Guild Wars 2

Soo… I am very confused. And irritated. And sad. I have many emotions when it comes to Guild Wars 2 nowadays, and unfortunately, none of them are positive.

I’ve been playing this game for a while now. Picked it up a month or two after release. Played the hell out of it, got a couple 80s out of the deal. Loved the game so very much, even considered it my favorite MMO of all time.

Then an unfortunate thing happened: Real life caught up with me. Due to real life being a general pain, I had to stop playing while I sort things out. Ended up having to move to a different state and get resettled, so on and so forth.

So, a few months later, I decide to play some Guild Wars 2 again. I sit through the patch with excitement as I eagerly await the chance to be behind the wheel of my favorite characters again.

Finally, the play button pops, and I click it and hop onto my warrior. And that is when my heart sank. Suddenly, I had missed so much of these weird micro-expansion things that appear to always be going on now. I was unable to log in without getting assaulted by these achievement chests that neither give me anything useful or make me feel like I did ANYTHING to deserve it. I won’t even try to look at my achievements anymore because whenever I do, I have no idea what is going on due to the UI change and the clogging of all these micro-expansions. I try to walk through Lions Arch a bit, but can’t really get anywhere because there are about 5 million people around occupying space and making it hard to see anything.

I dunno. I used to adore this game, but now I can’t even bring myself to stay logged in for more than half an hour a week. And that breaks my heart because this game used to be so good. For discussions sake, I guess… does anyone else remotely feel this way?

The chest backlog is due to the change in achievements. You’ll stop getting the one a day after it catches up to your achievement point reward (basically, you get one every 500). The rewards are all cosmetic to avoid power creep for those who play longer. The rest of the post frankly makes me think you’re trolling so if you could better explain you might get more help.

Honestly you didnt miss out on too much. They changed culling so now you see more people on your screen than you did before. You can change the settings in your options. I hope you get used to the changes and stick around. The game hasnt changed too much they have just made some additions and you can look them up all here:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/

champ.7021:

Honestly you didnt miss out on too much. They changed culling so now you see more people on your screen than you did before. You can change the settings in your options. I hope you get used to the changes and stick around. The game hasnt changed too much they have just made some additions and you can look them up all here:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/

Way to show the poor guy all the things that came and went that he CAN’T do anymore.

Nope. Firstly, I guess you are probably just overwhelmed by the gazillion changes that happened and accumulated over the considerable number of months since you last played, and then thrown right at you when you logged in back.

Secondly, I don’t know what you consider good, but while this game is strange in a way that it is extremely good and bad at the same time, at the very least there are still things enough to do to warrant a good hour or so at least of daily gameplay.

So it’s highly likely that you are just shocked after months of not logging in.

This isn’t a troll post. Not at all. I’m simply voicing my opinion on what the game is and what it used to be.

I completed almost all of Frost and Flame. Enjoyed it, even. I was saddened when I remembered that the only thing I missed was the ceremony at the very end. I thought “You know, that was a very unique thing that they just did, and I enjoyed it. I hope they do more of these from time to time.”

Instead, there were several, one right after another. Instead of seeing a bunch of unique stories, I saw busy work. I now had a Guild Wars 2 honey-do list. I saw so much new stuff dropping in the wrong places and at the wrong frequency. There is so much new stuff that comes and goes, yet it feels like the old stuff isn’t touched any more. I was hoping that by the time I could get back into the game, I’d see things like more fractals or an updated Super Adventure Box.

The main point I’m trying to get at is this: After being busy with real life for a few months, I come back to GW2 and am lost, confused, and heartbroken about what the game has become.

Sir Roland Karloseth.3798:

This isn’t a troll post. Not at all. I’m simply voicing my opinion on what the game is and what it used to be.

I completed almost all of Frost and Flame. Enjoyed it, even. I was saddened when I remembered that the only thing I missed was the ceremony at the very end. I thought “You know, that was a very unique thing that they just did, and I enjoyed it. I hope they do more of these from time to time.”

Instead, there were several, one right after another. Instead of seeing a bunch of unique stories, I saw busy work. I now had a Guild Wars 2 honey-do list. I saw so much new stuff dropping in the wrong places and at the wrong frequency. There is so much new stuff that comes and goes, yet it feels like the old stuff isn’t touched any more. I was hoping that by the time I could get back into the game, I’d see things like more fractals or an updated Super Adventure Box.

The main point I’m trying to get at is this: After being busy with real life for a few months, I come back to GW2 and am lost, confused, and heartbroken about what the game has become.

And yet your post sounds like you’re overwhelmed
1. You’re confused by quality of life updates (UI change)
2. You don’t like seeing people (I’m quite puzzled by that though)
3. Even though you were here when living story started to kick in you’re complaining about it now. It was designed to get players that log in every day something to do, while players playing every few months would still not fall behind, because the events don’t give any advantage to players that have done them.

And before making a post do read up on the website –
More fractals (3 of them) are coming at the end of the year
SAB is the next living story. You have about a week to wait at this point.

Sir Roland Karloseth.3798:

I completed almost all of Frost and Flame. Enjoyed it, even. I was saddened when I remembered that the only thing I missed was the ceremony at the very end. I thought “You know, that was a very unique thing that they just did, and I enjoyed it. I hope they do more of these from time to time.”

Except the whole point of Flame and Frost was to lead into their 2-week release schedule. It wasn’t designed to be a really special 1-time event, it was designed to be a show of what they plan on doing normally.

The best way to jump back in is to enjoy what you can and ignore/avoid what you can’t. Don’t dwell on the living story parts you missed. Play the parts of the game you like, there are enough to cater to a wide variety of people and personalities. If you don’t think the game’s for you anymore, then don’t play it anymore. Anet has expressly stated that this is the direction they want to take, so if that direction doesn’t interest you, you aren’t likely to enjoy the game’s future either.

I’m sorry if I come off as being callous, but the fact of the matter is that this is the direction Anet is heading, and they have been heading it for some time now. Flame and Frost was just an introduction to it.

EDIT:

I’d see things like more fractals or an updated Super Adventure Box.

You’re in luck! 3 new fractals are in development, and the community seems pretty sure that SAB is the next living story patch.

Sir Roland Karloseth.3798:

I dunno. I used to adore this game, but now I can’t even bring myself to stay logged in for more than half an hour a week. And that breaks my heart because this game used to be so good. For discussions sake, I guess… does anyone else remotely feel this way?

Don’t worry, you’re certainly not the only one that feels this way. There are quite a few posts on the subject of GW2’s “Living World” where plenty of people express similar feelings to yours.

They are, of course, shouted down by people who like this approach, and mostly ignored by ANet, but you’re certainly welcome to express your feelings. For all the good it will do.

Note that although ANet has commented that they have heard our feedback in regards to temporary content and has said that going forward they will concentrate on “more” permanent content, no one really knows what that means. Also, to my knowledge, ANet hasn’t commented much (if at all) on the subject of people being unhappy with the rapid release of these events except to say that they are “committed” to providing these on a two-week release schedule.

Whether you like it or not. (I don’t)

minbariguy.7504:

Whether you like it or not. (I don’t)

So if a theater was offering free concerts daily instead of being happy you would mope about the ones that you had to miss? What a weird approach to not like free stuff because it comes and goes instead of staying there permanently.

So is the main problem you have that the game makes you feel like you have to log in more than a half hour a week or that the content that they push out every 2 weeks is not that extensive?

Sorry but your post comes off as confused and the point about not wanting to see people in LA (I’d rather LA just stop crashing for me) makes this come across as a round about way to express dissatisfaction and tell people they should too. Are you looking for help acclimating to the new UI and such or just looking to complain? Complaining is fine (lots of threads complaining) just want to know what you’re doing.

I am incredibly overwhelmed. The new UI confuses and frustrates me when I try to navigate the achievement panel, so I don’t even try anymore. And it’s not that I don’t like seeing people, I just don’t like seeing ONLY people. Can’t see anything in Lion’s Arch EXCEPT for players.

And it’s not even about an advantage when it comes to the living stories. It’s quite simply this: I like achievements. I like them very much. I like to collect special limited time things like skins. I like to experience special events. And in order to do that, one must do nothing but play GW2. God forbid they take a kitten break for a bit so people can catch their breath. And if you get busy in real life for even a little bit, just forget about trying to keep your head above water.

Sir Roland Karloseth.3798:

The main point I’m trying to get at is this: After being busy with real life for a few months, I come back to GW2 and am lost, confused, and heartbroken about what the game has become.

This ought to happen in every mmorpg, not only in Guild Wars 2. But ESPECIALLY in Guild Wars 2 because of 1.) the rate of development is faster than other mmorpgs (and that’s a good thing!) and 2.) the introduction of Living Story.

Generally, mmorpg is a unique kind of game because of the fact that gameplay is never static. On one hand, developers can and most probably will change the game over time, by changing mechanics and adding contents, and that is what we normally know as the source of change. On the other hand though, even if the developers don’t do anything, game will still change over time because of the DYNAMICS of the game – the way that players behave in accordance to the game system and other players.

As far as the UI, can you be a bit more descriptive about what confuses you? How are you attempting to use it? Where do you get stymied?

People clutter can be an issue. I strongly suggest moving your character to another city. Divinities Reach is a good off city as it is still populated but not overly so. I personally hang out in the Grove because I just like it (small, easy to run around). The only thing you miss out on is easy access to the mystic forge, some (not all) badge vendors, and easy queueing for fractals (which can be solved with a simple port).

Okay, now you’re making me think you’re trolling again. You like limited items but you don’t like it when you take a break and you can no longer get them because they’re limited? Huh? Additionally, a lot of the limited items are coming back (e.g. the skins). The Adventure box is coming back. And we’re getting the limited dungeons back as fractals in the future probably. And believe me, the plot isn’t so complicated that you can’t be easily caught up on what happened if you’re worried about that.

Sir Roland Karloseth.3798:

I am incredibly overwhelmed. The new UI confuses and frustrates me when I try to navigate the achievement panel, so I don’t even try anymore. And it’s not that I don’t like seeing people, I just don’t like seeing ONLY people. Can’t see anything in Lion’s Arch EXCEPT for players.

The new UI is simple. I don’t know why you are having problems with it. You still can access the achievements the exact same way that you could before. All I can see in your thread in regards to this point is “I’m afraid of change!” which is really not good if you’ll want to keep up with the world.

There are settings for making the area less dense. It’s described as WvW settings, but you can select how far you want the game to render people and the quality of their models. Culling has been removed. That’s a good thing. The whole point of Massively online multiplayer is to see a massive amount of people.

Sir Roland Karloseth.3798:

And it’s not even about an advantage when it comes to the living stories. It’s quite simply this: I like achievements. I like them very much. I like to collect special limited time things like skins. I like to experience special events. And in order to do that, one must do nothing but play GW2. God forbid they take a kitten break for a bit so people can catch their breath. And if you get busy in real life for even a little bit, just forget about trying to keep your head above water.

Well that’s how MMOs normally go. If you can’t keep up, you can’t keep up. The only difference is that in this one all you missed is AP and some special skins that can be bought on TP anyway, instead of falling behind on a gear treadmill and having to abandon any future opportunity to participate in upcoming events.
Do you get this angry when you miss events in real life too? Events will happen whether you’re there or not. Should I sit at home and cry that I missed PAX now?

It’s the layout, really. It’s just… an eyesore now. And this is quite simply just in the achievements tab. Everything else is fine. I love the new wallet feature. And I’m sure I could wrap my head around it if I spent a couple hours navigating through the achievements tab and comparing what I know I have to what I don’t. It’s just troublesome, really.

And my issue with the limited time items is not that they are limited time and no longer available to me, it is quite simply the fact that I missed so many of them. I’m a collector of sorts. I got busy with real life and missed so much due to the rapid release of all this stuff that has the potential to be awesome. I’ll never know because I missed it all. The quantity of everything I missed in a short timeframe is really what gets to me.

Sir Roland Karloseth.3798:

God forbid they take a kitten break for a bit so people can catch their breath. And if you get busy in real life for even a little bit, just forget about trying to keep your head above water.

About he overwhelming bit of the UI, you’ll get used to it. I can understand your frustration about trying to collect achievements and skins (although these days it’s boring minis, IMO), but at the same time I’m glad it’s not a new tier of armor every two weeks to do the content like in other MMOs. Right now there’s a bunch of achievements for zerging different zones. I’m 100 points shy of my shiny shoulders, but the zerging is boring as hell so I don’t do them.

I like the new content every two weeks, it means very shortly I’ll have something new to do that isn’t 20 fps aoe/autoattack spamming.

Sir Roland Karloseth.3798:

And it’s not even about an advantage when it comes to the living stories. It’s quite simply this: I like achievements. I like them very much. I like to collect special limited time things like skins. I like to experience special events. And in order to do that, one must do nothing but play GW2. God forbid they take a kitten break for a bit so people can catch their breath.

This simply can’t happen. The whole point of “special limited time things” is exactly to reward players who do nothing but play GW2.

Unfortunately, you have the desire to “achieve it all” (sort of) but like most of us too, not have the capability to play 10 hours every day for a year. This is the root of your frustration. You should feel entitled to this satisfaction if this were a single-player game, but this is not. Most importantly, this is a massively multiplayer online game. And that means too that there has to be a reward system that comparably reward players appropriate to the amount of time they spend playing the game.

Mirta.5029:

minbariguy.7504:

Whether you like it or not. (I don’t)

So if a theater was offering free concerts daily instead of being happy you would mope about the ones that you had to miss? What a weird approach to not like free stuff because it comes and goes instead of staying there permanently.

If I’d paid $60 for a season ticket and:

• Every concert involved an hour of orchestra tuning

• I had to listen to the same song over and over and over again a certain amount of times before I was allowed to continue to the next song

• They had a special finale that you had to stand around and wait for because they only play it once an hour

• I had to leave before the concert was over because I didn’t have enough time to watch all of it (because of the amount of time wasted by their repetitive nonsense)

• Everyone who was able to stay until the end was given free stuff that the rest of us can’t ever get

• Lots of people had complained to the theater that the scheduling and organization of these concerts was really inconvenient for many people, but the theater didn’t seem to care

Well, then, yeah. I’d complain. I guess I’m funny that way. Please remember that this game is “buy to play”. This stuff isn’t “free”.

Yeah, chasing achievement points isn’t a great goal, especially in multiplayer. Think of it less like a to do list and more like a journal. What you didn’t do is sometimes just as important as what you did do.

minbariguy.7504:

If I’d paid $60 for a season ticket and:

• Every concert involved an hour of orchestra tuning

• I had to listen to the same song over and over and over again a certain amount of times before I was allowed to continue to the next song

• They had a special finale that you had to stand around and wait for because they only play it once an hour

• I had to leave before the concert was over because I didn’t have enough time to watch all of it (because of the amount of time wasted by their repetitive nonsense)

• Everyone who was able to stay until the end was given free stuff that the rest of us can’t ever get

• Lots of people had complained to the theater that their scheduling and organization of these concerts were really in convenient for many people, but the theater didn’t seem to care

Well, then, yeah. I’d complain. I guess I’m funny that way. Please remember that this game is “buy to play”. This stuff isn’t “free”.

It’s more like

• you payed 60$ for a lifetime pass
• you were informed about how concerts will go
• everyone that has actively participated by helping orchestra to play got a goodie that they are not selling that you can buy
• you got the base set of songs forever, recorded specifically for you with the pass that you can listen to over and over again

That’s how it is. No content that was there at launch is gone. That’s what you payed 60$ for and it’s all still there. You choose to not to go to free events yourself, because you either can’t or don’t find them interesting, yet you’re banging on the head directors door going “why aren’t you catering to me as your only audience?”

Sir Roland Karloseth.3798:

Ok.

1) Bite me.
2) I never once said I was angry. I said I was upset, heartbroken, and frustrated. Those things do not equal anger.
3) Go be aggravating somewhere else.

I am simply voicing my opinion of how I feel about this game now. And thanks to most of the posters here in this thread, I’ve gotten some helpful insight to how I can more easily adjust and cope with everything that I have missed. Fortunately that happened before the trolls leaked in.

you mean advice like:

About he overwhelming bit of the UI, you’ll get used to it. I can understand your frustration about trying to collect achievements and skins (although these days it’s boring minis, IMO), but at the same time I’m glad it’s not a new tier of armor every two weeks to do the content like in other MMOs. Right now there’s a bunch of achievements for zerging different zones. I’m 100 points shy of my shiny shoulders, but the zerging is boring as hell so I don’t do them.

I like the new content every two weeks, it means very shortly I’ll have something new to do that isn’t 20 fps aoe/autoattack spamming.

and

This simply can’t happen. The whole point of “special limited time things” is exactly to reward players who do nothing but play GW2.

Unfortunately, you have the desire to “achieve it all” (sort of) but like most of us too, not have the capability to play 10 hours every day for a year. This is the root of your frustration. You should feel entitled to this satisfaction if this were a single-player game, but this is not. Most importantly, this is a massively multiplayer online game. And that means too that there has to be a reward system that comparably reward players appropriate to the amount of time they spend playing the game.

Essentially players telling you to get used to it in a less harsh tone?

Nageth.5648:

Yeah, chasing achievement points isn’t a great goal, especially in multiplayer. Think of it less like a to do list and more like a journal. What you didn’t do is sometimes just as important as what you did do.

I suppose so. I mean… I’m still flustered. And that probably won’t change any time soon. But I suppose I should just… learn to ignore it.

At least it seems I’m getting a great chance to jump back in with the upgraded Super Adventure Box.

Ahh.. someone has a case of “I feel very behind in Guild Wars 2”..the game where you can quit and come back, and not be behind! Well, this game has one of the largest feelings of being left behind if you dare leave the game for a bit. I hear you man.

And as others have said: retro achievement point rewards = chests.

Mirta.5029:

Sir Roland Karloseth.3798:

This isn’t a troll post. Not at all. I’m simply voicing my opinion on what the game is and what it used to be.

I completed almost all of Frost and Flame. Enjoyed it, even. I was saddened when I remembered that the only thing I missed was the ceremony at the very end. I thought “You know, that was a very unique thing that they just did, and I enjoyed it. I hope they do more of these from time to time.”

Instead, there were several, one right after another. Instead of seeing a bunch of unique stories, I saw busy work. I now had a Guild Wars 2 honey-do list. I saw so much new stuff dropping in the wrong places and at the wrong frequency. There is so much new stuff that comes and goes, yet it feels like the old stuff isn’t touched any more. I was hoping that by the time I could get back into the game, I’d see things like more fractals or an updated Super Adventure Box.

The main point I’m trying to get at is this: After being busy with real life for a few months, I come back to GW2 and am lost, confused, and heartbroken about what the game has become.

And yet your post sounds like you’re overwhelmed
1. You’re confused by quality of life updates (UI change)
2. You don’t like seeing people (I’m quite puzzled by that though)
3. Even though you were here when living story started to kick in you’re complaining about it now. It was designed to get players that log in every day something to do, while players playing every few months would still not fall behind, because the events don’t give any advantage to players that have done them.

And before making a post do read up on the website –
More fractals (3 of them) are coming at the end of the year
SAB is the next living story. You have about a week to wait at this point.

Well, I hate seeing people. They just stand there smirking at me in LA while I walk by and they do nothing useful. Heck, they might as well be my enemies because all they do is bring my fps down to 2. I can hardly walk anywhere anymore without upgrading my computer. I used to be able to play pretty well until about a month ago.

Galtrix.7369:

Well, I hate seeing people. They just stand there smirking at me in LA while I walk by and they do nothing useful. Heck, they might as well be my enemies because all they do is bring my fps down to 2. I can hardly walk anywhere anymore without upgrading my computer. I used to be able to play pretty well until about a month ago.

did you try reducing settings? All player related settings to the lowest? Some people said that after culling was gone and they reduced all WvW related character settings (they work for pve too) they got more FPS then they used to before.

Sorry, anyone who thinks that they can leave the game, come back and pick right up where they left off is delusional. (this is not directed at the OP, but in general). Unless you simply run dungeons, sprawl out into the world or level characters…you will be left behind. You will mis out on lots of content, lots of temporary dungeons, lots of GOLD and currency farming(ahem pavilion and invasions), lots of minis, etc.

This game wanted to be a game where you can pick up whenever you wanted, so badly. It is the exact opposite.

I still enjoy the game, but if I dare take one month off and miss one or two LS patches, Im so behind in terms of the gold farming that has become the flavor of the month.

Mirta.5029:

It’s more like
[SNIP]

• you were informed about how concerts will go

I take special exception to this one. I was most certainly not informed how this concert would play out when I bought my ticket.

Living World and the subsequent (mostly temporary) events attached to it were never mentioned at the time they took my money. I would never have purchased the game if I had been informed that this was the direction they would take.

I understand that you like the Living World concept. Good for you. I wholly encourage you to continue advocating for what you enjoy about the game, and to offer criticism about the things you would like to see changed.

But please don’t continue to try to tell other people why they are wrong to feel as they do. Everybody is different. Everyone’s life commitments are different. Not everyone likes (or dislikes) the same things. Since you’re so interested in “real life”, I’d have thought you’d have learned that by now.

But enough. You can do forum PvP with someone else. I’m not interested.

minbariguy.7504:

Mirta.5029:

It’s more like
[SNIP]

• you were informed about how concerts will go

I take special exception to this one. I was most certainly not informed how this concert would play out when I bought my ticket.

Living World and the subsequent (mostly temporary) events attached to it were never mentioned at the time they took my money. I would never have purchased the game if I had been informed that this was the direction they would take.

I understand that you like the Living World concept. Good for you. I wholly encourage you to continue advocating for what you enjoy about the game, and to offer criticism about the things you would like to see changed.

But please don’t continue to try to tell other people why they are wrong to feel as they do. Everybody is different. Everyone’s life commitments are different. Not everyone likes (or dislikes) the same things. Since you’re so interested in “real life”, I’d have thought you’d have learned that by now.

But enough. You can do forum PvP with someone else. I’m not interested.

when you were buying the product you were aware about the content that you’ll be receiving upon purchase right? And you did get that content. You got all the DEs, hearts and races. Living story is that free content on top of it. When it started you were informed how of ten it will go and you can always read up about what’s in them. If you miss one you miss one because you decided to miss it. Yet you complain that there is free content?

cesmode.4257:

Sorry, anyone who thinks that they can leave the game, come back and pick right up where they left off is delusional. (this is not directed at the OP, but in general). Unless you simply run dungeons, sprawl out into the world or level characters…you will be left behind. You will mis out on lots of content, lots of temporary dungeons, lots of GOLD and currency farming(ahem pavilion and invasions), lots of minis, etc.

This game wanted to be a game where you can pick up whenever you wanted, so badly. It is the exact opposite.

I still enjoy the game, but if I dare take one month off and miss one or two LS patches, Im so behind in terms of the gold farming that has become the flavor of the month.

It is far more of a pick up and play game then other MMOs. Gear isn’t that hard to get and gear upgrades are often negligible (having all ascended items isn’t a significant power upgrade outside of the ability to get agony resist for fractals which was put in to keep the gear treadmill raiders happy). Most MMOs if you don’t pick up right at the launch or launch of an expansion you’re out of luck as far as the ability to play. If you had an 80 with good gear and left only to come back months later you’re still good to go. The most you missed was some cosmetic gear. (Note, this doesn’t apply to fractals which, again, was put in for the people who like the gear treadmill…the WvW abilities are a minor factor but do not significantly impact your ability to play the game).

What exactly are you farming gold for? Seriously. What are you trying to get? All necessary items are relatively abundant and cheap. The only things expensive and rare are for things like legendaries which are intended to be very rare (how legendaries are and should be acquired is another argument entirely).

Mirta.5029:

Do you get this angry when you miss events in real life too? Events will happen whether you’re there or not. Should I sit at home and cry that I missed PAX now?

Mirta.5029:

[SNIP]New money just doesn’t appear out of nowhere. And I do want Mr Sparkles, but kitten me for not having 1000 pounds to fly to Pax right?

Mirta.5029:

I don’t want to compete with a few millions for a chance to win a mini pet, I want to be able to buy it or earn it in game. I think that it’s unfair to reward people by a completely unique mini pet just for having more money than the rest of us.

Sorry, what were you saying? I was distracted by your crying that you couldn’t go to Pax and your complaining about how unfair Mr. Sparkles is.

Do continue to tell me how I’m a complainer, though. It makes me smile.

OP my advice to you is to find a friendly casual guild, of people you can talk to, who can walk you through some of the stuff you might have missed.

This game, for me anyway, is much better playing with other people than trying to solo it. It was never designed to be a single player game and while it can be played that way, it’s by far the least convenient way to play it.

MMOs are designed for people to play together. Guilds help each other figure out things, they can come to the rescue when you have a big event and not enough people around…they can even suggest you hang out in Rata Sum instead of LA if the crowds are bothering you.

But though the game has changed, all the stuff you liked is actually still here. And those chests your getting? The gold in them will help you catch up to the economy a bit too.

to ease your pain a bit: Anet has opened the chance to get most of the new weaponsets you’ve missed via Black Lion Tickets. The vendor is behind the trading post in Lions Arch. The weapons are by no means easy to get, since the rarity is about the same as before, but I see those rather than longterm goals in the same category as legendaries.

how to: you get BL-weapon scraps (or rarely whole tickets) from BL-chests. Tons of those will get you your weapon. If Anet had made them cheaper, everyone who paid a lot to get one in the first place would have been screwed.

personal suggestion, if you absolutely want a specific weapon: prepare to work quite a while on it and don’t spend real money. Gold → gems over time will get you the thing. (or buy it on the TP)

You’re honestly complaining about L.A. and the Achivements being clutter??

Get out into the zones that are being invaded and get a peep at that crap if you want something to be Confused & disenchanted by. No really do right now and gaze at the future of this game. 200 people Clustering over the same fire spewing Terminator robot while a My Little Pony cackles at just how dumb all these FPS clogging Farmers around you are for not even trying to complete the Event properly.

Then go into any other zone without an invasion and watch the tumbleweeds collect.
Better yet try to find a Temple that’s actually being completed…

it is just you, everyone else is enjoying guild wars 2 even more.

I have to admit, Scarlet making fun of us for farming mindlessly is kind of funny (even people like me doing it for achievements and not loot…we’re still farming). The game is having a burst of self-awareness.

cesmode.4257:

Sorry, anyone who thinks that they can leave the game, come back and pick right up where they left off is delusional. (this is not directed at the OP, but in general). Unless you simply run dungeons, sprawl out into the world or level characters…you will be left behind. You will mis out on lots of content, lots of temporary dungeons, lots of GOLD and currency farming(ahem pavilion and invasions), lots of minis, etc.

Whoah, I don’t believe that is true at all.

If you leave the game and come back, you really will not “fall behind” by any reasonable definition of the phrase.

Yes, things will have happened while you were gone, and you missed them. But that does not put you “behind” on what’s happening now, in any way shape or form.

I took a break myself. Missed the first couple of living story patches, and came back at the start of the Bazaar. I wasn’t “behind”. I was able to jump straight into the Bazaar content and enjoy it exactly the same as anyone who had never stopped playing.

Not being able to take a break without falling behind is the model of the gear treadmill games. Take a break from WoW and come back a couple of patches later and you’ll know pain, you’ll be undergeared for the current content and there’ll be a shortage of people still wanting to run the old content.

I think the OP is part of quit a big club. This isn’t something that is limited to just GW2, either. Countless times, someone will leave a game for awhile, whether it be months or years, then come back to find that things have changed in a manner they don’t like. When that bit of nostalgia bug bites, they wander into the old diner they are familiar with, and after so long it is no longer that same diner anymore.

There’s not much one can do about it. You can voice your displeasure over the matter, but no one can make the game fun for someone else. The game is going to change: friends will leave, new people will join, the player base will shift demographics, markets will go out of whack… it is the nature of the living world. For better, or for worse.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

I think the OP is part of quit a big club. This isn’t something that is limited to just GW2, either. Countless times, someone will leave a game for awhile, whether it be months or years, then come back to find that things have changed in a manner they don’t like. When that bit of nostalgia bug bites, they wander into the old diner they are familiar with, and after so long it is no longer that same diner anymore.

There’s not much one can do about it. You can voice your displeasure over the matter, but no one can make the game fun for someone else. The game is going to change: friends will leave, new people will join, the player base will shift demographics, markets will go out of whack… it is the nature of the living world. For better, or for worse.

But there is a difference between Guild Wars 2 and other MMOs. I’ve had guildies take even a six month break, come back and start running dungeons with us again within minutes of logging back in.

This is almost impossible in most traditional MMOs, since the gear you’d need to do a specific raid would be required and the player wouldn’t have been around to get it.

I have a friend who quit Rift for that reason. For personal reasons he couldn’t play when the expansion came out, and when he got back, his guild had moved on. No one wanted to do the old content with him (a multiplayer raid he needed to do to get gear), he hated leveling alone and when he eventually got the gear, he was still behind, because his guildies had already moved to the next raid.

Believe me, Guild Wars 2 doesn’t have nearly the problems most MMOs have on this count.

In fact, there’s relatively little you can’t do that you were doing when you left six months ago. The only thing that comes to mind in Guild Wars 2 is high level fractals, an tbh, if you don’t have tons of time to log in, you probably won’t be doing them anyway….and if you want do, you can do dailies for a couple of months and be caught up with relatively little time input.

Dramatic….very dramatic. Hardly that overwhelming and certainly, in no way, at all, ANets fault. No matter how busy you were, you could have stayed informed of the changes but you set yourself up for this OP.

First of all, the achievement changes and the culling changes are awesome. I’m sure there are summaries of what the patches since you’ve left have brought in – try guildwars2guru.com. I’m sure you can find the story summary, too.

Second of all, I’m not sure why having so much on-going story happening around you is a bad thing – if you’re feeling overwhelmed, you do realize that you don’t HAVE to do more than what’s fun for you, right? I love having the new stuff going on all the time.. and even so, sometimes I just take a break and go level an alt. It’ll wait if I’m not in the mood.

Yes, you’ve missed out on some skins and some gold. So what? Take a look at the daily changes! Get into a guild that does regular guild missions! You’ll be decked out in the best gear in no time.. and frankly, aside of that, gold and skins is just.. almost irrelevant.
For fun stuff.

Sir Roland Karloseth.3798:

Mirta.5029:

Do you get this angry when you miss events in real life too? Events will happen whether you’re there or not. Should I sit at home and cry that I missed PAX now?

Ok.

1) Bite me.
2) I never once said I was angry. I said I was upset, heartbroken, and frustrated. Those things do not equal anger.
3) Go be aggravating somewhere else.

I am simply voicing my opinion of how I feel about this game now. And thanks to most of the posters here in this thread, I’ve gotten some helpful insight to how I can more easily adjust and cope with everything that I have missed. Fortunately that happened before the trolls leaked in.

well, when you voice your opinion publicly you are opening up a conversation. If you cannot stand other people voicing their opinion too, then talk to your living room wall and not in some internet forum.

Vayne.8563:

But there is a difference between Guild Wars 2 and other MMOs. I’ve had guildies take even a six month break, come back and start running dungeons with us again within minutes of logging back in.

This is almost impossible in most traditional MMOs, since the gear you’d need to do a specific raid would be required and the player wouldn’t have been around to get it.

I have a friend who quit Rift for that reason. For personal reasons he couldn’t play when the expansion came out, and when he got back, his guild had moved on. No one wanted to do the old content with him (a multiplayer raid he needed to do to get gear), he hated leveling alone and when he eventually got the gear, he was still behind, because his guildies had already moved to the next raid.

Believe me, Guild Wars 2 doesn’t have nearly the problems most MMOs have on this count.

In fact, there’s relatively little you can’t do that you were doing when you left six months ago. The only thing that comes to mind in Guild Wars 2 is high level fractals, an tbh, if you don’t have tons of time to log in, you probably won’t be doing them anyway….and if you want do, you can do dailies for a couple of months and be caught up with relatively little time input.

I do agree that equipment based power creep is a big problem with aging MMOs, and that GW2 does not have this problem. However, I don’t think the OP is talking about equipment based power creep, but rather the way the game feels now. It feels different than it used to.

I’ve gone through this many times myself in many different games. In GW2 I went though a strange play cycle where I sPVPed nonstop for the first month, then went into PVE and exploration, then into dungeons, and then I stopped playing the game for several months due to real life reasons. Came back 3 months later, and everything felt different. PVP meta had changed a lot, dungeon runs were now skipped most of the dungeon, places that were once full were now empty… although all of the game components were there, it didn’t feel like the same game.

It wasn’t somehow a worse game. What immediately followed was Molten Facility, which was my favorite thing in the game ever, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t disappointed with some of the changes, however trivial many of them were.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Vayne.8563:

But there is a difference between Guild Wars 2 and other MMOs. I’ve had guildies take even a six month break, come back and start running dungeons with us again within minutes of logging back in.

This is almost impossible in most traditional MMOs, since the gear you’d need to do a specific raid would be required and the player wouldn’t have been around to get it.

I have a friend who quit Rift for that reason. For personal reasons he couldn’t play when the expansion came out, and when he got back, his guild had moved on. No one wanted to do the old content with him (a multiplayer raid he needed to do to get gear), he hated leveling alone and when he eventually got the gear, he was still behind, because his guildies had already moved to the next raid.

Believe me, Guild Wars 2 doesn’t have nearly the problems most MMOs have on this count.

In fact, there’s relatively little you can’t do that you were doing when you left six months ago. The only thing that comes to mind in Guild Wars 2 is high level fractals, an tbh, if you don’t have tons of time to log in, you probably won’t be doing them anyway….and if you want do, you can do dailies for a couple of months and be caught up with relatively little time input.

I do agree that equipment based power creep is a big problem with aging MMOs, and that GW2 does not have this problem. However, I don’t think the OP is talking about equipment based power creep, but rather the way the game feels now. It feels different than it used to.

I’ve gone through this many times myself in many different games. In GW2 I went though a strange play cycle where I sPVPed nonstop for the first month, then went into PVE and exploration, then into dungeons, and then I stopped playing the game for several months due to real life reasons. Came back 3 months later, and everything felt different. PVP meta had changed a lot, dungeon runs were now skipped most of the dungeon, places that were once full were now empty… although all of the game components were there, it didn’t feel like the same game.

It wasn’t somehow a worse game. What immediately followed was Molten Facility, which was my favorite thing in the game ever, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t disappointed with some of the changes, however trivial many of them were.

You’re probably right. I’m just pointing out that the problem is far more limited here than in other games. All the same stuff you used to do…hearts, DEs…they’re all still here. They’re all still viable. Any zone you want to go back to…still there. Jumping puzzles…all still there.

So yes, there’s some culture shock coming back to the game..but considering most of the LS stuff has been temporary…I don’t see it as that much.

minbariguy.7504:

Sorry, what were you saying? I was distracted by your crying that you couldn’t go to Pax and your complaining about how unfair Mr. Sparkles is.

Do continue to tell me how I’m a complainer, though. It makes me smile.

I don’t care what happens in pax, however I would like to be able to complete my mini collection, because I do play this game a lot and I do spend night and day on it, and I absolutely love the Asura story line. I would be completely satisfied even if our Sparkles cost us 800 gems and was a different version than pax sparkles, but I would like to have it. I also don’t understand why Sparkles is in the mini pack 2 category and not the special mini category where it seems to belong. Therefore it counts towards an achievement, unlike all those special minis that I bought off the store.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

PVP meta had changed a lot, dungeon runs were now skipped most of the dungeon, places that were once full were now empty… although all of the game components were there, it didn’t feel like the same game.

I can’t speak for the sPVP meta, as I am not usually in the heart of the mists doing that much, but as far as how dungeon runs behave, the skipping is a trend that is really player-driven. Players have become reward-focused, and the bulk of the monetary reward comes from how quickly you can complete a dungeon.

In general for this thread, please do remember that this is a persistent world, and it is played by many people. ANet has to consider people that play for hours every day along with people that have put down the game for 8 months and have just come back.

Unlike a single player game where it doesn’t progress unless you are actually playing it, this game must go on because thousands of players are on it every day. But I think ANet has really struck a good balance with returning players too. I literally just had 4 guildies come back over the span of the last 7 days. Some of them had been gone since Christmas. After a brief explanation of what was going on in the Living Story, they could participate in the Closing Ceremony and then run around fighting the Clockwork Chaos.

For being able to bring new content to players that play every day who might otherwise complain if the game stayed the same for 6 months, they are able to have a very low barrier of re-entry for players that have been gone for 6 months and want to get back into the game. That’s a good thing.

Vayne.8563:

You’re probably right. I’m just pointing out that the problem is far more limited here than in other games. All the same stuff you used to do…hearts, DEs…they’re all still here. They’re all still viable. Any zone you want to go back to…still there. Jumping puzzles…all still there.

So yes, there’s some culture shock coming back to the game..but considering most of the LS stuff has been temporary…I don’t see it as that much.

It really depends on the game I guess. There are definitely issues with gear treadmills in som games when you come back into it. Some games have managed to minimise that problem allowing you to come back in quickly.

But I think it’s too early to tell for GW2. Well still have to see what ascended gear will do. There may come a point that everybody is decked out in full ascended gear and people come back then finding themselves against time gated content to get there themselves.

Also I don’t know how long it will be till the level cap will be raised. That also will have this effect.

At the moment yeh, coming back to GW2 is easy in that sense, aside perhaps from finding out that you have achievements you can never get because of content you can never do cause it’s gone.

But I do think that in the future this topic might get revisited because there are some changes coming in the next year or so that I expect might change that ease of return.

And if you are a solo player or come back to a disintegrated guild, it is a bit of a jungle trying to figure out what is going in this game, cause in a sense it’s all over the place and you are way behind on fractal levels if you’re into that.

minbariguy.7504:

Mirta.5029:

It’s more like
[SNIP]

• you were informed about how concerts will go

I take special exception to this one. I was most certainly not informed how this concert would play out when I bought my ticket.

Living World and the subsequent (mostly temporary) events attached to it were never mentioned at the time they took my money. I would never have purchased the game if I had been informed that this was the direction they would take.

I understand that you like the Living World concept. Good for you. I wholly encourage you to continue advocating for what you enjoy about the game, and to offer criticism about the things you would like to see changed.

But please don’t continue to try to tell other people why they are wrong to feel as they do. Everybody is different. Everyone’s life commitments are different. Not everyone likes (or dislikes) the same things. Since you’re so interested in “real life”, I’d have thought you’d have learned that by now.

But enough. You can do forum PvP with someone else. I’m not interested.

Sorry Mirta i agree with this guy completely we were well and truely not advised on any of this Living story stuff when i bought this product, honestly if i’d known i would have made a more educated purchase..

The directions this game has taken has made a mockery of Guildwars in my opinion.

Dante.1508:

minbariguy.7504:

Mirta.5029:

It’s more like
[SNIP]

• you were informed about how concerts will go

I take special exception to this one. I was most certainly not informed how this concert would play out when I bought my ticket.

Living World and the subsequent (mostly temporary) events attached to it were never mentioned at the time they took my money. I would never have purchased the game if I had been informed that this was the direction they would take.

I understand that you like the Living World concept. Good for you. I wholly encourage you to continue advocating for what you enjoy about the game, and to offer criticism about the things you would like to see changed.

But please don’t continue to try to tell other people why they are wrong to feel as they do. Everybody is different. Everyone’s life commitments are different. Not everyone likes (or dislikes) the same things. Since you’re so interested in “real life”, I’d have thought you’d have learned that by now.

But enough. You can do forum PvP with someone else. I’m not interested.

Sorry Mirta i agree with this guy completely we were well and truely not advised on any of this Living story stuff when i bought this product, honestly if i’d known i would have made a more educated purchase..

The directions this game has taken has made a mockery of Guildwars in my opinion.

I agree with you. You weren’t informed about something that wasn’t conceived when you bought the game, because MMOs, ALL MMOs, change and grow.

And when you bought Prophecies, you weren’t informed about heroes. You weren’t informed about certain titles being made account bound instead of character bound, you weren’t informed about shrine bonuses, you weren’t informed about Sorrow’s Furnace.

It’s like watching the second year of a TV series and saying you weren’t informed what was going to happen. Well yeah. Because they didn’t produce year two before the first year started.

I can’t think of any MMO that didn’t change drastically over time. Rift certainly did. WoW did. Aion did.

Anyone who buys an MMO and doesn’t expect it to change, probably shouldn’t be playing MMOs.

A lot of new features have occurred; you’re supposed to give it time. Just wait before you get a heart attack.

However, I will say that there is too much garbage on the right side of the screen and I can’t believe anyone on the team hasn’t realized how awful it is when even the event you are doing gets minimized. Then again, this UI is one of the worst parts of the game, for sure.

Sir Roland Karloseth.3798:

Soo… I am very confused. And irritated. And sad. I have many emotions when it comes to Guild Wars 2 nowadays, and unfortunately, none of them are positive.

I’ve been playing this game for a while now. Picked it up a month or two after release. Played the hell out of it, got a couple 80s out of the deal. Loved the game so very much, even considered it my favorite MMO of all time.

Then an unfortunate thing happened: Real life caught up with me. Due to real life being a general pain, I had to stop playing while I sort things out. Ended up having to move to a different state and get resettled, so on and so forth.

So, a few months later, I decide to play some Guild Wars 2 again. I sit through the patch with excitement as I eagerly await the chance to be behind the wheel of my favorite characters again.

Finally, the play button pops, and I click it and hop onto my warrior. And that is when my heart sank. Suddenly, I had missed so much of these weird micro-expansion things that appear to always be going on now. I was unable to log in without getting assaulted by these achievement chests that neither give me anything useful or make me feel like I did ANYTHING to deserve it. I won’t even try to look at my achievements anymore because whenever I do, I have no idea what is going on due to the UI change and the clogging of all these micro-expansions. I try to walk through Lions Arch a bit, but can’t really get anywhere because there are about 5 million people around occupying space and making it hard to see anything.

I dunno. I used to adore this game, but now I can’t even bring myself to stay logged in for more than half an hour a week. And that breaks my heart because this game used to be so good. For discussions sake, I guess… does anyone else remotely feel this way?

Something similar happened to me.. I could adapt to the UI changes but god I need sunglasses to walk through LA now… Every loading screen with its original art makes wanna cry when I think about all the glowing and ridiculous wings on players now.