Guild Wars 2

No, please.

If they were to roll with your idea and try selling them in the Gemstore, going against their word that they would remain exclusive to those that earned them – That would create far more negative feedback for them than positive. Are they not used to upsetting their customer base, you may ask? Sure. But for them to intentionally jump on something like this knowing that it would aggravate the masses would be ….. a mistake.

Why is it so hard for some people to get that, sometimes there are just things you can’t get unless you want to do the associated task to do so.

There’s a bunch of achievements, minis, skins etc. that I don’t have because I do not like the way to get them… and well thats fine. It’s my choice. Even if it is something else like an item exclusive to some real life event that I have no chance to attend or a promotion for the game only in one part of the world (this is true for some items in many games including gw1) that is fine too… ok maybe I will be a little sad to find out that I can’t have something nice, because of where I live, but thats life and I will be quick to accept the fact and move on. Maybe be a little impressed should I see someone with the item, even if they didn’t really do anything particular for it.

So I don’t even care if GW1 is getting shut down completely and no one can get it from that point on… it should NOT become avaiable in gemstore. I don’t care how few people might have it (but lets face it, a lot of people do have them and more people are putting in the work at this moment), even if it was just 1 single person still active who had them, wouldn’t matter. HoM rewards should stay as they are, for the entire lifespan of the game.

You know, it’s really not a good idea to go through life thinking that everything should be yours just because you are willing to throw money at it. Sure, if something is in the market at the start that’s one thing. But something that other people have spent time and effort to get? Arguing that you should be able to pull out your credit card and have just because you don’t want to spend the time and effort?

It took me months to get the full 30 points with all the items. When I see someone with a HoM skin or title, I know s/he is a Guild Wars 1 vet also. It would cheapen them to be placed on the shelf for anyone with a few bucks to pick up.

stupid suggestion… HoM is a mark of GW1 achievements. if you want the skins go play GW1 and link it to your GW2 account…..

Xenon.4537:

You can get the entire GW1 complete pack on steam sale for like 20 bucks. Keep an eye out for it. You would spend that much in the gem store anyway. Why not have an entire game full of content instead? It’s not that hard to unlock the skins the normal way.

Actually if you look, the packs only have 1-2 of the expansions, not all 3, same as the Anet site, there does not seem to be a pack that has them all. ( I looked other day )

You know, I’d gotten GW1 a year before GW2 released. Played it a little bit. It’s… not that fun of a game to be honest. I got the hang of it and tried to get into it, but something about it just kept throwing me off. I never could finish any of the expansions. Tried looking up guides on different classes and stuff for solo gameplay and just never managed to enjoy myself.

Then a year after GW2 launched, a friend wanted to go after HoM achievements and we tried it together. It was a little better, but still pretty terrible to be honest. Honestly it’s just a different game. I guess the point of this little anecdote is that the way HoM works now feels almost misleading. It encourages players to play a game that is radically different from GW2.

No, I don’t have any of them (and believe me, there are some I would really really like to have) But that would be unfair to everyone who played GW1, they earned those fair and square.

If I really wanted them enough, I’d play GW1, except GW1 really really sucked.

Morsus.5106:

I never played GW but they actually said this was an upgrade?

Yes. Specifically, they said that while planning a new campaign addon to gw1, they decided that a lot of things they wanted to do could not be done within already existing game engine. Thus instead of a new campaign to GW1 (that would require them to restrict themselves to what the old engine could manage) they will work on a GW2 – new framework for the game, able to better support their ideas for future guild wars expansions. Basically, yeah, in many ways it was to be a GW1 upgrade to a new engine.

Vexander.9850:

Tried looking up guides on different classes and stuff for solo gameplay and just never managed to enjoy myself.

It’s not a game you play solo. That’s why the henchmen are always there.

Conncept.7638:

If I really wanted them enough, I’d play GW1, except GW1 really really sucked.

How? It’s better than GW2 in most ways other than the freedom of movement we have in GW2.

narwhalsbend.7059:

Vexander.9850:

Tried looking up guides on different classes and stuff for solo gameplay and just never managed to enjoy myself.

It’s not a game you play solo. That’s why the henchmen are always there.

Conncept.7638:

If I really wanted them enough, I’d play GW1, except GW1 really really sucked.

How? It’s better than GW2 in most ways other than the freedom of movement we have in GW2.

Gameplay wise GW2 is superior in nearly every way. I will admit the story was great as well as the visuals (for the time) and that’s what caused me to pick GW1 up at first, and then come back to it and try again several times. Not to mention most new content was implemented in a WHOLE LOT less frustrating way. But I never got far because the gameplay sucked like few other games I have ever played, and no amount of story could make up for that. The good that GW1 players laud about it is seen through nostalgia glasses that blind them to ENORMOUS flaws.

• Nearly all of the skill and play environment is in setup rather than in the actual play, it basically played like a poorly made CCG. When you initiated combat your win or loss was frequently sealed by what build decisions you had made before you even knew who your opponent was, even more so than in a CCG because there is no deck to draw through to get at more important abilities. High tier became about appeasing a meta in which you were least likely to be locked out or best at locking out, and with more and more expansions it became more and more strict, by the end of the games run less skills were viable and commonly used than the game had at launch.

• There is a reason it took GW eight years to get 8 million players and GW2 two to get six. The game required an encyclopekittennowledge of the skill system, it was completely unapproachable for new players. Now granted, because of the enormous flaws which caused the meta system and made the majority of the skills superfluous, such a knowledge was never actually necessary or even helpful, but new players didn’t know that.

• Balance was impossible from the first expansion onward. MTG proved a decade before GW was a twinkle in a developers eye that you cannot have a variable build system with a continually expanding set of skills, you have to limit which new skills are available with which old skills or make the game more dependent on commonly available skills independent of build variation. The GW1 developers completely ignored that fact, and even exacerbated the problem with multiclassing. Basically make the entire pool of MTGs 25000 cards available to everyone, allow any colored mana to be used as any two colors, and then allow players to pick and choose through their library rather than drawing, and you have the original Guild Wars in CCG form. In spite of the massive scale of the game, no because of it, a handful of the games content will rule uncontested over the remainder.

Granted, I don’t think GW2 is very well balanced and the build variety is atrocious. But if you analyze the game objectively, those are largely because of an overly cautious balance team, in my opinion inattentive to the players, overly concerned with tiny picky-choosy portions of the games content rather than the big picture, and seemingly unwilling to overhaul major systems no matter how obvious the need is. This game has the potential to be both well balanced and have an incredible amount of build variation if they would put in the work to do so instead of fixing nothing but tooltips every patch. But in GW1, both balance and build variation were an impossibility without a major overhaul of the system.

Conncept.7638:

Nearly all of the skill and play environment is in setup rather than in the actual play, it basically played like a poorly made CCG. When you initiated combat your win or loss was frequently sealed by what build decisions you had made before you even knew who your opponent was, even more so than in a CCG because there is no deck to draw through to get at more important abilities. High tier became about appeasing a meta in which you were least likely to be locked out or best at locking out, and with more and more expansions it became more and more strict, by the end of the games run less skills were viable and commonly used than the game had at launch.

I don’t have a problem with most of what you said, but this is definitely something I’d disagree with. What you’re complaining about was the game. It was like a puzzle, figuring out what worked and didn’t work.

You’d go out, try something and if it didn’t work you’d go back and try something else. And you’d learn the creatures in each area. That made the game better, not worse.

The first time you do anything in any game, you go into the unknown without knowing what to do. Like if you go into the Shards of Orr with a bleed build, you’ll be happy to find out that the undead skeletons in that dungeon don’t bleed. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing.

So you go back to town, change your build and try again. It’s not like it cost you anything.

This was what the game was about. Finding the builds to get past the content. Once you found the builds, you’ve basically won. This is what people are complaining about.

Guild Wars 2 is different, but in this it’s no better, because the mobs you’re facing aren’t generally as intelligent in the group composition isn’t as well thought out.

We fought mobs with minion masters and healers at the same time. They were tough fights. And if you died and had to run back the minion masters would make minions out of your corpses as well. It made for some very challenging content.

Eodwen.2613:

Oh you mean like for people that didnt grind gw1 to the ground back then. So after 2 years of playing gw2 they should go grind a completely different game so they can get a reward in this one.

If they want these particular skins then yes, that is what they should do. You’ll also end up with 30 points fairly quickly without putting in any form of grinding, merely trying out the various contents will easily get you to 30. However when you try going above 30, time required quickly snowballs. Personally I gave up on 45/50, simply because it would take me atleast a year to finish up these final 5 points and I’d only be getting an additional title.

Eodwen.2613:

Great logic people. On top of that people had exclusive skins for like 2 years. I bet all of the people that answred no in this thread is people who already have all the skins. I also have 80% of the skins unlocked and i think its a terribly selfish attitude to keep. Isnt having fun in a great game for so many years enough for you people, you need extra rewards in a new game that nobody else can get ever.

Anyone that meets the minimum requirements + has an internet connection can get these ‘extra rewards’, they’re not lost in time, if you want them. Work for them. thats what we did.

Eodwen.2613:

Yeah playing a game that belongs to the previous generation and its mostly dead atm is a such a great way to get rewards in the game you wanna play.

Gw1 had a fairly small population throughout its entirety, partly because of other MMOs, partly because the way it was structured, either way having played the game I must say that the stories in the game itself was rewarding enough to warrant a purchase, the vast diversity in builds, the actually challenging and strategical combat, was just icing on the pie.

Eodwen.2613:

I think people that have the skins are only a minority, rebeling wont do much, just like when they decided to unlock legendary skins, and to be honest i think people that had the same legendary 2ice have a lot more valid reason to complain.

True, but you’re probably part of a minority of players who would even consider buying the skins from the store so what are you going to do if they dont add the skins in? Rebel?
As for the double legendaries, they got a title for it, they worked to craft both these legendaries and I see no difference between them getting that title, or the ones from GW1 roaming the lands with a God Walking Among Mere Mortals title.

Conncept.7638:

• There is a reason it took GW eight years to get 8 million players and GW2 two to get six. The game required an encyclopekittennowledge of the skill system, it was completely unapproachable for new players. Now granted, because of the enormous flaws which caused the meta system and made the majority of the skills superfluous, such a knowledge was never actually necessary or even helpful, but new players didn’t know that.

actually it took them about 4-5 years for 8 mill, the reason why GW2 is on 6 mill is because of GW1, not because of what GW2 has.
also, in GW1 you need to think to play, GW2 is mindless DPS.
any game dev can make such a game, not many can make a game where you have to think like old Anet did with GW1.

nexxe.7081:

Brother Grimm.5176:

nexxe.7081:

……
and the GW1 population gets smaller…..

As a percentage of total? I don’t see this getting “smaller” in terms of actual numbers. GW1 players are likely the ones to continue playing for years to come. Even if they are not active now, an expansion or full on revamp to some critical aspect of the game could easily get them back. The great thing about this game is you can not play it for years and still return.

This won’t happen though. Anet already stated that there will be no more updates to GW1. It’s already in maintenance mode. I wouldn’t be surprised if GW1 support is only 1 person keeping it running.

I guess I was not clear….I was talking about GW1 players currently playing GW2 (and a potential GW2 expansion).

Okay obviously you’re not understanding so I’ll try one more time. Guild Wars 1 players were told there would be an upgrade. It was going to be called Utopia. That was what we were told we would get. Anet scrapped Utopia, the upgrade we actually wanted, to make Guild Wars 2. HAD we gotten Utopia, we’d have new content and everything we worked for. Anet STOPPED upgrading the game we were playing to make this game. No expansions for five years. Five years. And none ever again.

Are you intentionally misrepresenting what happened to bad mouth Anet or do you seriously believe this fantasy actually happened? Utopia was a project name they used for a small time while they considered doing a GW 1.5 type upgrade before the decided on doing the EotN expasion. There was NEVER any press releases, announcements or promises made to anyone about it. All the few mentions of it happened between Nightfall and EotN. EotN was PLANNED to transition into GW2 from the start.

There is enough FUD on these forums already, I’m surprised you would add to it.

On one side we have an exaggerated claim of GW1 requiring a pHD to play and on the other we have exaggeration that GW2 is nothing but DPS. Somewhere between those 2 outrageous claims is the truth. Gw1 became far too complex to be appealing to a more casual player and GW2 is a bit too simplistic to engage a hardcore build tinkerer. IMO, I think Anet has done a pretty good job making GW2 available to a wider audience (their obvious goal).

Brother Grimm.5176:

Vayne.8563:

Okay obviously you’re not understanding so I’ll try one more time. Guild Wars 1 players were told there would be an upgrade. It was going to be called Utopia. That was what we were told we would get. Anet scrapped Utopia, the upgrade we actually wanted, to make Guild Wars 2. HAD we gotten Utopia, we’d have new content and everything we worked for. Anet STOPPED upgrading the game we were playing to make this game. No expansions for five years. Five years. And none ever again.

Are you intentionally misrepresenting what happened to bad mouth Anet or do you seriously believe this fantasy actually happened? Utopia was a project name they used for a small time while they considered doing a GW 1.5 type upgrade before the decided on doing the EotN expasion. There was NEVER any press releases, announcements or promises made to anyone about it. All the few mentions of it happened between Nightfall and EotN. EotN was PLANNED to transition into GW2 from the start.

There is enough FUD on these forums already, I’m surprised you would add to it.

After Nightfall we were supposed to get another game. Because that was their promise : a stand alone campaign every 6 months. 6 months later we still had no news. After a while we got news of GW2 and EotN.

Basically, the story is : Utopia was supposed to be the campaign after Nightfall. However they had so much things they wanted to alter, that it was easier for them to start from scratch and create GW2.
But because they weren’t total kittens, instead of saying “well we’re done with this game. But we’re doing another one you can buy” right out of the blue, we got “well we’re done with this game. But we’re going to sell one last expansion with scavenged content from what was supposed to be the next stand alone campaign (aka Utopia)”.

And thus we got EotN, with content that was at first from Utopia, re-skins and copy/paste dungeons, and things that were specifically made to promote GW2. Like that magnificent “birth of the first Sylvari” they advertised.

Brother Grimm.5176:

On one side we have an exaggerated claim of GW1 requiring a pHD to play and on the other we have exaggeration that GW2 is nothing but DPS. Somewhere between those 2 outrageous claims is the truth. Gw1 became far too complex to be appealing to a more casual player and GW2 is a bit too simplistic to engage a hardcore build tinkerer. IMO, I think Anet has done a pretty good job making GW2 available to a wider audience (their obvious goal).

Agree with this, For those who started from the beginning, as each expansion was added with new skills. The adjustment wasn’t so bad. By the end of GW1 for a new person I could see may be a little overwhelming. I like GW2 very much. But for me the variety of what I work on in GW2 is nothing compared to what was available in GW1. Which is the thing I miss most in GW2.

I completely agree GW2 is more for the casual.

narwhalsbend.7059:

Vexander.9850:

Tried looking up guides on different classes and stuff for solo gameplay and just never managed to enjoy myself.

It’s not a game you play solo. That’s why the henchmen are always there.

I’m sorry, I didn’t explain that very well. I understood about Henchmen and I even went to Eye of the North as soon as possible so I get could a lot of good, strong, free Heroes as well for the other missions. By solo, I meant without other players, because I didn’t know anyone who played, and there weren’t a whole lot of people out there. To this day I’d still like to go back and do more stuff for the Hall of Monuments. I simply cannot get myself to actually commit to it. I have 6 Hall of Monument Points right now. Without like, a party of 5 dedicated people, I just doubt I could get a whole lot more.

I polished off my HoM with heroes, henchies, and occasionally my brothers.

3 of us on the best days (rare), and on average just me, Gwen, Pyre, Ogden, Jora, Vekk and the rest of my motley crew being awesome.

It was a positive experience overall. GW1 is a great game with a great story and lore. I had to work hard to get everything for my HoM. I earned that.

The option to do the same hasn’t been taken from you. Do likewise. I’d resent anything that devalued that accomplishment.

If someday GW1 stops being available, then I could understand wanting an option to purchase these rewards. I don’t agree with this sentiment, but I understand it.

As this is not the case, and you can still earn these rewards for yourself legitimately… how does one reason asking Anet to make these items purchasable?

sorudo.9054:

actually it took them about 4-5 years for 8 mill,

I have no idea where you are getting your statistics from but no it didn’t. They had six million at about the four to five year mark, eight million at eight years because expansions and content development had already started to switch over to GW2 at six years, slowing down on GW.

sorudo.9054:

the reason why GW2 is on 6 mill is because of GW1, not because of what GW2 has.

You have no way of proving that whatsoever. Personally I don’t even meet even one in one-hundred players that came from the original guild wars.

sorudo.9054:

also, in GW1 you need to think to play, GW2 is mindless DPS.
any game dev can make such a game, not many can make a game where you have to think like old Anet did with GW1.

Never said GW didn’t take thought and strategy, I just stated that far too much of it was in your build than active play. And GW2 is only a ‘mindless DPS race’ if you choose to play that way, and if you choose to do so its your problem, not the games, and you have no right to complain.

Absolutely No Way! You want this stuff go back and do the stuff to get it. Why not just let everyone buy map complete in gem store or Askalon Tears in the gem store? It’s the same principle!

CETheLucid.3964:

how does one reason asking Anet to make these items purchasable?

It’s a bit like being told in order to play Luigi or Toad or unlock extra levels in the latest Mario game, you have to first beat Sonic Colors. GW1 and GW2 are so different in terms of gameplay and such that they’re completely different games. At their core they’re still RPGs, but they’re still quite different.

Not gonna happen. They are skins exclusive to GW1 players. Save your gem money, buy GW1 and Eye Of The North and get your game on.

Kohlteth.3715:

Xenon.4537:

You can get the entire GW1 complete pack on steam sale for like 20 bucks. Keep an eye out for it. You would spend that much in the gem store anyway. Why not have an entire game full of content instead? It’s not that hard to unlock the skins the normal way.

Actually if you look, the packs only have 1-2 of the expansions, not all 3, same as the Anet site, there does not seem to be a pack that has them all. ( I looked other day )

IIRC, there is but for some reason it’s a EU thing only. Though not on steam.

Edit: Found it, not sure if EU only afterall

http://www.gamestop.com/pc/games/guild-wars-complete-collection/98664

Lue.6538:

Eodwen.2613:

Oh you mean like for people that didnt grind gw1 to the ground back then. So after 2 years of playing gw2 they should go grind a completely different game so they can get a reward in this one.

If they want these particular skins then yes, that is what they should do. You’ll also end up with 30 points fairly quickly without putting in any form of grinding, merely trying out the various contents will easily get you to 30. However when you try going above 30, time required quickly snowballs. Personally I gave up on 45/50, simply because it would take me atleast a year to finish up these final 5 points and I’d only be getting an additional title.

Actually, everything above 30 is optional, so it doesn’t matter it’s grinding after that if you only want the skins…

Vexander.9850:

CETheLucid.3964:

how does one reason asking Anet to make these items purchasable?

It’s a bit like being told in order to play Luigi or Toad or unlock extra levels in the latest Mario game, you have to first beat Sonic Colors. GW1 and GW2 are so different in terms of gameplay and such that they’re completely different games. At their core they’re still RPGs, but they’re still quite different.

I don’t follow.

Replace “Luigi and Toad as characters” with “bonus colors for Luigi and Toad for players of Super Mario Galaxy”, you might come a little closer with that hyperbolic analogy.

Not to mention that their clothes already change a variety of colors anyway because of the multiple power ups in the current game.

It’s just a small “thanks for sticking with us” for players of GW1, and it isn’t even exclusive in nature.

As of present, you can earn everything just the same as anyone else. I started and finished mine off well after GW2 came out. Maybe a couple of months ago at best.

LadyRhonwyn.2501:

Actually, everything above 30 is optional, so it doesn’t matter it’s grinding after that if you only want the skins…

If all you wanted was the armor, you can stop at 6.

Conncept.7638:

Never said GW didn’t take thought and strategy, I just stated that far too much of it was in your build than active play. And GW2 is only a ‘mindless DPS race’ if you choose to play that way, and if you choose to do so its your problem, not the games, and you have no right to complain.

actually i DON’T choose to play that way, it’s how the game is made that makes the game a DPS race.
i have all the rights to complain, what i like to see is more thinking in battles and less 11111111 spam.

no.

please buy and play gw1 if you want the skins.

Cannot ignore this atrocity of a post, so here it goes.

Conncept.7638:

Gameplay wise GW2 is superior in nearly every way.

GW2 is twitch, GW is co-operative team-based. If you’re into reflexes and action shooters, I’m sure GW2 will be your cup of tea, especially given the generally shallow (required) level of cross-player interaction. I believe GW is superior to GW2 in just about all ways, inc the gameplay. And sorry, but being able to jump and dodge does not a game make.

Conncept.7638:

I will admit the story was great as well as the visuals (for the time) and that’s what caused me to pick GW1 up at first, and then come back to it and try again several times. Not to mention most new content was implemented in a WHOLE LOT less frustrating way. But I never got far because the gameplay sucked like few other games I have ever played, and no amount of story could make up for that. The good that GW1 players laud about it is seen through nostalgia glasses that blind them to ENORMOUS flaws.

Read above. I’m not wearing nostalgia glasses as I still play the original on a daily basis. It is actually GW2 that has some truly ENOURMOUS flaws, yet they seem to be heralded as a good thing by the instant-gratification type of player base that prefers spam over substance.

• Nearly all of the skill and play environment is in setup rather than in the actual play, it basically played like a poorly made CCG. When you initiated combat your win or loss was frequently sealed by what build decisions you had made before you even knew who your opponent was, even more so than in a CCG because there is no deck to draw through to get at more important abilities. High tier became about appeasing a meta in which you were least likely to be locked out or best at locking out, and with more and more expansions it became more and more strict, by the end of the games run less skills were viable and commonly used than the game had at launch.

The game is instanced, and a rule of thumb was to know what you’re dealing with as to be able to build around it, or instead opt to run a more generic build to get things done (which normally also takes some extra skill). I think having to make preparations and see a build you created flourish is awesome, and makes you feel rewarded for your effort. At the same time, having the leisure to go with whatever and just change on a whim might be practical, but it kills just about everything about the brainstorming connected with the latter. High-end pvp and pve were admittedly more restrictive, however innovation was always possible, and diversity was nevertheless common, as nicely demonstrated here: http://gw-memorial.net

Moreover, whether or not your success was sealed by your build was largely dependent on how specialized your build was – the more specialized, the higher the rps factor, and vice versa; the more generic, the higher the range of things you can deal with, granted your average skill and expertise were good enough to be able to adjust your TACTIC and play on the spot. It was a common thing in pvp – a balanced build would normally have a bit of everything – a combination of shutdown, damage, pressure, and heal/prots – and make lesser tweaks when expecting a non-balanced build, however the execution and the requirements to use it to its full potential were typically a lot higher than running a highly specialized build, that only did one particular thing, but did it really well.

Edit: Will post the rest after the 10 min forum time-out.

Conncept.7638:

• There is a reason it took GW eight years to get 8 million players and GW2 two to get six. The game required an encyclopekittennowledge of the skill system, it was completely unapproachable for new players. Now granted, because of the enormous flaws which caused the meta system and made the majority of the skills superfluous, such a knowledge was never actually necessary or even helpful, but new players didn’t know that.

As far as pve is concerned, I think old ascalon/shing yea monastery made for an awesome way to introduce new players to the game. It’s just the activity that is lacking now. Pvp, on the other hand, is a different nut to crack. A lot of it comes from being able to read a lot, and be able to recognize what works or could work together and what not. Observing/asking other players is probably the quickest way to get the basics down.
I don’t think you need to know every skill in the system, however it is important to understand the skills you choose and what the overall purpose of your bar is. Naturally, in pvp it is important to have a broader knowledge of the skill system, but that comes with experience – if it’s not your cup of tea, you can always go theory craft builds for heroes in pve. I often adjust them when I realize some tweaks are necessary…or just for the fun of it.

Once again, the majority of skills was not superfluous – they were merely situational, and some just functioned slightly differently to their meta counterparts – it’s all about understanding how to build around them, and that you might need to adjust your play style when doing so.

Power creep is largely the fault of new expansions. Bringing in new classes and skills more often than not results in issues for pvp, because they don’t fit into the previous system and will either be underused or abused because of certain broken mechanics. The addition of assassins and paragons, as well as dervs and rits proved that time and time again throughout the game’s lifespan.

Lastly, the reason GW2 hit those numbers so soon owing largely to the immense goodwill that the devs managed to build up with GW. That, and the fact it was marketted as a subscription-free game with no trinity, no traditional questing, no gear threadmill and a lvl-playing pvp, things that are currently either underperforming, or are simple no longer true due to significant changes (vertical progression is there in the form of ascended gear, pvp in WvW on a non max level char equals cannon-fodder, the prevalence of ig shop items coupled with the difficulty of obtaining money and good items by playing as a ‘casual’ player).

Conncept.7638:

• Balance was impossible from the first expansion onward. MTG proved a decade before GW was a twinkle in a developers eye that you cannot have a variable build system with a continually expanding set of skills, you have to limit which new skills are available with which old skills or make the game more dependent on commonly available skills independent of build variation. The GW1 developers completely ignored that fact, and even exacerbated the problem with multiclassing. Basically make the entire pool of MTGs 25000 cards available to everyone, allow any colored mana to be used as any two colors, and then allow players to pick and choose through their library rather than drawing, and you have the original Guild Wars in CCG form. In spite of the massive scale of the game, no because of it, a handful of the games content will rule uncontested over the remainder.

Sadly they shot themselves in the foot when they added new skills and classes, however that did not restrict build creativity – the issue was more the dart-board style of balancing to ‘shake things up’, rather than achieving a greater level-playing field across all professions (which was frankly impossible, as the newly added professions caused significant issues in pvp, because the power creep they brought with them merely broke the balance). But that is something that GW2 is also struggling with, so I don’t see your point. At all.

The remaining part of the post will follow after 10 min……….

And finally, the last part…

Conncept.7638:

Granted, I don’t think GW2 is very well balanced and the build variety is atrocious. But if you analyze the game objectively, those are largely because of an overly cautious balance team, in my opinion inattentive to the players, overly concerned with tiny picky-choosy portions of the games content rather than the big picture, and seemingly unwilling to overhaul major systems no matter how obvious the need is. This game has the potential to be both well balanced and have an incredible amount of build variation if they would put in the work to do so instead of fixing nothing but tooltips every patch. But in GW1, both balance and build variation were an impossibility without a major overhaul of the system.

It was more or less balanced, depending on the point in the game’s life you’d examine balance, and also how you understand balance. I, for that matter, understand it as having a variety of options to go for – from gimmicks* for the average skilled and newcomers, to balanced builds that typically require higher skill level, but are able to handle a greater variety of builds, and can typically handle the usual gimmicks (example: thumperway vs balanced, which typically includes two warriors, midline shutdown and damage/defense support in the form of ranger, mesmer and eles, and lastly monks as the final line of defense).

*Gimmicks are a requirement in any game, as they help average players or newcomers be moderately successful and then improve on that by trying out higher skill req builds after gaining enough base experience and what’s equally important, enough motivation to continue.

For build variety in pvp (gvg) alone, please refer to http://gw-memorial.net

The part I bolded is a clear issue with GW2, even if you aren’t really aware of it. Moreover, I believe they did see (or some of them did, at least) the bigger picture in GW, they just weren’t able to handle it. Unfortunately, GW2’s build diversity is rather abysmal, you may want to check the discussion on that topic here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/GW1-more-build-diversity/first

Honestly, any potential GW2 might have had has been squashed a while ago, and it seems the game doesn’t intend getting back on track.

p.s. The last sentence you posted is just rubbish, as proved time and time again in the above thread.

LadyRhonwyn.2501:

Actually, everything above 30 is optional, so it doesn’t matter it’s grinding after that if you only want the skins…

All 50 points are optional, the exception is that beyond 30 you receive no skins, only titles.

Conncept.7638:

You have no way of proving that whatsoever. Personally I don’t even meet even one in one-hundred players that came from the original guild wars.

Hmms, interesting.. I did some numbercrunching and I came to the conclusion that there is a 193.41% chance that you are infact not asking all people you encounter whether or not they transitioned over from GW1 to GW2, not to mention you’re using an anecdote, which has no value in terms of statistics.