Guild Wars 2

This game has become so stale over the period of a few months. For a “living world”, there sure seems to be a lack of change in the actual world.

Not only that, but this latest patch only seemed to complicate things. The ridiculously clunky UI’s and the transmutation crap that Anet could’ve gotten rid of are some of the things that come to mind. Everything Anet does looks like a blatant cash grab.

Nah, no thanks. I think I’ll go outside and enjoy the nice weather. Guild wars 2 has ruined MMOs for me for awhile. I won’t be a part of this sinking ship when it goes down.

I think you guys pour too much of your heart into this and that’s the problem. Log in, play, then log out. Simple

Also Living Story was a good concept (while faulty but still good). Take a break OP and come back when you find something interesting to play for.

Algreg.3629:

Minami Kaori.2548:

chronus.1326:

… and use tools of manipulation and suggestion.

This is why, every time Anet gives us free stuff in the gem shop, I feel like they do it to direct our attention to the rest of the gem things.
To make sure those who don’t visit the gem shop tab now must, if they want the free stuff.

On another note: I don’t have hundreds of dollars to buy a couple hundred gold through the ridiculous price of gems to gold conversion (if I want to buy exotic armor for all my alts, and a few nicer skins like The Crossing that I haven’t been able to afford).
If Anet truly cared, they’d have put a cap on those prices. :/

oh my god, advertisement, a truly fiendish machination…

I’m fine with advertisement. But I feel like I am being directed to the gem shop constantly. I bought more than my fair share of gems, to support Anet. But I am slowly getting tired of all the gem shop stuff. The near constant feel of need to buy this or that so I don’t have to feel like I’m wasting my time.

Algreg.3629:

… and use tools of manipulation and suggestion.

ArenaNet during Guild Wars had a completely different level of discussion with people. Relatively sensible nerfs. Good writing. Really, really cheesy cinematics and voice acting, but relatively B-grade fun story that was aware of itself. Tons of skill combinations and different builds. The people rage about that should have been the ones getting told off to play other kind of games since there were tons of games that weren’t “Build Wars”, but there was only one Guild Wars.

The only example of its species. The people who hated it had alnernatives, but the people who likeed it now don’t.

Why does every title need to please the people who want to play something other than WoW but really with the only reason being that WoW is heavily criticised? They really want to play WoW in different coatings that pretend to be not WoW. Because they feel people’s piercing eyes on them. It’s just a black sheep. That is all. I remember the release of GW2 the forums had threads like “we want mounts”. It’s a joke that’s going on here. “Next gen” is the neutered gamer equivalent of social standards.

Here’s a food of thought: If they already want to lie to the customers, at least they could have used all that “fiendish advertising” to sell Guild Wars to them. With the ammount of blatant damage control that the PR department is thinking it can get away with unnoticed, there’s really no difference in the egoism. And hell, they probably would had been successful and sell nearly the exact same system as a next gen thing.

But that requires something called a vision. That makes you cling to consistent thinking until you succeed.

BloodFallsSilent, I was up late reading in bed and came across your thread. If it hadn’t been 4 am, I would have given you a standing ovation when I finished reading your post. However, it was, and I surely would have woken my sleeping husband and an old german shepherd who needs her rest at her advanced age. I still clapped a little.

My son, who had played since early access, logged in long enough to collect his dye stuff, put in a ticket for missing stuff, and that was it. He’ll put his spoils into the guild bank and that’ll be the end of his GW2 adventures. My husband didn’t even bother patching yesterday, let alone logging in. I logged in to do the dye thing, look over the wardrobe change, and then read necro minions are still bugged..still.. still, saw my characters still had some other bug issues I ticketed forever to get fixed still unaddressed and I quietly logged out.

This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper. —T.S. Eliot

Very well put BloodFallsSilent.

I would also like to add that I really enjoyed leveling in this game, but now that has been taken away from me from their trait restructuring. For me to have what I had at level 25 I have to wait till level 42. That’s so stupid. Max level at 80 is already idiotic. You pretty much master a class by level 30 (or even earlier, especially if you spvp).

Suffice to say, there is little reason for me to want to level, hence little reason for me to want to play this game. Plus, I’ve noticed spvp is only 5v5 now…ugh boring! I was hoping there would be more variety, such as, 3v3, 5v5, 8v8, 10v10, and so on. Your pvp maps are SO boring and are all the same! Take a lesson from WoW and create some variety with different goals in mind. But for some reason I doubt anyone will read this.

I also wanted to buy Wildstar, but after my experience with Guildwars 2, I will never buy an NCsoft product again.

Btw, I should also add that if there are a huge amount of replies hating on what ANet did, they will probably delete this entire thread like they did when there were over 10k replies for when they first changed the trait system. It’s just like them to do something like tha.

Minami Kaori.2548:

Algreg.3629:

Minami Kaori.2548:

chronus.1326:

… and use tools of manipulation and suggestion.

This is why, every time Anet gives us free stuff in the gem shop, I feel like they do it to direct our attention to the rest of the gem things.
To make sure those who don’t visit the gem shop tab now must, if they want the free stuff.

On another note: I don’t have hundreds of dollars to buy a couple hundred gold through the ridiculous price of gems to gold conversion (if I want to buy exotic armor for all my alts, and a few nicer skins like The Crossing that I haven’t been able to afford).
If Anet truly cared, they’d have put a cap on those prices. :/

oh my god, advertisement, a truly fiendish machination…

I’m fine with advertisement. But I feel like I am being directed to the gem shop constantly. I bought more than my fair share of gems, to support Anet. But I am slowly getting tired of all the gem shop stuff. The near constant feel of need to buy this or that so I don’t have to feel like I’m wasting my time.

Try playing some free to play games for a while. Anet is not that bad. They don’t have ads popping up in game. They don’t have areas of the game closed off that you can’t access. They don’t have races or classes hidden behind a pay wall.

The cash shop is there, and it’s as damaging to the game as you allow it to be. The only things from the cash shop that I’d say were must haves are bank space and maybe bag slot space….oh and character slots for some people.

Most other stuff I get through playing anyway.

Do I need the armor skins in the cash shop? Or the town clothes? Or the infinite gathering tools? Nah, no one needs that.

People need to know the difference between need and want.

In paid cash in DDO to unlock the monk profession and then there was this one dungeon in the game that had this endless shuriken…and throwing star, but it always returned to you.

However, you had to buy the dungeon to get that item. It was the only way.

I spent so much money on that game, and gave up before I spent even more money.

I read all of the posts by the OP and they echo my sentiments so much.
I got to the point that one more mention of Scarlet or one more paragraph of shoddy, canned dreck story would have led to an uninstall and so I just quit logging in.

And I waited for this update..only to log in and actually not move any characters from where I had left them as I TRIED to digest that this mess was billed as “improvement”.

Megaservers.. wtf. Town clothes and costumes..far worse now. No configurable UI. No meaningful client side particle effect control. Abandonment of scaling events in favor of an unwieldy, unfriendly forced population feature that WILL kill community. Less choices in dailies/monthlies. Staggering inflation of the gem/gold costs and a downturn on the rest of the market. No new permanent content in sight. Bosses buffed up to suit their vision that only super-guilds and communities are viable playstyles and every indication that is the sole direction the game is going…. reworking old zones and old content.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

I read all of the posts by the OP and they echo my sentiments so much.
I got to the point that one more mention of Scarlet or one more paragraph of shoddy, canned dreck story would have led to an uninstall and so I just quit logging in.

And I waited for this update..only to log in and actually not move any characters from where I had left them as I TRIED to digest that this mess was billed as “improvement”.

Megaservers.. wtf. Town clothes and costumes..far worse now. No configurable UI. No meaningful client side particle effect control. Abandonment of scaling events in favor of an unwieldy, unfriendly forced population feature that WILL kill community. Less choices in dailies/monthlies. Staggering inflation of the gem/gold costs and a downturn on the rest of the market. No new permanent content in sight. Bosses buffed up to suit their vision that only super-guilds and communities are viable playstyles and every indication that is the sole direction the game is going…. reworking old zones and old content.

I see most of what you’re saying but how do you get no new content in sight? We’re pretty sure we’re getting at least one new zone and probably a couple.

It’s not here now because China is launching on May 15th, but you can’t bet it won’t be long after. At the very least the new living story will lead to new zones, and it’s highly unlikely they’ll be temporary.

For me it is pretty cut and dry; I was happy, I was paying to support, now I want a major content update and I am not paying for anymore until that happens, pretty simple no?

JoeVmt.1357:

To summarize because most people can’t read,
1. LS is perfect because they want the game to be narratively driven.
2. End game content is just endgame gear in MMOs.
3. Listen to the stories, NPCs, chatter instead of whining “zerg fest events”
4. Grind fest? Look me in the eye and TELL ME FF7 is not a GRINDFEST.

1. This is your opinion and not shared by many. For me, personal story told a WAY better story, or rather it told the story BETTER than living story. So you are satisfied with a 2 minute conversation between marjorie and the other chick about some corruption/scarlet, a 10 minute mini instance, and 10-15 achievements achievable by following a zerg and having ZERO skill? Quality?

2. Endgame content is just endgame gear in MMOs…How wrong you are. What about different ways to acquire end game gear? Because in GW2 the only way is via crafting(wow a big duh moment in the CDI when chris whiteside said "oh you want more ways of acquisition? Interesting!!). Ive not once heard a success story in game of someone that found an ascended piece. Crafting. Through and through. Grind out your materials unto oblivion, and then craft. How about different game systems to acquire pieces? Scatter some in WvW, scatter some across open world content/dynamic events, etc. But more importantly, the entire game was supposed to be end game. Wow I sure see people playing endgame in timerbline falls. A total of 3 players on any given night. Thats endgame. They need to fix it. Megaservers is a start, but not a solution. Give us REASON to play the world.

3. When the company focuses on living story which funnels us into one or two zones to zerg around, yes we will complain. Unavoidable. Zerging is mindless, requires no skill, and shows a lack of effort on arenanets part to develop content and mechanics that require any brain activity.

southbeatz.2780:

I think people sometimes forget how much Anet offers compared to most other MMOs..

Such as? Zerg content every 2 weeks where you can finish up in 4 or 5 days by following a blob of 50 people? Mini games? Theme holidays? I dont see much more if anything…

I will add that arenanet made some nice QoL changes that we did ask for within the first month of release. Better late than never.

But they keep doing other stupid things to this game of immense potential. This is what angers people. We were hyped hyped hyped and once they had our money, they changed direction with the wind with ascended gear, and then something no one asked for in living story and continue to chip away at what made the game great during the first 3 months.

I’m support this.

The game I bought back in 2012 is not the same I have now, and surely the whole spent time of programmers in wron things not worth it.

I yet love this game, but I only see 2 things here :

Or the actual Gw2 Team is NOT the same that created the game 3 years ago, or they are trying to kill it.

Nage.1520:

Minami Kaori.2548:

Algreg.3629:

Minami Kaori.2548:

chronus.1326:

… and use tools of manipulation and suggestion.

This is why, every time Anet gives us free stuff in the gem shop, I feel like they do it to direct our attention to the rest of the gem things.
To make sure those who don’t visit the gem shop tab now must, if they want the free stuff.

On another note: I don’t have hundreds of dollars to buy a couple hundred gold through the ridiculous price of gems to gold conversion (if I want to buy exotic armor for all my alts, and a few nicer skins like The Crossing that I haven’t been able to afford).
If Anet truly cared, they’d have put a cap on those prices. :/

oh my god, advertisement, a truly fiendish machination…

I’m fine with advertisement. But I feel like I am being directed to the gem shop constantly. I bought more than my fair share of gems, to support Anet. But I am slowly getting tired of all the gem shop stuff. The near constant feel of need to buy this or that so I don’t have to feel like I’m wasting my time.

Try playing some free to play games for a while. Anet is not that bad. They don’t have ads popping up in game. They don’t have areas of the game closed off that you can’t access. They don’t have races or classes hidden behind a pay wall.

The cash shop is there, and it’s as damaging to the game as you allow it to be. The only things from the cash shop that I’d say were must haves are bank space and maybe bag slot space….oh and character slots for some people.

Most other stuff I get through playing anyway.

Do I need the armor skins in the cash shop? Or the town clothes? Or the infinite gathering tools? Nah, no one needs that.

People need to know the difference between need and want.

In paid cash in DDO to unlock the monk profession and then there was this one dungeon in the game that had this endless shuriken…and throwing star, but it always returned to you.

However, you had to buy the dungeon to get that item. It was the only way.

I spent so much money on that game, and gave up before I spent even more money.

I played TERA for a bit. I loved it. Their version of the gem shop is not even in the game, but on their website.

I know the difference between need and want, and that is why I get annoyed at the feeling of constant redirection to the gem shop. I don’t need (or want) the gathering tools, the “boosters”, the instruments (though I did buy the flute for sentimental reasons, my dad played flute) etc.

I did buy all 12 bank slots, several character slots, armor skins, weapon skins, and every single mini pack that came out (at least 5 of each set and every single “series” of minis, some multiple times to get the mystic-forgeable exclusive). I’m sure I forget some.

What I do want are the fresh new armors (which has been ONLY gem shop since the game came out! Nothing in-game obtainable with questing or such), and they are locked behind the gem shop, unless I spend an inordinate amount of time farming for gold (which is getting nerfed all the time), or, guess what, break out my credit card.

I love changing armor looks, dressing up my characters, and I have 9 alts in addition to my main. The (so far) pay-gated new armor skins have been a big letdown. And still no precursor questing/forging.

I am a casual player, who occasionally has time to go crazy for a few days and play 12 hours in a go. I don’t have time to farm much (especially now that FGS champ train got nerfed), to concentrate on gathering gold, so I can… what… convert these golds to gems and buy an armor? :/ What a feeling of achievement.

I think I’ll be going back to TERA for a bit…

I suggest that ANet sits down as a team and re-watches their original Manifesto.

My reply to the OP -

GW2 hasn’t enough end game content. You are correct. No MMOs actually have enough end game content. A lot of them just raise the bar and give us the same content again at a higher level with a new gear grind. There is no utopia. If you’re not enjoying the end game then you are right to leave. It is only your own expectation of endless play from than MMO that leaves you disappointed. You’ve been playing MMOs since Everquest so why haven’t you learned that?

You have got your value for money from this game. Putting more hours into the game looking for something, anything else, is not going to make it any better. There is no reason to write a complaint to the makers of the game. There is no reason for you to resent a gem store that you never used. If you resent the time you spent in the game through your own decisions then just man up and look at yourself in the mirror. It is your personal problem.

this type of post make me lol…. people complain that the game has bugs and things that should have been in the start were not. but who were the ones that kept on pressuring a-net to release the game ???? and they always told use the game was going to come out when it was ready. so you have your peers to blame not a-net

outlaws.6910:

this type of post make me lol…. people complain that the game has bugs and things that should have been in the start were not. but who were the ones that kept on pressuring a-net to release the game ???? and they always told use the game was going to come out when it was ready. so you have your peers to blame not a-net

The game has been out for almost two years.

Your argument is no longer valid. Keep on white-knighting, though.

OP speaks the mighty truth. I messaged you btw OP got a WS beta key for ya if you want it.

Actually, I think the elimination of the soulbound concept is really good. I am glad they implemented it.

Next I would like to see a bigger focus on guilds and giving them new things to do together.

From what I have read the GW1 with jumping people are still posting what they posted from day one.

style.6173:

Actually, I think the elimination of the soulbound concept is really good. I am glad they implemented it.

Next I would like to see a bigger focus on guilds and giving them new things to do together.

Which should have been in there from day ONE

“I’m sad that less than 400 people will see this. " — hip.8435

5,620 viewers and counting. Whoops!

I’ve highlighted all the important posts for me which resonate with me the most, although I agree with all aspects of the first posts.

…
I know people are going to point out that I got my money’s worth from gw2. Fair enough, I certainly did. But it’s not 2012 anymore, and we’re still playing 2012’s mmo.
…
The game needs dynamic changes. Huge reworkings. Not skill balancing, not nerfing this skill and buffing that one, but big huge reworkings like when Blizz redid their starting zones with new missions and so on. The fact is, however, that if that ever happens in gw2, it will only happen when it is financially the only way left to survive.
…
Then again, gw1 was never like “Hey break out your credit card and support me if you want bugfixes. You do really love me don’t you?”. The attempts at manipulation are transparent and unbecoming. I realize all mmo’s are skinner boxes to some extent, but you’ve really piled up the psychological impulses to buy (more! now! don’t you want the best stuff?!) in ways that are obnoxious and clearly visible. Everyone knows why the 5% listing fee doesn’t show up in the projected profits, and it’s no accident that it happened. The game is set up to make you waste money testing useless builds that require a full set of 20g armor+runes+sigils+this and that and oh you need more laurels and more this and more but you can skip it if you just. break. out. that. credit. card.
…
Thank you for your time, although, if I could go back to 2012 and do it all again, I would not have bothered to give you mine,

They will not bother with content unless they are absolutely sure it will bring them more money. They genuinly do not care about player quality of life or content unless and until it comes to such a point that they will begin to lose revenue from not caring.

Thank you for your posts.

@OP
I’m not saying some of your reasons aren’t valid, but for someone who claims to be loaded and cares about the game, also says in the same breath they haven’t spent a cent in the gem shop to support this game (a basically free to play game of such high quality as gw2) is rather contradictory and really does not earn you the right to complain about neither game, nor gems shop you obviously haven’t supported.

I (perhaps more, or as much as anyone) want new permanent content, new maps etc, but i think Anet is doing a marvelous job considering that they are B2P game and I feel are extremely generous as a company.

If you don’t believe me, try out ESO. The greed there is beyond measure and although i’m not in business of pitting one company against another or putting down one dev team over another, those guys are amateurs compared to Anet dev team when you consider what they’ve given us for so little money.

People complain about bugs in gw2, omg you don’t know what you’re talking about (once again, looking at you ESO). Put it this way, I’ve been playing since BWE1 and i’m still playing gw2 today, have been logging in every day since then and i’ve tried other games, betas etc but nothing comes even close to gw2. So when i see some 1 bashing the game they obviously played for a long time for free and got their money’s worth 10x over, i get a bit riled.

Perhaps if OP supprted the game a bit more, maybe it would aid in adding some more content. And just coz Anet has tried something different with the LS that don’t give you the right to bag the entire game down. After all, its their game and they can do as they please. All we can do is try give them some constructive feedback but it’s up to them if they want to take it onboard and if their direction don’t please you that’s fine too. After all, you have 1200 steam games to play, right?

Personally, I found the game stale within the first couple of months after release. I was looking and hoping for similarities to GW1 that simply aren’t there. I’ve had to train myself to take the game as it is.

It’s a decent game and there is plenty of content to last anyone a few years, but the replay value is lacking because of it’s simplistic nature. It needs additional, more varied and deeper content in both PvP and PvE to fill the void.

Completely agree. I have a feeling that most people in ANet that work on GW2 have never played GW1.

Tiger Ashante.1792:

@OP
I’m not saying some of your reasons aren’t valid, but for someone who claims to be loaded and cares about the game, also says in the same breath they haven’t spent a cent in the gem shop to support this game (a basically free to play game of such high quality as gw2) is rather contradictory and really does not earn you the right to complain about neither game, nor gems shop you obviously haven’t supported.

I have spent a lot of money supporting the game. Still do on a more limited basis. I fully support OP and his opinions. While I am not as harsh on the game as he is, I think he has articulated my general feelings very well. Perhaps I am guilty of investing too much in this game—I tend to stick to something I like and defend it to the death—but that isn’t such a bad thing for the devs, is it? I don’t regret my purchases and I treasure the memories from this game, but if I had the chance to do it again, I would hesitate about jumping in, and that’s not something people like to think of something they’ve spent 2000+ hours of their lives in.

It is not so much the flaws as how they were addressed. We were sold on a game premised on dynamic events. The Living Story feels like a complete bait and switch. Rather than letting the world ebb and flow by adding more dynamic events in ever longer and more complex cycles, we get virtually no new permanent events and a story of the week which sits static for weeks at a time. Instead of an evolving world, we have a fractured one where NPCs and the personal story reference a Lion’s Arch that no longer exists. Town clothing was an interesting feature but rather than expand on it they blew it apart. The personality choices and branching personal story had promise in establishing an intimate story for your character but that was thrown aside too. Horizontal progression was promised but all new full armor sets go into the gem store except when they added a new vertical tier of progression.

To me it feels like they never even tried to make the flaws work. They sold us on the premise of them and then ripped them out mere months after release. Forget asking what happened to the GW1 devs, this game doesn’t even feel like it’s being updated by those who released GW2.

Guild Wars After 12 months:
- 240 new skills
-90 new Elite skills
-2 new proffesions
-1 new World map
-4 new guild halls
-13 new co-op missions
-5 new challenge missions
-2 new elite missions
-2 competitive missions
-200+ new quests
-New PvP Alliance battles
-New elite area Sorrow’s Furnace
-New elite area The Underworld
-New elite area Fissure of Woe
-New elite area the Deep
-New elite area Urgoz’s Warren

GW1 After 18 Months: All of the above+
-350 new skills
-110 new elite skills
-2 new proffesions
-1 new World Map
-4 new Guild Halls
-20 new missions
-3 new challenge missions
-1 new elite mission
-250+ quests
-Heros!
-PvP hero Battles
-new elite Area Domain Of Anguish

GW2 after 18 months:
-Scarlet
-Southsun cove
-fractals
-2 new heal skills
-1 new dungeon path

Silvanus.5821:

Completely agree. I have a feeling that most people in ANet that work on GW2 have never played GW1.

You can allways look at the credits and make it more than a feeling.

Phantom.8130:

BloodFallsSilent, very well put.

This ^

Basically in the same boat here. I’ll continue to play casually, but I won’t spend another dime or refer anyone I know to play until they put this ship on a better course.

chronus.1326:

Silvanus.5821:

Completely agree. I have a feeling that most people in ANet that work on GW2 have never played GW1.

You can allways look at the credits and make it more than a feeling.

The credits won’t tell you who played Guild Wars 1, only who worked on it.

Logically if Guild Wars 1 had a staff of 50 people and this game has a staff of 350, then at least 300 people haven’t worked on it.

But you know, I played Guild Wars 1 and every time something was changed and every time an update came out, a whole group of people hated it.

Prophecies people often hated Factions. Factions people often hated Prophecies. A lot of people left because “heroes destroyed the community”.

I don’t think people remember what Guild Wars 1 was really like. People left in disappointment all the time at changes that were made, but others came and enjoyed the game and ultimately it was successful.

Stormleaf.1769:

TheLaughingMan.4320:

Stormleaf.1769:

BloodFallsSilent.1703:

Instead, you’ve never gotten another dime from me, beyond the initial purchases. Every time I have been tempted to buy gems, I think about how greedy it felt during the 2012 halloween event when the BL Chest drop rate for the halloween weapons was stupendously low. I remember all the content that was removed. I think about all the minor (unvoiced by me, but pointed out many times here by others) complaints I’ve had that were never fixed, and the fact that there is not going to be any expansion any time soon, when it should have been here or have been announced, at the least.

Posts like this are always so bizarre and disingenuous, specifically for the argument here (which always seems to come about in some way or another). You’re saying you’ve been tempted to buy gems, but refrained because of a previous complaint, which ArenaNet has massively improved at this point? Gem store weapons like the Halloween set have been made hugely more accessible, yet you still refuse to buy any because they used to be a problem? Why should ArenaNet ever address any of your concerns, if you’re just going to cling to past issues as an excuse to criticize them in the future, even after those issues have been fixed and improved?

For all your complaints, you sound like the type of person who will never be satisfied, no matter how close ArenaNet manages to bring the game to your ideal fantasy.

Most of his critiques are about the game itself, not the gem store that you used the fanboi generic response on after focusing in on it.

That sole example is enough demonstrate the disingenuous nature of this post. The poster prefaces by claiming to have ‘goodwill’ towards the game and wanting the opportunity to support the game, yet they then refuse to genuinely acknowledge any improvements that have been made to it. The poster clings to past ‘offenses’ while completely disregarding any attempt by ArenaNet to address and correct those issues, simply so he or she can continue to deride and insult the game and its developer for failing to live up to a personal fantasy. Someone who truly had ‘goodwill’ towards the game, someone who truly wanted to support the game and see it improve, would at least be somewhat forgiving, at least acknowledge the efforts to address some of their complaints. But no, what we see instead is petty, unhelpful venting.

You would think someone who claims to have so much experience with past MMOs and other games would possess the discipline to not let themselves get so hyped about their fantasy for a game. So hyped that its inevitable failure to live up to expectations crushes them to the point of such shallow, one-sided whining. You would think that someone with such experience would know to play a game for what it is in the present, not what they want it to be in the future. You would think that someone who had such a bad taste with the gem store methods two months after launch would know to quit back then, rather than stick around for an extra year and a half playing a game that so obviously failed to live up to expectations.

The problem is that ANet themselves perpetuate this hype; they tease updates and potential features that are either not the same as what they advertised, way further down the line than as initially planned, or simply not feasible and never actually come to fruition.

I would love to see ANet prove me wrong and release some actual content that introduces meaningful depth and variety to this game; it’s the main reason I’ve stuck around for so long. Judging from Blood’s post, he shares the same sentiment. This game could have been great… by all means, it should have been great. However, somewhere along the way, ANet deviated from their initial Manifesto and now here we are with Gold Wars 2 / Gem Wars 2 / Fashion Wars 2 when what I cared about, paid for, and wanted to experience was Guild Wars 2.

I’m glad that some people are still enjoying this game and that they’re perfectly content with how things are going. Nevertheless, I don’t see myself sticking around much longer unless things start changing soon because everything about this game has become so stale.

Reading the standards set out in this article, GW2 has done everything that this article was bashing about “traditional” MMOs.

I have quoted a couple paragraphs, and then quote snippets from those paragraphs with examples from GW2 that are doing the same thing they were bashing.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/is-it-fun-colin-johanson-on-how-arenanet-measures-success/

“Now let me pose a second question: If the success of a subscription-based MMO is measured by the number of people paying a monthly fee, how does that impact game design decisions?”

“The answer can be found in the mechanics and choices made in subscription-based MMOs, which keep customers actively playing by chasing something in the game through processes that take as long as possible. In other words, they design content systems that take more time to keep people playing longer. If this is your business motivation and model so you keep getting paid, it makes sense and is an incredibly smart thing to do, and you need to support it.”

“When your game systems are derived and designed to fill this prime motivation of a subscription-based MMO, you potentially sacrifice quality to get as much content in as possible to fill that time. You get leveling systems that take insane amounts of grind to gain a level, loot drop systems that require doing a dungeon with a tiny chance the item you want can drop at the end, raid systems that need huge numbers of people online simultaneously to organize and play, thousands of wash/repeat item-collection or kill-mob quests or dailies with flavor text support, the best stat gear requiring crazy amounts of time to earn, etc.”

First: Gw2 has the same motivation to keep people playing as sub games do: income. If anything, they are more desperate for income as they do not have monthly subs to cushion them. Box sales this long after the game is released will be negligible.

Keeping that in mind, while reading his second paragraph, everything he says describes GW2.

“you potentially sacrifice quality to get as much content in as possible to fill that time”

Recycled art, combat, and zones, in Living Story.

" loot drop systems that require doing a dungeon with a tiny chance the item you want can drop at the end"

Precursor drop rates? In addition, if you get your gear through dungeon tokens, the limitations on token rewards has turned it into a grind to get your gear as well. Ascended gear/legendaries, both a grind.

“raid systems that need huge numbers of people online simultaneously to organize and play”

Megabosses, Scarlet world events, WvW (which is the only thing I do in GW2 now) etc

“thousands of wash/repeat item-collection or kill-mob quests or dailies with flavor text support”

All your LS content is wash/repeat. GW2 daily achievement laurels are your daily flavor text.

“the best stat gear requiring crazy amounts of time to earn, etc.”

Legendary items, ascended gear.

“…keep customers actively playing by chasing something in the game through processes that take as long as possible.”

Time-gated ascended mats + Scarlet + Dungeon token daily limits + Account Achievement chests.

They only incentive people have to do LS content is the cosmetic achievement or mini they reward you with for hours of grinding the same event, which is “Kill X, Collect Y, bring to Z”, just as much as any other MMO. In addition, they made it so the rewards of account achievement chests can be completed most easily by doing this LS grind. No one cares about the actual story or characters, as it all seems so superficial and forced.

“get leveling systems that take insane amounts of grind to gain a level”

Fractals, account achievement chests, WxP, ’nough said.

To the op, you may get some who disagree with you but it won’t be me, i couldn’t have put how i feel any better than you did.

Ive been feeling the devs were holding back, but now i beginning to think im wrong, this is the best they can offer, if not they would have done better, gw2 has so much potential but isn’t even scratching the surface of what that potential could be.

There is far to much focus on the gem store and our money “The most important thing in any game should be the player” Rly Ree?
/ gem store cash cow hits you for over 9000

If only we were the most important thing in the game perhaps then we would have a game worthy of gw2 title, id like some more pve structured content pls, 8 dungeons and fracts doesn’t cut it anymore, im sure peeps who play other types of content would like some too.

TheLaughingMan.4320:

Reading the standards set out in this article, GW2 has done everything that this article was bashing about “traditional” MMOs.

I have quoted a couple paragraphs, and then quote snippets from those paragraphs with examples from GW2 that are doing the same thing they were bashing.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/is-it-fun-colin-johanson-on-how-arenanet-measures-success/

“Now let me pose a second question: If the success of a subscription-based MMO is measured by the number of people paying a monthly fee, how does that impact game design decisions?”

“The answer can be found in the mechanics and choices made in subscription-based MMOs, which keep customers actively playing by chasing something in the game through processes that take as long as possible. In other words, they design content systems that take more time to keep people playing longer. If this is your business motivation and model so you keep getting paid, it makes sense and is an incredibly smart thing to do, and you need to support it.”

“When your game systems are derived and designed to fill this prime motivation of a subscription-based MMO, you potentially sacrifice quality to get as much content in as possible to fill that time. You get leveling systems that take insane amounts of grind to gain a level, loot drop systems that require doing a dungeon with a tiny chance the item you want can drop at the end, raid systems that need huge numbers of people online simultaneously to organize and play, thousands of wash/repeat item-collection or kill-mob quests or dailies with flavor text support, the best stat gear requiring crazy amounts of time to earn, etc.”

First: Gw2 has the same motivation to keep people playing as sub games do: income.

Keeping that in mind, while reading his second post, everything he says describes GW2.

“you potentially sacrifice quality to get as much content in as possible to fill that time”

Recycled art, combat, and zones, in Living Story.

They only incentive people have to do LS content is the cosmetic achievement or mini they reward you with for hours of grinding the same event, which is “Kill X, Collect Y, bring to Z”, just as much as any other MMO. In addition, they made it so the rewards of account achievement chests can be completed most easily by doing this LS grind. No one cares about the actual story or characters, as it all seems so superficial and forced.

“get leveling systems that take insane amounts of grind to gain a level”

Fractals, account achievement chests, WxP, ’nough said.

" loot drop systems that require doing a dungeon with a tiny chance the item you want can drop at the end"

Precursor drop rates? In addition, if you get your gear through dungeon tokens, the limitations on token rewards has turned it into a grind to get your gear as well.

“raid systems that need huge numbers of people online simultaneously to organize and play”

Megabosses, Scarlet world events, WvW (which is the only thing I do in GW2 now) etc

“thousands of wash/repeat item-collection or kill-mob quests or dailies with flavor text support”

All your LS content is wash/repeat. GW2 daily achievement laurels are your daily flavor text.

“the best stat gear requiring crazy amounts of time to earn, etc.”

Legendary items, ascended gear.

I’m glad you did this so i didn’t have to. You are SO right! Guild Wars 2 has turned into everything they promised it would not be. That, coupled with the fact that there is very little new content since launch, have really turned me off this game.

Wynne.3908:

TheLaughingMan.4320:

Reading the standards set out in this article, GW2 has done everything that this article was bashing about “traditional” MMOs.

I have quoted a couple paragraphs, and then quote snippets from those paragraphs with examples from GW2 that are doing the same thing they were bashing.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/is-it-fun-colin-johanson-on-how-arenanet-measures-success/

“Now let me pose a second question: If the success of a subscription-based MMO is measured by the number of people paying a monthly fee, how does that impact game design decisions?”

“The answer can be found in the mechanics and choices made in subscription-based MMOs, which keep customers actively playing by chasing something in the game through processes that take as long as possible. In other words, they design content systems that take more time to keep people playing longer. If this is your business motivation and model so you keep getting paid, it makes sense and is an incredibly smart thing to do, and you need to support it.”

“When your game systems are derived and designed to fill this prime motivation of a subscription-based MMO, you potentially sacrifice quality to get as much content in as possible to fill that time. You get leveling systems that take insane amounts of grind to gain a level, loot drop systems that require doing a dungeon with a tiny chance the item you want can drop at the end, raid systems that need huge numbers of people online simultaneously to organize and play, thousands of wash/repeat item-collection or kill-mob quests or dailies with flavor text support, the best stat gear requiring crazy amounts of time to earn, etc.”

First: Gw2 has the same motivation to keep people playing as sub games do: income.

Keeping that in mind, while reading his second post, everything he says describes GW2.

“you potentially sacrifice quality to get as much content in as possible to fill that time”

Recycled art, combat, and zones, in Living Story.

They only incentive people have to do LS content is the cosmetic achievement or mini they reward you with for hours of grinding the same event, which is “Kill X, Collect Y, bring to Z”, just as much as any other MMO. In addition, they made it so the rewards of account achievement chests can be completed most easily by doing this LS grind. No one cares about the actual story or characters, as it all seems so superficial and forced.

“get leveling systems that take insane amounts of grind to gain a level”

Fractals, account achievement chests, WxP, ’nough said.

" loot drop systems that require doing a dungeon with a tiny chance the item you want can drop at the end"

Precursor drop rates? In addition, if you get your gear through dungeon tokens, the limitations on token rewards has turned it into a grind to get your gear as well.

“raid systems that need huge numbers of people online simultaneously to organize and play”

Megabosses, Scarlet world events, WvW (which is the only thing I do in GW2 now) etc

“thousands of wash/repeat item-collection or kill-mob quests or dailies with flavor text support”

All your LS content is wash/repeat. GW2 daily achievement laurels are your daily flavor text.

“the best stat gear requiring crazy amounts of time to earn, etc.”

Legendary items, ascended gear.

I’m glad you did this so i didn’t have to. You are SO right! Guild Wars 2 has turned into everything they promised it would not be. That, coupled with the fact that there is very little new content since launch, have really turned me off this game.

Sadly, it appears that we’re the beta for the China release.

I’ve liked everything ANet have done if I’m honest. Pretty much everything.

If they have faults it was what they haven’t done. That’s really not a thing though, instead of sitting here bored I went away for a while, came back later and found enough stuff I hadn’t tried before to sustain another few months of action.

Most of this new fluff is also fine. Except the Megaserver, it fills me with a profound sense of sadness and I don’t really know how to react. I’ve been angry at an MMO change before, but never sad. This is new.

Wynne.3908:

Guild Wars After 12 months:
- 240 new skills
-90 new Elite skills
-2 new proffesions
-1 new World map
-4 new guild halls
-13 new co-op missions
-5 new challenge missions
-2 new elite missions
-2 competitive missions
-200+ new quests
-New PvP Alliance battles
-New elite area Sorrow’s Furnace
-New elite area The Underworld
-New elite area Fissure of Woe
-New elite area the Deep
-New elite area Urgoz’s Warren

GW1 After 18 Months: All of the above+
-350 new skills
-110 new elite skills
-2 new proffesions
-1 new World Map
-4 new Guild Halls
-20 new missions
-3 new challenge missions
-1 new elite mission
-250+ quests
-Heros!
-PvP hero Battles
-new elite Area Domain Of Anguish

GW2 after 18 months:
-Scarlet
-Southsun cove
-fractals
-2 new heal skills
-1 new dungeon path

This is exactly what’s wrong, we have had nothing of substance added and nothing to look forward too other than a new dragon and LS part 2 which if I correctly read the comments from yesterday’s interview they are postponing due to CDI and customer feedback. Here’s all the feedback you require, start adding substantial content to the game and or stop expecting us to support the gem store, it’s as simple as that!

I don’t want to hear anymore over inflated hype, I want more content or my wallet stays closed. I’ve supported you for over 18 months and that wasn’t so you could dump development into the Chinese release it was for you to continue to develop more content for us to play.

Now let’s be fair at least when throwing numbers around. Someone made this nice picture for the one year anniversary.

http://abload.de/img/gw2yearone6jkfp.png

Rouven.7409:

Now let’s be fair at least when throwing numbers around. Someone made this nice picture for the one year anniversary.

http://abload.de/img/gw2yearone6jkfp.png

Yup that’s a mighty fine piece of work, kind of helps some up the point nicely. Wallet remains closed until an expansion regardless of what new skins or trinkets are thrown my way.

Wynne.3908:

Guild Wars After 12 months:
- 240 new skills
-90 new Elite skills
-2 new proffesions
-1 new World map
-4 new guild halls
-13 new co-op missions
-5 new challenge missions
-2 new elite missions
-2 competitive missions
-200+ new quests
-New PvP Alliance battles
-New elite area Sorrow’s Furnace
-New elite area The Underworld
-New elite area Fissure of Woe
-New elite area the Deep
-New elite area Urgoz’s Warren

GW1 After 18 Months: All of the above+
-350 new skills
-110 new elite skills
-2 new proffesions
-1 new World Map
-4 new Guild Halls
-20 new missions
-3 new challenge missions
-1 new elite mission
-250+ quests
-Heros!
-PvP hero Battles
-new elite Area Domain Of Anguish

GW2 after 18 months:
-Scarlet
-Southsun cove
-fractals
-2 new heal skills
-1 new dungeon path

If you list all the “goodies” they added in gem store I think it evens out. so all is good in their eyes i think

The whole game has become Trainwars 2….
Everywhere you go there’s nothing else but trains going round and round….^^
Even wvw if you look at it closely its just a train going round and round nothing else….

Never seen a game that has this much train…wat is this? Trainwars2?

OP, you nearly made me tear up there, what you wrote is so accurate to everything that is wrong in this game it’s just a pleasure to read. After 100% of my guild left the game I stood up alone to defend this game, now 5 months later I feel like a lone soldier who has nothing to defend anymore… I am still connecting to this game maybe once every 2-3 weeks but it has nothing to offer me to keep me on so I transfered to D3 instead. I don’t care about fancy wardrobe patches and it’s even worse now having level 1’s running around with legendary weapons.

I think the nail in the coffin for me was one thing I read lattely that anet posted I don’t remember where saying that they liked LS season 1 so much they are really excited for the next season which doesn’t imply any sort of expansion…..

Vlad Morbius.1759:

Yup that’s a mighty fine piece of work, kind of helps some up the point nicely. Wallet remains closed until an expansion regardless of what new skins or trinkets are thrown my way.

If someone starts counting then he should count correct, that’s all.

BloodFallsSilent.1703:

In some ways I think this is like EA’s move into mobile. Telling their customers “The new dungeon keeper wasn’t made for you, it was made for a new generation of fans”. Clearly, gw2 was not made to appease the people who played gw1. Maybe at one point that was the intention, but then some committee got ahold of it and now it’s just one big hot mess.

Guild Wars had a well established niche crowd of gamers it had catered too and it did it extremely well but unfortunately the niche crowd wasn’t desirable.

Rouven.7409:

Vlad Morbius.1759:

Yup that’s a mighty fine piece of work, kind of helps some up the point nicely. Wallet remains closed until an expansion regardless of what new skins or trinkets are thrown my way.

If someone starts counting then he should count correct, that’s all.

I agree but in all honesty it doesn’t even compare….not by a stretch.

Some of you have to think long and hard about why they are still here.

Constructive criticism offers specific solutions, but some of you just like to indulge in negativity and you like it. Note I am saying some of you, not all.

Does this game really take up so much of your free-time even though you seem so displeased with everything? Why do you still play?

Why are you still here?

I tell you why! Because you like the complaining without offering construcive solutions, you like the people here that tell each other how everything was better in the past and how those times never come back and everything is kittenty and dumb and it sucks. You like that.

Find something positive, if it is not in this game, then just leave and come back later.

Oh, and some of you are just trolls, that’s for sure.

Gahro.4095:

Some of you have to think long and hard about why they are still here.

Constructive criticism offers specific solutions, but some of you just like to indulge in negativity and you like it. Note I am saying some of you, not all.

Does this game really take up so much of your free-time even though you seem so displeased with everything? Why do you still play?

Why are you still here?

I tell you why! Because you like the complaining without offering construcive solutions, you like the people here that tell each other how everything was better in the past and how those times never come back and everything is kittenty and dumb and it sucks. You like that.

Find something positive, if it is not in this game, then just leave and come back later.

Oh, and some of you are just trolls, that’s for sure.

Sounds like you’re just upset that some people have found faults with a game that you personally enjoy.

Everything you said is 100% exactly how most if not all of us seasoned mmo players feel. It’s those that have never played an mmo before gw2 or are just starting to play mmos that will disagree with you.
Good job and excellent commentary.