Guild Wars 2

http://biobreak.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/boss-blitz-surgery/

http://thepaletree.net/2014/05/22/festival-falters/

http://www.killtenrats.com/2014/05/22/gw2-the-four-winds-carnival/

These are interesting takes on this new update. I thought I would share them here because A.) They are writers and can express things better than I, and B.) I generally tend to concur with BioBreak on all points. Same for KTR. Ravious always hits the nail on the head. Well mostly. Verene makes some points I didn’t think about but thought it was worth including because Syp included it as a link on his blog.

My two cents? I feel like this event and Halloween last year both took steps back. You took events that were considered some of the best and then watered them down. Backwards is never a great direction to go. The first Pavilion and the first Halloween showered players with rewards like a festival should. This year’s Pavilion and last year’s Halloween has seen players leave after they get the achievements.

The first time around, both events stayed full for the duration. We were getting Gem Store drops the first Halloween. I thought only shady dudes on street corners say, “The first one’s free”. I guess not.

I think the idea is a cool one, but because it’s the Pavilion and people have a preconceived notion of what to expect in there, it’s disappointing when the rewards get cut more than in half. I think introducing that type of 6-boss-split-up-and-kill-em-quick thing should have been introduced in a fully new setting and people would have responded better.

In a previous thread, I called Hobo-Tron’s gold collection to kick off the Boss Blitz, “arbitrary” https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/fotfw/Hobo-Tron-Donation-Suggestion/first#post4047133. Syp calls it “brazen”.

Take your pick.

I really have to agree with biobreak.

But there is more to that. it’s not just this festival.
Somehow A-Net manages it to take all fun out of a game.

I am not a looter and couldn’t care less about zerking fests so i am not affected
by this festivals at all………………………… at least i thought so.

Compared to GW1, GW2 is absolutely dumbed down.
If you are not interested in these festivals or raids you rely on some exciting time.
Problem is there is none exactly how these guys say.

If you enjoy epic storys.. there is non. A dragon making zombies who go berserk isn’t cool.
If you enjoy detailed landscape you are limited by hugely scaled down maps.

If you an archiever you run into the problem that you can’t archive some important stuff without doing something you hate or simply don’t want… Karma as example.

The only thing i can see is that PvP have a lot of fun since there is a lot of variety from PvP, Group vs Group, Conquering a map or defend and attack other servers keeps.

But this is a dangerous path.
Ignoring the group who should be the foundation of any fantasy game can’t end well.
This will lead to scaling down income and that leads to new cheap repeating cookie cutter contend.
This of course leads to more basic guys leaving the game and so on…..
Mix that with listening to the low end fan boys who always say everything is great
because they never experienced quality creates a dangerous environment
for the basic people.
A-Net or better NC Soft who are the guys who make these horrible descissions
will have to make some important future decisions for LS2 or we will lose our beloved
GW2 game. We have to keep in mind that NC-Soft doesn’t care about us, they will drop us like a hot potato if things don’t turn out well.

All this makes me demand one thing.
Stop the little patches crap……………..
Sell us boxed expansions….. sell us Cantha… sell us elona and beyond.
Kepp the LS but make it exiting and leads us back to places we always liked.
Do that and enjoy the tonns of money you will swim in

Really it can’t be that difficult

“Reheated Leftovers for Chinese Appeasement”

Beautiful. I really do think that ANet should have gone with his suggested update title instead

I wish Blitz was a bit more friendly, but in ArenaNet’s defense, perhaps this is the type of gameplay they want to push. I don’t think it’s wrong, but better communication and expectations are required to further smooth this learning experience.

This is the most concerning, and honestly saddening, statement for me. Is this really the direction the game is going to go? If so I know I won’t make it long and most certainly will not be spending cash on this game in the future. I hope this event was a mistake, but my head tells me that this is the direction the game is going. They can’t let players get too much loot because it hurts the cash shop. Too many players will have enough gold to trade for gems to buy the new items instead of using cash. Bottom line that is what I see and they won’t change that. I love (d) this game and played in every beta I could, stayed up late on release day, and have played many hours. I am truly saddened because I do feel the game I loved is gone.

Everyone wanted non Zerg content. ANet gives them it. Everyone complains. I have to say the loots a letdown, but I got to get my quarts node that I just missed out on. So I’m happy. I’m not saying that the content is amazing and I want to play it over and over. It’s fun, for a bit. But once this is out of the way I hope lw2 will start.

jazzllanna.1278:

This is the most concerning, and honestly saddening, statement for me. Is this really the direction the game is going to go? If so I know I won’t make it long and most certainly will not be spending cash on this game in the future. I hope this event was a mistake, but my head tells me that this is the direction the game is going. They can’t let players get too much loot because it hurts the cash shop. Too many players will have enough gold to trade for gems to buy the new items instead of using cash. Bottom line that is what I see and they won’t change that. I love (d) this game and played in every beta I could, stayed up late on release day, and have played many hours. I am truly saddened because I do feel the game I loved is gone.

Wasn’t that what players have been asking for since the marionette fight? Events where a bit of coordination and communication are needed for best results? Anet changed around the events when they added the Boss Blitz to do just this, but players are still zerging it, even though it was obviously designed not to be zerged.

And, I can understand why they took away most of the xp and loot from the events. There was a huge, huge, amount of inflation during last years QJ. If they allowed the same this year, it would put a huge strain on the Chinese trading post. Their trading post market is only a couple weeks old. Can you imagine what would happen if a huge gold injection was put into it this early? It would make the prices on everything ridiculously high, and it would screw any players that join after the QJ is over, since they weren’t able to farm during it.

The same goes with the xp issue. If they made lving too easy by zerging, all the Chinese players would just do that. They would just farm and zerg to 80 inside the pavilion, and they would completely bypass playing the actual game.

Erukk.1408:

jazzllanna.1278:

This is the most concerning, and honestly saddening, statement for me. Is this really the direction the game is going to go? If so I know I won’t make it long and most certainly will not be spending cash on this game in the future. I hope this event was a mistake, but my head tells me that this is the direction the game is going. They can’t let players get too much loot because it hurts the cash shop. Too many players will have enough gold to trade for gems to buy the new items instead of using cash. Bottom line that is what I see and they won’t change that. I love (d) this game and played in every beta I could, stayed up late on release day, and have played many hours. I am truly saddened because I do feel the game I loved is gone.

Wasn’t that what players have been asking for since the marionette fight? Events where a bit of coordination and communication are needed for best results? Anet changed around the events when they added the Boss Blitz to do just this, but players are still zerging it, even though it was obviously designed not to be zerged.

And, I can understand why they took away most of the xp and loot from the events. There was a huge, huge, amount of inflation during last years QJ. If they allowed the same this year, it would put a huge strain on the Chinese trading post. Their trading post market is only a couple weeks old. Can you imagine what would happen if a huge gold injection was put into it this early? It would make the prices on everything ridiculously high, and it would screw any players that join after the QJ is over, since they weren’t able to farm during it.

The same goes with the xp issue. If they made lving too easy by zerging, all the Chinese players would just do that. They would just farm and zerg to 80 inside the pavilion, and they would completely bypass playing the actual game.

I did not participate in the marionette fight so I have no idea. Also our version of the game has been out for almost 2 years it is really unfair to not give us xp and loot because of the China release (if that is the case). Is this how we can expect events for a year while they catch up to us or is this in fact our new event reality?

I was thinking about this and the Pavilion is an attempt at an open raid I suppose. This will never work in GW2. I am all for interesting boss mechanics but it cannot be raid fights. Raids in other games are instanced for a reason. I do not want instanced raids in GW2 that is not what this game was marketed as. Yes make fun fights, no do not make raids. Also in other games you could go the whole raid and not get any loot, but some people did get some NICE loot. So if they want to make it raid fights then give us raid loot. But, they can’t give us nice loot. As I mentioned before this would create too much gold in the game that people convert for gemstore items, or on the flip side make people not need to convert gems to gold to buy that skin they just could not get from the rng gods.

jazzllanna.1278:

This is the most concerning, and honestly saddening, statement for me. Is this really the direction the game is going to go? If so I know I won’t make it long and most certainly will not be spending cash on this game in the future. I hope this event was a mistake, but my head tells me that this is the direction the game is going. They can’t let players get too much loot because it hurts the cash shop. Too many players will have enough gold to trade for gems to buy the new items instead of using cash. Bottom line that is what I see and they won’t change that. I love (d) this game and played in every beta I could, stayed up late on release day, and have played many hours. I am truly saddened because I do feel the game I loved is gone.

Breachmaker, Battle for Lions Arch, Wurm, Tequatl, EotM (unfortunately that one backfired horribly) and now the Festival.. They all have the same mechanics of deterring the zerging, and in most cases reward more those that don’t then those that do.

It took me one downing of Phyroxis to figure out the entire event (both splitting up and timed kills), and I am truly saddened that so many people have such trouble with using some simple logic and instead resort to drawing biased conclusions.

Fortunately, those with more perseverance/willpower are learning relatively fast. Tequatl is being downed by pugs all the time, most people don’t even use TS anymore at all, Wurm is being downed from time to time as well and 0 commander pug groups can already selforganize for silver or even gold.

Yeah it’s a bit true to be honest.

I spent SOOO much time playing in the Bazaar last year. Today I finished all the Bazaar achievements (ignoring the Boss Blitz ones) and realised I didn’t really have any reason to keep going.
- I love Sanctum Sprint but during peak hours it just bugs like crazy.
- I love Aspect Arena but short of getting more festival tokens for skins/mini’s I already have I don’t see the point.
- Queen’s Gauntlet is cool, I didn’t get to play it last year, but I’m up ti Liadri and I understand that putting hard content in is done for a reason – but wow.. Too hard

I’m not disappointed per-say, I just wish there was a little more to do/a reason to keep going. The fact that they haven’t brought back the personal Quartz node (even if it were just in the gem store) is insane. Celestial gear is already wayy too hard to get, and there is no justification for it being so hard since zerker stats are technically better. I already have my celestial gear, but still, what about new players?

The novelty has worn off.
I see where you’re coming from.. I too have only finished all the achievements in the Bazaar, and did a couple of dolly races/crystal collections, which are fun events, but not enough to keep someone occupied for very long.
However, I don’t remember seeing secondary ship last time we were in the Bazaar, and looking at cinematic from this year it’s almost a centerpiece. I’m hoping there’s new content coming from there in next LS release.

I do spend tons of time in Jubilee.. Spending tickets on absurd chances for a drop, and having fun doing the bosses.. It ain’t Wurm or Teq, but it’s relatively fun, and much more profitable then either.

Yeah i definitely think there is more coming, We are supposed to get a hint at LS2 I think, so perhaps next week they will release another update with some story stuff or something?

About the crown pavillion:
Boring and Dull, No point in doing it other than the achievements, Lots of time consuming for absolutly no reward other than a chest that gives something like 2 iron ore or something, feels like a bad joke.

About the festival:
It was fun for a while, quickly lost it’s point too, after only 2 days I got all the achievements to get 1 milion tokens that enabled me to get everything I could ever want from the rewards and still have like half a milion to annoy me and fill inventory. The 2 events get boring really quickly again with no reward to compensate for it.

It’s just my opinion… I stoped playing for like a few months to give it a break since it was only about doing fractals to get gear to do more fractals to get more gear, and after coming back 1~2 days of new content and then back again to the fractals…
I say this as a way of giving feedback to help the game improve, however it seems that every patch just gets duller and duller. This game needs something other than just going around on a zerg feeling completly useless and just spaming auto-attacks…

Godzzila.3752:

About the crown pavillion:
Boring and Dull, No point in doing it other than the achievements, Lots of time consuming for absolutly no reward other than a chest that gives something like 2 iron ore or something, feels like a bad joke.

About the festival:
It was fun for a while, quickly lost it’s point too, after only 2 days I got all the achievements to get 1 milion tokens that enabled me to get everything I could ever want from the rewards and still have like half a milion to annoy me and fill inventory. The 2 events get boring really quickly again with no reward to compensate for it.

It’s just my opinion… I stoped playing for like a few months to give it a break since it was only about doing fractals to get gear to do more fractals to get more gear, and after coming back 1~2 days of new content and then back again to the fractals…
I say this as a way of giving feedback to help the game improve, however it seems that every patch just gets duller and duller. This game needs something other than just going around on a zerg feeling completly useless and just spaming auto-attacks…

Like I said up top, I really like the idea of having small groups take down content and trying to kill each boss at around the same time and under a certain time limit. It’s a cool approach. I loved the Marionette fight. The problem with this one though is that The Pavilion existed before as a shower of looty goodness. Where’d all the rewards go? People that went in there last year are thinking “zerging lootfest!” For good reason too. Forget getting in a good instance if you have a guildy or friend afk in an instance as well. It throws you in there and people don’t feed the hobo-tron for good reason and then it takes 30 mins to down all the bosses.

Iason Evan.3806:

Godzzila.3752:

About the crown pavillion:
Boring and Dull, No point in doing it other than the achievements, Lots of time consuming for absolutly no reward other than a chest that gives something like 2 iron ore or something, feels like a bad joke.

About the festival:
It was fun for a while, quickly lost it’s point too, after only 2 days I got all the achievements to get 1 milion tokens that enabled me to get everything I could ever want from the rewards and still have like half a milion to annoy me and fill inventory. The 2 events get boring really quickly again with no reward to compensate for it.

It’s just my opinion… I stoped playing for like a few months to give it a break since it was only about doing fractals to get gear to do more fractals to get more gear, and after coming back 1~2 days of new content and then back again to the fractals…
I say this as a way of giving feedback to help the game improve, however it seems that every patch just gets duller and duller. This game needs something other than just going around on a zerg feeling completly useless and just spaming auto-attacks…

Like I said up top, I really like the idea of having small groups take down content and trying to kill each boss at around the same time and under a certain time limit. It’s a cool approach. I loved the Marionette fight. The problem with this one though is that The Pavilion existed before as a shower of looty goodness. Where’d all the rewards go? People that went in there last year are thinking “zerging lootfest!” For good reason too. Forget getting in a good instance if you have a guildy or friend afk in an instance as well. It throws you in there and people don’t feed the hobo-tron for good reason and then it takes 30 mins to down all the bosses.

I think that if they want to avoid zerging by upscaling the bosses, they are upscaling the wrong side of the boss. He shouldn’t get a milion health and a milion thoughness he should get a milion attack damage, cause if people see that they can still stand there and hit him (even tho it will take an hour of doing so) they will keep just standing there and hit him. If he has a milion attack and starts AoE insta-killing everybody in the zerg, they will change theyr strategy.

Godzzila.3752:

About the crown pavillion:
Boring and Dull, No point in doing it other than the achievements, Lots of time consuming for absolutly no reward other than a chest that gives something like 2 iron ore or something, feels like a bad joke.

About the festival:
It was fun for a while, quickly lost it’s point too, after only 2 days I got all the achievements to get 1 milion tokens that enabled me to get everything I could ever want from the rewards and still have like half a milion to annoy me and fill inventory. The 2 events get boring really quickly again with no reward to compensate for it.

It’s just my opinion… I stoped playing for like a few months to give it a break since it was only about doing fractals to get gear to do more fractals to get more gear, and after coming back 1~2 days of new content and then back again to the fractals…
I say this as a way of giving feedback to help the game improve, however it seems that every patch just gets duller and duller. This game needs something other than just going around on a zerg feeling completly useless and just spaming auto-attacks…

what events did you run to get half a million tokens? d like to know because I have tons of stuff I want to get off the rewards vendor

psyt.9415:

Godzzila.3752:

About the crown pavillion:
Boring and Dull, No point in doing it other than the achievements, Lots of time consuming for absolutly no reward other than a chest that gives something like 2 iron ore or something, feels like a bad joke.

About the festival:
It was fun for a while, quickly lost it’s point too, after only 2 days I got all the achievements to get 1 milion tokens that enabled me to get everything I could ever want from the rewards and still have like half a milion to annoy me and fill inventory. The 2 events get boring really quickly again with no reward to compensate for it.

It’s just my opinion… I stoped playing for like a few months to give it a break since it was only about doing fractals to get gear to do more fractals to get more gear, and after coming back 1~2 days of new content and then back again to the fractals…
I say this as a way of giving feedback to help the game improve, however it seems that every patch just gets duller and duller. This game needs something other than just going around on a zerg feeling completly useless and just spaming auto-attacks…

what events did you run to get half a million tokens? d like to know because I have tons of stuff I want to get off the rewards vendor

Just do 14 of the four winds achievments and you will get 1,6k of tokens and 1 of those festival favors

psyt.9415:

what events did you run to get half a million tokens? d like to know because I have tons of stuff I want to get off the rewards vendor

If you farm boss blitz you can get like 2 stacks an hour or even more. You can also do all bosses in Gauntlet for a daily stack as well.

Godzzila.3752:

psyt.9415:

Godzzila.3752:

About the crown pavillion:
Boring and Dull, No point in doing it other than the achievements, Lots of time consuming for absolutly no reward other than a chest that gives something like 2 iron ore or something, feels like a bad joke.

About the festival:
It was fun for a while, quickly lost it’s point too, after only 2 days I got all the achievements to get 1 milion tokens that enabled me to get everything I could ever want from the rewards and still have like half a milion to annoy me and fill inventory. The 2 events get boring really quickly again with no reward to compensate for it.

It’s just my opinion… I stoped playing for like a few months to give it a break since it was only about doing fractals to get gear to do more fractals to get more gear, and after coming back 1~2 days of new content and then back again to the fractals…
I say this as a way of giving feedback to help the game improve, however it seems that every patch just gets duller and duller. This game needs something other than just going around on a zerg feeling completly useless and just spaming auto-attacks…

what events did you run to get half a million tokens? d like to know because I have tons of stuff I want to get off the rewards vendor

Just do 14 of the four winds achievments and you will get 1,6k of tokens and 1 of those festival favors

I did , that’s good for one panda mini only and the boss blitz is never coordinated enough to get done in under 20 min when I’m on