Guild Wars 2

I am really tired of this consistent introduction of high difficulty contents that are limited by time.

I thoroughly enjoyed Guild Wars 2 since the launch in late August last year. I like Anet’s philosphy and directions; I like how GW2 cater for the casual gamers; I like how GW2 allows gamers to play the way they want. I really do.

I bit the bullet during the Clocktower Jumping Puzzle back in Halloween last year and completed it. I thought that Anet had learnt their lesson and indeed they had – for 8 months only. I greatly appreciated Anet’s effort in reducing the achievement difficulty on one of the mini games during Wintersday event. The Living Story that were later released were all manageable albeit lack of content.

I thought Anet got the tone and difficulty of the game right, but I was soon proven wrong. Things began to change when Sky Pirates was released. I know many people had feedback about wanting the contents of higher difficulty. I am all for it – alittle difficult content doesn’t hurt.

First, it was the grindy crab toss minigame, but that was still manageable. After that it was Frizz and the Unfriendly Skies achievement. I cleared them. Took me afew days but I did it. Next came Cutthroat Politics. I cleared Candidate Trial pre-patch on my main account. It was downright frustrating to solo post patch that “fixed a bug” concerning the number of mobs in the map. I eventually cleared it twice on my second account, but one of them was bugged and I couldn’t get the achievement. In the meantime I had to grind 2500 points for the Southsun Survival which is once again a limited time achievement. In this recent patch, the “Light up the Darkness” achievement is just impossible for me. I had already used up over 200 tickets due to bugs, lame camera angles and admittedly my own carelessness.

Anet, are you mistaking “extreme difficulty and grind” for “fun and casual”? Shouldn’t limited time achievements from Living Story be strictly a symbol of participation? Is this trend just a mask to distract us from the lack of content?

I wouldn’t have been this stressed up if you had put Queen Gauntlet achievement right at the Activities Section from the beginning. At least I know that I can get my last achievement one day. Watching it in the Living Story segment means that it will be thrown into the historical folder along with my shame and regret. Now, I understand that the Queen Gauntlet minigame will become a permanent content, however, reintroducing it would mean an entire new list of Queen Gauntlet achievements that will not give us anymore chance to re-do what was already lost but not forgotten.

Am I asking too much to be a Living Story achievement completionist?

PS: Judging from the recent trends, I predict that future patches will be of similar or increasing difficulties. I may as well quit now while I still can. My spirit is breaking from Anet’s punishment.

Well if they add challenging content, a lot of people will complain (like they did with Liadri) so the best way to add a little bit of challenge is through achievements.

kokiman.2364:

Well if they add challenging content, a lot of people will complain (like they did with Liadri) so the best way to add a little bit of challenge is through achievements.

I too support the notion of adding higher difficult contents through achievements. But limited time only achievement seriously?

Carlos.9104:

kokiman.2364:

Well if they add challenging content, a lot of people will complain (like they did with Liadri) so the best way to add a little bit of challenge is through achievements.

I too support the notion of adding higher difficult contents through achievements. But limited time only achievement seriously?

Yeah you are right, that’s annoying.

queen gauntlet, though time limited, is not one time.
it will return again, the achievements can be attempted again.

queen gauntlet’s achievements icon = brown = activities = NOT one time
queen jubilee’s achievements icon = purple = living story = one time

Well the Colour behind achieved Achievements is purple on both…
But I’m still up for my idea to make the gauntlet permanent so people who need to improve have the time to improve.

its fine they add more difficult content and it is much needed
in the gaming comunity ppl talk bout gw2 like its a game for noobs and a game for clickers and a game with low skillvl cause you only need spamming 1 on a staff guardian to farm everything and everyone can have everything with just being there ….. and so on

and guess what? this ppl are right and im fine when arenanet finaly do something so ppl have to play the game and not only being there while watching tv

The whole “limited time” thing in general is starting to get a wear a bit thin. It was a cool idea at first, but the longer it goes on, the more wasteful it feels. I start to find myself not bothering to do some of the living story because I have a choice between it or something else I want to do, and if I don’t choose it then I’ll miss out on it permanently.

I can appreciate them producing content every 2 weeks- that’s amazing. But whatever genius decided to REMOVE that content after 2 weeks isn’t exactly the brightest individual around.

Justdeifyme.9387:

Well the Colour behind achieved Achievements is purple on both…
But I’m still up for my idea to make the gauntlet permanent so people who need to improve have the time to improve.

hmmm true. the background color is purple. the icon color is brown though.
hopefully it just means that achievement is completed during the living story month.

i.e. the activities ones have brown background color as well as brown icon color.

There are major updates and minor updates in Living story. Major updates brings up new map, new content that will stay for 2 updates, 4 weeks. eg Bazaar of Four winds, Jubilee, Dragonbash, Secret of Southsun. The Minor updates are those that stay for 2 weeks and have less content are are more climax of the story, ex. Sky pirates, Queens speech, Cutthroat Politics, Last stand on southsun. Basixally, major updates give more challanging and bigger content that stays for long time while minors give less content for two weeks.

g e o.2589:

There are major updates and minor updates in Living story. Major updates brings up new map, new content that will stay for 2 updates, 4 weeks. eg Bazaar of Four winds, Jubilee, Dragonbash, Secret of Southsun. The Minor updates are those that stay for 2 weeks and have less content are are more climax of the story, ex. Sky pirates, Queens speech, Cutthroat Politics, Last stand on southsun. Basixally, major updates give more challanging and bigger content that stays for long time while minors give less content for two weeks.

Sky Pirates and Cutthroat Politics may be minor updates, but they have extremely challenging contents that require you to complete them within 2 weeks. Candidate trial T4 was alright in the first week but post-patch literally locks those who were away during the first week from the achievement when the difficulty increased exponentially, effectively doubling the stress the player will feel.

I am stressed out more by these minor updates than major ones. I am already plagued by the 8 orbs achievement and now I am just sitting here waiting for something even harder with 2 weeks of time limit to slam into my face in 5 days time.

Totally agree OP. I hope ANet chooses not to go in this direction as well.

Gantlet is an activity, its achievements will be doable later on. While it is currently shown under the living world section (because it was introduced during this LS), its icon and coloring is that of other activities. The only time sensitive Gantlet Achievement, is the ‘kill 11 for the jubilee’ one, and it even has a different icon (the star like other QJ achieves and it only rewards 2 gold), than the other standard activity achievements. As such, things like getting the mini will be available later on, since they are tied to the activity achievement, and not a LS achievement. The only thing, I think, we’re not clear on is whether the gantlet will stay all the time, or if it will cycle similarly to how the GW1 boardwalk did (which was only open during certain events).

The clock tower, the wintersday JP, etc….all of that should come back. That’s pretty ‘traditioanl anet.’ They like to reuse their holiday events. Maybe adding in another quest or two or maybe a new twist (quests to release the mad king in GW1 anyone?), but a lot of it should stay as it was in the original holiday. Whether we get a chance at the first year achievement again, I don’t know, I guess we’ll see. Maybe they’ll add new ones…

I don’t mind some challenging content on limited schedules. It gives it a little extra kick. Of course, I don’t mind long term harder content either. I think we need a good mix to keep things interesting. However, I don’t stress about doing every achievement for the LS either, which may be a big difference between me and many of you. I didn’t do T3 and T4 of the candidate trials for example. Standing around waiting for people wasn’t my thing. I went and played aspect arena and southsun survival instead (and I hated southsun survival with a passion). I achieved the metas relatively easily without a whole lot of stress.

Just wanted to point out that the Liadri achievment may not be attemptable after the event is over.

It is an activity so it will return, but if you take a look at the current activity achievments, they are not the same or a continuation of the initial activity.

For example, you can no longer attempt the 1st place place achievment for sanctum sprint and earn the title.

CryxTryx.9208:

Just wanted to point out that the Liadri achievment may not be attemptable after the event is over.

It is an activity so it will return, but if you take a look at the current activity achievments, they are not the same or a continuation of the initial activity.

For example, you can no longer attempt the 1st place place achievment for sanctum sprint and earn the title.

those achievements icons were purple color, not brown color.

queens gauntlet achievements icons are brown color.

Anything in PvE can become easy through repetition. For example, sooner or later everyone can beat Super Mario Brothers.

Ladri, the clock tower, etc. eventually would become trivial with enough time to do it. But keeping the stuff around for only a limited time, they get rid of it before it’s widely considered trivial.

CryxTryx.9208:

Just wanted to point out that the Liadri achievment may not be attemptable after the event is over.

It is an activity so it will return, but if you take a look at the current activity achievments, they are not the same or a continuation of the initial activity.

For example, you can no longer attempt the 1st place place achievment for sanctum sprint and earn the title.

Sprint wasn’t originally an ‘activity.’ It was an event only minigame, with event achievements. Sanctum sprinter was an event achievement that dealt with the minigame during that event. Now sprint has been made into an activity, which will have it own set of achievements, which are outside of and not related to the event achievements.

The Gauntlet is closer to belcher’s bluff, which had event achievements (Grandmaster of Om) as well as regular activity achievements (Punisher, One Drink Left, etc). Grandmasters of Om isn’t available anymore because it was a BotFW achievement, but the others remain…the game itself remains.

For Gauntlet, the Achievement ‘Darkness Illuminator’ is what rewards the Liadri the Concealing Darkness mini. It is listed as an activity achievement, not an event achievement. Which means it should be available for completion even after the QJ event is gone, or whenever the activity is available (since we don’t know if this will work like the boardwalk, or if it will just be available all the time like Bluff).

for me, i think the queens gauntlet may be closed for maintenance from time to time.

if frequent, maybe
one month open, the next month closes, so we get 6 months of gauntlet per year

or … one month open, next 2 month closes. we get 4 months of gauntlet per year
or … one month open, next 3 month closes, we get 3 months of gauntlet per year
or … one month open, next 5 months closes, we get 2 months of gauntlet per year

or … worst case, and most probable case, it is an annual event. happens once per year.

kokiman.2364:

Well if they add challenging content, a lot of people will complain (like they did with Liadri) so the best way to add a little bit of challenge is through achievements.

- What about the achievements is challenging to you?

I dunno. The limited time makes it a bit more interesting. For once I actually respect people who have gotten all of the LS/Gauntlet achievements, which I have seen a few so far. Clearly it is doable by some % of the population.

The fact OP may have trouble completing it in the time period is proof that it is difficult enough to make it a legitimate achievement when you see someone with the pet. Separates the men from the boys as they say. I am but a mere boy compared to those who have finished the Gauntlet. Let alone those that completed the Gauntlet on day one with all gambit achieves too. They deserve to stand out.

I’m all for higher difficulty. People that find it too difficult can just skip it. To don’t need to get those achievement points.

Ayrilana.1396:

I’m all for higher difficulty. People that find it too difficult can just skip it. To don’t need to get those achievement points.

This exactly. The “completionists” that just want to be handed easy points just need to drop their massive entitlement issues. The reason why Achievements and Titles is a good thing is because then the lower skilled players aren’t denied of content due to skill gating… however that isn’t even enough for some of these people.

hard achievements, not one time, i.e. can be attempted again, is fine.

hard achievements, one time only, not good.

Surbrus.6942:

Ayrilana.1396:

I’m all for higher difficulty. People that find it too difficult can just skip it. To don’t need to get those achievement points.

This exactly. The “completionists” that just want to be handed easy points just need to drop their massive entitlement issues. The reason why Achievements and Titles is a good thing is because then the lower skilled players aren’t denied of content due to skill gating… however that isn’t even enough for some of these people.

I can sort of climb aboard this band wagon….although I probably fall into the lower skilled category, for many reasons…

Anywho, I do agree that achievements need to be earned, as intended. I’m not huge on time-limiting some of them though. There are a lot of things to consider when it comes to if someone is whining legitimately (new player, does not have an equal ‘chance’ as someone that has played since launch) and someone who is whining because they feel entitled (I cant do it, but I should get it anyway just because I tried). This is a very different scenario than simply someone that feels entitled to it. At least, in my opinion. I could go into drastic detail here, but it wouldn’t be within the word limit, so hopefully people understand what I’m trying to express.