Guild Wars 2

ArenaNet: I simply can’t keep up anymore. When I was looking forward to this game for years, I didn’t expect it to turn into a stressful craze of achievement point hunting through often rushed temporary content in massive, brainless zergs. I wanted to calmly explore the wonderful world! Get hooked on the lore and fantasize about the dragons. Look forward to difficult fights that required coordination. Not shut the brain down and join a zerg, focusing on being quick enough to “tag a mob” before it’s dead.

I think this every-two-weeks updating is a bad idea. You waste beautiful aesthetics on meaningless, mostly temporary, content. Playtesting must be dodgy by this high release pace, as can be seen in many places and situations. You really should go back to monthly updates, at max! This way we get more time on better content to enjoy, and breathers inbetween! I’d personally rather wait 2-3months for a proper expansion than having these kinds of updates (Tower/Scarlet Invasions…) at all. Living World updates should be occasional bonuses, not the only way the game progresses!

I’m currently almost burned out completely, trying to get the meta from the WvW season one. And I don’t even enjoy PvPing that much. It’s all about the massive amounts of achievement points in there, and the hope of some decent rewards from the meta key later on. We’re 500 ppl in our guild and only 4-5 online now. I was looking forward to the new Fractals, but I haven’t even been able to find the energy to try yet nor have enough players online to give it a go. This wasn’t a problem 2-3months ago, and it’s hardly about not having enough todo. It’s just that what we get to do ingame doesn’t enterain as it should.

One can easily argue that achievements can be ignored. But looking at this year’s Halloween it’s quite obvious that this is not what ArenaNet intends. You had to get the meta to even progress! Compare this year to last year’s Halloween, the differences are MASSIVE. Last year was fantastic, this year was abysmal in comparison.

Don’t waste the massive potential this game has! Calm down the production cycle, and focus on a real update. Give us something to look forward to, and that really impacts the story.

I agree completely with what you’re saying.

This is not a new topic. Ever since they switched to the 2-week release cycle, dozens upon dozens of threads have been created with this exact sentiment in mind.

They obviously haven’t listened, though.

For some reason they seem hellbent on keeping the 2 week release schedule. The bugs keep piling up as each release happens, too. At the current rate, I think it won’t be too long until the game starts to crash and burn from so many bugs that they can’t seem to fix, or won’t fix. I mean, you can’t even talk to scout NPCs right now without them bugging out and getting cut off before finishing their explanations, and some people are even saying the voice overs are completely gone (I haven’t checked the latter yet).

The achievement grinding they have addressed and have “plans” to make them less grindy and more favorable to both hardcore players and players who don’t have much free time so they both can the meta completed while being satisfied, but who knows what that will be and when it will be implemented.

The current “Fractured” meta isn’t that bad IMO. Basically just completing 11 (or more) different Fractals, and the Nightmare Tower looks to be around for another 2 weeks.

I’m really hoping they can turn things around and squash these bugs and ease up on the achievement grinds some more.

Dark Jericho.8609:

For some reason they seem hellbent on keeping the 2 week release schedule. The bugs keep piling up as each release happens, too. At the current rate, I think it won’t be too long until the game starts to crash and burn from so many bugs that they can’t seem to fix, or won’t fix.

Not to mention the lag. The game is far laggier than it was a year ago. I have no idea why, but if it reaches a zenith point I’ll have to find another game to play.

The same thing happened with Dungeons & Dragons Online. I played for over a year, but they updated the game really too frequently, and with each update the game got buggier and laggier to the point of unplayability. I had to quit. I do hope GW2 doesn’t suffer the same fate.

Cassio.9507:

I wanted to calmly explore the wonderful world! Get hooked on the lore and fantasize about the dragons. Look forward to difficult fights that required coordination.

So much this…

Already the world is fantastic, I am constantly reminded when I venture out how amazing Tyria looks. Enough of Scarlet and her boring story, which had soured my experience with the LS. Get rid of her and start bringing in a gripping high fantasy story which is carefully paced as to not turn into this repetitive mush.

I guess you could call it burn out. But simply there is nothing for me to do. I can WVW and have recently with season 1. But I was logging in everyday do my dailies (nearly all of them), make sure monthly is done, make sure meta is done and log out. Sometimes I sPVP for a bit but I get bored pretty quick.

For many reasons I am currently boycotting this latest patch so I won’t be back in Dec. In the end that decision only hurts me and my friends / guild but I need to personally do it. The current and continuing trends put forth by AN are unacceptable.

The main issue here is that people somehow feel that they MUST do every single thing released.
Is that the fault of the game? Might be.
But mostly it lies with the player.
If you don’t feel like you can handle it, simply don’t do it. You won’t be locked out from the game for not having done certain events and so on after all.

Nobody is forcing you to do anything though. It is all you, don’t blame the game for your own faults. Nobody is asking you to rush through maps, you can take your time and explore. The game is not going away anytime soon

We’re not forced, I agree with that. But there is pressure, and not all of us can cope with that in the same way. Personally, I too would enjoy a slower pace. It may be true that the amount of players that plays an LS part drops off after 2 weeks. Still, it kinda means you gotta jump right back in again for the next big thing. Part of the problem are the achievements and meta loot: if they weren’t there, the must-play-as-much-as-fast-as-possible-before-it’s-gone feeling wouldn’t be there.

Be that as it may, I’d prefer a slower pace too. There’s already so much stuff to do in the game without the weekly releases. If anything, I’d rather have more lore than more gameplay and achievements. The reveal about Dessa for example, which expanded a small bit on what we already knew (what Lion’s Arch?) was very nice. I’d like to see more of that.

2 weeks is like, quite the time and the meta events can be achieved within a day. Moreover, the tower of nightmares LS is STILL here almost a month after it has been released.

Totally agree with Cassio. And for the exploring Tyria, dragons and lore thing, maybe is only me, but in the original GW, that was a smaller game than this (instanced, not open world or events, etc…) I felt like I was part of a giant epic history. GW2 its a bigger game, but I feel as a small part of a small story without any of the sense of epicness of the first game, running from one part to another like a headless chicken, triying to kill a mediocre evil character in a even more mediocre storyline.

Great post! I absolutely agree.

I am burned out now …after getting 100%map complete ..my best armour..stats..weapons..achievements..titles…there is nothing left to do. I log in once ebery 2 weeks to see the new LS..then log out again after is is just as disappointing. I wanted to go for a legendary…created gift of mastery.got dawn…then gift of fortune and gift of sunrise require over 700g to make….so its a no go for me..been playing ESO beta now. Anet make DRAGONS and Ecpand the GW universe.you claim it is a Living Story…well it isng..its a dead story about scarlet…

Ravenmoon.5318:

Nobody is forcing you to do anything though. It is all you, don’t blame the game for your own faults. Nobody is asking you to rush through maps, you can take your time and explore. The game is not going away anytime soon

More 3 or 4 years, this game model has several mistakes as everything gets way to temporary, the success of gw2 its just becouse doesnt have any competor.

Thanks a lot for replying guys! I’m glad to see I’m not alone in feeling like this.

Dark Jericho.8609:

The achievement grinding they have addressed and have “plans” to make them less grindy and more favorable to both hardcore players and players who don’t have much free time so they both can the meta completed while being satisfied, but who knows what that will be and when it will be implemented.

Sounds good. They could simply tone down the amount of achievement grind we get each two weeks. Give more points for less “zerging”. It’s all relative after all. Everyone gets more, or less, to grind each week depending on what amounts they set when the achievements are defined. I think we can all agree that the balance in time invested is very weird sometimes inbetween achievements. Another instance of questionable playtesting. Just look at Candycorn from the 2013 Halloween and what you need to grind for the bag.

Dark Jericho.8609:

I’m really hoping they can turn things around and squash these bugs and ease up on the achievement grinds some more.

As do I. But they need to announce a bigger change coming in the future, get us thinking about what’s to come. Get the lore speculations going, and inject into the playerbase a sense of “let’s prepare for the next big thing”.

lordkrall.7241:

The main issue here is that people somehow feel that they MUST do every single thing released.
Is that the fault of the game? Might be.
But mostly it lies with the player.
If you don’t feel like you can handle it, simply don’t do it. You won’t be locked out from the game for not having done certain events and so on after all.

This is very true, and I have myself to blame for part of this. It is however stimulated by ArenaNet in the way the game progresses now. You either take part or you don’t kinda. This ties into my reply below.

Ravenmoon.5318:

Nobody is forcing you to do anything though. It is all you, don’t blame the game for your own faults. Nobody is asking you to rush through maps, you can take your time and explore. The game is not going away anytime soon

Both true and false. The game will be here, but due to the “temporary content” we’re presented w/ each two weeks many feel stressed to take part in it before it goes away. “What if I miss out on X!”.

Compare this year’s Halloween w/ the one in 2012. The achievements from 2012 were NOT reintroduced. Much of the good stuff from 2012 was simply ignored and left in the historical section.

Look at the different incentives for reaching the meta achievement w/ each release. Titles you’ll never see again, gas mask skins you need to grind for to get. “What if I want that up ahead?! Maybe it’ll never return!”.

ArenaNet both stimulates this stress behaviour, but they also kinda make it demoralizing from another perspective. Look at the leaderboards for instance. If you ever took a break from the game, then due to dailys/monthlies and temporary content you can forget about catching up. It will simply never happen. Things might return due to popular demand, but it’ll be in a different shape than it originally was presented.

With the exception of the ascended weapons/accessories we don’t have a gear treadmill in this game. Most looks are either purchased or acquired through achievement grinding. If we don’t have an interesting main story that progresses, and want to ignore the stress achievement hunting brings, then what do we have?

Simply stated: Yes, I am feeling burned out. Yes, I know I don’t have to do the content, but when the content gives limited amount of time to do x, y or z to get a, b or c you do start to feel pressure to do it. The above post says a lot of the stuff I would say so ^ ditto.

Yeah, feeling majorly burned out too!

I was so eager for this game and have defended it sooooo much. I might have evenly been called a loyal fan. I am by far not even close to a “hater”, but I thought I’d never truly leave this game, but know I am not so sure. I might join in on this migration thing, but not the direction they would want.

GW2 is like the Wii of the game consoles. Interesting ideas but nothing of substances, lots of interest at first, but quick to lose momentum. Fun but ultimately childish content.

I still play because it fits my casual play style. I have been eagerly optimistic with the future releases, but that eagerness is cooling off due to the quality of the releases. I honestly thought I would never be this disappointed due to my enjoyment with GW1, but it is creeping up on me.

I’ll probably leave with ESO and maybe comeback if anything substantial is released.

So disappointed.

As a guild leader of going on 11 years, an avid GW1 player since beta, and gamer for over 15 years, I am getting really fed up with this game quickly. The Scarlet storyline is dull, uninspired, and a flat-out joke. I mean seriously. Everything at this stage boils down to “Scarlet did it” or “Scarlet had a hand in it.” Enough with that stupid invincible Sylvari.

Much like the poster above me, I will simply put yes, I am getting quickly burnt out on the game. After offering suggestions time and time again to improve the game (only to have a great, active thread be pushed into the Suggestions forum where good threads go to die) and seeing nothing done, I am just about done trying. I don’t expect every good idea from myself or other players to get put into the game, but at this point I often ask myself why I even bother anymore.

Mark my words though. I will not endure another year of Scarlet. The benefit is I can keep the game installed and check back every 2 weeks to see if the update will be worth it or not, but honestly, since they started this 2 week cycle of updates, content comes out so quick and so buggy that there’s no point.

This game at the moment revolves around 2 things. Gold and zerging content. It’s just tiring at this point. No guild improvements or new dungeons [no I do not count Fractals as dungeons] since day 1, aside from Fractal weapons & Guild Weapons, there hasn’t been a single additional armor set or weapon set that didn’t revolve around the gem store, and the game is just over a year old and already we’re getting recycled armor skins. Not to mention the completely horrendous, joke of a storyline we have with Scarlet.

Anti-farm & awful RNG mechanics make farming for a legendary or named exotic all but pointless since you can’t reliably farm ecto, lodestones, or anything that contributes to anything important. But hey, you can farm gold and buy stuff from the TP since the drops are so terrible. Or you can convert gems into gold since the drops are still so awful. People with gold continue to make gold by cornering the market on limited edition “prestige” (read: lucky drops) items that are no longer obtainable.

But I’m done ranting. I’ll wait to see what their plans for 2014 are and make my decision from there.

Kythan Myr.4719:

I was so eager for this game and have defended it sooooo much. I might have evenly been called a loyal fan. I am by far not even close to a “hater”, but I thought I’d never truly leave this game, but know I am not so sure.

I honestly thought I would never be this disappointed due to my enjoyment with GW1, but it is creeping up on me.

So disappointed.

Couldn’t agree more. Was a fan of GW1 since it launched and still to this day I find that I like GW1 more than GW2 and I never thought I’d say that.

Great replies guys, thank you for venting.

Many argue that threads such as these don’t represent a majority opinion. Such people claim that it’s only a very vocal and negative minority speaking up. With a thread such as this, and the huge amount of similar ones, I really hope ArenaNet realizes that we’re actually fans that are worried. I personally see soooo much potential in this game, and I’m beyond worried about the direction it’s taken. I really hope they take that to heart. The ones who bother to formulate and write replies such as the one above this one are your true fans. Nothing else.

Something has to change, or I worry we’ll see a totally different kind of migration in 2014 than what ArenaNet has in mind.

I have taken several breaks from the living story due to being burnt out.

I completely skipped Sky Pirates and Twilight assault. I played some of the second SAB but was burnt out from the previous living story so I didn’t spend much time in it. Which is unfortunate because it was really fun.

I tried Tequatl a few times but it was not successful for our groups and then later most times I tried there would be no one in the area.

I’m skipping fractals. I want to be rested up for wintersday.

I’m hoping they adjust living story. I have lost track of most of the story. All I know is a bunch of different groups are randomly attacking areas for some unknown reason and Scarlett is behind it all.

I hope they accept that there will be bugs in the content and adjust it so that the bugs will not create a lot of stress when trying to complete the achievements. I would like to see more story and less grind.

Some of the content I easily complete just by playing through the content. Some is a repetitious chore. I hope they find a good balance.

lordkrall.7241:

The main issue here is that people somehow feel that they MUST do every single thing released.
Is that the fault of the game? Might be.
But mostly it lies with the player.
If you don’t feel like you can handle it, simply don’t do it. You won’t be locked out from the game for not having done certain events and so on after all.

And if there’s an exclusive piece of loot or an awesome-looking back piece that is ONLY available for two weeks, we should just be OK with never getting it?

Even if it’s the perfect item to complete our character?

Sure, let’s try to feel OK with that.

Cassio.9507:

Many argue that threads such as these don’t represent a majority opinion. Such people claim that it’s only a very vocal and negative minority speaking up. With a thread such as this, and the huge amount of similar ones, I really hope ArenaNet realizes that we’re actually fans that are worried…

It seems to be very divided. Has Anet ever done a proper poll about what the playerbase actually thinks?

I put a thread in the suggestions forum to add polls to the promotional emails they send us to gauge whether or not people actually like the temporary content, but chances are they won’t (even though they CAN. They did one after Lost Shores)…

I agree with some of the points with this thread. New content updates every two weeks is a bit much. They do often feel rushed and the stories and game play feel sub par. If they released new content say every 30 days instead I believe it would be better for everyone. We would have more time to enjoy the content, ANet could make a more in depth and better story line and have more time for polish and bug elimination. Like others have stated, pushing this much this fast is creating bugs and it feels like Anet isn’t taking pride in their work like they did back in GW1.

In GW1, holiday events we’re very enjoyable and I didn’t see to many complaints regarding them. This past Halloween rehash in GW2 was just pathetic at best. They really should take more time with the holiday events and others like the Canthan New Year. I feel the upcoming wintersday patch will be the same kind of thing as this past Halloween with a few new items.

ANet, slow it down and take a breather! Quanity over quality in this particular game IS NOT better by any stretch. Re-evaluate your current model and spend more time releasing great content instead of rushing these messes you’ve been releasing. I understand that a small player base gobbles up content and you might be afraid that they might not log on as much between updates. I also understand that you might be afraid you will lose out on gem store revenue from these same people. It is of my opinion that the rest of your players might actually make more gem store purchases if they we’re happier with the game and enjoyed better content. A lot of us understand that the main motivator for this 2 week schedule is to keep people in the game in hopes of driving up gem store revenue but this is really cheapening the over all experience.

If you don’t find the content compelling enough to do, don’t force yourself to do it just for the achievement points. It’s better for you and it’s better for Anet because you won’t mistakenly get counted in their metrics as someone who loves the content.

PeterThomas.7243:

And if there’s an exclusive piece of loot or an awesome-looking back piece that is ONLY available for two weeks, we should just be OK with never getting it?

Even if it’s the perfect item to complete our character?

Sure, let’s try to feel OK with that.

It is of course very unlikely that every single living story will reward an item that is PERFECT for your character.

have you guys ever considered that ANET are still learning what works what doesn’t etc etc….there is literally no other MMO out there or has been out like GW2, elements have certainly appeared before but GW2 is completely a unique MMO. What if the next year they take all they have learnt after killing off scarlet ( yes they have confirmed scarlets story arc has a definitive end ) and make the next year of gw2 amazing!

Just bloody relax ay, if you don’t find the game enjoyable at the moment fair enough I get it, but theres no harm in taking a break, everyone in this thread seems to feel rushed like omg 2 weeks must get everything done OMG! Seriously? they are achievement points? Are you an achievement whore? Why do you feel forced to complete them? They gain you no statistical power above others so wheres the problem?

Hmm somewhat. I just stopped that terrible living story crap and focused on wvw. But even there the zergs and blobs got me playing less and less. People are just lame and do anything for some virtual cookie it seems.

Lord Kuru.3685:

If you don’t find the content compelling enough to do, don’t force yourself to do it just for the achievement points. It’s better for you and it’s better for Anet because you won’t mistakenly get counted in their metrics as someone who loves the content.

This is a very interesting argument actually. I just hope that ArenaNet finds a better way to measure “fun factor” than AP accumulation and time spent.

Zanthrax.6538:

have you guys ever considered that ANET are still learning what works what doesn’t etc etc….there is literally no other MMO out there or has been out like GW2, elements have certainly appeared before but GW2 is completely a unique MMO.

Indeed, and I really think they are learning. Hence our feedback! To any company, no matter what business they’re in, spontaneous customer feedback is extremely valuable. (Or should be that is.)

Zanthrax.6538:

What if the next year they take all they have learnt after killing off scarlet ( yes they have confirmed scarlets story arc has a definitive end ) and make the next year of gw2 amazing!

Let’s hope so! But nothing we’ve heard or seen teasers of hint at a change, and that’s a bit worrisome. If we just knew what’s on the horizon, or got some feedback ourselves about what Anet’s thoughts are on the 2013 progression of the game.

Zanthrax.6538:

Just bloody relax ay, if you don’t find the game enjoyable at the moment fair enough I get it, but theres no harm in taking a break, everyone in this thread seems to feel rushed like omg 2 weeks must get everything done OMG! Seriously? they are achievement points? Are you an achievement whore? Why do you feel forced to complete them? They gain you no statistical power above others so wheres the problem?

A big part of me knows that you’re right in what you’re saying. Problem is that I still love the X factor of the game, and every time I take a small break from it I hear I just missed the best temporary content so far…

Cassio.9507:

Lord Kuru.3685:

If you don’t find the content compelling enough to do, don’t force yourself to do it just for the achievement points. It’s better for you and it’s better for Anet because you won’t mistakenly get counted in their metrics as someone who loves the content.

This is a very interesting argument actually. I just hope that ArenaNet finds a better way to measure “fun factor” than AP accumulation and time spent.

Zanthrax.6538:

have you guys ever considered that ANET are still learning what works what doesn’t etc etc….there is literally no other MMO out there or has been out like GW2, elements have certainly appeared before but GW2 is completely a unique MMO.

Indeed, and I really think they are learning. Hence our feedback! To any company, no matter what business they’re in, spontaneous customer feedback is extremely valuable. (Or should be that is.)

Zanthrax.6538:

What if the next year they take all they have learnt after killing off scarlet ( yes they have confirmed scarlets story arc has a definitive end ) and make the next year of gw2 amazing!

Let’s hope so! But nothing we’ve heard or seen teasers of hint at a change, and that’s a bit worrisome. If we just knew what’s on the horizon, or got some feedback ourselves about what Anet’s thoughts are on the 2013 progression of the game.

Zanthrax.6538:

Just bloody relax ay, if you don’t find the game enjoyable at the moment fair enough I get it, but theres no harm in taking a break, everyone in this thread seems to feel rushed like omg 2 weeks must get everything done OMG! Seriously? they are achievement points? Are you an achievement whore? Why do you feel forced to complete them? They gain you no statistical power above others so wheres the problem?

A big part of me knows that you’re right in what you’re saying. Problem is that I still love the X factor of the game, and every time I take a small break from it I hear I just missed the best temporary content so far…

Yea I get the drive….I feel bad when I miss a daily or cut it close on a meta achievement, but to be honest I feel these metas are still EASILY doable, most of them I can do within a day or two and if I have the release night off I smash the entire thing out in that one play session for the night.

I do think two weeks is fine, especially given that its actually a month….they are starting to appreciate the overlapping of each new release to make it last a month etc. I think we just need more engaging and thought out story telling =S

Take a break like I am.

TehPwnerer.7215:

As a guild leader of going on 11 years, an avid GW1 player since beta, and gamer for over 15 years, I am getting really fed up with this game quickly. The Scarlet storyline is dull, uninspired, and a flat-out joke. I mean seriously. Everything at this stage boils down to “Scarlet did it” or “Scarlet had a hand in it.” Enough with that stupid invincible Sylvari.

Much like the poster above me, I will simply put yes, I am getting quickly burnt out on the game. After offering suggestions time and time again to improve the game (only to have a great, active thread be pushed into the Suggestions forum where good threads go to die) and seeing nothing done, I am just about done trying. I don’t expect every good idea from myself or other players to get put into the game, but at this point I often ask myself why I even bother anymore.

Mark my words though. I will not endure another year of Scarlet. The benefit is I can keep the game installed and check back every 2 weeks to see if the update will be worth it or not, but honestly, since they started this 2 week cycle of updates, content comes out so quick and so buggy that there’s no point.

This game at the moment revolves around 2 things. Gold and zerging content. It’s just tiring at this point. No guild improvements or new dungeons [no I do not count Fractals as dungeons] since day 1, aside from Fractal weapons & Guild Weapons, there hasn’t been a single additional armor set or weapon set that didn’t revolve around the gem store, and the game is just over a year old and already we’re getting recycled armor skins. Not to mention the completely horrendous, joke of a storyline we have with Scarlet.

Anti-farm & awful RNG mechanics make farming for a legendary or named exotic all but pointless since you can’t reliably farm ecto, lodestones, or anything that contributes to anything important. But hey, you can farm gold and buy stuff from the TP since the drops are so terrible. Or you can convert gems into gold since the drops are still so awful. People with gold continue to make gold by cornering the market on limited edition “prestige” (read: lucky drops) items that are no longer obtainable.

But I’m done ranting. I’ll wait to see what their plans for 2014 are and make my decision from there.

Kythan Myr.4719:

I was so eager for this game and have defended it sooooo much. I might have evenly been called a loyal fan. I am by far not even close to a “hater”, but I thought I’d never truly leave this game, but know I am not so sure.

I honestly thought I would never be this disappointed due to my enjoyment with GW1, but it is creeping up on me.

So disappointed.

Couldn’t agree more. Was a fan of GW1 since it launched and still to this day I find that I like GW1 more than GW2 and I never thought I’d say that.

Jade Weapons, Sovereign Weapons, Aetherpath Weapons, Champion Box weapons dont revolve around the gemstore…. just sayin….

Just posting to say I really like this thread and gave +1’s liberally to some of you.

I agree that they might want to cool it down. In general, I think it’s a problem with the games industry that everything must be EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC EEEEEEPIIIIIIIIICCCCC. The problem with epic is that if everything is epic, then nothing is epic.

I’d say in general Guild Wars 2’s biggest weakness is indeed that it doesn’t offer much in the way of cooldown moments. You rarely know which outpost or town is safe to take a breather on because a DE might pop up while you’re relaxing. You rarely can quietly immerse yourself because some amateur-dramatics voiced NPC will start yapping on a loop. (is there an option to mute ambient NPCs I’m not aware of/couldn’t find?)

And yeah, I got burned out on the game a while ago because there was no way I could keep up with the LS content and much of it is intentionally shut out to solo players. So that made me quit more than once. Given I’m someone who is rarely shy about patronizing the cash shop when I am ready to play GW2, ArenaNet is losing actual potential money from me. I’m not going to pretend to speak for anyone but myself, but if there are enough players like me, that’s going to be a problem in the future.

And yeah — trying to look at it from ANet’s POV, I think there’s definitely diminishing returns in pouring so many resources into the Living Story.

I honestly think they should consider making a lot of the content permanent. I know it’s exciting to feel like the world is always changing, but at the very least I’d play GW2 more regularly if I wasn’t forced to binge awesome stuff like the Super Adventure Box during the one month it’s available. I missed out on the August through October updates because I couldn’t even stand to look at GW2 for a while after needing to force feed myself everything I wouldn’t be getting a second chance on.

I’d also argue that the frantic pace of the LS and the limited-time window achievements is encouraging unhealthy playing habits. Remember back in GW1 where the game would actually encourage you to take a break if you play for more than two hours at a time? What happened to that philosophy? Is it going to take GW2 being scapegoated by a news program to ratchet it back a bit?

BTW — if anyone from ANet is reading, I LOVE your game and I wouldn’t have this much unless I deeply wanted to enjoy it more.

I’m not burned out yet, but yes, I agree that the pace of the Living Story is exhausting. The combination of time-limited content and achievements, coupled with a fair bit of grind, meant that for several months I basically had to put my Personal Story and PvE on hold while I just kept up with the Living Story. I honestly feel that ANet would be better served by moving back to a Monthly release, and structuring content in such a way so that meatier portions such as new dungeons, or story-based instances, (along with their associated rewards) are always available to players via a Historian NPC, similar to the HoM Scrying Pool in GW1. That would take the pressure off players from thinking they have to do everything now, before it disappears, and it would also prevent questionable moves like the removal of the Twilight Arbor F/U path. (What I would have done instead is keep TA as it was, but introduce a new “elite path” that’s accessed by talking to the NPC outside.)

I will give credit to ANet though, in that the situation has largely improved in recent months. The achievements are smaller and fewer in number, and are mostly completable now via Daily tasks. The large amount of grindy achievements like dancing at Effigies have also mostly disappeared. (I say “mostly” because WvW Season 1 brought it back, and because of the crazy high requirements for Halloween rewards.)

I still believe that ANet should move to a monthly release schedule, however, similar to how things were back during Flame & Frost. Players had a whole month in which to do content, and in the meantime, they can also work on open world, dungeons, Fractals, WvW Seasons, or whatever else catches their interest. A monthly release schedule (bug fixes and game balance can come every two month or two weeks, as required) would also give ANet more time to polish and test content, avoiding game blocking bugs like the one at Mai Trin at Fractals 37.

I’m with you there. I have weeks were I can get on maybe twice for an duration longer then me sweeping through the dailies. And its not always because of my life. I just honestly feel its more like “grind” wars. Gotta get in, gotta power through the living story and hope I can get enough achievements to finish it in time. Forget doing anything else in the game

Im already burned and loging only for dailys. It is not the fault of the numbers below in my profile but Living Story and those things which are temporary.
Still got some hope in Anet and more permanent changes for this decent title.

Thing I’m most hurt is an engineer, rly love it, playstyle, mechanics all fit to me but still lack in many aspects (kits dmg, hobo sacks, gadgets, uselles traits, turrets, only one decent elite…etc). What can i say? Fix it, ppl wont wait forever.

Currently I concentrate on personal life. Im w8ing till spring, then i ll move to another title. (sry for my eng.)

My best advice to people is to basically ignore the Living Story right now, unless the content in it is really making you chomp at the bit or speaks to you personally. It’ll drive you insane to try and keep up with it, otherwise. Try to rein in that obsessive compulsive completionist side of yourself. Try and tell yourself that if enough people are missing out on it, then ArenaNet’s investors will come down on them for wasting resources on what amounts to non-content.

But in return…

Try not to lose faith for the game itself. When you get down to it, GW2 is still a quite impressive game from both a mechanics and art standpoint. It’s also making a comfortable amount of money. It’s often easy to forget all that, but chances are still pretty good it’s on its way to becoming the premier MMO.

I guess I must ask what are you looking to get that you need the meta-achievement rewards? I have full exotics, no ascended backpiece or weapons on my main. I just stopped caring about these things like getting monthlies, dailies, or achievement points. I now just log in to see what new every two weeks, which is usually less than an hour or two of playtime to see. My only loot goals are to finish my infinite light to complete my knight in shining armor look. This will come in time, as any activity generates money slowly and I’m in no rush so long as more content is released. What has burned me out is the quality of the releases, not the feeling of having to do these things (as I don’t have those feelings).

SirMoogie.9263:

I guess I must ask what are you looking to get that you need the meta-achievement rewards? I have full exotics, no ascended backpiece or weapons on my main. I just stopped caring about these things like getting monthlies, dailies, or achievement points. I now just log in to see what new every two weeks, which is usually less than an hour or two of playtime to see. My only loot goals are to finish my infinite light to complete my knight in shining armor look. This will come in time, as any activity generates money slowly and I’m in no rush so long as more content is released. What has burned me out is the quality of the releases, not the feeling of having to do these things (as I don’t have those feelings).

I just want to say that I think you’re playing the game the “right” way. You’re there for you. I wish more players were like you. That would result in better content I think, too.

Zanthrax.6538:

have you guys ever considered that ANET are still learning what works what doesn’t etc etc….there is literally no other MMO out there or has been out like GW2, elements have certainly appeared before but GW2 is completely a unique MMO. What if the next year they take all they have learnt after killing off scarlet ( yes they have confirmed scarlets story arc has a definitive end ) and make the next year of gw2 amazing!

I feel I must point out that while they’ve said Scarlet’s story arc is ending, they have NOT said that she’s going to die. Or even go away. They’ve worded things in such a way to suggest that she’ll be gone, but they’ve not actually said it.

So, no. Don’t count on Scarlet dying. Don’t count on her being gone. Don’t count on there never being a Scarlet Briar story arc parts 2-7.

lordkrall.7241:

It is of course very unlikely that every single living story will reward an item that is PERFECT for your character.

Irrelevant. The point is that people are missing out on rewards they want, for no good reason other than “it was only available for two weeks, sorry!”

And I do have eight characters, all with different styles, so there’s a good chance it’ll happen to me multiple times.

Palador.2170:

I feel I must point out that while they’ve said Scarlet’s story arc is ending, they have NOT said that she’s going to die. Or even go away. They’ve worded things in such a way to suggest that she’ll be gone, but they’ve not actually said it.

So, no. Don’t count on Scarlet dying. Don’t count on her being gone. Don’t count on there never being a Scarlet Briar story arc parts 2-7.

No, like any good cartoon villain, she’ll be defeated (but not killed, as all cartoons are rated G) and regroup back to her super-secret base, where she hatches a new scheme that the players must foil in next week’s episode.

Maybe next time she’ll hatch a plan to bring Cybertron into Tyria’s orbit. That’d be fun.

Great well phrased posts everyone.

midnight tea.3681:

I’d also argue that the frantic pace of the LS and the limited-time window achievements is encouraging unhealthy playing habits. Remember back in GW1 where the game would actually encourage you to take a break if you play for more than two hours at a time? What happened to that philosophy? Is it going to take GW2 being scapegoated by a news program to ratchet it back a bit?

I agree here, completely. During the Halloween 2013 zerging for candycorn I actually started feeling a pain in my wrist again, something I haven’t had a problem w/ since many years back. Realizing just how much you’d have to grind for one single 20slot bag I gave up eventually. It was just faaar from worth it. Rewards from doing tasks during festivities shouldn’t be that cumbersome to reach. I never expected GW2 to become that grindy, especially looking back at announcement videos and interviews.

There are more examples here ofc, the above is just one.

midnight tea.3681:

SirMoogie.9263:

I guess I must ask what are you looking to get that you need the meta-achievement rewards? I have full exotics, no ascended backpiece or weapons on my main. I just stopped caring about these things like getting monthlies, dailies, or achievement points. I now just log in to see what new every two weeks, which is usually less than an hour or two of playtime to see. My only loot goals are to finish my infinite light to complete my knight in shining armor look. This will come in time, as any activity generates money slowly and I’m in no rush so long as more content is released. What has burned me out is the quality of the releases, not the feeling of having to do these things (as I don’t have those feelings).

I just want to say that I think you’re playing the game the “right” way. You’re there for you. I wish more players were like you. That would result in better content I think, too.

Totally agree! That sounds healthy. For me though, I’ve always considered it to be up to the player to find enjoyment in an MMO. I myself need to be the driving force, and not finding any enjoyment participating in some content and skipping other, I quickly end up in “achievement maniac mode”. ANet really did their best to remove the reason, and need, for pushing hard w/ grinding (diminishing returns). No real gear progression to speak of. No “unique drops” to really farm specific mobs/bosses for. Zhaitan, the climax of the entire personal story and you hardly take part in the fight.

So it surprises me to see them introduce achievement grinding w/o the real carrot in it other than “if you don’t do it now, you’ll miss out!”. Also stimulating this unhealthy behavior w/ official leaderboards. Imo the game should be driven forward by a strong main story, the absolutely gorgeous (!) aesthetics and a world to simply have fun in.

lordkrall.7241:

The main issue here is that people somehow feel that they MUST do every single thing released.
Is that the fault of the game? Might be.
But mostly it lies with the player.
If you don’t feel like you can handle it, simply don’t do it. You won’t be locked out from the game for not having done certain events and so on after all.

Agreed.

But the LS is there for all those people who like to complain that there is not enough to do. Every MMO has this sort of person and they are not entirely wrong. Those people, I would hope, are now satisfied with GW2’s Living Stories; they have no reason to complain; they got what they asked for. As for the rest of us, we don’t have to do it as we are (and have been) satisfied with the rest of the game as it is (in terms of content anyway).

Yup. Burned out from the LS. I’m skipping the fractal completely and hoping they don’t screw up Wintersday with more LS-type changes like they did to Halloween.

PeterThomas.7243:

lordkrall.7241:

It is of course very unlikely that every single living story will reward an item that is PERFECT for your character.

Irrelevant. The point is that people are missing out on rewards they want, for no good reason other than “it was only available for two weeks, sorry!”

If an item isn’t perfect or doesnt suit your character then this isn’t a reward they want. It’s a reward they’re obsessive compulsively compelled to get only because it is temporary. That’s not a good reason to want something or to get upset when you go out of your way to get.

Cassio.9507:

Both true and false. The game will be here, but due to the “temporary content” we’re presented w/ each two weeks many feel stressed to take part in it before it goes away. “What if I miss out on X!”.

Compare this year’s Halloween w/ the one in 2012. The achievements from 2012 were NOT reintroduced. Much of the good stuff from 2012 was simply ignored and left in the historical section.

Look at the different incentives for reaching the meta achievement w/ each release. Titles you’ll never see again, gas mask skins you need to grind for to get. “What if I want that up ahead?! Maybe it’ll never return!”.

I feel the EXACT same way about the McRib limited time offer from McDonalds, every Black Friday deal I’ve never gotten, missing out on Star Wars: A New Hope in the theaters back in 1977, Elvis, The Holy Roman Empire, the Incan civilization, and generally the creation of the universe. I’ve just missed out on so much that may not even come back again, but I’m still crossing my fingers that Elvis will be back next year.

I’m sure in IRL your AP doesn’t even equal that of Brad Pitt or Bill Gates and I’m sure you’re not busting your hump to keep up with them so why have that mentality here? Just play the game as it comes and do what you like. No need to be kitten about every item, title, and AP point. Your mentality is souring this game for you not the stream of content.

I challenge you to skip a LS installment once. Just once. You might find it liberating.

the complaint about too much content comes from trying to keep up with the Joneses and that will burn you out. You’ve got to let some of it go. Priorities. I think the first thing many players with a busy life put on the back burner was the legendary. After realizing it would take a while to get, many players moved the thought of a legendary into the long term goal category. My personal goal was to have all 14 of my characters at 80 and to see as many personal story paths as possible. You realize the game doesn’t make it as easy to equip/maintain alt as it does to focus all your resources on a single main character. So the games tries to find a balance between Altoholics and one main character players. And you see both sides complain. “another back piece? I have too many I can’t wear…” or “I only get one back piece? What about my alts…. they don’t get anything?” I was close to burning out farming SAB. The farming nerfs made it a lot harder to get stuff for my alts. There were a lot of issues with that re-release. I suggest just doing the fun stuff.

Aurust.8961:

Jade Weapons, Sovereign Weapons, Aetherpath Weapons, Champion Box weapons dont revolve around the gemstore…. just sayin….

permanently

available

content

PERMANENT

and anything that comes from black lion weapon traders does basically revolve around the gem store, because of the RNG. unless you manage to get super lucky and get a claim ticket out of a black lion chest with a key you happen to already have lying around, chances are you’re spending 1000’s of gems on keys to get a stupid ticket to get the skin in the first place.

I find that I am beginning to ignore most of the contents namely Living Story, PvP or even WvW.

I used to like Fractals alot even for the higher levels, now its just plain annoying and frustration. rewards is just NOT worth it. Gear/Weapons are all too sterile and plain, anything and everything else evolves around skins.

Gw2 just puts grinding a different perspective. in some ways bad. With all the effort, we only get a few stats increased for the massive amount of materials gathered and running around different maps. This leaves no more time for any dungeons, given the fact now its a once a day account bound and more annoying elements are introduced minus.

The achievement points is grinding without justifiable rewards. What a backpack skin !

You can even forget about legendary. Most people with legendaries are mostly buying gold from gold sellers or botting or just mindlessly zerging champs.

The build are just so minimalist or sterile at the moment to make it interesting with a combination of plain buffs and bonus.

I know its a worry for developers to keep it a balanced game for WvW. Well keep it separate, have a completely or extreme balanced version when people go WvW no matter what their armor/gear/stats are.

Please no more annoying contents or graphics with excessively flashing screen (e.g. Toxic offshoot group events). and its just too much zerging in the game to an extend it can be called ZergWars2 Not GuildWars2.

I do wish I can continue to play this game for fun for a long time (years to come and maybe get my interested in the future expansion), and not for the annoyance (that is not balanced with the rewards, just no more skins).

Hope Arena is improving this, else we just will move on when 2014 mmo’s are released and everyone would lose. Let’s make this a win-win.

Not everyone lives next to Arena servers or enjoying playing with skill lags when in zerg just to get the achievement points. its like watching a choppie 1 hour youtube video which stops and does a slow mo every 5-10 seconds when the action happens.

PS/: the 2012 Halloween and the Bazaar of the Four Winds are examples of good Living Story, even though some of the mini games are really silly. Instead focus on approving quality contents, instead of pushing out consistent quantity of below average contents that only appeals to the smaller crowd or the newer players (6 months and below).

I feel like the actual polish of the game was forgotten after it was pushed out early. Then instead of making the core game better, or making an expansion on it that gets things right this time around, we get small temporary additions or changes that dont fix or polish anything, in fact they present more problems with each patch, because once again each patch is pushed out fast, just like the core game itself was.

First time playing through the game was fun. It was fun, fine. Not great or mindblowingly awesome. There were a few epic moments. But still it felt empty. Unfinished. Im not talking about the endgame. Im talking about the amounts of unfinished stories that i was hoping to find the conclusion for right on release.
Remember all those lore discussions on GW1? On the developer blogs before the game came out, addressing one race, one mystery at a time?

Then we start to focus so much on the new things, the poorly implemented, rushed out new things that are temporary and barely engaging… The gameplay additions are non-existant, because every patch becomes a zerg-fest, or borderline undoable when the zerg or the train as they are called now, not there atm. The story went as far away from the original Guild Wars lore as possible, with its center around technology, and the main protagonist of the PS AND the main antagonist of the LS being from the newest race with little to no background given to them.

What im trying to get at is that i didnt feel an overwhelming sense of wonder of exploration and discovery. I still dont. The bazaar was the last place i actually stopped to listen to the dialogue of the teacher and the students about the nature of the Dragons. Very rarely did i stop to look at where im playing. Where i did, or try to, i rarely found what it was looking for, because there were no answers.

Point is, the core game feels like a big advertisement for future things to come, but the future, the Living Story this far, is not going to touch or finish any of the things the core game advertised. Its just slapping new and new things at the old stuff, without even answering some of the question itself raised, not bringing any sense of closure, not even a sense of destination even to itself.

And we are tired of not having answers, not having a direction, and not having anything to look forward to…

I’ve noticed that they are making some content permanent now while other content and rewards from it are not.

I think they are choosing the wrong stuff as permanent though. I think story, solo, and party things should be permanent. Rewards should be permanent and worked towards over time. The small dungeons that you can do as a party or solo, activities, those things.

The zerg requiring parts shouldn’t be permanent. The Scarlett invasions are not doable without a zerg. Tequatl isn’t succeeding on most servers. Zerg requiring parts won’t do well on most servers over the long term.

Edit: The Scarlett invasions will likely go away when that story arc is completed. Tequatl I think should be changed to a seasonal appearance. That will concentrate people to the dragon and perhaps lead to success.