cannot get it together to get their legendary, and is ticked off after his friends/guildies run past him with the special foot prints.

HiddenNick.7206:

To sum it all up: all that what this game is after completing personal story is POINTLESS and really feels like a waste of time. The game has no structure or anything that would keep normal people around.

Then why are you still here? Should they change the game to suit you alone and leave the other 3 million players enjoying it out to dry? If you truly hate the game that much, your time may best be spent looking for one you do. Every game is not for everyone. One thing I can never understand though, is I see threads like this in every MMO. It always comes off as if single players expect the devs to mold the game to that player instead of that player concluding that they are not happy here, and finding a place that they are.

Well, I don’t agree that the game is “broken” or “dieing”. It has some issues, sure. I have my own list of things I’d like to change, and it’s very different from yours.

I do understand your frustration, though. I’m sorry you’re so disappointed, but I do think the game will improve over time. It won’t happen quickly, though. It’s going to take some time and a lot of effort from both the devs and the community.

There’s a lot of exciting discussion happening right now about collaborative development. Let’s see where that takes us. I think the next few weeks and months have the potential to be REALLY exciting.

Hang in there, kiddo.

Well they’ve pretty much slaved off a ton of their team to releasing content every two weeks and have heavily neglected fixing performance issues.

What I find the most shocking is their patch notes “Polish”. The Polish they mention is far from anything you typically see as a “polish” in games currently in the industry. They’re form of polish vs. what polish should be is far from polish.

Most gaming developers list game polishes as fixing/resolving/cleaning.

I’m here until EverQuest Next comes out. I enjoy what time I do play in the game, but it’s honestly frustrating on top of the forum moderator stalking that has continually sought out my posts because they know who I am in real life and don’t like me. Yet their management does nothing about putting a stop to it.

GW2 will never be as successful as WoW, and that’s something ArenaNet has said they want GW2 to become. I fell on the floor when I read that.

Short answer no, long answer yes.

Also, gw2 would have been better if anet invested more into their lore and story delivery rather than cheap gimmicky gem store rng items.

Crawford.4135:

Well they’ve pretty much slaved off a ton of their team to releasing content every two weeks and have heavily neglected fixing performance issues.

What I find the most shocking is their patch notes “Polish”. The Polish they mention is far from anything you typically see as a “polish” in games currently in the industry. They’re form of polish vs. what polish should be is far from polish.

Most gaming developers list game polishes as fixing/resolving/cleaning.

I’m here until EverQuest Next comes out. I enjoy what time I do play in the game, but it’s honestly frustrating on top of the forum moderator stalking that has continually sought out my posts because they know who I am in real life and don’t like me. Yet their management does nothing about putting a stop to it.

GW2 will never be as successful as WoW, and that’s something ArenaNet has said they want GW2 to become. I fell on the floor when I read that.

Cool, I thought my posts were the only posts getting stalked. Almost every single post I’ve ever made has been infracted, even when they didn’t contain anything contrary to the forum rules. I honestly wonder how many infractions it takes to get a suspension or ban, because I can count at least 30 infractions when I take a look at my private messages. I agree with you.