I just revisted parts of Metrica province; the starter area for the Asura. In my opinion, this was the best zone in all the game for silly humor, great character voicing, and zone cohesiveness as far as lore goes.
But oh my goodness, if this current zone had been the one I visited two years ago when I bought the game, I’m not sure I would have fallen in love with GW2 they way I did.
Old Metrica, there was a heart where you got to wear a golem suit, and do golem suit things. Now, the golem follows you around, you press F, and then tell the suit it’s a good boy. WTF?
The underwater inquest buildings are free of inquest, leaving empty buildings moldering down there like an artifact of fun.
Golem chess is gone.
I just don’t understand why on earth you would remove content that was fun, was lore specific, and fit so beautifully with the Asura story.
I said after the patch, I was going to level a new character, with all the trait handicaps, and level gate handicaps inherent in the new system, so that I could accurately critique the experience that new players would have. And I’ve done so, slowly but surely, heart by heart, POI by POI, vista by vista.
And while I despise not being able to actually play around with my character because she has no real access to traits despite being lvl 34, and still hasn’t unlocked the 9 and 10 skills, I think the thing I’m the most disappointed about is the removal of all the silly and fun content at the starter zones.
I just fail to understand why you would do that, but I’m beginning to find the whole process of leveling to be mechanical and disappointing, and I’m not sure I’ll last long enough to actually get an elite skill or traits.
Come on guys, there was no reason to take the fun out of the game.
Yep.
And in Queensdale you get to dance in front of cows and rub plants till they grow. Blame the NPE, apparently Arena Net think new players are brain dead and can not possibly handle anything so complicated as pouring water on plants or controlling a golem that only has two skills.
braindead
Got suspended for using this word right after the patch. ;D
Yeah… an entire lake just… empty… and essentially rendered both pointless, and depressing. Depressing in the sense that it’s one less place in the world of Tyria with detail or substance. Same with the bundles that involved feeding cows and watering corn. Little things that made the early experience so much more alive. They drew me into the game and made me say: “hell yeah, I’ve never seen anything like that before in other MMO’s, I’m gonna keep playing this game.”
Sadly they dumbed down the farms and the lakes, and various other places in starting areas… content that was by no stretch of the imagination too complicated for anyone to figure out. All you had to do was the put in a little bit time and effort.
And all these changes are parts of the world now, for everyone – new players and level 80 veterans alike. Every person who visits the Metrica Province lake will find it empty, not just the new players.
Metrica! I weep for thee.
I used to love that area, when I visited it after the patch it just felt so empty.
Yeah… an entire lake just… empty… and essentially rendered both pointless, and depressing. Depressing in the sense that it’s one less place in the world of Tyria with detail or substance. Same with the bundles that involved feeding cows and watering corn. Little things that made the early experience so much more alive. They drew me into the game and made me say: “hell yeah, I’ve never seen anything like that before in other MMO’s, I’m gonna keep playing this game.”
Sadly they dumbed down the farms and the lakes, and various other places in starting areas… content that was by no stretch of the imagination too complicated for anyone to figure out. All you had to do was the put in a little bit time and effort.
And all these changes are parts of the world now, for everyone – new players and level 80 veterans alike. Every person who visits the Metrica Province lake will find it empty, not just the new players.
Wow, you literally copied and pasted several sentences from a reddit comment I made here:
Honestly, I don’t really mind the plagiarism – in fact, it is a bit flattering. And as long as there is at least a slim chance that the devs might see this, I don’t care who gets credit for saying it.
But in the future, if you like a well-phrased argument enough to plagiarize it, why not just link directly to it and say “this person phrased it well”?
No hard feelings. Just saying.
But yeah, back to the topic at hand: bring back the vibrant old Metrica, Caledon, and other interesting starter areas, please. What they have been reduced to, in the name of appealing to a “broader” audience, is just shameful.
You’re definitely not the only one saddened:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/What-did-you-do-to-Metrica-Province
Yep.
And in Queensdale you get to dance in front of cows and rub plants till they grow. Blame the NPE, apparently Arena Net think new players are brain dead and can not possibly handle anything so complicated as pouring water on plants or controlling a golem that only has two skills.
Most likely they took away the feed (although the bags are still all over the place) because folks used them as speed boosts.
I haven’t seen the catch the bunnies active up by the Asura gate to DR, so I don’t know if you can still get a bunny speed boost. If so, a bit more problematic as the bunnies are not up often enough to count on.
Most likely they took away the feed (although the bags are still all over the place) because folks used them as speed boosts.
What? You seriously consider it a good reason to destroy content? I mean… Who cares? :/
Most likely they took away the feed (although the bags are still all over the place) because folks used them as speed boosts.
What? You seriously consider it a good reason to destroy content? I mean… Who cares? :/
Re-reading my post, I really don’t see that I said it was good. Actually I only gave my opinion as to why it was changed.
And if no one cared, they would not be talking about “Dancing with the cows”
I passed through Tillamook this summer ankitten ow truly sorry that I did not buy the t-shirt with that caption in the gift shop.
ankitten ow is not even close to what I wrote btw
sigh Even more fun content removed from the game… GW2 leveling is too mindless and easy now it doesn’t feel much like a game. On top of the mindlessness, fun content was removed from starter zones. Why? So new players can have less fun? I’m confused, how does this retain players? First they add LS1 where the content never lasts, then they take away SAB… now this. I loved what this game was when I first bought it and I would have never have imagined it would actually have less stuff do to after a year and a half of playing. Probably never gonna level another character the old way again. Just gonna use tomes and craft then run around like a robot to get waypoints. I better get another monitor because it looks like I am going to be watching a lot of Netflix.
I am an artist/musician with OCD and let me tell you, taking apart your creation and removing bits and pieces of it does not make it better… after a while you just get some disjointed looking thing with no flavor that doesn’t even resemble the original product. There needs to be less focus on fixing and changing and more focus on new ideas and expanding. For example, say I have a story with character A . I feel like the story is missing something, so I decide to change up character A. Eventually I don’t even have a good story anymore because they are not the same character anymore. If I had added character B instead of changing character A I could have kept the essence of the story preserved while still complimenting the existing character and driving the plot.
(edited by Aguri.2896)
The underwater inquest buildings are free of inquest, leaving empty buildings moldering down there like an artifact of fun.
Good! That heart was by far the worst in Metrica.
Yeah, in the last 3-4 days, I’ve cleared Wayfarer, Snowden, Queensdale and starting on Metrica, and I gotta say, not feeding the baby bears in wayfarer, or doing the golems in Metrica, or any of the other fun silly things that added so much flavor to the game…I’m really disheartened.
For the first time in a long time, I’m not motivated to login. While I’m loving the ranger class, I got caught by the lvl 29 bug, and had to use my only level book to get past it, all of the silly stuff in the zones I’ve cleared so far has been replaced and it’s starting to feel like work. All those hearts and pois and jumping puzzles I have to do (again) before I can even start playing with my character.
It’s starting to feel like work, like I have to play the way Anet wants me to play. The Metrica destruction though, I think that kinda broke my heart.
I’m beginning to toy with the idea that perhaps I should walk away for a while, so my memories of the game are of a wonderfully fun, bright, intelligent, ground breaking game. Because I have to say, right now, I feel that it’s become a metrics driven, dumbed-down grinder, and it’s just heartbreaking.
The problem is, that designing a game for the lowest denomination of player is never a good idea, neither is the inverse.
Admittedly, compared to typical MMO’s, leveling was unfulfilling for some players because GW2 was relatively/comparatively horizontal in progression and didn’t inflate in drastic and overt ways; after all, down-scaling was there for a reason: level out the progression curve.
But after the TRAIT Changes of April, leveling became ever more “dull” because Traits were no longer being unlocked as you progressed and the process of crafting your character (you recall, the fun part about leveling?) was postponed to much later in the game and locked behind certain Content Gates and relatively high Gold/Skill Point Costs.
The NPE did some things right like the leveling up rewards and the compass pointer (minus bugs)…but the stuff it didn’t get right is just stupid…plain stupid:
Speeding up the leveling for the first 15 levels also seems rather heavy handed.
Of course, I liked the leveling rate before, that ANet felt they had to alter it for the first 15 levels seems like a rather inelegant solution to a problem they created for no good reason.
Of course, I liked the leveling rate before, that ANet felt they had to alter it for the first 15 levels seems like a rather inelegant solution to a problem they created for no good reason.
I felt like this was actually a long lasting issue they finally addressed.
There’s been so many times I’ve seen people complain that after they explored the first zone they couldn’t progress to the next one because they were underleveled.
There’s been so many times I’ve seen people complain that after they explored the first zone they couldn’t progress to the next one because they were underleveled.
Being underleveled was never an issue for me, but I also do a lot of different things like total zone completion/exploration before moving on, some WvW, gathering, crafting, Personal Stories and Skill Challenges.
So, yes, if you have a “timid” or unadventurous player, it could be an issue but I find it rather unlikely that they’d be “underleveled” if they were doing the Personal Story, Hearts and participating in Events, etc.
There’s been so many times I’ve seen people complain that after they explored the first zone they couldn’t progress to the next one because they were underleveled.
Being underleveled was never an issue for me, but I also do a lot of different things like total zone completion/exploration before moving on, some WvW, gathering, crafting, Personal Stories and Skill Challenges.
So, yes, if you have a “timid” or unadventurous player, it could be an issue but I find it rather unlikely that they’d be “underleveled” if they were doing the Personal Story, Hearts and participating in Events, etc.
If one felt “underdeveloped” it was always ez to clear one of the other starter zones, or run a city completion.
The story lines made it so cool. An Asura in Queensdale, Charr in Metrica etc…
The fun was in the flavor. The world was so cool.
That’s what they took away here, and that’s why so many people are upset.
Of course, I liked the leveling rate before, that ANet felt they had to alter it for the first 15 levels seems like a rather inelegant solution to a problem they created for no good reason.
I felt like this was actually a long lasting issue they finally addressed.
There’s been so many times I’ve seen people complain that after they explored the first zone they couldn’t progress to the next one because they were underleveled.
funny thing before i left any of the started areas i was always close to level 40 way overleveled the old way now that they took so much stuff out that i liked i want to get out before im supposed to be out
funny thing before i left any of the started areas i was always close to level 40 way overleveled the old way now that they took so much stuff out that i liked i want to get out before im supposed to be out
Same.
This was more or less my reaction. Those first hours in Metrica when everything in the game was so novel are going to be so much emptier for players starting out today. It was the richness and eccentricity of this zone that sold me on this game.
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