Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone. I expect very few people to read this because this is going to be the longest post ever. I also dont think many people will care, or agree with much I have to say… but I just have to get this all off my chest.

Before I get into this im going to give some background on myself. I am a lifelong gamer, I learned how to walk playing track and field on NES. Besides women in yoga pants, video games are my biggest joy. I nearly failed out of middle school and high school due to my obsession with Ultima Online. I loved EQ, but UO had the strongest hold on me. It was an addiction that most people couldnt possibly understand. I vowed to never play another MMO again, and stuck with the lesser, inferior style of game out there. Eventually I ran into Dark Souls (my beloved, oh my beloved Dark Souls) and needed something post DS to get my pvp in. I stumbled across a Guild Wars 2 pvp trailer and my jaw dropped. EVERYTHING looked perfect! Mages, sword, beastmen, speed, all types of everything a pvp starved man like myself could possibly want. A few months later, I purchase GW2 day one…. only to find… its an MMO. I had NO idea what I was getting myself into…. Crafting, story, wvw (it was amazing at launch, believe me.. we had a blast) I didnt even get into pvp because WVW and PVE was enough for me.

Here we are, 3+years, 2 accounts, 7200 hours and 15 legendaries later.

Im still here.

GW2 is not here.

What happened to my game? What happened to everything? This game means a lot to me; the person I consider my best friend in the world I actually met in game 2 weeks into it, “power leveling” off killing Moas. Hes the only person left of my original group and he has no intentions of quitting. He HATES HoT, except Dragon Stand, and I have constantly jump kicked him back into line with my white knight armor on (brought toyou by the gem store of course).

Now.. not everything has been perfect. ANET has made a lot of decisions that I have not understood over the years, but nothing to make me really question the game to its core. My huge complains have always been about the lack of variety of weapon uses in PVE, the overall design of wvw, and the entire state of the Ranger since the day shortbow was nerfed. I even.. cheated.. on GW2 a few times. I admit this, I bought Wild Star, I bought FF14, none of them could hold me. FF14 is a great game its just too slow for me, GW2 has unlocked a certain kind love of combat I didnt have before. Wild Star was on verge to being amazing, and if it had more population I would of given it more of a chance, but no. Heck, I even downloaded Blade and Soul and I RAN back to GW2 faster than I could log out. I tried all of these games just because, with no intention of giving up GW2.

Well, it finally happened. I bought preodered the division (still not sure why) and decided to buy “that Black desert whatever game” as something to mess with while I waited for the division, due to hating the current state of PVP in GW2, and the lack of wvw, and well, I have every legendary id possibly want including astralaria, I ran out of PVE things to do. So I decide hey what the heck, the new legendaries are coming soon, ill just log in for my daily and to help my boys farm for whatever they want etc, and when theyre not on ill play these other games.

I instantly disliked the division despite playing it in Beta, and I HATED BDO with all my heart. However, I decided to give BDO more time because theres an armor in it that looks like the armor from Dark Souls so I just wanted to mess with that for fun. The more I played BDO the more I realized how old school it is, and it reminds me of Ultima Online…. a game I forever love. Upon messing with BDO, I hit up the GW2 forums and saw Colin was leaving, and thats when everything changed.

I sit here now, playing BDO daily (this isnt a GW2 vs BDO thread, not going in that direction guys sorry) I constantly read GW2 forums and see how down the community is. The forums, and the Official Forums (aka Reddit) have never been kind, but its been my digital newspaper for 3 years now and I have no intentions of that stopping. Upon logging back into GW2 yesterday, everything felt wrong and alien. I no longer recognize this game as the game I loved. I COMPLETELY understand all the GW1 lovers that could never get into GW2, or atleast didnt like GW2 as much as GW1 because of how different it is, because thats how I feel now. I have defended HoT up and down until my toon turned blue in the face. I never understood why so many people knocked it, but now… now its clear as day that ive taken time away.

HoT offers nothing. I am a grinder, I will grind until my hands break and my veins blow up, and I dont mind it at all, but theres no REASON to grind now. Precursor crafting is a great idea, and if it was implemented at launch or near then, it would be even cooler, but for people like me or even people NOT like me, its too little too late. Astralaria was kinda fun making except for the huge time gates, or huge gold sinks to avoid them. Each map is broken down like a giant mini game, which is cute because silverwaste was similar and I loved SW, but the beauty to SW (not counting the JP) is that SW is small and you get a lot done and tons of reward. HoT is broken down into 3 (4, but DS is JUST an event) maps where you run around completing events for loot for THAT map, and the rewards suck. The best skins are the AB weapons and you cant even just flat out buy them with currency. Honorable mention to Bladed Armor as well, I think its the one really good thing they added.

Besides the maps being… what they are, I can look beyond that. I look to PVP and I see a mess. I see anet trying SO HARD to make this an esport game and doing it completely wrong. I have never understood this attempt, this game doesnt offer good enough pvp to even be close to esport level. The quality of combat is there, its fluid and the classes are different enough to make it work. The problem is the TERRIBLE AND AWFUL lack of balance that every other community just laughs at. We have some of the best and unique classes, not counting elite specs, and theyre just… nowhere near viable for the most part.

The decision made long ago to be quiet on subjects until after things were completed was the single worst decision ever made. Without filtering and understanding the input the community wants, you simply cannot give what is required to maintain a healthy gaming community. Now I know the devs read the forums, or atleast read the official forum known as Reddit, but the lack of communication over the years has been disgusting. We received an expansion with WvW maps so tremendous and worthless, all those man hours could have been used towards something greater. We didnt receive a new race, Living story is taking forever, and now Legendaries are on… hold. PVP balance is complete garbage and people are leaving the game in droves; the communication with the pvp scene is the worst ive ever seen in a game. WvW basically got removed from the game, its the SAME GARBAGE REWARDS since launch and no efforts have been made to make the experience more fun, or better, just… SOMEWHAT prettier.
Dungeons being basically removed wasnt a big deal to me at first, but after a month or so I Realized I lost one of the daily things I did and had less reason to play. I LOVED the changes that let you pick what frac you wanted to do, but then all we did was run mossman and bloom, and that got boring as can be and awful. :\

I have lost so many guildies (And found many of them in that other game) that its absurd to me the direction this game is going. I just watched the Wooden Potatoes video and thats what inspired me to speak up, as he repeated one thing Mr. Mike O’Brien said. The fact that they he doesnt think HoT was half an expansion ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIES ME!!!! Is THIS the amount of content we are to expect in the future? If so count me out, seriously, because as much as I defended and loved HoT on launch, its stale and played out already. This is coming from someone that is a grindaholic. The fact that when I think of gw2, or mention it, all I think of and hear is the word “disappointment” is awful. I know MMO communities are probably the hardest community to satisfy, but you have to TRY. I feel like theres been no attempt at giving people what they want anymore. I apologize to all the people that I have shamefully bashed for hating on HoT, I really do, and I apologize to all the people that claimed anet had no idea what they were doing with this game even years ago, because I see now they were right. This isnt an overnight thing, or even HoT in truth, its the leadership and management of this game that has gone down the drain. So much attention to art, and so little to everything else… its disturbing. I am done with this game until Living story 3 or next expansion, because logging in is friggen painful at this point. I now wear my armor Black, and not White.

That is all, sorry for the long ridiculous post

I know what you mean, and I agree with some.of what you have said, I was one of the people underwhelmed with HoT, I’ve spent more time in the core game leveling alts that getting characters through HoT. I had 3 ready when HoT dropped, 2 went through quickly, and I hated it. So I left it a little maybe just before Christmas I started with my 3rd, my ranger made easy work of HoT, and she was the most undergeard one of the 3. But I just couldn’t bring my self to finish her run untill early February. Now my Revenant is all.cought up on the story and after being tombed to 80 the went and got all the HC’s in the core game, and one from WvW to even out the numbers he stepped foot.into HoT, got his hero points, now I’m.wondering, do I continue with the story like I planned, or bail and map.complete the core game again. I know one of those options is.nearly if not already half done, and I don’t have to worry about.ending up on an empty map or getting kicked from a map with out warning. Might not be so hard to chose after all.

“New Gem Store Items Available!”

What happened was the fan base wasn’t happy with the living story so we switched to an expansion model and the expansion didn’t do well. That’s what happened. If the expansion had done better, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Vayne.8563:

What happened was the fan base wasn’t happy with the living story so we switched to an expansion model and the expansion didn’t do well. That’s what happened. If the expansion had done better, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Not going against this at all. It just sucks, and im venting and apologize. Youve been around these boards a long time yourself and youve seen every type of post there is and I know none of this shocks you lol, but still, im just so annoyed. I planned, and still plan, on playing gw2 until the servers shut down or gw3 comes out… but at this point I may not make it to fall

Azure.8670:

Vayne.8563:

What happened was the fan base wasn’t happy with the living story so we switched to an expansion model and the expansion didn’t do well. That’s what happened. If the expansion had done better, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Not going against this at all. It just sucks, and im venting and apologize. Youve been around these boards a long time yourself and youve seen every type of post there is and I know none of this shocks you lol, but still, im just so annoyed. I planned, and still plan, on playing gw2 until the servers shut down or gw3 comes out… but at this point I may not make it to fall

I feel like venting too, you’re not alone. But what I’m venting about is different from what you’re venting about. The only way this game moves forward, in my opinion, if it returns to the type of product it offered early on. And even that might be too late, because so many have become disenfranchised.

But I’ve looked at other MMOs and none of them really do it for me, so…what can you do. Even Everquest Next, which was the next big hope, has been cancelled. It’s just not easy to make and run an MMO. And we, as fans, have pretty high expectations.

" What happened was the fan base wasn’t happy with the living story so we switched to an expansion model and the expansion didn’t do well. That’s what happened. If the expansion had done better, we wouldn’t be having this conversation."

Exactly Vayne. If they had made HoT soloable I bet my precious Bunny Ears that they would have sold more copies of the expansion…never underestimate the numbers of soloists….we are more in number than people think.

You can solo things in HoT just fine except the meta event bosses. Its just not faceroll easy as old Tyria. But I do not see people solo Shatterer, Tequatl etc either.

Azure.8670:

The decision made long ago to be quiet on subjects until after things were completed was the single worst decision ever made. Without filtering and understanding the input the community wants, you simply cannot give what is required to maintain a healthy gaming community.

yes indeed

Vayne.8563:

The only way this game moves forward, in my opinion, if it returns to the type of product it offered early on. And even that might be too late, because so many have become disenfranchised.

I agree with this. I began playing this game because what it offered in the beginning seemed to really fit my playstyle. All MMOs evolve, but I feel like this game has evolved a little too much in the wrong direction. It has been culture shock, so to speak, for me from about LS2 on. Everything seemed just so different from the maps, quests, events, and instances that I loved in the core game. I assumed, incorrectly, that future content would be more of the same fun content that the game began with. The one change to the game that has been really different that I liked was the gliding. Some other things, though, not so much.

Vayne.8563:

What happened was the fan base wasn’t happy with the living story so we switched to an expansion model and the expansion didn’t do well. That’s what happened. If the expansion had done better, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

I don’t get this post ???

So, if we would have a better game people would complain less … Really ???
If i would run faster i would be at the olympics or if i could fly i wouldn’t have to walk…
The reality is that i am not able to do it.

Isn’t the point that A-net isn’t able to deliver quality???

Kirschsahne.2081:

Vayne.8563:

What happened was the fan base wasn’t happy with the living story so we switched to an expansion model and the expansion didn’t do well. That’s what happened. If the expansion had done better, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

I don’t get this post ???

So, if we would have a better game people would complain less … Really ???
If i would run faster i would be at the olympics or if i could fly i wouldn’t have to walk…
The reality is that i am not able to do it.

Isn’t the point that A-net isn’t able to deliver quality???

Nope it’s not really the point. The question is WHY they can’t deliver content. They in fact are spread too thin, trying to provide too many options for too many people. And if they’re going back to their roots and provide more for me, yeah I’ll be happy. lol

Malediktus.9250:

You can solo things in HoT just fine except the meta event bosses. Its just not faceroll easy as old Tyria. But I do not see people solo Shatterer, Tequatl etc either.

I am sure he is talking about hero points you can’t solo.
And without hero points you can’t develope your character.

I understand very well why he is complaining.
Multiplayer should be optional not forced.
GW1 was a perfect example how to do it.
Actually i have no idea why they threw everything over board that made A-Net so successful and invented cheap, no creativity new stuff to replace it.

Vayne.8563:

Kirschsahne.2081:

Vayne.8563:

What happened was the fan base wasn’t happy with the living story so we switched to an expansion model and the expansion didn’t do well. That’s what happened. If the expansion had done better, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

I don’t get this post ???

So, if we would have a better game people would complain less … Really ???
If i would run faster i would be at the olympics or if i could fly i wouldn’t have to walk…
The reality is that i am not able to do it.

Isn’t the point that A-net isn’t able to deliver quality???

Nope it’s not really the point. The question is WHY they can’t deliver content. They in fact are spread too thin, trying to provide too many options for too many people. And if they’re going back to their roots and provide more for me, yeah I’ll be happy. lol

haha.. that made me smile. I wish it would work this way.

but i am not sure they are spread too thin.
The fan base has been very clear from the beginning what they want.
The mistake they made is always delivering everything else but what the comunity wants.
IMO they could have 3.000 more employees and would still do wrong.
In GW1 they had very few employees and such a huge success.

So i am not sure the problem is that they are to few people.

the Living story updates were exactly what this game needed, they were just doing them incorrectly. I would not of minded a full blown expansion if they werent busy doing LS before that, but they just cut out content and rushed an expansion and it didnt work. What would of been better is if they did LS, but it unlocked new elite specs and classes and races and such, which honestly I expected them to do long ago and it didnt happen. Anet is just a huge mess right now and im not sure THEY know how to recover, and if they do, im not sure its the people in charge

Kirschsahne.2081:

Malediktus.9250:

You can solo things in HoT just fine except the meta event bosses. Its just not faceroll easy as old Tyria. But I do not see people solo Shatterer, Tequatl etc either.

I am sure he is talking about hero points you can’t solo.
And without hero points you can’t develope your character.

I understand very well why he is complaining.
Multiplayer should be optional not forced.
GW1 was a perfect example how to do it.
Actually i have no idea why they threw everything over board that made A-Net so successful and invented cheap, no creativity new stuff to replace it.

Two main mistakes I think they made in HoT maps is not being able to solo Hero Challenges and not being able to solo 100% map completions like we can in Core Tyria. If these 2 things were changed, it would be a lot easier to go out and enjoy HoT content without having to worry about constant taxiing and needing other players all doing the same thing you’re doing at the exact same time. Would be so much less limiting.

Kirschsahne.2081:

Vayne.8563:

Kirschsahne.2081:

Vayne.8563:

What happened was the fan base wasn’t happy with the living story so we switched to an expansion model and the expansion didn’t do well. That’s what happened. If the expansion had done better, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

I don’t get this post ???

So, if we would have a better game people would complain less … Really ???
If i would run faster i would be at the olympics or if i could fly i wouldn’t have to walk…
The reality is that i am not able to do it.

Isn’t the point that A-net isn’t able to deliver quality???

Nope it’s not really the point. The question is WHY they can’t deliver content. They in fact are spread too thin, trying to provide too many options for too many people. And if they’re going back to their roots and provide more for me, yeah I’ll be happy. lol

haha.. that made me smile. I wish it would work this way.

but i am not sure they are spread too thin.
The fan base has been very clear from the beginning what they want.
The mistake they made is always delivering everything else but what the comunity wants.
IMO they could have 3.000 more employees and would still do wrong.
In GW1 they had very few employees and such a huge success.

So i am not sure the problem is that they are to few people.

Nah the fan base hasn’t always been clear. Take the raid situation. I don’t think they belong in this game and I’ve never thought they belong. Take the six guys working on that and the time they cost other departments as well and you don’t need to stop work on legendaries.

I think half the issue is constantly losing devs. It seems to happen pretty often. Not sure how any studio can function on time and under budget with that constraint.

I held on hanging for hope that Guild Wars 2 would get better. It did not. I got bored of its excessively recycled content.

I held on hanging for hope that Super Adventure Box would return in a timely manner. It did not. Wouldn’t be surprised if that promise of it returning gets broken too. It was the one good thing that set Guild Wars 2 apart from any other generic fantasy mmo by building on their jumping puzzles system.

So, I’ve moved on. I’ve found my ‘Super Adventure Box’ and its name is Trove.

Azure.8670:

Hello everyone. I expect very few people to read this because this is going to be the longest post ever. I also don’t think many people will care, or agree with much I have to say… but I just have to get this all off my chest.

Ugh… I agree with you in total, Azure. I too have the instinct to stay till GW2 is dead, but that’s because I played GuildWars. I would never want the first game to die, it would hurt too much!

But I’m conflicted by my rage, I’ve always been the person to point out the flaws of GW2 and hardly defended it; I wanted to be honest rather than sugar coat the disaster ArenaNet turned it into. I’ve only seen the proof ArenaNet can not deliver the most optimal way to implement a insane Idea that would just make the game epic. It happens so much it seems to be impossible for them to do the right thing, but I blame poor management for that issue. With the recent announcement from Mike, on the topic of HoT Legendary’s, has started a fracture within the community’s faith in ArenaNet. Maybe fractures within the atchual community. I’ve read the topic from the beginning and it just keeps getting worse, possibly broke at least one Law just within the UK, if there is more someone has to read up on the subject.

This situation has become completely insane. Their reputation is being destroyed and it’s their own fault. It’s such a massive storm I haven’t the slightest idea what I should do next . . . but I’ll figure that out…

• All I can say right now is a Planet of the Apes Quote:
• George Taylor: You maniacs! You blew it up! D—- you! G— d—- you all to Hell!!

I think that’s the most appropriate franchise and story overall that describes how I’m feeling…

I play solo 99 percent of the time, but I don’t feel as strongly about this as some people seem too. Partly because skill challenges can be gained by grinding WvW, but also because I refuse to obsess over 100%ing this game. I’ll do map completion ‘whenever’.

I just came back to check out the game after taking a break about 3 weeks after HoT launched and I’m already sad and disappointed. Correct me if I’m wrong please, but I don’t see a single glider skin that is available to unlock or earn as reward for playing the game. I see they have added bunch of glider skins and all of them are gem store. It is extremely disappointed. Of course I can convert gold and buy it, but it still feels wrong and greedy of anet that they can’t put a single glider skin for reward. Default glider is intentionally incredibly ugly, not even fully dyeable, just so you are “forced” buy a new one. Especially since they put gliding in Tyria.
This is of course just one little thing, but there are a lot of these little things that makes you sad or even angry sometimes.
So, I understand what you’re saying, OP. It is sad that A-net insists to disappoint us again and again over past…. well for quite some while now.

serialkicker.5274:

I just came back to check out the game after taking a break about 3 weeks after HoT launched and I’m already sad and disappointed. Correct me if I’m wrong please, but I don’t see a single glider skin that is available to unlock or earn as reward for playing the game. I see they have added bunch of glider skins and all of them are gem store. It is extremely disappointed. Of course I can convert gold and buy it, but it still feels wrong and greedy of anet that they can’t put a single glider skin for reward. Default glider is intentionally incredibly ugly, not even fully dyeable, just so you are “forced” buy a new one. Especially since they put gliding in Tyria.
This is of course just one little thing, but there are a lot of these little things that makes you sad or even angry sometimes.
So, I understand what you’re saying, OP. It is sad that A-net insists to disappoint us again and again over past…. well for quite some while now.

The only glider skin that I have that I didn’t buy from the store is the ugly knit glider or whatever it’s called. That one I got in the game by doing a series of quests around Christmastime.

I agree with you. It would be far more satisfying if we could get things like glider skins from actually playing the game rather than trolling the store.

serialkicker.5274:

I’m already sad and disappointed. I don’t see a single glider skin that is available to unlock or earn as reward for playing the game.
Default glider is intentionally incredibly ugly, not even fully dyeable, just so you are “forced” buy a new one. Especially since they put gliding in Tyria.
This is of course just one little thing.

Er yeah that might be smallest thing ever.
You get a free glider.
You can glide in HoT and Tyria.
You have enough money to buy a better glider.
You choose not to so you haven’t been “forced” to do anything.
How about not using it?
Problem, surely, solved.

your mistake on the first place was taking gw2 so serious, its just a silly casual game and grinding legendaries, masteries, PvE, whatever is all just a filler, you dont really have to do all those things to enjoy the game, you can run a round of world bosses 2-3 times per week and enjoy the game but if you grind out of your mind here 24/7 you wont like this game

someone with experience in oldschool mmorpgs should’ve been able to understand that but apparently not

Julischka Bean.7491:

" What happened was the fan base wasn’t happy with the living story so we switched to an expansion model and the expansion didn’t do well. That’s what happened. If the expansion had done better, we wouldn’t be having this conversation."

Exactly Vayne. If they had made HoT soloable I bet my precious Bunny Ears that they would have sold more copies of the expansion…never underestimate the numbers of soloists….we are more in number than people think.

No, soloable isn’t the major issue of why the expansion failed. It certainly hurts it, but the real cause is depth. The game lacks depth and the expansion did nothing to really change that. The art in the game is great, the combat is fluid, but the mechanics of the game fall flat every time. The new zones were basically the same rehashed stuff, Orr 2.0. You finish the zones and then what? That’s always been the problem and they have yet to solve it. That’s why people didn’t buy the expansion. Combine that with 3 years of less than palatable patches and there was zero trust that ArenaNet could deliver on an expansion worth $50.

The only thing keeping this game afloat is the MMO dought. I can’t think of any AAA mmos even in production at the moment. If there was another Big MMO releasing people would be leaving, but there isn’t so they languish and wait for the miracle patch that turns out lackluster. Who would have thought that the hopes and dreams of the MMO genre would be pinned on Indy studios and Eastern MMOs. At least we are finally at the tail end of the WoW clones and we can start branching back out to MMO worlds that have some depth.

serialkicker.5274:

Correct me if I’m wrong please, but I don’t see a single glider skin that is available to unlock or earn as reward for playing the game.

You can unlock glider skins. I got a sparkly black one with green trail and havent bought any skin. No idea how it was unlocked though, if its just gliding rank or something else.

Also you are not “forced” to replace stock. Seriously, its just a skin.

Vayne.8563:

What happened was the fan base wasn’t happy with the living story so we switched to an expansion model and the expansion didn’t do well. That’s what happened. If the expansion had done better, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

I think a fairer assessment is that some of the fanbase wasn’t happy with the temporary nature of the Living Story, so they asked for more permanent content like an expansion in addition to it.

I do not remember anyone, let alone a significant proportion of the player base, asking for ANet to abandon content updates for a year to bring out something as small as HoT.

I know that there have always been complaints, and I can sympathise with some of criticism of the player base, but I don’t think it’s fair to suggest that we in any way asked for the last year and a half (Which I’m also aware that you weren’t explicitly doing in that post, but it walked a line and I’ve seen such accusations thrown around.)

Dawdler.8521:

serialkicker.5274:

Correct me if I’m wrong please, but I don’t see a single glider skin that is available to unlock or earn as reward for playing the game.

You can unlock glider skins. I got a sparkly black one with green trail and havent bought any skin. No idea how it was unlocked though, if its just gliding rank or something else.

Also you are not “forced” to replace stock. Seriously, its just a skin.

I do believe that was the glider that came with prepurchase of HoT.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Dawdler.8521:

serialkicker.5274:

Correct me if I’m wrong please, but I don’t see a single glider skin that is available to unlock or earn as reward for playing the game.

You can unlock glider skins. I got a sparkly black one with green trail and havent bought any skin. No idea how it was unlocked though, if its just gliding rank or something else.

Also you are not “forced” to replace stock. Seriously, its just a skin.

I do believe that was the glider that came with prepurchase of HoT.

Well then it is technically a reward, but I suppose that point stand then.

Still doesnt change the fact that no one force you to get another skin and it can be earned ingame by gem conversion

Wow what pathos… Dude get a grip, me too plays games since the 80ies and I played a lot of GW1 and GW2. Of course I am disappointed by the decision Mo made since it was promised we get a full set of legendaries. On the other hand, legendaries are not that important. Other games release 1-2 legendaries for one expansion and most people can’t even create any legendary their whole life.

I myself have 6 legendaries and love to create them, but imo it is more important to add actual content in form of new maps, dungeons, fractals and raids. Everything else is just fluff anyway.

Vayne.8563:

What happened was the fan base wasn’t happy with the living story so we switched to an expansion model and the expansion didn’t do well. That’s what happened. If the expansion had done better, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

both were done equally horribly by anet. 10/10 would not pay for any more unfinished content.

CrashTestAuto.9108:

Vayne.8563:

What happened was the fan base wasn’t happy with the living story so we switched to an expansion model and the expansion didn’t do well. That’s what happened. If the expansion had done better, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

I think a fairer assessment is that some of the fanbase wasn’t happy with the temporary nature of the Living Story, so they asked for more permanent content like an expansion in addition to it.

I do not remember anyone, let alone a significant proportion of the player base, asking for ANet to abandon content updates for a year to bring out something as small as HoT.

I know that there have always been complaints, and I can sympathise with some of criticism of the player base, but I don’t think it’s fair to suggest that we in any way asked for the last year and a half (Which I’m also aware that you weren’t explicitly doing in that post, but it walked a line and I’ve seen such accusations thrown around.)

You have to be kidding? Not Season 1, but during Season 2 most of the expansion complaints started. People were saying we get an update we can do in two hours and then we have to wait. I’d rather have an expansion. This wasn’t said once or twice, This was said multiple times a day.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again:

It’s all Scarlet Briars fault. Since her introduction and the “Toxic” team she brought with her, it has been a downward spiral.

Vayne.8563:

Azure.8670:

Vayne.8563:

What happened was the fan base wasn’t happy with the living story so we switched to an expansion model and the expansion didn’t do well. That’s what happened. If the expansion had done better, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Not going against this at all. It just sucks, and im venting and apologize. Youve been around these boards a long time yourself and youve seen every type of post there is and I know none of this shocks you lol, but still, im just so annoyed. I planned, and still plan, on playing gw2 until the servers shut down or gw3 comes out… but at this point I may not make it to fall

I feel like venting too, you’re not alone. But what I’m venting about is different from what you’re venting about. The only way this game moves forward, in my opinion, if it returns to the type of product it offered early on. And even that might be too late, because so many have become disenfranchised.

But I’ve looked at other MMOs and none of them really do it for me, so…what can you do. Even Everquest Next, which was the next big hope, has been cancelled. It’s just not easy to make and run an MMO. And we, as fans, have pretty high expectations.

I also looked too long for other standard MMOs .. in the end i am now found a
Hack’n’Slay MMO .. and as an old Diablo player i realized that maybe MMOs
with all those people crying for “challenging” content were never my kind of game.

Good thing in that other game is also that noone plays PvP, so nobody cries
all the time : wäääähhhhh .. Hero X is overpowerd .. nerf him .. its more that
the weaker ones now and then get and overhaul.

I mean .. in the end it was simply all the crying of the community here that
has ruined the game .. and of course ANet failure to listen to them.

I personally never wanted an expansion and i warned people often enough that
we then will go to the system of having every 2 year something to do for 1 month
and then wait 23 months for the next .. and that is more or less where we are now.

Oh .. and armor sets in the gem shop … never had a problem with that, especially
since we can exchange gold to gems .. but thanks to the cryers in the forums
armor sets are now more or less abandoned.

Oh and Legendary quests .. i was sure long before we got it that the whole stuff
will lead to something where the precursor in the end is not cheaper than buying
it from the TP .. at least not if you give the spent time a gold value. So in the end
i rather would have just the new Skins of the legendarys .. so abandon that
legendary “crafting” BS and make them available like the old ones again.

Oh and yes .. EQNext abandoned really sucks

They canned EQ next? What the crap? I was gonna play that. I don’t get out on the googles much.

~5 minutes later~

Well after a quick search I think I may go hang up my MMO hat for a while. There was a brief time were GW2 was awesome and great it had such a good foundation at launch it’s amazing what you can do with a series of bad decisions.

Though a new director may mean new direction, it doesn’t mean it will be a good direction. I certainly am not expecting much, but go get ‘em MO! I had plans for playing EQ Next and they are gone now so it’s just another disappointment in a long series of disappointments called life.

I’m going to go outside … the sun is still out there.

hugs Azure

Yeah…I log in and farm CS or do dailies…though I have nothing I’m working toward. I’m not rich compared to TP flippers and those who run SW chests for hours…but I have enough gold…just…not sure what to do with it. I dunno maybe I’ll make some Ascended heavy gear for my Guardian.

Necrotic.7820:

hugs Azure

Yeah…I log in and farm CS or do dailies…though I have nothing I’m working toward. I’m not rich compared to TP flippers and those who run SW chests for hours…but I have enough gold…just…not sure what to do with it. I dunno maybe I’ll make some Ascended heavy gear for my Guardian.

I log in and harvest a rich platinum node while getting my daily login bonus.
I wonder when i finally will also stop with that.

And yeah … 8000g and 10000 gems .. and nothing to buy. Oh wait .. i bought the
bunny ears last weak .. first time since christmas where i actually did move a
character in game ^^

Well, I still like GW2. Or, to put it another way: after having played GW2 for 3.5 years now I cannot go back to other MMOs. And that tells me something about the standards this game has set, let’s not forget that. No more half screens full of skill bars, no more tab targeting, no more don’t move while you’re casting, no more “we have to wait for the healer; oh no, that tank sucks”. I’m over this and I thank A-Net for that.

I think they have an architecture problem. Their code and configuration base seems fragile, errors that were long gone pop up here and there, things are changed which break other things in completely different places (and that’s only the bugs that slip through QA; I can only imagine how it is during development). Their tooling for creating and testing new content seems to be labor-intensive. The engine seems to have performance flaws, which make it necessary to control extremely well what you’re going to change with a new feature as you might kill the small headroom that may make the difference between go and no-go for the average player rack and so on.
Even from the distance of a (technically versed) player it seems like a mine field.

I think they have found out that they have neglected some of these spots (term is “technical debt”; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_debt) for too long and now they really hurt. And therefore they need to concentrate on fixing these things. And that is not something you are mentioning publicly. So what they are doing now is trying to mitigate the damage. But at least they started doing this.

General Health.9678:

General Health.9678:

Er yeah that might be smallest thing ever.

For you maybe, but you clearly can’t speak for everyone. Plus I said this is ONE of the things, and there are a lot of things.

You get a free glider.

No s*it, when did I said you don’t get one?

You can glide in HoT and Tyria.

No kitten , when did I say you can’t glide in Hot and Tyria.

You have enough money to buy a better glider.

Really? How do you know? Plus this is not the point of this debate. The point is that A-net could easily afford to put one single glider skin to be available to get as reward for completing some content or achievement or whatever, but they chose not to which is really disappointing.

You choose not to so you haven’t been “forced” to do anything.

I guess I have to make it simple for you to understand. By putting force in quotas (") I meant most people would feel like they want to buy it, because let’s face it, this game is pretty much fashion wars for many players and the basic (default) gliders is no way near being fashionable.

How about not using it?

How about you don’t make stupid posts and try to argue with me just for the sake of arguing and trying to prove me wrong?

Problem, surely, solved.

Problem is not solved, because you clearly haven’t read my post or maybe you’re unable to comprehend it, so why bother replying?

Vayne.8563:

You have to be kidding? Not Season 1, but during Season 2 most of the expansion complaints started. People were saying we get an update we can do in two hours and then we have to wait. I’d rather have an expansion. This wasn’t said once or twice, This was said multiple times a day.

I remember the complaints from Season 1, and they started because the content was temporary. Even then, it wasn’t everyone. Lots of people loved the LS system.

Players did not ask for a year and a half content drought with a small expansion in the middle at full game price. If ANet had told the players that was the plan, then people would have said “No”. The players can’t be blamed for this, even the minority that wanted an expansion over Living World.

Dawdler.8521:

serialkicker.5274:

Correct me if I’m wrong please, but I don’t see a single glider skin that is available to unlock or earn as reward for playing the game.

You can unlock glider skins. I got a sparkly black one with green trail and havent bought any skin. No idea how it was unlocked though, if its just gliding rank or something else.

Also you are not “forced” to replace stock. Seriously, its just a skin.

“It’s just a skin.” So are legendary weapons, yet they are still big and important part of the game and a lot of people seem to not be happy about getting only 3 new legendaries with xpac. And I could obviously give many more examples, since this game is filled with shiny stuff to get. Don’t say it’s just a “skin”. For some people skins and character customization is main thing about the game. It’s what drives them to play it.
With your logic, no one should be complaining, because we could say, hey, “it’s just achievements, just some numbers next to your nick, who cares” or “it’s just gold, why do you play the game for virtual money?” or I can make same point for whatever you enjoy in the game. It’s all for your entertainment.

Kirschsahne.2081:

Vayne.8563:

Kirschsahne.2081:

Vayne.8563:

What happened was the fan base wasn’t happy with the living story so we switched to an expansion model and the expansion didn’t do well. That’s what happened. If the expansion had done better, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

I don’t get this post ???

So, if we would have a better game people would complain less … Really ???
If i would run faster i would be at the olympics or if i could fly i wouldn’t have to walk…
The reality is that i am not able to do it.

Isn’t the point that A-net isn’t able to deliver quality???

Nope it’s not really the point. The question is WHY they can’t deliver content. They in fact are spread too thin, trying to provide too many options for too many people. And if they’re going back to their roots and provide more for me, yeah I’ll be happy. lol

haha.. that made me smile. I wish it would work this way.

but i am not sure they are spread too thin.
The fan base has been very clear from the beginning what they want.
The mistake they made is always delivering everything else but what the comunity wants.
IMO they could have 3.000 more employees and would still do wrong.
In GW1 they had very few employees and such a huge success.

So i am not sure the problem is that they are to few people.

Haha. I doubt it is really that easy to satisfy everyone’s wishes.

I, for example, am the guy who hates grind but plays only for fun. Mind you, I don’t want to get everything on a ‘silver platter’, I just don’t see the point in repeating things that require little or no adaptation or brain activity. Of course I am aware that it is virtually impossible to create new content all the time, because I would complete it and never look back. That’s why I am a typical PvP player. I prefer fighting against other players, preferably on a level field of competition with lots of diversity, because I always get challenged or surprised in one way or another, and I am stimulated to adapt some strategy when I fail in one way. That means, it’s very hard to bore me when I can break my way out of the game by inventing my own rules.

Sadly, that is just the kind of thing that they managed to kill in HoT. PvP class balance is poorer than it was pre-HoT which makes combat all the less challenging. Either you are clearly outgunned, or you’re clearly the strongest… no fun in that.

Is this something they could have prevented? Maybe it is all their fault, bad management, rushed content, no balancing… I don’t know. What I do know is that my view is just ONE of many. Some people might actually enjoy repeating content over and over and over again.

Is this a result of trying to have PVE and PVP and RVR in one game? Again, no idea, but for one, they really need to split their balancing between the three game modes.

PS: Legendaries? I don’t care about them. The moment I figured that it would take me months of normal play (GRIND) to get myself a legendary was the moment I decided to say “oh well I won’t lose anything if I don’t have one of these shinies”. So is the playerbase really “univocal” on matters like these?

Just stepping back in here for a second. It seems most of us agree that this game is going in a terrible direction, and a few just came to belittle me or someone else they dont agree with, and honestly thats ok as well.

I see a lot of people quoting what Vayne said and trying to dissect his comments into something that its not. The fan base during season 2 openly cried for an expansion, not because they were dissatisfied with season 2 entirely, but because we were getting MORE non permanent content. The updates themselves gave players something to do, but when we saw we werent getting a new race, werent getting a new profession, new weapons etc… thats when people said we need “more”. People DID ask for an expansion, many people, many many many threads, but NO ONE asked for the content to dry up. Now, some of us KNEW there would be a content drought to make an expansion because Anet did have one planned originally, but not everyone saw it that way or expected it. I can say that I personally wanted an expansion if it meant making the game better, but the long ridiculous wait combined with the lack of content really put my own foot in my mouth. I knew there would be a trade off, expected it even and was ok with it until later reviewing the situation.

Do I think GW2 is the best game overall on the market? yes. If you purchased this game within the past 6 months or so you are a lucky soul that is going to enjoy this for many many more hours. Its the souls that have been here since the beginning, or near the beginning, that are suffering. I laugh even typing this, but its like watching True Blood from season 1 and getting to season 4 and its just getting awful, but the people that just started at season 3 or 4 are absolutely in love. We simply see what was, and what is.

I dont hate this game, and I dont like BDO more than this game. I play BDO because I enjoy it more than this game, and I post on this forum because I care about this game.

Also for the person that said I should of seen this was a casual game and its my own fault, please.. just no. Its not about the game being casual or the PVE being fluff or any of that, its about the fact that I Love this game and the world it created. Im a fantasy guy, I love elves and talking giant chickens and all that stuff that gaming brings me and this game did it A+, so no, I wont say that due to the fact im an Old School MMO player I should of seen this game for w hat it is because its simply not true. I was around BEFORE mmos needed “end game” and I still dont think “End Game” truly exists, I just love MY game.

serialkicker.5274:

Dawdler.8521:

serialkicker.5274:

Correct me if I’m wrong please, but I don’t see a single glider skin that is available to unlock or earn as reward for playing the game.

You can unlock glider skins. I got a sparkly black one with green trail and havent bought any skin. No idea how it was unlocked though, if its just gliding rank or something else.

Also you are not “forced” to replace stock. Seriously, its just a skin.

“It’s just a skin.” So are legendary weapons, yet they are still big and important part of the game and a lot of people seem to not be happy about getting only 3 new legendaries with xpac. And I could obviously give many more examples, since this game is filled with shiny stuff to get. Don’t say it’s just a “skin”. For some people skins and character customization is main thing about the game. It’s what drives them to play it.
With your logic, no one should be complaining, because we could say, hey, “it’s just achievements, just some numbers next to your nick, who cares” or “it’s just gold, why do you play the game for virtual money?” or I can make same point for whatever you enjoy in the game. It’s all for your entertainment.

That has absolutely nothing to do with what I said. Yes, its just a skin. Maybe its what drives people to play but that is irrelevant – they are still not “forced” to get it in order to play the game. The post I quoted acted as if the game was unplayable without getting gemshop skins.

Of course you should complain about what was promised but not delivered.

Vayne.8563:

I think half the issue is constantly losing devs. It seems to happen pretty often. Not sure how any studio can function on time and under budget with that constraint.

You lose some, you get some. It’s typical turnover and I haven’t seen any indication of ANet’s turnover being drastically higher than usual in the software industry. It slows development down, but good management can minimize the negative effects. Sometimes, you can even benefit from it by recruiting people with fresh ideas and more motivation, especially when it comes to a huge, long project like GW2. Working on a game for this many years can be tiring, even if everything goes well.

dekou.6012:

Vayne.8563:

I think half the issue is constantly losing devs. It seems to happen pretty often. Not sure how any studio can function on time and under budget with that constraint.

You lose some, you get some. It’s typical turnover and I haven’t seen any indication of ANet’s turnover being drastically higher than usual in the software industry. It slows development down, but good management can minimize the negative effects. Sometimes, you can even benefit from it by recruiting people with fresh ideas and more motivation, especially when it comes to a huge, long project like GW2. Working on a game for this many years can be tiring, even if everything goes well.

Anet has lost several key people in I think it’s the last six months. They’ve lost others as well. And it takes time to train new people and bring them up to speed. Even in something as simple as a retail store, the turnover can affect profitably and production. How much worse is it with 3 years of spaghetti code?

Azure.8670:

…..snipped…..

Some of us here still love GW2. It is the most flawless game in the world at the moment. PvE is great. Raids is great. PvP is eSport material or even better. WvW is fun to play with hundreds of players bashing each other up….

So, no. GW2 with HoT is great. 10/10

Vayne.8563:

Anet has lost several key people in I think it’s the last six months. They’ve lost others as well. And it takes time to train new people and bring them up to speed. Even in something as simple as a retail store, the turnover can affect profitably and production.

Oh, I’m not denying that. However, with good management they’d have well-documented, clean code, a system where the leaving staff members train their replacements for a month or two, and a recruitment process finding adequate replacements. Losing a few guys in a company of 250 shouldn’t a catastrophe that halts the entire process. Besides, if ANet is constantly losing people, it’s almost certainly a symptom of some bigger issues, not the cause of them.

How much worse is it with 3 years of spaghetti code?

Spaghetti code is an entirely different issue. One I’m pretty sure GW2 has. Makes me wonder what’s going on with their code quality control. Some of GW2’s features are remarkable and unique feats of software engineering, so they clearly have/had really good programmers.

SirDrygan.1823:

It is the most flawless game in the world at the moment.

I disagree with this statement, but since statements like this are purely subjective, I suppose it’s neither here nor there.

Vayne.8563:

What happened was the fan base wasn’t happy with the living story so we switched to an expansion model and the expansion didn’t do well. That’s what happened. If the expansion had done better, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Yes, exactly. If Anet had delivered us something the size and quality of Factions or Nightfall (ignore for the purposes of this argument that these weren’t “real” expansions, HoT cost the same as they did after all), almost everyone would have been delighted with it.

Instead they kitten out something lazy (barely more than a living story season welded to a feature pack, really) and expected us to be happy with it. I’m amazed we even got a new profession out of it, honestly (and we still have yet to get a new race).