Guild Wars 2

Hello everybody, just decided to type up what’s been on my mind, and this is related to the concept of content

I feel as though Anet doesn’t quite get what the playbase means when we say we want content. I would even say that they overthink it in many cases. new content is literally just new things for us to do. It does not have to revolve around some master story, or have some utlimate end goal, It is just stuff for us to do.

Heart of thorns is content, however, the content is very easily overshadowed by the “prize” or “end goal” of the content. This is what makes content not as fun, when it is more focused on finishing it than actually playing it. This is the core of what is wrong with masteries and elites specializations. They do not focus on the road to them and rather focus on the end of having them.

Content does not need to be the ultimate end all be all “greatest expansion of all timezomg” content can be simple as well as fun and easy to produce.

I’ll probably take a massive load of kitten from the community for saying this, but honestly I would look at a game like maplestory and the way it handles content. The content released there is very often simple, maybe just a new dungeon, or a new zone to explore, maybe with an attached armor set that you can get after a while, but it does not focus on anything but itself, and that is what makes it good(if you are a fan of the game). You can go explore the new zone or dungeon and take your time just enjoying it because in the end it’s just about experiencing the content. I wish that GW2 would release more “just for fun” content. It hurts nobody, you can do it if you want or you don’t have to, it’s just up to you.

Some people call this “filler” content, but honestly content is content. HoT was not designed to be filler content, and yet that is what it comes down to, and it’s bad because it’s mandatory filler. you pretty much have to buy HoT to experience a lot of things in GW2 now. I would just love if the crystal desert was opened up and there were new quests and places to explore and maybe a few new dungeons there, that is what would make that area great. But if this area was opened up and you were forced to go there to level up some new system so that you could stay relevent, that would ruin it. this kind of content is not hard to push out, and for the most part it appeases many of the cries for content.

Probably could have worded a lot of this better but it’s just some mind rambling I had.

See, and since I’m not focusing on the goal and I’m just playing the content (and the goal comes along anyway), I’d have to say that focusing on the goal is a play style choice. You don’t have to and many people don’t.

Original poster summarized it well:
“Heart of thorns is content, however, the content is very easily overshadowed by the “prize” or “end goal” of the content. This is what makes content not as fun, when it is more focused on finishing it than actually playing it.”

I would have much rather had an expansion with normal natural looking maps, like Queensdale or Snowden Drifts, but with new enemies with improved AI and higher concentration of veterans, elites and champions.

The new maps are excessively complicated, making the environment the #1 killer. I have just once died to mobs (testing If I can solo 30+ alone at same time) in Tangled Depths, but I have died multiple times to poisonous water (duh). The new maps have way too few waypoints, making traveling a chore.

The developers really didn’t understand that many GW2 players enjoy fast paced casual things. Log into the game, immediately have instant action and fun, no time waiting in queues or waiting for some meta event to start and then traveling to another location trying to find players to do that meta event with. Now the focus is too much on group events and meta events, which can be soloed, but majority of players will fail to solo them.

Arenanet got few things correct. HoT maps feature some NPCs which have clearly improved AI and this is good for the long run as better AI can provide countless of hours of challenge and fun. I wish to see more of this.

Mastery system is a failure. The only good thing about it that it is account bound, instead of being character bound. Moving around without the masteries is very painful. You cannot even reach some locations without the gliding, updraft etc. The HoT story also gates some content “you must first get xxx mastery, before you can continue the story”. This is a stupid design decision and slow down the progression in an unnatural way, making it feel like an excuse "see we made only 4 new maps + short story, but we don’t want you to travel around them too easy, so… ". Eventually all those who stick to this game, will grind the masteries and then things get much easier. But will it create longevity?

I liked VB as content. Then raids came out and completely trashed VB metas. So they literally have new content trashing new content. Give raids a different entrance and STOP RUINING VB.

Oh, and that TD boss. Great new content. So great noone’s finished.