Guild Wars 2

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey folks,

Wanted to pop by and give another update on where we stand, as well as to help provide some information on some of the more common misconceptions we’ve seen floating around as well:

- There are bugs! We’ve seen the content direction system (the little arrow) pointing people at super high level maps when it shouldn’t, some systems/features not unlocking as intended for all characters on your account once your first learns them, some systems level gated that aren’t intended to be, balance issues where certain levels appear to be very out of whack, etc. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, our team is working to figure out what happened here and fix these as quickly as possible.

- There is misinformation: Numerous systems that show up in the level up guide that teaches you about things in the game when you gain levels are not locked out, the system simply tells you they exist in the game to help give you a better list of things you can do. Just because it’s included in the level up guide, doesn’t mean it’s actually locked out. You can dodge from level one, jumping puzzle from level one, etc. There also appear to be a lot of folks chiming in who haven’t actually played with any of the system, and are making claims that aren’t remotely true.

- There are some things happening at the wrong levels. Things like utility skills and elites are intended to come at approx. the same time they used to in actual game time, we sped up leveling for levels 1-15 and had them slide back in levels a bit to offset that pacing, they are not currently where we want them to be in the level up system. This was an oversight, and will absolutely be fixed.

- Not all of these changes were made as ways to teach the game, some of them are to provide a better sense of pacing, reward and progression. Early on we want to give a sense that you’re rapidly gaining new abilities, rewards, and learning new things as you level up. We added the level up reward messages, and the actual rewards themselves, and took abilities you’d usually use around that point in total game hours and presented them as unlocks (or things we teach that are already unlocked) to help give a better sense of pacing and progression.

With the addition of the new rewards, messaging, and level up screen to make leveling more exciting: we also wanted to make sure you had that feeling of excitement more often early on in the game, and presented new learning on a more regular cadence. So we greatly sped up leveling from levels 1-15. Many of the things unlocked at later levels are earned at about the same time period you used to start using them in the old system in actual real game time, we just staggered them out across the levels since we sped up leveling to make the game feel more rewarding early on.

- In general, this system is intended to be not only better for new players, but our hope is by the time it’s all in place you’ll find via the better rewards from levels 1-80 via the level up guide, the better rewards from personal story, the faster leveling from 1-15, and the ability to toggle the content direction system to help you with map complete will make this a better for experienced players as well.

- Over a years worth of testing with new players found we were absolutely able to keep them both more engaged, and more likely to return to keep playing Gw2 as a result of the intended system. That is at the end of the day, a win for all of us since all of you need more people to play with! However: if we find in the live environment that isn’t true and we’re not retaining new users better, we’ll absolutely both share that information with you, and continue to iterate to make it better. We keep very real time metrics of player retention for new users, and we’ll know very quickly how effective the work we’ve done is. I want to make it clear: what we used to have absolutely wasn’t good enough for our standards of retaining new users. Before we do some of the other things we want to do with Gw2, we had to fix this, period.

- Finally, I want to add that a few things (hello traits!) are things that can be improved for players who make multiple alts, we’re aware of this, and though company policy prevents us from discussing what’s in development: I can say we know Gw2 can be an even better game for people who love making alts in the long run, more info: when it’s ready™.

So when are you going to rename Guild Wars 2 to

“My Child’s First MMO”? The game has been dumbed down that a 5 year old can understand it. If you dont fix it im sticking with a MMO that is more complex than this that is FF XIV.

Tcbys.4391:

“My Child’s First MMO”? The game has been dumbed down that a 5 year old can understand it. If you dont fix it im sticking with a MMO that is more complex than this that is FF XIV.

Hehe . . .

Oh, wait, you’re serious.

HEH.

I consider FFXIV “needlessly complex” in some areas, and while it was kind of fun . . . I hit a point where it stopped being fun because everyone was already doing endgame stuff and all I was doing was still slogging through the main scenario. It went from fun to “brick wall, and ankle charm with a big iron weight on it, go have fun now”.

I haven’t been back in a week.

If I do, I’ll probably switch to a Tank class instead – seems that’s the only way to really assure you can weather the mid-30s.

Michael Walker.8150:

Just let people put 2 lvl 20 scrolls in the forge, some stones or coins or a goat and out comes a lvl 40 scroll.

New players can’t get it and it solves the whole issue

(or 1 scroll and make it lvl 500 craft, whatever)

NO!

The /level scrolls should NEVER have been introduced into the game…it’s a rookie mistake in MMO’s. DAoC found that out over a decade ago. Don’t cut your content off at the knees and don’t starve beginner zones of their players.

Yes, less of an issue in GW2 because of downleveling but bypassing leveling means bypassing time spent IN THE GAME…the thing that supplies everything to the company and the players.

what game metrics won’t tell you (assuming you’re measuring the right things and drawing the right conclusions in the first place) is the extent to which dumbing down your game like this is likely to trash the GW2/Anet brand.

With the pace of non-LS-related changes being the worst in the industry (not an exaggeration, it’s terrible), the value of the GW brand is already in the toilet. This will only make it worse.

Kuldebar.1897:

Michael Walker.8150:

Just let people put 2 lvl 20 scrolls in the forge, some stones or coins or a goat and out comes a lvl 40 scroll.

New players can’t get it and it solves the whole issue

(or 1 scroll and make it lvl 500 craft, whatever)

NO!

The /level scrolls should NEVER have been introduced into the game…it’s a rookie mistake in MMO’s. DAoC found that out over a decade ago. Don’t cut your content off at the knees and don’t starve beginner zones of their players.

Yes, less of an issue in GW2 because of downleveling but bypassing leveling means bypassing time spent IN THE GAME…the thing that supplies everything to the company and the players.

Spoiler warning:
GW2 doesn’t have a sub fee and “bypassing leveling means bypassing time spent IN THE GAME” doesn’t mean Anet makes less money.

No one is asking for newbies to be able to rocket to 80 in a day. We are asking for the option to do it as players who’ve already completed multiple characters and who don’t want to deal with the asinine trait system or skill lockouts.

I edited my OP post to include some information correcting mis-information.

The Greatest Fear arc is not gone.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2g57cq/greatest_fear_arc_isnt_gone_guys/

Until I play though the entire store I have no feedback on it’s flow with the new system.

Thanks for the clearup regarding future trait fixes and fixes to when people get to see elites. I think it will go a long way to helping with Alts. I hope that new trait system will use Karma rather than gold in the long run!

Also, you’d better work on opening new maps than on fixing things that aren’t broken. I am sure that at least 50% of old players spent in gemstore at least as much as they paid when they purchased the game. Which I am sure is a number and an amount of money higher than that of new players who just bought the game. If you just start and have a lot to look forward to when you will be higher level, you are tempted to stay. Not "omg I gotta level up to level 40 to get a new skill), but “I got to get to level 80 and do lots of stuff if I want to live and explore the whole of the map.”. You should have 60% at least of the active map for lvl 80s. With much stuff to do. You’re far from it. Dry Top is not a huge addition and Orr is getting old.

Kuldebar.1897:

Michael Walker.8150:

Just let people put 2 lvl 20 scrolls in the forge, some stones or coins or a goat and out comes a lvl 40 scroll.

New players can’t get it and it solves the whole issue

(or 1 scroll and make it lvl 500 craft, whatever)

time spent IN THE GAME…the thing that supplies everything to the company and the players.

which you have done enough if you have that many birthday scrolls/slots.

new players don’t have them and people who log in after one year could be asked to spend 30 laurels to upgrade a scroll or whatever feels appropriate.

and it still leaves you the choice to start at either lvl1, lvl20 or with that scroll lvl 40.

since you level to 20 very quickly now, the old scroll feels a bit dated.

Michael Walker.8150:

Kuldebar.1897:

Michael Walker.8150:

Just let people put 2 lvl 20 scrolls in the forge, some stones or coins or a goat and out comes a lvl 40 scroll.

New players can’t get it and it solves the whole issue

(or 1 scroll and make it lvl 500 craft, whatever)

time spent IN THE GAME…the thing that supplies everything to the company and the players.

which you have done enough if you have that many birthday scrolls/slots.

new players don’t have them and people who log in after one year could be asked to spend 30 laurels to upgrade a scroll or whatever feels appropriate.

and it still leaves you the choice to start at either lvl1, lvl20 or with that scroll lvl 40.

since you level to 20 very quickly now, the old scroll feels a bit dated.

the problem with what you are saying, is that what they have done has made people enjoy the process less, and want to use tools to skip as much of it as possible. That is a failure in design imo.
What makes everyone so certain that only vets well be bored with having to wait to 40 to unlock basics?

phys.7689:

the problem with what you are saying, is that what they have done has made people enjoy the process less, and want to use tools to skip as much of it as possible. That is a failure in design imo.
What makes everyone so certain that only vets well be bored with having to wait to 40 to unlock basics?

eotm basically :P

they are trying to get a new type of player to pick up the game since millions already have the box, perhaps the market of players who play for/since release is simply saturated.

but the leveling system itself is better up to lvl 20, at least what I experienced with a norn ranger. and it is way faster, maybe you can reach 40 now before you’d have reached 30.
just get some weak potions and food for the lowest levels, do some event while completing hearts and gathering and exploring. you will be opening those shiny, annoying diamond more often than you’d like.

It is unfortunate that they removed some aspects of the start zones but let’s face it, everybody had their own most efficient way to finish hearts.

unlocks are for a new experience, neither a new player nor an alt, what is left now is to bridge that 20-40 gap or at least 20-30.

basically, if you decided before patch, to not use the scroll you’d have a similar experience to lvl 20 than to lvl 30-40ish (?) now.

it feels only natural to me to upgrade this scroll with the changes.

This is supposed to be a big picture change, so here is a big picture issue with it.

The change was made in order to keep new people who didn’t like the existing system enough to stay.

Existing players played through the previous system and liked it enough to stay.

Don’t those two groups of people like different things? At some point, there are going to be two groups of people who like drastically different things and ArenaNet resources aren’t unlimited. So if this new system works, and attracts people that like things the existing players don’t, the existing players are going to be getting less from the game at all levels because more changes will be necessary to retain the new players who don’t like the same things as the existing players.

I remember a lot of people leaving because the game wasn’t like WoW. Is the Unholy Trinity the next step?

Thelgar.7214:

This is supposed to be a big picture change, so here is a big picture issue with it.

The change was made in order to keep new people who didn’t like the existing system enough to stay.

People who played the previous system liked it enough to stay.

Don’t those two groups of people like different things? At some point, there are going to be two groups of people who like drastically different things and ArenaNet resources aren’t unlimited. So if this new system works, and attracts people that like things the existing players don’t, the existing players are going to be getting less from the game at all levels because more changes will be necessary to retain the new players who don’t like the same things as the existing players.

I remember a lot of people leaving because the game wasn’t like WoW. Is the Unholy Trinity the next step?

It’s an unfair comparison. This change affects only a small percentage of the life of your character. It’s not a drastic change for most people because most long term players have most of the characters they’ll ever need. You bring the trinity in it affects everyone.

Anet is improving the game based on data they have that we don’t. Why would we have that data.

Anet needs to communicate why they do thinks better. I think that’s very important. I see this as by far their biggest weakness.

50% of the character’s max level cannot really be considered a small percentage of their life.

Combination NC.9813:

50% of the character’s max level cannot really be considered a small percentage of their life.

50% by number. The curve has been changed so that you will spend significantly less time from 1-40 than you do from 41-80.

gryph.8734:

Combination NC.9813:

50% of the character’s max level cannot really be considered a small percentage of their life.

50% by number. The curve has been changed so that you will spend significantly less time from 1-40 than you do from 41-80.

Previous info stated the curve was only changed up to level 15. Even if it were changed all the way up to 40, the rest cannot reasonably be considered a small part.

Vayne.8563:

Thelgar.7214:

This is supposed to be a big picture change, so here is a big picture issue with it.

The change was made in order to keep new people who didn’t like the existing system enough to stay.

People who played the previous system liked it enough to stay.

Don’t those two groups of people like different things? At some point, there are going to be two groups of people who like drastically different things and ArenaNet resources aren’t unlimited. So if this new system works, and attracts people that like things the existing players don’t, the existing players are going to be getting less from the game at all levels because more changes will be necessary to retain the new players who don’t like the same things as the existing players.

I remember a lot of people leaving because the game wasn’t like WoW. Is the Unholy Trinity the next step?

It’s an unfair comparison. This change affects only a small percentage of the life of your character. It’s not a drastic change for most people because most long term players have most of the characters they’ll ever need. You bring the trinity in it affects everyone.

Anet is improving the game based on data they have that we don’t. Why would we have that data.

Anet needs to communicate why they do thinks better. I think that’s very important. I see this as by far their biggest weakness.

Not the point. If you had to change the beginning to satisfy people who want different things than your existing playesr, you’re going to have to change the rest to keep them happy as they advance.

Combination NC.9813:

50% of the character’s max level cannot really be considered a small percentage of their life.

Really? You stop playing characters when you hit 80? And due to the first 15 levels being accelerated it’s not 50% anyway.

Maybe it’s 35% of your leveling experience, during which time you have most of your stuff unlocked anyway.

I know that I spent 80 hours leveling and have played some characters for hundreds of hours. That’s a lot less than 50%.

I tried GW2 at launch. I loved everything about the game. The art, the sound, the dynamic combat, the personal story, all of it. I drifted away after getting to level 80 due to real life obligations. I took a break from all MMOs and games.

As a 30 year old with a full time job, and a wife and toddler at home, I find GW2 to be a refreshing MMO to come back to. I can devote the last hour or two of my busy days, after the chores are done and the kid is in bed, to adventuring in game. I don’t feel pressured to grind my alts to 80 just to be part of some gear treadmill.

The new leveling features are great! Having just come back to GW2 they add a refreshing experience to my leveling. The new leveling splash screens and rewards list give me a sense of accomplishment. I didn’t used to get than previously when leveling. Heck, there were times when I didn’t even notice that I leveled under the old system.

I’ve also started PvP for the first time in any MMO. I’ve found an active WvW guild and it’s AMAZING. I’ve hated PvP in every MMO I’ve tried (EQ, WoW, Rift, the list goes on.) I love that I can run with a huge group to PvP or I can branch off and capture resources and solo players on my own terms.

I’ve very glad to have come back into the community. I know lots of folks are upset by recent updates and that’s fine. Everyone can have their own feelings. That’s the great thing about GW2, there’s no messy subscription to cancel or worry about. If you don’t like where the game is now, take a break, try something else out.

I guarantee you’ll be back. We’ll keep the lights on for ya.

Substance E.4852:

Kuldebar.1897:

Michael Walker.8150:

Just let people put 2 lvl 20 scrolls in the forge, some stones or coins or a goat and out comes a lvl 40 scroll.

New players can’t get it and it solves the whole issue

(or 1 scroll and make it lvl 500 craft, whatever)

NO!

The /level scrolls should NEVER have been introduced into the game…it’s a rookie mistake in MMO’s. DAoC found that out over a decade ago. Don’t cut your content off at the knees and don’t starve beginner zones of their players.

Yes, less of an issue in GW2 because of downleveling but bypassing leveling means bypassing time spent IN THE GAME…the thing that supplies everything to the company and the players.

Spoiler warning:
GW2 doesn’t have a sub fee and “bypassing leveling means bypassing time spent IN THE GAME” doesn’t mean Anet makes less money.

No one is asking for newbies to be able to rocket to 80 in a day. We are asking for the option to do it as players who’ve already completed multiple characters and who don’t want to deal with the asinine trait system or skill lockouts.

You seem to think that Gem Store purchases are made by people who don’t actually log in and play. There is also the value of having players active on the server…no one likes dead MMO’s for very long.

Free leveling is counter productive.

Vayne.8563:

Anet is improving the game based on data they have that we don’t. Why would we have that data.

Anet needs to communicate why they do thinks better. I think that’s very important. I see this as by far their biggest weakness.

As the saying goes: if you make a game any idiot can play, only idiots will end up playing it.

scerevisiae.1972:

Vayne.8563:

Anet is improving the game based on data they have that we don’t. Why would we have that data.

Anet needs to communicate why they do thinks better. I think that’s very important. I see this as by far their biggest weakness.

As the saying goes: if you make a game any idiot can play, only idiots will end up playing it.

I’m toughing it out. And I’ve been in it since pretty close to the beginning. Make of that whatever you will.

Sorry but the new player experience is awful. I hate being gated on abilities and part of the leveling fun was being involved in the story every few levels. Now I’m grinding to get to the next wall of content. It’s just terrible and boring.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey folks,

Snipped all but the part I want to deal with:

- Finally, I want to add that a few things (hello traits!) are things that can be improved for players who make multiple alts, we’re aware of this, and though company policy prevents us from discussing what’s in development: I can say we know Gw2 can be an even better game for people who love making alts in the long run, more info: when it’s ready™.

Company policy can be changed, not being vocal about what is in development is what’s lead to this situation in the first place, if people had been made aware of these changes possibly months in advance there could have been ideas tossed around between you the developers and the community about how to come to a working medium ground that can both retain new players (possibly better than this current system) and not alienate the older players and recently joined new players as well. Instead the policy kept the players in the dark on a massive change that a large portion of the player base simply didn’t ask for or want as was plainly evident by the amount of posts speaking out about it (the increased level gating, the gating of diving goggles [really] and the gating of skill points [I liked being able to setup my skills how I wanted to in early levels])

Having a public test server would be one of the best ways to go about doing this. This situation just proves that the company policy is harmful the the ongoing development of Guild Wars 2 as a whole and should be taken to management about having the policy altered to allow more transparency in the development of features like these.

Kuldebar.1897:

Michael Walker.8150:

Just let people put 2 lvl 20 scrolls in the forge, some stones or coins or a goat and out comes a lvl 40 scroll.

New players can’t get it and it solves the whole issue

(or 1 scroll and make it lvl 500 craft, whatever)

NO!

The /level scrolls should NEVER have been introduced into the game…it’s a rookie mistake in MMO’s. DAoC found that out over a decade ago. Don’t cut your content off at the knees and don’t starve beginner zones of their players.

Yes, less of an issue in GW2 because of downleveling but bypassing leveling means bypassing time spent IN THE GAME…the thing that supplies everything to the company and the players.

Excuse me, but do you seriously think those of us who think the changes are horrible are ever going to actually level another alt? My husband took one look at the ‘levelling experience’ and started using the experience scrolls he’d never touched until then.

anzenketh.3759:

Duke Darkwood.4237:

- And I seriously have no idea what the thought process about gating map exploration is. As someone who loves to explore with new alts, I find the story unlock system feasible, but it appears as if you are actively disincentivising exploration!

3.) Disable the compass. This was put in there for people who are not used to exploration inside of a game to give them a little guidance to explore.

That’s not what I meant. I meant “you can’t use vistas until this level” or “you can’t do diving spots until that level”. I could almost understand for skill points, if its lkevel gate equalled the unlock of Utility 1 – except that some very easy ones are placed in areas that scale 3-5, AND these can be used on unlocked-out-of-the-gate Healing skills.

Making you wait to explore, when exploring is what you’re meant to do to GET levels, is not conducive to making people want to explore.

Stephane Lo Presti.7258:

Hi there,

As a follow-up to Colin’s post, we want you to know that we’re busy working on fixing bugs in the New Player Experience system. We’re also using this opportunity to make a few changes to its design to take into account the feedback we’ve been reading. We’re aiming to deploy the fixes early next week.

As Colin explained (make sure to read this post and that one if you haven’t!), this is a complex, “big picture” system that has a lot of components. We want it to benefit all players and improve your game experience overall.

We understand that this is an important topic for the community and appreciate that players have been talking about it. We’ve been triaging bug reports, developing fixes for them and discussing what design changes we will bring to you next week. We’ll continue to both work on the next updates and read the feedback from the community on this topic!

Thank you

I HOPE that those changes are a reversed level system, the return of the previewous personal story and Halloween prolong for atleats a week.
if these (exceptfor the lastone) doesn´t happen the complaining will commens

Tcbys.4391:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey folks,

Wanted to pop by and give another update on where we stand, as well as to help provide some information on some of the more common misconceptions we’ve seen floating around as well:

- There are bugs! We’ve seen the content direction system (the little arrow) pointing people at super high level maps when it shouldn’t, some systems/features not unlocking as intended for all characters on your account once your first learns them, some systems level gated that aren’t intended to be, balance issues where certain levels appear to be very out of whack, etc. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, our team is working to figure out what happened here and fix these as quickly as possible.

- There is misinformation: Numerous systems that show up in the level up guide that teaches you about things in the game when you gain levels are not locked out, the system simply tells you they exist in the game to help give you a better list of things you can do. Just because it’s included in the level up guide, doesn’t mean it’s actually locked out. You can dodge from level one, jumping puzzle from level one, etc. There also appear to be a lot of folks chiming in who haven’t actually played with any of the system, and are making claims that aren’t remotely true.

- There are some things happening at the wrong levels. Things like utility skills and elites are intended to come at approx. the same time they used to in actual game time, we sped up leveling for levels 1-15 and had them slide back in levels a bit to offset that pacing, they are not currently where we want them to be in the level up system. This was an oversight, and will absolutely be fixed.

- Not all of these changes were made as ways to teach the game, some of them are to provide a better sense of pacing, reward and progression. Early on we want to give a sense that you’re rapidly gaining new abilities, rewards, and learning new things as you level up. We added the level up reward messages, and the actual rewards themselves, and took abilities you’d usually use around that point in total game hours and presented them as unlocks (or things we teach that are already unlocked) to help give a better sense of pacing and progression.

With the addition of the new rewards, messaging, and level up screen to make leveling more exciting: we also wanted to make sure you had that feeling of excitement more often early on in the game, and presented new learning on a more regular cadence. So we greatly sped up leveling from levels 1-15. Many of the things unlocked at later levels are earned at about the same time period you used to start using them in the old system in actual real game time, we just staggered them out across the levels since we sped up leveling to make the game feel more rewarding early on.

- In general, this system is intended to be not only better for new players, but our hope is by the time it’s all in place you’ll find via the better rewards from levels 1-80 via the level up guide, the better rewards from personal story, the faster leveling from 1-15, and the ability to toggle the content direction system to help you with map complete will make this a better for experienced players as well.

- Over a years worth of testing with new players found we were absolutely able to keep them both more engaged, and more likely to return to keep playing Gw2 as a result of the intended system. That is at the end of the day, a win for all of us since all of you need more people to play with! However: if we find in the live environment that isn’t true and we’re not retaining new users better, we’ll absolutely both share that information with you, and continue to iterate to make it better. We keep very real time metrics of player retention for new users, and we’ll know very quickly how effective the work we’ve done is. I want to make it clear: what we used to have absolutely wasn’t good enough for our standards of retaining new users. Before we do some of the other things we want to do with Gw2, we had to fix this, period.

- Finally, I want to add that a few things (hello traits!) are things that can be improved for players who make multiple alts, we’re aware of this, and though company policy prevents us from discussing what’s in development: I can say we know Gw2 can be an even better game for people who love making alts in the long run, more info: when it’s ready™.

So when are you going to rename Guild Wars 2 to

“My Child’s First MMO”? The game has been dumbed down that a 5 year old can understand it. If you dont fix it im sticking with a MMO that is more complex than this that is FF XIV.

actually there are several reports that five year olds played this game just fine before the patch.
this is now brain dead difficulty.

Many features are great in this patch, the crafting, some really needed class balancing etc…

But – the new lvl’ing system is not one of those things. IMO they have ruined something that worked just fine as it was. The new systems way of locking certaing things (living story for example) to certaing lvl’s ruins motivation and makes lvl’ing boring. The reward system (with exception of the confusing info about certaing things that makes u believe its locked/unlocked at certain lvl’s) and the class specific drops are fine but thats about it for me when it comes to the new lvl-experience.
The system makes sense when u play u’r fisrt character ever (to learn the game)… but not for the rest.

And stop hiding things that are on the map!!!

Alright I have read the dev post and i am still confused. You said that the testers included people who have heavily played different rpg’s and even more importantly mmorpg’s yet they still needed a more inept early game which almost sounds impossible when other people have claimed that their 5yr old daughter played the game just fine. I know that there were also new players but then this also begs the question, would they survive in this game at end game content if learning the early game was hard enough i mean we usually ask for new more in depth content or harder content but if these people ever reached 80 they would hardly survive much of the end game content, so would that mean everything gets dumbed down? many people find some of the hard content mediocre right now so dumbing it down will drive them away.

Also with this new NPE did you expect to see as much new players coming into the game to make the time and money worth it? I mean this was introduced just as new games had been released which get a lot more coverage than gw2 right now so you would expect them to try those games out first. Another thing is that many players were boarder line quitting the game from a large variety of reasons which could have been implemented in this feature pack but instead weren’t and now they have left because of it, so the worthiness of this NPE is pretty much nil and worse since a) most new players are off playing the new mmo’s b) quite a number of players have left. Also i believe even more people are now boarder line quitting because either lack of content or even lack okittennowledgement as a veteran.

Of course i don’t know if the amount of people leaving was even that much but losing players because you think that reeling in new players would be easier or better for the game is irritating to me.
Also with how it is right now i don’t think many people who have the same mindset of current gw2 players would play the game as it stands now although a select few has enjoyed so gj on that i suppose.

I had more to say but forgot it so here is just a tl;dr version, why bother trying to get new players when your struggling to keep veterans to stay

ps. for some reason “lack of…… acknowledgement” was censored

vectorfox.6894:

Alright I have read the dev post and i am still confused. You said that the testers included people who have heavily played different rpg’s and even more importantly mmorpg’s yet they still needed a more inept early game which almost sounds impossible when other people have claimed that their 5yr old daughter played the game just fine. I know that there were also new players but then this also begs the question, would they survive in this game at end game content if learning the early game was hard enough i mean we usually ask for new more in depth content or harder content but if these people ever reached 80 they would hardly survive much of the end game content, so would that mean everything gets dumbed down? many people find some of the hard content mediocre right now so dumbing it down will drive them away.

Also with this new NPE did you expect to see as much new players coming into the game to make the time and money worth it? I mean this was introduced just as new games had been released which get a lot more coverage than gw2 right now so you would expect them to try those games out first. Another thing is that many players were boarder line quitting the game from a large variety of reasons which could have been implemented in this feature pack but instead weren’t and now they have left because of it, so the worthiness of this NPE is pretty much nil and worse since a) most new players are off playing the new mmo’s b) quite a number of players have left. Also i believe even more people are now boarder line quitting because either lack of content or even lack okittennowledgement as a veteran.

Of course i don’t know if the amount of people leaving was even that much but losing players because you think that reeling in new players would be easier or better for the game is irritating to me.
Also with how it is right now i don’t think many people who have the same mindset of current gw2 players would play the game as it stands now although a select few has enjoyed so gj on that i suppose.

I had more to say but forgot it so here is just a tl;dr version, why bother trying to get new players when your struggling to keep veterans to stay

ps. for some reason “lack okittennowledgement” was censored

Not quite what the devs said. They said people weren’t staying with the game the way it used to be, and when they changed it to this way, more people continued playing for longer.

It’s not even necessarily that they needed hand holding. The changes are more than just hand holding. They also give rewards up front more often and some people like/need that.

So instead of just getting something, if it’s given as a reward (because we humans tend to like rewards), people end up more engaged.

Before weapon skills meant nothing when you got another one. It was done. This time, Anet front-loaded a bunch of rewards, even meaningless stuff, and then gave people a feel of accomplishment as they played.

It’s not the gating and learning that’s the only important thing, apparently, but the pacing and the feeling of progression.

This way people felt like they were progressing and stayed to play longer. The other way they didn’t.

They shouldn’t have gone full kitten (as in excessive dumbing down) on leveling up.

The previous unlock for weapon skills was very intuitive and immersive. It already provided a very good way to get acquainted with each weapon skill while interacting with the environment. They basically replaced something much more organic to something completely artificial. If level locking works for some people, then confine that to the utility skills and perhaps reduce the weapon unlock on kills, but never go full “kitten”.

In that line, it’s counter-intuitive to hide information from the map. Let it all out but have something like a “what is this” button that can relay information on what are those icons on the map. Perhaps include specific videos embedded from YouTube which would give a much more effective visual information than to just have written “boring” words to read. It is preferable to have some thing like this, that players can enable or disable at any time, than to treat players like they are idiots. It is not intended, for certain, but it is what people end up feeling.

Amon.5042:

They shouldn’t have gone full kitten (as in excessive dumbing down) on leveling up.

The previous unlock for weapon skills was very intuitive and immersive. It already provided a very good way to get acquainted with each weapon skill while interacting with the environment. They basically replaced something much more organic to something completely artificial. If level locking works for some people, then confine that to the utility skills and perhaps reduce the weapon unlock on kills, but never go full “kitten”.

In that line, it’s counter-intuitive to hide information from the map. Let it all out but have something like a “what is this” button that can relay information on what are those icons on the map. Perhaps include specific videos embedded from YouTube which would give a much more effective visual information than to just have written “boring” words to read. It is preferable to have some thing like this, that players can enable or disable at any time, than to treat players like they are idiots. It is not intended, for certain, but it is what people end up feeling.

Again take the weapon swap as an example. It used to unlock at level 7. Now it unlocks at either 12 or 14, I forget.

I get to those levels faster than I used to get to level 7. It’s not the level which is an arbitrary number, but the time played. People are so hypnotized by the level, they seem to forget that leveling up faster means you get to stuff just as fast, even if it unlocks at a higher number.

Vayne.8563:

Not quite what the devs said. They said people weren’t staying with the game the way it used to be, and when they changed it to this way, more people continued playing for longer.

It’s not even necessarily that they needed hand holding. The changes are more than just hand holding. They also give rewards up front more often and some people like/need that.

So instead of just getting something, if it’s given as a reward (because we humans tend to like rewards), people end up more engaged.

Before weapon skills meant nothing when you got another one. It was done. This time, Anet front-loaded a bunch of rewards, even meaningless stuff, and then gave people a feel of accomplishment as they played.

It’s not the gating and learning that’s the only important thing, apparently, but the pacing and the feeling of progression.

This way people felt like they were progressing and stayed to play longer. The other way they didn’t.

Obviously Anet was trying to keep this other player base which didn’t stick to the game and this patch is reminding me heavily of something… eastern mmorpgs. I have played quite a lot these mmos and what i find similar is what these changes are imposing such as locking skills at levels instead of weapon use. Now this may be because of the chinese launch and their changes which have seemingly been carried over although they somewhat try and make it not sound like a complete copy. Some people actually liked the weapon unlocking (i know i did) because there was a thrill of “oh hey, as i use this weapon my character is getting smarter or stronger!” but chucking out numbers to reach before you can use them just breaks the immersion of what gw2 was so good at. Its actually interesting to see players who had just been playing before the patch from a week or less saying that they don’t enjoy the unlocking.

Now about your point on the rewards aspect, this i never said was bad and was actually going to say this was a high point because it just gave more free stuff, i mean like you said who doesn’t like rewards. But i believe the rest wasn’t needed and if that level locking wasn’t implemented and we only got the new rewards feature and guide it would be pretty lame.

Now i know not everyone has the same opinion but the progression they are aiming for is more restricted and less exciting i mean to progress you have to complete hearts and do the story and what not but with this recent change and i am going to use one of the most brought up examples right now which is the cows in Queensdale, I would find it hard to believe people like progressing with a lesser variety of options and less sensible options at that. The pacing is actually the fastest i have seen in an mmorpg for lower levels and gets quite slow in the 40’s and somewhat near the end, but this patch makes the pacing even faster suggesting it was too slow.

This NPE just falls on its face when you really think about it and is overall very Topsy-turvy.

Now lets say none of this were to be released and instead they introduced guilds halls or something else desired by the community, would it have been worth it more than the NPE? I would say yes and i believe the amount of joyous citizens of Tyria would agree.

vectorfox.6894:

Vayne.8563:

Not quite what the devs said. They said people weren’t staying with the game the way it used to be, and when they changed it to this way, more people continued playing for longer.

It’s not even necessarily that they needed hand holding. The changes are more than just hand holding. They also give rewards up front more often and some people like/need that.

So instead of just getting something, if it’s given as a reward (because we humans tend to like rewards), people end up more engaged.

Before weapon skills meant nothing when you got another one. It was done. This time, Anet front-loaded a bunch of rewards, even meaningless stuff, and then gave people a feel of accomplishment as they played.

It’s not the gating and learning that’s the only important thing, apparently, but the pacing and the feeling of progression.

This way people felt like they were progressing and stayed to play longer. The other way they didn’t.

Obviously Anet was trying to keep this other player base which didn’t stick to the game and this patch is reminding me heavily of something… eastern mmorpgs. I have played quite a lot these mmos and what i find similar is what these changes are imposing such as locking skills at levels instead of weapon use. Now this may be because of the chinese launch and their changes which have seemingly been carried over although they somewhat try and make it not sound like a complete copy. Some people actually liked the weapon unlocking (i know i did) because there was a thrill of “oh hey, as i use this weapon my character is getting smarter or stronger!” but chucking out numbers to reach before you can use them just breaks the immersion of what gw2 was so good at. Its actually interesting to see players who had just been playing before the patch from a week or less saying that they don’t enjoy the unlocking.

Now about your point on the rewards aspect, this i never said was bad and was actually going to say this was a high point because it just gave more free stuff, i mean like you said who doesn’t like rewards. But i believe the rest wasn’t needed and if that level locking wasn’t implemented and we only got the new rewards feature and guide it would be pretty lame.

Now i know not everyone has the same opinion but the progression they are aiming for is more restricted and less exciting i mean to progress you have to complete hearts and do the story and what not but with this recent change and i am going to use one of the most brought up examples right now which is the cows in Queensdale, I would find it hard to believe people like progressing with a lesser variety of options and less sensible options at that. The pacing is actually the fastest i have seen in an mmorpg for lower levels and gets quite slow in the 40’s and somewhat near the end, but this patch makes the pacing even faster suggesting it was too slow.

This NPE just falls on its face when you really think about it and is overall very Topsy-turvy.

Now lets say none of this were to be released and instead they introduced guilds halls or something else desired by the community, would it have been worth it more than the NPE? I would say yes and i believe the amount of joyous citizens of Tyria would agree.

It’s all about getting new blood into the game. Almost all games have natural attrition. People stop playing for all sorts of reasons. Those people need to be replaced by other people. This is of prime importance for the business.

Now, if you added a guild hall, which I’d like personally, that won’t stop normal attrition, it would affect people who aren’t in guilds and even in Guild Wars 1, if you didn’t GvG it didn’t really mean much to a lot of people.

But all the time the attrition would take it’s toll and eventually we’d all be standing alone in our guild halls.

All games need new blood if they’re to survive long term. Anet has said the old system didn’t cut it. I believe them.

Vayne.8563:

It’s all about getting new blood into the game. Almost all games have natural attrition. People stop playing for all sorts of reasons. Those people need to be replaced by other people. This is of prime importance for the business.

Now, if you added a guild hall, which I’d like personally, that won’t stop normal attrition, it would affect people who aren’t in guilds and even in Guild Wars 1, if you didn’t GvG it didn’t really mean much to a lot of people.

But all the time the attrition would take it’s toll and eventually we’d all be standing alone in our guild halls.

All games need new blood if they’re to survive long term. Anet has said the old system didn’t cut it. I believe them.

Well maybe, if there was actually something to do, people wouldn’t leave the game left and right.

Inb4: “b-but there’s WvW…! And sPvP! A..and dungeons”! Stop shilling.

Vayne.8563:

Not quite what the devs said. They said people weren’t staying with the game the way it used to be, and when they changed it to this way, more people continued playing for longer.

Maybe people continued playing longer with this NPE thing because whatever it was that caused most of them to stop playing got pushed out of sight for a little while longer.

For all the metrics can show, it might have been that a bunch of those people realized that the currently existing professions didn’t provide the game play experience they really wanted. Maybe they left because they realized they couldn’t really be healers or tanks. Maybe they didn’t like the limited weapon skills. Maybe they didn’t like that stupid cow catapult in Ascalon. Maybe they got tired of hearing “This rose has thorns! Here they are!” Maybe they decided they’d never dodge that guy like that, so why bother.

Shots taken in the dark are not likely to hit a specific target. Well, unless you use a big kitten bomb. Which is kinda what NPE was. A bomb. Blanket saturation of the target area.

Vayne.8563:

It’s all about getting new blood into the game. Almost all games have natural attrition. People stop playing for all sorts of reasons. Those people need to be replaced by other people. This is of prime importance for the business.

Now, if you added a guild hall, which I’d like personally, that won’t stop normal attrition, it would affect people who aren’t in guilds and even in Guild Wars 1, if you didn’t GvG it didn’t really mean much to a lot of people.

But all the time the attrition would take it’s toll and eventually we’d all be standing alone in our guild halls.

All games need new blood if they’re to survive long term. Anet has said the old system didn’t cut it. I believe them.

But as i stated earlier their timing was quite bad as they were going up against a couple of mmo’s coming out in these two weeks that get a lot more coverage than gw2, i mean usually it would be ok so that you can tempt people to not buy those new games and prevent losing those players to the new mmos but gw2 is 2 years old and it really just doesn’t get talked about anymore. I go to school (final exams soon) and all my mates are most definitely not talking about gw2 but in fact one of those new games even though they knew i played gw2 and thought it was great.

I also talked about how quite a number of players were on the edge of quitting which could have been fixed by adding some end game connected features or veteran features. Also please don’t focus on guild halls too much that was just the first example that came to my mind although i will talk about it some more…. if done properly it could be so healthy for the communities attitude and view of Anet that players would be willing to wait an extra month while new player features are added now that they know Anet acknowledges them more.

They even had a break which is when quite a lot of people get bored and leave so the feature pack as most Anet announcements go had high expectations to veteran players and then they go and release something for new players. I mean sure new players are important but as the game gets older bringing in new players is harder and at this point i believe waiting a bit longer and keeping those veteran players are more important.

Sadly this small group of players leaving because of the new patch gives them more incentive to get new blood to replace those loses and frankly i am scared of this.

Sogradde.8016:

Vayne.8563:

It’s all about getting new blood into the game. Almost all games have natural attrition. People stop playing for all sorts of reasons. Those people need to be replaced by other people. This is of prime importance for the business.

Now, if you added a guild hall, which I’d like personally, that won’t stop normal attrition, it would affect people who aren’t in guilds and even in Guild Wars 1, if you didn’t GvG it didn’t really mean much to a lot of people.

But all the time the attrition would take it’s toll and eventually we’d all be standing alone in our guild halls.

All games need new blood if they’re to survive long term. Anet has said the old system didn’t cut it. I believe them.

Well maybe, if there was actually something to do, people wouldn’t leave the game left and right.

Inb4: “b-but there’s WvW…! And sPvP! A..and dungeons”! Stop shilling.

Way to miss the point.

Anet isn’t talking about long time players leaving the game. That’s not what they’re talking about. They’re talking about people playing the game at start and getting bored and not continuing.

If you like the initial experience you might think everyone does or most people do. Anet’s testing shows them that’s not the case. Leaving the game long term has nothing to do with this update, but Colin said until they fix this, they can’t move forward with other things they want to do.

Vayne.8563:

Way to miss the point.

Anet isn’t talking about long time players leaving the game. That’s not what they’re talking about. They’re talking about people playing the game at start and getting bored and not continuing.

If you like the initial experience you might think everyone does or most people do. Anet’s testing shows them that’s not the case. Leaving the game long term has nothing to do with this update, but Colin said until they fix this, they can’t move forward with other things they want to do.

Not everyone who buys your game likes your game. That’s true for every single video game out there. And honestly, maybe people who are overwhelmed by one of the easiest MMOs out there aren’t exactly the target audience. The devs have to draw the line somewhere and right now they are catering to the worst players big time, which ultimately hurts veterans and enthusiasts. If this is the direction you want to be heading, fine but don’t expect no backlash when the people who actually bought the game firsthand and made it big get the short end of the stick.

Sogradde.8016:

Vayne.8563:

Way to miss the point.

Anet isn’t talking about long time players leaving the game. That’s not what they’re talking about. They’re talking about people playing the game at start and getting bored and not continuing.

If you like the initial experience you might think everyone does or most people do. Anet’s testing shows them that’s not the case. Leaving the game long term has nothing to do with this update, but Colin said until they fix this, they can’t move forward with other things they want to do.

Not everyone who buys your game likes your game. That’s true for every single video game out there. And honestly, maybe people who are overwhelmed by one of the easiest MMOs out there aren’t exactly the target audience. The devs have to draw the line somewhere and right now they are catering to the worst players big time, which ultimately hurts veterans and enthusiasts. If this is the direction you want to be heading, fine but don’t expect no backlash when the people who actually bought the game firsthand and made it big get the short end of the stick.

It’s not just about being overwhelmed. It’s about pacing. It’s about being rewarded. People like to be rewarded. To older players it’s like something’s been taken away. To newer players, they don’t know what it was like before.

Anet’s tested it and they say the tests show this keeps people playing longer. I’m willing to see if it’s true.

Colin.. No one asked for the leveling and new player experience to be changed. I can’t remember anyone complaining that it is bad. Like a broken record here, “if it aint broke don’t fix it”. You could have invested those resources on other things, like dungeons?? Or making open world PVE / DE more enjoyable and rewarding?

I seriousl’y don’t understand your decision making here. It makes no sense and is a clear example of the disconnect that you have with the playerbase. Again, no one asked for this and no one complained about it.

Personally, I’ve always said that the new player experience and leveling experience is second to none in Guild Wars 2. It is the best part of the game, because lets face it…GW2 is not known for it’s awesome level cap experience.

You need to admit that you did a wrong here… we didnt want this. Its confusing and makes no sense.

cesmode.4257:

Colin.. No one asked for the leveling and new player experience to be changed. I can’t remember anyone complaining that it is bad. Like a broken record here, “if it aint broke don’t fix it”. You could have invested those resources on other things, like dungeons?? Or making open world PVE / DE more enjoyable and rewarding?

I seriousl’y don’t understand your decision making here. It makes no sense and is a clear example of the disconnect that you have with the playerbase. Again, no one asked for this and no one complained about it.

Personally, I’ve always said that the new player experience and leveling experience is second to none in Guild Wars 2. It is the best part of the game, because lets face it…GW2 is not known for it’s awesome level cap experience.

You need to admit that you did a wrong here… we didnt want this. Its confusing and makes no sense.

I thought you left.

He doesn’t need to admit he’s wrong if he’s not. Do you know how many people play trials that don’t stay with the game. Companies have two needs..what the players want and what they need to grow their business. They are not necessarily always the same things.

I think the new leveling experience is a better experience over all. And I’m a player. You’re right in that I didn’t ask for this, but I’m certainly enjoying it.

cesmode.4257:

Colin.. No one asked for the leveling and new player experience to be changed. I can’t remember anyone complaining that it is bad. Like a broken record here, “if it aint broke don’t fix it”. You could have invested those resources on other things, like dungeons?? Or making open world PVE / DE more enjoyable and rewarding?

I seriousl’y don’t understand your decision making here. It makes no sense and is a clear example of the disconnect that you have with the playerbase. Again, no one asked for this and no one complained about it.

Personally, I’ve always said that the new player experience and leveling experience is second to none in Guild Wars 2. It is the best part of the game, because lets face it…GW2 is not known for it’s awesome level cap experience.

You need to admit that you did a wrong here… we didnt want this. Its confusing and makes no sense.

Heck, how about making it so newbies aren’t automatically refused for dungeons or world boss events their own level in favor of 80s, because newbies just don’t have the skills / DPS. Or make it so that level 80s with full world completion aren’t able to run through a lowbie zone oneshotting all the mobs while you as a lowbie can’t even get a hit in to get event credit? Those are the things I would consider discouraging as a new player (and even on a veteran player playing a low level alt).

Broom.2561:

cesmode.4257:

Colin.. No one asked for the leveling and new player experience to be changed. I can’t remember anyone complaining that it is bad. Like a broken record here, “if it aint broke don’t fix it”. You could have invested those resources on other things, like dungeons?? Or making open world PVE / DE more enjoyable and rewarding?

I seriousl’y don’t understand your decision making here. It makes no sense and is a clear example of the disconnect that you have with the playerbase. Again, no one asked for this and no one complained about it.

Personally, I’ve always said that the new player experience and leveling experience is second to none in Guild Wars 2. It is the best part of the game, because lets face it…GW2 is not known for it’s awesome level cap experience.

You need to admit that you did a wrong here… we didnt want this. Its confusing and makes no sense.

Heck, how about making it so newbies aren’t automatically refused for dungeons or world boss events their own level in favor of 80s, because newbies just don’t have the skills / DPS. Or make it so that level 80s with full world completion aren’t able to run through a lowbie zone oneshotting all the mobs while you as a lowbie can’t even get a hit in to get event credit? Those are the things I would consider discouraging as a new player (and even on a veteran player playing a low level alt).

These are player based issues. People are pricks. In the lower maps people are more than capable of adjusting their play to suit the area but they don’t. I’ve caught myself doing this, and I’m only on top of it because a year ago a guy I was doing the booze escort with in Wayfarer let me know he was waiting for me to get the first hit on things. It really got me thinking.

Its up to players, not the nanny.

Vayne.8563:

It’s not just about being overwhelmed. It’s about pacing. It’s about being rewarded. People like to be rewarded. To older players it’s like something’s been taken away. To newer players, they don’t know what it was like before.

Anet’s tested it and they say the tests show this keeps people playing longer. I’m willing to see if it’s true.

I’m not. ANet has shown in the past that they like to take the laziest route possible. And I’m pretty sure, all they did was listen to their flawed metrics and decided to dumb everything down. Which comes handy by the way because it drags out the levelling experience and new players take a little longer to reach the state of #NoEndgame.

Also, where’s the reward for veteran players? Spoon collection?

Look, I know you’re not stupid and I see where you are coming from with your arguments but you cannot seriously look someone straight in the face and say you’re happy with the direction it is taking.

I mean, seriously, do you even play the game? I assume you do, so what do you do when you log in? Play the same dungeons you’ve been playing for almost 2 years? Or the same PvP Mode&Maps or the same WvW mode&maps? Or do you take your time to carefully examine the 20 minutes long Living Story content?
Listen to your heart buddy, this game is way past it’s former glory and it’s not getting better.

Duke Darkwood.4237:

anzenketh.3759:

Duke Darkwood.4237:

- And I seriously have no idea what the thought process about gating map exploration is. As someone who loves to explore with new alts, I find the story unlock system feasible, but it appears as if you are actively disincentivising exploration!

3.) Disable the compass. This was put in there for people who are not used to exploration inside of a game to give them a little guidance to explore.

That’s not what I meant. I meant “you can’t use vistas until this level” or “you can’t do diving spots until that level”. I could almost understand for skill points, if its lkevel gate equalled the unlock of Utility 1 – except that some very easy ones are placed in areas that scale 3-5, AND these can be used on unlocked-out-of-the-gate Healing skills.

Making you wait to explore, when exploring is what you’re meant to do to GET levels, is not conducive to making people want to explore.

Misinformation. You can do Vista’s before X level. Diving Spots…… I suspect that is a bug however it is unlocked before level 11. Skill Points I don’t like the fact they are behind a level gate but understand why they could be.

anzenketh.3759:

Duke Darkwood.4237:

anzenketh.3759:

Duke Darkwood.4237:

- And I seriously have no idea what the thought process about gating map exploration is. As someone who loves to explore with new alts, I find the story unlock system feasible, but it appears as if you are actively disincentivising exploration!

3.) Disable the compass. This was put in there for people who are not used to exploration inside of a game to give them a little guidance to explore.

That’s not what I meant. I meant “you can’t use vistas until this level” or “you can’t do diving spots until that level”. I could almost understand for skill points, if its lkevel gate equalled the unlock of Utility 1 – except that some very easy ones are placed in areas that scale 3-5, AND these can be used on unlocked-out-of-the-gate Healing skills.

Making you wait to explore, when exploring is what you’re meant to do to GET levels, is not conducive to making people want to explore.

Misinformation. You can do Vista’s before X level. Diving Spots…… I suspect that is a bug however it is unlocked before level 11. Skill Points I don’t like the fact they are behind a level gate but understand why they could be.

That’s correct. They even made the vistas and POI’s visible again. Just like before the patch.

That moment when you actually want a reply because its more entertaining than playing gw2 atm

Sogradde.8016:

Vayne.8563:

It’s not just about being overwhelmed. It’s about pacing. It’s about being rewarded. People like to be rewarded. To older players it’s like something’s been taken away. To newer players, they don’t know what it was like before.

Anet’s tested it and they say the tests show this keeps people playing longer. I’m willing to see if it’s true.

I’m not. ANet has shown in the past that they like to take the laziest route possible. And I’m pretty sure, all they did was listen to their flawed metrics and decided to dumb everything down. Which comes handy by the way because it drags out the levelling experience and new players take a little longer to reach the state of #NoEndgame.

Also, where’s the reward for veteran players? Spoon collection?

Look, I know you’re not stupid and I see where you are coming from with your arguments but you cannot seriously look someone straight in the face and say you’re happy with the direction it is taking.

I mean, seriously, do you even play the game? I assume you do, so what do you do when you log in? Play the same dungeons you’ve been playing for almost 2 years? Or the same PvP Mode&Maps or the same WvW mode&maps? Or do you take your time to carefully examine the 20 minutes long Living Story content?
Listen to your heart buddy, this game is way past it’s former glory and it’s not getting better.

I do play the game, but I obviously play for different things than you do. I could care less about dungeons. I run them. I’ve run them all. They don’t really interest me. I think other games have done dungeons better and they don’t really interest me there either.

The problem here is that I really do like the leveling changes. I mean I like them a lot. Not to say I don’t see adjustments I think should be made, but on the whole, yes, I can look you in the eye and say I honestly like the changes.

I do a lot of different stuff. Today we started with Guild missions, three of them. Slow day for me, I barely had time to finish my daily. Did a bunch of trading post stuff.

But I’m an achievement guy. An explorer. A jumping puzzle guy. And I don’t really want a game to keep me entertained, I’m perfectly happy entertaining myself. I make my own goals, do my own thing. I did this in Guild Wars 1 as well.

I’m definitely not your typical player though, so it hardly matters what I do or like. Still there are others out there like me.