so before I begin talking about my beta experiences lets set some ground rules. if you don’t have anything constructive to say, say nothing. example. “I think that this content was fun for me/the content could be changed in this way to make it better” is constructive dialog and “ok what do you expect? I think you are…” these are not constructive. moving on.
the negative impacts of my beta experiences on my opinion of HoT were as follows.
1. I didn’t really like Revenant. why? a lack of customizable utility skills allows for minimal variance between revenants. build variety should be treasured. if a class is added that class should follow the general guide lines of the other classes including their own selectable individual utility skills. the replacement of utility skills with locked spirit skills hurts the classes playability.
2. all of the content I have seen so far is intended for groups of 3 players and more. why I see this as bad. there are several players out there that want solo content/duo content.
I believe there to be many guilds out there that are husband and wife(like mine) or a couple of friends that play together only. I have been playing gw sense initial na release of gw1. I have enjoyed years of gameplay both in gw1 and gw2 with my wife. I have very little interest in dealing with elitists who want you to play their way only/feel they should have some sort of supervisory powers over you and your playtime/play style.
I have said before “the less I deal with other players the more I enjoy my playtime.” this has been proven to me repeatedly and for over 20 years of gaming. every time I hear a player say “oh but it isn’t like that” and I try and deal with those players it all eventually turns into the same aggravating overly dramatic negative playtime. this has been tested on 50+ games hundreds of times. (raids take a commander tag which one must purchase for hundreds of gold./guild missions and guild halls will only be able to be built/done with guilds working at 3 players+ at a time.) is it so wrong to want to play the game content silently and in my own way that I enjoy? raids should have been part of the lfg tool or their own icon/interface where players can select a raid and get matched to a party to do the raid.
3. the super Mario brothers syndrome. imo SaB was the worst content ever made for gw2. why? because of the low quality throwback graphics/SMB style play. I want new content shown to me in new ways. from my new expansion to my cutting edge game.
I was seriously discouraged to find out that the trampoline mushrooms(and they are even mushrooms) from the super Mario brothers series(that hasn’t entertained me sense I was 8 ) was apparently going to be a major part of the HoT maps(as they made up a large portion of the beta map/mastery system)
when I mention these things in game(only after being asked direct questions) I am told the same thing “why do you play mmos” the answer? because I enjoy the playtime I get with my wife and my friends(before they all quit gw2 rather then spend hundreds of gold regearing their mains after last feature pack: my friends that is). there are no high quality massive single player rpgs anymore as mmos have replaced them. while I understand the need for group content I feel that less social players who simply want to silently play their game are excluded when you require player counts. until anet either establishes a banned on first social violation(thus scaring everyone into playing nice) or gear inspects/build inspects being declared as forms of player harassment this will continue. I originally thought anet agreed that “every player and every build should be accepted every time” was their stated goal(and a good goal). but a lack of follow through on the zerk only toxicity has shown otherwise. it should be noted that I am willing and capable of enjoying group play by taking instructions that are content only related (what to do at a particular boss etc) without being told what I must run/equip.
I do not enjoy my average interaction with other players and so I find following in silence is the best course for me and groups.
I’m done with this post I had more to say but I see I am expressing it through a frustrated perspective which solves nothing. I can only hope I am judging the expansion on an incomplete system. otherwise I am discouraged that I spent 200$(two copies of ultimate. one for me and one for my wife) on content I can never play.