Guild Wars 2

Let’s just put a few hobbies down here:
- football: 2 times 1 hour training a week and 1 90 minutes match.
- Counter-Strike: a 12 game clanwar takes no longer than half an hour. You can dose them as much as you like… one per week at low+ or 20 a day at hi++
- running a marathon: once you are trained this is less than 3 hours, and you don’t do one weekly. Training for it is 3 times a week about 2 hours.
- reading Da Vinci Code: 5 hours
- reading 15 whodunnit pockets : one afternoon
- practicing musical performance: 2 hours a week
- practicing for an extremely good (amateur level) musical performance: 2 times 2 hours a week

- becoming r14 in vanilla WoW: 14 hours a day for 1 month straight
- gathering a legendary: 2 hours a day consistently for several months or 2 weeks hardcore.

Only three things come to mind that come even near this level of dedication:
- getting kitten laude in my final year at university
- training for Ironman triathlon which I won’t do because of this time commitment
- deadlines at work which sometimes go over this for shorter periods of time

Not that I mind hard, long term goals but people say a legendary “only” takes 2 hours a day for several months. That’s not a casual time commitment, that’s actually pretty hardcore, considering most people actually have a job, family and friends. I don’t know why people have this deluded idea that “merely 2 hours a day” is a casual time investment? Most days I actually struggle with completing the daily achievement. Not that I mind… I’d go for a legendary anyways, I’ve got years…

Until I heard about ascended items. I love ascended items as a one time gear increment. Nice to have another long time goal. If it becomes a tiered system however, it’ll be devastating for people like me (the absolute majority of players) who will fall behind and never be able to join pvp, dungeons, guilds etc. It happened in other games with tiered gear, I really don’t want it to happen to my favourite game.

Two hours a day is not a casual time investment, it’s pretty hardcore by standards set in all other games and past times. An MMO is the perfect thing to lose myself after a hard day of work, but it shouldn’t feel like a second job and that’s exactly what most MMOs are, a world for people without jobs and students neglecting their classes.

I agree. Most days I’m lucky if I can find time to log in at all, let alone 2 hours.

However, as much as I fear a gear grind, I’ll wait for future expansions and updates before I make any hard conclusions about wether ascended will be a treadmill yes or no. Right now, it seems doable, even for a die-hard-casual like me. But I’ll just wait and see.

Two hours a day is 2 TV shows. You’re telling me most people in the world are unable to watch 2 TV shows in one day because it’s a hardcore time commitment and they have lives?

I have played plenty of MMO’s with adult, working people, many of whom were married and/or had children. You don’t have to be “people without jobs and students neglecting their classes” to play an MMO for 2 hours.

If you’re really this pissed about the time commitment, guess what? You don’t HAVE to make a legendary! And I bet Arenanet doesn’t expect about 95% of the game’s population to! There are so many other things to do in this game… why not take advantage of them?

Kana.6793:

Two hours a day is 2 TV shows. You’re telling me most people in the world are unable to watch 2 TV shows in one day because it’s a hardcore time commitment and they have lives?

I have played plenty of MMO’s with adult, working people, many of whom were married and/or had children. You don’t have to be “people without jobs and students neglecting their classes” to play an MMO for 2 hours.

Two hours? Sure. Two hours A DAY? Not a chance.

Sure, I’ve known people with children who were able to game hours every night. While their spouse was in the background taking care of the kids, doing the cooking, cleaning etc… If you’re lucky enough to have such a partner, sure, you can game for hours a day. However, if you are the kind of person who shares the household responsibility equally, there is no way you can game two hours a day unless it’s the only hobby you have and you don’t need much sleep.

…I work a full time job and I can play Guild Wars 2 for two hours a day. I also work out and study. This post is irrelevant as, after sleep, there are still 16-18 hours in a day.

MasterGeese.4756:

If you’re really this pissed about the time commitment, guess what? You don’t HAVE to make a legendary! And I bet Arenanet doesn’t expect about 95% of the game’s population to! There are so many other things to do in this game… why not take advantage of them?

This is not about the legendary. Me and the OP have long accepted that a legendary will take years for us, and we’re fine with that.

However, if Anet plans to introduce a gear grind, we will gradually fall further and further away stat-wise. And that will lock us out of content we otherwise could have enjoyed. THAT is the concern here.

Not to mention if you do get 2 hours of personal time a day (really it is a lot) then that means you are dedicating 100% of your free time to a single game. That’s pretty hardcore…

Tosha Daydreamer.9251:

Kana.6793:

Two hours a day is 2 TV shows. You’re telling me most people in the world are unable to watch 2 TV shows in one day because it’s a hardcore time commitment and they have lives?

I have played plenty of MMO’s with adult, working people, many of whom were married and/or had children. You don’t have to be “people without jobs and students neglecting their classes” to play an MMO for 2 hours.

Two hours? Sure. Two hours A DAY? Not a chance.

Sure, I’ve known people with children who were able to game hours every night. While their spouse was in the background taking care of the kids, doing the cooking, cleaning etc… If you’re lucky enough to have such a partner, sure, you can game for hours a day. However, if you are the kind of person who shares the household responsibility equally, there is no way you can game two hours a day unless it’s the only hobby you have and you don’t need much sleep.

+1

It is the main reason I play GW2: I can (could) be sure, that even with 3-5 hours a week I will sooner or later maximize my char statwise and do not have to care about gear afterwards. The moment I see the the necessary of constant grinding in this game implementend, I quit.

Reading Da Vinci Code: 5 hours

I wish I could read that fast, I would be a lot smarter.

Just playing every single day of any amount is pretty hardcore, that means something is dominating your life, good or bad.

You really don’t have to get legendary gear. Legendary gear should be extremely tough to get and require a lot of commitment. I’d prefer to never get legendary gear because I have other things going on than have a completely watered down set of gear because some people wanted it but didn’t want to actually work towards it.

Tosha Daydreamer.9251:

MasterGeese.4756:

If you’re really this pissed about the time commitment, guess what? You don’t HAVE to make a legendary! And I bet Arenanet doesn’t expect about 95% of the game’s population to! There are so many other things to do in this game… why not take advantage of them?

This is not about the legendary. Me and the OP have long accepted that a legendary will take years for us, and we’re fine with that.

However, if Anet plans to introduce a gear grind, we will gradually fall further and further away stat-wise. And that will lock us out of content we otherwise could have enjoyed. THAT is the concern here.

After reading through the forum i take back my comment, and agree with all of you guys.

Lani.1429:

Tosha Daydreamer.9251:

MasterGeese.4756:

If you’re really this pissed about the time commitment, guess what? You don’t HAVE to make a legendary! And I bet Arenanet doesn’t expect about 95% of the game’s population to! There are so many other things to do in this game… why not take advantage of them?

This is not about the legendary. Me and the OP have long accepted that a legendary will take years for us, and we’re fine with that.

However, if Anet plans to introduce a gear grind, we will gradually fall further and further away stat-wise. And that will lock us out of content we otherwise could have enjoyed. THAT is the concern here.

With such a slight stat boost i doubt it will effect you or any other casual gamer

That’s why I called it a “concern” and didn’t go on a full tantrum :p It’s small now, and I hope it stays that way. And I hope they won’t introduce any more tiers – i.e a gear grind.

Kana.6793:

Two hours a day is 2 TV shows. You’re telling me most people in the world are unable to watch 2 TV shows in one day because it’s a hardcore time commitment and they have lives?

I have played plenty of MMO’s with adult, working people, many of whom were married and/or had children. You don’t have to be “people without jobs and students neglecting their classes” to play an MMO for 2 hours.

I play while I watch TV shows. Otherwise I would not have time for anything. And I don’t want to miss either. So excepting for storyline (both personal story and storyline in dungeons), while I play I’m watching shows in my old computer.

Nowadays there’s many available good games and the offer keeps increasing as the industry grows, so people are thorn by choice. If you play GW2, you don’t play Borderlands 2, or any other game you want to play too.
Same happens with TV series. If you watch this series, and unless you can watch them at the same time like Elemental’s Sherlock Holmes or Star Trek’s Data you can’t watch that other one, and thy keep piling up if you can’t make some time to watch them.

Anyways, most people in the world are unable to watch 2 TV shows not because it’s a hardcore commitment, but because they do not have a TV or anything like it, and they may not even have something to eat. Try to keep that in mind. Some Monty Python and some Cyanide & Happiness help to keep such things in mind, as it seems that it’s something easily forgettable.

why is it that people feel the need to work towards better gear? this game was meant to be an even playing field for all players regardless of time commitment, where PvP(read sPvP, WvW, tPvP) outcomes were determined by skill and understanding of game mechanics. Adding a new tier of gear is just postponing this “lack of endgame” problem until later. Once people have kitted out completely in ascended gear, ANet is back to their original problem.

this is coming from someone in the hardcore community (500+ hours with a full time job)

for the record i do not see a lack of endgame, as there wasn’t an intended endgame to begin with. Just get your max gear and play for the sake of playing the game.

There is no subscription fee, so you don’t need to play this game every minute of every day unless you enjoy it. Anet doesn’t need to keep you playing month after month consistently, they’ll just get you back with events, new pvp arena’s and challenges. Believe or not, they are very good at adding content that doesn’t leave players feeling left behind because they missed an update. As someone with over 3000 hours on GW1 so I can verify that they are capable.

Now as for this update, I personally don’t think it is the end of the world. At most its just a jab in the ribs. They have said they aren’t turning this into a gear treadmill so I’m going to for now give them the benefit of the doubt for reasons already mentioned. If done right, the infusion mechanic could be interesting. I won;t know until the content comes out.

If this does turn out to be the start of a treadmill ( which i do doubt) then i will leave the game with no hard feelings. I have already played a long time with full exotics and enjoyed lots the game has to offer at the current maximum.

1: Why do you HAVE to get your legendary in 2 weeks?
2: Some of enjoy a hobby beyond a 2 week period.

The other hobbies you list are one time events. Reading a single book takes X hours. Does a person that reads for pleasure only read one book then quit? Counterstrike clanwars, so you only do one then quit and move on?
You are seriously comparing getting a legendary weapon with graduating college!?
Your examples are completely and flat out wrong here.

I have a not-so-stressful or time consuming job, typically 9-5. I get home around 6, have dinner and tidy up, so its about 7 before I have any “free” time. Now put into that time for commitments such as family/friends/girlfriends (those take the most time hehe), and other hobbies or responsibilities.

I go to bed 10:30-11, that gives me 3/4 hours a day of free time in which I have to fit a whole bunch of stuff. I really dont see why I should be penalised because some unemployed guy plays 12 hours a day, I used to be able to do that sometimes as a student, but not any more. Gives those guys something to work for, a vanity item, legendaries titles, thats fine – that has no impact on me or the relative effectiveness of my gear.

So dedicate less time? I mean it depends on how important that legendary weapon is to you. I personally couldn’t give a hoot. I know you came up with two hours a day because I used it as an example in my other thread. Fact is that if you want to spend only four hours a week instead of two hours a day then all it means is you get your legendary later. Since you claim to have a life, I don’t think you would be all to concerned over when exactly you get your legendary, right?

Eain.7825:

So dedicate less time? I mean it depends on how important that legendary weapon is to you. I personally couldn’t give a hoot. I know you came up with two hours a day because I used it as an example in my other thread. Fact is that if you want to spend only four hours a week instead of two hours a day then all it means is you get your legendary later. Since you claim to have a life, I don’t think you would be all to concerned over when exactly you get your legendary, right?

Sigh

It is not about getting a legendary. Read the first post again, and this time, read it all the way to the end.

Again, what Anet has done, which wasn’t part of the community before, has ignited this same old “hardcore” v “casual” gamer nonsense that is part of every other MMO community.

Up until this Ascended item stuff, I rarely heard anything about this divide. Low and behold release some content like this, and it turns into every other MMO community in the history of the genre. “Hardcore” players rushing through content, complaining stuff isn’t hard enough or is to easy to get time wise. “Casual” players saying the complete opposite.

Way to bring the community together, something that I really thought was a pretty strong point of the game until the last few days and the discussion on this new content.

marnick.4305:

Until I heard about ascended items. I love ascended items as a one time gear increment. Nice to have another long time goal. If it becomes a tiered system however, it’ll be devastating for people like me (the absolute majority of players) who will fall behind and never be able to join pvp, dungeons, guilds etc. It happened in other games with tiered gear, I really don’t want it to happen to my favourite game.

This is botched reasoning. If the absolute majority of players is without means of getting all these cool new items, isn’t the playing field still level? The absolute majority of players cannot be unfair to the absolute majority of players. It would only be a problem if the absolute majority DID get all the gear and a minority that never could would be victimised. Fortunately it’s the other way around, and all we’re dealing with here is a glorified case of “I want what he has otherwise it’s unfair.”

One has to deplore a modern life where people do not have just 2 personal hours a day to pursue a hobby or interest.

Maybe robots would run society just fine. Maybe we are not that far off.

Totally agreed. I hardly have time to log on every time, let alone 2 hours per day!

Xenon.4537:

“Now the sound of music comes in silver pills,
Engineered to suit you building cheaper thrills.”

You want quick-fast, casual, cheap, nuggets of video game to snack on in between your busy life? Go play Super Mario. MMOs are supposed to be time-consuming.

Guild Wars isn’t supposed to be like any other MMO.

Xenon.4537:

You want quick-fast, casual, cheap, nuggets of video game to snack on in between your busy life? Go play Super Mario. MMOs are supposed to be time-consuming.

This one wasn’t meant to be time consuming like other MMOs, it’s the whole reason a lot of people bought it

I always wonder why people cry about having no time yet decide to play a bloody MMO. Stick to your xbox then.

Xenon.4537:

Games with a subscription fee are supposed to be time-consuming.

Fixed it for you.

Lutharr.1035:

I always wonder why people cry about having no time yet decide to play a bloody MMO. Stick to your xbox then.

I think you are on the wrong forum, this is the “Guild Wars 2” forum, not the Eve, WoW, Lortro, Runescape … forum o.o

Quaz.4931:

Lutharr.1035:

I always wonder why people cry about having no time yet decide to play a bloody MMO. Stick to your xbox then.

I think you are on the wrong forum, this is the “Guild Wars 2” forum, not the Eve, WoW, Lortro, Runescape … forum o.o

No im in the correct forum. Or would my views only be worth something if they acknowledge your a special snowflake who is so important you cant possibly play to much on a game.

Funny your time is such a rare comodity yet your wasting it on a forum about a game.

marnick.4305:

Let’s just put a few hobbies down here:
- football: 2 times 1 hour training a week and 1 90 minutes match.
- Counter-Strike: a 12 game clanwar takes no longer than half an hour. You can dose them as much as you like… one per week at low+ or 20 a day at hi++
- running a marathon: once you are trained this is less than 3 hours, and you don’t do one weekly. Training for it is 3 times a week about 2 hours.
- reading Da Vinci Code: 5 hours
- reading 15 whodunnit pockets : one afternoon
- practicing musical performance: 2 hours a week
- practicing for an extremely good (amateur level) musical performance: 2 times 2 hours a week

- becoming r14 in vanilla WoW: 14 hours a day for 1 month straight
- gathering a legendary: 2 hours a day consistently for several months or 2 weeks hardcore.

Only three things come to mind that come even near this level of dedication:
- getting kitten laude in my final year at university
- training for Ironman triathlon which I won’t do because of this time commitment
- deadlines at work which sometimes go over this for shorter periods of time

Not that I mind hard, long term goals but people say a legendary “only” takes 2 hours a day for several months. That’s not a casual time commitment, that’s actually pretty hardcore, considering most people actually have a job, family and friends. I don’t know why people have this deluded idea that “merely 2 hours a day” is a casual time investment? Most days I actually struggle with completing the daily achievement. Not that I mind… I’d go for a legendary anyways, I’ve got years…

Until I heard about ascended items. I love ascended items as a one time gear increment. Nice to have another long time goal. If it becomes a tiered system however, it’ll be devastating for people like me (the absolute majority of players) who will fall behind and never be able to join pvp, dungeons, guilds etc. It happened in other games with tiered gear, I really don’t want it to happen to my favourite game.

Two hours a day is not a casual time investment, it’s pretty hardcore by standards set in all other games and past times. An MMO is the perfect thing to lose myself after a hard day of work, but it shouldn’t feel like a second job and that’s exactly what most MMOs are, a world for people without jobs and students neglecting their classes.

2 hours a day is nothing really….. it all depends on what kind of person you are, for example, all the thing that you do, makes me look like a extremely lazy person :P

I can easily play for 2 hours a day…. no problem, even during busy times (I study at university, so have busy times, and then not so busy times…)

That being said, I don’t play GW2 for 2 hours a day…. I did the first month after release, but then it’s been downhill from there, and now I haven’t even logged in for a couple of days, just waiting for the patch…. (witch will be make or break for me)

For me to play 2 hours a day, the game has to be really fun.

marnick.4305:

Let’s just put a few hobbies down here:
- football: 2 times 1 hour training a week and 1 90 minutes match.
- Counter-Strike: a 12 game clanwar takes no longer than half an hour. You can dose them as much as you like… one per week at low+ or 20 a day at hi++
- running a marathon: once you are trained this is less than 3 hours, and you don’t do one weekly. Training for it is 3 times a week about 2 hours.
- reading Da Vinci Code: 5 hours
- reading 15 whodunnit pockets : one afternoon
- practicing musical performance: 2 hours a week
- practicing for an extremely good (amateur level) musical performance: 2 times 2 hours a week

- becoming r14 in vanilla WoW: 14 hours a day for 1 month straight
- gathering a legendary: 2 hours a day consistently for several months or 2 weeks hardcore.

Only three things come to mind that come even near this level of dedication:
- getting kitten laude in my final year at university
- training for Ironman triathlon which I won’t do because of this time commitment
- deadlines at work which sometimes go over this for shorter periods of time

Not that I mind hard, long term goals but people say a legendary “only” takes 2 hours a day for several months. That’s not a casual time commitment, that’s actually pretty hardcore, considering most people actually have a job, family and friends. I don’t know why people have this deluded idea that “merely 2 hours a day” is a casual time investment? Most days I actually struggle with completing the daily achievement. Not that I mind… I’d go for a legendary anyways, I’ve got years…

Until I heard about ascended items. I love ascended items as a one time gear increment. Nice to have another long time goal. If it becomes a tiered system however, it’ll be devastating for people like me (the absolute majority of players) who will fall behind and never be able to join pvp, dungeons, guilds etc. It happened in other games with tiered gear, I really don’t want it to happen to my favourite game.

Two hours a day is not a casual time investment, it’s pretty hardcore by standards set in all other games and past times. An MMO is the perfect thing to lose myself after a hard day of work, but it shouldn’t feel like a second job and that’s exactly what most MMOs are, a world for people without jobs and students neglecting their classes.

2 hours a day is nothing really….. it all depends on what kind of person you are, for example, all the thing that you do, makes me look like a extremely lazy person :P

I can easily play for 2 hours a day…. no problem, even during busy times (I study at university, so have busy times, and then not so busy times…)

That being said, I don’t play GW2 for 2 hours a day…. I did the first month after release, but then it’s been downhill from there, and now I haven’t even logged in for a couple of days, just waiting for the patch…. (witch will be make or break for me)

For me to play 2 hours a day, the game has to be really fun.

Lutharr.1035:

Quaz.4931:

Lutharr.1035:

I always wonder why people cry about having no time yet decide to play a bloody MMO. Stick to your xbox then.

I think you are on the wrong forum, this is the “Guild Wars 2” forum, not the Eve, WoW, Lortro, Runescape … forum o.o

No im in the correct forum. Or would my views only be worth something if they acknowledge your a special snowflake who is so important you cant possibly play to much on a game.

Funny your time is such a rare comodity yet your wasting it on a forum about a game.

I use the forum to have momentary breaks at work, to allow me to refocus on what I was doing (atm I am doing something quite monotonous).

The game was sold as something casual friendly, casuals don’t have much time to play. Therefore adhereing to the hardcore crowd makes the casuals (or rather those with committments outside of gaming) annoyed, can you now see the problem?

casual friendly and catered sololy for are 2 very different things.

US and UK citizens average 28 hrs of television viewing per week. For all the countries GW2 is aimed, the average is over 22 hrs of television per week.

Finding an average 2 hours per day, if that’s how you want to do it, is easy enough. Just trade half your tv time for the game.

But hey, this is GW2, no subscription, nothing is a race. So play more or play less, it’s all up to you.

Lutharr.1035:

casual friendly and catered sololy for are 2 very different things.

Sorry I should have rephrased that,

This game was built from the ground up to be a casual MMO, particularly if Guild Wars 1 was anything to go by. Being hardcore friendly is fine, as long as it doesn’t impede the relative stat based power of casuals.

Content, no experience bars or rare drops, were what was marketed to me and that is what I expect. Skill > Grind is the manifesto in a nutshell, I should be able to PvE for 2 hours a day, while you PvE for 8 hours a day and the only thing that should impact our ability to run a dungeon is our skills (reaction times, team coordination, problem solving etc.) sure you may get prettier items than me, but I still get to play the dungeon as well as you can.

Honestly the whole casual vs. hardcore thing argument has been dissected to ridiculous levels. Comparing it to other activities like comparing oranges to apple, makes that much sense. Reading the DaVinci code? Seriously wth?

When I am busy with life, I don’t really worry about what I am achieving in online gaming. Nor does it bother me that people who are allocating more time to video games are acquiring items (legendaries) that my time budget does not allow for.

After all if decide to play football, learn a musical instrument, have a “life”, cook, read a book and then complain I don’t have time to complete activities in an online MMORPG, then its quite simply my own kitten fault!

This games already offers something for people with different “time budgets”. If your previous decisions in life don’t allow you to have the time budge to complete a certain activity in this moment of your life, then tough luck man. Thats life.

I just don’t understand how we got to this point, where I sit down to play a game and I expect the company to have made the game to fit my particular schedule O.o. Then everyone who actually has time to complete something because they have the time (for whatever reason) has to be looked down upon.

Lets man up and accept the consequences of our choices ok? In this case it would be you don’t have enough time to complete a legendary as fast as you would like because your life does not allow it. This is not Anet fault… but you will get one; eventually…

Bah Im ranting O.o

Pradton.8576:

Honestly the whole casual vs. hardcore thing argument has been dissected to ridiculous levels. Comparing it to other activities like comparing oranges to apple, makes that much sense. Reading the DaVinci code? Seriously wth?

When I am busy with life, I don’t really worry about what I am achieving in online gaming. Nor does it bother me that people who are allocating more time to video games are acquiring items (legendaries) that my time budget does not allow for.

After all if decide to play football, learn a musical instrument, have a “life”, cook, read a book and then complain I don’t have time to complete activities in an online MMORPG, then its quite simply my own kitten fault!

This games already offers something for people with different “time budgets”. If your previous decisions in life don’t allow you to have the time budge to complete a certain activity in this moment of your life, then tough luck man. Thats life.

I just don’t understand how we got to this point, where I sit down to play a game and I expect the company to have made the game to fit my particular schedule O.o. Then everyone who actually has time to complete something because they have the time (for whatever reason) has to be looked down upon.

Lets man up and accept the consequences of our choices ok? In this case it would be you don’t have enough time to complete a legendary as fast as you would like because your life does not allow it. This is not Anet fault… but you will get one; eventually…

Bah Im ranting O.o

this post wasn’t about legendaries, infact OP said he doesn’t mind taking his/her time making it even if it takes years.

marnick.4305:

Let’s just put a few hobbies down here:
- football: 2 times 1 hour training a week and 1 90 minutes match.
- Counter-Strike: a 12 game clanwar takes no longer than half an hour. You can dose them as much as you like… one per week at low+ or 20 a day at hi++
- running a marathon: once you are trained this is less than 3 hours, and you don’t do one weekly. Training for it is 3 times a week about 2 hours.
- reading Da Vinci Code: 5 hours
- reading 15 whodunnit pockets : one afternoon
- practicing musical performance: 2 hours a week
- practicing for an extremely good (amateur level) musical performance: 2 times 2 hours a week

- becoming r14 in vanilla WoW: 14 hours a day for 1 month straight
- gathering a legendary: 2 hours a day consistently for several months or 2 weeks hardcore.

Only three things come to mind that come even near this level of dedication:
- getting kitten laude in my final year at university
- training for Ironman triathlon which I won’t do because of this time commitment
- deadlines at work which sometimes go over this for shorter periods of time

Not that I mind hard, long term goals but people say a legendary “only” takes 2 hours a day for several months. That’s not a casual time commitment, that’s actually pretty hardcore, considering most people actually have a job, family and friends. I don’t know why people have this deluded idea that “merely 2 hours a day” is a casual time investment? Most days I actually struggle with completing the daily achievement. Not that I mind… I’d go for a legendary anyways, I’ve got years…

Until I heard about ascended items. I love ascended items as a one time gear increment. Nice to have another long time goal. If it becomes a tiered system however, it’ll be devastating for people like me (the absolute majority of players) who will fall behind and never be able to join pvp, dungeons, guilds etc. It happened in other games with tiered gear, I really don’t want it to happen to my favourite game.

Two hours a day is not a casual time investment, it’s pretty hardcore by standards set in all other games and past times. An MMO is the perfect thing to lose myself after a hard day of work, but it shouldn’t feel like a second job and that’s exactly what most MMOs are, a world for people without jobs and students neglecting their classes.

Lol really? You put a timetable to your hobby? As far as I know a hobby is something you do because it gives you happiness/fun. So in other words usually you persue to do it as much as possible in your spare time.

So no….you shouldn’t be forced to play a game….you should WANT to play the game for the hours they supposedly force you with the gun on your head according to your words….

I have a job for 60-65 hours per week and I still mange to steal 3 hours per day to play this game (more during weekends of course). Because I am an achiever in my RL I also tend to want to achieve and progress in my hobby as well.

As far as I can tell, the ride up to now in GW2 was marvelous…and I am pretty confident it will remain as such even with gear addition. I don’t mind as long as there is something to do in the game.

I don’t think there’s anything on the horizon for this game that would challenge a casual player’s approach to the game, except that if you look at what’s been said about the fractals, you may need more than 2 hours to get through a set.

It will, obviously, take an infrequent player more days to progress through the content, but probably not notably more hours on task.

Here’s an example – my son is an ardent GW2 player, but he’s also a 3-sport athlete and plays in 2 extra music groups while being an honors student. So he’s still a deer in pvp rank and hasn’t attained level 80 yet, probably has fewer than 10 gold across all his characters. There are a lot of things in the game he can’t do yet that a 2-hr/day player can do. He’s still 1 zone away from Orr, and sadly his story quest is stuck in the 50s due to a bug. So, technically, right now he can’t do everything in the game. YET

You playing 2 hrs per day, for a while you were a long ways behind those who played 8 hrs a day. Once you catch up, you’ll be able to do the content.

The issue that the original poster has is that you have to play 2 hours a day just to get the tools to be able to play.

What chess player has to play 2 hours a day to unlock all his chess pieces?
It doesn’t cost you 2 hours of playing per day to get a new football for your team right?

Everyone is so sure that they’re style of playing is THE style of playing. Amazing entitlement. MMO’s are made for people with time on their hand, and if you don’t have time for them, you should play short term games. All these ridiculous analogies won’t change that, nor will they make MMO players play games that are quick, easy and have no long-term goals.

Also, you can read Davinci Code and similar pop literature in 5 minutes, 5 hours or 5 weeks. You will be no more intelligent than before you opened the book, and if anything, less informed. The point is that according to the analogies favored here, if it takes the OP 5 hours to read the book, then it’s wrong to write a book that takes longer to read…

Loxias.2375:

[…]

Also, you can read Davinci Code and similar pop literature in 5 minutes, 5 hours or 5 weeks. You will be no more intelligent than before you opened the book, and if anything, less informed. The point is that according to the analogies favored here, if it takes the OP 5 hours to read the book, then it’s wrong to write a book that takes longer to read…

Not really. It’ll be like having to decode the book several times with some decoding process before reading the book, and adding unnecessary extra time to the read, because some enjoy jumping through superfluous hoops using some silly decoding wheel instead reading directly the book.

I just got the game and feel that 2 hours a day of play really isn’t all that much. I can see players getting 2 hours of rest from the game a day!

This is the first game in 2 years that’s taken me away from Starcraft 2, never really had the MMO bug before (used to MuD way back when) this game came out and now it’s sucking all my free time away.

More towards the point, getting 2 hours to game a day even for a busy professional with a family is not that hard, especially once you learn to get by with 6 hours of sleep.

I can play 2 hours a day.

I work full time plus on call stuff. I have children. A spouse. I go to school 3 days a week.

Do I play everyday? Nope, I play when I can usually 2 days during the week I am not in school for a couple hours. I play more on the weekend after the chores are done… My spouse also plays and has commitments to boy scouts with my son.

It’s all time management…. If you have less time to play then maybe the mmo genre is not for you.

2 HOURS A DAY ?

Ok fine if you are a school kid with nothing to do, or a student or unemployed.

Well I’m married with 3 kids and I get up just around 6:15am every morning whether it is for work or kids (who are used to getting up when I do for work). They go to bed at 7pm and I need at least 1 hour to do chores after the kids are in bed.

This means if I want to get a normal 8 hours sleep in that I would be dedicating every single moment of my life not spent working or with my kids to playing GW2. I realize not all people have this schedule and it’s my choice. I could be a poor husband and a poor father by ignoring my kids and wife by playing video games but I choose not to.

I generally play once every 2nd or 3rd night for about 3 hours at a time with a bit here or there on the weekend if the family is out which gives me about 10-12 hours a week most weeks.

I think if I dedicated all my spare time to farming one item in one game for months I need to take a second look at the value of doing that. If it’s through fun gameplay then maybe, monotonous farming… no thanks.

Grim.6415:

Well I’m married with 3 kids and I get up just around 6:15am every morning whether it is for work or kids (who are used to getting up when I do for work). They go to bed at 7pm and I need at least 1 hour to do chores after the kids are in bed.

This means if I want to get a normal 8 hours sleep in that I would be dedicating every single moment of my life not spent working or with my kids to playing GW2. I realize not all people have this schedule and it’s my choice. I could be a poor husband and a poor father by ignoring my kids and wife by playing video games but I choose not to.

I generally play once every 2nd or 3rd night for about 3 hours at a time with a bit here or there on the weekend if the family is out which gives me about 10-12 hours a week most weeks.

I think if I dedicated all my spare time to farming one item in one game for months I need to take a second look at the value of doing that. If it’s through fun gameplay then maybe, monotonous farming… no thanks.

Then maybe MMO’s aint a genre of games thats suitable to your lifestyle. I spent 15 years working my kitten off to be at a place now where I get up when I want. Do what I want. If I wanna play GW2 for 15 hours I can. When I couldnt play ANY games cos I was to busy I didnt think “Oh lets buy something I just cant get any value from.”

The problem alot of MMO’s face is that they want to be casual friendly but then some jump down their throats when they do anything for the players that wanna invest more time.

greg.3792:

2 HOURS A DAY ?

Ok fine if you are a school kid with nothing to do, or a student or unemployed.

So what am I then since I dont fit In any of your silly little groupings.

greg.3792:

2 HOURS A DAY ?

Ok fine if you are a school kid with nothing to do, or a student or unemployed.

Obviously you have made choices in your life that don’t allow you to invest a couple of hours a day into your personal interests. Fine. But to call those of us who do have reasonable personal time “school kids” or “unemployed” just comes off as jealous and bitter. I am a very busy professional person with major responsibilities, have two homes to care for, lots of friends, a spouse and dogs, but I have made choices in my life (like education and choosing not to have kids) that have allowed me to travel, explore the world around me, and….wait for it……devote up to two stinkin’ hours of my day toward doing something that relaxes me and gives me enjoyment. Wow, what a novel and wicked concept! Sometimes I use the time for reading or hiking rather than video games (it depends on the time of year and my mood), but it doesn’t matter what I do with the time, I have it available because I have structured it that way. I’m sorry you weren’t able to do the same.

The OP’s issue – which I also wonder about – is that if GW2 introduces a gear treadmill, s/he won’t ever be able to ‘catch up’ and do the content. There’ll always be a grind just to keep up with good quality gear, as higher gear gets introduced and content gets set to that level. I think it’s a reasonable concern, and is one of the many concerns I have right now about GW2 and ANet.

Two hours a day is a lot of time, yes. Most people would not be willing to commit that much time to a game, but those who do are rewarded. Large-scale games like this have to appeal to a wide range of players, some of whom DO play two hours a day, while still trying to make it fun for the rest of us who don’t.

My husband and I were hardcore raiders in WoW (5 hours a night, 5 days a week, plus farming for mats during the off-time) back in the day before children and commitments of real life took over. Gaming was our social time, entertainment/chill time, source of a feeling of achievement, etc… We had the best gear available because we put in the time for it. It would have ticked us off if players who decided to go into a dungeon one night a week should have the same gear as those who of us who committed much more time.

Same principle with the legendary items in GW2. Those who have those items have put in the time. If you don’t have the time, that’s fine, but don’t whine about it. Take joy in the fact that you sound like a very well-rounded person.