Guild Wars 2

If anybody thinks GW2 is anywhere near being shut down, you haven’t been in the mmo world very long. You gotta fail to an extent that your very name becomes a term of failure. Say it with me, “Warhammer online”

PS: If EQN even comes through on half of what has been shown/promised, it would be a superior game in every way to GW2. Why? Because strip away all its dynamic movement system and destructible world, and you still have a simply improved version of GW2.

Then again, “superior game” is kinda like “most beautiful person”, isn’kitten Eye of the beholder.

Astral Projections.7320:

He deliberately deleted more than one character, being well aware at that time he was losing the use of the items. He could have bought additional character slots and did not do so, preferring to delete high level characters with gem store items. He could have parked them at JPs or used them as mules or just let them sit. He didn’t care that much about the loss of the gem store items back then, not enough to let it affect his decision to delete.

And yes he has contacted support and was denied. He has a thread in Accounts Forum about it, is how I know.

Thanks for the backstory (assuming it’s correct). Most unfortunate. I asked because I saw in another thread someone complaining that they spent a bunch of gems on soulbound gathering tools that were now irrelevant and they were unhappy about it. An Arenanet CS rep jumped in and asked him/her to contact CS and I was very pleasantly surprised that they’d (by implication) refund gems in that circumstance. So I figured maybe it would apply to this individual as well.

If players are happy with what the game produces, then players will continue to buy gems for items via the Gem Store. It has been stated that they want to continue the Living World concept versus selling box typed content, though not ruled out.
The Gem Store has been a big hit amongst a lot of players, including myself at the time. Even if 5 players don’t purchase a single Gem, someone such as myself who has spent somewhere close to 300 USD (Maybe More) since the release, this averages out to be surplus.

But since I have halted my GW2 experience, I will no longer be purchasing Gems, due to the dislike in the current content that I personally feel has nothing to do with the original concept of the game. I know there are others who feel the same.

If the players who like/love the current direction and content outweigh players who feel like myself, then the game will continue the current direction. (In my opinion)

I’ve been around the Guild Wars group for awhile now, and have no intentions of stopping voicing my opinion.

Cheers

Araris.7839:

If anybody thinks GW2 is anywhere near being shut down, you haven’t been in the mmo world very long. You gotta fail to an extent that your very name becomes a term of failure. Say it with me, “Warhammer online”

PS: If EQN even comes through on half of what has been shown/promised, it would be a superior game in every way to GW2. Why? Because strip away all its dynamic movement system and destructible world, and you still have a simply improved version of GW2.

Then again, “superior game” is kinda like “most beautiful person”, isn’kitten Eye of the beholder.

You don’t need to shut down to fail. All you need to do is fall below some predetermined revenue point set by your bosses. Once that happens they will “restructure” the game… i.e. go full on P2W in order to bring in one last boost of cash. The content updates will shift from 50% real content and 50% gemstore content (like it is now) to 80% gem store, 20% actual content.

Just see SWTOR. That game is a P2W nightmere now, even though it started out with no cash shop at all.

Well SWTOR started it’s life as a subscription based game. That has a certain expectation for income to pay for it’s AAA IP. Just that players weren’t interested in paying monthly for the privileged so it went to F2P/hybrid model in less than a year including merging of Asia-Pacific servers into the NA ones.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

NCSoft didn’t shut down GW1, and I can’t imagine it’s just raking in the money…so why would they shut down GW2 any time soon? It makes little sense to me.

That’s because of the tie-in with GW2 and probably ANet’s “special relationship” with NCSOFT (rumor is ANet has an escape clause that allows them to take the GW IP with them).

ilr.9675:

An earlier Studio (can and DID) find ways to do MORE with LESS.

That is to say… this would have still been considered a windfall profit for the Studio we all knew back around 2006… So no, they can’t just fix this by throwing out Expansions UNLESS those expansions actually focus on all the things everyone here has been begging them for…. (completely NEW weapon skills, “real” changes to Zerg-vs-Zerg, more meaningful storyline & personal story plot that branches and STAYS branched, compelling dialogue, more frequent PvE skill updates, ….and a serious look at the Ranger class in general probably wouldn’t hurt either considering it was the 2nd most rolled class but the least playable in end-game).

Welp good luck with it in any case guys. The clock is ticking…

This post deserves more attention.

Wholeheartedly agreed.

Araris.7839:

If anybody thinks GW2 is anywhere near being shut down, you haven’t been in the mmo world very long. You gotta fail to an extent that your very name becomes a term of failure. Say it with me, “Warhammer online”

PS: If EQN even comes through on half of what has been shown/promised, it would be a superior game in every way to GW2. Why? Because strip away all its dynamic movement system and destructible world, and you still have a simply improved version of GW2.

Then again, “superior game” is kinda like “most beautiful person”, isn’kitten Eye of the beholder.

EQN has shown nothing that would provide evidence of it being a superior game. Combat trailers have shown incredibly boring, stationary combat with the same weak, barely customizable skill system as Guild Wars 2. The art style is weak. On top of this, SOE’s current additions to the market have all been mediocre, rushed products with abhorrent cash shop practices.

All EQN has now are buzz words – the same buzz words that Arenanet threw out, mind you – and I was (and am) FAR more confident in Arenanet’s abilities to fix the issues with this game and deliver on at least some of that hype than I am of SOE’s abilities to do the same.

Thalador.4218:

ilr.9675:

An earlier Studio (can and DID) find ways to do MORE with LESS.

That is to say… this would have still been considered a windfall profit for the Studio we all knew back around 2006… So no, they can’t just fix this by throwing out Expansions UNLESS those expansions actually focus on all the things everyone here has been begging them for…. (completely NEW weapon skills, “real” changes to Zerg-vs-Zerg, more meaningful storyline & personal story plot that branches and STAYS branched, compelling dialogue, more frequent PvE skill updates, ….and a serious look at the Ranger class in general probably wouldn’t hurt either considering it was the 2nd most rolled class but the least playable in end-game).

Welp good luck with it in any case guys. The clock is ticking…

This post deserves more attention.

Wholeheartedly agreed.

And that will never happen because it describes an entirely different game.

I know that the original GW fans loved the million weapons and zillion skills and the challenge to find the combination that dominates all others but it’s obvious in GW2’s design that the devs chose to go with a much simpler system to appeal to the more casual player as well as making it easier to balance and less likely to make kitten builds.

The personal stories merge because in the end it’s about you Vs the big bad dragon. It’s the natural convergence since it’s what everyone is working against. Now if they introduce another of the elder dragons I can see the paths diverging again with each order approaching it’s defeat again through their own means but coming together and the end again.

Behellagh.1468:

Thalador.4218:

ilr.9675:

An earlier Studio (can and DID) find ways to do MORE with LESS.

That is to say… this would have still been considered a windfall profit for the Studio we all knew back around 2006… So no, they can’t just fix this by throwing out Expansions UNLESS those expansions actually focus on all the things everyone here has been begging them for…. (completely NEW weapon skills, “real” changes to Zerg-vs-Zerg, more meaningful storyline & personal story plot that branches and STAYS branched, compelling dialogue, more frequent PvE skill updates, ….and a serious look at the Ranger class in general probably wouldn’t hurt either considering it was the 2nd most rolled class but the least playable in end-game).

Welp good luck with it in any case guys. The clock is ticking…

This post deserves more attention.

Wholeheartedly agreed.

And that will never happen because it describes an entirely different game.

I know that the original GW fans loved the million weapons and zillion skills and the challenge to find the combination that dominates all others but it’s obvious in GW2’s design that the devs chose to go with a much simpler system to appeal to the more casual player as well as making it easier to balance and less likely to make kitten builds.

They’ve already stated plans to release every weapon to every class – or close to it. Just because the skill system of Guild Wars 2 is less free-form and complex than the original does not imply that Arenanet has ever had the goal of keeping the selection of available skills and weapons low.

And, hilariously enough, the advantage of the current system is only an advantage on paper – the balance work in this game is every bit as poor as it was in the original game, along with the competitive scene for GW2 being undeniably smaller and less successful than its predecessor (at its peak).

Duke Blackrose.4981:

EQN has shown nothing that would provide evidence of it being a superior game. Combat trailers have shown incredibly boring, stationary combat with the same weak, barely customizable skill system as Guild Wars 2.

40 something classes and players can get access to all of them on 1 character, this fact alone sounds like it will be quite customisable.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

They’ve already stated plans to release every weapon to every class – or close to it.

Got a link for that? They’d better get to it if they plan to do that.

morrolan.9608:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

EQN has shown nothing that would provide evidence of it being a superior game. Combat trailers have shown incredibly boring, stationary combat with the same weak, barely customizable skill system as Guild Wars 2.

40 something classes and players can get access to all of them on 1 character, this fact alone sounds like it will be quite customisable.

That is indeed a matter of interest, but it is not something to be taken as incredible at face value. Last time I checked, nothing was mentioned as to the variety of customization available to each one. For all we know, each EQN class may have far fewer options available to it than a GW2 profession.

Honestly, the EQN class system strikes me as being reminiscent of Rift’s one. And while that did provide a fair amount of customization, it wasn’t anything to write home about either.

All I’m saying is – there is no little to know qualitative data about the game yet. We know nothing of their classes outside of how many they plan to release. Little to no information about the variety of features that distinguish one class from another and even less information about the number of potential loadouts available to each.

Edit:
In regards to customization, I was referring specifically to the customization of features within each class. Guild Wars 1’s system was a free-form system in which you could slot any 8 skills (with the only restrictions being that they had to be within the skill pool of your primary or secondary class and that you could only slot one elite). Guild Wars 2 locks half of your skills behind a weapon, one skill into a healing slot, one into an elite slot, and 1-4 of your skills behind a profession mechanic, with only 3 being “fully customizable” within a small pool of utilities. Current information about EQN suggests that they will utilize a similar low-customization skill bar.

morrolan.9608:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

They’ve already stated plans to release every weapon to every class – or close to it.

Got a link for that? They’d better get to it if they plan to do that.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/feature/7597/Guild-Wars-2-ArenaNets-Master-Plan-for-2013.html
“What’s more is that the team is also working very hard’ on finding a way to make it so that every profession has access to every weapon and their own weapon skills for those previously locked weapons”.

They only said they are working on it, no release date is given.

EQN`s fully destructible world can be some how countered by a fully destructible WvW map in gw2. EQNL and Wildstars housing and all this creativity in general can be to a small degree countered by gw2 with the addition of guild halls that you can fully visually modify. Also there are PvP changes coming next year that will make gw2 pvp more rewarding and enjoyable (hopefully). Now these are just SOME suggestions, that probably are going completely to be ignored by Anet, but thats the reason of all this complaining in the forums, because Anet ignores the players all the time and now after they saw their declining profits they thought that our opinions might be useful….

Behellagh.1468:

The personal stories merge because in the end it’s about you Vs the big bad dragon. It’s the natural convergence since it’s what everyone is working against. Now if they introduce another of the elder dragons I can see the paths diverging again with each order approaching it’s defeat again through their own means but coming together and the end again.

I’m also trying to remember when the GW1 story ever really “branched.” Even in Nightfall, you were back on line with the other “branch” in the story within two missions.

Prophecies didn’t branch at all. Factions branching was solely within a small segment of the story where you picked a faction. Eye of the North was “branching” in the sense that you could choose what order to do the missions, but all the missions were the same.

Man, the rose-colored glasses over the eyes of some fans are THICK.

Immensus.9732:

EQN`s fully destructible world can be some how countered by a fully destructible WvW map in gw2. EQNL and Wildstars housing and all this creativity in general can be to a small degree countered by gw2 with the addition of guild halls that you can fully visually modify. Also there are PvP changes coming next year that will make gw2 pvp more rewarding and enjoyable (hopefully). Now these are just SOME suggestions, that probably are going completely to be ignored by Anet, but thats the reason of all this complaining in the forums, because Anet ignores the players all the time and now after they saw their declining profits they thought that our opinions might be useful….

I have my doubts over how can a world actually be fully destructable. Wouldn’t that mean you just skip every boss by collapsing the ground beneath them?

The last gane which tried having a fully destructable world was Vindictus, which was a huge flop.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Araris.7839:

If anybody thinks GW2 is anywhere near being shut down, you haven’t been in the mmo world very long. You gotta fail to an extent that your very name becomes a term of failure. Say it with me, “Warhammer online”

PS: If EQN even comes through on half of what has been shown/promised, it would be a superior game in every way to GW2. Why? Because strip away all its dynamic movement system and destructible world, and you still have a simply improved version of GW2.

Then again, “superior game” is kinda like “most beautiful person”, isn’kitten Eye of the beholder.

EQN has shown nothing that would provide evidence of it being a superior game. Combat trailers have shown incredibly boring, stationary combat with the same weak, barely customizable skill system as Guild Wars 2. The art style is weak. On top of this, SOE’s current additions to the market have all been mediocre, rushed products with abhorrent cash shop practices.

All EQN has now are buzz words – the same buzz words that Arenanet threw out, mind you – and I was (and am) FAR more confident in Arenanet’s abilities to fix the issues with this game and deliver on at least some of that hype than I am of SOE’s abilities to do the same.

Yeah they are the same Buzzwords however looking at GW2 they have proven that Anet can’t deliver on what it babbles about. SoE for better or in some cases worse tends to deliver what it claims. Sometimes those claims make people shudder but it does do what it says it’s going to do.

Xae Isareth.1364:

Immensus.9732:

EQN`s fully destructible world can be some how countered by a fully destructible WvW map in gw2. EQNL and Wildstars housing and all this creativity in general can be to a small degree countered by gw2 with the addition of guild halls that you can fully visually modify. Also there are PvP changes coming next year that will make gw2 pvp more rewarding and enjoyable (hopefully). Now these are just SOME suggestions, that probably are going completely to be ignored by Anet, but thats the reason of all this complaining in the forums, because Anet ignores the players all the time and now after they saw their declining profits they thought that our opinions might be useful….

I have my doubts over how can a world actually be fully destructable. Wouldn’t that mean you just skip every boss by collapsing the ground beneath them?

The last gane which tried having a fully destructable world was Vindictus, which was a huge flop.

You can only collapse the ground under them if there is a cave under them. I mean putting a dent in solid ground just means you have solid ground with a dent in it.

EQN is far off though. They have only announced 4 of the 40 classes. They haven’t talked about abilities at all. We don’t know anything about the combat system. Really they have only released the announcement videos. I suspect the game itself is 2 years off.

EQNL on the other hand might compete with some of the more hardcore sandbox people. The scale of that game is seemingly much bigger than originally thought.

CntrlAltDefeat.1465:

The big question is how much of box sales and gem store sales goes back into gw2 and how much goes to aion 2 development?

The data we’ve seen from GW2 is still too new, and fluctuating too hard, to make a solid impression on what NCSoft is going to do with the profit from GW2. But based on the current trend from the last 2 years of earning reports, I would say ANet is in a safe place. GW2 is still out-performing both Aion 1 and B&S in terms of sales.

What we’re missing is data on the expenses for maintaining each of these three projects. For example, if Aion costs less then GW2 to maintain then most likely less of GW2 profit is being (or going to be) put back into GW2.

CntrlAltDefeat.1465:

The big question is how much of box sales and gem store sales goes back into gw2 and how much goes to aion 2 development?

Well how much of Aion’s income went to GW2 development? That’s how game development is done (as well as movie production). Profit of one funds the next.

I don’t think any Axes are swinging yet, but i think they definitely need to change direction if those figures are accurate.

I’m no share person but drops like that would give me reason to be concerned.

Also kinda shocked at peoples reaction to Linage, don’t people know that game has been huge forever in the east.

Behellagh.1468:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

NCSoft didn’t shut down GW1, and I can’t imagine it’s just raking in the money…so why would they shut down GW2 any time soon? It makes little sense to me.

That’s because of the tie-in with GW2 and probably ANet’s “special relationship” with NCSOFT (rumor is ANet has an escape clause that allows them to take the GW IP with them).

Well if that rumour is true, then ANet should do this immediately. In my opinion self publishing games is the best way to earn money and create a great game. You don’t have to watch on investors and publisher and do what they say. EA is a great example that publisher can ruin even great IP (Dragon Age 2, last Mass Effect etc). ArenaNet is big enough to do it for themselfs, they have strong fanbase after GW1 and now GW2 (well some of those fans from GW1 left but well, this group of ppl are still strong), so it is hardly to believe that ANet would not do it succesfuly.

Even if ANet says that they are independent and NCsoft does not say them what to do, it is hard to believe, at the end of the day its all about money. Right now ANet can’t release GW2 in China, cuz NCsoft is working on release the B&S in China, so right now ANet is cut from their profits…

nehezbegar.1065:

Well if that rumour is true, then ANet should do this immediately. In my opinion self publishing games is the best way to earn money and create a great game. You don’t have to watch on investors and publisher and do what they say. EA is a great example that publisher can ruin even great IP (Dragon Age 2, last Mass Effect etc). ArenaNet is big enough to do it for themselfs, they have strong fanbase after GW1 and now GW2 (well some of those fans from GW1 left but well, this group of ppl are still strong), so it is hardly to believe that ANet would not do it succesfuly.

Even if ANet says that they are independent and NCsoft does not say them what to do, it is hard to believe, at the end of the day its all about money. Right now ANet can’t release GW2 in China, cuz NCsoft is working on release the B&S in China, so right now ANet is cut from their profits…

They should NOT do that immediately, as that would be a gloriously TERRIBLE decision. You honestly think that Arena.net would have the cash on hand to develop this game over 5 years, then produce and distribute it themselves?

Indie games are fine… as long as your expectations for them are realistic. If you want a AAA caliber title (and Arena.net clearly does), then you really don’t have much choice but to lie in bed with a big publisher willing to bankroll the development.

Araris.7839:

PS: If EQN even comes through on half of what has been shown/promised, it would be a superior game in every way to GW2. Why? Because strip away all its dynamic movement system and destructible world, and you still have a simply improved version of GW2.

Then again, “superior game” is kinda like “most beautiful person”, isn’kitten Eye of the beholder.

For me EQ2 was also a “far superior game” to WoW .. but if we look at the numbers…