Guild Wars 2

From my experience the population has taken a huge dive since the last few patches.
I might be wrong, but looking at my own guild roster and the general population in PvE and WvW, I think it’s same to assume the population on Aurora Glade has greatly decreased. Some might have moved to other servers though.
Three major reasons:

1. The Condi-Patch that made condition-bunkers unstoppable. Insane burst potential with 3k armor and 20k health (WvW and PvP players)
2. Introduction of another gear-tier. I know this has been the cause for a lot of people quitting, since they didn’t wanna grind and neither have a disadvantage in WvW.
3. The rather boring Living Story plotline. Molten Alliance and now Toxic Alliance? I think a lot of people bought GW2 to hear more about the gods, the dragons and other ancient creatures.

Relentliss.2170:

Combat lacks any sort of tactical depth or creativity.

The reward system is weak.

The classes are imbalanced and some just don’t make sense.

Performance of the game is poor.

These would be the major ones.

Combat lacks depth in the traditional MMO sense because it’s partly an action MMO, you can’t have ten bars full of skills.

I havnt played one MMO where classes are actually balanced. Warriors at the moment are out of the ball park though.

The story of the LS is just bad altogether though. I think if the numbers are nosediving, it’s a huge wake up call for the devs to go and completely rethink their ideas. Scarlet is possibly the most shallow villain I’ve ever encountered in a game, and this involves Bowser.

Also, a lot of people quitted because it pretty much happens on all MMOs. People play through the launch content, that takes a few months, then they get bored and only come back when new content comes out.

I only log on to do my dailes then log off

Fishbait.6723:

but Carbine, not Anet, are the creators of Wild Star.

People said the same thing about this game when NCSoft shut down a certain other MMO and studio under their wing.

“Give Anet a chance.”
That’s what I’m doing here now.

End of the day, if you go to www.carbinestudios.com and scroll down to the bottom of the page, what d’you see?

Yuuuuuuuuup. NCSoft.

I don’t hold out much hope for that game, either. Plus, I don’t like that art style at all. It’s why I never got into WoW or Champions Online.

Personally, I’ll get bored of a game and stop playing. Or, like in the case of The Secret World, hit a brick wall as far as game progression goes and quit. Nothing seems to scratch the itch anymore.

McSlappy.1372:

xiv.7136:

GW2 players can leave and come back any time and do so constantly without being “left behind” on the gear treadmill.

This is a 100% false statement. If you left when ascended gear came out and recently came back there is nothing to catch you up to Ascended gear that has been ground out by other players. You get to start in and try to catch up which is good luck. Other games like WoW if I start playing now I can start getting the base tier of this seasons gear in an hour or two. WoW has what you just said. Not GW2.

You got the base gear AND then you have to grind for the conquest time gated point gear in WoW !

Lets not talk about the older post : <<about 10-11 Mil people not only have the time but the cash for it…… Anyways 13%+ stat increase? In wow 2200 gear is only 5% stat increase and it is a very very significant difference.>>
Where atm, here they only have released 4 gear pieces after a year , rather than 4 full sets of stats gear :P

This, precisely, point by point :

Trollface.9186:

- Combat is kittening boring : just go full Zerk and spam dodge rolls, autoattack….
- Lack of skills: most of them are either useless or boring/uninspired , so are the traits.
- Lack of rewards.
- PvP: since GW2 is the successor of GW1 ( which probably had the best PVP ever made)I would have expected something way better than this boring conquest…. absolutely one the worst (if not the worst) PvPs I’ve seen in my entire life.
- DR
- RNG, RNG everywhere.
- Super casual.
- Ascended gear.

I’m sure I did not mention something, but that’s all for now..

For me it was several reasons combined:
Ascended gear – represents a huge grind for me. It was a huge dissapointment seeing it being introduced in this game. GW2 was promised not to have a gear-grind if I wanted that i would have gone back to WOW. I also realised that with the armor sets coming out later i had to get all of it to play wvwvw.
Living story turned into a shopping list, i like to to new achievements – heck i love to do achievements – but in my own time. I felt in the end the way arenanet is treating the players, forcing us to logg in everyday to do these things. In the end i got stressed out. I play a game to have fun when i want to, not the way it is now.
Tequatl fail – i tried for days and days. Never managed to get into my own server. I have never seen such a fail event implemented in any online game i have played before.

There has to be more ways to get ascended gear and the 2 week shopping list with achievements have to go before i can return to this game. Hoping it will happen.

I play this game on and off.

I was most hyped by this game for the personal story and the dungeons. Turned out to be the two most disappointing features of the game and the ones I have completely ignored after the third month of the game. I’m also not a fan of the way the company monetizes skins. (GW1 got a lot of free armor skins like the prestige sets, why are all the new skins in the cash shop this time around?)

I still think this is a good game and is totally worth the $150 I spent on it (collector’s edition, hehe) because it has no monthly fee and the leveling experience was awesome, but it’s not going to be a game I will spend countless hours on unless a lot of things change.

Which is fine because I play WoW and have a fantastic guild to play with in there, but I really wished the game was better for me because what it does well, it does it really, really well.

Killthehealersffs.8940:

You got the base gear AND then you have to grind for the conquest time gated point gear in WoW !

Lets not talk about the older post : <<about 10-11 Mil people not only have the time but the cash for it…… Anyways 13%+ stat increase? In wow 2200 gear is only 5% stat increase and it is a very very significant difference.>>
Where atm, here they only have released 4 gear pieces after a year , rather than 4 full sets of stats gear :P

But that is the point. Each season’s gear is easily obtainable. If you are new to the game you can easily catch right up where people are currently. Very easy entry. With GW2 if you come in to the game six months from now it’s going to take you a very long time to get caught up to people with their ascended gear. In WoW your caught up to everyone nearly immediately. In here your pretty much going to be behind for 6-18 months.

My lack of playing is a result of dumbinishing returns, time gating, bad revamped content, constant nerfs to farming locations, poor drop rates in open world, pathetic loot drops in wvw, RNG.

McSlappy.1372:

Killthehealersffs.8940:

You got the base gear AND then you have to grind for the conquest time gated point gear in WoW !

Lets not talk about the older post : <<about 10-11 Mil people not only have the time but the cash for it…… Anyways 13%+ stat increase? In wow 2200 gear is only 5% stat increase and it is a very very significant difference.>>
Where atm, here they only have released 4 gear pieces after a year , rather than 4 full sets of stats gear :P

But that is the point. Each season’s gear is easily obtainable. If you are new to the game you can easily catch right up where people are currently. Very easy entry. With GW2 if you come in to the game six months from now it’s going to take you a very long time to get caught up to people with their ascended gear. In WoW your caught up to everyone nearly immediately. In here your pretty much going to be behind for 6-18 months.

Actually, Blizzard has capped the gear level to 496 in all PvP areas since patch 5.2, so as long as your gear was 496 or better (which is very easy), you actually have 0 catch up to do in World of Warcraft if you’re in PvP. There’s only one stat that is allowed to keep growing on PvP gear (so that PvP gear is slightly better at PvP) but it doesn’t make a huge difference.

That said, I don’t think that ascended gear makes such a big difference either in Guild Wars 2. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t even understand why they created ascended gear instead of just making rarer weapon armor skins. (New skins makes me excited while ascended accessories and laurel farming pushed me out of a game for about 6 months.) I just don’t feel that it deprecates exotics as badly as some people make it.

I’m not playing at the moment, mostly because I’m kind of tired of the game. Nothing new’s been added after, what, 14 months now? No new content, except for the Living Story, which spends most of its time depressing me because it’s temporary. No new weapons, weap+class combinations, skills, WvW maps, only a few sPvP maps and the last one was released something like four months ago.

Seriously, how many new things have been added to sPvP? 3 maps, a stat gem, a few models that already exist in the game, and the gem store armors and weapons? Nothing that changes the fundamental flow of the game, adds to possible build variety, gives new toys. It is, more or less, the exact same game as it was at release- That’s pretty boring, for a game that’s so proud of offering its fortnightly update schedule.

I don’t play because there is very little interesting PvE content, you just spam your auto attack and dodge the bad things. Also the main focus now seems to be on grinding (ascended gear, temporary meta achievements etc).

Personally I didn’t have expectations, unlike some people, I didn’t have much that much of mmo experience either. Since I used to play Ultima Online from 2001 to 2011 pretty much non stop, it isn’t anything like modern mmo’s. I did spend time with D2 and first Neverwinter Nights too.
Didn’t touch on GW1 at all, tried WoW like month and dropped it, wasn’t fan of Trinity. I took up on GW2 just because UO is pretty much dead nowadays and had seen it in many forms during my 10 year run (customized freeshards). So wanted some change and GW2 came out with perfect timing to fill my fantasy rpg quota.

At first GW2 was great, okay story wasn’t epic, Zhaitan was plain letdown, but in overall story wasn’t that bad.
Combat was very mobile and fun, even though I did want to get more skills, especially to weapons, some sort of drop box choices would have been nice. Then I got laughs out of Trinity followers which got wiped in dungeons non stop, crying how this game is broken, just because we didn’t have tanks and healers etc.
Laughing my kitten off to players which stayed in place like they had roots instead of feets, then getting owned by random mobs.
Of course I wasn’t and still aren’t great player myself, but at least I embraced the mobility part of this combat.
Tyria itself was beautiful, most jumping puzzles were fun to do at least once. Honestly I was in love.
First character to lvl 80 was really fun, with all crafting, exploring. Second character went pretty much same way, still had fun, met mostly great people, joined small but enjoyable guild, but..

..Like all love stories, after honeymoon comes the faults. 3rd and 4th characters felt pretty much horrible to grind up, since it was same in every way.
TP prices started to climb at horrible pace. Incomes & drops were just plainly horrible, since I didn’t enjoy doing dungeons non-stop and found that karma trains were mind dulling. Then nerfs after nerfs to things I actually did “farm” for hour or two per day (nowadays all those I did back then don’t drop anything). I just simply burned out, just after 2 months. Had almost 2 months long break, then got back due being too bored. Around X-mas I think.

Started to do more WvW, enjoyed it quite bit. Still did more pve content, grinded 5th and 6th characters to 80 with full exotics. That small guild had grown a bit. Felt alienated, since some of old core had quit/left, some had new things with new members. Didn’t really fit there anymore. Thus left, tried various other guilds. It was okay, but didn’t have that connection to others anymore.
Lots of friends also did quit too, friend list looked quite depressing most of the time.
TP prices were too ridiculous to follow anymore, gave up upon Legendaries, since with my play style I just cant afford it, ever.
Loot’s were pretty much nerfed to point that I didn’t have anything to do in pve anymore out side doing one of each class once to 80.
Switched to almost full time wvw, eventually you get bored to that too. So I quit again, had burnout of my life. Had almost half year long break until I logged on again like month ago.

Been mostly in WvW since, honestly it’s more enjoyable now since you get some rewards there. Even the Pve gives more rewards, though I wish it would be outside of champ trains, since they ain’t different from old mind torturing karma trains. Though main problem is GW2 lacks real hook, it has none.
UO had community, guilds, guild alliances, guild wars, chaos/order theme fun open world, housing, mounts, good crafting etc.
D2 had farming, farming and farming where you always felt like that you got something. "Maybe in next “room” I get something better."
WoW was about eternal cycle of progression and biggest ego contest.

GW2 just has Achievement points, but player who doesn’t give a kitten over those, nor have epic guild full of friends to keep them logging in, there simply isn’t anything to get hooked.
Plus your “hero” doesn’t feel that heroic at all, since you can’t even brush away some lame random trash mobs. I understand how veterans takes some time, champions of course should be “difficult” to degree.
But random skritt from beginner area can actually take few hits from guy actually has been killing god knows what kind of monsters around the world… c’mon. 3 or 4 basic hyper bunnies at the time actually gives you some challenge, when most games hero sneezes and they fly away like quaggan middle of Norn bar fight.
Or maybe I just prefer having 15-30 trash mobs around me and giving trouble with quantity instead of quality, who knows, but at least it feels heroic.

Well in overall GW2 still is decent game. Also you don’t get much of regrets if you decide to quit today, tomorrow, next week. If you feel coming back, it hasn’t changed that much, so it’s easy to come back. Those are the biggest pro’s of GW2.

Just my pennies, sorry for long post.

McSlappy.1372:

xiv.7136:

GW2 players can leave and come back any time and do so constantly without being “left behind” on the gear treadmill.

This is a 100% false statement. If you left when ascended gear came out and recently came back there is nothing to catch you up to Ascended gear that has been ground out by other players. You get to start in and try to catch up which is good luck. Other games like WoW if I start playing now I can start getting the base tier of this seasons gear in an hour or two. WoW has what you just said. Not GW2.

Difference is that WoWs gear is absolutely required to complete all content they have, Guild Wars 2, ascended gear is not required, exotics not even required, and the one place that you need ascended gear for Agony Resistance, you’ll get it anyways while doing the Fractals without having to repeat the same level over and over again to get that required AR to move on to the next level.

So no, you are not left behind if you do not play for 6 months or even a year.
In WoW you still have to keep up with the gear treadmill if you do not want to be left behind, if you want to do all the content that will be released, with Guild Wars 2, you can stay in Rares if you want and will never be undergeared to complete the content.

beren.6048:

Fishbait.6723:

My guess would be that WvWs turned into nothing but a zerg fest, combined with the unbelievably stupid match setups they`re currently screwing over every player over with.
(http://mos.millenium.org/eu) ….

After months I come and try a bit of GW2 to find my server being matched up with 2 servers who are clearly 10 times more strong than us. WvW was no longer playable because where ever you go you ll find enemy zergs and all your people stop going to WvW, so now there is no zerg to run with. Matching up a rank 7 server with a rank 2 is just stupid.

Agree. My server is 100% of the time WAY outnumbered. I keep going because it’s the only thing interesting in this game. However the rest of the game is so grindy or costly that i am actually considering finally finishing skyrim.

eisberg.2379:

McSlappy.1372:

xiv.7136:

GW2 players can leave and come back any time and do so constantly without being “left behind” on the gear treadmill.

This is a 100% false statement. If you left when ascended gear came out and recently came back there is nothing to catch you up to Ascended gear that has been ground out by other players. You get to start in and try to catch up which is good luck. Other games like WoW if I start playing now I can start getting the base tier of this seasons gear in an hour or two. WoW has what you just said. Not GW2.

Difference is that WoWs gear is absolutely required to complete all content they have, Guild Wars 2, ascended gear is not required, exotics not even required, and the one place that you need ascended gear for Agony Resistance, you’ll get it anyways while doing the Fractals without having to repeat the same level over and over again to get that required AR to move on to the next level.

So no, you are not left behind if you do not play for 6 months or even a year.
In WoW you still have to keep up with the gear treadmill if you do not want to be left behind, if you want to do all the content that will be released, with Guild Wars 2, you can stay in Rares if you want and will never be undergeared to complete the content.

Eisberg is right. I know this because I have guildies who have been gone for six months, and they just jump right in and start playing again. Run all the same content with us, including dugeons. Do some WvW. Do some SPvP.

The one exception might be the highest level fractals, which only a tiny percentage of the game’s population does anyway.

Shahiel.8342:

I don’t play because there is very little interesting PvE content, you just spam your auto attack and dodge the bad things. Also the main focus now seems to be on grinding (ascended gear, temporary meta achievements etc).

This is something that’s quite interesting. There’s plenty of challenging content in the game, ranging from stuff like the new Aetherpath for combatants to some very tough jumping puzzles for the non-combatants.

It’s just that no one ever does them, ever, then complain that the game is too easy or shallow. It’s not that they aren’t there, it’s more so that hard content isn’t rewarding enough. There needs to be rewards which, apologies of I sound elitist, the pros from the noobs.

Xae Isareth.1364:

Shahiel.8342:

I don’t play because there is very little interesting PvE content, you just spam your auto attack and dodge the bad things. Also the main focus now seems to be on grinding (ascended gear, temporary meta achievements etc).

This is something that’s quite interesting. There’s plenty of challenging content in the game, ranging from stuff like the new Aetherpath for combatants to some very tough jumping puzzles for the non-combatants.

It’s just that no one ever does them, ever, then complain that the game is too easy or shallow. It’s not that they aren’t there, it’s more so that hard content isn’t rewarding enough. There needs to be rewards which, apologies of I sound elitist, the pros from the noobs.

It’s because people who want jumping puzzles can play awesome platformers instead and players who like dungeons have other games with way better and more frequently new dungeons.
People wanted open world stuff and story, both have been a disappointment for many.

I have stopped playing GW2 for the following:
-Living story, in my opinion, is a bust. It is not living. A lot of the issues that are wrong with it are being discussed in the collaborative discussion thread, which is good. But it is still a bad addition to the game. They could have gone a different route in making the world ‘living’.

-Ascended gear / item treadmill. ’Nuff said. I dont want to grind and wait for weeks or months to get my BiS gear. When I bought the game, I was under the impression, as were MANY, that getting exotic would be relatively quick and then you can work on cosmetics. Not the case. And I fear that once we FINALLY have our full ascended set, many months down the line, possibly a year…that the level cap will be raised shortly after that. Oops, have to start the grind for BiS gear all over again. I will then sit pretty with the knowledge that I called it…this has been a gear treadmill that was masked by time and by releasing slots, not entire tiers. Same thing if you really think about it.

-The game has become centered around zergs, living story(which IMO is not a slam dunk success at all) and achievement points. Not to mention, the prices of everything keep going up on the TP so it is getting harder to acquire what you need to do anything.

-Build diversity. It is becoming less of a priority to create build diversity.

Although, I will admit… I am thinking of returning. We’ll see over the next few days or weeks how the LS discussion unfolds and where arenanet thinks they may go with our feedback. But then again, I am having a lot of fun playing other games, and other types of games. I think when all is said and done and Im ready to return to MMOs for a good long stint, it might be to a game that will do character and gear progression properly. Wildstar might be that game. I just think Arenanet’s approach to stat progression is terrible and doesn’t belong in GW2.

There is no prestige to get either as a guild. The game is called Guild Wars and yet what does the game advocates? Those poorly done Guild Missions where people outside of your guild can jump in at any time to kitten things over? Where are the Guild Halls? Rankings? GvGs? Proper PvP? Then I’m not even talking about the General Guild System yet who lacks a ton of features to manage it.

The game is a year old and yet in such an early stage with so much kitten lacking, it’s not even funny. I moved on into the GvG scene with my guys and WvW has always been my drive to continue. But with superior and competitive games coming up, I am unsure how long we can last when nothing is being done to improve the game.

Face it, nobody cares about the Living Story Roleplaying kitten, nor about those achievements or a crap league. We are looking for something that meets the more competitive players. Think about a real PvP system, Halls, Prestige such as Capes in GW1 and what not. I understand coding takes a long time, been there myself, but putting 80% of your guys on Living Story instead of actually dropping these guys on the forums to listen what their customers actually want is a big no-no!

I’ve stopped playing because it’s time for bed. I’ll probably play more when I wake up. lol

It’s interesting to read a lot of the reasons people stop playing, because some of them are the very reasons I keep playing.

Generally speaking (and this is very general), I think people who are more focused on rewards and loot are generally less happy with the game than people who are focused on just doing whatever the hell they want to do. The problem is, because of that, Anet keeps trying to get the people who want the loot to be happy.

Which causes inflation and puts pressure on people who don’t want to play a certain way to play that way, if they happen to want ascended weapons or some cool looking skin.

In the end, no game can be all things to all people and Anet needs to position the game in such a way where it stops kitten ing off both sides of the divide (though right now it’s leaning quite heavily toward the loot seekers).

Edit: I do realize the statement above seems like a contradiction, since it’s leaning heavily to the loot seekers, but they’re the least happy. Yet, I still think it’s true. Because I don’t particularly care about loot, I do what I want anyway. I spent the entire evening leveling a 30th level character. That’s what I wanted to do, that’s what I did. I got zone completion in Wayfarer Foothills. I had fun, even though I’ve done it before on other characters. But if I were only interested in loot, I’d feel a lot of pressure not to waste this time and go do stuff that might not be fun to me…which is why I think that the loot – seekers aren’t happy. The limited amount of ways to farm will almost guarantee they’ll be bored sooner rather than later.

I threw in the towel because of Anet’s constant “stealth” manipulations of the game’s economy and reward system.

They introduce ascended crafting, a huge grind no matter how you look at it, while systematically nerfing all means of earning gold in the game.

For me, the unannounced champ train nerf was the final straw.

Vayne.8563:

I’ve stopped playing because it’s time for bed. I’ll probably play more when I wake up. lol

It’s interesting to read a lot of the reasons people stop playing, because some of them are the very reasons I keep playing but I know what potential the game has.

Generally speaking (and this is very general), I think people who are more focused on rewards and loot are generally less happy with the game than people who are focused on just doing whatever the hell they want to do. The problem is, because of that, Anet keeps trying to get the people who want the loot to be happy.

Which causes inflation and puts pressure on people who don’t want to play a certain way to play that way, if they happen to want ascended weapons or some cool looking skin.

In the end, no game can be all things to all people and Anet needs to position the game in such a way where it stops kitten ing off both sides of the divide (though right now it’s leaning quite heavily toward the loot seekers).

Edit: I do realize the statement above seems like a contradiction, since it’s leaning heavily to the loot seekers, but they’re the least happy. Yet, I still think it’s true. Because I don’t particularly care about loot, I do what I want anyway. I spent the entire evening leveling a 30th level character. That’s what I wanted to do, that’s what I did. I got zone completion in Wayfarer Foothills. I had fun, even though I’ve done it before on other characters. But if I were only interested in loot, I’d feel a lot of pressure not to waste this time and go do stuff that might not be fun to me…which is why I think that the loot – seekers aren’t happy. The limited amount of ways to farm will almost guarantee they’ll be bored sooner rather than later.

I read your first sentence and almost jumped out of my chair haha.

I agree though with your post. But call it human nature, at least for most of us. Excuse the example, but put a chocolate cake in front of a fat kid and he will want to eat it even if he knows he shouldnt. Put a shiny in front of a video game player, and he will want it even though he knows he doesnt need it. Its just human nature. I honestly wish I were more like you when I play/played GW2. I would love to just log in and do whatever. But it is very hard to ignore the advertisements of big shinies that people in LA are wearing, and map chat and all of the LS ads on your HUD. Just in general, its hard to ignore this stuff. And to a small degree, I do want to experience the story and keep up. And I do want more AP because the skins you can get via AP are pretty nice. But at the same time, I know that its a double edged sword and can/will be the death of me in the game.

Perhaps you can write up a post on how you are able to put aside quests for shinies, loot, and income and how you are able to just play intrinsically. Perhaps I could adopt some of those methods, because currently I am not playing.

Xae Isareth.1364:

Shahiel.8342:

I don’t play because there is very little interesting PvE content, you just spam your auto attack and dodge the bad things. Also the main focus now seems to be on grinding (ascended gear, temporary meta achievements etc).

This is something that’s quite interesting. There’s plenty of challenging content in the game, ranging from stuff like the new Aetherpath for combatants to some very tough jumping puzzles for the non-combatants.

It’s just that no one ever does them, ever, then complain that the game is too easy or shallow. It’s not that they aren’t there, it’s more so that hard content isn’t rewarding enough. There needs to be rewards which, apologies of I sound elitist, the pros from the noobs.

I didn’t mean so much that there is no challenging content, sure there are parts where you will die quickly if you miss the dodge. What I meant was that there are very little interesting mechanics outside of dodging the enemies big attacks.

I did enjoy the queen’s gauntlet for example, I wish there was more like this throughout the game.

Most people stop because they tunnelvision the negatives, which causes them to overlook the positives. A bit like how people have things in relationships that really annoy them, up till a point that it becomes unbearable.
Untill that moment in the future when they start to overthink the entire situation and realize it wasnt that bad (mind that some people arent capable of doing this).

A lot of people play 1 profession. If that happens to be one of the relatively shallow profs i can understand why the game is boring to you. I had the same while playing my first main, my ranger.

So i stopped for a bit, came back and started playing engineer. Which in my eyes offers the most enjoyable and diverse combat ive ever experienced in any MMO.

So it might (or might not) be related to your profession.

Quite a few of my friends stopped since they missed the vertical gear progression system. Which is understandable if you are used to such a system. To quote myself from a post i made on the wow forums:

“Thats whats “lacking” in GW2s incentives system for example. You have 100’s of bad .ss looking skins…but it means nothing to a relatively big group of players since people are so used to gaining power (without actually gaining power relatively) that those skins are deemed useless/superficial."

Or an Earlier post:

“Its a psychological thing; people want to feel as if their characters are growing in strength.

Meanwhile everything stays the same relatively."

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/8592179294?page=1#4

Because, GW2 PVE is simply emotionally unrewarding when compared to other games.

Few sessions end with the feeling of having been involved in glorious battles. To often you cannot see what you are fighting. You are not given enough time to understand what is happening, work out an appropriate response and enjoy the combat. The whole healing side of things is pathetic. A lot of players don’t enjoy being ganked, GW2 ganks.

Few sessions end with the feeling that efforts have been properly rewarded. A-net will happily give ‘Bob the Grinder’ 3 precursors and regular exotics. Average PVE players get to see one, no use to their profession, exotic in 3 months. Who cares if it’s simply RNG. It’s simply Anet refusing to reward player effort properly. I killed Zhaiten for a useless rare.

Many GW2 players have moved on to other games, eg. Neverwinter, DC Universe, Everquest, because they are not enjoying the ‘New’ GW2; they know they cannot keep up with the mindless grind for an extra 13% damage advancement or any sort of status gear. They are too intelligent for a Pachinko style game; they need a higher level of satisfaction.

Good friends no longer play because they cannot see the point of grinding
L(azy) Story achievements to find out what happens to an Evil Twiglet.

What could have been a living world, always changing, rich with mysteries and enthralling stories, immersive and dangerous to the player character has devolved into a?

Let me give an example:

The hours of effort put into Tower of Nightmare gives you….

A stone that sits in a pond.

I’d rather have had an Urgoz bow; at least it would have been amusing.

I left because of ascended gear and ascended crafting. I might have stuck around if they introduced ascended drops (that are useful) through actual content but they went the easy route. In WoW, I can get a full set of decent PvP gear in about a week. How many months will it take new players to gear full ascended for WvW?

eisberg.2379:

McSlappy.1372:

xiv.7136:

GW2 players can leave and come back any time and do so constantly without being “left behind” on the gear treadmill.

This is a 100% false statement. If you left when ascended gear came out and recently came back there is nothing to catch you up to Ascended gear that has been ground out by other players. You get to start in and try to catch up which is good luck. Other games like WoW if I start playing now I can start getting the base tier of this seasons gear in an hour or two. WoW has what you just said. Not GW2.

Difference is that WoWs gear is absolutely required to complete all content they have, Guild Wars 2, ascended gear is not required, exotics not even required, and the one place that you need ascended gear for Agony Resistance, you’ll get it anyways while doing the Fractals without having to repeat the same level over and over again to get that required AR to move on to the next level.

So no, you are not left behind if you do not play for 6 months or even a year.
In WoW you still have to keep up with the gear treadmill if you do not want to be left behind, if you want to do all the content that will be released, with Guild Wars 2, you can stay in Rares if you want and will never be undergeared to complete the content.

Wrong. WoW introduced several ways to catch up in addition to introducing yet another raiding difficulty (increasing that number to four). If you want to see end game raiding content, you can very easily do so and you can complete it at a level you can handle. I’d rather run, you know actual content for my gear instead of running brainless champ trains and Orr events and battling time gating at the crafting station.

Why I took a break from the game was because:
- I quite like having special roles (healer, tank and dps).
- After I got 80 there wasn’t much to do (I felt like).
- Making an alt (which I really like doing) didn’t feel very new, you’ve seen the places and you get the skills quite fast so there was not much new.
- The dungeons were extremely hard.
- All my friends quit.

This was before the living story started and since I have so little time nowadays between work and hobbies GW2 is actually a good game to play. I feel there’s more to do now, and a few things has gotten better since I took my break, I feel.

Coming from a person who’s been thinking about it for the past month.

Boredom.

I have 4 max characters and the 5th at lvl 50. I only like to play one of them. I have 250 laurels, Almost 2,000 hours on my main character, and over 700 skill points to use along with 250 knowledge scrolls in my bank . Why did I list that you ask? Because there is nothing out there that interests me enough to use any of that.

What anet needs to do in my opinion is start making changes that impact their veteran player base. Living world is just not cutting it. Mostly because the lack of story keeps everyone disinterested. I only do the achievements then I’m done with that content. Nobody wants to stand around and listen to idle talk to get part of the story.

There needs to be more incentive to the living story rather than get “x” amount of achievements and get an item. The voting system during the Cutthroat Politics update is the type of updates we need. It kept people engaged. No we do not need to vote every month but there are other ways to let the community as a whole decide what they want in future updates. We need to feel like we are doing something for a reason not just because its there to do.

For example:
We are getting all these Pristine Toxic Spores right now. Why not have two different characters that have different ideas on what to do with the samples. If you give samples to person “A” then you will approach the next event in this manner along with some game changing stuff like ascended armor be available via laurels and materials but if you give it to person “B” you will approach the next event in a different manner and have ascended armor be only craft able via materials only.

This would drive people to keep doing things in game to help aid what they want to do in the game and keep people immersed in the game.

Right now I fight with myself to even log on because I keep thinking eventually it will get better. If they are going to keep doing this 2 week update thing they will need to double the size of all 3 teams to make the content have some real substance.

The reasons I am considering to quit again are the same reasons I had for leaving the game about a month after launch: primarily the combat and the writing, added to some less severe but still galling issues like ascended gear and gendered armor

The combat is shallow, boring, and often hampered by the game itself because I can’t see a bloody thing among the particle spam. There are no quality-of-life features like target castbar or target-of-target indicator, or better visibility for enemy AoE indicators, and the combat log is entirely useless. We only have a tiny number of skills, most of which have painfully long cooldowns. Then there are the utterly uninspired traits — out of 70 trait points at max level, only at most 14 have any noticeable effect, and of these you only get to actively choose at most 7 … a pitiful ten percent. Other games are slowly waking up to the fact that +1% here and +2% there makes for a crappy and bland trait/talent system. I wish Anet would do the same.

Not to mention the horribly unbalanced stats and the completely blase attitude of the developers about this situation. Conditions and especially the defensive stats can’t hold a candle to glass cannon berserkers. (This is from a PvE perspective — I do not ever PvP, so I could not possibly care less about their “e-sport” fixation.) Defiance/Unshakable and the impossibility of active aggro control remove almost all tactical elements from boss and champion fights because you can’t control or influence them — and hell, wasn’t “control” supposed to be one of the playstyles in this game? In the light of all the noise made about the evils and limitations of the good old trinity, this uninspired, auto-attack-heavy mess of a combat system is doubly laughable.

And while the setting is quite good (I honestly love the charr and the sylvari in particular) and the premise of having to figure out how to defeat the almost godlike Elder Dragons was interesting enough for me and promised some good old-fashioned epic fantasy, the actual story writing is also disappointing because it as as shallow and boring and messy as the combat. The personal story is disjointed, offers not a single opportunity for actual roleplaying nor any meaningful choices — a sylvari going Vigil says and does the exact same things as a charr going Whispers, and is treated in exactly the same way too. My character is not a character with her own culture, history, personality, friends and foes, she’s a generic, vaguely hero-shaped blob saying generic, vaguely heroic things. I’m fine with Trahearne, hell I even like him to a degree. I’m not fine with not being allowed to be an actual character.

The living story is even more disappointing because neither my character nor the premise of the Elder Dragons even exist anymore. Instead it’s all about NPCs blabbing at each other, and an untouchable, godlike, shrieking teenage brat pulling all the strings everywhere. For all its problems, there were moments of the personal story that I enjoyed and felt engaged with, mainly in the early culture-based chapters (because they allow for some sense of identity that is so painfully missing later). The “living” story on the other hand does not even have the potential for that. One big reason for my quitting WoW was the fact that I was beyond sick and tired of a tiny handful of forgettable, overblown writer’s pet characters (Varian, Thrall, Garrosh and Malfurion) getting all the attention at the expense and to the utter detriment of everything and everyone else in the setting. GW2 is heading in the same direction, and that is a bloody shame.

Ascended gear ticks me off because it adds something that this game was marketed as not having: another layer of gear-grinding. So much for cosmetic horizontal progression only. I hate the obsession that so many MMOs have with gear. Let my character’s power be intrinsic instead of external. Being a glorified armor stand for the oh-so-k3wl “epix” is not heroic or exciting at all.

Since we’re on the subject of gear: the gendered armor ticks me off to a huge degree. So many sets that look badarse, dignified or just simply practical on a male character, so many distinct designs are ruined on a female character in favor of boobs, panty shots, heels, garters and lacy frills. Yeah, other games are much worse when it comes to objectifying, gendered armor, but “it could be worse” is not remotely an argument in actual favor of something.

The truth is they do not stop playing they take time off and that is by design of the game. If a person say they are quitting but are not giving up there code etc.. things that let you back into the game then they are not truly quitting.

I usually stop playing GW2 when I get so tired I’m at risk of falling out of my chair.

/e Stanley Roper

Actually, I have to give GW2 the proverbial ‘props’ as it has held me for a longer uninterrupted stretch than any previous game, barring City of Heroes. I’ve taken breaks from several games and returned to them – usually after a few months – quite often, and from some games I’ve taken multiple breaks but still eventually return (see LOTRO and the original Guild Wars campaigns). I seldom abandon a game altogether. I even gave SWTOR a second chance – and then promptly uninstalled it again. Bahaha! Silly Biowares.

I’m nearing the inevitable break point with GW2, though, and it is largely, but not solely, due to the Living Story/World concept. I think this innovative and ground-breaking concept is one of the worst things to ever happen to any MMO, ever, but the devs seem to be in love with it, so… yeah. If not for my guildies, the break would have already come.

“This is my story.”

Shahiel.8342:

Xae Isareth.1364:

Shahiel.8342:

I don’t play because there is very little interesting PvE content, you just spam your auto attack and dodge the bad things. Also the main focus now seems to be on grinding (ascended gear, temporary meta achievements etc).

This is something that’s quite interesting. There’s plenty of challenging content in the game, ranging from stuff like the new Aetherpath for combatants to some very tough jumping puzzles for the non-combatants.

It’s just that no one ever does them, ever, then complain that the game is too easy or shallow. It’s not that they aren’t there, it’s more so that hard content isn’t rewarding enough. There needs to be rewards which, apologies of I sound elitist, the pros from the noobs.

I didn’t mean so much that there is no challenging content, sure there are parts where you will die quickly if you miss the dodge. What I meant was that there are very little interesting mechanics outside of dodging the enemies big attacks.

I did enjoy the queen’s gauntlet for example, I wish there was more like this throughout the game.

There’s a certain allure to having fights which is based on instinctive reaction because it makes the fight feel more real, which is why action MMOs exist.

But what I was getting at is how the harder fights which do have interesting mechanics (Tequatl, Aether, most of Arah, etc) just aren’t rewarding enough.

On a side note, I wonder if it would make an interesting fight if we get rid of mechanics completely and give a completely random AI and a skill list which is very non-specific (ie not really complete skills, just actions which can link together to do something), so that every fight would be completely random.

CoRtex.2157:

Hi my my name is Vayne.8563 and i say things that aren’t true, so i can pretend that GW2 is the best game ever. Have a nice day

Sometimes I wonder why we don’t have a forum rule which bans players insulting other players as well as devs. This post is about as constructive as scaffolding made of dog terd.

eisberg.2379:

McSlappy.1372:

xiv.7136:

GW2 players can leave and come back any time and do so constantly without being “left behind” on the gear treadmill.

This is a 100% false statement. If you left when ascended gear came out and recently came back there is nothing to catch you up to Ascended gear that has been ground out by other players. You get to start in and try to catch up which is good luck. Other games like WoW if I start playing now I can start getting the base tier of this seasons gear in an hour or two. WoW has what you just said. Not GW2.

Difference is that WoWs gear is absolutely required to complete all content they have, Guild Wars 2, ascended gear is not required, exotics not even required, and the one place that you need ascended gear for Agony Resistance, you’ll get it anyways while doing the Fractals without having to repeat the same level over and over again to get that required AR to move on to the next level.

So no, you are not left behind if you do not play for 6 months or even a year.
In WoW you still have to keep up with the gear treadmill if you do not want to be left behind, if you want to do all the content that will be released, with Guild Wars 2, you can stay in Rares if you want and will never be undergeared to complete the content.

I have never played WoW, so I don’t know what I’m talking about, but that has never stopped me before.

I would much rather have required gear that is easy to obtain that not-required but better stat gear that is a pain in the kitten to obtain.

Jski.6180:

The truth is they do not stop playing they take time off and that is by design of the game. If a person say they are quitting but are not giving up there code etc.. things that let you back into the game then they are not truly quitting.

Can you give up your code and get a refund? If so how?

McSlappy.1372:

Jski.6180:

The truth is they do not stop playing they take time off and that is by design of the game. If a person say they are quitting but are not giving up there code etc.. things that let you back into the game then they are not truly quitting.

Can you give up your code and get a refund? If so how?

Under certain conditions you can get a refund. I believe the limit is about 6 months.

https://guildwars2.zendesk.com/entries/27697743-Refunds

TooBz.3065:

eisberg.2379:

McSlappy.1372:

xiv.7136:

GW2 players can leave and come back any time and do so constantly without being “left behind” on the gear treadmill.

This is a 100% false statement. If you left when ascended gear came out and recently came back there is nothing to catch you up to Ascended gear that has been ground out by other players. You get to start in and try to catch up which is good luck. Other games like WoW if I start playing now I can start getting the base tier of this seasons gear in an hour or two. WoW has what you just said. Not GW2.

Difference is that WoWs gear is absolutely required to complete all content they have, Guild Wars 2, ascended gear is not required, exotics not even required, and the one place that you need ascended gear for Agony Resistance, you’ll get it anyways while doing the Fractals without having to repeat the same level over and over again to get that required AR to move on to the next level.

So no, you are not left behind if you do not play for 6 months or even a year.
In WoW you still have to keep up with the gear treadmill if you do not want to be left behind, if you want to do all the content that will be released, with Guild Wars 2, you can stay in Rares if you want and will never be undergeared to complete the content.

I have never played WoW, so I don’t know what I’m talking about, but that has never stopped me before.

I would much rather have required gear that is easy to obtain that not-required but better stat gear that is a pain in the kitten to obtain.

Don’t worry, because eisberg doesn’t know what he’s talk about either when it comes to WoW.

In WoW, if your goal is to just see the content, it is quite easy to get enough gear to do so. And you get that gear through doing actual, interesting stuff.

TooBz.3065:

eisberg.2379:

McSlappy.1372:

xiv.7136:

GW2 players can leave and come back any time and do so constantly without being “left behind” on the gear treadmill.

This is a 100% false statement. If you left when ascended gear came out and recently came back there is nothing to catch you up to Ascended gear that has been ground out by other players. You get to start in and try to catch up which is good luck. Other games like WoW if I start playing now I can start getting the base tier of this seasons gear in an hour or two. WoW has what you just said. Not GW2.

Difference is that WoWs gear is absolutely required to complete all content they have, Guild Wars 2, ascended gear is not required, exotics not even required, and the one place that you need ascended gear for Agony Resistance, you’ll get it anyways while doing the Fractals without having to repeat the same level over and over again to get that required AR to move on to the next level.

So no, you are not left behind if you do not play for 6 months or even a year.
In WoW you still have to keep up with the gear treadmill if you do not want to be left behind, if you want to do all the content that will be released, with Guild Wars 2, you can stay in Rares if you want and will never be undergeared to complete the content.

I have never played WoW, so I don’t know what I’m talking about, but that has never stopped me before.

I would much rather have required gear that is easy to obtain that not-required but better stat gear that is a pain in the kitten to obtain.

I’m just inferring here, but you sound (as am i) to be one of those players who just want BiS gear just because you want the best.

The question is, what’s after getting it? During the process you had something to progress towards, and there’s nothing you can’t do without BiS gear in the game. So is there really a point to getting it ASAP?

Xae Isareth.1364:

TooBz.3065:

eisberg.2379:

McSlappy.1372:

xiv.7136:

GW2 players can leave and come back any time and do so constantly without being “left behind” on the gear treadmill.

This is a 100% false statement. If you left when ascended gear came out and recently came back there is nothing to catch you up to Ascended gear that has been ground out by other players. You get to start in and try to catch up which is good luck. Other games like WoW if I start playing now I can start getting the base tier of this seasons gear in an hour or two. WoW has what you just said. Not GW2.

Difference is that WoWs gear is absolutely required to complete all content they have, Guild Wars 2, ascended gear is not required, exotics not even required, and the one place that you need ascended gear for Agony Resistance, you’ll get it anyways while doing the Fractals without having to repeat the same level over and over again to get that required AR to move on to the next level.

So no, you are not left behind if you do not play for 6 months or even a year.
In WoW you still have to keep up with the gear treadmill if you do not want to be left behind, if you want to do all the content that will be released, with Guild Wars 2, you can stay in Rares if you want and will never be undergeared to complete the content.

I have never played WoW, so I don’t know what I’m talking about, but that has never stopped me before.

I would much rather have required gear that is easy to obtain that not-required but better stat gear that is a pain in the kitten to obtain.

I’m just inferring here, but you sound (as am i) to be one of those players who just want BiS gear just because you want the best.

The question is, what’s after getting it? During the process you had something to progress towards, and there’s nothing you can’t do without BiS gear in the game. So is there really a point to getting it ASAP?

Probably because he doesn’t want to be at a disadvantage in WvW or PvE. Neither do I.
But I’m not going to do the incredibly grindy mat gathering and time gated crafting, so I spend my time elsewhere.

Xae Isareth.1364:

TooBz.3065:

eisberg.2379:

McSlappy.1372:

xiv.7136:

GW2 players can leave and come back any time and do so constantly without being “left behind” on the gear treadmill.

This is a 100% false statement. If you left when ascended gear came out and recently came back there is nothing to catch you up to Ascended gear that has been ground out by other players. You get to start in and try to catch up which is good luck. Other games like WoW if I start playing now I can start getting the base tier of this seasons gear in an hour or two. WoW has what you just said. Not GW2.

Difference is that WoWs gear is absolutely required to complete all content they have, Guild Wars 2, ascended gear is not required, exotics not even required, and the one place that you need ascended gear for Agony Resistance, you’ll get it anyways while doing the Fractals without having to repeat the same level over and over again to get that required AR to move on to the next level.

So no, you are not left behind if you do not play for 6 months or even a year.
In WoW you still have to keep up with the gear treadmill if you do not want to be left behind, if you want to do all the content that will be released, with Guild Wars 2, you can stay in Rares if you want and will never be undergeared to complete the content.

I have never played WoW, so I don’t know what I’m talking about, but that has never stopped me before.

I would much rather have required gear that is easy to obtain that not-required but better stat gear that is a pain in the kitten to obtain.

I’m just inferring here, but you sound (as am i) to be one of those players who just want BiS gear just because you want the best.

The question is, what’s after getting it? During the process you had something to progress towards, and there’s nothing you can’t do without BiS gear in the game. So is there really a point to getting it ASAP?

But with this argumentation, what is the reason to get it at all. And as a logical consequence you have to ask, why does it exist at all. If the progress is futile, why have progression?

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Xae Isareth.1364:

TooBz.3065:

eisberg.2379:

McSlappy.1372:

xiv.7136:

GW2 players can leave and come back any time and do so constantly without being “left behind” on the gear treadmill.

This is a 100% false statement. If you left when ascended gear came out and recently came back there is nothing to catch you up to Ascended gear that has been ground out by other players. You get to start in and try to catch up which is good luck. Other games like WoW if I start playing now I can start getting the base tier of this seasons gear in an hour or two. WoW has what you just said. Not GW2.

Difference is that WoWs gear is absolutely required to complete all content they have, Guild Wars 2, ascended gear is not required, exotics not even required, and the one place that you need ascended gear for Agony Resistance, you’ll get it anyways while doing the Fractals without having to repeat the same level over and over again to get that required AR to move on to the next level.

So no, you are not left behind if you do not play for 6 months or even a year.
In WoW you still have to keep up with the gear treadmill if you do not want to be left behind, if you want to do all the content that will be released, with Guild Wars 2, you can stay in Rares if you want and will never be undergeared to complete the content.

I have never played WoW, so I don’t know what I’m talking about, but that has never stopped me before.

I would much rather have required gear that is easy to obtain that not-required but better stat gear that is a pain in the kitten to obtain.

I’m just inferring here, but you sound (as am i) to be one of those players who just want BiS gear just because you want the best.

The question is, what’s after getting it? During the process you had something to progress towards, and there’s nothing you can’t do without BiS gear in the game. So is there really a point to getting it ASAP?

But with this argumentation, what is the reason to get it at all. And as a logical consequence you have to ask, why does it exist at all. If the progress is futile, why have progression?

Simply put, there is no reason. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a need for it to exist. It’s in human nature to want to feel you’re progressing and getting stronger, no matter how pointless it actually is.

The main complaint people had of GW2 is that there’s nothing to achieve after 80, so Anet responded to that complaint.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

I left because of ascended gear and ascended crafting. I might have stuck around if they introduced ascended drops (that are useful) through actual content but they went the easy route. In WoW, I can get a full set of decent PvP gear in about a week. How many months will it take new players to gear full ascended for WvW?

eisberg.2379:

McSlappy.1372:

xiv.7136:

GW2 players can leave and come back any time and do so constantly without being “left behind” on the gear treadmill.

This is a 100% false statement. If you left when ascended gear came out and recently came back there is nothing to catch you up to Ascended gear that has been ground out by other players. You get to start in and try to catch up which is good luck. Other games like WoW if I start playing now I can start getting the base tier of this seasons gear in an hour or two. WoW has what you just said. Not GW2.

Difference is that WoWs gear is absolutely required to complete all content they have, Guild Wars 2, ascended gear is not required, exotics not even required, and the one place that you need ascended gear for Agony Resistance, you’ll get it anyways while doing the Fractals without having to repeat the same level over and over again to get that required AR to move on to the next level.

So no, you are not left behind if you do not play for 6 months or even a year.
In WoW you still have to keep up with the gear treadmill if you do not want to be left behind, if you want to do all the content that will be released, with Guild Wars 2, you can stay in Rares if you want and will never be undergeared to complete the content.

Wrong. WoW introduced several ways to catch up in addition to introducing yet another raiding difficulty (increasing that number to four). If you want to see end game raiding content, you can very easily do so and you can complete it at a level you can handle. I’d rather run, you know actual content for my gear instead of running brainless champ trains and Orr events and battling time gating at the crafting station.

Hmm, really? When did they get rid of gear checks in all difficulties? When did they make it so that you do not need certain gear to complete higher difficulty? And if they didn’t get rid of needing certain gear to complete it, did they make it so that you only have to complete a raid 1 time and get all the gear you needed in order to progress on to the next raid above it? Can you complete all difficulty using the same gear, or do you need better gear in order to complete it? Unless they actually did make those kind of changes, I am far from being wrong.

Expectations Vs. Reality:

To put it frankly, many players, myself included, just expected something different. We were told that it was going to be different than GW1, but we were also told that it would have “what we loved about GW1” put into a persistent world (which honestly, was one of the very few limitations that annoyed me about GW1, but were made up for in other areas like combat dynamics and team building.) We all saw the video, we all saw the grandeur of Divinity’s Reach, the explosions, and the Charr running through the city streets.

In reality, it just wasn’t what most people expected. The story was disjoint and not very engaging or appealing to most people. It didn’t have a lot of the charm that made GW1 great (Pre-searing Charr vs. Human sentiment). In a lot of ways, the game ended up being kittenized rather than the sequel that GW1 fans expected. I could go on for days about all the little nuances that people could say about what they expected vs. what they received and I most certainly have un-ending gripes, but let’s move on to the next issue. We’ll just say that a lot of negative feelings come from what people expected vs. what they actually got.

Lack of MMO feel:

Please read all of this before you get angry, this is the best umbrella heading I could think of for this section. Alright so, I do acknowledge that not everyone who came to GW2 played GW1, however, I myself am speaking from a GW1 player perspective. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some social systems in the game and how they influenced the overall feel.

- Lack of player to player trade :

A pretty odd thing to leave out. It leaves the game feeling more like it’s being controlled by an over-arching economic system rather than feeling like a true MMORPG. Lack of player interaction is not a good thing for an MMO game. A system like this caters to convenience and we all know what systems like this breed in people. Sure, we don’t like sitting in Spamadan, but it was cool to feel like you could actually interact with people in a market place. They should have found a happier medium. An offshoot issue is how this ties into the gem store monetization. GW1 never did anything like this.

- Grouping up is superfluous outside of dungeon content:

There is absolutely no benefit to grouping up and staying with other people. There’s no inter-player dependence. This can be seen as a good or bad thing. Personally, I believe it to have a negative impact on the longevity of MMO systems. It begets a solo-mindset that is encouraged by the free-form, largely-role-less class system. Arguments to the contrary say that it’s better for RP, more convenient, etc. My experience with GW2 left me feeling like the over-world was nothing but an a la carte menu where I could romp around and choose what to do or who to play with and be rewarded for behavior that seemed like simple mob pacification.

Which segways into..

- Lack of need for strategy, build-making, or build sharing:

Pretty self explanatory. No build sharing tool, no templates, no real need to strategize, homogenized skill system, no need for targeted support. Most fights degenerate into zerg-fests where the support skill usage is consequential rather than calculated. It feels like the game is actually encouraging you to mob and stand on top of each other for maximum support from some classes. Most bosses in this game will exemplify my point and even though they are taking strides to fix the boss AI, i fail to believe that the problem lies only with the boss mechanics. The ridiculous health pools, lack of strategic class interplay, and over-all “mush-brain” feel to the combat are a huge factor to why many people just don’t log in to play anymore. If the game play systems are inherently un-rewarding, who is going to care about those shiny pants besides the lowest of the IQs?

I haven’t touched GW2 in many months and I don’t plan to come back until they get real with the content updates instead of just coming up with some convoluted event and a cash shop item to compliment. This makes them so much money that they don’t need to innovate or care, they have you eating out of their hands.

Back to waiting for Wildstar!

- Crux

Me, I got fed up with the constant achievement grind and the obsession of the community with getting appropriate “rewards”.
Seriously, GW2 achievements are WAY worse than GW1 titles were, and those eventually drove me away from that game. Repeating the same crap thousands upon thousands of times in order to attain some virtual frippery isn’t gaming. It’s abuse.
And the really sad thing is seeing how many gullible lackwits get suckered in to believing they’re awesome because they’ve possessed the required deficiency of imagination in order to do this monotonous tripe.

I hate the fact that the entire game is balanced to a large degree around maintaining the “economy”. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If one of your main concerns as a developer is economic balance, you haven’t succeeded in making a game.

Time-gating and gear progression. Don’t even get me started.

The two week Living World/Story/Scarlet Crazy Happy Show achievement train just ground my ability to care into dust.
HERE’S FIVE MINUTES OF CONTENT WE’VE MANAGED TO STRETCH INTO OCCUPYING YOUR EVERY WAKING HOUR!
FEEL PRIVILEGED AND KNEEL BEFORE ZOD ARENANET!

And a crystal clear realisation:
All the fan boys kept telling me that the content I wasn’t enjoying was optional.
That’s when I realised they were right and that the entire game was optional.
So I opted out.

I hang around here because I have the vain hope that maybe ArenaNet will suddenly realise they’ve completely screwed the pooch and do a one-eighty.
But stepping back a pace has allowed me to observe that while they are indeed busy working on GW2, it’s very chaotic. There’s no proper organisation, no solid goal. They’re just flailing around and aiming for the easy targets instead of the difficult ones.
They’re releasing this new “content” at a rate unprecedented in MMO history, yet long running bugs are going unpatched. Entire gear tiers and acquisition methods prior to Ascended are going ignored and unfinished. Lore is being forgotten.
It’s all, quite frankly, going to the hot place in a hand-basket.

The gameplay is just weak. It doesn’t feel like an MMO. It feels like a public pool. The AI, skill system, and gameplay depth was done better in GW1. They are doing nothing to show that they need or want to break out of this convoluted habit of producing quick, cheesy living story micro updates accompanied by cash-grab schemes for items in the cash shop. They bring in everything for a limited time to force more people to rush to buy it. They haven’t created an MMO so much as a machine that herds people in and psychologically encourages them to spend money. The sad part is that they are capitalizing on society and modern gamer culture of expedience and materialism. The shallow skill system, lack of elite skill capping, lack of inter-class dependence, lack of targeted support, and lack of tools for build sharing and crafting kill anything this game has to offer a PvPer. The gameplay systems just feel hollow, quick, and unrewarding as a result of how the classes and combat systems were designed.

I honestly think people are realizing that it’s not going to change and then when they come to terms with that abrasion, they draw the same conclusion.

The fanboys are telling me this content is optional. The rest of the game is optional too because there’s not enough system integrity or depth to hold those people who care about more than itemization and shiny rewards being shoved down your throat with a paywall and time gate.

Buy now, limited time offer, get all this stuff that GW1 fans worked years for just because we’re hurting for more cattle to inject into our psycho-economic hamster wheel!

eisberg.2379:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

I left because of ascended gear and ascended crafting. I might have stuck around if they introduced ascended drops (that are useful) through actual content but they went the easy route. In WoW, I can get a full set of decent PvP gear in about a week. How many months will it take new players to gear full ascended for WvW?

eisberg.2379:

McSlappy.1372:

xiv.7136:

GW2 players can leave and come back any time and do so constantly without being “left behind” on the gear treadmill.

This is a 100% false statement. If you left when ascended gear came out and recently came back there is nothing to catch you up to Ascended gear that has been ground out by other players. You get to start in and try to catch up which is good luck. Other games like WoW if I start playing now I can start getting the base tier of this seasons gear in an hour or two. WoW has what you just said. Not GW2.

Difference is that WoWs gear is absolutely required to complete all content they have, Guild Wars 2, ascended gear is not required, exotics not even required, and the one place that you need ascended gear for Agony Resistance, you’ll get it anyways while doing the Fractals without having to repeat the same level over and over again to get that required AR to move on to the next level.

So no, you are not left behind if you do not play for 6 months or even a year.
In WoW you still have to keep up with the gear treadmill if you do not want to be left behind, if you want to do all the content that will be released, with Guild Wars 2, you can stay in Rares if you want and will never be undergeared to complete the content.

Wrong. WoW introduced several ways to catch up in addition to introducing yet another raiding difficulty (increasing that number to four). If you want to see end game raiding content, you can very easily do so and you can complete it at a level you can handle. I’d rather run, you know actual content for my gear instead of running brainless champ trains and Orr events and battling time gating at the crafting station.

Hmm, really? When did they get rid of gear checks in all difficulties? When did they make it so that you do not need certain gear to complete higher difficulty? And if they didn’t get rid of needing certain gear to complete it, did they make it so that you only have to complete a raid 1 time and get all the gear you needed in order to progress on to the next raid above it? Can you complete all difficulty using the same gear, or do you need better gear in order to complete it? Unless they actually did make those kind of changes, I am far from being wrong.

There are gear checks but most of them are easy to meet. You can get into the lowest difficulty within a day or two of getting max level. But it also depends upon your goals, like if you play casually and just want to see content then you can very, very easily do so. If you want access to the higher difficulties, it will take a little longer than a day or two but you can use the gear you get from the lowest difficulty to help you along the way. It’ll probably take 2-3 weeks. For PvP, you can get geared in a week.

Unlike here, where it takes around 2 weeks to make ONE piece of ascended. Like I said, I would rather run actual content for gear over spending a boat load of money to level one crafting skill to 500, running the same champ trains and orr events over and over and OVER for mats, and finally sitting at a crafting station for two weeks in order to obtain 1 piece of gear with the ugliest skin ever.

Jski.6180:

The truth is they do not stop playing they take time off and that is by design of the game. If a person say they are quitting but are not giving up there code etc.. things that let you back into the game then they are not truly quitting.

Uh, no. On September 3rd, I quit the game. “Quit,” as in “not coming back.”

The only way I would consider coming back would be if they rolled the game back to what it was at launch (and we all know they will never do that). I tolerated ascended jewelry, though only begrudgingly so. Once ascended weapons came out, and I saw what ANet intends for “progression” in this game, I was done. I had enough problems with the game before September 3rd; you can look at my post on page one of this thread to see what some of them are, if you care to. Ascended gear progression was the icing on the cake for me.

Do I miss the game? Not at all.

Xae Isareth.1364:

TooBz.3065:

eisberg.2379:

McSlappy.1372:

xiv.7136:

GW2 players can leave and come back any time and do so constantly without being “left behind” on the gear treadmill.

This is a 100% false statement. If you left when ascended gear came out and recently came back there is nothing to catch you up to Ascended gear that has been ground out by other players. You get to start in and try to catch up which is good luck. Other games like WoW if I start playing now I can start getting the base tier of this seasons gear in an hour or two. WoW has what you just said. Not GW2.

Difference is that WoWs gear is absolutely required to complete all content they have, Guild Wars 2, ascended gear is not required, exotics not even required, and the one place that you need ascended gear for Agony Resistance, you’ll get it anyways while doing the Fractals without having to repeat the same level over and over again to get that required AR to move on to the next level.

So no, you are not left behind if you do not play for 6 months or even a year.
In WoW you still have to keep up with the gear treadmill if you do not want to be left behind, if you want to do all the content that will be released, with Guild Wars 2, you can stay in Rares if you want and will never be undergeared to complete the content.

I have never played WoW, so I don’t know what I’m talking about, but that has never stopped me before.

I would much rather have required gear that is easy to obtain that not-required but better stat gear that is a pain in the kitten to obtain.

I’m just inferring here, but you sound (as am i) to be one of those players who just want BiS gear just because you want the best.

The question is, what’s after getting it? During the process you had something to progress towards, and there’s nothing you can’t do without BiS gear in the game. So is there really a point to getting it ASAP?

Yes, I want BiS stuff because it’s there. No real good reason other than that.

Judging from how I played the game when exotics were BiS, once I had the BiS stuff I made another alt and started over or I tried a different build which required different BiS gear. Which was cool because I got to try out a bunch of different playstyles.

I have been a condi-thief, a power-thief, a condi-mesmer, a power-mesmer, a power warrior, a bunker ele, a power ranger, a BM bunker condi ranger, and an AH hammer guardian.

Anyway, I have my made my peace with the game. Evidence suggests that the vast majority of people do not care about the things I care about. I can see where it is going. For me, the game will probably never be better than it is now. And it’s a good deal worse than it was last year.

But I am not the intended audience. The game was not designed for me. So I will enjoy it as long as I can.