Guild Wars 2

Let’s first off try to keep this as civil, non-flamefest as possible, I have read countless posts on how Casuals are commenting on how ANet broke its promises on being a totally “casual friendly” game, and how everything should be easily obtainable by a casual player.

I don’t intend for this to be flagged or deleted, I just want to know how all you Casuals feel and what you believe needs to be done/changed, and I would also like non-Casual player views on things.

My hopes is that perhaps to get some ANet reps in here and to read what Casuals and non-Casuals feel about GW2, and it’s content and future content.

Thanks, and lets see how this goes!

guild wars 2 is still casual friendly.

and will always be.

those casual players just need to stick with their casual content within guild wars 2 and they will be just fine.

they started complaining because they ventured into somewhat serious content (still very casual though) that they are unable to comprehend.

It’s the same answer in every thread. There’s no need for another thread. All content is open to casual players. They can even participate in guild missions if they are not in a guild. They don’t even need to level up a character or collect any gear if they want to play in SPvP.

Exotic gear is accessible to casual players, even those with a limited play time. Ascended items are a time sink and if a casual player does not have the time to sink into the game then exotic items will have to do. Fortunately exotic items are good enough for almost all content. High level fractals are the only content that excludes players who do not have ascended items but casuals can still have fun in low level fractals.

Stooperdale.3560:

It’s the same answer in every thread. There’s no need for another thread. All content is open to casual players. They can even participate in guild missions if they are not in a guild. They don’t even need to level up a character or collect any gear if they want to play in SPvP.

Exotic gear is accessible to casual players, even those with a limited play time. Ascended items are a time sink and if a casual player does not have the time to sink into the game then exotic items will have to do. Fortunately exotic items are good enough for almost all content. High level fractals are the only content that excludes players who do not have ascended items but casuals can still have fun in low level fractals.

All levels of Fractals are casual friendly, even at higher level it doesn’t take very long to play through, and you get the ascended gear for the agony resistance naturally with no need to grind the same level to get gear in order to go onto the next level. Exotics is enough for 100% of the content in this game, and the one place you needed ascended, you get naturally anyways with no grind.

The problem isn’t “casuals” it’s “hardcore with limited time”. Of course it all depends on your definition of casual. I’m extremely serious when I game, i min max, I study skills, I work out damage calculations over lunch, and I can play maybe an hour a day.

The problem is, are there enough of me to be worth worrying about?

What should change?

Pointless time gating.

Making the BiS gear of the game the most boring to make. Hooray, I obtained this very strong weapon…

… by crafting it. Woopti-flipping-do, how exciting, I can’t wait to acquire my next super strong weapon… I haven’t even gotten to making my first ascended weapon, even though I probably have enough money to get the main weapons on most of my characters today if I wanted to. It’s just so freaking boring that I have to almost force myself to do my daily crafts etc.

But then again, it’s not going to change, since it’s the business model that makes the most money and reeks like NCsoft all over.

What they should do to keep their ‘hardcore’ players interested is stop implementing moronic models (like the random stat Ascended weapon boxes instead of random weapon, choose stat), get some challenging, fun, rewarding content out that doesn’t involve Dredge (screw you Twilight Assault) and stop with the obvious milking of their players’ time and money in an almost immoral way (Gem store skins in boxes).

Que Vayne telling me how everything I said is totally fine and Anet does nothing wrong.

….oops. Thought I wandered into the World of Warcraft forums for a moment there.

Some very interesting points, I would like to see how this thread goes, everything is keep civil and I believe this could get some good things to come out of it!

TooBz.3065:

The problem isn’t “casuals” it’s “hardcore with limited time”. Of course it all depends on your definition of casual. I’m extremely serious when I game, i min max, I study skills, I work out damage calculations over lunch, and I can play maybe an hour a day.

The problem is, are there enough of me to be worth worrying about?

me.

15char

Odokuro.5049:

Some very interesting points, I would like to see how this thread goes, everything is keep civil and I believe this could get some good things to come out of it!

There are only three strongly casual-unfriendly elements in GW2 that immediately spring to mind:

1) Time-gating with no catch-up mechanism.

Normally, in other games, time-gating is casual-friendly. This is because many games include catch-up mechanisms for time-gated stuff – either it’s only time-gated for a month or two, or there is an actual mechanism to catch up if you miss stuff (WoW, for example, had dungeon rewards moved to a X per week schedule rather than 1/day – before moving to an entirely different mechanism, but that was later).

In GW2, casual players will never log on every single day. They may miss weeks. Months. Multiple months. Yet GW2 has ZERO, none, zilch in the way of catch-up mechanisms. The longer you are away, the worse it sucks. A hardcore player could have 359 Laurels right now. Many casuals have barely gained 100, if that (there are exceptions in either direction, of course – but exceptions make for bad discussions).

Similar issues exist with Ascended weapon (and future armour) time-gating. I’m not saying casual players “NEEEEEEED” this stuff (nobody really needs anything except deep Fractal divers – which doesn’t even include most hardcore players), but ArenaNet appears to offer it to them, just in a way that is actually very unfriendly to them.

Any kind of catch-up mechanism would be a huge help here.

2) “The only good gear is Zerker”.

Most casuals play largely for PvE. In PvE, if you’re not picking Zerker (at max level, which is easy to achieve in this game), you’re pretty much wasting resources – yet absolutely nothing in the game indicates this, and only serious messageboard reading will let you know.

So the design there needs to either say in-game, very clearly “You like PvE? Only get Zerker or semi-Zerker* gear”, or they need to redesign the PvE game so that is no longer the case.

• = i.e. with Power primary.

There is a lot of other stuff that is kind of casual-unfriendly, but those are the big ones.

3) The short length of Living World events

By the time a lot of players have even heard about Living World events, they are often practically over. Also there is some perverse rewarding going on – Gift of Crystal, for example, is something ideal for a casual player because it means a short time can get a good reward, where a non-casual can spend much longer and get a better one – yet only those fairly dedicated and on the ball got it. So Living World events should probably last more like a month than two weeks.

There is also the Tequatl issue. The issue is not that he exists or is hard. The issue is that, for casuals, they don’t have hours to camp Sparkfly in order to get into the real zone, and thus are cursed to the Hell of a Thousand Overflows – for REAL casuals, people who don’t even use Temple Timers, and just use the in-game stuff? It’s even worse. They will be in the Overflow of Overflowed Overflows, if they try to go. Many casuals are capable of following orders very well – much better than some more smug and self-regarding hardcore players, but they don’t get the opportunity to. There’s also the issue that Teq appears to be tuned for 80+ people in really good gear, not 80+ people in the sort of gear real players have, but that’s for another thread.

I don’t count it as a permanent issue, because it may change soon.

Guess I’m a different kind of casual player. I am on most days for an hour or three depending on RL stuff, but after a day a work I don’t want to come home to what ends up to be another job. I don’t mind the time gating and having to take things slow. I enjoy being out in the world doing what I feel like. I even enjoy doing a bit of crafting with the materials I have gathered out and about.

What I don’t like is being made to do certain content to get the gear I want (not the gear I need, that’s easy to get, but I would fancy a legendary at some point, and quite like the idea of making myself). Unfortunately to make a legendary I HAVE to do dungeons to get the tokens. To make an asended item I have to fight the champs, do dungeons or WvW stuff.

So what I would like to see is all crafting materials and gear made tradeable or obtainable out in the open world and not only through boss fights.

I would also like to see something done to break the zerg train and spread people out a bit, maybe making the rewards more linked to how many are in the zerg, the fewer people the better the reward, but the champs would have to be scaled so that a solo player would have a slim chance to take one down, but the reward would be worth the effort, (maybe it could get you an asended item with out crafting it, very rare chance but possible). If you started solo and some one joined in half way through then the first person would get the one on one reward and the second would get the two on one reward, so people would not get upset and claim someone ‘stole’ their loot

Personally, and this is coming from a casual who will struggle in dungeon explorable modes and will struggle in WvW and who wants a couple of legendaries and plans to make at least one: legendaries should NOT be easy to obtain. They are legendary. I’d honestly love to see them not be buyable. So that in time, the majority who have them HAVE played the game for a long time and done multiple different parts of the game a decent amount. It’s not for the casual who doesn’t have the time to learn a dungeon or how to play WvW.

As to ascended gear, you currently only need that if you wish to do Fractals and they are slowly working in new ways to earn the Ascended gear so who knows, a way that appeals to you might be coming. Otherwise, it’s not needed gear unless you wish to do Fractals (and obtainable in Fractals if you do them) so it’s not something that needs to be changed to appease the casuals like us who have no need for the Ascended gear.

TooBz.3065:

The problem isn’t “casuals” it’s “hardcore with limited time”. Of course it all depends on your definition of casual. I’m extremely serious when I game, i min max, I study skills, I work out damage calculations over lunch, and I can play maybe an hour a day.

The problem is, are there enough of me to be worth worrying about?

Add me to this list too.

Where does this leave me?
I play casually, but I hate easy content.

Most of you people play casually and hat hard content.

Odokuro.5049:

Let’s first off try to keep this as civil, non-flamefest as possible, I have read countless posts on how Casuals are commenting on how ANet broke its promises on being a totally “casual friendly” game, and how everything should be easily obtainable by a casual player.

I don’t intend for this to be flagged or deleted, I just want to know how all you Casuals feel and what you believe needs to be done/changed, and I would also like non-Casual player views on things.

My hopes is that perhaps to get some ANet reps in here and to read what Casuals and non-Casuals feel about GW2, and it’s content and future content.

Thanks, and lets see how this goes!

The problem with this debate is that everyone defines casual and hardcore differently. Is it how much time you put in? Is it how you play? How much you understand the mechanics? Weather or not you care about max stats or not? Do Dungeons & Dragons not? Nobody will ever define casual the same way which is why this debate is so hard to have and so easy to derail.

Using the word casual like it’s a derogotive word.

I’m all for challenging content that doesn’t rely on 100+ people all using voice coms or cheap 1 shot mechanics.

Anet has tried both and both were met with a lot of complaints for a lot of different reasons so I think it’s time to find a middle ground.

As a casual player, I am very pleased with the game at the moment. While I don’t particularly care for the Tequatl or Liadri fights (I’m bad), I do understand that there are players out there that do enjoy that type of content so I am happy to see them finally get some much deserved dev love. There are a lot of different factions of players in this game and ANet seems to be doing a good job of giving them all content to do.

PvE and sPvP seem to be in a very good place right now.

Too many definitions of ‘casual’ ITT :P

At its most basic it tends to mean someone who won’t or can’t dedicate as much time to playing the game as a hardcore player. To this end, a lot of casual complaints are around features of the game that require a significant time sink or for players to be logging in on a rigorous schedule, because they can’t keep up.

If a player is ‘casual’, that doesn’t have to have any bearing on whether they want challenging content or not – or at least it wouldn’t, if an equal playing field were as easy to achieve as promised pre-launch. The other problem is when the time allowed to complete challenging content is limited, as with temporary content in the LW.

I wouldn’t confuse that with people clamouring against hard content. Most people complaining about Tequatl are complaining about the poor foundation mechanics that make it difficult through inconvenience rather than challenge, like the overflow problem. This is vastly different to not wanting hard content at all. These forums have a tendency to try and oversimplify people’s opinions into ‘love’ and ‘hate’ – most features Anet release have bad and good aspects, but balanced discussion often gets drowned out by people trying to shout the loudest.

EDIT: I should add, as a casual player, I’m still busy exploring and playing the core game as at release and levelling alts, and that’s where I still get the most enjoyment out of the game. The LW has been hit and miss, mostly miss so far for me, because I find it a pain to fit into my time-limited schedule. Anet’s gear policy bothers me not because I’m casual, but because I find it to be a 180 on promises made and marketing delivered pre-launch. I’m perfectly a-ok with hard content like Tequatl, which is on the verge of being a skill > time endeavour instead of being an artificial challenge determined by gear stats, like Fractals.

I think we need some new terms for casuals

There’s people who don’t have much time to play and can’t do hard content.
There’s people who don’t have much time to play and like hard content.
There’s people who have a lot of time to play and can’t do hard content.

We can only replace the ‘c’ with a ‘k’ in one of them though, so I’m lost on how to organize this. Since I’m a type 2 casual, I’m voting that one :p

hmmmm.

i’m casual, i play everyday, but not too long.
maybe say 1 – 3 hours.

i’ll attempt the hard content, if i can’t beat them now, i’ll save them for later.

will attempt limited time non repeatable living story achievements until i got them, yeah i’m a casual living story achievements hamster.

I think I’m like.. Semi hardcore? I know I’m more in the loop of the game than casuals, but I’m not really hardcore in actually playing it i.e. I do my own thing at my own pace.

This is what I think the demographic looks like. Blue is your superhardcore/locust (Theres a difference in mind set, but their tier is usually around the same), with Hardcore being the next tier down. Following that he have serious players – those who aren’t hardcore, but are much more invested than the casuals and do have the time to send in the game, hours upon hours of time – and then we have the true casuals, which are the ones who kinda just log on on a whim either due to life, or their main game is another game and that GW2 is their kinda part time game.

Of course, that’s my interpretation, as you would figure. Correct me if you wish.

So far every "a casual is " or "a casual wants " statement has been false for me and i would consider myself a casual . This is why i posed so many questions in my initial post and why i say a casual can not be defined in any one way.

I play significant hours a day and will do any content as long as i have fun doing it even when it goes poorly. This includes things like scarlet , leveling alts , world bosses, dungeons & dragons. Believe it or not i do in fact understand the mechanics of world events. ( ive seen tequatl failure blamed on " casuals who are too stupid to get the mechanics " ) and i do get max gear .You see to me casual is about attitude and having fun no matter what you’re doing in game not about time or min/maxing or any of that just plain old fun .

Navzar.2938:

I think we need some new terms for casuals

There’s people who don’t have much time to play and can’t do hard content.
There’s people who don’t have much time to play and like hard content.
There’s people who have a lot of time to play and can’t do hard content.

We can only replace the ‘c’ with a ‘k’ in one of them though, so I’m lost on how to organize this. Since I’m a type 2 casual, I’m voting that one :p

But then you’ll have people saying that they feel forced to fulfill the conditions of whichever group’s name they find the coolest.

“Learning to hate hard content to be Kasual?”
“How to get more time to become Casual?”
“What do I need to do to be a KaZual?”

But I have to say, I dislike the tone of this topic. The OP has a subtle-but-still-there tone that is discriminatory. Honestly, I think that is a bigger issue than the needs/wants of the actual demographic. After all, the needs of a demographic tend to be very specific and against every other demographic, to a point of asking to abolish the elements that make the other demographics.

I’d like to suggest keeping the casual/hardcore terminology based on time invested in the game and adding new terms for your preferred difficulty of content and desire to min/max – perhaps relaxed/intense?

I’m what I would call relaxed hardcore: I play pretty much every day for hours, but I don’t mind spending much of that time wandering, exploring, helping guild members, or /dancing. I’d like a Legendary – two, actually – but I’m in no rush. I’m working on a Ascended crafting at my convenience.

I’m not necessarily bothered by the time-gating. My biggest problem is that ArenaNet keeps releasing content that is 1) zerg-tactic and 2) rewards players more for failing or glitching or skipping than actually completing. I don’t like to Zerg or fail or glitch or skip, but that means I’m choosing lower rewards. And I often have to argue with others to do it my way. (Which basically never works.)

The game isn’t designed for casuals at all. It’s designed for hardcore players it has been since Nov 2012 and here’s how.

1. Extreme Timegating.
2. Dungeon focus.
3. Temporary content
4. Uneven rewards between activities.
5. Rewards that are not equivalent to the difficulty of the objective.
6. Lack of minigames with rewards
7. Serious lack of new cosmetics every month (RPers mostly notice this)
8. Lack of alternative activities that don’t involve killing (fishing, farming, housing)
9. Balanced combat (they don’t even have their own trinity in this game in PVE, it’s all zerker or else, discrimination has occurred multiple times since the bosses were given immunity to CC and the healing scaled down and nothing’s being done about it!)
10. Forcing casuals into PVP (WvW world completion)
11. The need for new gear in 3 sections of the game: despite the claims otherwise, it’s a fact that everyone needs the most damage to compete, three sections of the game require this. WvW, casuals are forced to go there to complete world exploration! The tendency for new world bosses to be harder (you actually think people aren’t going to rage over the fact that someone is still using exotics eventually?) Dungeons (yes some casuals play dungeons and it’s extremely competative especially due to the poor combat design).
12. No online or mobile access to in game features.
13. No lotteries or minigames outside of the main game for rewards including currency and or crafting materials for high end gear.

From Merriam Webster:

ca·su·al – adjective \?kazh-w?l, ?ka-zh?-w?l, ?ka-zh?l\
: happening by chance : not planned or expected
: designed for or permitting ordinary dress, behavior, etc. : not formal
: done without much thought, effort, or concern

hard core noun
: a small number of very active and enthusiastic members of a group : the most devoted and active members of a group

If we are to take the literal meanings (according to Merriam-Webster) then casual literally means that one is carefree and likes to breeze through things relatively easily. Hardcore (again, according to Merriam-Webster) Doesn’t necessarily mean that they like their content difficult, it simply means that they may be more dedicated and active than someone who is casual, and may have more time to BE dedicated and active.

Neither term should be derogatory, but over the years, the word “casual” has come to mean that one doesn’t really care about the game, and only plays once in a while to pass the time.

Being casual or hardcore isn’t GW2’s problem. I personally think that there’s content enough for both.

I firmly believe that the problem lies in a particular group of vocal people who are not happy that they can’t have what they want RIGHT NOW. They want their legendaries and ascendeds without having to wait for the relatively small time gate, and they’re using the “casuals can’t catch up” argument to try to get what they want.The thing is that it’s coming from hardcore players as well as casuals, so debating the meanings will only serve to bruise some egos.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Casual%20gamer

To me a Casual Gamer is a player who plays very little during the week, be it 1 to 3 hours a day or 1 to 3 hours a week, just someone who doesn’t play often at all and is pretty chill and laidback when he/she does.

It is casual friendly. You can literally leave the game for 3 months and when you come back, nothing much have changed.

Do that in another active MMO and you’ll get the meaning of “left behind”

—> The 3 months stuff came from experience
—> This is assuming casuals are literally casuals, those who play when they can, realize they get stuff relative to the time they spent to play – laid back – not those so called casuals, in reality – hardcores who want immediate reward while playing 30 minutes/day or with little to no effort exerted.

Ashabhi.1365:

From Merriam Webster:

ca·su·al – adjective \?kazh-w?l, ?ka-zh?-w?l, ?ka-zh?l\
: happening by chance : not planned or expected
: designed for or permitting ordinary dress, behavior, etc. : not formal
: done without much thought, effort, or concern

hard core noun
: a small number of very active and enthusiastic members of a group : the most devoted and active members of a group

If we are to take the literal meanings (according to Merriam-Webster) then casual literally means that one is carefree and likes to breeze through things relatively easily. Hardcore (again, according to Merriam-Webster) Doesn’t necessarily mean that they like their content difficult, it simply means that they may be more dedicated and active than someone who is casual, and may have more time to BE dedicated and active.

Neither term should be derogatory, but over the years, the word “casual” has come to mean that one doesn’t really care about the game, and only plays once in a while to pass the time.

Being casual or hardcore isn’t GW2’s problem. I personally think that there’s content enough for both.

I firmly believe that the problem lies in a particular group of vocal people who are not happy that they can’t have what they want RIGHT NOW. They want their legendaries and ascendeds without having to wait for the relatively small time gate, and they’re using the “casuals can’t catch up” argument to try to get what they want.The thing is that it’s coming from hardcore players as well as casuals, so debating the meanings will only serve to bruise some egos.

Best post ever.

Time-gating sucks – but it does bring the casuals and hardcores closer. Hardcores can’t earn more than what is designated to earn that day, casuals don’t need to spend tons of hours just to get stuff.

So yeah, the game is designed for casuals. I left it for 3 months and when I came back, the only thing I missed are some achievement points, a title (I think) and some skins – on which, since I’m a casual player.

• I don’t think most casual players expect everything to be easy.
• I don’t think most casual players expect everything handed to them.
• I don’t think most casual players stand around in Lions Arch all day chatting.
• I don’t think all casual players only do PvE and run around doing champ zergs all day.
• I do think most casual players understand that not every aspect of the game will cater to them.
• I do think most casual players are interested in participating in challenging content.
• I do think most casual players understand obtaining certain items will take longer than other players.
• I do think casual players strive to get these items when they do play.
• I do think many casual players are just as good at the game as more dedicated players.
• I do think many casual players that read this forum get a bit tired of non-casual players trying to define how they play and what they want. Then again here I am trying to define what casual players think and want as well but I’m a casual player.

Imho the game is not so casual friendly…

But PvP unbalance let some builds just avoid to face game mechanics…

Try for a change to use WWW builds in PvE and you have an idea on how casuals have to face bosses.

Far more difficult than the usual speedclear.

P.S. about casuals making the same moneys of “hardcore” tell that to speedclear organized party that can do arah 1-2 in less than 40 min, coe full run in the same time and ac in less than 1H

a speerclear party does at least 2-3 times more a casual group

Ashabhi.1365:

From Merriam Webster:

ca·su·al – adjective \?kazh-w?l, ?ka-zh?-w?l, ?ka-zh?l\
: happening by chance : not planned or expected
: designed for or permitting ordinary dress, behavior, etc. : not formal
: done without much thought, effort, or concern

hard core noun
: a small number of very active and enthusiastic members of a group : the most devoted and active members of a group

If we are to take the literal meanings (according to Merriam-Webster) then casual literally means that one is carefree and likes to breeze through things relatively easily. Hardcore (again, according to Merriam-Webster) Doesn’t necessarily mean that they like their content difficult, it simply means that they may be more dedicated and active than someone who is casual, and may have more time to BE dedicated and active.

Neither term should be derogatory, but over the years, the word “casual” has come to mean that one doesn’t really care about the game, and only plays once in a while to pass the time.

Being casual or hardcore isn’t GW2’s problem. I personally think that there’s content enough for both.

I firmly believe that the problem lies in a particular group of vocal people who are not happy that they can’t have what they want RIGHT NOW. They want their legendaries and ascendeds without having to wait for the relatively small time gate, and they’re using the “casuals can’t catch up” argument to try to get what they want.The thing is that it’s coming from hardcore players as well as casuals, so debating the meanings will only serve to bruise some egos.

No.

The problem is that dividing everyone into “casual” and “hardcore” is as dumb as dividing everyone into “republican” and “democrat”, or even better “short” and “tall”.

By this “binary” logic, everyone under X height is short, everyone above X height is tall. Obviously, to a rational mind, that’s bullkitten. Most people are in between short and tall – most people are medium.

It’s the same with games – most players aren’t this magical “logs in for 1-3 hours/week, doesn’t care about anything!” guy, or this equally magical “plays 6+ hours/day every day” guy. So most players are neither “casual” or “hardcore” in that sense.

Most players are in-between. Until that is admitted, this whole argument is complete trash. Your entire post is thus pretty worthless. To you everyone is either short or tall, democrat or republican, and no-one is in-between.

knives.6345:

Best post ever.

Time-gating sucks – but it does bring the casuals and hardcores closer. Hardcores can’t earn more than what is designated to earn that day, casuals don’t need to spend tons of hours just to get stuff.

So yeah, the game is designed for casuals. I left it for 3 months and when I came back, the only thing I missed are some achievement points, a title (I think) and some skins – on which, since I’m a casual player.

It’s a terrible post because it assumes everyone is either casual OR hardcore, which is complete gibberish.

As for leaving for three months, depending on when you left, you missed a whole lot more than that, though you may not know it.

From your extensive posts, too, you are very clearly NOT a casual player, you are fairly serious player who quit for three months, so let’s not play pretend.

-I am casual in that I have 1-3 hours per night to play, depending on RL stuff. Some nights its 30 minutes, most nights its 1.5 hrs..

-I am ‘hardcore’ in that I research what I do, builds..classes…optimizations..strats…While I want to have fun, I take my ‘performance’ seriously and what to do very well. I hate sucking and if I know I will be a detriment to a group, I sometimes do not join in on a dungeon run until I know what I am doing. I don’t want to be ‘that’ person.

-I am semi-hardcore in that in a dungeon group, I can tolerate people messing up a bit. I can tolerate having to explain a fight. I dont mind it. What I can’t tolerate is someone who is constantly lagging behind. If the group decides to speed run and one person sits there twiddling thumbs for 5 seconds after the trash is dead, while we spedrun past the next pack of mobs..I hate that.

So, not really sure what kind of player I am. I have both casual, hardcore, and semi-hardcore traits when playing an MMO. I guess if I weren’t married, no kids…Id probably be more hardcore. But then again, Id probably still be playing WoW or some other game with difficult content.

Eurhetemec.9052:

knives.6345:

Best post ever.

Time-gating sucks – but it does bring the casuals and hardcores closer. Hardcores can’t earn more than what is designated to earn that day, casuals don’t need to spend tons of hours just to get stuff.

So yeah, the game is designed for casuals. I left it for 3 months and when I came back, the only thing I missed are some achievement points, a title (I think) and some skins – on which, since I’m a casual player.

It’s a terrible post because it assumes everyone is either casual OR hardcore, which is complete gibberish.

As for leaving for three months, depending on when you left, you missed a whole lot more than that, though you may not know it.

From your extensive posts, too, you are very clearly NOT a casual player, you are fairly serious player who quit for three months, so let’s not play pretend.

Assuming there are only 2 types of player? No. It’s defining what is casual and what is hardcore. Because people tend to call themselves casual when if fact, they care deeply about their stats, their loots, their skins – they just don’t have enough time to play – or lazy to do stuff.

That post defined casuals as not the type of players who play/can play x hours – but by the attitude they have towards playing.

Oh? Serious player? lol

I play 2 hours a day most of which are spent running around Queensdale, sometimes joining champ farm.

- I gain 2-3 gold per day by running CoF1 and getting all the ori nodes. That’s it.

The only ascended gears I have are my 3 Amulet of them (for 2 characters, 1 I bought by mistake -_- ) – and it came from doing dailies/completing monthlies.

I just recently got T3 cultural armor (5pcs) since I’ve been saving since launch (And got a bit lucky on Scarlet drops) – That is my most expensive gear ever. Yay!

I have a total of 0 achievement points on all SAB related stuff.

I have no title other than Golden and Combat Healer. Yes, I don’t have Dungeon Master.

Yes, I got the Wings from Dragon Week – but it’s fairly easy to get and aside from dailies, you can complete the achievements in 1 sitting (ty dulfy)

I don’t have 100% world completion – highest toon that has is around 80ish, I think.

So.. Hardcore gamer? made me laugh.

Just because I post in the forums, doesn’t mean I am a hardcore gamer.

PS:

I left starting the end of February and came back around mid-May. This is due to me being assigned to another country for work.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

guild wars 2 is still casual friendly.

and will always be.

those casual players just need to stick with their casual content within guild wars 2 and they will be just fine.

they started complaining because they ventured into somewhat serious content (still very casual though) that they are unable to comprehend.

You presume casuals like me have never been hardcore. Quite the contrary. Didn’t like it, cost me my real life. Being casual is by active choice. I could be hardcore, but I’d have to divorce, quit my job and stop training. Don’t want that. Being hardcore is not possible for people like me.

But I don’t think A.net is doing much wrong except for the communication part. I can comprehend hard content, but you apparently can’t comprehend why people play games in the first place. Hardcore has nothing to do with hard but everything with excessive time sinks.

Since casuals, on average, bring in the most money per capita, A.net is very wise to cater to the biggest group, both in absolute numbers and moneywise.

Ashabhi.1365:

Neither term should be derogatory, but over the years, the word “casual” has come to mean that one doesn’t really care about the game, and only plays once in a while to pass the time.

Isn’t that the exact definition of someone who plays games … to have fun once in a while, to pass the time without really having to care?

So by the new meaning, gaming and being casual are absolute and complete synonyms … funny … never thought of it like that before.

I’m in the same boat as a lot of people here. When I’m at work I cant stop getting on the forums, researching builds tactics and the like.

When I get on I play everything sPvP, WvW, PVE and try to get whatever LS event done that I can. I beat Liadri and other “hardcore” content and I have 3 ascended weapons crafted now, and I’m working on #4…

But I can only play about 2 hours a night weekdays. And some weekends I cant play at all.

I think that makes me a casual at this point. Though I’m thinking more and more that it’s just the WoW generation of gamers is growing up. We aren’t 20 anymore and have families now. But that is off topic.

The worst for me is the timegated/limited focus content. I feel that I cant get on anymore and do what I want to do. Because if I dont get X, Y and Z done today, I loose progress and can never gain that back. I’m one day behind. It also means logging in every single night for 1 hour at least. Instead of being able to skip night weekly and play my face off on the weekend.

As for limited focus, It’s just a bummer that I cant get gear in all facets of the game anymore. I’m so tired of dungeon runs I could spit. And chasing Event timers… ugh…

TooBz.3065:

The problem isn’t “casuals” it’s “hardcore with limited time”. Of course it all depends on your definition of casual. I’m extremely serious when I game, i min max, I study skills, I work out damage calculations over lunch, and I can play maybe an hour a day.

The problem is, are there enough of me to be worth worrying about?

Add me to that list.
Part time at least, sometimes I just don’t feel like acting hardcore. Other times I do.

cesmode.4257:

-I am casual in that I have 1-3 hours per night to play, depending on RL stuff. Some nights its 30 minutes, most nights its 1.5 hrs..

-I am ‘hardcore’ in that I research what I do, builds..classes…optimizations..strats…While I want to have fun, I take my ‘performance’ seriously and what to do very well. I hate sucking and if I know I will be a detriment to a group, I sometimes do not join in on a dungeon run until I know what I am doing. I don’t want to be ‘that’ person.

-I am semi-hardcore in that in a dungeon group, I can tolerate people messing up a bit. I can tolerate having to explain a fight. I dont mind it. What I can’t tolerate is someone who is constantly lagging behind. If the group decides to speed run and one person sits there twiddling thumbs for 5 seconds after the trash is dead, while we spedrun past the next pack of mobs..I hate that.

So, not really sure what kind of player I am. I have both casual, hardcore, and semi-hardcore traits when playing an MMO. I guess if I weren’t married, no kids…Id probably be more hardcore. But then again, Id probably still be playing WoW or some other game with difficult content.

You’re a good illustration of how it’s never as simple as casual vs hardcore, and trying to draw a line between them is bloody silly. Accepting that it’s a gradient, and that the issues are more complex than some people try to make them (like Mr Dictionary Definition upthread).

I’m similar. I have 0-4 hours to play per day (0-8 on weekend). Average is at the lower end – 1-2 hours I’d say.

Ten years ago, when I was a student, I had 8-12 hours/day to play (and I did!), depending on that day’s schedule. I’d go out clubbing two nights in a row, finish a 20 hour game in the daytime (over those two days), and wonder why everyone else had less time.

Then I grew up, got a job, got married and suddenly I wasn’t living in the same building as most of my friends, but in the same city, and if I wanted to see them, I had to take a lot of time to do so (and honestly, life without friends isn’t fun).

I’m still at good as games, if not better than I was ten years ago. I’m still interested in harder content. But I can’t grind, or won’t grind, depending on how you look at it.

GW2 is a game that wants me to play it, and wants me to spend money in the cash shop (which is fine). The trouble is, it seems to be doing a lot to make me not want to play it – and at the core of that is the obsession with time-gating and time-limited content.

(I don’t mind people screwing up or being slow in groups – I only mind them actively ignoring instructions and doing the wrong thing, though, so I am a little less hardcore in that way – or being jerks, because that is the one thing I can’t stand, no matter how good or smart they are)

knives.6345:

Assuming there are only 2 types of player? No. It’s defining what is casual and what is hardcore. Because people tend to call themselves casual when if fact, they care deeply about their stats, their loots, their skins – they just don’t have enough time to play – or lazy to do stuff.

The definitions are worthless because they apply to about 10% of players each. You are not casual by any sane definition. Nor are most people who play GW2. Most people fit neither description well.

knives.6345:

Oh? Serious player? lol

I play 2 hours a day most of which are spent running around Queensdale, sometimes joining champ farm.

- I gain 2-3 gold per day by running CoF1 and getting all the ori nodes. That’s it.

What, exactly, are you doing in Queensdale if not champ-farming? Chest-farming? Running CoF1 most days and getting ALL the ori nodes most days is not in any way casual.

That is very much “serious”. You sound like a player who has a very specific “ritual” to his playing – you always do the exact same things, and apparently you enjoy that! Good for you.

Most people don’t like doing the exact same thing every day. Most people call that “work”. This is supposed to be a game. I’ve seen too many MMOs turn into work, not games, things where you repeat the same dull, successful behaviours over and over and over and over until you WISH you were actually at work.

knives.6345:

I just recently got T3 cultural armor (5pcs) since I’ve been saving since launch (And got a bit lucky on Scarlet drops) – That is my most expensive gear ever. Yay!

Grats! (I mean that non-sarcastically – most T3 is really cool)

knives.6345:

I have a total of 0 achievement points on all SAB related stuff.

I find that hard to believe unless you’ve never been in it, but that’s meaningless either way. I know casual players who have most of the achievements in that, because when it’s around, it’s all they do.

knives.6345:

So.. Hardcore gamer? made me laugh.

No-one called you hardcore, Knives, they called you “serious”. You are serious. If you want other word, call yourself a “ritual”-type player. You certainly don’t resemble most players in your behaviours.

Lokki.1092:

I’m in the same boat as a lot of people here. When I’m at work I cant stop getting on the forums, researching builds tactics and the like.

When I get on I play everything sPvP, WvW, PVE and try to get whatever LS event done that I can. I beat Liadri and other “hardcore” content and I have 3 ascended weapons crafted now, and I’m working on #4…

But I can only play about 2 hours a night weekdays. And some weekends I cant play at all.

I think that makes me a casual at this point. Though I’m thinking more and more that it’s just the WoW generation of gamers is growing up. We aren’t 20 anymore and have families now. But that is off topic.

The worst for me is the timegated/limited focus content. I feel that I cant get on anymore and do what I want to do. Because if I dont get X, Y and Z done today, I loose progress and can never gain that back. I’m one day behind. It also means logging in every single night for 1 hour at least. Instead of being able to skip night weekly and play my face off on the weekend.

As for limited focus, It’s just a bummer that I cant get gear in all facets of the game anymore. I’m so tired of dungeon runs I could spit. And chasing Event timers… ugh…

Yeah…that hit the nail on the head. As a casual player, meaning you only have 2 or so hours to play…but not casual in mindset/skill, you need to log in, get your time-gated things done. Get your dailys done. THEN go enjoy what you want, if theres any time left before you need to hit the sack for your other job…the one that pays. This also relates to living story. Need to make sure you check off all the little boxes before its done so you can get maximum AP, and the shiny at the end.

And yes, it is the hardcore WoW generation growing up. 7 years ago, I raided like no other. Now, I cant. I really want to get into Wild Star, which looks like it may be the ‘go to’ game for hardcores, but not sure I can deal with the hardcore raiding. Maybe I’ll start a casual/semi hardcore small raiding guild in that game, who knows.

Anyways..yeah, wow generation growing up. Who would have thought?

Eurhetemec.9052:

knives.6345:

Assuming there are only 2 types of player? No. It’s defining what is casual and what is hardcore. Because people tend to call themselves casual when if fact, they care deeply about their stats, their loots, their skins – they just don’t have enough time to play – or lazy to do stuff.

The definitions are worthless because they apply to about 10% of players each. You are not casual by any sane definition. Nor are most people who play GW2. Most people fit neither description well.

knives.6345:

Oh? Serious player? lol

I play 2 hours a day most of which are spent running around Queensdale, sometimes joining champ farm.

- I gain 2-3 gold per day by running CoF1 and getting all the ori nodes. That’s it.

What, exactly, are you doing in Queensdale if not champ-farming? Chest-farming? Running CoF1 most days and getting ALL the ori nodes most days is not in any way casual.

That is very much “serious”. You sound like a player who has a very specific “ritual” to his playing – you always do the exact same things, and apparently you enjoy that! Good for you.

Most people don’t like doing the exact same thing every day. Most people call that “work”. This is supposed to be a game. I’ve seen too many MMOs turn into work, not games, things where you repeat the same dull, successful behaviours over and over and over and over until you WISH you were actually at work.

knives.6345:

I just recently got T3 cultural armor (5pcs) since I’ve been saving since launch (And got a bit lucky on Scarlet drops) – That is my most expensive gear ever. Yay!

Grats! (I mean that non-sarcastically – most T3 is really cool)

knives.6345:

I have a total of 0 achievement points on all SAB related stuff.

I find that hard to believe unless you’ve never been in it, but that’s meaningless either way. I know casual players who have most of the achievements in that, because when it’s around, it’s all they do.

knives.6345:

So.. Hardcore gamer? made me laugh.

No-one called you hardcore, Knives, they called you “serious”. You are serious. If you want other word, call yourself a “ritual”-type player. You certainly don’t resemble most players in your behaviours.

Oh yes, when I play, I tend to focus on what I want to do. It’s called “maximizing what you can do with your time”. But – don’t misinterpret – I know with my current playstyle, Legendaries and Ascended are lightyears away. Do you see me QQ on that? No. Do I want them? Ofcourse!

Why the ritual? It’s the method I find the quickest, easiest and probably as little effort as I can give to gain gold. Simple. I want gold.

Now, my point being, as I stated over and over again, most people claiming to be casuals are really hardcore players who have little time to play or too lazy to do content or those who feel they are entitled to get the BiS whenever they want, however they want..

It’s really sickening – they call themselves casual yet they compete with others and QQ if others have more time and is getting ahead of them. And instead of either accepting it or finding a way to gain equal footing, they QQ. Time gate here, grind there, farm here, job there. I mean, seriously? Did anyone see a serious/popular MMORPG where we can get everything we want in little time? Getting things requires effort and patience and time.

Don’t get me wrong, casuals should strive to compete – but realize their limits.

PS:

Yes, I have 0 achievement on SAB. Also in Liadri before. I don’t find them interesting. I want to interact with humongous amount of people killing stuff. :p

PSS:

If running CoF1 and getting ori nodes most of the time is not casual – I don’t want to hear your definition of hardcore. lol

well nowaday hardcore are speedparty…

Imho they are only farmers….(and i am currently one of them) but speeclears don t require much skill unless your party is bad.

If you are compelled to play every single day for any length of time… you are not casual.

Zeldain.5710:

If you are compelled to play every single day for any length of time… you are not casual.

Edit: realized it’s just the same in this context… “Feel the need” == “compelled”

And that’s what the dictionary guy defined. Casuals are relaxed – play when they can, if they can.

lets try to explain here:

casual: person that plays the game.
hard core: person that grinds stats.

i will take your questions now.

I am a casual and I am fine with the game as is. I play the way I want and do not feel any pressure to do things that do not interest me. I do dungeons sometimes…but not often. I do some LS stuff…but not all of it and some I ignore completely. If content seems a bit “too much” for me, I simply ignore it and cheer those other players on that can do it.

The only things I feel a strong obligation to do are scheduled guild missions. I feel this obligation because…frankly I like being in my guild; I like and respect the other guild members; and part of being in a guild is doing your part.

I am satisfied that my gear (mostly exotic with some ascended laurel and guild commendation pieces) will see me through the content that I want to play. Not sure what else to say.

Since this is the only even remotely interesting topic in this section…

2000 hrs played and I have not completed personal story, not gotten 100% map, not gotten dungeon master, have not done spvp for ten months, not done fractal higher than 10, have crafted cooking to 400 on one character and not touched any other crafts, have not done any of the extra content except for the Mad King and a few Teq attempts. Bring on the Mad King! Imo there is plenty for casuals to do. What I have done is run all the dungeons except arah a bunch of times and worked towards 8 geared 80’s without using crafting, 1 and 1/2 80’s to go.

Then there is three people I play with who play only about two hours a week. If that is not casual I dont know what is. They love the game and never complain about it. They are just not like me they have other interests and hobbies that they also enjoy.

take from that what you will

Slither Shade.4782:

Since this is the only even remotely interesting topic in this section…

2000 hrs played and I have not completed personal story, not gotten 100% map, not gotten dungeon master, have not done spvp for ten months, not done fractal higher than 10, have crafted cooking to 400 on one character and not touched any other crafts, have not done any of the extra content except for the Mad King and a few Teq attempts. Bring on the Mad King! Imo there is plenty for casuals to do. What I have done is run all the dungeons except arah a bunch of times and worked towards 8 geared 80’s without using crafting, 1 and 1/2 80’s to go.

Then there is three people I play with who play only about two hours a week. If that is not casual I dont know what is. They love the game and never complain about it. They are just not like me they have other interests and hobbies that they also enjoy.

take from that what you will

6 geared 80’s without anything but fractals < 11, and dungeons… Holy cow! that must have taken you forever! That is like… what? like 660 laurels, and what, 600 Globs of Ectoplasm? That is insane dude.