Guild Wars 2

For me, I have never played an MMO that got it so right at launch. There are absolutely problems that need fixing and things that should be improved, but overall ANet did a great job.

This is why the latest patch is concerning to me.

Drastically changing major parts of your game, especially multiple parts in the same patch, is a mistake. Even if the system works the way you want it to (and history tells us this is unlikely), there is no guarantee that it will appeal to your players. In fact you can almost guarantee that it will create issues for players who previously had none. Players like me.

The complete redesign of dailies for example. Not only do they not work as intended due to bugs, but they now require more focus to complete. I wouldn’t have cared to be honest, but then you also made them more important than ever now that Ascended gear is attached. I don’t want to spend time thinking about dailies, but now I kind of have to. I now have a problem that previously I didn’t have.

The new changes to culling is another example. I know that some people are getting better results because of this, which is great, but I for one now have a problem I previously didn’t have. Culling is waaaaaay worse than it ever was for me, and every single person I’ve played with since patch. The game is kinda broken for me now, where as before, whilst not perfect, it was playable.

I know that not everybody will agree with me, and that’s fine. In fact it’s kind of what this post is about. When you make sweeping changes like this you are almost definitely going to divide opinions and create problems where previously there were none.

Here’s a fun exercise. Think about how many times you can remember a major patch that resolved a serious game issue without completely breaking something else and infuriating some of the player base.

Now think about how many times a major game patch has broken a game, driven away players, or ended up killing it…

Without being too long winded I guess what I’m trying to say is, please don’t chase me away. I love this game and will continue to play it for a long time, unless you turn it into a game I don’t like.