Guild Wars 2

I think it would be great if there was an option for this kind of leveling. It is fine if you are playing the game for the first time, but after that it is just annoying. So why is there no option that unlocks after you have leveled one character to 80 that will allow you to play the game normally on new alts?

“the money isnt in alts.
the money is in the new players.”

Actually, the money is in both of these things. New players certainly bring money in, but players who are emotionally invested in the game and are willing to buy gems are also a major source of income for the game. In the long run, the willingness of established players to keep forking over more money matters more than new players. Presumably as the game ages, the influx of new players will decrease to the point that GW3 will become necessary. But, long after this point, if players who are thoroughly invested in the game keep pouring money into the gem market, the game will stay afloat long after it is considered obsolete.

To this end, it is important to design the game in such a way that it encourages players to consider themselves invested in the game, such that if they quit, they “lose” their imaginary investment. One way for players to become invested is for them to create multiple characters and raise them to high level. If the game is designed in such a way as to discourage this, players end up only having one main character, and there is less for them to walk away from when they fall in love with some other game.

That being said, the impact of these changes is fairly trivial, although it is rather annoying to make experienced players put on training wheels and a diaper. At least put in an option in the options menu for experienced players to restore full functionality to their new characters.

Just another drop in the bucket, but:
With my first character, gathering was how I structured my game. I followed herb patches and onions with excitement because I knew I was going to cook me some food. Everything- leveling, story, skill gain, happened naturally around that. On my way to gather, i’d get drawn into events, helping locals (who would send me nice letters, some of which I still have saved btw) and seeing the beautiful sights.

I really do want to roll a new character- I’ve been thinking about an asura necro for a while. I have over 150 tomes of knowledge and 3 exp scrolls, I could easily zoom it to 80, pay for the trait and skill unlocks, etc. But I would be losing out on what made me love this game, which was wandering from place to place freely as everything unfolded naturally, learning my class and trying new things.
I’m afraid if I try it my last interest in this game will die, and I dont want to quit this game.

I wish I could refund the character slots I’ve bought since I won’t be needing them now.

I was already there with the first feature pack. I had several character slots still filled by placeholders for when I wanted to make a new character. I made something I have to consider permanent but I didn’t really expect to play anymore, and haven’t really. I log in sometimes to check stuff, and if I miss my characters to see them, but that is…

I’m thinking about a friend who played near launch reaching level 11 and has been talking about the game a bit recently but as far as I know doesn’t follow the game news. I’m of course going to be there for them if they want to play a little and want my company… I wonder how disappointed they well be.

editing to add after some reading: My friend originally liked mesmer. Still a new player in a way. A mesmer. Ahahahaha… I… I’m sorry. I’m just sorry in general.

I do agree that some of the restrictions (like not being able to gather till level 9) should be permanently removed from your account once you’ve seen them once. Seriously, I have 5 80’s and 18.5k AP. If I decide to create a new alt, do you seriously think that I do not understand how to gather or salvage by now??

Zaxares.5419:

I do agree that some of the restrictions (like not being able to gather till level 9) should be permanently removed from your account once you’ve seen them once.

That kind of mode would be too heart wrenching, knowing that I would’ve not have to see those restrictions in the first place if it makes sense (my english fails now). Instead of unlocks, why not a completely optional guidance mode if Anet feels it is necessary? Slap in even some not completely critical stuff like the gathering tools and salvage kit in it, I can’t imagine people would farm copper gathering tools by making a new character…

I, uh, hate restrictions of any kind.

NPE = NGE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Galaxies

If game studios don’t learn from history, they are doomed to repeat it. I still boycott SONY products to this day due to how SOE handled themselves/mishandled the game.

Only create a alt if they bring out a new character class, otherwise NEVER.

The current levelling system vs the original (at release) is KITTEN.

“You’re unhappy with your career and want to learn a new profession? Better go back to elementary school and draw pages and pages full of the letter A in crayon.”

I am just glad all my characters are a year old and were made before they started tampering with the leveling progression. They tried to make leveling feel rewarding because before you just did it naturally and didn’t noticed as you progressed through the game. This is how most people liked it. Now, instead of making it rewarding they took away utility and slowly spoon feed it back to make it seem like you are being rewarded instead of being less handicapped.

Good thing there are enough spoons to go around apparently….

Out of the 14 newcomers to the game I have recruited over the past two weeks. None of em liked the leveling system and wondered why Anet would handicap them mid way though their experience.

The problem is not the difficulty, yes it’s even a lot easier. And that’s the problem.
Already with feature patch 1 they had to make content from low levels zones easier to make up for the changes. But at least the pack 1 change made sense : they removed money from veteran players and gave incensitive to the ones that couldn’t or didn’t want to use their gold to explore the world.
And they had to make it even easier again to make up for those.
Because from the much easier content, the new players don’t learn more they actualy learn less.
Second it make downscaling uneffective. Arenanet said 2 years ago that players wouldn’t mind doing maps under their level because downscaling would maintain the map fun and chalenging enough. So people could do all five races starter areas before going up and aim to map completion without minding to much.
Now it’s just boring.
Because before the game was not difficult, my husband is a casual player and he didn’t find the content difficult at all 2 years ago. Except maybe for some personal story steps but that’s all, the open world content never was.
That’s 2 years I play now I never saw a new player complaining that open world content was ton difficult or that there was too many skills (more the oposite actually since people came from other games were you have so many much skills and have all of them available intead of just 5 weapon skill and 3 utilities). Because players rather have a lot of skill and just use two or three then two or three and be limited.
The downed system yes a litle but I think it is better to get used to it early instead of along the road where realy new people would ask themselves what it’s all about and why they have it all of the sudden.
It would have ben better to retire it all together from the game.
If they wanted to make the game less confusing they could have simplified the currencies system, we have so many of them : gold, karma, laurels, dungeon tokens, fractal relics …
They could have taken a step back with the “play as you want” by making ascended item soulbond on use and not account bound witch would have allowed players that don’t like crafting the opportunity to buy them. Instead of making the craft feel as if it’s mandatory.

Honestly I don’t see how they are going to attract new players telling them : You didn’t find the game attractive enough to years ago, so we didn’t add new content especialy at low levels but we make these those level so dumb and easy you won’t need to push two different buttons in a row for a while. Come get bored to death.

I tried one just for fun… I’m crying atm.
My lvl18 engineer will never be leveled to 80, I really don’t feel like playing half a character for 62 more levels.

Prior Feature Pack 1:

Yay, the leveling of this game is so awesome, it’s linear and entertaining, challenging without being hardcore, I’ll have so much fun leveling!

Post Feature Pack 1:

… I’ll have to spend ridiculous ammounts of gold and skillpoints to unlock my traits. Great, I totally needed to throw my gold into those instead of getting exotic gears and runes (FYI, I had to spend around 100 skillpoints and 80 gold on my Guardian to get the traits I wanted, good way to “help new players”).

Post Feature Pack 2:

… Downed skills not even unlocked?! WHAT?! Never gonna make an alt ever again outside of roleplaying purposes. Oh wait, you kittened up how emotes are working as well.

Anet, provider of middle fingers since 2012.

Yep, unless they get rid of this crap, i’ll never be making a new char.

The only way I will ever make a new char now is if its a completely new race to the game, other than that I pity anyone who is stuck at low levels now.

No way. The leveling experience is now so incredible boring and tedious. Actually I feel it’s the worst leveling experience I’ve ever had in an MMO.

OMG… I had an engineer lvl18, so I had unlocked her 2nd utility slot… Now I can’t change the skill, so I’m stuck with that for at least 6 levels. Way to go…

Really gives you a feel for the flexibility that makes the egni so fun to play, doesn’kitten

No?

No, it doesn’t.

:(

Well as far as classes go I only leveled ele/guard/engi/ranger to 80… guess I’ll just eotm or wvw for the first 40 or so levels if I’m really that bored one day :x

Sturmruger.3920:

“the boost to exp tapers off around 10, and your skills that you previously had to be 20 for are now 35. you get less skill points so you will have less options for utilities/etc.”

Was unaware the boost tapered off at level 10. That would be a bummer. I only leveled my new character to level 13, so I may be missing what some of you are getting at. I apologize for that. Ill try to hit 30 tomorrow and see how it works out.

Boost tapers off at level 10, because you can do 5 story instances in a row if you want at level 10. And it’s still faster till level 15 than it was before the patch.

I’m certainly not going to be levelling any alts. The only non-80 I have left is my ranger, who will now remain a level 32 mule and nothing more. If anything, I regret convincing several people to get the game when it was half price just because I know what they’ll have to trudge through now.

My friends, i stopped making alts from the April downgrade… What makes you think that i’ll even consider rolling an alt right now?

I have no need to create any more alts. I’m satisfied with the 8 characters (representing each class and race) I created at launch.
From the beginning people complained that there needed to be a better tutorial system for new players, and Anet created it.
The new leveling system is for brand spanking new players and they’ll make out just fine with them.
Instead of trying to “hurry” your character through the content, just go with the flow and try to experience it as a fresh new character that has never done this before.

I bought another slot because they were on sale. Now that slot will be a permanent level 2 and be strictly for overflow banking. Thank God I just finished my latest character to 80.

I already never wanted to make an alt, this silliness sealed the deal . BUT even worse, after 5k hours playing the game, i get popups telling me to learn how to dodge!?! realllly!

Seems like the plan was to remove everything that made the leveling experience fun and turn it into a monotonous lvl grind. As a veteran player (which means nothing these days) im not interested in being treated like a complete noob, IF, I ever make another character.

But then again thanks to those 250 tomes of knowledge I never have to play a low level character anyways. So ill keep waiting for endgame … OH new endgame! dodge 2 attacks in a row?! heard it here first people. /sarcasm

I just saw the "[GW2] Why I Love The September Feature Pack " youtube video because I couldn’t understand what all the complaints were about. After seeing that video I am incredibly disappointed that Anet insults people’s intelligence with these changes. Do they really think people are that thick as to spoon feed the content to us like this.

We’ll I can’t level an alt now, it’ll be a painful experience.

I was going to but then I saw the changes firsthand. The game is STILL TOO HARD! PLS ARENANETS, I need a dev to come down here so I can sit on his lap and have him walk me through the first 40 levels of this game!!!! What, I need to dance for cows? SAD COW NEED DANCE!

What the heck were they thinking with this update?

If I decide to level a new alt it will be with experience scroll and tomes of knowledge. Whatever levels I am missing in the end, I will get with cooking and EOTM.

This is how I leveled my other alts as well, so the new changes make no difference to me.

Ok, huge bug for me… My toon just leveled to 20, and it unlocked my whole skillbar, elite included… Yay for me I guess ^^

oh snap i was going to buy at least 2 more character slot expansions, well no biggie i guess i will spend my money elsewhere.

Yes,I already created 2 since the patch.
Rewards for leveling are fun,and Queensdale is like launch day,but with 100% more whiny players

Spiderbite.8049:

the money isnt in alts.
the money is in the new players.

“New Player, look! This is our game. It is completely empty and lacking any original features. Have fun!”
There are planty of MMOs and this one has been the best one for over two years now, even if – for players like me – with their feature patches they managed to take away the greatest of it. But what is a new player supposed to see now? All the features that make GW2 different from other games have been removed from early levels. There is absolutely no reason why a new player would choose GW2 over the millions of others.

Spiderbite.8049:

the money isnt in alts.
the money is in the new players.

I’ve read similar stuff several times now and I don’t think it is true.
New players mean box sales and Anet plans on financing their game via gem shop for the most part.
They focus so much on new players who will soon become “veterans” and then stop buying stuff on the gem store because Anet focuses so strongly on new players. Also, the game has been on sale many times. Gem sales themselves never, I believe

My lvl 34 alt seems to have kept all his unlocks fortunately, so all is well there. If I want to level an alt I’ll at least have the option to jump to level 20. But with the skills in general being so few, limited and frankly dull after 2 years, I don’t want to imagine how tedious and incredibly boring it must be to level now. I’ll try it nonetheless as soon as I finished the Zhaitan fight and deleted that char…

Anet has strange priorities is all I’m saying. If they are so worried about player retention, maybe do something about it? Instead of dumbing down the game for new players who, until now, thought the game was too difficult to pick up? GW2? Too difficult to pick up?

First and foremost Anet should take care of the players who stayed for 2 years instead of trying to get the few potential customers they know nothing about their loyalty. Fans basically, maybe offer something for them.
And there has been. Many changes were made that add greatly to the experience but at the same time they limited other aspects and took away others.

There is a lot to do in GW2 and it was daunting at first but certainly not the combat or leveling.

They’ll release lv 40/60/80 scrolls soon enough. Together with the tomes, you can entirely circumvent the leveling process while still being able to enjoy the entire game.

I must admit, I’m playing atm with my bugged engineer… In the past 2 years, I’ve never had so much fun!

Why? Because her whole skillbar is unlocked right now. I feel like my character is complete, I can play her as I want, trying to find a build. I was not convinced fun would be possible with the elite skill unlocked at 30, but I got used to it. Unlocking it at 40? What a pain. But now, I’ve got a “full” character at level 20. THAT is what fun is about!

A bit of a backstory, I’m a veteran (preorder, played since closed betas, /age 2700h+). I haven’t played GW2 for about a year (forum says 10 months I believe). That is not because I didn’t like the game (obviously I did, since I have like 6-7 geared lvl 80’s and I enjoyed both PvE and PvP intensily).

What kept me from coming back, or well increased me taking a “break” from the game was the lack of meaningful content. No new dungeons, expansions, meaningful new areas that actually contain some content. All we got was some instanced LS events that felt empty and with one of the cheesiest Mary Sue villains ever. Not to mention rehashing of old materials, mindless grind achievements and new useless currency introduced every week.

Anyways, to get to the point, me and my fellow ex-guildies decided the other day to come back to the game and start new alts together. As reluctant as we were, feelings of nostalgia and remembering how it was to play in the “old days” sounded fun. Some of us were actually really hyped about this. I mean the new wardrobe system sounds wonderful and I remember it was something that some people were requesting since launch.
But…after reading about the new “Features”, I think we all agree that we’re gonna pass and find some alternative. Sad to see the direction this game is heading, especially since for me out of the MMOs I’ve played GW2 still has/had the best combat and “feel” to it.

Only have one lvl 80, since the pre realease, others got deleted over time(never rached more than 30)or serve as mules.

Electro.4173:

I’ll still be making a Warrior and Thief at some point. Preferably after a new race comes along.

COMING EXCITING SOON! Permanent exciting Kodan transformation in the cash shop, no need to choose character appearance which was needlessly complicated so we just give everyone the same default look. New exciting bonus feature – it clips with everything!!

801 gems!!!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2?page=1

This video is amazing. Perfectly conveys what this feature pack brings.

Nutjob.9021:

“the money isnt in alts.
the money is in the new players.”

Actually, the money is in both of these things. New players certainly bring money in, but players who are emotionally invested in the game and are willing to buy gems are also a major source of income for the game. In the long run, the willingness of established players to keep forking over more money matters more than new players. Presumably as the game ages, the influx of new players will decrease to the point that GW3 will become necessary. But, long after this point, if players who are thoroughly invested in the game keep pouring money into the gem market, the game will stay afloat long after it is considered obsolete.

To this end, it is important to design the game in such a way that it encourages players to consider themselves invested in the game, such that if they quit, they “lose” their imaginary investment. One way for players to become invested is for them to create multiple characters and raise them to high level. If the game is designed in such a way as to discourage this, players end up only having one main character, and there is less for them to walk away from when they fall in love with some other game.

That being said, the impact of these changes is fairly trivial, although it is rather annoying to make experienced players put on training wheels and a diaper. At least put in an option in the options menu for experienced players to restore full functionality to their new characters.

Agreed.
The trait system changes were bad enough, and now the serious drag on the early game experience is terrible. I actually feel sorry for new players who want to do crafting. If you were diligent, you could have level 5 blue gear almost right out the gate, but now…

I don’t know if I’ll be making many alts after this, but since I have experience scrolls, I can at least unlock a few utility skills.

Nutjob.9021:

“the money isnt in alts.
the money is in the new players.”

Actually, the money is in both of these things. New players certainly bring money in, but players who are emotionally invested in the game and are willing to buy gems are also a major source of income for the game. In the long run, the willingness of established players to keep forking over more money matters more than new players. Presumably as the game ages, the influx of new players will decrease to the point that GW3 will become necessary. But, long after this point, if players who are thoroughly invested in the game keep pouring money into the gem market, the game will stay afloat long after it is considered obsolete.

To this end, it is important to design the game in such a way that it encourages players to consider themselves invested in the game, such that if they quit, they “lose” their imaginary investment. One way for players to become invested is for them to create multiple characters and raise them to high level. If the game is designed in such a way as to discourage this, players end up only having one main character, and there is less for them to walk away from when they fall in love with some other game.

That being said, the impact of these changes is fairly trivial, although it is rather annoying to make experienced players put on training wheels and a diaper. At least put in an option in the options menu for experienced players to restore full functionality to their new characters.

^This.

While I do hate the new patch a lot. (only good thing was the new hero panel and the new TP) I can understand why they are doing this.
They want to be a bit more friendly to the new players that they will get so they can earn more money and make the game grow even more. But then I have another question. Why did the game work so good at release? I know there where a bunch of broken stuff and bugs at release. But back then we never really heard any complaints about the early leveling at all.

We only heard complaints about the end game. And we still complain about the lack of some good endgame. Why don’t they just leave the working low level stuff and start working on better end game to get new players that way?

This is just stupid imo and I want to believe that it’s just a very early/late april fools joke.

And if they really want to keep it then please make an option for us “old” player to turn all the new stuff off so we can go and explore all the vistas use our weapon skills, get our skill points and all that stuff. The new “brainless” players shouldn’t effect us “old” players in a negative way. it should do the opposite!

ugh arenanet…. just ugh…

I already have a level 80 in each class, unless they come out with a new class I wouldn’t have made a new alt anyway. That being said, I’m treasuring every level up tome I get all the more, because no way am I going to suffer through having basic functions I enjoyed when I first started playing being level locked.

Funny bit is I used to make a male human alt every now and then to preview armor combinations in the wardrobe (since both my humans are female and I want to see how certain armor works with male human cultural armor); every time I did that I would feel rather tempted just to roll a second warrior, just to scratch that cosmetic itch. Not having bank access until level 23 completely removes that temptation, so thanks, ANet.

I’m still on the fence with the changes.

I did make an alt last night – a Norn ele – which I took out into QD. After about 20 minutes, I was 4 hearts in and roughly lvl 7 I think. The level progression does feel slightly quicker. I got pois and Vistas like normal. I hadn’t gotten to a section with SPs so I didn’t get to check when those unlock yet. I found the dodge tutorial laughable, but its sufficient to give people the basic concept of dodge rolling. I haven’t made any judgement call as yet, since I haven’t spent more than a half hour with it, but we’ll see.

Edit: For clarification, that 20 minutes isn’t “just” in QD. It the total time from birth to completing the Orchard heard in QD.

Level 20 birthday scrolls need to be level 40 scrolls now. Might be an easier compromise than admitting this entire enterprise is based on misinterpreted data and poor analysis.

If I ever do need to level another character, it’ll be though collecting level books through pvp and never outside of that. They’ve pretty much gutted the leveling experience and left it to die.

Vayne.8563:

Boost tapers off at level 10, because you can do 5 story instances in a row if you want at level 10. And it’s still faster till level 15 than it was before the patch.

someone wants to complain?
well..here comes vayne!

on-topic: i agree that it should be toggleable. this is the sort of problem that should be fixed first. doing a major change based solely on a small part of the game. now, it’s reworking a major part of the leveling experience based on the supposed betterment of the new player experience.

it’s like the problem with skills/traits/builds. seems like everything is being balanced based solely on pvp even tho alot of the people who are affected by the change only play pve.

Psybunny.8906:

A bit of a backstory, I’m a veteran (preorder, played since closed betas, /age 2700h+). I haven’t played GW2 for about a year (forum says 10 months I believe). That is not because I didn’t like the game (obviously I did, since I have like 6-7 geared lvl 80’s and I enjoyed both PvE and PvP intensily).

What kept me from coming back, or well increased me taking a “break” from the game was the lack of meaningful content. No new dungeons, expansions, meaningful new areas that actually contain some content. All we got was some instanced LS events that felt empty and with one of the cheesiest Mary Sue villains ever. Not to mention rehashing of old materials, mindless grind achievements and new useless currency introduced every week.

Anyways, to get to the point, me and my fellow ex-guildies decided the other day to come back to the game and start new alts together. As reluctant as we were, feelings of nostalgia and remembering how it was to play in the “old days” sounded fun. Some of us were actually really hyped about this. I mean the new wardrobe system sounds wonderful and I remember it was something that some people were requesting since launch.
But…after reading about the new “Features”, I think we all agree that we’re gonna pass and find some alternative. Sad to see the direction this game is heading, especially since for me out of the MMOs I’ve played GW2 still has/had the best combat and “feel” to it.

Try it before you knock it. Don’t listen to a forum. Go in the game, make a character and try it. You’ll hit level ten within an hour of starting and it picks up very quickly from there.

If you believe what you’re reading here, then you’re only getting half the story. Reddit, for example, isn’t nearly as dissatisfied as this group, many of whom have an ax to grind prior to this anyway.

Good thread this , I was thinking of starting another Character , ( have 8 lvl 80 + 1 lvl 33 ) After seeing whats happening to new players .I will NOT be buying another character slot.
personally I wish Arenanet would work on the game and stop me D.cing all the time .