Guild Wars 2

I am a new player and when I bought the game it came with the expansion, so I don’t necessarily know what the differences are other than what I read. However, I can’t see how everyone is so ridiculously upset about the expansion. It has interesting aspects to it, promotes group play (which is in the name of the game….) and allows you access to more than you had before. Like in any online game, patches are given and changes are made so the nerfs to dungeons, and whatever else was probably going to happen regardless of whether or not HoT came out, so why is everyone having a panic attack?

If you like the game before the expansion there is no reason that I can see to not like it anymore. There is more to do and there is always PvP to switch things up a bit. The new specs completely change the playstyle of all professions which I thought is something that people would be excited about… but all I see on this forum is mass amounts of hate. People rant about one thing after another, and I feel like it’s uncalled for. If you don’t enjoy the game anymore, I doubt that it’s because of HoT and you should just stop playing. Games are supposed to be fun, guys!

All that said, I got my first character to level 80 a couple days ago and although I haven’t tried a lot of the endgame content, I have thoroughly enjoyed myself thus far and can’t imagine that changing any time soon.

It isn’t “everyone”, not by a longshot. Congrats on your first 80, btw.

This is offical forum, most toxic and offensive part of GW2 community, what did you expect came in here.

I’m somewhat on the fence between the +1s and the -9999s myself. The fact that you’re new will help you take in the content with less concern; something that has spiked a lot of frustration is that customization has been limited more and more with most updates/patches directly before and during HoT’s launch. Some things have been trailing downward for a while (don’t buy Black Lion Chest keys unless you have a time machine), but others have only just flipped. World vs World, for instance, faced a map replacement rather than simply receiving new/expanded content. But it’s a good game overall.

Glad you’re enjoying the game; likewise to Misguided’s post: congrats! And welcome aboard.

I dislike parts of the game. I like other parts. When I find myself with loads of free time and nothing better to do, I sometimes turn my time studying game design, and my issues with the game, into detailed feedback.

I am the 1%. I mean, wait, crap. Uhhhhh, I am the 99%?

I don’t know. Screw the percentages. Point is, it’s not all black and white. You don’t have to love or hate all of it. And there are plenty of people who give feedback out of the self-invested kindness of their hearts (figure that one out).

The sooner people understand this, the sooner I can get back to writing detailed posts that will never be read or listened to by the developers.

All my friends/guildies love HoT. Sure it has it’s bugs and some things still need tweaking but overall we can’t get enough of it. Forums are where people go to whine and complain.

Forum posts claimed Dry Top would be empty soon after it’s release. Forum posts claimed Silverwastes would be empty a few months after it’s release. Now forum posts claim the same for the new maps. Whine whine whine and yet all those maps are still doing just fine.

Most of us having fun are in game!

warbignime.4610:

This is offical forum, most toxic and offensive part of GW2 community, what did you expect came in here.

Unfortunately this. So much complaining and unbridled rage, rarely for any good reason. People complaining when there is so much to do in the game that they will probably never accomplish for whatever pathetic excuses they come up with. Especially with raids out now, if you feel like there’s nothing to do, you’re freaking kidding yourself haha

Labjax.2465:

I dislike parts of the game. I like other parts. When I find myself with loads of free time and nothing better to do, I sometimes turn my time studying game design, and my issues with the game, into detailed feedback.

I am the 1%. I mean, wait, crap. Uhhhhh, I am the 99%?

I don’t know. Screw the percentages. Point is, it’s not all black and white. You don’t have to love or hate all of it. And there are plenty of people who give feedback out of the self-invested kindness of their hearts (figure that one out).

The sooner people understand this, the sooner I can get back to writing detailed posts that will never be read or listened to by the developers.

Detailed posts with thought behind them? Huzzah! Sign me up. Some of that’s still going around, but certainly not as much as there should be… =P

BlinkFishtacos.6931:

However, I can’t see how everyone is so ridiculously upset about the expansion.

Imagine if you and and some friends had a tight WvW guild. You loved to small scale, upgrade keeps to waypoints and +5 camps with your upgraded guild.

Now imagine that Anet said kitten you motherkittening kittens and demanded that you pay $50 to get HoT and 5000+ gold or you are not allowed to ever use the guild upgrades again.

How happy would you be?

And still, the WvW that was completely broken with HoT probably wont even get mentioned in threads outside WvW forum because its oooooooh so horrible when players like… die in PvE due to hard mobs or didnt get those blue pair of loot pants the mob promised.

Dawdler.8521:

BlinkFishtacos.6931:

However, I can’t see how everyone is so ridiculously upset about the expansion.

Imagine if you and and some friends had a tight WvW guild. You loved to small scale, upgrade keeps to waypoints and +5 camps with your upgraded guild.

Now imagine that Anet said kitten you motherkittening kittens and demanded that you pay $50 to get HoT and 5000+ gold or you are not allowed to ever use the guild upgrades again.

How happy would you be?

And still, the WvW that was completely broken with HoT probably wont even get mentioned in threads outside WvW forum because its oooooooh so horrible when players like… die in PvE due to hard mobs or didnt get those blue pair of loot pants the mob promised.

Yeah, WvW got hit pretty hard. A lot of people keep saying that it was already pretty empty, and that the expansion has actually done wonders for it, but I’m convinced that the update has only harmed the WvW playerbase. It used to be possible to do things on empty/low-pop maps (which was a bonus with the playerbase thinning out slightly on some servers); now it kind of isn’t. And yeah, I’ve only heard the rumors about upgrades… my guild hasn’t gotten back together to warrant me even trying to attempt them yet.

You’re new, so I’ll forgive you. You haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of what pretty much most of the complaints are even about.

The reason why you don’t get why people are complaining is for that simple fact. You’re new. You literally just hit 80 not too long ago, so yeah, you have absolutely no idea what has been going on or why people are upset. I’d suggest first actually understanding what is going on and getting a bit more experience at the game, before coming in here and trying to tell people that their complaints are unwarranted.

Forums for any game are always the vocal majority, and they are mostly always negative. As any gamer will tell you, this is common knowledge. A lot of the players here have been here for over three years. They’ve seen the game change over the years, and have very valid complaints. For a new player to just walk in here when you have no idea what is even going on, and to tell them their concerns are uncalled for and they should just quit, is rather rude.

BlinkFishtacos.6931:

I am a new player and when I bought the game it came with the expansion, so I don’t necessarily know what the differences are other than what I read. However, I can’t see how everyone is so ridiculously upset about the expansion. It has interesting aspects to it, promotes group play (which is in the name of the game….) and allows you access to more than you had before. Like in any online game, patches are given and changes are made so the nerfs to dungeons, and whatever else was probably going to happen regardless of whether or not HoT came out, so why is everyone having a panic attack?

If you like the game before the expansion there is no reason that I can see to not like it anymore. There is more to do and there is always PvP to switch things up a bit. The new specs completely change the playstyle of all professions which I thought is something that people would be excited about… but all I see on this forum is mass amounts of hate. People rant about one thing after another, and I feel like it’s uncalled for. If you don’t enjoy the game anymore, I doubt that it’s because of HoT and you should just stop playing. Games are supposed to be fun, guys!

All that said, I got my first character to level 80 a couple days ago and although I haven’t tried a lot of the endgame content, I have thoroughly enjoyed myself thus far and can’t imagine that changing any time soon.

You just finished enjoying GW2 check back in when you’ve tried the kittening expansion for a few weeks. Welcome to Guild Wars be sure to check the gem store each day for the latest special offers.

I’m going to take the OP as an, “I don’t get the complaints,” rather than just another complaint about complaints. So, I’ll give my take on why there are complaints.

1. HoT is a departure from the vanilla GW2 experience. Some people knew this coming in, others did not and are not happy to find out about it after the fact.
2. HoT also contains several systems that are new to GW2 and are at least somewhat different to what is found in other MMO’s. The verticality in the maps may be old hat to those who’ve platformed, but to a strict MMO player it is new. The zone metas are longer and more involved than meta events in older maps. Masteries are a previously untried attempt at horizontal progression. All of these are different from the vanilla game, and someone is bound to compare and find the changes made the game worse for them.
3. Innovation is a risk. Some people get comfortable and don’t like to change. Others just flat out prefer the old systems. No game content is going to please everyone. Throw in resistance to change on top of that, and there will be push-back.
4. HoT is more difficult than most of the older gameplay. For those who found the old content very easy, this is a blessing. For those who were downed or died regularly in vanilla GW2 — and there were a lot of them, if the number I’ve revived is any measure — it’s harder than they prefer.
5. Some people comparison shop and find the price high for what’s included. Regardless of any objective measure of “this game or expansion” vs. GW2 and HoT, the subjective experience is what matters, and that largely comes back, again, to whether someone likes what’s offered.

I could go on, but perhaps this is enough to give you some perspective on why some folks are unhappy. They complain — with some exceptions — because they actually like the game and want to continue to have fun, but the changes leave a sour taste in their mouths.

I love HoT.
Finally have some challenging content i can solo.
My eight year old cousin took my ranger threw Orr and didn’t die once. It was his first time playing. I sat back in awe as he took to the controls in about 30 sec and just rolled everything in his way. Mind you this is one of my fully geared ascended zerk characters.
He is a huge fan of dragons and plays RuneScape. Orr…so easy an eight year old can play it.
HoT..this wasn’t designed for solo play. In fact this was designed to screw solo players. There are mobs here that respawn faster than you can kill them.
They dont want you to play how you want to play anymore.
They are forcing you to play in a group.
But i am still having a great time soloing the content they made for group play.
If HoT is too hard for you..get better gear or get a friend.
The best ship..Is Friendship!

Don’t let the naysayers pull you off or try to convince you that you won’t like the game in a few weeks/months/years. I have a guild full of people, many of whom are playing for at least a couple of years and most of them are enjoying the expansion. By most I mean a pretty large percentage.

There are a few people in the guild who preferred to solo and now can’t get everything solo and those people are definitely out of their comfort zone.

But most of us are relatively casual and most of us are having a great time.

Gratz on your 80 and welcome to the game.

warbignime.4610:

This is offical forum, most toxic and offensive part of GW2 community, what did you expect came in here.

Well I like to think of it more along the lines of: happy players are busy playing, unhappy players are more likely to be the ones who complain.

Dawdler.8521:

BlinkFishtacos.6931:

However, I can’t see how everyone is so ridiculously upset about the expansion.

Imagine if you and and some friends had a tight WvW guild. You loved to small scale, upgrade keeps to waypoints and +5 camps with your upgraded guild.

Now imagine that Anet said kitten you motherkittening kittens and demanded that you pay $50 to get HoT and 5000+ gold or you are not allowed to ever use the guild upgrades again.

How happy would you be?

And still, the WvW that was completely broken with HoT probably wont even get mentioned in threads outside WvW forum because its oooooooh so horrible when players like… die in PvE due to hard mobs or didnt get those blue pair of loot pants the mob promised.

I think it is hard for a new player to understand what anet did to the guilds. So i try it with a more PvE based image.

Imagine, you play an MMO for some time. You learned some crafting proofessions, did dungeons and have some nice gear. Now the expansion kicks in and the devs say: Here is your expansion. We didn’t raise the lvlcap and you don’t need to get new gear for the new content. But we are afraid you could be bored to soon, so we reset your crafting professions and your gear to lvl1 stuff. We had some nice ideas for the crafting and made a new craftin profession. We know that just grinding for your old gear would bore you, so you have to craft the whole gear now with that new crafting profession. You can get most of the mats on those beautifull new maps we designed.

I NEVER played a game where the expansion took away things you already had unlocked. Usually you get a ton of NEW stuff, not old stuff changed to something more expensive. Usually you keep your stuff and are still able to play the old content with your old gear etc.
Only GW2 took some “old” things away, polished them a bit and sold them as “new content”. They gave us the new masterys for tyria. But those masterys are the only new thing for the “old” world. So contentwise you just repeat stuff you already did for 3 years, that is not verry exciting.

nah, just consider forums a small minority, and also consider that rarely people speak when they are happy, but almost surely when they are not…hence the full negativity mode in the forum.

Nice to have you in Gw2 and gz on your first 80!

BlinkFishtacos.6931:

I am a new player and when I bought the game it came with the expansion, so I don’t necessarily know what the differences are other than what I read. However, I can’t see how everyone is so ridiculously upset about the expansion. It has interesting aspects to it, promotes group play (which is in the name of the game….) and allows you access to more than you had before. Like in any online game, patches are given and changes are made so the nerfs to dungeons, and whatever else was probably going to happen regardless of whether or not HoT came out, so why is everyone having a panic attack?

If you like the game before the expansion there is no reason that I can see to not like it anymore. There is more to do and there is always PvP to switch things up a bit. The new specs completely change the playstyle of all professions which I thought is something that people would be excited about… but all I see on this forum is mass amounts of hate. People rant about one thing after another, and I feel like it’s uncalled for. If you don’t enjoy the game anymore, I doubt that it’s because of HoT and you should just stop playing. Games are supposed to be fun, guys!

All that said, I got my first character to level 80 a couple days ago and although I haven’t tried a lot of the endgame content, I have thoroughly enjoyed myself thus far and can’t imagine that changing any time soon.

Welcome to GuildWars and gz on your 80

See ya back in few weeks when you trying to do meta-events in HoT in order to leveling up and no one in maps ( already happening now).
That’s my only complain if HoT …meta-events ……if you casual/solo player….you probably get to lvl10 mastery than…..it’s all about find players doing event …..good luck

I think you’ll find there are roughly 2 different types of players (excluding those who only do WvW and team PvP) and the enjoyment of the expansion falls at opposite ends of the spectrum for each group.

Group 1 – these players enjoy experiencing the content, exploring, and find the story/dungeons/fractals to be rewards unto themselves. They aren’t super concerned with getting every skin, unlocking every mastery and skill as soon as possible, or rushing through maps for completion. They are likely to watch the animation for the vistas to see what the artists have created rather than click through and head to the next area. These players tend to like the expansion as it promotes exploration and challenging content, as well as the methodical unlocking progress. They will also run content with sub-optimal groups for the fun of trying it out and helping other players (to an extent)

Group 2 – these are the reward focused players. Much of the gameplay is simply a barrier or timegate to crafting the legendary of their choice, getting the skins they want, or completing their achievements. Long events and repetitive content simply slows their endgoal to a painful halt. -Playing- a fractal isn’t nearly as compelling for them as the -reward- of an ascended weapon, armor, or skin, so they would prefer to optimize runs to minimize time.

Both of these play-styles are completely valid and should be catered to simultaneously. But I think what you’ll find is that group 1 is tending to have a better experience with the expansion than group 2.

Mal.1670:

warbignime.4610:

This is offical forum, most toxic and offensive part of GW2 community, what did you expect came in here.

Unfortunately this. So much complaining and unbridled rage, rarely for any good reason. People complaining when there is so much to do in the game that they will probably never accomplish for whatever pathetic excuses they come up with. Especially with raids out now, if you feel like there’s nothing to do, you’re freaking kidding yourself haha

Right. In case you guys missed it, you are both also here, also commenting, also part of this “toxic” bunch of people. Before you go generalizing the forum population stop for a moment, read and understand. There are plenty of well thought out and well written posts detailing exactly why so many people are displeased with HoT.

Look at GW2 like a sandwich. For three years people have been ordering Ham and Cheese and loving it, now all of sudden when they order their Ham and Cheese it comes back with bean sprouts, spinach, smoked cheddar, and prosciutto . Now some people are super excited and love the new sandwiches, while other people are pretty much standing there going “This is not ham and cheese, I don’t like prosciutto.” And neither group is wrong. However some who love the new sandwich keeps telling the others to grow up and learn to love prosciutto. And that’s uncool, because it’s okay to not like something and it’s okay to be upset when the thing you do love changes.

Are the changes HoT brought good? Time will tell. Maybe prosciutto wins, maybe it’s good ol’ ham and cheese. /shrugs

Mah i dont see hate i love it but like all games that have xpansion packs always gonna be that overly entitled crowd who honestly dont seem to enjoy anything or even lazy for that matter an expansion gives us more content and more gameplay which is what any gamer should want and treasure yet people complain because well they will have to play through more content which imo is what a expansion is content. Easy fix is expansion isnt even required so if you dont like it dont buy it the freaking base game is 100% free now be sure to thank anet for giving everyone a freeby.

The forums are excessively toxic mostly because of a massive shortage of interaction from most devs. They have a habit of making harebrained decisions without consulting the community and not acting on things that really need action, then they tend to disappear for long periods of time when they come under fire.

It’s led to a downward spiral in the constructiveness of the forums over the 3 year lifespan of the game.

A few of them are great (props to Bobby, and of course Gaile, but that’s her job), but most are just MIA all the time when their jobs should lead them to interact frequently with the community (Karl, etc.)

There wouldn’t be so much hate if the expansion wasn’t a one-trick-pony with a really stupid trick.

I think most of the people who love HoT are too busy playing it. :P

But I think the change is good. THere is still the old content for those who loved that. But HoT might just not be for you.

Goldrock.9076:

Mah i dont see hate i love it but like all games that have xpansion packs always gonna be that overly entitled crowd who honestly dont seem to enjoy anything or even lazy for that matter an expansion gives us more content and more gameplay which is what any gamer should want and treasure yet people complain because well they will have to play through more content which imo is what a expansion is content. Easy fix is expansion isnt even required so if you dont like it dont buy it the freaking base game is 100% free now be sure to thank anet for giving everyone a freeby.

Ummkay, how do we know if we like it or not without trying it? And what about those who pre-purchased it based on misleading marketing? Should we all get refunds? Im sure Arenanet as a company will thrive on giving people their money back.

You will soon come to realise that the forums are filled with Negative Nancy’s and the people who actually enjoy HoT are playing it, instead of posting. So take everything you read here with a pinch of salt.

Congrats on the level 80 and welcome to the fold

warbignime.4610:

This is offical forum, most toxic and offensive part of GW2 community, what did you expect came in here.

It’s funny, if you check the Spanish version of the forum is totally different… not only people like and enjoy the game but also have no problems with the enhanced difficulty… the few that I have seen having problems just ask for tips. … complaining and flaming might be a cultural thing.

Being a new player you haven’t had the experience of the ANET devs taking away a ton of stuff you enjoyed and worked very hard for. We paid $60 (or more) for an “Expansion”, not a contraction.

It’s a mathematical & social inevitability that forums get filled with angry posters:

• People who enjoy the game play.
• People who hate the game don’t play and have time to vent their frustrations.
• People who have weak feelings (pro or con) won’t take time to post; they have better things to do with their time.

That means, at any given time (for any given forum on any given topic), there will be a lot of salty comments from people with a lot of passion on the topic. It’s hardly a good representation of how the community feels in general.

(This isn’t to dismiss some of the concerns raised: some are legit, even if a lot are overblown.)

People are concerned about HoT content because of things we’re experiencing already so soon after launch:

Brand-new maps that are empty or mostly empty.

Hero Challenges that require help and involve a lot of waiting around for said help to arrive, if it ever does.

Maps that are full but where meta events regularly fail despite being full.

People insulting and ordering people around in map chat to get out of the map or do the meta, and if they do the meta, they get yelled at and insulted in map chat for doing it wrong or failing it.

The long length of time often required to do a series of events and their associated metas.

The frustration of map hopping in order to find a “good” map – one that’s full of people that are also organized enough to complete the meta event and succeed.

And these are only a small handful of the concerns that come up on these forums multiple times every day.

I remember in eq1 there was this guy that spawned EVERY 6hrs you had to camp him for 6hrs if you where lucky if not get in line !.. yea that’s about as fun as the new zones are
why waiting on ppl